Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Two Independent Frontal Midline Theta Oscillations during Conflict Detection and Adaptation in a Simon-Type Manual Reaching Task

One of the most firmly established factors determining the speed of human behavioral responses toward action-critical stimuli is the spatial correspondence between the stimulus and response locations. If both locations match, the time taken for response production is markedly reduced relative to when they mismatch, a phenomenon called the Simon effect. While there is a consensus that this stimulus-response (S-R) conflict is associated with brief (4–7 Hz) frontal midline theta (fmθ) complexes generated in medial frontal cortex, it remains controversial (1) whether there are multiple, simultaneously active theta generator areas in the medial frontal cortex that commonly give rise to conflict-related fmθ complexes; and if so, (2) whether they are all related to the resolution of conflicting task information. Here, we combined mental chronometry with high-density electroencephalographic measures during a Simon-type manual reaching task and used independent component analysis and time-frequency domain statistics on source-level activities to model fmθ sources. During target processing, our results revealed two independent fmθ generators simultaneously active in or near anterior cingulate cortex, only one of them reflecting the correspondence between current and previous S-R locations. However, this fmθ response is not exclusively linked to conflict but also to other, conflict-independent processes associated with response slowing. These results paint a detailed picture regarding the oscillatory correlates of conflict processing in Simon tasks, and challenge the prevalent notion that fmθ complexes induced by conflicting task information represent a unitary phenomenon related to cognitive control, which governs conflict processing across various types of response-override tasks. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humans constantly monitor their environment for and adjust their cognitive control settings in response to conflicts, an ability that arguably paves the way for survival in ever-changing situations. Anterior cingulate-generated frontal midline theta (fmθ) complexes have been hypothesized to play a role in this conflict-monitoring function. However, it remains a point of contention whether fmθ complexes govern conflict processing in a unitary, paradigm-nonspecific manner. Here, we identified two independent fmθ oscillations triggered during a Simon-type task, only one of them reflecting current and previous conflicts. Importantly, this signal differed in various respects (cortical origin, intertrial history) from fmθ phenomena in other response-override tasks, challenging the prevalent notion of conflict-induced fmθ as a unitary phenomenon associated with the resolution of conflict.
Laboratory Tests of Single Frequency Networks with ATSC on Commercial Receivers

This paper presents the results of laboratory tests simulating the reception in a Single Frequency Network (SFN) with ATSC on commercial receivers. The results of the commercial receivers are important because the viability of the SFNs with ATSC depends mainly of the performance of the receivers. Additionally, the basic implications of the results on the SFNs design are presented. Mexico officially adopted ATSC for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) service more than 10 years ago, but the analog transmissions stopped until December 31, 2015. The results of these tests can contribute to the planning of SFNs with ATSC. ATSC does not use OFDM modulation unlike others DTT systems. For this reason, the operation of a SFN with ATSC depends primarily on receiver equalizer capabilities. However, the performance of the receivers have improved over the years. The tests focus on the relationship between power and delay of the two signals received on the SFN, and the methodology includes the simulation of three reception environments: without multipath, outdoor reception and indoor reception.
The Clinical effects and prognosis of postoperative FOLFOX 4 chemotherapy on patients with stage II / III colon cancer

Objective: To observe the effects of FOLFOX4 chemotherapy regimen on patients with stage II/III colon cancer postoperatively. Methods: 103 patients with stage II/III colon cancer accepted FOLFOX4 chemotherapy regimen postoperatively from February, 2009 to February, 2012 were selected as observation group. While 102 patients with stage II/III colon cancer in the same period only treated with simple surgical treatment were selected as the control group. All the patients were followed up for 3 years, and the disease-free survival rate, recurrence and metastasis rate, and mortality of two groups were compared. We also analyzed the toxic and side effects of the chemotherapy regimen on patients with stage II/III colon cancer in the observation group. Results: Followed up for 3 years, the median disease-free survival time of the observation group was 19 months, which was significantly higher than 13 months of the control group (P=0.017). In our study, patients in the observation group showed a higher disease-free survival rate, but lower recurrence and metastasis rate and mortality. And the differences were statistically significant (χ2=9.5114, P=0.009). The DFS of the observation group was significantly affected by the age and the chemotherapy cycle of the patients (P=0.007, 0.001); the age, TNM stage, the first chemotherapy time and the chemotherapy cycle were closely related to the recurrence (P=0.003, 0.011, 0.039 and 0.020); the first chemotherapy time and chemotherapy cycle significantly affected the liver metastasis of the cancer (P<0.001). After the FOLFOX4 chemotherapy, there was few severe toxic and side effects, most of the side effects were comparatively light and tolerable. Conclusion: FOLFOX4 chemotherapy regimen can improve the disease-free survival rate and reduce the recurrence and metastasis rate and mortality of patients with stage II/III colon cancer postoperatively, which has certain clinical value.
Assessment of growth profiles in cleft children and adolescents.

Background: Patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) palate are characterized by low combined length and weight for age values through the first 36 months of life. Previous studies suggested that growth retardation may persist into later childhood and adolescence. Due to the recent rise in childhood and adolescent obesity to 17% of the U.S. population, we decided to investigate BMI for age measurements in cleft patients to determine if poor growth persists into adolescence.
Blockchain based remittances and mining using CUDA

A large number of people earn money in foreign countries and many of them have to send across the money back home in India. For every such transaction, multiple fees could be charged, varying from 3 to 12 percent. In this paper we offer a peer-to-peer settlement solution for such remittance on blockchain at negligible rates. Money transfers can be securely converted into crypto-currencies, which can easily be transferred across nations, and then again converted into local currencies. In this paper, we use Multi-chain for digital assets and peer-to-peer electronic cash systems where transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blockchain. Each block is verified and added to the blockchain (distributed public ledger), which includes all past transactions through a process known as Mining. Mining using CPU is unwise and has high cost of operation. We present an alternative approach using CUDA-enabled Graphics Processing Unit(GPU) for mining. The massively parallel nature of some GPUs majorly increases the mining power.
Cosmetic Detection Framework for Face and Iris Biometrics

Cosmetics pose challenges to the recognition performance of face and iris biometric systems due to its ability to alter natural facial and iris patterns. Facial makeup and iris contact lens are considered to be commonly applied cosmetics for the face and iris in this study. The present work aims to present a novel solution for the detection of cosmetics in both face and iris biometrics by the fusion of texture, shape and color descriptors of images. The proposed cosmetic detection scheme combines the microtexton information from the local primitives of texture descriptors with the color spaces achieved from overlapped blocks in order to achieve better detection of spots, flat areas, edges, edge ends, curves, appearance and colors. The proposed cosmetic detection scheme was applied to the YMU YouTube makeup database (YMD) facial makeup database and IIIT-Delhi Contact Lens iris database. The results demonstrate that the proposed cosmetic detection scheme is significantly improved compared to the other schemes implemented in this study.
On-Chip Solar Cell and PMU on the Same Substrate with Cold Start-Up from nW and 80 dB of Input Power Range for Biomedical Applications

This paper presents a 1 mm2 solar cell and a Power Management Unit (PMU) on the same substrate to rise up the harvested voltage above 1.1 V to power wearable or implantable devices. The on-chip solar cell and the PMU are fabricated in standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology achieving a form factor of 1.575 mm2. Experimental results show that the PMU is able to start-up from a harvested power of 2.38 nW without any external kick off or control signal and can handle a harvested power up to μW with a continuous and two-dimensional Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) that works in open-loop mode to set the frequency, the gain and the capacitor sizes of a charge pump.
ISCHEMIA: Establishing the Primary End Point.

> Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change > > —Stephen William Hawking (1942–2018) The ISCHEMIA trial (International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness With Medical and Invasive Approaches; NCT01471522) is a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)–funded randomized, comparative effectiveness trial testing the incremental value of an invasive strategy of cardiac catheterization and revascularization (if suitable) when added to optimal medical therapy in patients with at least moderate ischemia on stress testing and symptoms controllable with antianginal medication, as compared with an initial strategy of optimal medical therapy with cardiac catheterization reserved for failure of medical therapy. The trial successfully completed enrollment in January 2018 and is currently in the follow-up phase. Herein, we provide the rationale for choosing the trial’s primary and key secondary end points and the processes leading to their ultimate selection. The ISCHEMIA grant application, funded by NHLBI in 2011, designated a 5-component primary end point consisting of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), resuscitated cardiac arrest, or hospitalization for unstable angina or heart failure.1 The trial was designed to optimize precision around point estimates for important clinical outcomes, to inform shared decision-making between patients and clinicians guided by robust data on the risks and benefits of alternative therapies for a common condition. After the award, we sought and received approval from the study’s data safety monitoring board, which was charged with protocol review, and the NHLBI to change the primary end point to cardiovascular death or MI, with a contingency plan clearly articulated in the protocol before its final approval to switch back to the 5-component end point to retain power if an insufficient number of primary end point events accrued at a designated time point during the trial (before accrual of 75% of end point events). This contingency plan was developed to avoid a …
Global distribution patterns of mycoheterotrophy

AIM: Mycoheterotrophy is a mode of life where plants cheat the mycorrhizal symbiosis, receiving carbon via their fungal partners. Despite being widespread, mycoheterotrophic plants are locally rare, hampering the understanding of their global environmental drivers. Here, we explore global environmental preferences of mycoheterotrophy, and investigate environmental drivers of differential habitat preferences of mycoheterotrophic plants associated with arbuscular (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi. LOCATION: Global. TIME PERIOD: Current. MAJOR TAXA STUDIED: Mycoheterotrophic flowering plants. METHODS: We compiled the largest global dataset of epiparasitic mycoheterotrophic plant species occurrences and examined which environmental factors, including soil type, climate, vegetation type and distribution patterns of mycorrhizal autotrophic plants, relate to occurrence patterns of mycoheterotrophic plant species associated with AM and EM fungi. RESULTS: Mycoheterotrophic plant species avoid cold and highly seasonal climates and show a strong preference for forests. AM‐associated mycoheterotrophs are predominantly found in broadleaved tropical evergreen forests whereas EM‐associated mycoheterotrophs occur in temperate regions, mostly in broadleaved deciduous and evergreen needleleaved forests. The abundance of AM and EM autotrophic plants was a weaker predictor for mycoheterotrophs occurrences than forest type. Temperature and precipitation variables – but not edaphic factors – were the best predictors explaining the distribution patterns of mycoheterotrophs after accounting for the effects of forest type. For individual lineages, major differences in environmental preferences (often related to edaphic factors) occurred that were significantly associated with plant evolutionary relationships, indicating that these cheater plants have limited adaptive capabilities. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: The strong global geographical segregation of AM and EM mycoheterotrophs does not reflect the abundance of their potential autotrophic hosts, but seems to be driven by differential climate and habitat preferences. Our results highlight the non‐trivial nature of mycorrhizal interactions, and indicate that identity of the partners is not enough to understand the underlying mechanisms promoting plant–fungal interactions in mycoheterotrophic plants.
Neural best-buddies

Correspondence between images is a fundamental problem in computer vision, with a variety of graphics applications. This paper presents a novel method for sparse cross-domain correspondence. Our method is designed for pairs of images where the main objects of interest may belong to different semantic categories and differ drastically in shape and appearance, yet still contain semantically related or geometrically similar parts. Our approach operates on hierarchies of deep features, extracted from the input images by a pre-trained CNN. Specifically, starting from the coarsest layer in both hierarchies, we search for Neural Best Buddies (NBB): pairs of neurons that are mutual nearest neighbors. The key idea is then to percolate NBBs through the hierarchy, while narrowing down the search regions at each level and retaining only NBBs with significant activations. Furthermore, in order to overcome differences in appearance, each pair of search regions is transformed into a common appearance. We evaluate our method via a user study, in addition to comparisons with alternative correspondence approaches. The usefulness of our method is demonstrated using a variety of graphics applications, including cross-domain image alignment, creation of hybrid images, automatic image morphing, and more.
Adipose tissue distribution is different in type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND The extent to which adipose tissue (AT) distribution is different between persons with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and nondiabetic control subjects remains unclear. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to establish whether total body adiposity and its distribution, quantified by using state-of-the-art whole-body magnetic resonance imaging, differs between these 2 groups. DESIGN This cross-sectional evaluation included 93 participants (n = 56 women and 37 men) in the Look AHEAD (Action for HEAlth in Diabetes) Trial with T2DM who had a mean (+/-SD) age of 58.3 +/- 6.6 y and body mass index (in kg/m(2)) of 31.6 +/- 3.1 and 93 healthy non-T2DM control subjects (n = 64 women and 29 men) who had a mean (+/-SD) age of 60.6 +/- 17.1 y and body mass index of 29.6 +/- 3.0. All participants self-reported being of African American or white ancestry. Magnetic resonance imaging-derived in vivo measures of total-body AT (TAT) and its distribution, subcutaneous AT (SAT), visceral AT (VAT), and intermuscular AT (IMAT) were acquired. Linear regression models were developed for each AT compartment to adjust for important covariates of race, sex, age, height, and weight and to examine potential interactions of covariates. RESULTS These models showed significantly less SAT (African American: -1.2 kg; white: -2.4 kg; both P = 0.001), including less femoral-gluteal SAT, more VAT (African American: 0.7 kg, P < 0.001; white: 1.8 kg, P = 0.007), and more IMAT (0.5 kg, P = 0.001) in the T2DM group. CONCLUSION We concluded that AT distribution is significantly altered in T2DM, ie, more VAT and IMAT--2 depots known to exacerbate insulin resistance--and less SAT in persons with T2DM than in healthy control subjects, a novel finding that we posit may compound the risk of insulin resistance.
Free Trade and Justice: A Discomfiting Liaison

A primary imperative of the global marketplace is that trade be free of restrictions. As a result, there is an inevitable tension between supra-national treaties designed to facilitate trade and national laws designed to promote social justice. The interests of the former are tending to take precedence over the latter. Not only have wealth and power become the preserve of the few at the expense of the many, the principles of human rights and equal opportunity at work are being subverted.The paper will argue that free trade is eviscerating social justice initiatives for minority workers and women generally. The use of the exemptions provisions of Australian race discrimination legislation is exemplary. The paper will draw on Hardt and Negri’s idea of globalisation as the new imperialism, which includes new forms of racism. The virtually unanswerable question is whether an impassable aporia exists between free trade and justice, or whether peaceful coexistence is possible.
Relation between age and carotid artery intima‐medial thickness: a systematic review

Carotid artery intima‐medial thickness (cIMT) represents a popular measure of atherosclerosis and is predictive of future cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Although older age is associated with a higher cIMT, little is known about whether this increase in cIMT follows a linear relationship with age or it is affected under influence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) or CVD risk factors. We hypothesize that the relationship between cIMT and age is nonlinear and is affected by CVD or risk factors. A systematic review of studies that examined cIMT in the general population and human populations free from CVD/risk factors was undertaken. The literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Seventeen studies with 32 unique study populations, involving 10,124 healthy individuals free from CVD risk factors, were included. Furthermore, 58 studies with 115 unique study populations were included, involving 65,774 individuals from the general population (with and without CVD risk factors). A strong positive association was evident between age and cIMT in the healthy population, demonstrating a gradual, linear increase in cIMT that did not differ between age decades (r = 0.91, P < 0.001). Although populations with individuals with CVD demonstrated a higher cIMT compared to populations free of CVD, a linear relation between age and cIMT was also present in this population. Our data suggest that cIMT is strongly and linearly related to age. This linear relationship was not affected by CVD or risk factors.
Effects of long non-coding RNA MALAT 1 on prognosis of various tumors : a meta-analysis of cohort studies

Background: Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) is involved in tumor progression and may serve as a prognostic biomarker for various cancers. Objective: This meta-analysis aimed to reveal the association between MALAT1 expression and survival in solid tumors. Methods: A literature search was performed via electronic retrieval until August 2015. Different clinical outcomes of overall survival (OS) and diseasefree survival (DFS) were analyzed. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) or odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the relationship of high MALAT1 expression with survival rates and clinicopathological characteristics. Results: Fourteen studies with 1468 patients were included in this meta-analysis. MALAT1 overexpression was highly associated with OS of 1.64 (95% CI: 1.29-2.10) and DFS of 2.26 (95% CI: 1.66-3.08). MALAT1 overexpression was also significantly associated with tumor size (OR = 2.34; 95% CI = 1.14-4.79), tumor stage (OR = 1.48; 95% CI = 1.09-2.01), depth of invasion (OR = 1.49; 95% CI = 1.05-2.11), and lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.06; 95% CI = 1.19-3.58). Conclusion: MALAT1 overexpression is obviously ascribed to poor prognosis in numerous cancers, and MALAT1 may serve as a biomarker for the progression of solid tumors.
Enabling Cross-Event Optimization in Discrete-Event Simulation Through Compile-Time Event Batching

A discrete-event simulation (DES) involves the execution of a sequence of event handlers dynamically scheduled at runtime. As a consequence, a priori knowledge of the control flow of the overall simulation program is limited. In particular, powerful optimizations supported by modern compilers can only be applied on the scope of individual event handlers, which frequently involve only a few lines of code. We propose a method that extends the scope for compiler optimizations in discrete-event simulations by generating batches of multiple events that are subjected to compiler optimizations as contiguous procedures. A runtime mechanism executes suitable batches at negligible overhead. Our method does not require any compiler extensions and introduces only minor additional effort during model development. The feasibility and potential performance gains of the approach are illustrated on the example of an idealized proof-ofconcept model. We believe that the applicability of the approach extends to general event-driven programs.
A Linear Review of the Great Recession's Impact on Tourism Behavior

The Labor Department’s 2012 consumer spending report highlighted the format taken by recent recession during the alteration of conventional tourism consumer spending habits. Consumer expenditure data concerning the transformation of travelers’ dining choices during the recession also disclosed that these new dining preferences persisted for years into the recovery period. In fact, the recorded decrease in food expenditures, from December 2007 to June 2009, was the largest inflation-adjusted amount ever recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The increase in unemployment to 9.3% in 2009, another recessionary change factor, reduced travel consumers’ spending levels for other travel attributes other than food. The findings in this paper were based on approximately responses from 7,898 randomly-selected, face-to-face interviews over a 78 month period. For the purposes of this study, the spending behavior of the expansionary (30 month), recessionary (18 month) and recovery (30 month) time periods will be compared to analyze the effect of the Great Recession on tourists spending behavior. All interviews were randomized by day, site and time in Tampa over the entire longitudinal-study time period (2005 – 2012). The results of the study suggested that leisure travelers developed complicated spending patterns that do not conform to a simple “cheese slicing approach” adopted by many tourism corporations trying to create budget goals in the face of a stubborn recession.