Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The link between interoceptive processing and anxiety in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder : Extending adult fi ndings into a developmental sample

Anxiety is a major associated feature of autism spectrum disorders. The incidence of anxiety symptoms in this population has been associated with altered interoceptive processing. Here, we investigated whether recent findings of impaired interoceptive accuracy (quantified using heartbeat detection tasks) and exaggerated interoceptive sensibility (subjective sensitivity to internal sensations on self-report questionnaires) in autistic adults, can be extended into a school-age sample of children and adolescents (n=75). Half the sample had a verified diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and half were IQand age-matched children and adolescents without ASD. The discrepancy between an individual’s score on these two facets of interoception (interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility), conceptualized as an interoceptive trait prediction error, was previously found to predict anxiety symptoms in autistic adults. We replicated the finding of reduced interoceptive accuracy in autistic participants, but did not find exaggerated interoceptive sensibility relative to non-autistic participants. Nonetheless, the positive association between anxiety and interoceptive trait prediction error was replicated. However, in this sample, the best predictor of anxiety symptoms was interoceptive sensibility. Finally, we observed lower metacognitive accuracy for interoception in autistic children and adolescents, relative to their non-autistic counterparts. Despite their reduced interoceptive accuracy on the heartbeat tracking task and comparable accuracy on the heartbeat discrimination task, the autistic group reported higher confidence than the typical group in the discrimination task. Findings are consistent with theories of ASD as a disorder of interoceptive processing, but highlight the importance of validating cognitive models of developmental conditions within developmental populations.
Surgical management of groin lymphatic complications after arterial bypass surgery.

BACKGROUND The authors undertook a retrospective study to define the incidence of groin wound lymphatic complications at their institution and to review their experience with treatment of the complications. METHODS Operating room records and patient databases of the two primary vascular surgeons at an academic teaching institution were reviewed retrospectively. Groin lymphatic complications were diagnosed by clinical presentation and confirmed with noninvasive imaging. Surgical management included percutaneous methods, ligation of leaking lymphatics, excision, and/or muscle flap coverage. RESULTS From June of 1989 to June of 2002, 538 patients had arterial revascularization procedures involving the groin. Twenty-seven patients with groin wound lymphatic complications were identified; seven of them had bilateral complications, for a total of 34 complication sites. Common comorbidities included hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic renal insufficiency, and tobacco use. The majority (85 percent) had artificial material in the bypass graft, and 10 patients had undergone a previous operation at the same site. The mean time to identification of groin lymphatic complications after vascular surgery was 14 days. Common presentations included swelling (n = 16), drainage (n = 13), erythema (n = 4), and leg edema (n = 1). At presentation, 17 patients (63 percent) were receiving antibiotics and 21 (78 percent) were receiving anticoagulation or antiplatelet therapy. Of the 34 complication sites, 12 were managed with drainage or excision and 22 with muscle flap surgery, 10 of which failed less aggressive therapy. Muscle flaps included the gracilis (n = 19), sartorius (n = 1), rectus abdominis (n = 1), and rectus femoris muscles (n = 1). Operative cultures were positive in 23 of the 34 groin lymphatic complication sites. A biopsy specimen of a healed gracilis flap obtained at 1 year demonstrated notable lymphatic channels, possibly supporting theories that rotated muscle becomes a lymphatic conduit. CONCLUSIONS The authors found that muscle flap surgery provides single-intervention therapy for successful resolution of lymphoceles, with a low complication rate and fairly rapid recovery in a high-risk patient population. Flaps also salvage cases that have failed conservative therapy and provide hardy coverage for a wound bed that is often infected.
Anomalies Abroad: Beyond Data Mining

A pre-specified set of nine prominent U.S. equity return anomalies produce significant alphas in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. All of the anomalies are consistently significant across these five countries, whose developed stock markets afford the most extensive data. The anomalies remain significant even in a test that assumes their true alphas equal zero in the U.S. Consistent with the view that anomalies reflect mispricing, idiosyncratic volatility exhibits a strong negative relation to return among stocks that the anomalies collectively identify as overpriced, similar to results in the U.S.
Three-dimensional printing of a complex CHD to plan surgical repair

Abstract We used three-dimensional printing technology to create an anatomical three-dimensional model of a very rare and complex cyanotic CHD in a newborn, consisting of double-outlet left ventricle, ventricular septal defect, and pulmonary stenosis. This case demonstrates how this new innovative technology allows better understanding of the anatomy in complex CHDs and permits to better plan the surgical repair.
X-ray computed tomography contrast agents prepared by seeded growth of gold nanoparticles in PEGylated dendrimer

Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) are a potential x-ray computed tomography (CT) contrast agent. A biocompatible and bioinactive surface is necessary for application of gold nanoparticle to CT imaging. Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-attached dendrimers have been used as a drug carrier with long blood circulation. In this study, the Au NPs were grown in the PEGylated dendrimer to produce a CT contrast agent. The Au NPs were grown by adding gold ions and ascorbic acid at various equivalents to the Au NP-encapsulated dendrimer solution. Both size and surface plasmon absorption of the grown Au NPs increased with adding a large number of gold ions. The x-ray attenuation of the Au NPs also increased after the seeded growth. The Au NPs grown in the PEG-attached dendrimer at the maximum under our conditions exhibited a similar CT value to a commercial iodine agent, iopamidol, in vitro. The Au NP-loaded PEGylated dendrimer and iopamidol were injected into mice and CT images were obtained at different times. The Au NP-loaded PEGylated dendrimer achieved a blood pool imaging, which was greater than a commercial iodine agent. Even though iopamidol was excreted rapidly, the PEGylated dendrimer loading the grown Au NP was accumulated in the liver.
Handwritten character recognition with sequential convolutional neural network

Handwritten character recognition has been an active and challenging research problem, due to the large variations of characters and the dependency relationship between characters. Most of traditional methods rarely consider these two challenges simultaneously. This paper proposes a sequential convolutional neural network(CNN) to solve this problem. It considers handwritten words as image sequences and each node of the sequence is an image of a character. A particularly modified convolutional neural network is firstly employed as a trainable feature extractor to extract low-dimensional, linear separable, translationally invariant features. Furthermore, a sequential model, modified conditional random field(CRF), is utilized to model the dependency between characters. Benefiting from the invariant feature learning ability of CNN and structured prediction ability of CRF, the proposed approach boosts the performance over the standard CRF a large margin. Comparing with the state-of-the-art models, our method achieves a better or comparable performance.
Physically Based Character Simulation – Rag Doll Behaviour in Computer Games

The focus of this thesis is the feature known in the games industry as rag doll behaviour. Rag doll is the feature that, in a computer game, lets a character be influenced by actual physical laws. This enables the computer game characters to move in a more realistic way. It also gives the characters an infinite amount of possible motion patterns in contrast to animated motion. The interaction with the environment also enables more realism and better feedback. Rag doll behaviour and the techniques necessary for implementation in real-time 3D simulation are investigated. Many different approaches have been used during the last few years to simulate physics in computer games. Some are more physically correct than others. We describe and discuss benefits and drawbacks of the most accepted and used techniques that are suitable for simulation in real time, i.e. a computer game. We will furthermore investigate how vertex blending can be used to mix standard animations with physical calculations to enhance computer games. Fysikbaserad figursimulering ’Rag Doll’-beteende i dataspel
DEVELOPMENT OF 3 R WASTE TREATMENT FACILITIES FOR MITIGATING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS : A CASE STUDY OF PADANG CITY , INDONESIA

This paper focuses on developing the role of people participation through solid waste banks (SWB) and 3R waste treatment facilities (TPS 3R) for mitigating global warming in Padang City. Current municipal solid waste (MSW) management and 3 improved scenarios were simulated for the next 20 years to calculate the impact on global warming. Greenhouse gases (GHG) inventory of waste treatment activities was carried out using LCA methodology. Meanwhile, methane emission from solid waste decomposition at landfill was calculated using IPCC software. Current MSW management practices show the achievement of waste recycling rate was only 2.178 % of total waste generation in 2015. Simulation results also show that implementing the current practice will release GHG emissions of 123.54 Gg CO2eq in 2035. Improved scenario #3 suggests to increase the number of SWB, TPS 3R, integrated waste treatment facilities (TPST) and to install methane gas recovery. This improvement increases the recycling rate to around 34 % and reduces GHG emissions by around 57 %.
Reclamation Of Heavy Metal Contaminated Soil By Using Biochar As Soil Conditioner

Increasing population density and scarce funds available for environmental restoration gearing to explore and speed-up the lowcost and ecologically sustainable remedial options to restore contaminated lands so as to reduce the associated risks, make the water and land resources available for agricultural production, enhance food security and scale down the land tenure problems. Biochar is a carbon negative, charcoal based, soil amendment that can be designed to help reclaim and improve marginal soils by increasing soil water holding capacity and enhancing fertility, while also generating high-value renewable energy co-products during its production. In this study, the soil samples collected form a field which is assumed to be contaminated with various heavy metals (esp: Cd and Pb) was conducted to reclaim by using biochar from difference raw material sources (coconut shell, peanut shell, wheat straw, rice husk and biogas byproduct) with the same dosages. Biochar from coconut shell was used in three difference particle sizes 30-60 mesh, 60-80 mesh and 80-200 mesh. The experiment was carried out in pot trial under nursery house with four replicas. Soil organic matter analysis, pH, cation exchange capacity of soil, N, P, K assimilation and incorporated heavy metal concentration from both soil and plant samples were tested in order to know the effect of amended biochar. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of biochar from difference raw material sources to reduce levels of heavy metal in the soil through the analysis of their status and sorption behavior on biochar. The research was conducted at Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Science, Guangzhou, China.
A Survey on an Efficient Technique of Encryption Scheme and its Extension in Cloud Based PHR System

Scalable and secure sharing of personal health record in cloud computing is an emerging trend in Health field for exchange and the use of personal Health information. This sensitive data is shared and stored by the third party reference in cloud computing. Therefore the need of encrypting data stored at this sites is highly essential to reduce the storage space and for the cost reduction. Since, the privacy management is a complex task in the PHR management process; the issues such as risk of privacy exposure, scalability, data loss, flexible access have remained the most important task. To achieve the fine grained and scalable data access, the ABE technique and its extensions are introduced in this paper. Here the focus is done on comparing the best method for achieving the fine grained and security.
Delay-Oriented Routing Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

SUMMARY In wireless ad hoc mobile network, a host de-sires to communicate with another host may need some intermediate nodes to relay data packets. To maximize the channel resource utilization and minimize the network transfer delay along the path, the shortest path with minimum hops approach is often adapted. However, by considering the employing medium access control (MAC) protocol, the minimum transfer delay from source to destination may be achieved by choosing a longer path but with less contention delay. In this paper, we will propose an eﬃcient delay-oriented routing protocol for mobile ad hoc wireless networks. The expected access contention delay of IEEE 802.11 protocol is analyzed to support the routing decision. Simulation results show that the derived path length in proposed delay-oriented routing protocol is slightly higher than that of conventional shortest path with minimum hops approach but it can signiﬁcantly reduce both average transfer delay and packet loss rate.
An interactive method for extrinsic parameter calibration of onboard camera

In vision-based driver assistance applications, the onboard cameras are supposed to be calibrated as simply and accurately as possible. This paper presents an interactive method for extrinsic parameter calibration of onboard camera. In the proposed method, the intrinsic camera parameters are assumed to be known. During the calibration process, we first design a calibration scene to compute the extrinsic camera parameters. There are three lines in the scene, two of which are parallel with the vehicle heading direction and the other one is perpendicular with the first two. Then, using this scene, we derive an interactive and analytical solution to obtain the extrinsic camera parameters, which can adequately compromise the calibration complexity and accuracy. We also extend the method to multiple cameras, in which case the calibration can be performed without absolute positions of the calibration lines. Theoretical and experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed calibration method.
Application of Nakagami Distributions in Ultrasound Contrast Imaging

Recent developments saw Nakagami and extended Nakagami distributions being used for extracting useful information about ultrasound scenes by matching local histograms from envelope of radiofrequency signals. This information is conveyed by distribution parameters’ values. On the other hand, in research literature, new distributions or their extensions are proposed mostly on basis of quality of local histogram match in LMS sense. This measure is not linked in any way to significance of information contained in parameters of these distributions, though. As is shown here, in the context of contrast imaging, the Extended Nakagami distribution significantly improves neither quality of fit, nor information about local area, despite the additional parameter.
An optimal control formulation for dual control problems

A systematic procedure is introduced, which allows converting a stochastic control problem involving a tradeoff between minimizing control effort and maximizing estimation performance into a deterministic two-point boundary value problem. The proposed approach can be applied to calculating control inputs for a system whose observability is affected by the system's state trajectory due to nonlinear coupling between estimation and control, called the dual effect. A parameter estimation problem is considered in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. The parameter estimation problem is formulated as a nonlinear two-point boundary problem and then solved numerically using a collocation method.
The long and winding road.

Biological control of weeds is a steadily evolving science, steering its way round bureaucratic obstacles, funding crises and through the complexities of uncertainties, prediction and probabilities of ecological systems, both old and new, and coevolution, variability, and behaviour. In this synopsis I will try to review briefly the content presented in this symposium and draw out future directions – the next steps in the evolution of our science. There are a number of procedures involved in a biological control program, procedures under steady improvement as the associated science progresses and we can see where there has been some progress. These will be considered under a small number of groupings similar to, but not constrained by, the main themes of the symposium. There will also be a need to consider what has been achieved in a more general sense and what influence this might have on the future.
Spheroids in cancer research. Methods and perspectives.

Liquid-Overlay Culture of Cellular Spheroids. - Growth and Cellular Characteristics of Multicell Spheroids. - Regulatory Mechanisms in Spheroidal Aggregates of Normal and Cancerous Cells. - Intercellular Communication in Spheroids. - Spheroids for Studies of Drug Effects. - Radiation Studies with Spheroids. - Microenvironmental Conditions in Multicellular Spheroids Grown Under Liquid-Overlay Tissue Culture Conditions. - Microelectrode Measurements of Oxygen Tension Distributions in Multicellular Spheroids Cultured in Spinner Flasks. - Profiles of Oxygen Partial Pressure and Oxygen Consumption Inside Multicellular Spheroids. - Oxygen Supply to Spheroids in Spinner and Liquid-Overlay Culture. - Modeling and Simulation of Growing Spheroids.
On the lengths of proofs in the propositional calculus (Preliminary Version)

One of the most important open questions in the field of computational complexity is the question of whether there is a polynomial time decision procedure for the classical propositional calculus. The purpose of the present paper is to study a question related to the complexity of decision procedures for the propositional calculus; namely, the complexity of proof systems for the propositional calculus. The fundamental issue here is whether there exists any proof system, and a polynomial p(n) such that every valid formula has a proof of length not exceeding p(n), where n is the length of the formula. Theorem 1 below helps establish the importance of this question. For the purposes of this theorem, we give the following definitions.
Design and analysis of a sliding mode controller for systems with hysteresis

A sliding mode controller is proposed for a class of systems comprising a hysteresis operator preceding an kth-order linear plant without zero dynamics. The hysteresis operator is modeled with piecewise linear characteristics with uncertainties, and a nominal inverse operator is included to mitigate the hysteresis effect. A bound on the inversion error is used in the design of the sliding mode controller. The stability of the closed-loop system is established, and singular perturbation is exploited to analyze the system behavior within the boundary layer. In particular, analytical insight is gained on the frequency-scaling behavior of the tracking error under a periodic reference. Simulation and experimental results on a piezoelectric actuator-based nanopositioner are presented to illustrate the design and analysis, where the hysteresis nonlinearity is represented by a Prandtal-Ishlinskii operator.
Extraction of features from video files using different image algebraic point operations

In the human-computer interaction (HCI) field, facial feature analysis and extraction are the most decisive stages which can lead to a robust and efficient classification system like facial expression recognition, emotion classification. In this paper, an approach to the problem of automatic facial feature extraction from different videos are presented using several image algebraic operations. These operations deal with pixel intensity values individually through some mathematical theory involved in image analysis and transformations. In this paper, 11 operations (point subtraction, point addition, point multiplication, point division, edge detecting, average neighborhood filtering, image stretching, log operation, exponential operation, inverse filtering, and image thresholding) are implemented and tested on the images (video frames) extracted from three different self-recorded videos named as video1, video2, video3. The videos are in . avi, . mp4 and . wmv format respectively. The work is tested on two types of data: grayscale and RGB (Red, Green, Blue). To assess the efficiency of each operation, three factors are considered: processing time, frames per second (FPS) and sharpness of edges of feature points based on image gradients. The implementation has been done in MATLAB R2017a.
Absorptive Capacity and Enterprise Systems Implementation: The Role of Prior-Related Knowledge

In this paper, we focus on how firms engaged in enterprise systems (ES) implementations absorb knowledge from consultant companies. We take a practice-based view of absorptive capacity (AC) and focus on how prior-related knowledge - a necessary condition to absorb new external knowledge - is created (when it is lacking). We therefore move from the traditional positivistic approach to AC to a more nuanced and practice-based approach of the construct, involving materiality and power considerations. We contribute to the IS literature by providing an account of AC that departs from the deterministic and outcome-focused approach that has characterized past studies and propose a view that accounts for everyday practices.
Association search in semantic web: search + inference

Association search is to search for certain instances in semantic web and then make inferences from and about the instances we have found. In this paper, we propose the problem of association search and our preliminary solution for it using Bayesian network. We first minutely define the association search and its categorization. We then define tasks in association search. In terms of Bayesian network, we take ontology taxonomy as network structure in Bayesian network. We use the query log of instances to estimate the network parameters. After the Bayesian network is constructed, we give the solution for association search in the network.