Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Some effects of jet-lag and their alleviation by melatonin

Abstract Seventeen healthy volunteers (10 women and 7 men, aged 29-68) were flown from London to San Francisco between 20 November 1985 and 25 January 1986 and remained there for 14 days prior to flight home. Subjects took melatonin (N = 8, 5 women, 3 men) or placebo in a double-blind design, at 18.00h local time for three days before the return flight and at bedtime (22.00-24.00h) in Great Britain for four days. For three days before departure and on days 1-7,14,15, 21 and 22 after their return subjects collected 6-hourly sequential urine samples and kept a daily sleep log. They recorded mood and oral temperature 2 hourly and performed logical reasoning and letter cancellation tests 4 hourly from 08.00h (or wake up time) to 24.00h (or bedtime) whichever was the earlier. Urine was also collected for 48 h prior to departure from the U.S.A‥ On day 7 after their return subjects rated ‘jet lag’ (10 cm visual analogue scale—VAS) from 0 (insignificant) to 100 (very bad). Melatonin significantly improved ‘jet la.
Protein Identification False Discovery Rates for Very Large Proteomics Data Sets Generated by Tandem Mass Spectrometry*

Comprehensive characterization of a proteome is a fundamental goal in proteomics. To achieve saturation coverage of a proteome or specific subproteome via tandem mass spectrometric identification of tryptic protein sample digests, proteomics data sets are growing dramatically in size and heterogeneity. The trend toward very large integrated data sets poses so far unsolved challenges to control the uncertainty of protein identifications going beyond well established confidence measures for peptide-spectrum matches. We present MAYU, a novel strategy that reliably estimates false discovery rates for protein identifications in large scale data sets. We validated and applied MAYU using various large proteomics data sets. The data show that the size of the data set has an important and previously underestimated impact on the reliability of protein identifications. We particularly found that protein false discovery rates are significantly elevated compared with those of peptide-spectrum matches. The function provided by MAYU is critical to control the quality of proteome data repositories and thereby to enhance any study relying on these data sources. The MAYU software is available as standalone software and also integrated into the Trans-Proteomic Pipeline.
Maternal Dietary Patterns and Pregnancy Outcome

Maternal nutritional status during pregnancy will affect the outcomes for the mother and the baby. Many analyses of the relationship between diet and outcome are often based on a single or a few food items or nutrients. However, foods are not consumed in isolation and dietary patterns can be used to assess the whole diet consumed. The use of dietary pattern analysis to understand nutritional intake and pregnancy outcome is becoming more and more popular. Many published studies have showed the association between maternal dietary patterns and pregnancy outcome. This review examined articles about the relationship between maternal dietary patterns and pregnancy outcome. As a modifiable factor, dietary patterns may be more applicable to clinical and pregnant health interventions.
Unsupervised Adaptation of Brain-Machine Interface Decoders

The performance of neural decoders can degrade over time due to non-stationarities in the relationship between neuronal activity and behavior. In this case, brain-machine interfaces (BMI) require adaptation of their decoders to maintain high performance across time. One way to achieve this is by use of periodical calibration phases, during which the BMI system (or an external human demonstrator) instructs the user to perform certain movements or behaviors. This approach has two disadvantages: (i) calibration phases interrupt the autonomous operation of the BMI and (ii) between two calibration phases the BMI performance might not be stable but continuously decrease. A better alternative would be that the BMI decoder is able to continuously adapt in an unsupervised manner during autonomous BMI operation, i.e., without knowing the movement intentions of the user. In the present article, we present an efficient method for such unsupervised training of BMI systems for continuous movement control. The proposed method utilizes a cost function derived from neuronal recordings, which guides a learning algorithm to evaluate the decoding parameters. We verify the performance of our adaptive method by simulating a BMI user with an optimal feedback control model and its interaction with our adaptive BMI decoder. The simulation results show that the cost function and the algorithm yield fast and precise trajectories toward targets at random orientations on a 2-dimensional computer screen. For initially unknown and non-stationary tuning parameters, our unsupervised method is still able to generate precise trajectories and to keep its performance stable in the long term. The algorithm can optionally work also with neuronal error-signals instead or in conjunction with the proposed unsupervised adaptation.
'Playing by the Book': Success and Failure in John Major's Approach to Prime Ministerial Media Management

Both the Thatcher and the Blair governments have been accused of politicising the Prime Ministerial press operation. This article asks whether it is possible to maintain a constitutionally clearer demarcation between the expressly political and the strictly governmental, and at the same time still pursue a successful communications strategy. Based on semi-structured interviews with both national journalists and government and party media managers, it uses the example of the Major governments to illustrate that it is not. But it also argues, using the same example, that, unless we insist on a simplistic and outmoded conception of 'prime ministerial power', there is no simple correlation between, on the one hand, success and professionalised political control and, on the other, failure and what is termed here a 'civil service' approach.
Progressive lossy-to-lossless coding of arbitrarily-sampled image data using the modified scattered data coding method

In earlier work, Demaret and Iske proposed the scattered data coding (SDC) method for (single-rate) coding of arbitrarily-sampled image data. In this paper, several modifications to the SDC method are proposed in order to remove some limitations of the original scheme, improve coding efficiency, and add a progressive lossy-to-lossless coding capability. Through experimental results, the proposed method is shown to yield a significant improvement in coding efficiency (relative to the original SDC method) as well as provide an efficient progressive lossy-to-lossless coding capability.
The nicotine content of common vegetables.

To the Editor: The presence of nicotine and its metabolite cotinine in the body fluids of nonsmokers is usually taken as evidence of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied 800 people, both smokers and nonsmokers, all of whom tested positive for urinary cotinine1. There is considerable evidence that nicotine is present in certain human foods, especially plants from the family Solanaceae (such as potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplant). Castro and Monji,2 Sheen,3 and Davis et al.4 have reported on the nicotine content of foods and drinks. We have been able to confirm .
1993 presidential address: What if the academy actually mattered?

In the spring of this year, Newsweek magazine published an article with the startling title, "The Death of Management" (Samuelson, 1993). When I saw it, I groaned to myself, "Just my luck. My year as president of the Academy of Management and the whole thing goes belly-up. " Actually, it was not as crushing an article as its title implied. It was mainly a rehash of the obvious and well-worn point that someone who succeeds in managing one enterprise will not necessarily do well in another one-that you carn't just parachute in and analyze your way out of any complex managerial dilemma. As if someone said you could. One more straw man skewered. Namely, the article did not exactly deal a fatal blow to our field or its premises. So, as Mark Twain said, news of our death is greatly exaggerated. But it gets one thinking. What if the field of management, or say, specifically the Academny of Management, did die? Which, in turn, gets one thinking, What if the Academy of Management never existed? What if we had no occasion to be here in this room today? To think in these terms is to conjure up Frank Capra's film classic, It's A Wonderful Life. In the movie, Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, the small-town banker who attempts to end his own life, only to be shown the error of his ways by his guardian angel named Clarence. Clarence's tactic, of course, is to take George Bailey back through time and show him the void that would have occurred if there had been no George Bailey, reminding him of all the lives he's touched and people he's helped-how the world is much better off because he's here. Let me be your guardian angel for a few moments, giving you a glimpse of what might have been if there were no Academy of Management. It will be an unsettling trip. Unlike George Bailey, we will find that things might have worked out very, very well without us. Frankly, I'm not
The Impact of Humor in Advertising: A Review

Abstract The use of humor has become common practice in advertising; yet our knowledge about its impact has not been updated since the last major review almost twenty years ago. In the interim, a great deal of humor research has been conducted. The outcome of this research only partially supports earlier conclusions and highlights the need to apply humor with care. Humor is by no means a guarantee of better ads, but its effect can be enhanced with careful consideration of the objectives one seeks to achieve as well as the audience, situation, and type of humor.
Efficient Multi-Foraging in Swarm Robotics

In the multi-foraging task under study, a group of robots has to efficiently retrieve two different types of prey to a nest. We define efficiency using a concept of energy that is spent by the robots when they leave the nest to explore the environment and gained when a prey is successfully retrieved to the nest. The goal of this study is to identify the characteristics of an efficient multi-foraging behaviour. We design and validate a mathematical model that is used to predict the optimal behaviour. This model allows us to evaluate the performance of a group of robots on an absolute scale. We design a decision algorithm and study its performance and adaptivity in a wide range of experimental situations. This algorithm takes into account information about the number of prey encountered but also about the number of robots encountered, so that a suitable number of robots are allocated to foraging while the remaining robots rest at the nest and spare energy.
Magic labellings of infinite graphs

There are many results on edge-magic, and vertex-magic, labellings of finite graphs. Here we consider magic labellings of countably infinite graphs over abelian groups. We also give an example of a finite connected graph that is edge-magic over one, but not over all, abelian groups of the appropriate order.
Transcendental Aspects, Ontological Commitments and Naturalistic Elements in Nietzsche's Thought

Nietzsche's views on knowledge have been interpreted in at least three incompatible ways – as transcendental, naturalistic or proto‐deconstructionist. While the first two share a commitment to the possibility of objective truth, the third reading denies this by highlighting Nietzsche's claims about the necessarily falsifying character of human knowledge (his so‐called error theory). This paper examines the ways in which his work can be construed as seeking ways of overcoming the strict opposition between naturalism and transcendental philosophy whilst fully taking into account the error theory (interpreted non‐literally, as a hyperbolic warning against uncritical forms of realism). In doing so, it clarifies the nature of Nietzsche's ontological commitments, both in the early and the later work, and shows that his relation to transcendental idealism is more subtle than is allowed by naturalistic interpreters while conversely accounting for the impossibility of conceiving the conditions of the possibility of knowledge as genuinely a priori.
A new cognitive evaluation battery for Down syndrome and its relevance for clinical trials

The recent prospect of pharmaceutical interventions for cognitive impairment of Down syndrome (DS) has boosted a number of clinical trials in this population. However, running the trials has raised some methodological challenges and questioned the prevailing methodology used to evaluate cognitive functioning of DS individuals. This is usually achieved by comparing DS individuals to matched healthy controls of the same mental age. We propose a new tool, the TESDAD Battery that uses comparison with age-matched typically developed adults. This is an advantageous method for probing the clinical efficacy of DS therapies, allowing the interpretation and prediction of functional outcomes in clinical trials. In our DS population the TESDAD battery permitted a quantitative assessment of cognitive defects, which indicated language dysfunction and deficits in executive function, as the most important contributors to other cognitive and adaptive behavior outcomes as predictors of functional change in DS. Concretely, auditory comprehension and functional academics showed the highest potential as end-point measures of therapeutic intervention for clinical trials: the former as a cognitive key target for therapeutic intervention, and the latter as a primary functional outcome measure of clinical efficacy. Our results also emphasize the need to explore the modulating effects of IQ, gender and age on cognitive enhancing treatments. Noticeably, women performed significantly better than men of the same age and IQ in most cognitive tests, with the most consistent differences occurring in memory and executive functioning and negative trends rarely emerged on quality of life linked to the effect of age after adjusting for IQ and gender. In sum, the TESDAD battery is a useful neurocognitive tool for probing the clinical efficacy of experimental therapies in interventional studies in the DS population suggesting that age-matched controls are advantageous for determining normalization of DS.
Active State Tracking With Sensing Costs: Analysis of Two-States and Methods for $n$-States

Active state tracking is needed in object classification, target tracking, medical diagnosis, and estimation of sparse signals among other various applications. Herein, active state tracking of a discrete-time, finite-state Markov chain is considered. Noisy Gaussian observations are dynamically collected by exerting appropriate control over their information content, while incurring a related sensing cost. The objective is to devise sensing strategies to optimize the tradeoff between tracking performance and sensing cost. A recently proposed Kalman–like estimator by Zois <italic>et al.</italic> is employed for state tracking. The associated mean–squared error and a generic sensing cost metric are then used in a partially observable Markov decision process formulation, and the optimal sensing strategy is derived via a dynamic programming recursion. The resulting recursion proves to be nonlinear, challenging control policy design. For two-state systems with scalar measurements, properties of the related cost functions are derived and sufficient conditions are provided regarding the structure of the optimal control policy enabling characterization of when passive state tracking is optimal. To overcome the associated computational burden of the optimal sensing strategy, two lower complexity strategies are proposed, which apply to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$</tex-math></inline-formula>–state systems with vector measurements. The performance of the proposed strategies is illustrated in a wireless body sensing application, where cost savings as high as <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$70\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> are demonstrated for a <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> detection error with respect to a static equal allocation sensing strategy.
Being Raised by White People : Navigating Racial Difference Among Adopted Multiracial Adults

There are increasing numbers of multiracial families created through marriage, adoption, birth, and a growing population of multiracial persons. Multiracials are a hidden but dominant group of transracially adopted children in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This paper introduces findings from an interpretive study of 25 transracially adopted multiracials regarding a set of experiences participants called “being raised by White people. ” Three aspects of this experience are explored: (1) the centrality yet absence of racial resemblance, (2) navigating discordant parent-child racial experiences, and (3) managing societal perceptions of transracial adoption. Whereas research suggests some parents believe race is less salient for multiracial children than for Black children, this study finds participants experienced highly racialized worlds into adulthood.
On transient responses of an ADMM-based distributed multi-agent optimization protocol

This paper is concerned with the transient responses of a distributed multi-agent optimization protocol based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Utilizing a representation of an ADMM-based distributed optimization protocol as a feedback system with a linear dynamical system and a nonlinear relation implied by the subgradient, analysis of the transient responses is provided by investigating the poles of the linear subsystem in accordance with the graph representing the communication between agents and the function to be optimized. Several numerical examples are shown to illustrate the results.
Aporphinoid Antagonists of 5‐HT2A Receptors: Further Evaluation of Ring A Substituents and the Size of Ring C

A series of ring A‐modified analogs of nantenine as well as structural variants in ring C were synthesized and evaluated for antagonist activity at 5‐HT2A and α1A receptors. Halogenation improves 5‐HT2A antagonist potency in molecules containing a C1 methoxyl/C2 methoxyl or C1 methoxyl/C2 hydroxyl moiety. Bromination or iodination (but not chlorination) with the latter moiety also significantly increased α1A antagonist potency. Homologation or contraction of ring C adversely affected antagonist activity at both receptors, implying that a six‐membered ring C motif is beneficial for high antagonist potency at both receptors. Molecular docking studies suggest that the improved antagonist activity (by virtue of improved affinity) of C3‐halogenated aporphines in this study is attributable to favorable interactions with the C3 halogen and F339 and/or F340.
Utility of MRI in spinal arteriovenous fistula

Objective and background: Spinal arteriovenous fistula (SAVF) is a rare but treatable cause of myelopathy. The diagnostic accuracy of MRI for detecting SAVF is unknown. Our objective was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of MRI in the diagnosis SAVF and characterize its radiographic features. Methods: We conducted a retrospective case-control study of all SAVF treated at our institution from 1995 to 2010, including patients who presented with myelopathy, had MRIs available for review, and underwent either spinal angiogram or had another diagnosis confirming test. Two blinded board-certified radiologists reviewed a series of MRIs and listed the most likely diagnoses, radiologic findings, and recommended follow-up. Sensitivities and specificities of MRI compared to spinal angiogram were calculated. We additionally conducted a literature review of cases describing MRI findings in spinal dural and perimedullary arteriovenous fistula. Results: We identified 36 cases of SAVF (median age 56, 67% male) and 32 controls (median age 54, 44% male). MRI was sensitive in identifying SAVF as the primary diagnosis in 94% (radiologist A, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.87–1.02) and 89% (radiologist B, 95% CI 0.79–0.99) of cases. The sensitivity of spinal cord T2 hyperintensity or flow voids was 100% and the specificity of T2 hyperintensity and flow voids was 97%. Conclusions: Among patients with myelopathy, spinal angiography is mandatory in the presence of both T2 hyperintensity and flow voids but may be unnecessary if both of these findings are absent. Neurology® 2012;79:25–30
Agenda-Setting with Bi-Weekly Data on Content of Three National Media

Thus, there is a rich content lode. With this new tool, we can now reassess agenda-setting conclusions and perhaps resolve inconsistencies which have emerged from over fifty earlier studies. We have chosen to focus on three questions: 1) Is agenda-setting strong or weak? Do people respond to media content or don’t they? (We report now that the results are positive .) 2) How does the choice of issues affect results? The answer to this will lead to greater mysteries: why d o issues differ in responsiveness? Why d o these differences vary over time? Why, for example, does media coverage of inflation/cost of living produce a low response at one time and a high response at another? 3) How quickly do people respond? Is a build-up of coverage needed to create response, as in an advertising campaign?
A Meanshift-based imbedded computer vision system design for real-time target tracking

Visual tracking is among the newly burgeoning subjects along with advancement of computer vision systems, and embedded tracking system is a conjunction of hardware-embedded communications and control system, as well as software-embedded tracking system. In this paper, the Meanshift algorithm implementing visual tracking is introduced. The integral hardware design is based on the TE6410 development board as the platform, and on WinCE as the operating system. The software design involves coding for the embedded operating system and applying the multi-thread technology. Combined with a drive-module of servomotor, a video camera and a VGA display, the tracking test is conducted, showing that within the limited number of iterations, the Meanshift is capable of visual tracking in a real-time manner using the developed imbedded system.
Constructing Theories of Change

`Theories of Change' has proved a popular approach for both evaluators and commissioners of complex social programmes, but the ways in which theories of change (ToC) evaluations have been implemented show considerable variation. This article draws on the ongoing work of the National Evaluation of the Children's Fund (NECF) and argues that the literature which discusses the ToC approach has neglected the process by which theories of change are constructed by stakeholders (and the implications of this for evaluation), while consistently describing such theories as `underdeveloped'. The authors argue that programme theory evaluations have relied on a process that emphasizes the importance of obtaining clarity at the outset, but that the detail of such theories and their implementation can only be obtained over time. An alternative approach is outlined, which the authors argue allows for a better understanding of programme theory, and hence knowledge and learning, to emerge.
Performance of an 8×8 LiNbO3switch matrix as a gigahertz self-routing switching node

The performance of an LiNbO3 integrated-optic crossbar switch as a node in a gigahertz self-routing network is measured. Switch throughput supports 12.5 Gbit/s signals with a measured switching speed of 1.33 GHz. Crosstalk due to RF/ acousto-optic coupling and modulation depth are reported at 1.33 GHz. Optical self-routing of l00 Mbit/s information using the 8×8 switch is demonstrated.