Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of reservoir connectivity on stream fish assemblages in the Great Plains

The upstream effects of reservoirs on stream fish assemblages were highly localized in 3rd- through 5th-order streams in the Great Plains, USA. Streams that differed in connectivity to reservoirs were sampled at their confluences with a river or reservoir and between the confluence and the stream's origin. Sites at confluences had higher total, nonnative, and reservoir species richness than middle sites. Variability in fish assemblage structure upstream of reservoirs was influenced by catchment area, stream size, gradient, and reservoir connectivity. Confluence sites connected to reservoirs were correctly classified based on the presence of red shiners (Cyprinella lutrensis) and bluntnose minnows (Pimephales notatus) and the absence of sand shiners (Notropis stramineus); middle sites on connected streams were classified by the absence of redfin shiners (Lythrurus umbratilis). Intensive sampling across pool habitats within two streams isolated by a reservoir indicated that abundance of common reservoir spe.
FRW-type cosmologies with adiabatic matter creation.

Some properties of cosmological models with matter creation are investigated in the framework of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker line element. For adiabatic matter creation, as developed by Prigogine and co-workers, we derive a simple expression relating the particle number density n and energy density \ensuremath{\rho} which holds regardless of the matter creation rate. The conditions to generate inflation are discussed and by considering the natural phenomenological matter creation rate \ensuremath{\psi}=3\ensuremath{\beta}nH, where \ensuremath{\beta} is a pure number of the order of unity and H is the Hubble parameter, a minimally modified hot big-bang model is proposed. The dynamic properties of such models can be deduced from the standard ones simply by replacing the adiabatic index \ensuremath{\gamma} of the equation of state by an effective parameter ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\mathrm{*}}$=\ensuremath{\gamma}(1-\ensuremath{\beta}). The thermodynamic behavior is determined and it is also shown that ages large enough to agree with observations are obtained even given the high values of H suggested by recent measurements. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Risk factor for axillary lymph node metastases in microinvasive breast cancer.

17 Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) was controversial. Usually we didn't SLNB when we performed conserving operation with small sized DCIS. But sometimes we can find DCIS with microinvasive breast cancer (MIC) after operation. Must do reoperation in all patients? We determined the incidence of positive axillary lymph node (ALN) in patients with MIC and the predictive factors of ALN metastases in these patients. METHODS Between July 1989 and December 2008, 9.635 patients had operation on invasive breast cancer in Asan Medical Center. Among these patients 319 patients had MIC. The research conducted on the 293 patients except who didn't performed axillary lymph node dissection or SLN biopsy. We retrospectively checked clinical and pathologic variables. RESULTS There were 22 cases of ALN metastases identified in this group of patients (7.5%). Lymphatic invasion (p<0.001) and positive estrogen receptor status (p=0.03) were independent significant predictors of axillary metastases. CONCLUSIONS Microinvasive breast cancer is associated with a low rate of lymph node metastases. Some breast cancer patients with MIC at low likelihood of lymph node metastases may be spared lymph node evaluation.
What young people say about physical activity: the Children's Sport Participation and Physical Activity (CSPPA) study

The Children's Sport Participation and Physical Activity (CSPPA) study is a unique multi-centre/discipline study undertaken by three Irish institutions, Dublin City University, University of Limerick and University College Cork. The study sought to assess participation in physical activity, physical education and sport (PAPES) among 10–18 year olds in Ireland. This paper shares what Irish children and young people convey, using their own voices, about their sport and physical activity (PA) experiences and how such experiences may result in their feeling included or excluded in PAPES. Eighteen focus groups (FG) with 124 boys and girls elicited descriptive data from students and were conducted with homogeneous groups of 6–8 boys and girls aged 12–18 years (selected for convenience) identified as male/female, primary/post-primary and generally active/inactive. Five themes (‘being with friends’, ‘variety in activity content’, ‘experiencing fun’, ‘time constraints’ and ‘opportunity to be outside’) ran across the three PAPES opportunities for young people. Overall data revealed that these young people have a positive attitude towards PA which does not diminish as they age despite activity levels decreasing. Other choices of activity participation (e.g. debate, music), or more focused activities took the place of previous choices as young people came to realise what they most enjoyed. If we are to encourage and provide opportunities for young people to choose active lifestyles, it is important that we address what these young people report affects their involvement in PA across a number of contexts. Two such developments within Irish school and community contexts are discussed: Active School Flag initiative and Senior Cycle Physical Education framework.
A comparison of PSO and Reinforcement Learning for multi-robot obstacle avoidance

The design of high-performing robotic controllers constitutes an example of expensive optimization in uncertain environments due to the often large parameter space and noisy performance metrics. There are several evaluative techniques that can be employed for on-line controller design. Adequate benchmarks help in the choice of the right algorithm in terms of final performance and evaluation time. In this paper, we use multi-robot obstacle avoidance as a benchmark to compare two different evaluative learning techniques: Particle Swarm Optimization and Q-learning. For Q-learning, we implement two different approaches: one with discrete states and discrete actions, and another one with discrete actions but a continuous state space. We show that continuous PSO has the highest fitness overall, and Q-learning with continuous states performs significantly better than Q-learning with discrete states. We also show that in the single robot case, PSO and Q-learning with discrete states require a similar amount of total learning time to converge, while the time required with Q-learning with continuous states is significantly larger. In the multi-robot case, both Q-learning approaches require a similar amount of time as in the single robot case, but the time required by PSO can be significantly reduced due to the distributed nature of the algorithm.
Egress: a receptor‐regulated step in lymphocyte trafficking

Summary: Blood lymphocyte numbers, which are maintained by recirculation through secondary lymphoid organs, are essential for the efficient development of immune responses. Recirculating populations of B and T lymphocytes are regulated by the sphingosine‐1‐phosphate (S1P) receptor‐dependent control of lymphocyte egress. T‐cell egress from thymus into blood, egress from lymph node and Peyer's patch into lymph, and B‐cell egress into lymph are rapidly and completely inhibited by agonism of S1P receptors. Mesenteric lymph nodes show log‐jamming of lymphocytes subjacent to sinus‐lining endothelium. Agonism of S1P receptors produces rapid peripheral blood lymphopenia, which is maintained in the presence of receptor agonist. Effector CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, produced by clonal expansion in draining lymph node in response to antigen, are sequestered in lymph node and fail to reach the peripheral blood. The S1P receptor system may represent an early physiological link between the non‐specific inflammatory response and the alteration of lymphocyte traffic through draining lymph nodes. Pharmacological subversion of the S1P receptor system, through systemic S1P agonist‐induced inhibition of lymphocyte egress, suppresses antigenic responses to peripheral, but not to systemically, delivered antigen. This inhibition induces significant immunosuppression in models of transplantation and autoimmune tissue damage that may prove to be of clinical benefit.
Enhanced Data Representation by Kernel Metric Learning for Dementia Diagnosis

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the kind of dementia that affects the most people around the world. Therefore, an early identification supporting effective treatments is required to increase the life quality of a wide number of patients. Recently, computer-aided diagnosis tools for dementia using Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans have been successfully proposed to discriminate between patients with AD, mild cognitive impairment, and healthy controls. Most of the attention has been given to the clinical data, provided by initiatives as the ADNI, supporting reliable researches on intervention, prevention, and treatments of AD. Therefore, there is a need for improving the performance of classification machines. In this paper, we propose a kernel framework for learning metrics that enhances conventional machines and supports the diagnosis of dementia. Our framework aims at building discriminative spaces through the maximization of center kernel alignment function, aiming at improving the discrimination of the three considered neurological classes. The proposed metric learning performance is evaluated on the widely-known ADNI database using three supervised classification machines (k-nn, SVM and NNs) for multi-class and bi-class scenarios from structural MRIs. Specifically, from ADNI collection 286 AD patients, 379 MCI patients and 231 healthy controls are used for development and validation of our proposed metric learning framework. For the experimental validation, we split the data into two subsets: 30% of subjects used like a blindfolded assessment and 70% employed for parameter tuning. Then, in the preprocessing stage, each structural MRI scan a total of 310 morphological measurements are automatically extracted from by FreeSurfer software package and concatenated to build an input feature matrix. Obtained test performance results, show that including a supervised metric learning improves the compared baseline classifiers in both scenarios. In the multi-class scenario, we achieve the best performance (accuracy 60.1%) for pretrained 1-layered NN, and we obtain measures over 90% in the average for HC vs. AD task. From the machine learning point of view, our proposal enhances the classifier performance by building spaces with a better class separability. From the clinical application, our enhancement results in a more balanced performance in each class than the compared approaches from the CADDementia challenge by increasing the sensitivity of pathological groups and the specificity of healthy controls.
Realistic 3D facial animation parameters from mirror-reflected multi-view video

A robust, accurate and inexpensive approach to estimate 3D facial motion from multi-view video is proposed, where two mirrors located near one's cheeks can reflect the side views of markers on one face. Nice properties of mirrored images are utilized to simplify the proposed tracking algorithm significantly, while a Kalman filter is employed to reduce the noise and to predict the occluded marker positions. More than 50 markers on one face are continuously tracked at 30 frames per second. The estimated 3D facial motion data has been practically applied to our facial animation system. In addition, the dataset of facial motion can also be applied to the analysis of co-articulation effects, facial expressions, and audio-visual hybrid recognition system.
The macroecology of phylogenetically structured hummingbird–plant networks

Aim To investigate the association between hummingbird–plant network structure and species richness, phylogenetic signal on species' interaction pattern, insularity and historical and current climate. Location Fifty-four communities along a c. 10,000 km latitudinal gradient across the Americas (39° N–32° S), ranging from sea level to c. 3700 m a.s. l. , located on the mainland and on islands and covering a wide range of climate regimes. Methods We measured the level of specialization and modularity in mutualistic plant–hummingbird interaction networks. Using an ordinary least squares multimodel approach, we examined the influence of species richness, phylogenetic signal, insularity and current and historical climate conditions on network structure (null-model-corrected specialization and modularity). Results Phylogenetically related species, especially plants, showed a tendency to interact with a similar array of mutualistic partners. The spatial variation in network structure exhibited a constant association with species phylogeny (R2 = 0.18–0.19); however, network structure showed the strongest association with species richness and environmental factors (R2 = 0.20–0.44 and R2 = 0.32–0.45, respectively). Specifically, higher levels of specialization and modularity were associated with species-rich communities and communities in which closely related hummingbirds visited distinct sets of flowering species. On the mainland, specialization was also associated with warmer temperatures and greater historical temperature stability. Main conclusions Our results confirm the results of previous macroecological studies of interaction networks which have highlighted the importance of species richness and the environment in determining network structure. Additionally, for the first time, we report an association between network structure and species phylogenetic signal at a macroecological scale, indicating that high specialization and modularity are associated with high interspecific competition among closely related hummingbirds, subdividing the floral niche. This suggests a tighter co-evolutionary association between hummingbirds and their plants than in previously studied plant–bird mutualistic systems.
Multimodal Composition and Social Justice: Videos as a Tool of Advocacy in Social Work Pedagogy

In response to emerging active learning strategies, educators throughout the academy are inviting students to create videos and circulate them on social media platforms. The learning benefits of multimodal video composition are manifold, particularly within social work education. Video composition fosters critical thinking, encourages collaboration, and engages audiences that extend beyond the college classroom. Furthermore, when social work students produce videos, they develop technological literacy that prepares them to enter a field with an express commitment to social justice. In this article, we outline the interwoven pedagogical and ideological rationales for implementing video composition assignments in social work classes. Having established a framework for active learning through video composition, we address some pragmatic challenges of multimodal assignments, demonstrate the potential for videos to become tools for social advocacy, and draw connections between technological literacy and practice in the human services.
Pricing and Hedging of Lookback Options in Hyper-exponential Jump Diffusion Models

ABSTRACT In this article, we consider the problem of pricing lookback options in certain exponential Lévy market models. While in the classic Black-Scholes models the price of such options can be calculated in closed form, for more general asset price model, one typically has to rely on (rather time-intense) Monte-Carlo or partial (integro)-differential equation (P(I)DE) methods. However, for Lévy processes with double exponentially distributed jumps, the lookback option price can be expressed as one-dimensional Laplace transform (cf. Kou, S. G., Petrella, G., & Wang, H. (2005). Pricing path-dependent options with jump risk via Laplace transforms. The Kyoto Economic Review, 74(9), 1–23. ). The key ingredient to derive this representation is the explicit availability of the first passage time distribution for this particular Lévy process, which is well-known also for the more general class of hyper-exponential jump diffusions (HEJDs). In fact, Jeannin and Pistorius (Jeannin, M., & Pistorius, M. (2010). A transform approach to calculate prices and Greeks of barrier options driven by a class of Lévy processes. Quntitative Finance, 10(6), 629–644. ) were able to derive formulae for the Laplace transformed price of certain barrier options in market models described by HEJD processes. Here, we similarly derive the Laplace transforms of floating and fixed strike lookback option prices and propose a numerical inversion scheme, which allows, like Fourier inversion methods for European vanilla options, the calculation of lookback options with different strikes in one shot. Additionally, we give semi-analytical formulae for several Greeks of the option price and discuss a method of extending the proposed method to generalized hyper-exponential (as e.g. NIG or CGMY) models by fitting a suitable HEJD process. Finally, we illustrate the theoretical findings by some numerical experiments.
Creative Problem Solving: The History, Development, and Implications for Gifted Education and Talent Development

This article presents a summary of research, development, and applications of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) in educational settings and, more specifically, in gifted education. The CPS framework is widely known and applied as one important goal in contemporary gifted education, as well as in relation to initiatives for “teaching thinking” in the broader context of general education. This article traces the history and evolution of the CPS framework through more than five decades of research, development, and practical application. We describe and discuss the specific changes in the model over time, as well as their rationale and foundations. We discuss the implications of changes within the CPS framework for teaching and learning; our purpose is not to compare or contrast CPS with other perspectives on creativity from psychology, cognitive science, or management. Finally, we present implications of contemporary CPS for instruction and assessment in gifted education.
In Denial of Democracy: Social Psychological Implications for Public Discourse on State Crimes Against Democracy Post-9/11

Protecting democracy requires that the general public be educated on how people can be manipulated by government and media into forfeiting their civil liberties and duties. This article reviews research on cognitive constructs that can prevent people from processing information that challenges preexisting assumptions about government, dissent, and public discourse in democratic societies. Terror management theory and system justification theory are used to explain how preexisting beliefs can interfere with people’s examination of evidence for state crimes against democracy (SCADs), specifically in relation to the events of September 11, 2001, and the war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. Reform strategies are proposed to motivate citizens toward increased social responsibility in a post-9/11 culture of propagandized fear, imperialism, and war.
Psychometric properties of the serial colour word test

— Lower bound reliabilities for the various parameters of two previously suggested models for the serial colour word test—one linear and one quadratic —are derived and estimated. The quadratic model gave mostly very low reliabilities, and the stronger, linear model also gave only a few high reliabilities. Validity was studied by means of discriminant functions (4 groups being used; 3 clinical and 1 normal). The validity of the test was low. The linear model gave the best results under cross validation.
Transactional theory and research on emotions and coping

In this article we examine the fundamental premises of our cognitive‐relational theory of emotion and coping and assess our progress in examining them through 10 years of programmatic empirical research. Our discussion involves the metatheoretical topics of transaction and relationship, process, and emotion as a system. The person‐environment relationship is mediated by two key processess: cognitive appraisal and coping. We evaluate the findings of our research on these processes, their dynamic interplay, their antecedents, and their short‐term and long‐term outcomes. In the final section we highlight major substantive and methodological issues that need to be addressed. These include issues surrounding the theory and measurement of appraisal, functional and dysfunctional coping, causal inference, microanalytic vs macroanalytic research strategies, objective vs subjective approaches and confounding, and the problem of method variance.
Back to the Village

Back to the Village. Producers=directors, Richard Wasserman and Nagathihalli Chandrashekar; consultants, Scarlett Epstein and T. Thimmegowda; 26min. , PAL and NTSC DVD, 2007, sale £10. Distributed by Scarlett Epstein, 5 Viceroy Lodge, Kingsway, Hove, BN3 4RA, UK; scarlett@epstein.net. tel. : þ44 (0)12735151; and Ric Wasserman, Consigo Productions, Hagagatan 35, 11347 Stockholm, Sweden, www.consigo. se or wassermanric@gmail. com, tel. : 880 715 329462.
Critical appraisal of the design and reporting of studies of imaging and measurement of carotid stenosis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Several hundred studies have been published over the last few years on imaging and measurement of carotid stenosis. Despite all this research, there is still no consensus about how best to image and measure stenosis. One possible explanation for this is that many of the studies have not been large enough or methodologically sound enough to allow useful conclusions to be drawn. We aimed to assess the design and methods of a random sample of published studies of imaging and measurement of carotid stenosis using 9 simple criteria. METHODS A formal literature search was performed for studies of imaging and measurement of carotid stenosis. Two subsets were randomly selected for detailed assessment: 20 studies published before 1991 and 20 published between 1993 and 1997 (some years after the initial publication of the ECST and NASCET trials). The criteria used to assess the selected studies were as follows: prospective rather than retrospective study design; patient selection based on a consecutive series or a random sample; adequate detail of study population; adequate detail of imaging techniques; inclusion of all investigations, ie, patients with poor-quality imaging were not excluded; blinded assessment of images; adequate detail of derivation of measurement of stenosis from images or data; adequate data on the reproducibility of measurements of stenosis; and study powered according to a sample-size calculation. RESULTS There were many basic methodological deficiencies in both subsets of studies, with relatively little evidence of improvement with time. For example, only 33% of studies were prospective, only 45% studied a consecutive or random selection of patients, and only 38% reported any data on the reproducibility of measurements. More than half of the studies satisfied < or =4 of the 9 quality criteria. However, there was considerable variation between studies, with 7 studies satisfying > or = 7 criteria and 10 studies satisfying < or =2. No study was based on a sample-size calculation. The number of patients studied was often small, particularly in the more recent studies: median sample size was 100 in the 1970-1990 studies and 58 in the 1993-1997 studies (P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS The design and reporting of published studies of imaging and measurement of carotid stenosis are poor and have not improved much in recent years. The majority of published studies are not of a sufficient standard to enable the results to be used to inform clinical practice. The utility of future studies could be improved considerably by better adherence to 9 simple methodological guidelines.