Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Laterality, hand control and scholastic performance: a British birth cohort study

Objectives To use simple measures of laterality and hand control that can identify a greater risk of poorer scholastic ability, potentially signalling suboptimal hemispheric lateralisation. Design Analysis of material from a birth cohort study. Setting Members of the National Child Development Study, a British birth cohort study following people born in 1958. Participants 10 612 children who undertook tests at age 11 years. Primary outcome measures Teacher-administered tests of non-verbal general ability, verbal general ability, reading comprehension and mathematics. Results Linear regression produced associations (and 95% CIs) with tests of verbal general ability, non-verbal general ability, reading comprehension and mathematics scores for the lowest third (compared with highest) of a left-hand control test involving picking up matches of −1.21 (−1.73 to −0.68; p<0.001), −0.72 (−1.14 to −0.29; p=0.001), −0.70 (−1.06 to −0.35; p<0.001) and −1.32 (−1.90 to −0.73; p<0.001). Among those in the lowest third of the right-hand control test score, mixed-handedness compared with right-handedness was associated with poorer scholastic performance, with regression coefficients (and 95% CIs; p values) of 1.90 (−3.01 to −0.80; p=0.001), −1.25 (−2.15 to −0.35; p=0.007), −1.28 (2.04 to −0.53; p=0.001) and −1.33 (−2.53 to −0.13; p=0.030). The estimates are for a point change in the scholastic test scores, after adjustment for sex, left-hand motor function and social class. Statistically significant associations with mixed-handedness were only observed for the lowest third of right-hand motor function. Conclusions Measures involving poorer left-hand motor function may represent useful markers of reduced cognitive function possibly reflecting suboptimal hemispheric lateralisation. Crude measures of laterality such as reported non-right-handedness may be more useful for research when combined with measures of motor function.
A study of two-handed scrolling and selection on standard notebook computers

Although two-handed input can improve both efficiency and quality of user interaction, it is not commonly adopted as it requires additional input devices. In this paper we propose two-handed interaction on standard hardware - notebooks with external mouse - and for a common task - 2D scrolling. We introduce four techniques that leverage the built-in touchpad as a dedicated scrolling device for the non-dominant hand, for scenarios in which the mouse is used in parallel for object selection and manipulation tasks. The techniques implement relative scrolling, flicking, absolute positioning and token-based input on the touchpad. We present an empirical evaluation of these techniques in a task that simulates activities such as retouching of photos, or interaction with maps, in which users often switch between mouse interaction and scrolling. The results show initially best performance with relative scrolling as a familiar mapping, but strong learning effects for all techniques. Users had difficulty with absolute mapping of touchpad input due to a tendency to clutching and finger repositioning, but we observed that these problems are compensated when a token is used as absolute input device.
Categorical prominence and the characteristic description of regions

The annotation of georeferenced information objects is related to the annotation of the content of the containing spatial regions. Not all spatial features contained in the regions, however, present characteristic attributes of the region described. In this paper, we present a method designed to select prominent spatial features in a region in order to improve the annotation of the region. The method is demonstrated on an artificial dataset and preliminary results show that the method results in a reduction of the number of terms typically describing a region which is statistically significant.
Malaria Journal Malaria Risk and Access to Prevention and Treatment in the Paddies of the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania

Background: The Kilombero Valley is a highly malaria-endemic agricultural area in southeastern Tanzania. Seasonal flooding of the valley is favourable to malaria transmission. During the farming season, many households move to distant field sites (shamba in Swahili) in the fertile river floodplain for the cultivation of rice. In the shamba, people live for several months in temporary shelters, far from the nearest health services. This study assessed the impact of seasonal movements to remote fields on malaria risk and treatment-seeking behaviour.
Dust‐reddening and gravitational lensing of SDSS QSOs due to foreground damped Lyman α systems

We use Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 2 quasi-stellar object (QSO) spectra to constrain the dust-reddening caused by intervening damped Lyman α systems (DLAs). Comparing the spectral index distribution of a 70 sight-line DLA sample with that of a large control sample reveals no evidence for dust-reddening at z ∼ 3. Our limit on the shift in spectral index, |�α | < 0.19 (3σ ), corresponds to a limit on the colour excess due to Small Magellanic Cloud-like dust-reddening, E(B − V ) < 0.02 mag (3σ ). This is inconsistent with the early studies of Fall, Pei and collaborators who used the small QSO and DLA samples available at the time. Comparison of the DLA and control magnitude distributions also reveals 2σ evidence for an excess of bright and/or a deficit of faint QSOs with foreground DLAs. Higher equivalent width DLAs give a stronger signal. We interpret this as the signature of gravitational magnification due to the intervening DLAs. Ke yw ords: dust, extinction ‐ galaxies: high-redshift ‐ intergalactic medium ‐ galaxies: ISM ‐ quasars: absorption lines.
STRATEGIES AND PROSPECTS OF NASAL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

The recent advancement of nasal drug delivery systems has increased enormously and is gaining significant importance. Intranasal therapy has been an accepted form of treatment in the Ayurvedic system of Indian Medicine. The non-invasive delivery of nasal drug delivery systems made to exploit for the development of successful treatment. The advantages, disadvantages, mechanism of action and application of nasal drug delivery system in local delivery, systematic delivery, nasal vaccines and CNS delivery are explained lucidly. The relevant aspects of biological, physicochemical and pharmaceutical factors of nasal cavity that must be considered during the process of discovery and development of new drugs for nasal delivery as well as in their incorporation into appropriate nasal pharmaceutical formulations are also discussed. Nasal route is more suitable for those drugs which cannot be administered orally due to gastric degradation or hepatic first pass metabolism of the drug. Intranasal drug delivery is found much promising route for administration of peptides and protein drugs. Much has been investigated and much more are to be investigated for the recent advancement of nasal drug delivery systems.
A UNIQUE CASE OF HUMAN NATURALLY MUMMIFIED CEREBELLUM FROM SLOVAKIA FOUND IN TWO SKULLS

The present paper is the first report on the preservation status of a mummified brain found during anthropological analysis of human skeletal remains which were found in two skulls. So we were interested in it and we tried to discover, whether it could by mummified human cerebellum. These two samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and CT scanning. But none of these methods withheld evident confirm of it source. The survival of brain remains when no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare and we could find no evidence of similar cases from Slovakia.
Image Compression Using a Fast and Efficient Discrete Tchebichef Transform Algorithm

The Discrete Tchebichef Transform (DTT) which based on discrete orthogonal Tchebichef polynomials can be an alternative to the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) for image processing such as image compression and image recognition as the properties of the DTT are similar to that of the DCT. The DTT not only has higher energy compactness than the DCT in images that have high illumination value variations such as artificial diagrams but also has the advantage of easily computation using a set of recurrence relations. In this paper, the DTT will be introduced with explanation of its similarity to DCT, also a new fast and efficient 4x4 algorithm for computing the DTT coefficients which can be used in image compression will be proposed. This algorithm reduces computational complexity as measured in terms of the number of arithmetic operations while keeping the accuracy of the reconstructed images.
GROWING ENERGY How Biofuels Can Help End America's Oil Dependence

Contributing Authors Fuat E. Celik, Princeton University Bruce Dale, Michigan State University Michael Jackson, NRDC Kemantha Jayawardhana, Dartmouth College Haiming Jin, Dartmouth College Eric D. Larson, Princeton University Mark Laser, Dartmouth College Lee Lynd, Dartmouth College Don MacKenzie, Union of Concerned Scientists Jason Mark, Union of Concerned Scientists John McBride, Dartmouth College Samuel McLaughlin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Daniel Saccardi, NRDC
Layered view-dependent texture maps

Video-based free-viewpoint rendering from multiple view video capture has achieved video-realistic performance replay. Existing free-viewpoint rendering approaches require storage, streaming and re-sampling of multiple videos, which requires high bandwidth and computational resources limiting applications to local replay on high-performance computers. This paper introduces a layered texture representation for efficient storage and view-dependent rendering from multiple view video capture whilst maintaining the video-realism. Layered textures re-sample the captured video according to the surface visibility. Prioritisation of layers according to surface visibility allows the N-best views for all surface elements to be pre-computed significantly reducing both storage and rendering cost. Typically 3 texture map layers are required for free-viewpoint rendering with an equivalent visual quality to the multiple view video giving a significant reduction in storage cost. Quantitative evaluation demonstrates that the layered representation achieves a 90% reduction in storage cost and 50% reduction in rendering cost without loss of visual quality compared to storing only the foreground of the original multiple view video. This reduces the storage and transmission cost for free-viewpoint video rendering from eight cameras to be similar to the requirements for a single video. Streaming the layered representation enables, for the first time, demonstration of free-viewpoint video rendering on mobile devices and web platforms.
Rule-Based Anomaly Detection on IP Flows

Rule-based packet classification is a powerful method for identifying traffic anomalies, with network security as a key application area. While popular systems like Snort are used in many network locations, comprehensive deployment across Tier-1 service provider networks is costly due to the need for high-speed monitors at many network ingress points. Since ISPs already collect flow statistics ubiquitously, can we use it for detecting the same anomalies as the packet based rules in spite of aggregation and absence of payload information? We exploit correlations between packet and flow level information via a machine learning (ML) approach to associate packet level alarms with a feature vector derived from flow records on the same traffic. We describe a system architecture for network-wide flow- alarming and describe the steps required to establish a proof- of-concept. We evaluate prediction accuracy of candidate ML algorithms on actual packet traces. The duration of prediction effectiveness is an issue for ML approaches and more so in resource intensive network applications. Initial results show little impairment of performance over periods of one or two weeks.
Polyvagal Theory

This paper introduces polyvagal theory (1995) as defined by its originator, Stephen Porges, for the benefit of somatic, body-oriented, clinical psychotherapists. While there has been a recent explosion of interest in integrating this psychophysiological theory within various fields, some of the references to and explanation of the material can be difficult to grasp. The goal of this paper is to provide a clear explication of this theory. The main tenets of polyvagal theory will be presented including neuroception, the old and new view of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), normal and stress functions of the ANS, and trauma and attachment from a polyvagal point of view. Case material will illustrate somatic relational techniques from an ANS lens. The use of anatomical portals to contact or promote shifts will be provided.
Optimization of Parameters for Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radios

In cognitive radios, the first and crucial task is to detect the spectrum holes or the presence of primary user by employing spectrum sensing. However, there exist two kinds of detection errors (i.e., miss-detection error and false-alarm error), which degrade the sensing performance severely. Aiming at minimizing the probability of total detection errors, based on the law of total probability we propose a novel target function (which also denotes the so-called comprehensive sensing performance metric) for optimization of sensing parameters. According to such established target function, we then apply the method of extremum seeking to develop the optimization of time-bandwidth product and sensing threshold jointly for local spectrum sensing with energy detection. Moreover, we further derive the closedform expression of the optimal fusion rule for cooperative spectrum sensing by performing the discrete difference operation on the target function. Finally, the optimal area of joint parameters selection for local spectrum sensing and the effect of different detecting channel conditions on the optimization for cooperative spectrum sensing are evaluated numerically.
Error Compensation for Cricket Indoor Location System

Cricket is a fine-grained indoor location system utilizing beacons transmitting both ultrasound and radio wave signals. However, the system accuracy is greatly impacted by the relative angle and distance between the beacon and listener. This paper proposes a low cost method to improve the system precision by means of incremental error compensation. The ultrasonic detecting error, which directly affects the accuracy of time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA), is first analyzed and verified via experiments. Then an error compensation method is designed based on total least squares (TLS) to further improve the Cricket’s localization performance. Experimental results show that the average error of localization is reduced to 5.60cm with compensation, compared with 9.06cm of the original Cricket method. The standard deviation of the errors is reduced from 7.80cm to 3.99cm. This method lays a foundation for further improving the existing ultrasound-related distance measurement method.
An exploration of the role of the superior temporal gyrus in visual search and spatial perception using TMS

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Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Clinical Characteristics, Psychological Factors, and Peripheral Cytokines

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Psychosocial factors and low-grade colonic mucosal immune activation have been suggested to play important roles in the pathophysiology of IBS. In total, 94 patients with IBS and 13 healthy volunteers underwent a 10 g lactulose hydrogen breath test (HBT) with concurrent 99mTc scintigraphy. All participants also completed a face-to-face questionnaire survey, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Life Event Stress (LES), and general information. Serum tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin- (IL-) 6, IL-8, and IL-10 levels were measured. The 89 enrolled patients with IBS and 13 healthy controls had no differences in baseline characteristics. The prevalence of SIBO in patients with IBS was higher than that in healthy controls (39% versus 8%, resp.; p = 0.026). Patients with IBS had higher anxiety, depression, and LES scores, but anxiety, depression, and LES scores were similar between the SIBO-positive and SIBO-negative groups. Psychological disorders were not associated with SIBO in patients with IBS. The serum IL-10 level was significantly lower in SIBO-positive than SIBO-negative patients with IBS.
The wealth of networks: how social production transforms markets and freedom

With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book. The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. But these results are by no means inevitable: a systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today's emerging networked information environment. In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing--and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much to be gained--or lost--by the decisions we make today.
Submitted for pubilcation Unifying Search-Based and Similarity-Based Approaches to Semi-Supervised Clustering

Semi-supervised clustering employs a small amount of labeled data to aid unsupervised learning. Previous work in the area has employed one of two approaches: 1) Search-based methods that utilize supervised data to guide the search for the best clustering, and 2) Similarity-based methods that use supervised data to adapt the underlying similarity metric used by the clustering algorithm. This paper presents a unified approach based on the K-Means clustering algorithm that incorporates both of these techniques. Experimental results demonstrate that the combined approach generally produces better clusters than either of the individual approaches.
Unusually Efficient Pyridine Photodissociation from Ru(II) Complexes with Sterically Bulky Bidentate Ancillary Ligands

The introduction of steric bulk to the bidentate ligand in [Ru(tpy)(bpy)(py)]2+ (1; tpy = 2,2′:2′,6″-terpyridine; bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine; py = pyridine) to provide [Ru(tpy)(Me2bpy)(py)]2+ (2; Me2bpy = 6,6′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine) and [Ru(tpy)(biq)(py)]2+ (3; biq = 2,2′-biquinoline) facilitates photoinduced dissociation of pyridine with visible light. Upon irradiation of 2 and 3 in CH3CN (λirr = 500 nm), ligand exchange occurs to produce the corresponding [Ru(tpy)(NN)(NCCH3)]2+ (NN = Me2bpy, biq) complex with quantum yields, Φ500, of 0.16(1) and 0.033(1) for 2 and 3, respectively. These values represent an increase in efficiency of the reaction by 2–3 orders of magnitude as compared to that of 1, Φ500 < 0.0001, under similar experimental conditions. The photolysis of 2 and 3 in H2O with low energy light to produce [Ru(tpy)(NN)(OH2)]2+ (NN = Me2bpy, biq) also proceeds rapidly (λirr > 590 nm). Complexes 1–3 are stable in the dark in both CH3CN and H2O under similar experimental conditions. X-ray crystal structures and theoretical calculations highlight significant distortion of the planes of the bidentate ligands in 2 and 3 relative to that of 1. The crystallographic dihedral angles defined by the bidentate ligand, Me2bpy in 2 and biq in 3, and the tpy ligand were determined to be 67.87° and 61.89°, respectively, whereas only a small distortion from the octahedral geometry is observed between bpy and tpy in 1, 83.34°. The steric bulk afforded by Me2bpy and biq also result in major distortions of the pyridine ligand in 2 and 3, respectively, relative to 1, which are believed to weaken its σ-bonding and π-back-bonding to the metal and play a crucial role in the efficiency of the photoinduced ligand exchange. The ability of 2 and 3 to undergo ligand exchange with λirr > 590 nm makes them potential candidates to build photochemotherapeutic agents for the delivery of drugs with pyridine binding groups.
An Introduction to Quantum Error Correction and Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation

Quantum states are very delicate, so it is likely some sort of quantum error correction will be necessary to build reliable quantum computers. The theory of quantum error-correcting codes has some close ties to and some striking differences from the theory of classical error-correcting codes. Many quantum codes can be described in terms of the stabilizer of the codewords. The stabilizer is a finite Abelian group, and allows a straightforward characterization of the error-correcting properties of the code. The stabilizer formalism for quantum codes also illustrates the relationships to classical coding theory, particularly classical codes over GF(4), the finite field with four elements. To build a quantum computer which behaves correctly in the presence of errors, we also need a theory of fault-tolerant quantum computation, instructing us how to perform quantum gates on qubits which are encoded in a quantum error-correcting code. The threshold theorem states that it is possible to create a quantum computer to perform an arbitrary quantum computation provided the error rate per physical gate or time step is below some constant threshold value.
Large Scale Tissue Morphogenesis Simulation on Heterogenous Systems Based on a Flexible Biomechanical Cell Model

The complexity of biological tissue morphogenesis makes in silico simulations of such system very interesting in order to gain a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms ruling the development of multicellular tissues. This complexity is mainly due to two elements: firstly, biological tissues comprise a large amount of cells; secondly, these cells exhibit complex interactions and behaviors. To address these two issues, we propose two tools: the first one is a virtual cell model that comprise two main elements: firstly, a mechanical structure (membrane, cytoskeleton, and cortex) and secondly, the main behaviors exhibited by biological cells, i.e., mitosis, growth, differentiation, molecule consumption, and production as well as the consideration of the physical constraints issued from the environment. An artificial chemistry is also included in the model. This virtual cell model is coupled to an agent-based formalism. The second tool is a simulator that relies on the OpenCL framework. It allows efficient parallel simulations on heterogenous devices such as micro-processors or graphics processors. We present two case studies validating the implementation of our model in our simulator: cellular proliferation controlled by cell signalling and limb growth in a virtual organism.