Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The NEET and Hikikomori spectrum: Assessing the risks and consequences of becoming culturally marginalized

An increasing number of young people are becoming socially and economically marginalized in Japan under economic stagnation and pressures to be more globally competitive in a post-industrial economy. The phenomena of NEET/Hikikomori (occupational/social withdrawal) have attracted global attention in recent years. Though the behavioral symptoms of NEET and Hikikomori can be differentiated, some commonalities in psychological features can be found. Specifically, we believe that both NEET and Hikikomori show psychological tendencies that deviate from those governed by mainstream cultural attitudes, values, and behaviors, with the difference between NEET and Hikikomori being largely a matter of degree. In this study, we developed a NEET-Hikikomori Risk Factors (NHR) scale that treats NEET/Hikikomori not as a set of distinct diagnoses, but as a spectrum of psychological tendencies associated with the risk of being marginalized in society. Based on this idea, we identified three related risk factors in our NHR spectrum scale: (1) Freeter lifestyle preference, which in Japan refers to the tendency to consciously choose to not work despite job availabilities, (2) a lack of self-competence, and (3) having unclear ambitions for the future (Study 1). Study 2 investigated and confirmed the validity of the scale by examining NHR differences between occupational groups. The results suggested that NHR is related to psychological tendencies common in the marginalized segments of society. The relationship between these psychological tendencies and actually becoming marginalized across cultures is discussed.
Exploring the Characteristics of Digital Pedagogy Model for Developing Computational Thinking in Mathematical Problem Solving

Challenges in the 21st century are increasingly complex, technology is developing rapidly and competition is getting tougher. Therefore we need quality human resources that can keep up with and anticipate the times. The use of technology involves computational thinking (CT) skills which are closely related to the problem-solving process. The stages in computational thinking are part of mathematical thinking, meaning that learning mathematics can support students' CT skills. Through the development of digital pedagogical models in CT integrated mathematics learning, it can improve problem-solving skills. This research uses design based implementation research with 4 phases including; preliminary research, prototyping, results, and design principle. The participants were 28 grade 8 junior high school students who took part in two rounds of experiment in direct CT activities and digital CT activities. In this paper, we present an iterative mathematical problem-solving process in the digital pedagogy model. The computational task, environment, tool and practices were iteratively improved over two rounds to incorporate CT effectively in mathematics. The results from CT environment demonstrated that direct CT activities are more effective than digital CT activities in mathematical problem-solving. Based on empirical research, we summarize the characteristic of the digital pedagogy model from computational tasks, computational environment and tools, and computational practices in mathematical problem solving.
Optimal Sensor/Actuator Locations for Active Structural Acoustic Control

Researchers at NASA Langley Research Center have extensive experience using active structural acoustic control (ASAC) for aircraft interior noise reduction. One aspect of ASAC involves the selection of optimum locations for microphone sensors and force actuators. This paper explains the importantce of sensor/actuator selection, reviews optimization techniques, and summarizes experimental and numerical results. Three combinatorial optimization problems are described. Two involve the determination of the number and position of actuators, and the other involves the determination of the number and location of sensors. For each case, a solution method is suggested and typical results are examined. The first case, a simplified problem with simulated data, is used to illustrate the method. The second and third cases are more representative of the potential of the method and use measured data. The three case studies and laboratory test results establish the usefulness of the numerical methods.
A Multitarget Tracking Video System Based on Fuzzy and Neuro-Fuzzy Techniques

Automatic surveillance of airport surface is one of the core components of advanced surface movement, guidance, and control systems (A-SMGCS). This function is in charge of the automatic detection, identification, and tracking of all interesting targets (aircraft and relevant ground vehicles) in the airport movement area. This paper presents a novel approach for object tracking based on sequences of video images. A fuzzy system has been developed to ponder update decisions both for the trajectories and shapes estimated for targets from the image regions extracted in the images. The advantages of this approach are robustness, flexibility in the design to adapt to different situations, and efficiency for operation in real time, avoiding combinatorial enumeration. Results obtained in representative ground operations show the system capabilities to solve complex scenarios and improve tracking accuracy. Finally, an automatic procedure, based on neuro-fuzzy techniques, has been applied in order to obtain a set of rules from representative examples. Validation of learned system shows the capability to learn the suitable tracker decisions.
Grid-Induced Numerical Errors for Shear Stresses and Essential Flow Variables in a Ventricular Assist Device: Crucial for Blood Damage Prediction?

Adverse events due to flow-induced blood damage remain a serious problem for blood pumps as cardiac support systems. The numerical prediction of blood damage via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a helpful tool for the design and optimization of reliable pumps. Blood damage prediction models primarily are based on the acting shear stresses, which are calculated by solving the Navier–Stokes equations on computational grids. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the spatial discretization and the associated discretization error on the shear stress calculation in a blood pump in comparison to other important flow quantities like the pressure head of the pump. Therefore, CFD analysis using seven unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations was performed. Two simple stress calculation indicators were applied to estimate the influence of the discretization on the results using an approach to calculate numerical uncertainties, which indicates discretization errors. For the finest grid with 19 × 106 elements, numerical uncertainties up to 20% for shear stresses were determined, while the pressure heads show smaller uncertainties with a maximum of 4.8%. No grid-independent solution for velocity gradient-dependent variables could be obtained on a grid size that is comparable to mesh sizes in state-of-the-art blood pump studies. It can be concluded that the grid size has a major influence on the shear stress calculation, and therefore, the potential blood damage prediction, and that the quantification of this error should always be taken into account.
Wavelet-based volume morphing

This paper presents a technique for performing volume morphing between two volumetric datasets in the wavelet domain. The idea is to decompose the volumetric datasets into a set of frequency bands, apply smooth interpolation to each band, and reconstruct to form the morphed model. In addition, a technique for establishing a suitable correspondence among object voxels is presented. The combination of these two techniques results in a smooth transition between the two datasets and produces morphed volume with fewer high frequency distortions than those obtained from spatial domain volume morphing. <<ETX>>
Rebuttal: When it comes to scientific inference, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

We are grateful to the editors for suggesting that our submission become a debate piece, as we value critical discussion. We are gratified that the three invited counterpoints not only agree with our position but add useful insights. Elwood summed up our view when (referring to the White Paper on the U.S. National Children’s Study1) he commented that ‘the concept of external validity given confuses statistical inference with scientific inference’. 2 Richiardi et al. echoed our point that representativeness is not desirable even if the goal is to study effect-measure modification: ‘Similarly using non-representative samples may enhance our ability to assess heterogeneity with regards to potential effect modifiers, e.g. by ensuring that there are adequate numbers in each of the ethnic groups to be considered if we suspect or are interested in potential modification by ethnicity’. 3 And we especially liked Nohr and Olsen’s quotable remark that ‘Representativeness is time and place specific and will therefore always be a historical concept … . ’4
Mind, Mood and Microbiota—Gut–Brain Axis in Psychiatric Disorders

Psychiatric disorders represent a primary source of disability worldwide, manifesting as disturbances in individuals’ cognitive processes, emotional regulation, and behavioral patterns. In the quest to discover novel therapies and expand the boundaries of neuropharmacology, studies from the field have highlighted the gut microbiota’s role in modulating these disorders. These alterations may influence the brain’s processes through the brain–gut axis, a multifaceted bidirectional system that establishes a connection between the enteric and central nervous systems. Thus, probiotic and prebiotic supplements that are meant to influence overall gut health may play an insightful role in alleviating psychiatric symptoms, such as the cognitive templates of major depressive disorder, anxiety, or schizophrenia. Moreover, the administration of psychotropic drugs has been revealed to induce specific changes in a microbiome’s diversity, suggesting their potential utility in combating bacterial infections. This review emphasizes the intricate correlations between psychiatric disorders and the gut microbiota, mentioning the promising approaches in regard to the modulation of probiotic and prebiotic treatments, as well as the antimicrobial effects of psychotropic medication.
Bilingual Infants Demonstrate Perceptual Flexibility in Phoneme Discrimination but Perceptual Constraint in Face Discrimination

Perceptual narrowing is a highly significant development associated with the first year of life. It conventionally refers to an orientation toward nativeness whereby infant's perceptual sensitivities begin to align with the phonetic properties of their native environment. Nativeness effects, such as perceptual narrowing, have been observed in several domains, most notably, in face discrimination within other-race faces and speech discrimination of non-native phonemes. Thus, far, nativeness effects in the face and speech perception have been theoretically linked, but have mostly been investigated independently. An important caveat to nativeness effects is that diversifying experiences, such as bilingualism or multiracial exposure, can lead to a reduction or postponement in attunement to the native environment. The present study was designed to investigate whether bilingualism influences nativeness effects in phonetic and face perception. Eleven-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants were tested on their abilities to discriminate native and non-native speech contrasts as well as own-race and other-race face contrasts. While monolingual infants demonstrated nativeness effects in face and speech perception, bilingual infants demonstrated nativeness effects in the face perception but demonstrated flexibility in speech perception. Results support domain-specific effects of bilingual experience on nativeness effects.
Adaptive � ow orientation based feature extraction in ngerprint images �

A reliable method for extracting structural features from ngerprint images is presented Viewing ngerprint images as a textured image an orientation ow eld is computed Rest of the stages in the algorithm use the ow eld to design adaptive lters for the input image To accurately locate ridges a waveform projection based ridge segmentation algorithm is used The ridge skeleton image is obtained and smoothed using morphological operators to detect the features A large number of spurious features from the detected set of minutiae is deleted by a postprocessing stage The performance of the proposed algorithm has been evaluated by computing a goodness index GI which compares the results of automatic extraction with manually extracted ground truth The signi cance of the observed GI values is determined by comparing the index for a set of ngerprints against the GI values obtained under a baseline distribution The detected features are observed to be reliable and accurate
Urban habituation, ecological connectivity and epidemic dampening: the emergence of Hendra virus from flying foxes (Pteropus spp.)

Anthropogenic environmental change is often implicated in the emergence of new zoonoses from wildlife; however, there is little mechanistic understanding of these causal links. Here, we examine the transmission dynamics of an emerging zoonotic paramyxovirus, Hendra virus (HeV), in its endemic host, Australian Pteropus bats (fruit bats or flying foxes). HeV is a biosecurity level 4 (BSL-4) pathogen, with a high case-fatality rate in humans and horses. With models parametrized from field and laboratory data, we explore a set of probable contributory mechanisms that explain the spatial and temporal pattern of HeV emergence; including urban habituation and decreased migration—two widely observed changes in flying fox ecology that result from anthropogenic transformation of bat habitat in Australia. Urban habituation increases the number of flying foxes in contact with human and domestic animal populations, and our models suggest that, in addition, decreased bat migratory behaviour could lead to a decline in population immunity, giving rise to more intense outbreaks after local viral reintroduction. Ten of the 14 known HeV outbreaks occurred near urbanized or sedentary flying fox populations, supporting these predictions. We also demonstrate that by incorporating waning maternal immunity into our models, the peak modelled prevalence coincides with the peak annual spill-over hazard for HeV. These results provide the first detailed mechanistic framework for understanding the sporadic temporal pattern of HeV emergence, and of the urban/peri-urban distribution of HeV outbreaks in horses and people.
Dynamic Water and Salt Changes in Saline Wasteland on the Lower Edge of Plain Reservoirs in the Desert Oasis Region

In order to reveal the distribution characteristics of water and salt in the non-irrigated saline wasteland and the growth zone of the windbreaks surrounding the plain reservoir, the groundwater and soil monitoring points were set up around the south area of Duolang Reservoir in the desert oasis. Monthly groundwater depth monitoring and soil water content and salt content fixed-point sampling for a period of 2 years were conducted. The results showed that the groundwater depth of salt wasteland in the area around the reservoir area changed slightly during the monitoring period of 2 years, and the average is 1.28 m. The soil moisture content increased with the increase of soil depth, and soil water content of 60—100 cm was larger than that of other soil layers. The salt content of the soil in the salt wasteland varied between 0.48 g/kg and 8.86 g/kg in the two years, and the total salt content of different soil decreased with the increase of soil depth. The soil salt content changed greatly in 0—40 cm soil layers, with significant salt accumulation phenomenon. The soil salt content of windbreaks was significantly lower than that of the natural ecological forest.
Very-low-tranconductance CMOS amplifier using multi-tanh bulk-driven input stage with gate-controlled assymetry for Gm-C applications

A novel structure of the multi-tanh bulk-driven input stage OTA is presented in this paper. The circuit was designed and simulated in a 130nm CMOS process. The results show a nominal transconductance of 1.593 nS with an input linear range of 400 mVpp, assuming a THD no greater than -40 dB. The system supply voltage is 1.2 V (given by the technology), and the power consumption goes up to 315.7 nW. The achieved ultra low transconductance, along with the wide linear range (33% of the dynamic range) makes the transconductor highly suitable for low-frequency biomedical Gm-C applications. Furthermore, Monte Carlo analysis was conducted and showed the circuit possesses high resilience to process variation and mismatch: transconductance's standard deviation lower than 4% of its nominal value, and maximum THD of -40 dB.
Interstellar Scintillation of the Polarized Flux Density in Quasar PKS 0405–385

The remarkable rapid variations in radio flux density and polarization of the quasar PKS 0405-385 observed in 1996 are subject to a correlation analysis, from which characteristic timescales and amplitudes are derived. The variations are interpreted as interstellar scintillations (ISSs). The centimeter wavelength observations are in the weak scintillation regime for which models for the various auto- and cross-correlations of the Stokes parameters are derived and fitted to the observations. These are well modeled by ISS of a 30 × 22 μas source, with about 180° rotation of the polarization angle along its long dimension. This success in explaining the remarkable intraday variability (IDVs) in polarization confirms that ISS gives rise to the IDV in this quasar. However, the fit requires the scintillations to be occurring much closer to the Earth than expected according to the standard model for the ionized interstellar medium (IISM). Scattering at distances in the range 3-30 pc is required to explain the observations. For our preferred distance of 25 pc the associated source model has a peak brightness temperature near 2 × 1013 K, which is about 25 times smaller than previously derived for this source. This reduces the implied Doppler factor in the relativistic jet, presumed responsible to ~75, which is still substantially higher than centimeter wavelength VLBI estimates for the Doppler factors in active galactic nuclei (AGNs).
Nerve Injury about the Shoulder in Athletes, Part 2

Nerve injuries about the shoulder in athletes are being recognized with increasing frequency. Prompt and correct diagnosis of these injuries is important to treat the patient and to understand the potential complications and natural history, so as to counsel our athletes appropriately. This 2-part article is a review and an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding some of the more common nerve injuries seen about the shoulder in athletes, including long thoracic nerve, spinal accessory nerve, burners and stingers, and thoracic outlet syndrome. Each of these clinical entities will be discussed independently, reviewing the anatomy, mechanism of injury, patient presentation (history and examination), the role of additional diagnostic studies, differential diagnosis, and management.
ASR for South Slavic Languages Developed in Almost Automated Way

Slavic languages pose several specific challenges that need to be addressed in an ASR system design. Since we have already built an engine suited for highly-inflected languages, we focus on adopting it for new languages, now. In this case, we present an efficient way to adapt the system to all (seven) South Slavic languages, using methods and tools that benefit from language similarities, easily adjustable G2P rules or common phonetic subsets. We show that it is possible to build accurate language and acoustic models in an almost automated way, entirely from resources found on the web. The AMs are trained via cross-lingual bootstrapping followed by lightly supervised retraining from public data, like broadcast and parliament archives. Tests done on a set of main broadcast news in each language show WER values in range 16.8 to 21.5 %, which includes also errors caused by OOL (out-of-language) utterances often occurring in this type of spoken programs.
A deviation-tolerant approach to software process evolution

An important problem encountered in Process-centered software Engineering Environments (PSEE) is that software development processes are subject to permanent dynamic evolution. Without managing process enactment evolution, PSEEs are condemned to fail in being adopted in software development industry. This article presents an original approach to software process enactment evolution based on dynamic adaptation of processes and tolerance of deviations.
Metabolic positron emission tomography imaging of cancer: Pairing lipid metabolism with glycolysis

The limitations of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxy-D-glucose (FDG) in detecting some cancers has prompted a longstanding search for other positron emission tomography (PET) tracers to complement the imaging of glycolysis in oncology, with much attention paid to lipogenesis based on observations that the production of various lipid and lipid-containing compounds is increased in most cancers. Radiolabeled analogs of choline and acetate have now been used as oncologic PET probes for over a decade, showing convincingly improved detection sensitivity over FDG for certain cancers. However, neither choline nor acetate have been thoroughly validated as lipogenic biomarkers, and while acetyl-CoA produced from acetate is used in de-novo lipogenesis to synthesize fatty acids, acetate is also consumed by various other synthetic and metabolic pathways, with recent experimental observations challenging the assumption that lipogenesis is its predominant role in all cancers. Since tumors detected by acetate PET are also frequently detected by choline PET, imaging of choline metabolism might serve as an alternative albeit indirect marker of lipogenesis, particularly if the fatty acids produced in cancer cells are mainly destined for membrane synthesis through incorporation into phosphatidylcholines. Aerobic glycolysis may or may not coincide with changes in lipid metabolism, resulting in combinatorial metabolic phenotypes that may have different prognostic or therapeutic implications. Consequently, PET imaging using dual metabolic tracers, in addition to being diagnostically superior to imaging with individual tracers, could eventually play a greater role in supporting precision medicine, as efforts to develop small-molecule metabolic pathway inhibitors are coming to fruition. To prepare for this advent, clinical and translational studies of metabolic PET tracers must go beyond simply estimating tracer diagnostic utility, and aim to uncover potential therapeutic avenues associated with these metabolic alterations.