Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive Physiological Anticipation Preceding Seemingly Unpredictable Stimuli: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis of 26 reports published between 1978 and 2010 tests an unusual hypothesis: for stimuli of two or more types that are presented in an order designed to be unpredictable and that produce different post-stimulus physiological activity, the direction of pre-stimulus physiological activity reflects the direction of post-stimulus physiological activity, resulting in an unexplained anticipatory effect. The reports we examined used one of two paradigms: (1) randomly ordered presentations of arousing vs. neutral stimuli, or (2) guessing tasks with feedback (correct vs. incorrect). Dependent variables included: electrodermal activity, heart rate, blood volume, pupil dilation, electroencephalographic activity, and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) activity. To avoid including data hand-picked from multiple different analyses, no post hoc experiments were considered. The results reveal a significant overall effect with a small effect size [fixed effect: overall ES = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.15–0.27, z = 6.9, p < 2.7 × 10−12; random effects: overall (weighted) ES = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.13–0.29, z = 5.3, p < 5.7 × 10−8]. Higher quality experiments produced a quantitatively larger effect size and a greater level of significance than lower quality studies. The number of contrary unpublished reports that would be necessary to reduce the level of significance to chance (p > 0.05) was conservatively calculated to be 87 reports. We explore alternative explanations and examine the potential linkage between this unexplained anticipatory activity and other results demonstrating meaningful pre-stimulus activity preceding behaviorally relevant events. We conclude that to further examine this currently unexplained anticipatory activity, multiple replications arising from different laboratories using the same methods are necessary. The cause of this anticipatory activity, which undoubtedly lies within the realm of natural physical processes (as opposed to supernatural or paranormal ones), remains to be determined.
Competency based management: a review of systems and approaches

Purpose – Aims to review the key concepts of competency management (CM) and to propose method for developing competency method.Design/methodology/approach – Examines the CM features of 22 CM systems and 18 learning management systems.Findings – Finds that the areas of open standard (XML, web services, RDF), semantic technologies (ontologies and the semantic web) and portals with self‐service technologies are going to play a significant part in the evolution of CM systems.Originality/value – Emphasizes the beneficial attributes of CM for private and public organizations.
On Normalized Signless Laplacian Resolvent Energy

Let G be a simple connected graph with n vertices. Denote by L + ( G ) = D ( G ) − 1 / 2 Q ( G ) D ( G ) − 1 / 2 the normalized signless Laplacian matrix of graph G , where Q ( G ) and D ( G ) are the signless Laplacian and diagonal degree matrices of G, respectively. The eigenvalues of matrix L + ( G ), 2 = γ +1 ≥ γ +2 ≥ · · · ≥ γ + n ≥ 0, are normalized signless Laplacian eigenvalues of G . In this paper, we introduce the normalized signless Laplacian resolvent energy of G as ERNS ( G ) = P ni =1 1 3 − γ + i . We also obtain some lower and upper bounds for ERNS ( G ) as well as its relationships with other energies and signless Kemeny’s constant.
Development Of An Instrument For Assessment Of Creative Thinking Skills Based On Collaborative Problem Based Learning

Learning model Collaborative Problem Based Learning (CPBL) has the potential to improve students' creative thinking skills by providing collaborative learning and students are trained in how to solve problems that are very close to their lives. To find out the students' creative thinking skills, standard, valid, and reliable CPBL- oriented assessment instruments are needed. In connection with the description of the thoughts and research results above, the general objective of this study: to develop an assessment instrument for creative thinking skills and the feasibility of the developed assessment instrument. The validation results show that the creative thinking skills assessment instrument has a score of 3.67-4.00 with a very valid category. The results of the reliability test showed that the instrument for assessing creative thinking skills had a Cronbach's Alpha value of 0.864 in a very strong category.
Low-Latency, High-Throughput Access to Static Global Resources within the Hadoop Framework

Hadoop is an open source implementation of Google’s MapReduce programming model that has recently gained popularity as a practical approach to distributed information processing. This work explores the use of memcached, an open-source distributed in-memory object caching system, to provide low-latency, high-throughput access to static global resources in Hadoop. Such a capability is essential to a large class of MapReduce algorithms that require, for example, querying language model probabilities, accessing model parameters in iterative algorithms, or performing joins across relational datasets. Experimental results on a simple demonstration application illustrate that memcached provides a feasible general-purpose solution for rapidly accessing global key-value pairs from within Hadoop programs. Our proposed architecture exhibits the desirable scaling characteristic of linear increase in throughput with respect to cluster size. To our knowledge, this application of memcached in Hadoop is novel. Although considerable opportunities for increased performance remain, this work enables implementation of algorithms that do not have satisfactory solutions at scale today.
Exploring Vascular Function Biomarkers: Implications for Rehabilitation

The endothelium plays an important role in maintaining vascular homeostasis and regulating blood vessel function. Endothelial function is considered an independent predictor for risk of future cardiovascular events in cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular patients, as well as a predictor for postoperative complications in cardiovascular surgery patients. Brachial artery flow-mediated dilation by high-resolution ultrasound is widely used to evaluate endothelium-dependent vasodilation, which is mainly mediated by nitric oxide release. Physical exercise exerts beneficial effects on endothelial function and can be used in both primary and secondary prevention of cardiac and peripheral artery diseases, even in the postoperative period of cardiovascular surgery.
Plasma matrix metalloproteinases in neonates having surgery for congenital heart disease

During cardiopulmonary-bypass matrix-metalloproteinases released may contribute to ventricular dysfunction. This study was to determine plasma matrix-metalloproteinases in neonates after cardiopulmonary-bypass and their relation to post-operative course. A prospective observational study included 18 neonates having cardiac surgery. Plasma matrix-metalloproteinases-2 and 9 activities were measured by gelatin-zymography pre-operatively, on starting cardiopulmonarybypass, 7-8 min after aortic cross-clamp release, and 1h, 4h, 24h, and 3d after cardiopulmonary-bypass. Plasma concentrations of their tissue inhibitors 1 and 2 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Cardiac function was assessed by serial echocardiography. Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon tests were used to assess temporal changes, and linear correlation with simultaneous clinical and cardiac function parameters were assessed using Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient. Plasma matrix-metalloproteinases activities and their tissue inhibitor concentrations decreased during cardiopulmonary-bypass. Matrix-metalloproteinase-2 plasma activity increased progressively starting 1h after cardiopulmonarybypass and returned to pre-operative levels at 24h. Matrix-metalloproteinase-9 plasma activity increased significantly after release of aortic cross-clamp, peaked 7-8min later, and returned to baseline at 24h. Plasma tissueinhibitor 1 and 2 concentrations increased 1h after cardiopulmonary-bypass. Cardiac function improved from 4h to 3d after surgery (p<0.05). There was no evidence of significant correlations between matrix-metalloproteinases or their inhibitors and cardiac function, inotrope scores, organ dysfunction scores, ventilation days, or hospital days. The temporal profile of plasma matrix-metalloproteinases and their inhibitors after cardiopulmonary-bypass in neonates are similar to adults. In neonates, further study should determine whether circulating matrix-metalloproteinases are useful biomarkers of disease activity locally within the myocardium, and hence of clinical outcomes.
Staff perceptions on patient motives for attending GP-led urgent care centres in London: a qualitative study

Objectives General practitioner (GP)-led urgent care centres were established to meet the growing demand for urgent care. Staff members working in such centres are central in influencing patients’ choices about which services they use, but little is known about staff perceptions of patients’ motives for attending urgent care. We hence aimed to explore their perceptions of patients’ motives for attending such centres. Design A phenomenological, qualitative study, including semistructured interviews. The interviews were analysed using thematic content analysis. Setting 2 GP-led urgent care centres in 2 academic hospitals in London. Participants 15 staff members working at the centres including 8 GPs, 5 emergency nurse practitioners and 2 receptionists. Results We identified 4 main themes: ‘Confusion about choices’, ‘As if increase of appetite had grown; By what it fed on’, ‘Overt reasons, covert motives’ and ‘A question of legitimacy’. The participants thought that the centres introduce convenient and fast access for patients. So convenient, that an increasing number of patients use them as a regular alternative to their community GP. The participants perceived that patients attend the centres because they are anxious about their symptoms and view them as serious, cannot get an appointment with their GP quickly and conveniently, are dissatisfied with the GP, or lack self-care skills. Staff members perceived some motives as legitimate (an acute health need and difficulties in getting an appointment), and others as less legitimate (convenience, minor illness, and seeking quicker access to hospital facilities). Conclusions The participants perceived that patients attend urgent care centres because of the convenience of access relative to primary care, as well as sense of acuity and anxiety, lack self-care skills and other reasons. They perceived some motives as more legitimate than others. Attention to unmet needs in primary care can help in promoting balanced access to urgent care.
Digital geometry processing with discrete exterior calculus

An introduction to geometry processing using discrete exterior calculus (DEC), which provides a simple, flexible, and efficient framework for building a unified geometry-processing platform. The course provides essential mathematical background as well as a large array of real-world examples. It also provides a short survey of the most relevant recent developments in digital geometry processing and discrete differential geometry. Compared to previous SIGGRAPH courses, this course focuses heavily on practical aspects of DEC, with an emphasis on implementation and applications. The course begins with the core ideas from exterior calculus, in both the smooth and discrete setting. Then it shows how a large number of fundamental geometry-processing tools (smoothing, parameterization, geodesics, mesh optimization, etc.) can be implemented quickly, robustly, and efficiently within this single common framework. It concludes with a discussion of recent extensions of DEC that improve efficiency, accuracy, and versatility. The course notes grew out of the discrete differential geometry course taught over the past five years at the California Institute of Technology, for undergraduates and beginning graduate students in computer science, applied mathematics, and associated fields. The notes also provide guided exercises (both written and coding) that attendees can later use to deepen their understanding of the material.
Mismatch correction in pneumococcal transformation: donor length and hex-dependent marker efficiency

A hypothesis that preferential rejection of donor markers by the hex system of pneumococcus is due to lethal double-strand breaks has been examined in terms of its implications for the extent of the excision required. Experiments reported here were directed at asking whether hex-dependent marker efficiency depends on the length of the donor deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In the absence of intracellular competition for hex function, there was no detectable effect of DNA size on hex-dependent marker efficiency as donor DNA was sheared from greater than 1 x 107 daltons to 3.6 x 105 daltons. The latter DNA was purified by two successive velocity fractionations to ensure that the activity seen was representative of DNA of that size. Quantitative examination of the system shows that, for the lethal event hypothesis to be true, the excision step has to remove an average of 7,000 to 10,000 nucleotides. This figure is so much greater than that seen in other excision processes that alternate hypotheses should be considered. The presently known properties of the hex system can be accounted for by a model invoking the migratory features of type I restriction enzymes.
The Clinical Importance of Pulsatile Flow in Extracorporeal Life Support: The Penn State Health Approach.

Recent improvements in the safety and efficiency of components of the extracorporeal life support (ECLS) circuit have improved the mortality and morbidity of patients with severe, reversible cardiac and respiratory failure (1,2). Circuit improvements are primarily due to optimization of the components of the circuit, namely the efficiency of the oxygenators and pumps along with better veno-arterial and veno-venous cannulae (3,4). New ECLS systems have several advantages including significantly reduced set-up time (less than 10 min), a lower priming volume (<190 mL for pediatric and <400 mL for adult systems), and better safety and portability (3,4). However, most of these new generation ECLS systems produce only nonpulsatile flow. We at the Pediatric Cardiovascular Research Center at Penn State Health have conducted extensive translational research on the impact of pulsatile flow during ECLS for neonates, infants, and adult patients throughout the past 8 years (5–9). The objective of this editorial is to share the latest results using a novel electrocardiogram (ECG)-ECLS system in vitro and in vivo and to suggest further clinical research with pulsatile flow.
Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in adults

This document, on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), was commissioned by the British Society of Gastroenterology as part of a wider initiative to develop guidelines for clinicians in several areas of clinical practice. Cancer care has been the subject of increased scrutiny, with the development of care guidelines forming a major part of the strategy to reduce cancer related mortality in the UK. There is a strong suggestion that HCC is a disease which will be seen more frequently over the next few years, mainly as a result of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemic. Previously, HCC has been a relatively rare tumour in the UK and much of the data pertaining to its diagnosis and therapy are derived from studies outside of the UK. Because of the lack of screening programmes and the fact that a significant proportion of HCC presents as symptomatic disease in individuals not known to have liver disease, most non-surgical therapies have been used in patients with advanced disease. There are a significant number of variables known to influence prognosis, with stage of underlying liver disease and tumour size at presentation being the most important. Controlling for these variables is difficult and these factors have contributed to a dearth of randomised controlled trials of treatment for this tumour. There is however a substantial amount of evidence available which can form the basis of a framework for diagnosis and management. Guidelines are not rigid protocols and they should not be construed as interfering with local clinical judgement. Hence they do not represent a directive of proscribed routes but a basis on which clinicians can consider the options available more clearly. These guidelines cover two areas of clinical practice relating to HCC: firstly, its diagnosis, including surveillance of high risk individuals; and …
Accurate Heart Rate Measurement Across Various Body Postures Using FMCW Radar

In this article, a new heart rate measurement technology with high accuracy is proposed by using the frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar in the case of body-limb motions. Using this technology to detect human heart rate can not only filter the interference of various stationary clutters in the radar field of view, but also effectively eliminate the interference caused by body motion. The main contributions of this article include the establishment of the hybrid echo signal model for motion–stationary objects and the complex signal model for multilimb composite motions. Based on the proposed complex signal model, a periodic signal enhancement algorithm together with the optimizing equation for heart rate measurement is proposed to acquire heart rate by parameter optimization. Both the simulation and experimental results show that the proposed technology can achieve accurate measurement of heart rate even when the human body is in the state of various multilimb movements. Accuracy analysis compared to the mean value of the results of electrocardiography (ECG) shows that the root mean square error is less than 3.5 bpm in stationary scenarios within 2 m and less than 4.2 bpm in body motion scenarios within 1 m. Additionally, simulations are conducted for radars operating at 5.8- and 77-GHz frequencies. The results show that the proposed technology can be well applied to vital sign monitoring for radars operating across various frequency bands.
Iron uptake from plasma transferrin by the duodenum is impaired in the Hfe knockout mouse

Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is a disorder of iron metabolism in which enhanced iron absorption of dietary iron causes increased iron accumulation in the liver, heart, and pancreas. Most individuals with HH are homozygous for a C282Y mutation in the HFE gene. The function of HFE protein is unknown, but it is hypothesized that it acts in association with β2-microglobulin and transferrin receptor 1 to regulate iron uptake from plasma transferrin by the duodenum, the proposed mechanism by which body iron levels are sensed. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis by comparing clearance of transferrin-bound iron in Hfe knockout (KO) mice with that observed in C57BL/6 control mice. The mice were fed either an iron-deficient, control, or iron-loaded diet for 6 weeks to alter body iron status. The mice then were injected i.v. with 59Fe-transferrin, and blood samples were taken over 2 h to determine the plasma 59Fe turnover. After 2 h, the mice were killed and the amount of radioactivity in the duodenum, liver, and kidney was measured. In both Hfe KO and C57BL/6 mice, plasma iron turnover and iron uptake from plasma transferrin by the duodenum, liver, and kidney correlated positively with plasma iron concentration. However, duodenal iron uptake from plasma transferrin was decreased in the Hfe KO mice compared with the control mice. Despite this difference in duodenal uptake, the Hfe KO mice showed no decrease in iron uptake by the liver and kidney or alteration in the plasma iron turnover when compared with C57BL/6 mice. These data support the hypothesis that HFE regulates duodenal uptake of transferrin-bound iron from plasma, and that this mechanism of sensing body iron status, as reflected in plasma iron levels, is impaired in HH.
Extending Hypothesis Testing of Edge Organizations Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) During ELICIT

Abstract : The Edge, appropriate for exploring contemporary military operations raises issues regarding comparative performance to traditional hierarchal configurations. Well-controlled experimental design offers insight about the internal workings of the Edge organization with high levels of reliability and internal validity. Leweling and Nissen (2007) reported results of an extension to a series of laboratory experiments using the ELICIT multiplayer intelligence game. This confirmed that Edge organizations outperform Hierarchy organizations in certain tasks, environmental contexts, and performance measures. Their findings answer questions and inform future experimentation. In particular, complementary research suggests that participants' tacit knowledge and contextual influence modulates those results. If so, then understanding tacit knowledge and contextual influence at the physiological level-and linking such understanding to individual and team performance- can reveal novel insight into how to organize, lead and perform in high-capability organizations (Kalbfleisch et al., 2006, 2007, Roberts et al., 2009, Kalbfleisch, in press). In this paper we explain the elements necessary to understand and employ during state-of-the-art functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to illuminate such physiological bases. Specifically, neuroimaging can be used to identify neural systems affiliated with behavior during meaningful moments of exchange to characterize tacit knowledge during ELICIT. Building upon previous work, this research extends the state of the art and opens new avenues for continued knowledge development.
Robustness of Multiple Indicators in Automated Screening Systems for Deception Detection

Abstract This study investigates the effectiveness of an automatic system for detection of deception by individuals with the use of multiple indicators of such potential deception. Deception detection research in the information systems discipline has postulated increased accuracy through a new class of screening systems that automatically conduct interviews and track multiple indicators of deception simultaneously. Understanding the robustness of this new class of systems and the limitations of its theoretical improved performance is important for refinement of the conceptual design. The design science proof-of-concept study presented here implemented and evaluated the robustness of these systems for automated screening for deception detection. A large experiment was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a constructed multiple-indicator system, both under normal conditions and with the presence of common types of countermeasures (mental and physical). The results shed light on the relative strength and robustness of various types of deception indicators within this new context. The findings further suggest the possibility of increased accuracy through the measurement of multiple indicators if classification algorithms can compensate for human attempts to counter effectiveness.