Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurophysiological substrates of con ﬁ gural face perception in schizotypy

Face perception is a highly developed function of the human visual system. Previous studies of event-related potentials (ERPs) have identi ﬁ ed a face-selective ERP component (negative peak at about 170ms after stimulus onset, N170) in healthy participants. In contrast, patients with schizophrenia exhibit reduced amplitude of the N170, which may represent a pathological de ﬁ cit in the neurophysiology of face perception. Interestingly, healthy humans with schizophrenia-like experiences (schizotypy) also exhibit abnormal processing of face perception. Yet, it has remained unknown how schizotypy in healthy humans is associated with the neurophysiological substrates of face perception. Here, we recruited 35 healthy participants and assessed their schizotypy by the magical ideation rating scale. We used high-density electroencephalography to obtain ERPs elicited by a set of Mooney faces (face and non-face visual stimuli). We investigated median and mean reaction times and visual ERP components in response to the stimuli. We observed a signi ﬁ cant difference in N170 amplitude between the two face-stimulus conditions and found that the measured schizotypy scores were signi ﬁ cantly correlated with both reaction times and N170 amplitude in response to the face stimuli across all participants. Our results thus support the model of schizotypy as a manifestation of a continuum between healthy individuals and patients with schizophrenia, where the N170 impairment serves as a biomarker for the degree of pathology along this continuum.
Scientific Review of Cyanide Ecotoxicology and Evaluation of Ambient Water Quality Criteria

The USEPA's ambient water quality criteria (AWQC) for cyanide were developed in 1984. Recently, however, concerns have arisen that the AWQC for cyanide have been problematic to implement and may not accurately reflect either the toxic forms or bioavailable concentrations of cyanide in water, sediments, and tissues of aquatic organisms. Also, the cyanide criteria typically have been implemented based on total cyanide concentrations rather than the free cyanide concentrations that formed the basis of the criteria calculations. New knowledge on cyanide toxicity, cyanide speciation and its measurement, and the relative toxicity of bioavailable cyanide species suggested that a re-evaluation of the aquatic toxicity data and chemistry that serve as the basis of the current national criteria is warranted. In response to these concerns, studies sponsored by the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) evaluated the formation and fate of cyanide in municipal wastewater effluents. Kavanaugh et al. (2003) evaluated the reliability of several analytical methods for measurement of cyanide species at low (ppb) concentrations, along with studies to evaluate the sources, transport, and fate of cyanide species in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and receiving waters. Results indicated that potentially toxic forms of cyanide can be generated in WWTPs from several chemical processes, including dissociation of thiocyanate by chlorination or UV disinfection, chlorination in the presence of residual ammonia, nitrosation, and photolysis of ferrocyanate. Models were developed for predicting the fate of these compounds in surface waters downstream of WWTP effluents to establish where organisms might be most at risk from cyanide exposure. While implementation of these results could assist in the development of site-specific water quality standards for cyanide, a more thorough update to the National AWQC was warranted to apply our more current scientific understanding of cyanide toxicology to the derivation of aquatic life criteria. The present study was therefore undertaken to review and update knowledge of the aquatic toxicity of cyanide, and to develop recommended updates to the existing national AWQC to enhance the scientific basis of the concentrations and chemical forms of cyanide specified for protection of aquatic organisms. This update was conducted according to USEPA guidance for derivation of AWQC for protection of aquatic life, and is based both on an extensive literature review and on new toxicity studies that fill key data gaps. This re-evaluation of cyanide criteria also includes consideration of impacts on benthic (sediment) organisms, wildlife that consume aquatic biota, and possible effects to threatened and endangered species to ensure that revised criteria are adequately protective of the entire aquatic ecosystem. This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series ISBN: 9781843397533 (Print) ISBN: 9781780403755 (eBook)
2019 Grid of the Future Symposium Real-time PMU Data Recovery Application Based on Singular Value Decomposition

SUMMARY Phasor measurement units (PMUs) allow for the enhancement of power system monitoring and control applications and they will prove even more crucial in the future, as the grid becomes more decentralized and subject to higher uncertainty. Tools that improve PMU data quality and facilitate data analytics workflows are thus needed. In this work, we leverage a previously described algorithm to develop a python application for PMU data recovery. Because of its intrinsic nature, PMU data can be dimensionally reduced using singular value decomposition (SVD). Moreover, the high spatio-temporal correlation can be leveraged to estimate the value of measurements that are missing due to drop-outs. These observations are at the base of the data recovery application described in this work. Extensive testing is performed to study the performance under different data drop-out scenarios, and the results show very high recovery accuracy. Additionally, the application is designed to take advantage of a high performance PMU data platform called PredictiveGrid™, developed by PingThings.
Identification of One O-Methyltransferase Gene Involved in Methylated Flavonoid Biosynthesis Related to the UV-B Irradiation Response in Euphorbia lathyris

Flavonoids are ubiquitous polyphenolic compounds that play a vital role in plants’ defense response and medicinal efficacy. UV-B radiation is a vital environmental regulator governing flavonoid biosynthesis in plants. Many plants rapidly biosynthesize flavonoids as a response to UV-B stress conditions. Here, we investigated the effects of flavonoid biosynthesis via UV-B irradiation in Euphorbia lathyris. We found that exposure of the E. lathyris callus to UV-B radiation sharply increased the level of one O-methyltransferase (ElOMT1) transcript and led to the biosynthesis of several methylated flavonoids. The methyltransferase ElOMT1 was expressed heterologously in E. coli, and we tested the catalytic activity of recombinant ElOMT1 with possible substrates, including caffeic acid, baicalin, and luteolin, in vitro. ElOMT1 could efficiently methylate when the hydroxyl groups were contained in the core nucleus of the flavonoid. This molecular characterization identifies a methyltransferase responsible for the chemical modification of the core flavonoid structure through methylation and helps reveal the mechanism of methylated flavonoid biosynthesis in Euphorbiaceae. This study identifies the O-methyltransferase that responds to UV-B irradiation and helps shed light on the mechanism of flavonoid biosynthesis in Euphorbia lathyris.
2019 Grid of the Future Symposium A National Infrastructure for Artificial Intelligence on the Grid

SUMMARY This paper overviews a three-year project to develop a national infrastructure for artificial intelligence (NI4AI) on the power grid through a three-part, multi-million dollar effort funded by the Advanced Research Project Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). The first major component of this project is the deployment of a variety of high-frequency grid sensors to capture both wide-scale and localized grid behavior, generating high-value datasets for research. The second aspect of this project is the deployment of a horizontally scalable, cloud-based data management and AI platform built for time series data to store, process, analyze, and learn from grid sensor data. Finally, the project seeks to cultivate a diverse and open research community composed of experts from numerous fields through focused educational content, code sharing, and data science competitions. The project’s goal is to accelerate the development of analytics, machine learning, and AI to improve all aspects of the power grid.
“Dancing with Atoms”: A Tribute to Sheila Tinney

ABSTRACT:The authors present a short dynamic visualization titled “Dancing with Atoms,” produced in honor of the late Irish mathematical physicist Sheila Tinney (1918–2010), the first Irish-born and-raised woman to receive a doctorate in the mathematical sciences. The visualization is inspired by Tinney’s groundbreaking work on crystal lattice vibrations and consists of an animation showing an atomic lattice structure vibrating based on data derived from a musical piece performed by her son, award-winning pianist Hugh Tinney. The acoustic signal processing and visualization were conducted using the new Science Foundation Ireland–funded “Tinney” high-performance computing cluster in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
My Path experiencing Falbo’s Approach

When I was an undergraduate student, I heard a lot about a certain professor, referred to my colleagues as the best professor they had, and I was sorry I did not have classes with him because he had taken a leave to obtain his doctor degree. Years later, I met that professor. I not only met him, but I had the honor of being his first doctorate student. At that moment, I found out that he was much more than the best professor . Being advised by him I learned so much as a person and as a student. After finishing my doctorate, I received the immeasurable gift of having this professor as my greatest partner at work and, above all, my great friend. Again, I confirmed that best professor was too little to him. What Ricardo de Almeida Falbo does makes him much more than that! Working with him is a continuous learning. He makes people better. I can say that from my own experience. More than ten years working with him and being friends with him made me a better person and a better professional. His generosity, competence, patience, excellence, zeal, wisdom, friendship and values make him much more than the best professor. He has that “extra” that turns an ordinary person into an extraordinary person . To me he always will be a role model , my great friend, a mentor , and a great master . This paper is a tribute to him, on the occasion of his formal retirement. Here, I summarize some works we have developed together along the last years.
hydroly-Chemical characteristics and enhanced hepatoprotective activities of Maillard reaction products derived from milk protein-sugar system

The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics, antioxidative properties, and hepato-protective effects of Maillard reaction products (MRP) from milk protein reacted with sugars. The MRP were obtained from milk protein, whey protein concentrates and sodium caseinate, using 2 types of sugars, lactose and glucose, by heating the mixture at 55°C for 7 d in a sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). Changes in the chemical modification of the milk protein were monitored by measuring the protein-bound carbonyls and PAGE protein profiles. The results showed that the amount of protein-bound carbonyls increased after Maillard reaction (MR). In addition, sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE analysis indicated a formation of high-molecular weight complexes through MR. The modification sites induced by MR of milk protein were monitored by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis of tryptic-digested gel spots of MRP. As a result, modification and their localization in AA sequence of MRP was identified. Also, the MRP showed higher antioxidant activities than the intact milk protein, and they reduced intracellular reactive oxygen species production and inhibited the depletion of the reduced glutathione concentrations in the HepG2 cells. In particular, glucose-sodium caseinate MRP showed the highest biological activities among all MRP. Therefore, these results suggest that the MRP from milk protein reacting with sugars possess effective antioxidant activity and have a protective ability against oxidative damage.
Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis for German: Analyzing “Talk of Literature” Surrounding Literary Prizes on Social Media

Since the rise of social media, the authority of traditional professional literary critics has been supplemented – or undermined, depending on the point of view – by technological developments and the emergence of community-driven online layperson literary criticism. So far, relatively little research (Allington 2016, Kellermann et al. 2016, Kellermann and Mehling 2017, Bogaert 2017, Pi-anzola et al. 2020) has examined this layperson user-generated evaluative “talk of literature” instead of addressing traditional forms of consecration. In this paper, we examine the layper-son literary criticism pertaining to a prominent German-language literary award: the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis, awarded during the Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur (TDDL). We propose an aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) approach to discern the evaluative criteria used to differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ literature. To this end, we collected a corpus of German social media reviews, retrieved from Twitter, and enriched it with manual ABSA annotations: aspects and aspect categories (e.g. the motifs or themes in a text, the jury discussions and evaluations, .), sentiment expressions and named entities . In a next step, the manual annotations are used as training data for our ABSA pipeline including 1) aspect term category prediction and 2) aspect term polarity classification. Each pipeline component is developed using state-of-the-art pre-trained BERT models. Two sets of experiments were conducted for the aspect polarity detection: one where only the aspect embeddings were used and another where an additional context window of five adjoining words in either direction of the aspect was considered. We present the classification results for the aspect category and aspect sentiment prediction subtasks for the Twitter corpus. These preliminary experimental results show a good performance for the aspect category classification, with a macro and a weighted F1-score of 69% and 83% for the coarse-grained and 54% and 73% for the fine-grained task, as well as for the aspect sentiment classification subtask, using an additional context window, with a macro and a weighted F1-score of 70% and 71%, respectively.
Pushed by Sound: Effects of Sound and Movement Direction on Body Perception, Experience Quality, and Exercise Support

Wearables integrating movement sonification can support body-perception changes and relatedly physical activity; yet, we lack design principles for such sonifications. Through two mixed-methods studies, we investigate sound pitch and movement direction interaction effects on self-perception during squats exercises. We measured effects on body-perception, affective quality of the experience, actual and perceived movement, and compared them to two control conditions: no-sound and vibrotactile feedback. Results show that regardless of movement direction, ascending pitch enhances several body feelings and overall experience quality, while descending pitch increases movement acceleration. These effects were moderated by exercise physical demand. Sound and vibrotactile feedback enhanced flexibility and strength feelings respectively and contributed to exercise completion in different ways. Sound was perceived as an internal-to-body force while vibrotactile feedback as an external-to-body force. Feedback effects were stronger in people with lower fitness levels. We discuss results in terms of malleability of body-perceptions and highlight opportunities to support demanding physical activity through wearable devices.
OUTDOOR LEARNING IN ECEC USING EDTECH AND THE STE(A)M APPROACH

Children are growing disconnected from nature. The urbanisation process and the increase in entertainment options indoors and in virtual spaces imply a loss of physical and psychological benefits in the new generations. As an agent of socialisation, school must offer opportunities for students to develop curiosity, respect, and concern for the natural world. This paper aims to bring nature closer to early childhood education and care (ECEC) students. For this, outdoor learning has been valued as a pedagogical method in ECEC and the use of technology has been argued to motivate experiences outside the classroom. The paper aims to serve as theoretical framework that inspire educators to design activities, methodology, and advice that can be easily adapted to the needs of different ECEC centres. The creative use of technology as a tool for outdoor learning makes it possible for children to reconnect with nature, growing their interest in protecting it.
Effects of conditioning activities and time of day on male elite football players

This study evaluated the effects of different warm-up protocols based on conditioning activity combined with stretching exercises at different times of the day. Participants (20 first league of Tunisian football players) performed four warm-up protocols on two times a day in the morning: 09:00–10:00 and in the evening: 16:00–17:00, with at least 2 days between test sessions. All groups followed the warm-up randomly at two different periods of the day on non-consecutive days. The four protocols included: Dynamic stretching (DS), Dynamic stretching + conditioning activity (DS + High-Intensity Sprints HSJ), Dynamic stretching + drop jump (DS + DJ), and control (CONT). The thirty-meter sprint performance after different stretching and potentiation-based warm-up protocols was recorded. Two-way Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) analysis was applied to examine the difference between warm-up protocols, the difference between the time of day and the interaction effect. The major finding revealed that 30 m sprint results and the exercise-induced temperature significantly differed from morning and evening stretching and potentiation-based warm-up protocols (statistically significant p < 0.05, and evening measurements were higher compared to the morning). In conclusion, and from a practical point of view, if the objective is to increase performance over a shorter period of time, each of these warm-up protocols can be useful. For the best improvement, DS + HSJ may be preferable both in the morning and the evening.
Surveillance for Zoonotic Pathogens and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit of Ringed Seals (nattiit) (Pusa hispida) in Frobisher Bay and Eclipse Sound, Nunavut, Canada

Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) (nattiq (s.), nattiit (pl.) [Inuktut]) provide an important food staple for Nunavummiut (Indigenous residents of Nunavut). We studied the health of nattiit harvested by hunters from Baffin Island, Nunavut, via Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and veterinary science. We conducted serological surveys and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for select zoonotic pathogens, including Brucella spp. , Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, Leptospira interrogans, and Toxoplasma gondii, in 55 nattiit from Frobisher Bay (FB) and 58 nattiit from Eclipse Sound (ES). We used a digestion assay to determine the presence of Trichinella spp. larvae in muscle samples from these seals. We conducted interviews with nine Local Knowledge Holders (LKHs) from Iqaluit (FB) and nine from Pond Inlet (ES) to gather their observations about nattiq health. The hunters evaluated nattiq health through a combination of behavior, nutritional condition, and appearance of skin and organs. They rarely observed severely ill nattiit. Hunters from ES but not from FB observed declining nattiit population numbers. In both regions, they observed increased numbers of harp seals (Phoca groenlandica). Frequencies of natural exposure among nattiit from FB and ES, based on seroprevalence, were 20.5% and 37% for Brucella spp. , 25% and 11% for E. rhusiopathiae, 93% and 100% for L. interrogans, and 10% and 27% for T. gondii, respectively; PCR was negative for these pathogens in organs and tissues of seropositive animals. We did not detect larvae of Trichinella spp. Knowledge and experience from the LKHs in assessing nattiq health, complemented by negative findings from direct detection methods, provide reassurance about the safety of nattiit as country food, despite their exposure to some zoonotic pathogens in their natural environment.
Understanding import diversification: an empirical analysis

This paper analyzes import diversification in an aggregated perspective. Using a dataset for 60 countries covering the period 1995-2010, we study the main determinants of import diversification. We expect to contribute to the current literature, taking into account that there have been few empirical studies addressing import diversification and more specifically, at the cross-country level. We take into account variables classified into four categories: Structural factors, macroeconomic factors, international trade factors and political factors. We find robust evidence that total factor productivity (TFP), capital stock, real exchange rates and terms of trade are key drivers of import diversification. On the other hand, domestic consumption and trade openness exert an effect leading to import concentration. We interpret this finding, taking into account the theoretical framework provided by the international trade and growth theories. JEL Classification: F10 F14, O57, F13
The Experiment of Inter Service Parts Connection Techniques for Ubiquitous Grid Networking Environment (uGrid)

With the advance of ubiquitous society, we asuumes that an environment in which everything is connected to networks will come. We define a ubiquitous grid networking environment (uGrid) as follows: uGrid is an environment that everything all over the world can be defined as a service parts, it is possible to search for the service parts of the desire from all service parts in the world, those searched service parts are combined through the network and users can enjoy their desired service. In the uGrid, user uses other user’s device when user connect to service parts. Therefore, it is necessary to control with the device on the connected user side concerning the communication from others. In this paper, to realize the ubiquitous grid networking environment (uGrid), we implement the experiment of inter service parts connection techniques that USB over IP device is controlled by Proxy.