Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Subdomains within Scene-Selective Cortex: Parahippocampal Place Area, Retrosplenial Complex, and Occipital Place Area

Functional MRI studies suggest that at least three brain regions in human visual cortex—the parahippocampal place area (PPA), retrosplenial complex (RSC), and occipital place area (OPA; often called the transverse occipital sulcus)—represent large-scale information in natural scenes. Tuning of voxels within each region is often assumed to be functionally homogeneous. To test this assumption, we recorded blood oxygenation level-dependent responses during passive viewing of complex natural movies. We then used a voxelwise modeling framework to estimate voxelwise category tuning profiles within each scene-selective region. In all three regions, cluster analysis of the voxelwise tuning profiles reveals two functional subdomains that differ primarily in their responses to animals, man-made objects, social communication, and movement. Thus, the conventional functional definitions of the PPA, RSC, and OPA appear to be too coarse. One attractive hypothesis is that this consistent functional subdivision of scene-selective regions is a reflection of an underlying anatomical organization into two separate processing streams, one selectively biased toward static stimuli and one biased toward dynamic stimuli. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Visual scene perception is a critical ability to survive in the real world. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the human brain contains neural circuitry selective for visual scenes. Here we show that responses in three scene-selective areas—identified in previous studies—carry information about many object and action categories encountered in daily life. We identify two subregions in each area: one that is selective for categories of man-made objects, and another that is selective for vehicles and locomotion-related action categories that appear in dynamic scenes. This consistent functional subdivision may reflect an anatomical organization into two processing streams, one biased toward static stimuli and one biased toward dynamic stimuli.
Deflection of Densified Beech and Aspen Woods as a Function of Selected Factors

Effects of selected factors (wood species (Beech, Aspen), degree of densification (10%, 20%), material thickness (4 mm, 6 mm, 10 mm, and 18 mm), and number of loading cycles (0, 10,000)) were analyzed relative to the bendability of densified wood. The monitored characteristics were the deflection at proportional limit (YE), deflection at maximum limit (YP), and their ratio (YE:YP). One of the main causes of unfavorable wood bending is its low deflection under tensile stress parallel to the fiber in comparison to compressive stress in the same direction. From the results it is clear that the deflection at the proportionality limit depended on all monitored factors. The deflection at the yield point was not influenced by cyclic loading, and the ratio of deflection was influenced by material thickness only. Based on this ratio, the moulding properties of material can be identified. There was a strong correlation between the two deflection limits. The results are an important foundation for progress in the production of laminated materials with specific properties for intended use.
Biochar effects on nitrous oxide and methane emissions from soil

Since the literature review by Van Zwieten et al (2009), our understanding of the influence of biochar on the non-CO2 greenhouse gases (GHG), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) has expanded significantly. Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas (ca. 300 times that of CO2) and an important ozone depleting compound (Ravishankara et al, 2009). Its atmospheric concentration has increased from 270 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) in the pre-industrial era to over 324ppbv (Ussiri and Lal, 2013; IPCC 2013). Agricultural emissions (4–6Tg N2O–N yr −1) result from N fertilizer use and manure management, while emissions from natural soils (6–7Tg N2O–N yr −1) represent 56–70 per cent of all global N2O sources (Syakila and Kroeze, 2011). Methane has a radiative forcing approximately 25 times that of CO2 (Forster et al, 2007) and its concentration has more than doubled in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times to a concentration of 1803ppbv (IPCC, 2013). Soils are a major sink for CH4 and to our knowledge the last assessment of the human impact of land-use changes and fertilizer use on global CH4 consumption was made 20 years ago (Ojima et al, 1993); the authors estimated that human activities had already reduced the global net CH4 sink capacity by 30 per cent. Since then, the rising use of mineral N fertilizer (Galloway et al, 2008), soil degradation and forest clearcutting, rising atmospheric CO2 and frequency of heat waves (Hansen et al, 2012) will further have reduced the global methanotrophic CH4 sink. Therefore, any positive contribution that biochar can provide to agricultural soils in terms of strengthening the soil CH4 sink is of global significance. The hypotheses that biochar decreases emissions of N2O will be tested via a metaanalysis of published data, while summarizing current understanding of the underlying processes. Impacts of biochar on CH4 processes in soil are reviewed but the quantity of data at the time of writing was insufficient to complete a meta-analysis. This chapter aims to guide further work in the development of
Improvement of the Dissolution Rate of Piroxicam by Surface Solid Dispersion

In order to improve the dissolution behavior of piroxicam, the surface solid dispersion of the drug in microcrystalline cellulose and in potato starch was prepared by coevaporation method. The in vitro dissolution study was performed according to the USP method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffractometry. It was found that the dissolution rate and the dissolution parameters of the drug from the surface solid dispersion were higher than those of the intact drug. The degree of the dissolution rate enhancement depended on the nature and the amount of the carrier, i.e., the higher amount of the carrier used, the higher dissolution rate was obtained. The dissolution rate of the drug in potato starch based surface solid dispersion was significantly higher than that in the microcrystalline cellulose based. The surface adsorption of the drug particles onto the surface of the carrier was observed in their physical mixtures. This phenomenon had lowered the dissolution rate of the drug. The extent of the surface adsorption was more significant in piroxicam-microcrystalline cellulose system. According to the results, potato starch is the carrier of choice for preparing the piroxicam surface solid dispersion.
Response Instructions and Racial Differences in A Situational Judgment Test

This study explored the effect of response instructions in a paper-and-pencil situational judgment test (SJT) on racial differences. Two different response instructions, i.e., knowledge and behavioral tendency, using the exact same test items were examined in a within-subjects design. Results showed that Black-White differences exist in both versions of the test. Further, racial differences were found to be a function of cognitive saturation of the test. The SJT with knowledge instructions was more cognitively loaded than was the same test with behavioral tendency instructions. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed in the context of reducing adverse impact in personnel selection. Situational judgment tests (SJTs) are designed to assess an applicant’s judgment
Inter-process Communication Using Pipes in FPGA-Based Adaptive Computing

In FPGA-based adaptive computing, Inter-Process Communications (IPC) are required to exchange information among hardware processes which time-multiplex the resources in a same reconfigurable region. In this paper, we use pipes for IPC and analyze the performance in terms of throughput, throughput efficiency and latency in switching contexts. We also present two practical implementations using FPGA BRAM and external DDR memory. Experimental results expose the key role that context switching plays in determining the IPC performance at various pipe sizes and data rates.
Prediction of side weir discharge coefficient by radial basis function neural network

Modeling of Hydraulic structures has received much attention in recent years due to these effect on the increasing the hydro system performance.1 Weirs are the common structure which uses in the most of water engineering projects such as hydropower systems, irrigation and drainage networks and sewage networks. Side weir has many possible uses in the hydraulic engineering field and has also been investigated as an important structure in hydro systems.2,3 Side weir is a hydraulic structure placed on the side of the channel and sometime uses as water surface controller structure in the dam an irrigation projects. Whereas the main duty of the side weir is removing the excess flow from the hydro systems.4,5 Figure 1 shows an schematic scheme of the side weir in subcritical flow condition. Study on the side weir hydraulics conducted by the physical and numerical approaches. In the physical studies field, researchers tried to improve the performance of side weir by proposing the various shape for the crest of the side weir and compared this performance with a rectangular shape as a standard form for side weir. In this regard, labyrinth, oblique, semi– elliptical, curved plan–form and trapezoidal sharp and broad–crested can be mentioned.5–13 Researchers who conducted an experimental study on the hydraulic side weir proposed empirical equations for calculating the side weir discharge coefficient. A summary of the most famous empirical formulas gives in the Table 1. In the numerical modeling field in addition to solving the government hydraulically equations by numerical approaches and such as Runge Kutta Method, the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) techniques have been used to simulate the flow over side weir. Numerical solving the government equations leads to define the hydraulic parameters such as water surface profile, distribution of velocity and pressure and flow pattern.14,15 Another way as numerical modeling are related to use the artificial neural network (ANN) models for predicting the hydraulic properties of side weir such as discharge coefficient. In this regard, the Multilayer Preceptor (MLP) neural network, Adaptive Neuro–Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) was used by researchers. Developing the ANN models is based on the dataset. It means that to predict the hydraulic phenomenon by neural network techniques, the parameters which are an influence on the phenomenon should be measured at the previous. The ANN models can use as standalone and also applied as a participant of the numerical methods in numerical simulation to increase the accuracy of the numerical modeling. The results of using the mentioned neural network models indicate that ANN models are more accurate.10,15–19 In this research, the radial basis function (RBF) neural network which has high performance in pattern recognition and image processing is developed for predicting the side weir discharge coefficient and its performance is compared with empirical formula and multilayer perceptron neural network as common ANN model which uses by most of the researchers.
DD-HDS: A Method for Visualization and Exploration of High-Dimensional Data

Mapping high-dimensional data in a low-dimensional space, for example, for visualization, is a problem of increasingly major concern in data analysis. This paper presents data-driven high-dimensional scaling (DD-HDS), a nonlinear mapping method that follows the line of multidimensional scaling (MDS) approach, based on the preservation of distances between pairs of data. It improves the performance of existing competitors with respect to the representation of high-dimensional data, in two ways. It introduces (1) a specific weighting of distances between data taking into account the concentration of measure phenomenon and (2) a symmetric handling of short distances in the original and output spaces, avoiding false neighbor representations while still allowing some necessary tears in the original distribution. More precisely, the weighting is set according to the effective distribution of distances in the data set, with the exception of a single user-defined parameter setting the tradeoff between local neighborhood preservation and global mapping. The optimization of the stress criterion designed for the mapping is realized by ldquoforce-directed placementrdquo (FDP). The mappings of low- and high-dimensional data sets are presented as illustrations of the features and advantages of the proposed algorithm. The weighting function specific to high-dimensional data and the symmetric handling of short distances can be easily incorporated in most distance preservation-based nonlinear dimensionality reduction methods.
The Lindeberg-Lévy theorem for martingales

The central limit theorem of Lindeberg [7] and Levy [3] states that if {mi, m2, ■ ■ • } is an independent, identically distributed sequence of random variables with finite second moments, then the distribution of ra-1'2^^! uk approaches the normal distribution with mean 0 and variance £{m? } , assuming that £{mi} =0, which entails no loss of generality. In the following result, the assumption of indepence is weakened.
The need and opportunity for donation after circulatory death worldwide

Purpose of review The global shortage of organ donors will not be resolved solely by relying on deceased donation following a brain death determination (DBD). Expansion of deceased donation after circulatory death (DCD) will be needed to address the shortfall of organs for transplantation. Approximately 120 000 organ transplants are performed each year; however, the WHO estimates that this number of transplants only resolves 10% of the annual worldwide transplant need. Recent findings The report addresses the opportunity of DCD expansion by evaluating the DCD potential that is not being realized, the utility of DCD enabling DBD to emerge in some clinical situations, by the effectiveness of a donor registry in achieving DCD, and by the current clinical research of heart, lung, and liver transplantation from DCD. Summary The future of deceased donation must include DCD and ex-vivo organ repair if the organ shortage is to be reconciled even partially to the ongoing demand. Although the religious and legal impediments have been overcome to determine brain death, the possibility of DCD has not been addressed. A program of DCD is feasible in all countries with transplantation services. The excellent results following kidney and lung transplantation suggest opportunities of heart and liver transplantation should be the focus of needed DCD accomplishment in the near future.
Formulation of a Heuristic Rule for Misuse and Anomaly Detection for U2R Attacks in Solaris Operating System Environment

This paper proposes a heuristic rule for detection of user-to-root (U2R) attacks against Solaris TM operating system. Relevant features for developing heuristic rules were manually mined using Solaris TM Basic Security Module audit data. The proposed rule was tested on both DARPA 1998 and 1999 intrusion detection datasets. Results show that all user-to-root attacks exploiting the suid program were detected with 100% probability and with zero false alarms. The rule can detect both successful and unsuccessful U2R attempts against the Solaris TM operating system. The proposed rule is general enough to detect any U2R attack that leverages the buffer overflow technique. Empirical results indicate that the rule also detected novel user-to-root attacks in DARPA 1998 intrusion detection dataset. Hence the rule has the potential and can be used for anomaly detection.
Alpha Centauri's siren call has frustrated planet hunters.

Alpha Centauri, a three-star system just 4 light-years away that is the sun9s nearest neighbor, ought to be a great place to look for Earth-like planets. But last week, at a meeting of the European Astronomical Society here, astronomers lamented that the system has so far thwarted discovery efforts—and announced new schemes to probe it. The two sunlike stars, Alpha Centauri A and B, orbit each other closely while Proxima Centauri, a tempestuous red dwarf, hangs onto the system tenuously in a much more distant orbit. In 2016, astronomers discovered an Earth-mass planet around Proxima Centauri, but few think the planet, blasted by radiation and fierce stellar winds, is habitable. Astrobiologists believe the other two stars are more likely to host temperate, Earth-like worlds.
The combination of four different clinical decision rules and an age-adjusted D-dimer cut-off increases the number of patients in whom acute pulmonary embolism can safely be excluded

Summary Four clinical decision rules (CDRs) (Wells score, Revised Geneva Score (RGS), simplified Wells score and simplified RGS) safely exclude pulmonary embolism (PE), when combined with a normal D-dimer test. Recently, an age-adjusted cut-off of the D-dimer (patient’s age x 10 μg/l) safely increased the number of patients above 50 years in whom PE could safely be excluded. We validated the age-adjusted D-dimer test and assessed its performance in combination with the four CDRs in patients with suspected PE. A total of 414 consecutive patients with suspected PE who were older than 50 years were included. The proportion of patients in whom PE could be excluded with an ‘unlikely’ clinical probability combined with a normal age-adjusted D-dimer test was calculated and compared with the proportion using the conventional D-dimer cut-off. We assessed venous thromboembolism (VTE) failure rates during three months follow-up. In patients above 50 years, a normal age-adjusted D-dimer level in combination with an ‘unlikely’ CDR substantially increased the number of patients in whom PE could be safely excluded: from 13–14% to 19–22% in all CDRs similarly. In patients over 70 years, the number of exclusions was nearly four-fold higher, and the original Wells score excluded most patients, with an increase from 6% to 21% combined with the conventional and age-adjusted D-dimer cut-off, respectively. The number of VTE failures was also comparable in all CDRs. In conclusion, irrespective of which CDR is used, the age-adjusted D-dimer substantially increases the number of patients above 50 years in whom PE can be safely excluded.
Evaluation of the Optimal Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin Value as a Screening Biomarker for Urinary Tract Infections in Children

Background Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a promising biomarker in the detection of kidney injury. Early diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI), one of the most common infections in children, is important in order to avert long-term consequences. We assessed whether serum NGAL (sNGAL) or urine NGAL (uNGAL) would be reliable markers of UTI and evaluated the appropriate diagnostic cutoff value for the screening of UTI in children. Methods A total of 812 urine specimens and 323 serum samples, collected from pediatric patients, were analyzed. UTI was diagnosed on the basis of culture results and symptoms reported by the patients. NGAL values were measured by using ELISA. Results NGAL values were more elevated in the UTI cases than in the non-UTI cases, but the difference between the values were not statistically significant (P=0.190 for sNGAL and P=0.064 for uNGAL). The optimal diagnostic cutoff values of sNGAL and uNGAL for UTI screening were 65.25 ng/mL and 5.75 ng/mL, respectively. Conclusions We suggest that it is not appropriate to use NGAL as a marker for early diagnosis of UTI in children.
Evaluation of Quantitative Criteria for Glioma Grading With Static and Dynamic 18F-FDopa PET/CT

Purpose The aim of this study was to compare various acquisition and processing protocols for noninvasive glioma grading using either static or dynamic 18F-FDopa PET. Methods Dynamic studies were performed in 33 patients. Based on histopathological analysis, 18 patients had a high-grade (HG) tumor and 15 patients had a low-grade (LG) tumor. For static imaging, SUVmean and SUVmax were calculated for different acquisition time ranges after injection. For dynamic imaging, the transport rate constant k1 was calculated according to a compartmental kinetic analysis using an image-derived input function. Results With the use of a 5-minute static imaging protocol starting at 38 minutes after injection, newly diagnosed HG tumors could be distinguished from LG tumors with a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 90% with a threshold of SUVmean of 2.5. In recurrent tumors, a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 80% for identifying HG tumors were obtained with a threshold set to 1.8. Dynamic imaging only slightly, but nonsignificantly, improved differential diagnosis. Conclusions Static and dynamic imaging without blood sampling can discriminate between LG and HG for both newly diagnosed and recurrent gliomas. In dynamic imaging, excellent discrimination was obtained by considering the transport rate constant k1 of tumors. In static imaging, the best discrimination based on SUV was obtained for SUVmean calculated from a 5-minute acquisition started at 38 minutes after injection.
Comparison of Xpert MTB/RIF Assay and GenoType MTBDRplus DNA Probes for Detection of Mutations Associated with Rifampicin Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Background GeneXpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) and Genotype MTBDRplus (DRplus) are two World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed probe based molecular drug susceptibility testing (DST) methods for rapid diagnosis of drug resistant tuberculosis. Both methods target the same 81 bp Rifampicin Resistance Determining Region (RRDR) of bacterial RNA polymerase β subunit (rpoB) for detection of Rifampicin (RIF) resistance associated mutations using DNA probes. So there is a correspondence of the probes of each other and expected similarity of probe binding. Methods We analyzed 92 sputum specimens by Xpert, DRplus and LJ proportion method (LJ-DST). We compared molecular DSTs with gold standard LJ-DST. We wanted to see the agreement level of two molecular methods for detection of RIF resistance associated mutations. The 81bp RRDR region of rpoB gene of discrepant cases between the two molecular methods was sequenced by Sanger sequencing. Results The agreement of Xpert and DRplus with LJ-DST for detection of RIF susceptibility was found to be 93.5% and 92.4%, respectively. We also found 92.4% overall agreement of two molecular methods for the detection of RIF susceptibility. A total of 84 out of 92 samples (91.3%) had agreement on the molecular locus of RRDR mutation by DRplus and Xpert. Sanger sequencing of 81bp RRDR revealed that Xpert probes detected seven of eight discrepant cases correctly and DRplus was erroneous in all the eight cases. Conclusion Although the overall concordance with LJ-DST was similar for both Xpert and DRplus assay, Xpert demonstrated more accuracy in the detection of RIF susceptibility for discrepant isolates compared with DRplus. This observation would be helpful for the improvement of probe based detection of drug resistance associated mutations especially rpoB mutation in M. tuberculosis.
Text detection in video images using adaptive edge detection and Stroke Width verification

Text displayed in a video provides important information about the video content. Therefore, it can be utilized as a valuable source for indexing and retrieval in digital video libraries. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for efficient automated text detection in video data: Firstly, we developed an edge-based multi-scale text detector to identify potential text candidates with high recall rate and small computational time expenses. Secondly, candidate text lines are refined by an image entropy based improvement algorithm and a Stroke Width Transform (SWT) based verification procedure. Both types of text, overlay and recorded scene text can be localized reliably. The accuracy of the proposed approach is proven by evaluation.