Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of inverse methods and head models for EEG source localization using a human skull phantom

We used a real-skull phantom head to investigate the performances of representative methods for EEG source localization when considering various head models. We describe several experiments using a montage with current sources located at multiple positions and orientations inside a human skull filled with a conductive medium. The robustness of selected methods based on distributed source models is evaluated as various solutions to the forward problem (from the sphere to the finite element method) are considered. Experimental results indicate that inverse methods using appropriate cortex-based source models are almost always able to locate the active source with excellent precision, with little or no spurious activity in close or distant regions, even when two sources are simultaneously active. Superior regularization schemes for solving the inverse problem can dramatically help the estimation of sparse and focal active zones, despite significant approximation of the head geometry and the conductivity properties of the head tissues. Realistic head models are necessary, though, to fit the data with a reasonable level of residual variance.
Résumé de flux de données distribués

Ces dernieres annees, sont apparues de nombreuses applications, utilisant des donnees en nombre potentiellement illimite, provenant de facon continue de capteurs distribues afin d'alimenter un serveur central. Les donnees sont utilisees a des fins de surveillance, de supervision, de declenchement d'alarmes en temps reel, ou plus generalement a la production de syntheses d'aide a la decision a partir de plusieurs flux. Le volume des donnees collectees est generalement trop grand pour etre entierement stocke. Les systemes de gestion de flux de donnees (SGFD) permettent de gerer facilement, et de facon generique les flux de donnees : les donnees sont traitees au fil de l'eau sans les archiver. Toutefois, dans certaines applications, on ne souhaite pas perdre completement l'ensemble des flux de donnees afin de pouvoir analyser les donnees du passe et du present. Il faut donc prevoir un stockage de l'historique du flux. Nous considerons dans cette these, un environnement distribue decrit par une collection de plusieurs capteurs distants qui envoient des flux de donnees numeriques et unidimensionnelles a un serveur central unique. Ce dernier a un espace de stockage limite mais doit calculer des agregats, comme des sommes ou des moyennes, a partir des donnees de tout sous-ensemble de capteurs et sur un large horizon temporel. Deux approches sont etudiees pour construire l'historique des flux de donnees :(1) Echantillonnage spatial en ne considerant qu'un echantillon aleatoire des sources qu'on observe dans le temps ; (2) Echantillonnage temporel en considerant toutes les sources mais en echantillonnant les instants observes de chaque capteur. Nous proposons une methode generique et optimisee de construction de resumes a partir de flux de donnees distribues : A partir des flux de donnees observes a une periode de temps t -1, nous determinons un modele de collecte de donnees a appliquer aux capteurs de la periode t. Le calcul des agregats se base sur l'inference tatistique dans le cas de l'echantillonnage spatial et sur l'interpolation dans le cas de l'echantillonnage temporel. A notre connaissance, il n'existe pas de methodes d'interpolation qui estiment les erreurs a tout instant et qui prennent en compte le flux de donnees ou courbe a interpoler et son integrale. Nous proposons donc deux approches : la premiere se base sur le passe des courbes pour l'interpolation (approche naive) ; et la seconde utilise a un processus stochastique pour modeliser l'evolution des courbes (approche stochastique).
A V-band high linearity sub-harmonic I/Q demodulator using transformer coupling

In this paper, we propose a high linearity CMOS sub-harmonic I/Q demodulator at V-band using CMOS 90 nm process. We adopt frequency doubler to double input LO frequency and use transformer to couple 2LO signal to mixer core. In addition, transformer coupling is used to replace stacked transistors to improve linearity. Cross couple pair is also utilized as active load to enhance conversion gain. The measured peak conversion gain is −7.9 dB under LO power of 9 dBm. The IP1dB and nP3 are 0 dBm and 9 dBm, respectively. The total DC power consumption is only 13.68 mW for 1.2 V supply voltage. To our best knowledge this demodulator has the best linearity at V-band.
Relation of the Relations: A New Paradigm of the Relation Extraction Problem

In natural language, often multiple entities appear in the same text. However, most previous works in Relation Extraction (RE) limit the scope to identifying the relation between two entities at a time. Such an approach induces a quadratic computation time, and also overlooks the interdependency between multiple relations, namely the relation of relations (RoR). Due to the significance of RoR in existing datasets, we propose a new paradigm of RE that considers as a whole the predictions of all relations in the same context. Accordingly, we develop a data-driven approach that does not require hand-crafted rules but learns by itself the RoR, using Graph Neural Networks and a relation matrix transformer. Experiments show that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches by +1.12\% on the ACE05 dataset and +2.55\% on SemEval 2018 Task 7.2, which is a substantial improvement on the two competitive benchmarks.
Cardiomyocyte VEGFR‐1 activation by VEGF‐B induces compensatory hypertrophy and preserves cardiac function after myocardial infarction

Mounting evidence indicates that the function of members of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family extends beyond blood vessel formation. Here, we show that the prolonged intramyocardial expression of VEGF‐A165 and VEGF‐B167 on adeno‐associated virus‐mediated gene delivery determined a marked improvement in cardiac function after myocardial infarction in rats, by promoting cardiac contractility, preserving viable cardiac tissue, and preventing remodeling of the left ventricle (LV) over time. Consistent with this functional outcome, animals treated with both factors showed diminished fibrosis and increased contractile myocardium, which were more pronounced after expression of the selective VEGF receptor‐1 (VEGFR‐1) ligand VEGF‐B, in the absence of significant induction of angiogenesis. We found that cardiomyocytes expressed VEGFR‐1, VEGFR‐2, and neuropilin‐1 and that, in particular, VEGFR‐1 was specifically up‐regulated in hypoxia and on exposure to oxidative stress. VEGF‐B exerted powerful antiapoptotic effect in both cultured cardiomyocytes and after myocardial infarction in vivo. Finally, VEGFR‐1 activation by VEGF‐B was found to elicit a peculiar gene expression profile proper of the compensatory, hypertrophic response, consisting in activation of αMHC and repression of βMHC and skeletal α‐actin, and an increase in SERCA2a, RYR, PGC1α, and cardiac natriuretic peptide transcripts, both in cultured cardiomyocytes and in infarcted hearts. The finding that VEGFR‐1 activation by VEGF‐B prevents loss of cardiac mass and promotes maintenance of cardiac contractility over time has obvious therapeutic implications. —Zentilin, L. , Puligadda, U. , Lionetti, V. , Zacchigna, S. , Collesi, C. , Pattarini, L. , Ruozi, G. , Camporesi, S. , Sinagra, G. , Pepe, M. , Recchia, F. A. , Giacca, M. Cardiomyocyte VEGFR‐1 activation by VEGF‐B induces compensatory hypertrophy and preserves cardiac function after myocardial infarction. FASEB J. 24, 1467–1478 (2010). www.fasebj. org
Patterns of Drug Use and the Influence of Gender on Self-Reports of Memory Ability in Ecstasy Users: A Web-Based Study

Research indicates that the use of recreational drugs, including MDMA (‘ecstasy’) can result in impairments in cognitive functioning. Recent evidence, based on accounts of ‘on drug’ effects and cortical binding ratios suggests that women may be more susceptible to the effects of MDMA; however, no research has explored whether there are differences in the long-term behavioural sequelae of the drug between men and women. In addition, little is known about the profile of functioning of the ‘typical’ user. The present investigation accessed a large sample of recreational drug users, using the Internet, to obtain self-reports of memory functioning with a view to exploring any differences in self-reported ability amongst male and female users, and the level of difficulty reported by the ‘typical’ ecstasy user. A web site (www.drugresearch.org.uk) was developed and used for data collection. Prospective memory ability was assessed using the Prospective Memory Questionnaire. Self-report of day-to-day memory performance was investigated using the Everyday Memory Questionnaire. The UEL Drug Questionnaire assessed the use of other substances. The number of mistakes made while completing the questionnaires was also taken as an objective measure of performance errors. Findings, based on datasets submitted from 763 respondents, indicate no differences in self-reports of functioning between male and female participants. An overall dissociation between the effects of cannabis and ecstasy on self-reported memory functioning and on the likelihood of making an error during the completion of the questionnaire was found. Typical ecstasy users were found to report significantly more difficulties in long-term prospective memory and to make more completion errors than users of other substances and drug naïve controls. Whilst taking into account the fact that participants were recruited via the World Wide Web and that a number of stringent exclusion criteria were applied to the data, a number of conclusions can be drawn. Recreational drug users perceive their memory ability to be impaired compared to non-users. The type of memory difficulties reported varies depending upon the drug of choice. These difficulties are exacerbated in ecstasy users. Individuals reporting average levels of use of ecstasy are more likely to report memory problems than non-ecstasy drug users or drug free individuals. The deleterious effects of ecstasy are therefore not restricted to heavy or chronic users. No gender differences were detected, suggesting that there may be a dissociation between cognitive impairment and cortical binding worthy of further exploration.
Reproductive Freedom and Violence against Women: Where are the Intersections?

There isn’t much understanding in some marriages. My sister has six [children] and another has eight. I said to one of them that she shouldn’t have any more. And she said “What can I do? When my husband comes home drunk, he foxes me to sleep with him. ” And that is what happens to a lot of women. And if the women don’t do it, the men hit them, or treat them badly. Or the men get jealous and think their wives are with other men. —Rene, a 29-year old Peruvian woman Gender violence is a major yet often underrecognized obstacle to reproductive choice. In both the abortion rights movement in the United States and the reproductive health movement globally, the “enemy” of self-determination and choice is usually seen as imposing from the top down. In the North, it is the government—through the courts, the legislature, and bureaucratic rulemaking—that threatens to “take away” women’s reproductive autonomy. The image is one of the public sphere invading that which is private—of the state interfering with a woman’s right to control her own body.
New and emerging treatments in dermatology: acne

ABSTRACT: Topical retinoids, benzoyl peroxide, azelaic acid, and topical and oral antibiotics remain the milestone of treatment for mild to moderate acne vulgaris. Oral isotretinoin is useful for the treatment of severe nodular acne, treatment‐resistant acne, and acne with a risk of physical or psychological scarring. Hormonal treatment in female acne is useful in resistant or late‐onset acne. With increasing concerns regarding teratogenicity of isotretinoin and increasing antibiotic resistance, there is a clear need for therapeutic alternatives to these long‐used treatments. Research in the pathogenesis of acne has allowed for new therapies and future perspectives regarding acne to evolve. They include low‐dose long‐term isotretinoin regimens, insulin‐sensitizing agents, 5α‐reductase type 1 inhibitors, topical photodynamic therapy, new combination formulations, dietary interventions, and antiinflammatory agents such as lipoxygenase inhibitors.
A Pose Invariant Statistical Shape Model for Human Bodies

We present a complete pipeline for constructing a statistical shape model that is invariant to deviations in the scan pose while encoding the space of human pose and body shape in an efficient manner. A dense cross-parameterization between a large set of high-quality 3D scans is computed using a fast and robust volume aware non-rigid registration method. Our approach uses a novel encoding that automatically decorrelates shape and pose leading to a statistical model that is oblivious under transformations induced by pose. This allows us to efficiently compensate pose variations in captured input data leading to a compact representation for pose as well as body shape. We present a local as well as a global skeletal encoding and compare both approaches. Finally, we analyze the generalization properties and accuracy of our approach against two state-of-the-art methods. We apply our model to the data clustering problem and use it as a prior for non-rigid shape matching.
Respiratory function in childhood following repair of oesophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula

AIM To determine the relation between respiratory function in infancy and at school age in children who have undergone oesophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula repair, and assess the value of infant respiratory function testing; and to examine the effect of bronchodilators. METHOD Fourteen children (6 girls, and 8 boys) who had undergone respiratory function testing in infancy were retested at school age (7−12 years). Measurements included lung volume, airways resistance, peak flow, and spirometry. Clinical problems were investigated by questionnaire. Twelve children had repeat measurements after taking salbutamol. RESULTS Predominant complaints were non-productive cough and dysphagia, but even those children with major problems in infancy reported few restrictions at school or in sport or social activities. Respiratory function and clinical findings at school age appeared unrelated to status in infancy, such that even the patients with severe tracheomalacia requiring aortopexy did not have lung function testing suggestive of malacia at school age. Most patients showed a restrictive pattern of lung volume which would appear to result from reduced lung growth after surgery rather than being a concomitant feature of the primary congenital abnormality. Although six children reported wheeze and four had a diagnosis of asthma, only one responded to salbutamol. This suggests that a tendency to attribute all lower respiratory symptoms to asthma may have led to an overdiagnosis of this condition in this patient group. CONCLUSION Respiratory function testing in infancy is of limited value in medium term prognosis, but may aid management of contemporary clinical signs. In children respiratory function testing is valuable in assessing suspected asthma and effects of bronchodilators.
Corporate Use of Social Media: Technology Affordance and External Stakeholder Relations

Business organizations are beginning to recognize the substantial potential of social media for enhancing corporate communications with external stakeholders, including investors, customers, and the general public—all of whom can affect firms’ financial future. Social media applications reach a wide spectrum of external stakeholders, help them express themselves and connect with one another, and engage them in ongoing conversations with the firm. Despite growing interest in this area, there has been limited research on this important topic. Accordingly, we focus on wikis, social networking sites, micro-blogging sites, and video-sharing sites, among many social media applications, and identify their respective beneficial attributes within the context of external communication. In so doing, we illuminate the prominent technical features of the four social media applications and review the existing literature in order to identify how business organizations take advantage of the unique features to facilitate their communicative activities in practice. We ground our analyses in validated conceptual frameworks in the fields of information systems and communication, such as the notion of technology affordances and Hutton’s (1999) framework for public relations. As a result, we suggest the “Eight Affordances” of the four social media applications that help corporate communicators. This study expands the social media and technology affordance literature into the important, yet understudied, external communications field.
Microscopic colitis

PREVIEW Microscopic colitis is being diagnosed with increasing frequency, but identifying this elusive condition remains a challenge. Although its symptoms are similar to those of other gastrointestinal disorders, it is overshadowed by more widely known and better understood diseases, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. In this article, Drs Barto and Heller discuss the clinical presentation of microscopic colitis, the clues to diagnosis, and the available treatments.
Optimisation des systèmes de traitement des eaux usées domestiques par filtres plantés de macrophytes

Ideal pour l'assainissement des petites communes (≤ 1000 habitants), les filtres plantes de roseaux (FPR), offrent une alternative socio-economique au traitement classique des eaux usees. En 2003, en France, il existe plus de 200 stations de ce type. Elles ont ete creees en reponse a une situation recente, generee a la fois par l'evolution du contexte legislatif et par la repartition de la densite demographique. Bien que les installations francaises offrent de bonnes performances, les mecanismes de degradation sont peu connus et certaines ameliorations semblent encore possibles. Cette these a eu pour but d'apporter des elements sur le fonctionnement des FPR. Les resultats ont ete presentes en deux chapitres. Le premier a ete focalise sur les performances du flux horizontal, l'incidence de la charge organique et hydraulique sur l'efficacite d'ecoulement. La finalite a ete de proposer de elements de modelisation. Le second chapitre a repose sur l'analyse du comportement biologique des flux verticaux. Les variations de la composition et de l'activite biologique ont ete suivies dans le temps et dans l'espace. Les resultats obtenus ont permis de mettre en evidence, pour le flux horizontal, les limites pour le traitement des eaux usees primaires, qui entraine des defaillances hydrauliques et biologiques, et le role important de l'evapotranspiration, qui augmente l'efficacite hydraulique et le temps de sejour des effluents. Pour le flux vertical, les resultats ont montre l'importance de la couche qui se developpe avec l'âge en surface des filtres, aussi bien au niveau hydraulique que biologique, et l'influence de la saison et de la nature du garnissage sur les principaux catabolismes en presence. Ce travail dresse un premier bilan du comportement global et des limites d'utilisation des deux types de flux des FPR. Plusieurs elements d'optimisation ainsi que des orientations pour mieux comprendre le procede ont ete proposes.
Personality Correlates of Risk Perception

The aim of the present study was to systematically examine the variations of the effects of (1) transitional anxiety states and enduring anxiety dispositions, and (2) worldviews (hierarchic, egalitarian, individualist, and fatalist), as a function of the type of hazard considered. Ten risk factors were identified. Transitional anxiety contributed significantly to the prediction of four of these risk factors. The more anxious the respondents, the higher were their scores for the Common Individual Hazards, Pollutants, and Outdoor Activities factors, and the lower were their scores for the Public Transportation and Energy Production factor. Enduring anxiety contributed significantly to the prediction of the Psychotropic Drugs factor. The more anxious the respondents, the lower were their scores. The four worldview factors contributed significantly to the prediction of three of these risk factors. The more fatalistic the respondents, the lower were their scores for the Pollutants factor, and the higher were their scores for the Public Transportation and Energy Production factor; the more egalitarian the respondents, the higher were their scores for the Pollutants factor; the more hierarchic the respondents, the lower were their scores for the Public Transportation and Energy Production factor; and the more individualistic the respondents, the higher were their scores for the Pollutants and Deviance, Sex, and Addiction factors.
SCM Logistics Scorecard: A simplified benchmarking tool for supply chain operational performance

This research intends to introduce SCM Logistics Scorecard (LSC) as a simplified benchmarking tool based on self-evaluations of SCM operational performances. By utilizing LSC, SCM operational performances in different East Asian countries, namely, Japan, China and South Korea were investigated. The scores of assessment items in LSC were compared among countries. Subsequently, a factor analysis was conducted in order to identify significant influential factors that represent the operational performance of SCM in each country. Similar structure has been extracted in these three East Asian countries and from Japanese data, it has been verified that IT is necessary, but not sufficient to lead to enhanced corporate financial performances such as return on assets (ROA), cash flow and inventory turnover.
Análisis del papel de los caracteres foliares de Cnidoscolus (Euphorbiaceae) en la defensa contra herbívoros y patógenos

Se analizo el papel de algunos caracteres foliares (area especifica, grosor, densidad de tricomas, contenido hidrico y produccion de latex) de tres especies de Cnidoscolus (Euphorbiaceae) en la defensa contra insectos herbivoros y hongos patogenos. Se examino el dano foliar en adultos de las especies arboreas C. spinosus y C. megacanthus y de la especie herbacea C. urens, en poblaciones localizadas en la Reserva de la Biosfera de Chamela-Cuixmala (Jal.) y en la region de Huatulco-Zimatan (Oax.). Tambien se analizo el dano en las plantulas de C. spinosus. Ademas se evaluaron los siguientes caracteres foliares: area especifica, grosor, densidad de tricomas en el haz y en el enves, contenidos hidrico y de latex. En las tres especies el dano foliar causado por herbivoros forrajeros fue mayor que el causado por patogenos. La especie en la que se registro menor dano foliar fue C. spinosus, aunque el nivel de dano en plantulas fue mayor que en los adultos. Las especies arboreas presentaron mayores niveles de dano por forrajeros que la herbacea. Solo en las plantulas de C. spinosus se encontro que a mayor grosor foliar hubo mas dano por herbivoros. Los resultados sugieren que los caracteres foliares evaluados son poco importantes en la defensa de las especies estudiadas