Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling the correlation between modality semantics and facial expressions

Facial expression plays an important role in face-to-face human-computer communication. Although considerable efforts have been made to enable computers to speak like human beings, how to express the rich semantic information through facial expression still remains a challenging problem. In this paper, we use the concept of “modality” to describe the semantic information which is related to the mood, attitude and intention. We propose a novel parametric mapping model to quantitatively characterize the non-verbal modality semantics for facial expression animation. In particular, seven-dimensional semantic parameters (SP) are first defined to describe the modality information. Then, a set of motion patterns represented with Key FAP (KFAP) is used to explore the correlations of MPEG-4 facial animation parameters (FAP). The SP-KFAP mapping model is trained with the linear regression algorithm (AMMSE) and an artificial neural network (ANN) respectively. Empirical analysis on a public facial image dataset verifies the strong correlation between the SP and KFAP. We further apply the mapping model to two different applications: facial expression synthesis and modality semantics detection from facial images. Both objective and subjective experimental results on the public datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed model. The results also indicate that the ANN method can significantly improve the prediction accuracies in both applications.
Characterization and Expression of the Human A2a Adenosine Receptor Gene

Abstract: The actions of the neurotransmitter adenosine are mediated by a family of high‐affinity, G protein‐coupled receptors. We have characterized the gene for the human A2a subtype of adenosine receptor (hA2aR) and determined levels of A2aR mRNA in human brain regions and nonneural tissues. Human genomic Southern blot analysis demonstrates the presence of a single gene encoding the hA2aR located on chromosome 22. Two overlapping cosmids containing the hA2aR gene were isolated from a chromosome 22 library and characterized. Southern blot and sequence analyses demonstrate that the hA2aR gene spans ∼9–10 kb with a single intron interrupting the coding sequence between the regions encoding transmembrane domains III and IV. The sequence of the hA2aR gene diverged from the reported cDNA structure in the 5′ untranslated region. This divergence appears to result from an artifact in the construction of the original cDNA library. By northern blot analysis, high expression of the hA2aR gene was identified in the caudate nucleus with low levels of expression in other brain regions. High expression was also seen in immune tissues; lesser A2aR expression was detected in heart and lung. The gene for the A2a subtype of receptor for the neurotransmitter adenosine falls in the class of intron containing G protein‐coupled receptor genes. Expression in the basal ganglia is consistent with a role for the hA2aR in motor control. Activation of the A2aR may also regulate immune responses and cardiopulmonary function.
Two independent pathways of regulated necrosis mediate ischemia–reperfusion injury

Regulated necrosis (RN) may result from cyclophilin (Cyp)D-mediated mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) and receptor-interacting protein kinase (RIPK)1-mediated necroptosis, but it is currently unclear whether there is one common pathway in which CypD and RIPK1 act in or whether separate RN pathways exist. Here, we demonstrate that necroptosis in ischemia–reperfusion injury (IRI) in mice occurs as primary organ damage, independent of the immune system, and that mice deficient for RIPK3, the essential downstream partner of RIPK1 in necroptosis, are protected from IRI. Protection of RIPK3-knockout mice was significantly stronger than of CypD-deficient mice. Mechanistically, in vivo analysis of cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury and hyperacute TNF-shock models in mice suggested the distinctness of CypD-mediated MPT from RIPK1/RIPK3-mediated necroptosis. We, therefore, generated CypD-RIPK3 double-deficient mice that are viable and fertile without an overt phenotype and that survived prolonged IRI, which was lethal to each single knockout. Combined application of the RIPK1 inhibitor necrostatin-1 and the MPT inhibitor sanglifehrin A confirmed the results with mutant mice. The data demonstrate the pathophysiological coexistence and corelevance of two separate pathways of RN in IRI and suggest that combination therapy targeting distinct RN pathways can be beneficial in the treatment of ischemic injury.
Aspergillus terreus: how inoculum size and host characteristics affect its virulence.

Aspergillus terreus is a common soil saprophyte and the only member of the genus Aspergillus that produces globose, heavy-walled hyaline cells laterally on the hyphae, called accessory conidia or aleurioconidia [5‐7]. Accessory conidia can be produced singly or in clusters in vitro and in vivo. Identification of accessory conidia in tissues of infected patients is a strong indication that the infecting organism is A. terreus . D eak et al [6, 7] suggested that accessory conidia may play a role in the dissemination of disease, and recent data indicated that accessory conidia can induce elevated inflammatory responses in a model of pulmonary aspergillosis. A significant number of A. terreus isolates are resistant to amphotericin B, a polyene that had been the standard of care for the treatment of invasive fungal infections prior to the introduction of newer azoles [4, 8]. The exact mechanism of amphotericin B resistance has not yet been defined, but the level of catalase production in A. terreus may contribute to amphotericin B resistance [9]. The newer agents, such as voriconazole, posaconazole, and caspofungin, are associated with more-successful outcomes, compared with amphotericin B
Pharmacokinetic evaluation of prasugrel for the treatment of myocardial infarction

Introduction: Prasugrel is a novel P2Y12 inhibitor approved for treatment of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Areas covered: This article focuses on the pharmacokinetics of prasugrel and recently published pharmacodynamic and clinical studies. The authors searched PubMed and Ovid databases for English language pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and clinical studies which described the use of prasugrel in human subjects and patients, published through October 2013. The keyword ‘prasugrel’ was used. Expert opinion: Prasugrel exhibits favorable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties compared to clopidogrel. These effects have translated to significant clinical benefits, despite the increased bleeding risk, in the context of ACS with primary PCI. Recent clinical trial evidence does not support the use of prasugrel in other ACS settings at this time, including medical management of non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction and routine pretreatment prior to angiography. Careful patient selection for prasugrel is also imperative, taking into account the need for maintenance dose reductions in certain patient subgroups. Antiplatelet decision making for high-risk patients in the future may be facilitated with the use of both genotypic and phenotypic characteristics, including platelet function, and should be an imperative for future research efforts.
FIGs: A Comparative Study of the Residential Component of Freshman Interest Groups

10 11 Through his research on college impact, Astin (1993) developed a conceptual model for studying college student development. Astin's input-environment-output (I-E-O) model can be used to understand the effects of FIG membership on the development of first-year college students. Astin (1993) writes that inputs refer to the characteristics of the student at the time of initial entry to the institution. This suggests that all first-year students bring with them a variety of different backgrounds, which shape their approach to the college environment. In this study, the environment-the various programs, policies, faculty, peers, and educational experiences to which the student is exposed-was identified as the acts associated with FIG membership, such as attending class and living together. According to Astin (1993), outcome refers to the student's characteristics after exposure to the environment. For the purpose of this study the outcome measures were students' perceived levels of academic and social integration. This report begins with a literature review containing past research pertinent to understanding the influence of FIG membership on first-year students. A methodology section, outlining the research methods used in this study follows. Finally, results are provided, which compare and contrast experiences of students belonging to residential and non-residential FIGs.
Cognitive performance in older women relative to ApoE-epsilon4 genotype and aerobic fitness.

INTRODUCTION Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype and aerobic fitness are each associated with cognitive performance in older adults. However, their potentially interactive effects on cognitive performance have not been examined. PURPOSE The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether ApoE genotype and aerobic fitness interact to uniquely impact memory performance and executive functioning. A secondary purpose was to examine the interactive effects on other measures of cognition to provide a more comprehensive assessment of cognitive abilities across a broad range of functions. METHODS Community-dwelling, cognitively normal older women (N = 90) provided blood samples to allow for assessment of ApoE genotype, completed cognitive tests, and performed a maximal aerobic fitness test. Primary outcome variables were the auditory verbal learning test (AVLT), the complex figures test (CFT), and the Wisconsin card-sorting task (WCST). Secondary outcome variables were the block design test and the paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT). RESULTS Regression analyses indicated that aerobic fitness was associated with significantly better performance on measures of the AVLT, the CFT, and the PASAT for the ApoE-epsilon4 homozygotes. CONCLUSION The preliminary findings from this study support the possibility that aerobic fitness is positively associated with the memory performance of those individuals at most genetic risk for Alzheimer disease.
Does Segregation Still Matter? The Impact of Student Composition on Academic Achievement in High School

The Coleman report, published 12 years after the Brown decision, confirmed that widespread school segregation in the United States created inequality of educational opportunity. This study examines whether racial and socioeconomic segregation, which is on the rise in the United States, is still contributing to the achievement differences among students. The study used data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 to estimate multilevel models of achievement growth between Grades 8 and 12 in mathematics, science, reading, and history for a sample of 14,217 students attending a representative sample of 913 U.S. high schools. The study found that the average socioeconomic level of students’ schools had as much impact on their achievement growth as their own socioeconomic status, net of other background factors. Moreover, school socioeconomic status had as much impact on advantaged as on disadvantaged students, and almost as much impact on Whites as on Blacks, raising questions about the likely impact of widespread integration. The impact of socioeconomic composition was explained by four school characteristics: teacher expectations, the amount of homework that students do, the number of rigorous courses that students take, and students’ feelings about safety. The results suggest that schools serving mostly lower-income students tend to be organized and operated differently than those serving more-affluent students, transcending other school-level differences such as public or private, large or small. This article then addresses the question of whether such school characteristics can be changed by policies to reform schools and funding systems versus policies to desegregate schools.
Communicating numeric quantities in context: implications for decision science and rationality claims

Perhaps more than most areas of cognitive psychology, the study of human judgment and decision-making relies heavily on experimental tasks communicated through written descriptions that convey numeric quantifiers as primary sources of information. Subjects in such studies usually are required to use such information to make choices, indicate preferences, or offer judgments. These responses are compared to normative benchmarks, resulting in the researchers drawing conclusions about the quality, coherence, or rationality of human judgment and decision-making (Arrow, 1982; Tversky and Kahneman, 1986; Stanovich and West, 2000). Most of this body of research has paid little attention (a) to how subjects interpret numeric information conveyed in writing and (b) to how those interpretations are influenced by context (Mandel and Vartanian, 2011; Teigen, in press). More often than not, researchers simply assume that subjects will interpret numeric quantities conveyed in experimental tasks as exact values, and also that subjects should interpret expressed numbers as precise quantities. Yet it is uncontroversial in linguistics that numeric quantifiers may be treated as exact or approximate values, and where their interpretations are approximate, they may be treated as one-sided (e.g., at least, which is lower bounded, or at most, which is upper bounded) or two-sided (e.g., roughly or about). Linguistic accounts of numeric quantifiers (e.g., Horn, 1989; Carston, 1998; Levinson, 2000; Geurts, 2006; Breheny, 2008) do not support the normative claim (or assumption) that a precise “bilateral” reading of such quantifiers consistent with exactly is the proper reading. Although linguistic accounts differ in what they posit as possible semantic defaults, even those proposing a bilateral semantics, such as Breheny (2008), specify pathways for pragmatically derived unilateral interpretations, such as interpreting a numeric quantifier, x, as at least x or at most x. More generally, the degree to which decision researchers seem confident in defining the meaning of linguistic terms for others runs counter to a fundamental idea in the philosophy of language, which holds that the meanings of words are definable only through their actual use in language (e.g., Wittgenstein, 1953; Austin, 1979). It also runs counter to psycholinguistic evidence indicating that even 5-year olds understand that numeric quantifiers should be interpreted as “at least” in some contexts (Musolino, 2004). And it runs counter to work in experimental pragmatics indicating that people develop context-sensitive scalar implicatures as they develop. For instance, they come to understand that although some logically entails all, it usually pragmatically excludes all because it would be infelicitous to use some if one meant all (Moxey and Sanford, 2000; Noveck, 2001; Noveck and Reboul, 2008).
Still Jumping on the Balance Beam: Continued Use of Perceptual Motor Programs in Australian Schools

Perceptual motor programs (PMPs) are used widely in Australian schools. This study reports on an analysis of the information about the uses and the rationales for these programs drawn from the websites of Australian schools. Wide-ranging claims are made for the benefits of these programs for students with difficulties and for typically developing students but there is evidence that they are not effective in improving academic and other skills. Although the survey is limited to 117 schools with websites that mention PMPs, the uncritical acceptance of these programs by schools and teachers is of concern. Calls are made for professional bodies, teacher training institutions and government departments concerned with education to disseminate clear guidelines on effective interventions to schools and teachers.
Predicting folding free energy changes upon single point mutations

MOTIVATION The folding free energy is an important characteristic of proteins stability and is directly related to protein's wild-type function. The changes of protein's stability due to naturally occurring mutations, missense mutations, are typically causing diseases. Single point mutations made in vitro are frequently used to assess the contribution of given amino acid to the stability of the protein. In both cases, it is desirable to predict the change of the folding free energy upon single point mutations in order to either provide insights of the molecular mechanism of the change or to design new experimental studies. RESULTS We report an approach that predicts the free energy change upon single point mutation by utilizing the 3D structure of the wild-type protein. It is based on variation of the molecular mechanics Generalized Born (MMGB) method, scaled with optimized parameters (sMMGB) and utilizing specific model of unfolded state. The corresponding mutations are built in silico and the predictions are tested against large dataset of 1109 mutations with experimentally measured changes of the folding free energy. Benchmarking resulted in root mean square deviation = 1.78 kcal/mol and slope of the linear regression fit between the experimental data and the calculations was 1.04. The sMMGB is compared with other leading methods of predicting folding free energy changes upon single mutations and results discussed with respect to various parameters. AVAILABILITY All the pdb files we used in this article can be downloaded from http://compbio.clemson. edu/downloadDir/mentaldisorders/sMMGB_pdb. rar. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Predictors of human papillomavirus persistence among women with equivocal or mildly abnormal cytology

We investigated short‐term persistence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among 2,408 women with low‐grade or equivocal cytological abnormalities followed for 24 months. Odds ratios (ORs) for persistence to the next 6‐month visit were estimated by a discrete time survival model. Prevalent HPV infections persisted longer in older women, but no association with age was found for incident HPV infections. Increased likelihood of persistence was found among current smokers of >20 cigarettes per day compared with smokers of ≤10 cigarettes per day (OR=1.43; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02–2.01) and among current injectable contraceptive users (OR=1.15; 95% CI: 1.01–1.32). Persistence was more likely among infections with higher viral load (OR=2.05; 95% CI: 1.65–2.53) or with concurrent cytological abnormalities (OR=1.19; 95% CI: 1.03–1.39 and 1.29; 95% CI: 0.99–1.70 for ASCUS/LSIL and ASC‐H/HSIL, respectively). We conclude that new HPV infections in older women are not riskier by the metric of viral persistence than those in younger women. Other risk factors such as oral contraceptive use and multiparity that have been associated with cervical cancer or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 were not associated with short‐term HPV persistence.
“I Am So Bored!”: Prevalence Rates and Sociodemographic and Contextual Correlates of High Boredom Among American Adolescents

Adolescent boredom is associated with maladaptation and negative developmental outcomes, yet little is known about the prevalence and correlates of high boredom. Drawing from a broad psychosocial framework, the present study examined rates of high boredom and sociodemographic and contextual correlates among nationally representative samples of 8th and 10th graders (N = 21,173; 51.8% female) from the Monitoring the Future survey. Results indicate that approximately 20% of adolescents reported high levels of boredom. Those who were more likely to report high boredom were eighth graders; females; youth who identified as Black, Biracial, or Native American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander; rural youth; and youth of lower socioeconomic status. Results of multivariable logistic regression analyses show significant associations between high boredom and many elements of school, parent, peer, and extracurricular contexts, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Findings highlight the pervasiveness of high boredom among American youth and may benefit prevention and intervention efforts by identifying multiple contextual associations with adolescent boredom.
VHF/UHF radar observations of tropical mesoscale convective systems over southern India

Abstract. Several campaigns have been carried out to study the convective systems over Gadanki (13.5° N, 79.2° E), a tropical station in India, using VHF and UHF radars. The height-time sections of several convective systems are investigated in detail to study reflectivity, turbulence and vertical velocity structure. Structure and dynamics of the convective systems are the main objectives of these campaigns. The observed systems are classified into single- and multi-cell systems. It has been observed that most of the convective systems at this latitude are multi-cellular in nature. Simultaneous VHF and UHF radar observations are used to classify the observed precipitating systems as convective, intermediary and stratiform regions. Composite height profiles of vertical velocities in these regions were obtained and the same were compared with the profiles obtained at other geographical locations. These composite profiles of vertical velocity in the convective regions have shown their peaks in the mid troposphere, indicating that the maximum latent heat is being released at those heights. These profiles are very important for numerical simulations of the convective systems, which vary significantly from one geographical location to the other. Keywords. Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics (Mesoscale meteorology; Convective processes) – Radio science (Remote sensing)
İlköğretim Okulu Müdürlerinin Hizmet Yönelimli Liderlik Rollerini Gerçekleştirme Düzeyleri

Bu calismanin amaci, ilkogretim okulu mudurlerinin hizmet yonelimli liderlik rollerini yerine getirme duzeylerini ilkogretim okulu mudur, mudur yardimcisi ve ogretmenlerin goruslerine gore belirlemektir. Arastirmanin verileri, 2005-2006 ogretim yilinda Bolu ilinde bulunan ilkogretim okullarinda gorev yapan 19 mudur, 36 mudur yardimcisi ve 487 ogretmenden elde edilmistir. Verilerin analizinde aritmetik ortalama, standart sapma, tek yonlu varyans ve LSD testi kullanilmistir. Arastirmada ilkogretim okulu mudurlerinin hizmet yonelimli liderlik rolleri guclendirme, hizmet ve vizyon boyutlari altinda incelenmistir. Katilimcilarin tamamina gore, ilkogretim okulu mudurlerinin guclendirme’yi “orta”, hizmet, vizyon ve hizmet yonelimli liderlik rollerinin butununu ise “cok” duzeyinde oynadiklari belirlenmistir. Konuya iliskin mudur, mudur yardimcisi ve ogretmenlerin gorusleri arasinda farklilik oldugu belirlenmistir. Bu farkliligin ise mudurler ile mudur yardimcisi ve ogretmenler arasinda oldugu tespit edilmistir
What are Academies the answer to?

This paper builds upon an earlier analysis presented in this journal. Using official figures for school compositions and for outcomes at KS4 from 1997 to 2007, this paper considers each of the annual cohorts of new Academies in England, from 2002 to 2006. It shows that their level of success in comparison to their predecessors, national averages, their changing compositions and their changing exam entry practices are insubstantial. Of course some schools are gaining higher scores since Academisation, but others are gaining lower scores. Using the most recent results available there is no clear evidence that Academies produce better results than local authority schools with equivalent intakes. The Academies programme therefore presents an opportunity cost for no apparent gain.