Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emergence of Bursting Activity in Connected Neuronal Sub-Populations

Uniform and modular primary hippocampal cultures from embryonic rats were grown on commercially available micro-electrode arrays to investigate network activity with respect to development and integration of different neuronal populations. Modular networks consisting of two confined active and inter-connected sub-populations of neurons were realized by means of bi-compartmental polydimethylsiloxane structures. Spontaneous activity in both uniform and modular cultures was periodically monitored, from three up to eight weeks after plating. Compared to uniform cultures and despite lower cellular density, modular networks interestingly showed higher firing rates at earlier developmental stages, and network-wide firing and bursting statistics were less variable over time. Although globally less correlated than uniform cultures, modular networks exhibited also higher intra-cluster than inter-cluster correlations, thus demonstrating that segregation and integration of activity coexisted in this simple yet powerful in vitro model. Finally, the peculiar synchronized bursting activity shown by confined modular networks preferentially propagated within one of the two compartments (‘dominant’), even in cases of perfect balance of firing rate between the two sub-populations. This dominance was generally maintained during the entire monitored developmental frame, thus suggesting that the implementation of this hierarchy arose from early network development.
Warm Start for Parameter Selection of Linear Classifiers

In linear classification, a regularization term effectively remedies the overfitting problem, but selecting a good regularization parameter is usually time consuming. We consider cross validation for the selection process, so several optimization problems under different parameters must be solved. Our aim is to devise effective warm-start strategies to efficiently solve this sequence of optimization problems. We detailedly investigate the relationship between optimal solutions of logistic regression/linear SVM and regularization parameters. Based on the analysis, we develop an efficient tool to automatically find a suitable parameter for users with no related background knowledge.
Movement control methods for complex, dynamically simulated agents: Adonis dances the Macarena

We describe and compare two implemented controllers for Adonis, a physically simulated humanoid torso, one based on joint-space torques and the other on convergent forceelds applied to the hands. The two come from di erent application domains: the former is a common approach in manipulator robotics and graphics, while the latter is inspired by biological limb control. Both avoid explicit inverse kinematic calculations found in standard Cartesian control, trading generality of motion for programming e ciency. The two approaches are compared on a common sequential task, the familiar dance \Macarena" and evaluated based on ease of generating new behaviors, exibility, and naturalness of movement; we also compare them against human performance on the same task. Finally, we discuss the tradeo s and present a more general framework for addressing complex motor control of simulated agents.
Climate change and disruptions to global fire activity

Future disruptions to fire activity will threaten ecosystems and human well-being throughout the world, yet there are few fire projections at global scales and almost none from a broad range of global climate models (GCMs). Here we integrate global fire datasets and environmental covariates to build spatial statistical models of fire probability at a 0.5° resolution and examine environmental controls on fire activity. Fire models are driven by climate norms from 16 GCMs (A2 emissions scenario) to assess the magnitude and direction of change over two time periods, 2010–2039 and 2070–2099. From the ensemble results, we identify areas of consensus for increases or decreases in fire activity, as well as areas where GCMs disagree. Although certain biomes are sensitive to constraints on biomass productivity and others to atmospheric conditions promoting combustion, substantial and rapid shifts are projected for future fire activity across vast portions of the globe. In the near term, the most consistent increases in fire activity occur in biomes with already somewhat warm climates; decreases are less pronounced and concentrated primarily in a few tropical and subtropical biomes. However, models do not agree on the direction of near-term changes across more than 50% of terrestrial lands, highlighting major uncertainties in the next few decades. By the end of the century, the magnitude and the agreement in direction of change are projected to increase substantially. Most far-term model agreement on increasing fire probabilities (∼62%) occurs at mid- to high-latitudes, while agreement on decreasing probabilities (∼20%) is mainly in the tropics. Although our global models demonstrate that long-term environmental norms are very successful at capturing chronic fire probability patterns, future work is necessary to assess how much more explanatory power would be added through interannual variation in climate variables. This study provides a first examination of global disruptions to fire activity using an empirically based statistical framework and a multi-model ensemble of GCM projections, an important step toward assessing fire-related vulnerabilities to humans and the ecosystems upon which they depend.
OPC-Friendly Bus Driven Floorplanning

In this paper, the authors address the interconnect-driven floorplanning problem that integrates OPC-friendly bus assignment with floorplanning. Buses consist of a number of horizontal/vertical wires with identical widths. The positions of buses must be carefully designed so that the related blocks can connect to the buses with short connections. Meanwhile, as technologies march into deep sub-micron, sub-wavelength lithography causes many issues in lithographic processes. Off axis illumination (OAI) brings up the forbidden pitch issue, which could lower the yield substantially. In this paper, the authors first propose a litho model so that the optimal pitch can be efficiently computed for each bus. Then the paper presents an exact algorithm to find the optimal position of a bus such that the total length of bus connections, i.e., connections from block centers to the buses, is minimized. The running time is O(k ln k) where k is the number of blocks that the bus connects. Next, the paper proposes a linear programming based algorithm to exactly resolve overlaps among buses as well as minimizing bus connections. Furthermore, a fast heuristic approach is presented to speed up the overlap removal process. The bus assignment algorithms are smoothly integrated into the simulated annealing process of floorplanning to produce a compact floorplan with OPC-friendly buses. This work is the first one to consider litho impacts during the early floorplanning stage
Classification and Geometry of General Perceptual Manifolds

Perceptual manifolds arise when a neural population responds to an ensemble of sensory signals associated with different physical features (e.g., orientation, pose, scale, location, and intensity) of the same perceptual object. Object recognition and discrimination requires classifying the manifolds in a manner that is insensitive to variability within a manifold. How neuronal systems give rise to invariant object classification and recognition is a fundamental problem in brain theory as well as in machine learning. Here we study the ability of a readout network to classify objects from their perceptual manifold representations. We develop a statistical mechanical theory for the linear classification of manifolds with arbitrary geometry revealing a remarkable relation to the mathematics of conic decomposition. Novel geometrical measures of manifold radius and manifold dimension are introduced which can explain the classification capacity for manifolds of various geometries. The general theory is demonstrated on a number of representative manifolds, including L2 ellipsoids prototypical of strictly convex manifolds, L1 balls representing polytopes consisting of finite sample points, and orientation manifolds which arise from neurons tuned to respond to a continuous angle variable, such as object orientation. The effects of label sparsity on the classification capacity of manifolds are elucidated, revealing a scaling relation between label sparsity and manifold radius. Theoretical predictions are corroborated by numerical simulations using recently developed algorithms to compute maximum margin solutions for manifold dichotomies. Our theory and its extensions provide a powerful and rich framework for applying statistical mechanics of linear classification to data arising from neuronal responses to object stimuli, as well as to artificial deep networks trained for object recognition tasks.
Impact of Adult Attachment Anxiety on Deception Judgments: Examining the Moderating Effect of Motivation

Several psychologists have paid attention to individual differences in deception detection, but only a few studies have found significant results. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between attachment anxiety and deception judgment when there are no obvious cues to distinguish lies from truth, and to examine the moderating effect of motives. Participants were instructed to judge each of 10 audios on whether they were true or false. Subsequently, the attachment anxiety of participants was assessed using the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire. Results revealed that, compared with people who had low attachment anxiety, those with high attachment anxiety tend to have higher truth biases in the low-motive condition and lower accuracy in the high-motive condition.
Murdoch: publish/subscribe task allocation for heterogeneous agents

Introduction In this paper, we describe a novel approach to the problem of dynamic task allocation among groups of heterogeneous agents. Specifically , we advocate the use of publish/subscribe messaging, a well-researched ((S 98)) and commercially proven ((TIB97)) message brokering paradigm that is readily applicable to distributed control. We present MURDOCH, an implemented publish-subscribe system, and explain how it can facilitate multi-robot coordination. Publish/Subscribe Messaging At the heart of MURDOCH is an implementation of publish/subscribe messaging, which in turn depends on subject-based addressing. Subject-based addressing is an addressing scheme in which individual messages are addressed by content rather than destination. Publish/subscribe messaging is a messaging paradigm that uses subject-based addressing to divide a network into a loosely-coupled association of anonymous data producers and consumers. A data producer simply tags a message with a subject (or set of subjects) and “publishes” it onto the network; any data consumers who have “subscribed” to that subject (or set of subjects) will automatically receive the message. The goal of publish/subscribe messaging is to enable a loosely-coupled distributed system in which the data producers have no knowledge of the data consumers and vice versa.
Impact of Day 14 Bone Marrow Biopsy on Re-Induction Decisions and Prediction of a Complete Response in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cases

Background: With acute myeloid leukemia (AML), there are limited data about the accuracy of day 14 bone marrow (BM) biopsies for predicting complete remission as compared to day 28 BM biopsy results. We here aimed to estimate the correlation between, and the diagnostic accuracy of, both approaches. Materials and Methods: We reviewed 84 patients with AML treated with standard induction chemotherapy to evaluate the remission rate and treatment decisions based on day 14 BM biopsy from 2000-2012. Results: Sixty five patients (77%) demonstrated remission (CR) with less than 5% blasts on their day 14 BM. Thirteen patients (16%) had residual disease (RD), and 6 (7%) were classified as indeterminate response (IR) i.e., blasts 5-20%. Two patients with RD on day 14 underwent re-induction. Out of the 17 remaining cases with RD+IR, 14 (all 6 with IR and 8 out of 11 with residual disease with no re-induction) demonstrated a morphologic complete remission (CR) on day 28 BM. The percentages for complete remissions on days 28 and 14 were significantly different [94% versus 79.3%, respectively; p=0.004, (OR= 0.143, 95% CI: 0.032-0.63)]. Day 14 BM had 82% sensitivity in predicting CR on Day 28; however, it had insufficient specificity (60%) in predicting failure of CR. Conclusions: Induction treatment response assessment based on day 14 BM does not accurately predict the response rate on day 28 and the use of day 14 BM as a sole marker of response to therapy might expose patients to unnecessary interventions.
Species- and Strain-Specific Control of a Complex, Flexible Regulon by Bordetella BvgAS

ABSTRACT The Bordetella master virulence regulatory system, BvgAS, controls a spectrum of gene expression states, including the virulent Bvg+ phase, the avirulent Bvg− phase, and at least one Bvg-intermediate (Bvgi) phase. We set out to define the species- and strain-specific features of this regulon based on global gene expression profiling. Rather than functioning as a switch, Bvg controls a remarkable continuum of gene expression states, with hundreds of genes maximally expressed in intermediate phases between the Bvg+ and Bvg− poles. Comparative analysis of Bvg regulation in B. pertussis and B. bronchiseptica revealed a relatively conserved Bvg+ phase transcriptional program and identified previously uncharacterized candidate virulence factors. In contrast, control of Bvg−- and Bvgi-phase genes diverged substantially between species; regulation of metabolic, transporter, and motility loci indicated an increased capacity in B. bronchiseptica, compared to B. pertussis, for ex vivo adaptation. Strain comparisons also demonstrated variation in gene expression patterns within species. Among the genes with the greatest variability in patterns of expression, predicted promoter sequences were nearly identical. Our data suggest that the complement of transcriptional regulators is largely responsible for transcriptional diversity. In support of this hypothesis, many putative transcriptional regulators that were Bvg regulated in B. bronchiseptica were deleted, inactivated, or unregulated by BvgAS in B. pertussis. We propose the concept of a “flexible regulon. ” This flexible regulon may prove to be important for pathogen evolution and the diversification of host range specificity.
Analysis of Vickers Hardness by the Finite-Element Method.

A particular formulation of the three-dimensional finite-element method relevant to the analysis of the Vickers hardness is established. The Vickers hardness of 0.46% carbon steel and 70/30 brass is analyzed by the proposed method using the stress-strain curve of the tensile test. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental results on 0.46% steel and 70/30 brass. The extension of the plastic zone induced by the indentation of an indenter is investigated by the analysis. The stresses at the maximum load are investigated and are compared with the residual stresses after complete removal of the load. At the maximum load, there is no tensile stress in the vicinity of the indenter. On the contrary, after removal of the load, there is large tensile residual stress at the diagonal edge beneath the indentation in the direction perpendicular to the diagonal edge. These results imply that it is necessary to reconsider the validity and accuracy of the conventional indentation method used for the determination of K1c of brittle materials such as ceramics.
Optimal Cut-Off Value of the Superior Articular Process Area as a Morphological Parameter to Predict Lumbar Foraminal Stenosis

Background. We devised a new morphological parameter called the superior articular process area (SAPA) to evaluate the connection between lumbar foraminal stenosis (LFS) and the superior articular process. Objective. We hypothesized that the SAPA is an important morphologic parameter in the diagnosis of LFS. Methods. All patients over 60 years of age were included. Data regarding the SAPA were collected from 137 patients with LFS. A total of 167 control subjects underwent lumbar magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as part of a routine medical examination. We analyzed the cross-sectional area of the bone margin of the superior articular process at the level of L4-L5 facet joint in the axial plane. Results. The average SAPA was 96.3 ± 13.6 mm2 in the control group and 128.1 ± 17.2 mm2 in the LFS group. The LFS group was found to have significantly higher levels of SAPA (p < 0.001) in comparison to the control group. In the LFS group, the optimal cut-off value was 112.1 mm2, with 84.4% sensitivity, 83.9% specificity, and AUC of 0.94 (95% CI: 0.91–0.96). Conclusions. Higher SAPA values were associated with a higher possibility of LFS. These results are important in the evaluation of patients with LFS.
Myelin Detection Using Rapid Quantitative MR Imaging Correlated to Macroscopically Registered Luxol Fast Blue–Stained Brain Specimens

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Myelin detection is of great value in monitoring diseases such as multiple sclerosis and dementia. However, most MR imaging methods to measure myelin are challenging for routine clinical use. Recently, a novel method was published, in which the presence of myelin is inferred by using its effect on the intra- and extracellular water relaxation rates and proton density, observable by rapid quantitative MR imaging. The purpose of this work was to validate this method further on the brains of 12 fresh, intact cadavers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The 12 brains were scanned with a quantification sequence to determine the longitudinal and transverse relaxation rates and proton density as input for the myelin estimations. Subsequently, the brains were excised at postmortem examination, and brain slices were stained with Luxol fast blue to verify the presence of myelin. The optical density values of photographs of the stained brain slices were registered with the MR images and correlated with the myelin estimation performed by quantitative MR imaging. RESULTS: A correlation was found between the 2 methods with a mean Spearman ρ for all subjects of 0.74 ± 0.11. Linear regression showed a mean intercept of 1.50% ± 2.84% and a mean slope of 4.37% ± 1.73%/%. A lower correlation was found for the separate longitudinal relaxation rates and proton density (ρ = 0.63 ± 0.12 and −0.73 ± 0.09, respectively). For transverse relaxation rates, the ρ was very low (0.11 ± 0.28). CONCLUSIONS: The observed correlation supports the validity of myelin measurement by using the MR imaging quantification method.
Three‐dimensional reconstruction of the pharyngeal gland cells in the predatory nematode Pristionchus pacificus

Pristionchus pacificus is a model system in evolutionary biology and for comparison to Caenorhabditis elegans. As a necromenic nematode often found in association with scarab beetles, P. pacificus exhibits omnivorous feeding that is characterized by a mouth‐form dimorphism, an example of phenotypic plasticity. Eurystomatous animals have a dorsal and a sub‐ventral tooth enabling predatory feeding on other nematodes whereas stenostomatous animals have only a dorsal tooth and are microbivorous. Both mouth forms of P. pacificus, like all members of the Diplogastridae family, lack the grinder in the terminal bulb of the pharynx resulting in a fundamentally different organization of several pharynx‐associated structures. Here, we describe the three‐dimensional reconstruction of the pharyngeal gland cells in P. pacificus based on serial transmission electron microscopical analysis of 2527 sections of 50 nm thickness. In comparison to C. elegans, P. pacificus lacks two gland cells (g2) usually associated with grinder function, whereas the three gland cells of g1 (g1D, g1VL, and g1VR) are very prominent. The largest expansion is seen for g1D, which has an anterior process that opens into the buccal cavity through a canal in the dorsal tooth. We provide the morphological description and fine structural analysis of the P. pacificus gland cells, the behavior of the pharynx and preliminary insight into exocytosis of gland cell vesicles in P. pacificus.
A model of synchronous machine with a transistor exciter for analysis of normal operations, external and turn-to-turn faults

A model of a synchronous machine with a transistor self-excitation system has been developed. The model is designed to analyze steady-state, transient, and fault operations, including turn-to-turn faults. Faulted turns of a stator winding are presented by a separate loop. To minimize time losses for calculations, the methodology of simulation of systems by interconnected subsystems has been used. Normal and fault operations of the system have been analyzed. To detect turn-to-turn short-circuits of the stator winding it was suggested to use appearing of harmonic component of double frequency in a control voltage of an exciter.
Antibody Discovery Ex Vivo Accelerated by the LacO/LacI Regulatory Network

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can be potent and highly specific therapeutics, diagnostics and research reagents. Nonetheless, mAb discovery using current in vivo or in vitro approaches can be costly and time-consuming, with no guarantee of success. We have established a platform for rapid discovery and optimization of mAbs ex vivo. This DTLacO platform derives from a chicken B cell line that has been engineered to enable rapid selection and seamless maturation of high affinity mAbs. We have validated the DTLacO platform by generation of high affinity and specific mAbs to five cell surface targets, the receptor tyrosine kinases VEGFR2 and TIE2, the glycoprotein TROP2, the small TNF receptor family member FN14, and the G protein-coupled receptor FZD10. mAb discovery is rapid and humanization is straightforward, establishing the utility of the DTLacO platform for identification of mAbs for therapeutic and other applications.
Action selection in an autonomous agent with a hierarchical distributed reactive planning architecture

Action selection is a central issue for robotic autonomous agent design. The action selection mechanism used in an autonomous robot needs to be reactive, but must include planning capacities. It should ennble the coexistence of antinomic goals and constraints, and induce a sufficient adaptivity to cope with circumstances unexpected at design time. To our knowledge, no such mechanism embedding all these properties has been implemented in a robotic application. We propose here an action selection mechanism that fulfill all these requirements and present a principle test of its properties on a simple robot realistic simulator.
Brazil's National Program for Improving Primary Care Access and Quality (PMAQ)

Despite some remarkable achievements, there are several challenges facing Brazil's Family Health Strategy (FHS), including expanding access to primary care and improving its quality. These concerns motivated the development of the National Program for Improving Primary Care Access and Quality (PMAQ). Although voluntary, the program now includes nearly 39 000 FHS teams in the country and has led to a near doubling of the federal investment in primary care in its first 2 rounds. In this article, we introduce the PMAQ and advance several recommendations to ensure that it continues to improve primary care access and quality in Brazil.