Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inattentional Blindness : A Failure of the Visual System ?

Inattentional blindness, the act of failing to notice clearly visible, salient objects in one’s environment when engaged in a task is of great interest due to both its commonality and its overall applications. This study attempted to objectively support previous claims made about the inattentional blindness phenomenon using eye tracking data. Using a video from a previous study by Simon and Chabris [11], inattentional blindness was observed in 21% of participants, X = 4.571, p < . 05, a rate comparable to that of previous studies. Participants attending to objects that were similar to the stimulus were more likely to notice the stimulus, X = 2.864, p = . 091, and also noticed it sooner than those attending to objects that were different from the stimulus, t(7) = -2.541, p < . 05. It was found that even when a stimulus crossed the fovea, not all individuals saw it. It was also discovered that some participants managed to notice the stimulus without fixating on it, in direct opposition to a hypothesis stating that fixation was required to notice a stimulus.
Ankle-Brachial Index determination and peripheral arterial disease diagnosis by an oscillometric blood pressure device in primary care: validation and diagnostic accuracy study

Objectives To determine the level of agreement between a ‘conventional’ Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) measurement (using Doppler and mercury sphygmomanometer taken by a research nurse) and a ‘pragmatic’ ABI measure (using an oscillometric device taken by a practice nurse) in primary care. To ascertain the utility of a pragmatic ABI measure for the diagnosis of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in primary care. Design Cross-sectional validation and diagnostic accuracy study. Descriptive analyses were used to investigate the agreement between the two procedures using the Bland and Altman method to determine whether the correlation between ABI readings varied systematically. Diagnostic accuracy was assessed via sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, likelihood ratios, positive and negative predictive values, with ABI readings dichotomised and Receiver Operating Curve analysis using both univariable and multivariable logistic regression. Setting Primary care in metropolitan and rural Victoria, Australia between October 2009 and November 2010. Participants 250 persons with cardiovascular disease (CVD) or at high risk (three or more risk factors) of CVD. Results Despite a strong association between the two method's measurements of ABI there was poor agreement with 95% of readings within ±0.4 of the 0.9 ABI cut point. The multivariable C statistic of diagnosis of PAD was 0.89. Other diagnostic measures were sensitivity 62%, specificity 92%, positive predictive value 67%, negative predictive value 90%, accuracy 85%, positive likelihood ratio 7.3 and the negative likelihood ratio 0.42. Conclusions Oscillometric ABI measures by primary care nurses on a population with a 22% prevalence of PAD lacked sufficient agreement with conventional measures to be recommended for routine diagnosis of PAD. This pragmatic method may however be used as a screening tool high-risk and overt CVD patients in primary care as it can reliably exclude the condition.
Model predictive control for car vehicle dynamics system - Comparative study

Model predictive control (MPC), one of the advanced control methods that has received on going interest from academic and industrial researchers communities. One of the major attractive aspects of MPC methodology is the design formulation, which capitalizes a multivariable system structure where it controls performance parameters that are related to the engineering aspects of the system. Due to its advantages, it has been extended to many areas of vehicle dynamics system and control. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to review MPC as a practical controller for car vehicle dynamics system for active safety and stability control. The publications is classify to three main aspects, i.e., steering and braking control, yaw and roll control, and active and semi-active suspension control. MPC had a good control performance and robustness to parameters variations with constraints to linear or nonlinear systems.
Multivariate Statistical Visualization

In this paper we describe multivariate statistical visualization techniques designed to improve the quality, accuracy and satisfaction of the statistical data analysis process. We describe techniques for visualizing multivariate data structure, for visualizing multivariate data models, and for visualizing multivariate data analysis sessions. We illustrate these techniques with ViSta, our statistical visualization research and development testbed.
STEREO VISUAL SYSTEM FOR AUTONOMOUS AIR VEHICLE NAVIGATION

We present a system to estimate the altitude and motion of an aerial vehicle using a stereo visual system. The system has been initially tested on a ground robot and the novelty lays on its application and robustness validation in an UAV, where vibrations and rapid environmental changes take place. The two main functionalities are height estimation and visual odometry. The system first detects and tracks salient points in the scene. Depth to the plane containing the features is calculated matching features between left and right images then using the disparity principle. Motion is recovered tracking pixels from one frame to the next one finding its visual displacement and resolving camera rotation and translation by a least-square method. We present results from different experimental trials on the two platforms comparing and discussing the results regarding the trajectories calculated by the visual odometry and the onboard helicopter state estimation.
Emotion Recognition through Speech Using Gaussian Mixture Model and Support Vector Machine

In human machine interaction automatic speech emotion recognition is yet challenging but important task which paid close attention in current research area. As the role of speech is an increase in human computer interface. Speech is attractive and effective medium due to its several features expressing attitude and emotions through speech is possible. here study is carried out using Gaussian mixture model and support vector machine classifiers used for identification of five basic emotional states of speaker's as angry ,happy , sad, surprise and neutral. In this paper to recognize emotions through speech various features such as prosodic features like pitch , energy and spectral features such as Mel frequency cepstrum coefficient were extracted and based on this features emotional classification and performance of classification using Gaussian mixture model and support vector machine is discussed.
Associations between CD33 rs3865444 and ABCA7 rs3764650 polymorphisms and susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease

Several studies have evaluated the association of Siglec-3(CD33) rs3865444 polymorphism and ATP-binding cassette transporter A7(ABCA7) rs3764650 polymorphism with susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease. However, these studies have yielded contradictory results. Therefore, to resolve this issue, a meta-analysis was undertaken to examine 12 previously published studies. The pooled effect of CD33 rs3865444 showed no significant relationship with susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease under various genetic models. The pooled effect of ABCA7 rs3764650 also lacked association with susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease in the allele model (p = 0.06, OR = 1.06, 95% CI, 1.00–1.13), while significant associations were revealed for the dominant model (p< 0.0001 OR = 1.20, 95% CI, 1.10–1.31), recessive model (p = 0.01, OR = 1.59, 95% CI, 1.12–2.28), and additive model (p = 0.003, OR = 1.44, 95% CI, 1.13–1.83). A subsequent meta-analysis revealed significant association of these models for Caucasians (dominant: p< 0.00001, OR = 1.28, 95% CI, 1.16–1.41; recessive: p = 0.002, OR = 1.96, 95% CI, 1.27–3.04; additive: p = 0.001, OR = 1.96, 95% CI, 1.30–2.94), contrary to what was demonstrated for Asians. Results of the present meta-analysis indicate that ABCA7 rs3764650 might increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, particularly for older Caucasians.
Anytime Ranking for Impact-Ordered Indexes

The ability for a ranking function to control its own execution time is useful for managing load, reigning in outliers, and adapting to different types of queries. We propose a simple yet effective anytime algorithm for impact-ordered indexes that builds on a score-at-a-time query evaluation strategy. In our approach, postings segments are processed in decreasing order of their impact scores, and the algorithm early terminates when a specified number of postings have been processed. With a simple linear model and a few training topics, we can determine this threshold given a time budget in milliseconds. Experiments on two web test collections show that our approach can accurately control query evaluation latency and that aggressive limits on execution time lead to minimal decreases in effectiveness.
Theorizing about DSS Use and Decision Quality: An Institutional Economics and Task-Technology Fit Perspective

This paper integrates the theory of institutional economics and the task-technology fit model in order to theorize about DSS success (defined in terms of DSS use and decision quality). Institutional economics (Veblen 1899/1912, Ayres 1944 and Bush 1986, 1987) posits that human behavior is either instrumental (rational and associated with “getting a living”) or ceremonial and associated with customs, habits, rites and rituals. The task-technology fit model (Goodhue 1995, Goodhue and Thompson 1995) posits that the influence of DSS on performance and use is contingent upon the degree to which the capabilities provided by the system match the requirements of the task. The greater this alignment, the more the DSS will be used and the more performance will be improved. In this context, DSS is viewed through the two lenses proposed by Alter (1977) that of dataoriented and model-oriented systems. The task is viewed through three dimensions suggested by Gorry and Scott Morton (1971): structured, semi-structured and unstructured. The decision-maker is posited to act either instrumentally (the decision-maker believes that the DSS will improve decision quality, therefore the system is used to its potential) or ceremonially (the decision-maker is acting in a habitual or ritual manner and the DSS is only being used to give an air of rationality). Based on these two theoretical lenses, we propose that there are three instances that lead to successful DSS (1) when the DSS is data-oriented, the task is unstructured and the decision-maker acts instrumentally, (2) when the DSS is model-oriented, the task is semi-structured and the decision-maker acts instrumentally and (3) when the DSS is model-oriented, the task is structured and the decision-maker acts instrumentally. Whenever the decision-maker acts ceremonially, the DSS will fail in the sense that it is not being used to its fullest extent.
Adaptation of traditional usability testing methods for remote testing

Traditional usability testing methods are difficult to use in producing Web sites and Web applications, mainly because of the decreased development times that companies demand for this type of software. Users of Web sites have diverse platforms, computer expertise and expectations. Companies want to use Web sites to sell merchandise and provide services to customers. Therefore, it is essential to make usability a high priority in the development of Web-based software. How can we resolve this seemingly contradictory situation? We believe that usability testing tools that are remote, rapid and automated would be helpful in providing more usability information in a shorter time and in a form that can be immediately useful to usability professionals. In this paper, we discuss the approach we have taken to designing such tools. We currently have several tools available for public use that are also discussed in this paper. Our next steps will be to conduct methodological studies to validate the use of these tools.
Individual consistency in flight initiation distances in burrowing owls: a new hypothesis on disturbance-induced habitat selection

Individuals often consistently differ in personalities and behaviours that allow them to cope with environmental variation. Flight initiation distance (FID) has been measured in a variety of taxa as an estimate of the risk that an individual is willing to take when facing a predator. FID has been used to test life-history trade-offs related to anti-predatory behaviour and for conservation purposes such as to establish buffer zones to minimize human disturbance, given its species-specific consistency. Individual consistency in FID, however, has been largely overlooked. Here we show that, even after controlling for several confounding effects, this behaviour has a strong individual component (repeatability = 0.84–0.92) in a bird species, leaving a small margin for behavioural flexibility. We hypothesize that individuals may distribute themselves among breeding sites depending on their individual susceptibility to human disturbance. This habitat selection hypothesis merits further research, given its implications on both evolutionary and applied ecology research. For example, selection of human-tolerant phenotypes may be promoted through the humanization of habitats occurring worldwide, and when population means instead of individual variability in FID are considered for designing buffer zones to reduce human impacts on wildlife.
The role of feedback on cognitive motor learning in children with cerebral palsy: A protocol

Evidence of provision of extrinsic feedback for improvement and retention of upper limb kinematics in children with cerebral palsy (CP) is scarce, especially following training interventions using virtual environments. Benefits of using a virtual environment can range from increasing the participant's motivation to the ease of adapting extrinsic feedback for optimizing motor learning. In the proposed research, children with CP will be randomly allocated to one of three groups: no additional feedback, continuous feedback and faded feedback. For all groups, upper-limb motor training will be done in a virtual environment using the Jintronix virtual reality system. Motor improvements will be evaluated after an 8 hour training intervention and motor learning will be evaluated after one month. Transfer of motor gains to performance of a similar upper-limb task will also be used to assess learning. Findings from this research will provide crucial information on which frequency of feedback should be used to optimize motor learning and upper-limb rehabilitation in children with CP.
Shrinkage of human coronary arteries is an important determinant of de novo atherosclerotic luminal stenosis: an in vivo intravascular ultrasound study

Objective To assess the occurrence of arterial remodelling types and its relation with the severity of luminal stenosis in atherosclerotic coronary arteries. Patients and methods Twenty one de novo coronary lesions of 20 patients, who were scheduled for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), were investigated with intravascular ultrasound before PTCA. Local arterial remodelling at the lesion site was studied by measuring the cross sectional area circumscribed by the external elastic lamina (EEL) relative to the reference site: (EEL area lesion/reference EEL area) × 100%. Three groups were defined. Group A: relative EEL area of less than 95% (shrinkage), group B: relative EEL area between 95% and 105% (no remodelling), group C: relative increase in EEL area of more than 105% (compensatory enlargement). Results All three types of remodelling were observed at the lesion site: group A (shrinkage) n = 8, group B (no remodelling) n = 5, group C (compensatory enlargement) n = 8. The mean (SD) relative EEL area at the lesion site in group A and C was 83(9)% and 132(30)%, respectively. In group A, 33% of the luminal area stenosis at the lesion site was caused by shrinkage of the artery. In contrast, group C showed that 87% of the plaque area did not contribute to luminal area stenosis because of compensatory arterial enlargement. Conclusions These results show that both compensatory enlargement and paradoxical shrinkage occurs in the atherosclerotic coronary artery. Next to plaque accumulation, the type of atherosclerotic remodelling is an important determinant of luminal narrowing.
New Paradigms in Monetary Theory and Policy

On 11-12 May 2011, SUERF and the Belgian Financial Forum, in association with the Brussels Finance Institute and the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) organized the 29th SUERF Colloquium “New Paradigms in Money and Finance? ” All the papers in the present SUERF Study are based on contributions to the Brussels Colloquium.
Clinical studies on the sites of production and clearance of circulating adrenomedullin in human subjects.

Adrenomedullin is a novel hypotensive peptide, newly discovered in pheochromocytoma. Because immunoreactive adrenomedullin is present in human plasma, adrenomedullin may play a role in regulating blood pressure. A recent report showed that human adrenomedullin mRNA is expressed not only in pheochromocytoma but also in the normal adrenal medulla, kidney, lung, and ventricle. However, whether or not these organs actually release adrenomedullin into the circulation remains unknown. To investigate the sites of production and degradation of adrenomedullin in human subjects, we obtained blood samples from various sites and measured immunoreactive adrenomedullin concentrations. In study 1, blood samples were obtained from the infrarenal inferior vena cava, suprarenal inferior vena cava, superior vena cava, right atrium, right ventricle, pulmonary artery, pulmonary capillary, left ventricle, and aorta during cardiac catheterization in 15 patients with ischemic heart disease (67 +/- 10 years). In study 2, blood samples were taken from the infrarenal inferior vena cava, suprarenal inferior vena cava, right and left renal veins, and left adrenal vein in 5 hypertensive patients (42 +/- 14 years) suspected of having renovascular hypertension. In study 3, peripheral venous blood samples were obtained in 2 patients (males, 45 and 36 years old) with pheochromocytoma at rest and during hypertensive attacks. Plasma adrenomedullin concentrations were measured by a newly developed radioimmunoassay. In study 1, there were no significant differences in plasma adrenomedullin concentrations in various sites of the right-side circulation. There was no step-up of plasma adrenomedullin levels in the coronary sinus. However, the plasma concentration of adrenomedullin in aorta was slightly but significantly lower than in pulmonary artery. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A Genomic Map of the Effects of Linked Selection in Drosophila

Natural selection at one site shapes patterns of genetic variation at linked sites. Quantifying the effects of “linked selection” on levels of genetic diversity is key to making reliable inference about demography, building a null model in scans for targets of adaptation, and learning about the dynamics of natural selection. Here, we introduce the first method that jointly infers parameters of distinct modes of linked selection, notably background selection and selective sweeps, from genome-wide diversity data, functional annotations and genetic maps. The central idea is to calculate the probability that a neutral site is polymorphic given local annotations, substitution patterns, and recombination rates. Information is then combined across sites and samples using composite likelihood in order to estimate genome-wide parameters of distinct modes of selection. In addition to parameter estimation, this approach yields a map of the expected neutral diversity levels along the genome. To illustrate the utility of our approach, we apply it to genome-wide resequencing data from 125 lines in Drosophila melanogaster and reliably predict diversity levels at the 1Mb scale. Our results corroborate estimates of a high fraction of beneficial substitutions in proteins and untranslated regions (UTR). They allow us to distinguish between the contribution of sweeps and other modes of selection around amino acid substitutions and to uncover evidence for pervasive sweeps in untranslated regions (UTRs). Our inference further suggests a substantial effect of other modes of linked selection and of adaptation in particular. More generally, we demonstrate that linked selection has had a larger effect in reducing diversity levels and increasing their variance in D. melanogaster than previously appreciated.
Speaking without Broca's area after tumor resection

We present the case of a right-handed patient who received surgical treatment for a left frontal WHO grade II glioma invading the left inferior and middle frontal gyri, the head of the caudate nucleus, the anterior limb of the internal capsule and the anterior insula, in direct contact also with the anterior-superior part of the lentiform nucleus. The tumor resection was guided by direct electrical stimulation on brain areas, while the patient was awake. Adding a narrative production task to the neuropsychological assessment, we compared pre-, peri- and post-surgical language skills in order to analyze the effects of the tumor infiltration and the consequences of the left IFG resection, an area known to be involved in various language and cognitive processes. We showed that the tumor infiltration and its resection did not lead to the severe impairments predicted by the localization models assigning a significant role in language processing to the left frontal lobe, notably Broca's area. We showed that slow tumor evolution – the patient had been symptom-free for a long time – enabled compensatory mechanisms to process most language functions endangered by the tumor infiltration. However, a subtle fragility was observed in two language devices, i.e., reported speech and relative clauses, related to minor working memory deficits. This case study of a patient speaking without Broca's area illustrates the efficiency of brain plasticity, and shows the necessity to broaden pre-, peri-, post-surgery language and cognitive assessments.
Computational Methods for Complex Stochastic Systems : Alternatives to MCMC

We consider analysis of complex stochastic models based upon partial information. MCMC and reversible jump MCMC are often the methods of choice for such problems, but in some situations they can be difficult to implement; and suffer from problems such as poor mixing, and the difficulty of diagnosing convergence. Here we review various alternatives to MCMC methods: importance sampling, the forward-backward algorithm, and sequential Monte Carlo (SMC). We discuss how to design good proposal densities for importance sampling, show some of the range of models for which the forward-backward algorithm can be applied, and show how resampling ideas from SMC can be used to improve the efficiency of the other two methods. We demonstrate these methods on a range of examples, including estimating the transition density of a diffusion and of a discrete-state continuous-time Markov chain; inferring structure in population genetics; and segmenting genetic divergence data.