Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Constraints, Catalysts and Coevolution in Cultural Neuroscience: Reply to Commentaries

In 1906, Ramon y Cajal described the brain as “a world consisting of a number of unexplored continents and great stretches of unknown territory” (Santiago, 1920). Nearly a century later, human neuroscience researchers have sought to map the structural and functional features of the brain, much as Magellen in 1520 circumnavigated the globe discovering for the first time great stretches of ocean and land that compose our physical world. Yet many opportunities and challenges in cultural neuroscience make much of this contemporary scientific journey ongoing and perpetual. For instance, scientific models depend on identifying and discovering evidence for causal mechanisms—such as how genetic and experiential factors constrain and evoke neural development within and across generations; yet the technology or access to technology for testing causal mechanisms in gene, brain, or behavior remains limited. Novel biological theories such as culture-gene coevolutionary theory provide a fresh lens for contemporary psychologists and neuroscientists to view the human mind and brain as a by-product not only of gene–environment interactions but also of human culture. What is human culture? The notion of human diversity has compelled intellectual inquiry for centuries and at the nexus of anthropology and psychology, scholars agree that at minimum, culture refers the sets of values, practices, and beliefs that define groups and people within and across geography. Culture is both created and transmitted by human behavior; as such culture–gene coevolutionary theory argues that cultural traits, like genetic traits, can be selected on by evolutionary forces. Furthermore, when culture is created, this niche construction can alter environmental factors or pressures that interact with genetic mechanisms in the production of psychological and biological processes that give rise to human behavior. In broadest stroke, the study of culture has progressed in leaps and bounds in ways that enable us to better understand how to conceptualize and study the how and why of human nature. In our target article, we presented from a historical perspective conceptual developments that led to the emergence of cultural neuroscience as a field, and articulated a framework for examining cultural and biological interactions of human behavior. We then presented empirical advances in how culture affects neural mechanisms of cognitive, affective, and social processes as well as the role that culture–gene interactions across evolutionary, developmental, and situational timescales play in shaping mental and neural architecture. As the field of cultural neuroscience is still in its infancy, there are key constraints on our existing knowledge and empirical approaches to how cultural influences on the human brain are studied, and the commentaries to our target article are testament that scientific ingenuity and conscientiousness will simultaneously guide us toward better understanding the legacy of cultural and genetic inheritance on mind, brain, and behavior.
Snap2Diverse: coordinating information visualizations and virtual environments

The field of Information Visualization is concerned with improving how users perceive, understand, and interact with visual representations of abstract information. Immersive Virtual Environments (VEs) excel at a greater comprehension of spatial information. This project addresses the intersection of these two fields known as Information-Rich Virtual Environments (IRVEs) where perceptually realistic information, such as models and scenes, are enhanced with abstract information, such as text, numeric data, hyperlinks, or multimedia resources. IRVEs present a number of important design challenges including the management, coordination, and display of interrelated perceptual and abstract information. We describe a set of design issues for this type of integrated visualization and demonstrate a coordinated, multiple-views approach to support 2D and 3D visualization interactions such as overview, navigation, details-on-demand, and brushing-and-linking. In the CAVE, spatial information in a VE is interactively linked to embedded visualizations of related abstract information. Software architecture issues are discussed with details of our implementation applied to the domain of chemical information visualization. Lastly, we subject our system to an informal usability evaluation and identify usability issues with interaction and navigation that guides future work in these environments.
Block-FFT Based OMP for Compressed Channel Estimation in Underwater Acoustic Communications

Due to the sparsity in the delay-Doppler domain of the underwater acoustic (UWA) channel, compressed channel estimation (CCE) can effectively reduce the required number of pilots, which is desirable for low bit-rate underwater acoustic communications (UAC). Orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is a popular algorithm to implement CCE in UAC. The number of columns of the measurement matrix is excessive due to the large multipath delay and Doppler spread. The complexity of OMP proves to be an obstacle to practical underwater applications. This paper proposes a fast block-Fourier transform (FFT) based OMP algorithm by utilizing the inherent structure of the measurement matrix and the pilot pattern. The proposed algorithm is of considerably lower computational complexity.
A novel frame climbing robot: Frambot

In this paper, we present a novel frame climbing robot, called Frambot which aims to climb on non-enclosable rectangular trusses. Frambot weighs only 1.6kg and consists of two grippers connected by a body linkage. For the grippers of Frambot, it provides not only the grasp on a truss structure, but also allows a linear truss climbing motion. Based on the mobility of Frambot, we propose new climbing gaits which aim to enhance the stability of truss climbing by reducing the extra angular moment generated during the swing motions in traditional truss climbing gaits. Both motion and dynamic torque simulations are performed for the analysis of the proposed gaits. Finally, the proposed gaits are realized in our robot prototype. Experimental results show that Frambot is capable in climbing non-enclosable trusses with the new climbing gaits.
Influenza Vaccination by Race among Disabled Community Dwelling Older Women

Disabled older adults have been shown to be at risk for underutilization of some preventive services relative to able-bodied individuals. The Women's Health and Aging Study surveyed female Medicare enrollees in Baltimore, Maryland, who were among the most disabled community-dwelling women at the start of the study. Longitudinal survey data from the study were used to test for the existence or emergence of racial variation in influenza vaccination rates, for which racial variation has been shown in the general population. The primary analysis, using data on the same women before and after Medicare flu shot coverage began, suggested that influenza vaccination rates increased after Medicare coverage began and that there was no difference by race. A secondary analysis using data on women who were interviewed only after Medicare flu shot coverage began showed some racial variation, although the difference may have been larger prior to coverage. The utilization rate did not approach the Healthy People 2010 target.
Pulsatile Perfusion Reduces the Incidence of Delayed Graft Function in Expanded Criteria Donor Kidney Transplantation

The use of expanded criteria donors (ECD) has been proposed to help combat the discrepancy between organ availability and need. ECD kidneys are associated with delayed graft function (DGF) and worse long-term survival. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of pulsatile perfusion (PP) on DGF and graft survival in transplanted ECD kidneys. From January 2000 to December 2003, 4618 ECD kidney-alone transplants were reported to the United Network for Organ Sharing. PP was performed on 912 renal allografts. The prognostic factors of DGF were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Risk factors for reduced allograft viability were greater in donors and recipients of PP kidneys. Three-year graft survival of ECD kidneys preserved with PP was similar to cold storage (CS) kidneys. The incidence of DGF in PP kidneys was significantly lower than CS kidneys (26% vs. 36%, p < 0.001). Despite having a greater number of risk factors for reduced graft viability, the ECD-PP kidneys had similar graft survival compared to ECD-CS kidneys. The use of PP, by decreasing the incidence of DGF, may possibly lead to lower overall costs and increased utilization of donor kidneys.
Experience of Offering HIV Rapid Testing to At-Risk Patients in Community Health Centers in Eight Chinese Cities

Objective To explore the feasibility of offering HIV counseling and testing in community health centers (CHCs) and to provide evidence for the HIV/AIDS response in China. Methods Forty-two CHCs were selected from the eight cities that participated in the study. Rapid testing was mainly provided to: clients seeking HIV testing and counseling (HTC); outpatients with high-risk behavior of contracting HIV; inpatients and outpatients of key departments. Aggregate administrative data were collected in CHCs and general hospitals and differences between the two categories were compared. Results There were 23,609 patients who underwent HIV testing, accounting for 0.37% of all estimated clinic visits at the 42 sites (0.03%–4.35% by site). Overall, positive screening prevalence was 0.41% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.33%–0.49%, range 0.00%–0.98%), which is higher than in general hospitals (0.17%). The identification efficiency was 0.22% (95% CI: 0.16%–0.27%) in pilot CHCs, 3.5 times higher than in general hospitals (0.06%) (Chi square test = 95.196, p<0.001). The percentage of those receiving confirmatory tests among those who screened positive was slightly lower in CHCs (73.7%) than in general hospitals (80.1%) (Chi-square test = 17.472, p<0.001). Composition of clients mobilized for testing was consistent with the usage of basic public health and medical services in CHCs. The rate of patients testing HIV positive was higher among patients from key CHC departments (0.68%) than among high-risk Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) clients (0.56%), those participating in outreach activities (0.41%), pregnant women (0.05%), and surgical patients (0.00%). Conclusion This project demonstrates that providing HIV testing services for patients who exhibit high risk behavior has a high HIV case detection rate and that CHCs have the capacity to integrate HTC into routine work. It provides concrete evidence supporting the involvement of CHCs in the expansion of HIV/AIDS testing and case finding.
Efficient Algorithm for Near Duplicate Documents Detection

Identification of duplicates or near duplicate documents in a set of documents is one of the major problems in information re trieval. Several methods to detect those documents have been proposed but their relevance is still an issue. In this paper we propose an algorithm based on word position which provides a reduced candidate size to search in and increases efficiency and effectiveness for partial documents relevance. In our experiments the results show that during search process for the query the candidate size has reduced up to 12% of the size of set of documents which leads to a decreased time in searching. The results also have shown a higher accuracy thus helping help the user not to waste time on waiting for a query and getting unwanted documents.
Computational Analysis of Nucleosome Positioning Signals in the Simian Virus 40 Chromatin

better understand the regulatory role of nucleosomes, it is important to pinpoint their positions in the DNA sequence. In this paper, we present a pattern recognition algorithm to predict the locations of nucleosomes. Based on a number of features of the nucleosomal architecture, a computational framework based on the probabilistic relaxation labeling technique is developed to infer the nucleosome centers along the DNA sequence of simian virus 40 (SV40). Using this method, we can detect about 70% of the SV40 nucleosome locations with high probability (> 0.9). The proposed algorithm improves the flexibility and efficiency in nucleosome positioning, and makes it easy to analyze nucleosome structure without expensive wet-lab biological experiments. Our results show that the framework is practicable and has potential in its applications. In fact, only the significant periodicity of DNA dinucleotides is employed in our current algorithm as a nucleosomal feature. We believe that more pattern recognition techniques can be developed to improve the prediction accuracy of nucleosome positions by employing more sequence features.
Lactate threshold responses to a season of professional British youth soccer

Objective: To examine the changes in aerobic endurance performance of professional youth soccer players throughout the soccer season. Methods: Nine youth soccer players were tested at six different time points throughout the soccer season by sub-maximal blood lactate assessment, using an incremental treadmill protocol. Whole blood lactate concentration and heart frequency (Hf) were determined at each exercise stage. Running velocities at the first lactate inflection point (v-Tlac) and at a blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol l−1 (v-4mM) were determined. Results: Running velocity at the two lactate thresholds increased from the start of pre-season training to the early weeks of the competitive season, from 11.67 (0.29) to 12.96 (0.28) km h−1 for v-Tlac, and from 13.62 (0.25) to 14.67 (0.24) km h−1 for v-4mM (p<0.001). However, v-Tlac and v-4mM when expressed relative to maximum heart frequency (Hfmax) remained unchanged. The Hf to blood lactate concentration relationship was unchanged after the pre-season training period. The two expressions of lactate threshold did not reveal differences between each other. Conclusion: Running velocity at v-Tlac and v-4mM increased significantly over the pre-season period, but v-Tlac and v-4mM were unchanged when expressed relative to Hfmax. This finding may indicate that increased endurance performance may be mainly attributable to alterations in Vo2max. Although lactate assessment of soccer players is useful for determining endurance training adaptations in soccer players, additional assessment of the other two determinants of endurance performance (Vo2max and running economy) may provide more useful information for determining physiological adaptations resulting from soccer training and training interventions.
Overexpression of miR-223 Tips the Balance of Pro- and Anti-hypertrophic Signaling Cascades toward Physiologic Cardiac Hypertrophy*

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been extensively examined in pathological cardiac hypertrophy. However, few studies focused on profiling the miRNA alterations in physiological hypertrophic hearts. In this study we generated a transgenic mouse model with cardiac-specific overexpression of miR-223. Our results showed that elevation of miR-223 caused physiological cardiac hypertrophy with enhanced cardiac function but no fibrosis. Using the next generation RNA sequencing, we observed that most of dys-regulated genes (e.g. Atf3/5, Egr1/3, Sfrp2, Itgb1, Ndrg4, Akip1, Postn, Rxfp1, and Egln3) in miR-223-transgenic hearts were associated with cell growth, but they were not directly targeted by miR-223. Interestingly, these dys-regulated genes are known to regulate the Akt signaling pathway. We further identified that miR-223 directly interacted with 3′-UTRs of FBXW7 and Acvr2a, two negative regulators of the Akt signaling. However, we also validated that miR-223 directly inhibited the expression of IGF-1R and β1-integrin, two positive regulators of the Akt signaling. Lastly, Western blotting did reveal that Akt was activated in miR-223-overexpressing hearts. Adenovirus-mediated overexpression of miR-223 in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes induced cell hypertrophy, which was blocked by the addition of MK2206, a specific inhibitor of Akt. Taken together, these data represent the first piece of work showing that miR-223 tips the balance of promotion and inactivation of Akt signaling cascades toward activation of Akt, a key regulator of physiological cardiac hypertrophy. Thus, our study suggests that the ultimate phenotype outcome of a miRNA may be decided by the secondary net effects of the whole target network rather than by several primary direct targets in an organ/tissue.
Risk Factors of Household Transmission of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 among Patients Treated with Antivirals: A Prospective Study at a Primary Clinic in Japan

Background Household transmission of influenza can affect the daily lives of patients and their families and be a trigger for community transmission, thus it is necessary to take precautions to prevent household transmission. We aimed to determine the risks of household transmission of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus from an index patient who visited a primary clinic and was treated with antiviral drugs. Methods We followed up all the patients who were diagnosed with influenza A by rapid diagnostic test with a questionnaire or interview from July 2009 to April 2010. Secondary cases were defined as patients visiting the clinic or other clinics and being positive for influenza A by rapid diagnostic test within 7 days of onset of an index patient. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the association between household transmission and the studied variables. Results We recruited 591 index patients and 1629 household contacts. The crude secondary attack rate was 7.3% [95% confidence interval (CI): 6.1–8.7]. Age of index patients (0–6 years old: odds ratio 2.56; 95% CI: 1.31–4.01; 7–12 years old: 2.44, 1.31–3.72; 30–39 years old 3.88; 2.09–5.21; 40 years old or more 2.76; 1.17–4.53) and number of household members with five or more (3.09, 2.11–4.07), medication started ≥48 hours from the onset of fever (2.38, 1.17–3.87) were significantly associated with household transmission. Conclusions Household transmission was associated with index patients aged ≤12 years old and adults ≥30 years with children, with more than five persons in the household, and medication initiated ≥48 hours from the onset of fever among the population, in which, antiviral treatment was given to all patients. We need to warn patients at high risk of household transmission to take additional precautions.
Growth of GaAs nanowires with various thickness of Au film

GaAs nanowires were grown by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition on the GaAs(111)B substrates via Vapor-Liquid-Solid mechanism with various Au film thickness. Experiment results indicated that thicker Au film results in larger diameters, more dispersed size distribution, and lower density of the nanowires. All NWs are straight from base to top, and no lateral growth occurs. The growth rate of nanowires slightly increases with Au film thickness. It indicates that the growth of GaAs NWs is mainly promoted by the catalyzed chemical reaction at the drop surface, the Au particles surface density could influence the growth rate, and contribution of diffusion from the adatom could be neglected.
Combining 1-D components to extract pattern information: It is about more than component similarity

At least under some conditions, plaid stimuli are processed by combining information first extracted in orientation and scale-selective channels. The rules that govern this combination across channels are only partially understood. Although the available data suggests that only components having similar spatial frequency and contrast are combined, the extent to which this holds has not been firmly established. To address this question, we measured, in human subjects, the short-latency reflexive vergence eye movements induced by stereo plaids in which spatial frequency and contrast of the components are independently varied. We found that, although similarity in component spatial frequency and contrast matter, they interact in a nonseparable way. One way in which this relationship might arise is if the internal estimate of contrast is not a faithful representation of stimulus contrast but is instead spatial frequency–dependent (with higher spatial frequencies being boosted). We propose that such weighting might have been put in place by a mechanism that, in an effort of achieve contrast constancy and/or coding efficiency, regulates the gain of detectors in early visual cortex to equalize their long-term average response to natural images.
Design of a new compliant XY micro-positioning stage based on Roberts mechanism

Compliant micro-positioning mechanisms play an important role in precise positioning and displacement technology. In this paper, a new kind of compliant mechanism based on Roberts mechanisms is proposed for the mechanism design of a novel parallel-kinematic XY micro-positioning stage. Pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM) is developed to establish the quantitative models, which show that the XY stage has a work range larger than 14 mm in each axis with a relative compact dimension. Moreover, the stage performances are verified by conducting finite-element analysis (FEA) simulation. Results not only validate the analytical models, but also demonstrate the nice decoupling performance of the designed XY stage. The FEA simulation results show that the parasitic motion in the non-working direction was less than 0.1% of the motion stroke. It indicates that the proposed design meets the requirements of a large stroke, high precision linear guiding mechanism. A prototype XY stage is fabricated for further investigation.
Future Perspectives on Employee Selection: Key Directions for Future Research and Practice

Les recherches sur la selection et l’evaluation sont abordees d’un point de vue tourne vers l’avenir. On recense quatre grand themes d’importance majeure dans le developpement des futures recherches: la prediction bimodale, l’adaptation polyvalente, les reactions et decisions pertinentes et les tensions entre la recherche et la pratique dans la selection professionnelle. Pour chacun de ces themes, nous soulevons certains problemes qui restent a traiter. On discute enfin des consequences sur la patique et les avancees actuelles dans le domaine de la selection, traditionnellement l’une des plus actives des disciplines centrales de la psychologie internationales du travail. A future-oriented perspective for selection and assessment research is presented. Four superordinate themes of critical import to the development of future research are identified: (i) bimodal prediction, (ii) multilevel fit, (iii) applicant reactions and decision making, and (iv) tensions between research and practice in employee selection. Under each theme we pose a number of outstanding questions for research. Implications for practice and the ongoing advancement of the sub-field of selection, traditionally one of the most robust core disciplines in international IWO psychology, are discussed.
Probabilistic Cascading for Large Scale Hierarchical Classification

Hierarchies are frequently used for the organization of objects. Given a hierarchy of classes, two main approaches are used, to automatically classify new instances: flat classification and cascade classification. Flat classification ignores the hierarchy, while cascade classification greedily traverses the hierarchy from the root to the predicted leaf. In this paper we propose a new approach, which extends cascade classification to predict the right leaf by estimating the probability of each root-to-leaf path. We provide experimental results which indicate that, using the same classification algorithm, one can achieve better results with our approach, compared to the traditional flat and cascade classifications.