Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dispersed activation in the left temporal cortex for speech-reading in congenitally deaf people

Does the lateral temporal cortex require acoustic exposure in order to become specialized for speech processing? Six hearing participants and six congenitally deaf participants, all with spoken English as their first language, were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a simple speech–reading task. Focal activation of the left lateral temporal cortex was significantly reduced in the deaf group compared with the hearing group. Activation within this region was present in individual deaf participants, but varied in location from person to person. Early acoustic experience may be required for regions within the left temporal cortex in order to develop into a coherent network with subareas devoted to specific speech analysis functions.
Analyzing genomes with cumulative skew diagrams.

A novel method of cumulative diagrams shows that the nucleotide composition of a microbial chromosome changes at two points separated by about a half of its length. These points coincide with sites of replication origin and terminus for all bacteria where such sites are known. The leading strand is found to contain more guanine than cytosine residues. This fact is used to predict origin and terminus locations in other bacterial and archaeal genomes. Local changes, visible as diagram distortions, may represent recent genome rearrangements, as demonstrated for two strains of Escherichia coli . Analysis of the diagrams of viral and mitochondrial genomes suggests a link between the base composition bias and the time spent by DNA in a single stranded state during replication.
The time-free approach to Byzantine failure detection in dynamic networks

Modern distributed systems deployed over wireless ad-hoc networks are inherently dynamic and the issue of designing dependable services which can cope with the high dynamics of these systems is a challenge. Byzantine failure detectors provide an elegant abstraction for solving security problems; however, very few work has been proposed for the new context of dynamic networks. This paper advocates the adoption of the time-free approach to detect Byzantine failures in such systems. This approach does not rely on timers to detect progress failures; it is suitable to deal with the unpredictability of the node's behavior and communication medium on these networks, favoring scalability and adaptability.
AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY OF PARENTAL EXPERIENCES AFTER THE DISCLOSURE OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

Child sexual abuse is a well-documented social crime that influences every aspect of the survivor and their family’s lives. The ‘expectation’ is that parents are able to cope with the child’s behavior that may include scholastic challenges, antisocial behavior, sexual explorative behavior as well as adult mannerisms, while at the same time coping with their own feelings of guilt. The aim of the study was to explore parental coping with childcare post the disclosure of child sexual abuse. This study used a qualitative approach with a sample of 12 parents, who were purposively sampled. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Themes which evolved from the analysis were parents’s emotional responses to the disclosure of child sexual abuse, parental coping post the disclosure of child sexual abuse and available resources. These findings are discussed in the context of the needs and challenges of the parents, and offers recommendations regarding provisions that can be made for parents.
Large-Scale Optimization of Synchronous Reluctance Machines Using CE-FEA and Differential Evolution

A novel automated design optimization procedure based on the application of an ultrafast computationally efficient finite-element analysis (CE-FEA) for current-regulated synchronous reluctance machines supplied from power electronic converters is proposed. The CE-FEA uses only a minimum number of magnetostatic solutions in order to comprehensively evaluate performance, including ripple torque and core losses. The optimization algorithm is based on differential evolution, and uses as independent variables the torque angle and ratios for a generic rotor topology with four flux barriers. Two problems, one with two and the other with three objectives, are studied and results are compared. Global performance indices and objectives incorporate the effect of average torque output, losses, torque ripple, and power factor at fixed cost. It is shown that through optimal studies with more than 5000 candidate designs, high output power, high efficiency, and low torque ripple can be achieved, while the relatively low power factor remains an inherent limitation of synchronous reluctance technology. Simulations are validated versus tests from a 10-hp 1800-r/min prototype.
Qualitative and Quantitative Fuzzy Temporal Constraints

This paper describes a model for temporal reasoning that handles both quantitative and qualitative information affected by vagueness and uncertainty. Starting from two existing models, namely the Meiri’s system [9] and IA fuz [2, 3], the proposed approach generalizes the first to a fuzzy framework and extends the second in order to handle qualitative constraints. The system uses the Fuzzy Constraint Satisfaction Problem theory to formulate reasoning tasks and so it takes advantage of traditional solving techniques such as Path-Consistency and Branch and Bound. A simple scheduling example shows the main features of the new system.
Motor cortex and hand motor skills: Structural compliance in the human brain

Recent studies in humans and nonhuman primates have shown that the functional organization of the human sensorimotor cortex changes following sensory stimulation or following the acquisition of motor skills. It is unknown whether functional plasticity in response to the acquisition of new motor skills and the continued performance of complicated bimanual movements for years is associated with structural changes in the organization of the motor cortex. Professional musicians, especially keyboard and string players, are a prototypical group for investigating these changes in the human brain. Using magnetic resonance images, we measured the length of the posterior wall of the precentral gyrus bordering the central sulcus (intrasulcal length of the precentral gyrus, ILPG) in horizontal sections through both hemispheres of right‐handed keyboard players and of an age‐ and handedness‐matched control group. Lacking a direct in vivo measurement of the primary motor cortex in humans, we assumed that the ILPG is a measure of the size of the primary motor cortex. Left‐right asymmetry in the ILPG was analyzed and compared between both groups. Whereas controls exhibited a pronounced left‐larger‐than‐right asymmetry, keyboard players had more symmetrical ILPG. The most pronounced differences in ILPG between keyboard players and controls were seen in the most dorsal part of the presumed cortical hand representation of both hemispheres. This was especially true in the nondominant right hemispheres. The size of the ILPG was negatively correlated with age of commencement of musical training in keyboard players, supporting our hypothesis that the human motor cortex can exhibit functionally induced and long‐lasting structural adaptations. Hum. Brain Mapping 5:206–215, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Generalized Sub-Equation Expansion Method and Some Analytical Solutions to the Inhomogeneous Higher-Order Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation

On the basis of symbolic computation a generalized sub-equation expansion method is presented for constructing some exact analytical solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations. To illustrate the validity of the method, we investigate the exact analytical solutions of the inhomogeneous high-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation (IHNLSE) including not only the group velocity dispersion, self-phase-modulation, but also various high-order effects, such as the third-order dispersion, self-steepening and self-frequency shift. As a result, a broad class of exact analytical solutions of the IHNLSE are obtained. From our results, many previous solutions of some nonlinear Schrödinger-type equations can be recovered by means of suitable selections of the arbitrary functions and arbitrary constants. With the aid of computer simulation, the abundant structure of bright and dark solitary wave solutions, combined-type solitary wave solutions, dispersion-managed solitary wave solutions, Jacobi elliptic function solutions and Weierstrass elliptic function solutions are shown by some figures.
Numerical Hilbert functions for Macaulay2

The NumericalHilbert package for Macaulay2 includes algorithms for computing local dual spaces of polynomial ideals, and related local combinatorial data about its scheme structure. These techniques are numerically stable, and can be used with floating point arithmetic over the complex numbers. They provide a viable alternative in this setting to purely symbolic methods such as standard bases. In particular, these methods can be used to compute initial ideals, local Hilbert functions and Hilbert regularity.
Aesthetic Experience Explained by the Affect-Space Framework

A framework for organizing the semantic structure of aesthetic experience is proposed. The new framework is presented in an 'affect-space' and consists of three sets of dichotomous classifications: (1) internal locus (the felt experience) versus external locus (the description of the object), (2) 'affect-valence' — the attraction to (positive valence, e.g. preference, awe) or repulsion from (negative valence, e.g. hatred, disgust) the artwork/object — versus 'emotion-valence' — the character/contemplation of an emotion (happiness-an example of positive valence, sadness-an example of negative valence), and (3) deep versus shallow hedonic tone—e.g. 'awe' is deep, 'preference' is shallow. Deep hedonic tone is proposed as a better index of aesthetic experience (awe, being moved etc.) than shallow hedonic tone (preference, pleasure, enjoyment). Deep, internal locus, affect-valence during the contemplation of an object amenable to an aesthetic judgement (beautiful, ugly etc.) presents the necessary and sufficient conditions for an aesthetic experience. The framework allows future researchers to consider which aspects of an experience come closest to actual aesthetic experience from an empirical aesthetics perspective. It also highlights the limited value in grouping together so many aesthetic experiences under the rubric of emotion, such as aesthetic emotions, preference, basic emotions and so forth. Our framework paves the way for testing and further development of theory on aesthetic experience.
Study of Planar Inverted-F Antenna (PIFA) for Mobile Devices

Now-a-days more and more radios are being integrated into a single wireless platform to allow maximum connectivity. In this paper a theoretical study of Planar Inverted F Antenna is presented. PIFA as a low profile antenna is widely used in several application areas due to several advantages. Research and experiments done on PIFA structures are discussed and categorized. Some methods that can be used to improve efficiency, bandwidth & reduce volume of an antenna are also discussed which includes effect of dielectric substrate, dimensions of the antenna etc.
Psycho productive skills multiple choice test items for assessing students in mechanical engineering craft in technical colleges in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

This study focused on the development and validation of psycho productive skill multiple choice test (PSMCT) for assessment of technical college students’ achievement in mechanical engineering craft. The study adopted the instrumentation research design and was conducted in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The population of the study was 248 National Technical Certificate (NTC) III students comprising three capability groups (42 high, 140 average and 66 of low capability). A 305 item draft copy of psycho productive skills multiple choice test items was generated and utilized as the instrument for the study. The test was used to assess students in the four Government Technical Colleges in Assakio, Mada Station, Agwada, and Doma in the study area. The data collected were analyzed using split-half technique and Kadder-Richardson (K-R20). The reliability coefficient of the test was 0.84. It was found out that there were significant differences in the mean scores of the three ability groups. It was recommended among others, that examination bodies should integrate the psycho productive skill multiple choice test in their examination process for certification of NTC students. Key words: Mechanical engineering craft, assessment, psycho productive skills multiple choice test, technical college, students, Nasarawa State.
Carcinogenicity of by-products of disinfection in mouse and rat liver.

By-products of disinfection were tested for initiating and/or promoting activity in rat liver by using the rat liver foci bioassay. The assay uses an increased incidence of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase-positive foci (GGT foci) as an indicator of carcinogenicity. The by-products of disinfection, including chloramine, halogenated humic acids, halogenated ethanes, halogenated acetonitriles, halogenated methanes, halogenated ethylenes, and N-Cl-piperidine, did not initiate GGT foci, which would indicate that they are not capable of initiating carcinogenesis. Chloroform and halogenated benzenes were tested in this assay for their ability to promote the occurrence of GGT foci and tumors initiated by diethylnitrosamine (DENA). Chloroform (1800 ppm in the drinking water) either had no effect or inhibited the occurrence of GGT foci when administered subsequent to a single dose of DENA. However, when the chloroform was administered in drinking water concurrently with weekly doses of DENA, it enhanced the formation of liver tumors. Of 20 halogenated benzenes tested, only 1,2,4,5-tetrachlorobenzene and hexachlorobenzene promoted the occurrence of DENA-initiated GGT foci. Thus in rat liver, the tested by-products of drinking water disinfection did not demonstrate tumor-initiating activity, although a few appeared to possess tumor-promoting activity. Chloroform was also tested for tumor-promoting activity in 15-day-old Swiss mice initiated with ethylnitrosourea (ENU). At weaning they started to receive either 1800 ppm chloroform or 500 ppm sodium phenobarbital (the positive control for tumor promotion) in their drinking water. The mice continued to receive either chloroform or phenobarbital until 51 weeks of age and were sacrificed at 52 weeks of age. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Determine Configuration Entry Correlations for Web Application Systems

Web application systems, comprising of heterogeneous and loosely coupled components, are usually highly-configurable due to the large number of configuration entries scattering in the components. The dependencies between components lead their entries correlate to one another, which makes the system deployment and migration daunting and error-prone. For two correlated entries, changing value of one entry requires the value change of the other. Otherwise, some implied constraints would be violated and the system failure will occur. Keeping track of entry correlations, which is essential to system reliabilities, is not a simple work as it often crosses products and requires in-depth domain knowledge. This paper proposes a method to automate the process of determining entry correlations. The method first narrows down the exploring scale to those frequently-set entries based on crawled sample data. Then, it generates a correlation score for each entry pair, which is calculated according to entry names, values and inferred types. Thirdly, a set of heuristics are provided to determine a candidate set of the likely correlations. Finally, a rank-ordered list of entry correlations is output so that system administrators can consult it to check system configuration systematically. Based on the method, we implement a tool, Correlation Explorer, and make experiments and evaluations with some real world systems. The result shows that Correlation Explorer is effective in finding a large portion of entry correlations.
Frame-Synchronous and Local Confidence Measures for Automatic Speech Recognition

In this paper, we introduce two new confidence measures for large vocabulary speech recognition systems. The major feature of these measures is that they can be computed without waiting for the end of the audio stream. We proposed two kinds of confidence measures: frame-synchronous and local. The frame-synchronous ones can be computed as soon as a frame is processed by the recognition engine and are based on a likelihood ratio. The local measures estimate a local posterior probability in the vicinity of the word to analyze. We evaluated our confidence measures within the framework of the automatic transcription of French broadcast news with the EER criterion. Our local measures achieved results very close to the best state-of-the-art measure (EER of 23% compared to 22.0%). We then conducted a preliminary experiment to assess the contribution of our confidence measure in improving the comprehension of an automatic transcription for the hearing impaired. We introduced several modalities to highlight words of low confidence in this transcription. We showed that these modalities used with our local confidence measure improved the comprehension of automatic transcription.
Exacerbated inflammatory arthritis in response to hyperactive gp130 signalling is independent of IL-17A

Objective Interleukin (IL)-17A producing CD4 T-cells (TH-17 cells) are implicated in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). IL-6/STAT3 signalling drives TH-17 cell differentiation, and hyperactive gp130/STAT3 signalling in the gp130F/F mouse promotes exacerbated pathology. Conversely, STAT1-activating cytokines (eg, IL-27, IFN-γ) inhibit TH-17 commitment. Here, we evaluate the impact of STAT1 ablation on TH-17 cells during experimental arthritis and relate this to IL-17A-associated pathology. Methods Antigen-induced arthritis (AIA) was established in wild type (WT), gp130F/F mice displaying hyperactive gp130-mediated STAT signalling and the compound mutants gp130F/F:Stat1−/− and gp130F/F:Il17a−/− mice. Joint pathology and associated peripheral TH-17 responses were compared. Results Augmented gp130/STAT3 signalling enhanced TH-17 commitment in vitro and exacerbated joint pathology. Ablation of STAT1 in gp130F/F mice (gp130F/F:Stat1−/−) promoted the hyperexpansion of TH-17 cells in vitro and in vivo during AIA. Despite this heightened peripheral TH-17 cell response, disease severity and the number of joint-infiltrating T-cells were comparable with that of WT mice. Thus, gp130-mediated STAT1 activity within the inflamed synovium controls T-cell trafficking and retention. To determine the contribution of IL-17A, we generated gp130F/F:IL-17a−/− mice. Here, loss of IL-17A had no impact on arthritis severity. Conclusions Exacerbated gp130/STAT-driven disease in AIA is associated with an increase in joint infiltrating T-cells but synovial pathology is IL-17A independent.
Energy Landscape of Alginate-Epimerase Interactions Assessed by Optical Tweezers and Atomic Force Microscopy

Mannuronan C-5 epimerases are a family of enzymes that catalyze epimerization of alginates at the polymer level. This group of enzymes thus enables the tailor-making of various alginate residue sequences to attain various functional properties, e.g. viscosity, gelation and ion binding. Here, the interactions between epimerases AlgE4 and AlgE6 and alginate substrates as well as epimerization products were determined. The interactions of the various epimerase–polysaccharide pairs were determined over an extended range of force loading rates by the combined use of optical tweezers and atomic force microscopy. When studying systems that in nature are not subjected to external forces the access to observations obtained at low loading rates, as provided by optical tweezers, is a great advantage since the low loading rate region for these systems reflect the properties of the rate limiting energy barrier. The AlgE epimerases have a modular structure comprising both A and R modules, and the role of each of these modules in the epimerization process were examined through studies of the A- module of AlgE6, AlgE6A. Dynamic strength spectra obtained through combination of atomic force microscopy and the optical tweezers revealed the existence of two energy barriers in the alginate-epimerase complexes, of which one was not revealed in previous AFM based studies of these complexes. Furthermore, based on these spectra estimates of the locations of energy transition states (x β), lifetimes in the absence of external perturbation (τ 0) and free energies (ΔG #) were determined for the different epimerase–alginate complexes. This is the first determination of ΔG # for these complexes. The values determined were up to 8 kBT for the outer barrier, and smaller values for the inner barriers. The size of the free energies determined are consistent with the interpretation that the enzyme and substrate are thus not tightly locked at all times but are able to relocate. Together with the observed different affinities determined for AlgE4-polymannuronic acid (poly-M) and AlgE4-polyalternating alginate (poly-MG) macromolecular pairs these data give important contribution to the growing understanding of the mechanisms underlying the processive mode of these enzymes.
Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae: the role of N-acetyl-5-neuraminic acid in biology

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is an exclusive human pathogen, which has evolved a number of unique mechanisms to survive within the human environment. An important part of this is the ability of the organism to take up and incorporate sialic acid into its surface structures. This protects the organism against host adaptive and innate immune factor as well as serving as a mechanism for sustaining itself within biofilms. Recent evidence suggests that this also may be the source of the evolution of human antibodies to non-human sialic acid structures, which can lead to inflammation in the host. In very rare instances, evolution of antibodies to sialylated lipooligosaccharide (LOS) mimics of human antigens can result in autoimmune disease.
Unblocking the pathway to effective use of blockmodels in social movement research

Key studies of social movement networks use block modelling to uncover movement network structures. Whilst it is promising to see mathematical sociology techniques applied to social movement studies, there are grounds for engendering a closer connection between these two fields of study. The mathematical sociology literature recommends, for example, that analyzed networks should be complete and relatively dense, some degree of deduction should be applied to select the ‘best’ model, levels of equivalence and / or error scores should be specified, and reliable and appropriate algorithms and levels of equivalence should be carefully selected. Some dilemmas involved in block modelling analysis are demonstrated through block modelling analysis of inter-organizational networking in Friends of the Earth International (FoEI).
THE R STARS: CARBON STARS OF A DIFFERENT KIND

After ∼16 years of radial-velocity observations of a sample of 22 R-type carbon stars, no evidence for binary motion has been detected in any of them. This is surprising considering that approximately 20% of normal late-type giants are spectroscopic binaries, and the fraction is close to 100% in barium, CH, and subgiant/dwarf CH and barium stars. It is suggested, therefore, that a process that has caused the mixing of carbon to the surface of these stars cannot act in a wide binary system. Possibly, the R stars were once all binaries, but with separations that would not allow them to evolve completely up the giant and asymptotic giant branchs without coalescing. This coalescence may be the agent which causes carbon produced in the helium-core flash to be mixed outwards to a region where convection zones can bring it to the surface of the star.