Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuro-Inspired Speech Recognition Based on Reservoir Computing

This chapter investigates the potential of recurrent spiking neurons for classification problems. It presents a hybrid approach based on the paradigm of Reservoir Computing. The practical applications based on recurrent spiking neurons are limited due to the lack of learning algorithms. Most of the previous work in the literature has focused on feed forward networks because computation in these networks is comparatively easy to analyse. The details of such networks have been reported in detail in (Haykin, 1999) (Pavlidis et al., 2005) (Bohte et al., 2000). Recently, a strategy proposed by Maass (Maass et al., 2002) and Jaeger (Jaeger, 2001) offers to overcome the burden of recurrent neural networks training. In this paradigm, instead of training the whole recurrent network only the output layer (known as readout neuron) is trained. This chapter investigates the potential of recurrent spiking neurons as the basic building blocks for the liquid or so called reservoir. These recurrent neural networks are termed as microcircuits which are viewed as basic computational units in cortical computation (Maass et al., 2002). These microcircuits are connected as columns which are linked with other neighboring columns in cortical areas. These columns read out information from each other and serve both as reservoir and readout. The reservoir is modeled as a dynamical system perturbed by the input stream where only readouts are trained to extract information from the reservoir. The basic motivation behind investigating recurrent neurons is their potential to memorise relevant events over short periods of time (Maass et al., 2002). The use of feedback enables recurrent networks to acquire state representation which makes them suitable for temporal based applications such as speech recognition. It is challenging to solve such problems with recurrent networks due to the burden of training. The paradigm of reservoir computing also referred to as liquid computing relaxes the burden of training because only an output layer is trained instead of training the whole network. The work presented in this chapter analyses the theoretical framework of Reservoir Computing and demonstrates results in terms of classification accuracy through the application of speech recognition. The design space for this paradigm is split into three domains; front end, reservoir, and back end. This work contributes to the identification of suitable front and back end processing techniques along with stable reservoir dynamics, which provides a reliable framework for classification related problems. The work presented in this chapter suggests a simple and efficient biologically plausible approach based on a hybrid implementation of recurrent spiking neurons and classical feed
Measuring chlorophyll content in corn leaves at soil salinity conditions by using spectrophotometer and its correlation with plant yield

Salinity is one of the environmental limiting factors in agricultural product producing. So the investigation of the plants and finding some method to resist the plants against salinity stress is very important. Considering Iran and Azerbaijan as origin countries in Astara region, and in order to study the effects of salt stress (NACL) on, leaf relative water content (LRWC), Chlorophyll a, Chlorophyll b Content and yield of 8 maize cultivars were experimented in three replications on the basis of randomized complete block design in three years (2007-2009). Results from the experiment showed that, between locations (normal and saline) in all traits, significant differences were seen. Between varieties in all traits, significant differences were seen. The interaction between years and varieties, years and varieties and locations for all traits was not significant. Comparison traits in different salinities showed that in most traits, there are significant differences between genotypes. The highest amount of chlorophyll a, in normal condition was observed in S.C704 with 1.873 mg/g fresh weight of leaves, which was no significant difference with B73. Maximum LRWC in B73 was measured in normal conditions which were no significant difference with K3653.2, S.C704 and Waxy at 5% level. Between chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and Ratio of Chlorophyll a/b significant positive correlations were observed in non-stress condition. [Davar Molazem, Jafar Azimi, Marefat Ghasemi, Mohsen Hanifi and Ali Khatami. Measuring chlorophyll content in corn leaves at soil salinity conditions by using spectrophotometer and its correlation with plant yield. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):5615-5619] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 836
Hormonal and echocardiographic abnormalities in adult patients with sickle-cell anemia in Bahrain

Background Adrenal, thyroid, and parathyroid gland hormonal changes are recognized in children with homozygous (HbSS) sickle-cell anemia (SCA), but are not clear in adult patients with SCA. Aim To assess the metabolic and endocrine abnormalities in adult patients with SCA and evaluate left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic functions compared with patients with no SCA and further study the relationship between serum levels of cortisol, free thyroxine (T4), and testosterone with serum ferritin. Materials and methods The study was conducted on 82 patients with adult HbSS SCA compared with a sex- and age-matched control group. The serum levels of cortisol, parathyroid hormone (PTH), testosterone, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and free T4 were compared. Blood levels of hemoglobin, reticulocyte count, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), calcium, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), vitamin D3, and ferritin were also compared. Pulsed Doppler echo was performed to evaluate the LV mass, wall thickness, and cavity dimensions with diastolic filling velocities of early (E) and atria (A) waves. Biometric data were analyzed as mean ± standard deviation between the two groups. Multiple regression analysis was performed between serum levels of ferritin as independent variable and testosterone, cortisol, and thyroid hormones. Results A total of 82 adult patients with HbSS SCA were enrolled who had a mean age of 21±5.7 years, with 51 males (62%). Patients with SCA compared with the control group had significantly lower hemoglobin, body mass index, cortisol, vitamin D3, testosterone, and T4. Furthermore, there were significantly high levels of reticulocyte count, PTH, TSH, ferritin, LDH, ALP, and uric acid. The incidence of subclinical hypothyroidism and adrenal insufficiency was 7% and 4.8%, respectively, with hypogonadism 9.8% and vitamin D3 deficiency 61%. There were inverse relationships between ferritin as independent variable and serum levels of testosterone, T4, and cortisol, with regression coefficients of −0.49 (P<0.001), −0.33 (P<0.001), and −0.11 (P<0.92), respectively. Conclusion Patients with adult SCA had a high prevalence of in vivo hypoadrenialism (4.8%), hypogonadism (9.8%), and hypothyroidism (7%). There were significant inverse relationships between serum ferritin as independent variable and cortisol, testosterone, and T4. Pulsed Doppler echocardiography showed increased LV mass, with a restrictive LV diastolic pattern suggestive of diastolic dysfunction.
Why Investors are Loss Averters During Bull Markets and Gain Seekers During Bear Markets?

How does market trend sentiment affect investors’ asymmetric loss-gain tradeoffs? Several empirical tests indicate that investors are far more loss adverse during bull markets than during bear markets (see Hwang and Satchell, 2010; Hofschire et al, 2013). In this paper we provide a sound theoretical foundation for this empirical evidence. First, we discuss how to identify the subjectively perceived market trend sentiment. Then, we propose a reference dependent definition of loss aversion and gain appetite, that generalizes the Kahneman and Tversky (1979, p. 279) and Kahneman and Tversky (1992, p. 303) loss aversion definitions. Under mild technical assumptions on utility functions, asymmetrical loss-gain evaluations are normatively influenced by the investor perceived market trend. Specifically, investors are normatively lead to loss aversion during perceived bullish markets and to risk appetite during perceived bearish markets. This market trend dependence holds for the most popular utility functions used in the expected utility and prospect theory.
Corporate Disclosure As Mediating Variable On Effect Of Financial Resources, Capability, And Characteristic Of Corporate To Environmental Performance.

This study explains the role of corporate disclosure as a mediator in the relationship between environmental performance and financial resources, capabilities and characteristic of corporate. Using a sample of industrial companies that are included in the PROPER program and listed on the Jakarta stock exchange, and the path analysis. This study found that the role of disclosure as a mediator supports hypotheses about, the financial resources, capability, and characteristic of corporate influences on environmental performance through coporate disclosure. Although the relationship between financial resources with environment performance of the corporate is not significant. But in the context of time and involvement of the disclosure as a mediator of the relationship in the long term is positive. Keyword: Environmental Performance, Corporate Disclosure, Financial Resources, Capability, Characteristic of Corporate. ————————————————————
EFFECT OF LITHIUM THERAPY ON THYROID FUNCTION: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY ON INDIAN PATIENTS

SUMMARY Thirty patients with Bipolar affective disorder who were on Lithium therapy for 6 months to 24 months, were tested for any alteration in their thyroid function. Eight (26.67%) patients had elevated serum TSH level and four (13.33%) patients had decreased serum T4 level than the normal range. Serum T3, although showing a declining trend was found within the normal range in all the patients.
Modelling and Forecasting the Indian Re/US Dollar Exchange Rate

This paper develops vector autoregressive and Bayesian vector autoregressive models to forecast the Indian Re/US dollar exchange rate which is governed by a managed floating exchange rate regime. It considers extensions of the monetary model that include the forward premium, capital inflows, volatility of capital flows, order flows and central bank intervention. The study finds that the monetary model generally outperforms the naive model. It also finds that forecast accuracy can be improved by extending the monetary model to include forward premium, volatility of capital inflows and order flow. Information on intervention by the central bank also helps to improve forecasts at the longer end. The study also reports that the Bayesian vector autoregressive models generally outperform their corresponding VAR variants.
The role of endogenous aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling in cardiovascular physiology

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is an orphan nuclear receptor with a primary function of mediating xenobiotic metabolism through transcriptional activation of Phase I and Phase II drug-metabolizing enzymes. Although no high-affinity physiological activators of AHR have been discovered, the endogenous signaling of the AHR pathway is believed to play an important role in the development and function of the cardiovascular system, based on the observations on ahr gene-deficient mice. The AHR knockout mice develop cardiac hypertrophy, abnormal vascular structure in multiple organs and altered blood pressure depending on their host environment. In this review, the endogenous role of AHR in cardiovascular physiology, including heart function, vascular development and blood pressure regulation has been summarized and discussed.
Social capital and AIDS competent communities: evidence from eastern Zimbabwe

Community involvement is increasingly identified as a ‘‘critical enabler’’ of an effective HIV/AIDS response. We explore pathways between community participation and HIV prevention, treatment and impact mitigation in Zimbabwe, reviewing six qualitative studies in Manicaland. These find that community group membership is often (not always) associated with decreased HIV incidence, reduced stigma and improved access to some services, particularly amongst women. Participation in formal community groups (e.g., church or women’s groups) and informal local networks (e.g., neighbours, families) provides opportunities for critical dialogue about HIV/AIDS, often facilitating renegotiation of harmful social norms, sharing of previously hidden personal experiences of HIV/AIDS, formulation of positive action plans and solidarity to action them. However, implementation of new plans and insights is constrained by poverty, social uncertainty and poor service delivery. Furthermore, dialogue may have negative effects, spreading false information and entrenching negative norms. The extent that formal groups and informal networks facilitate externally imposed HIV/AIDS interventions varies. They potentially provide vital practical and emotional support, facilitating service access, treatment adherence and AIDS care. However, they may sometimes play a negative role in prevention activities, challenging stereotypes about sexuality or gender. There is an urgent need for greater recognition of the role of indigenous community groups and networks, and the inclusion of ‘‘strengthening local responses’’ as a key element of interventions and policy. Such efforts require great sensitivity. Heavy-handed external interference in complex indigenous relationships risks undermining the localism and bottom (cid:1) up initiative and activism that might be central to their effectiveness. Cautious efforts might seek to enhance the potentially beneficial effects of groups, especially for women, and limit potentially damaging ones, especially for men. Efforts should be made to facilitate contexts that enable groups to have beneficial effects, through nesting them within wider comprehensive responses, and supporting them through strong partnerships with service providers. to go get home and try to use condoms with our wives they would suspect that we been practicing using condoms in beer halls.
Phenomenology of Higgsless Models at the LHC and the ILC

We investigate the signatures of the recently proposed Higgsless models at future colliders. We focus on tests of the mechanism of partial unitarity restoration in the longitudinal vector boson scattering, which do not depend on any Higgsless model-building details. We study the LHC discovery reach for charged massive vector boson resonances and show that all of the preferred parameter space will be probed with 100 fb −1 of LHC data. We also discuss the prospects for experimental verification of the Higgsless nature of the model at the LHC. In addition, in this talk we present new results relevant for the discovery potential of Higgsless models at the International Linear Collider (ILC).
Establishing the connection between peanut-shaped bulges and galactic bars

It has been suggested that the peanut-shaped bulges seen in some edge-on disk galaxies are due to the presence of a central bar. Although bars cannot be detected photometrically in edge-on galaxies, we show that barred potentials produce a strong kinematic signature in the form of double-peaked line-of-sight velocity distributions with a characteristic 'figure-of-eight' variation with radius. We have obtained spectroscopic observations of two edge-on galaxies with peanut-shaped bulges (NGC 5746 and NGC 5965), and they reveal exactly such line-of-sight velocity distributions in both their gaseous (emission line) and their stellar (absorption line) components. These observations provide strong observational evidence that peanut-shaped bulges are a by-product of bar formation.
Speciation and Introgression between Mimulus nasutus and Mimulus guttatus

Mimulus guttatus and M. nasutus are an evolutionary and ecological model sister species pair differentiated by ecology, mating system, and partial reproductive isolation. Despite extensive research on this system, the history of divergence and differentiation in this sister pair is unclear. We present and analyze a novel population genomic data set which shows that M. nasutus “budded” off of a central Californian M. guttatus population within the last 200 to 500 thousand years. In this time, the M. nasutus genome has accrued numerous genomic signatures of the transition to predominant selfing. Despite clear biological differentiation, we document ongoing, bidirectional introgression. We observe a negative relationship between the recombination rate and divergence between M. nasutus and sympatric M. guttatus samples, suggesting that selection acts against M. nasutus ancestry in M. guttatus.
Decision-making under risk in rural Uganda

We report an experimental test of individual decision-making behaviour under risk conducted in rural Uganda. The test employs an incentive compatible design where subjects were paid according to outcome of one of their choices. We find that the risk preferences of rural Ugandans exhibit similar systematic and predictable deviations from expected utility maximisation to those observed amongst undergraduate students in Western Universities. These include systematic violations of the independence and transitivity axioms of expected utility theory, preference elicitation procedure variance, and reference-dependent preferences. We also find evidence of a substantial stochastic component to behaviour. The implications of our findings in terms of the appropriate characterisation risk preferences in applied policy analyses are discussed.
The significance of tubuloreticular inclusions as a marker of systemic stimulation by interferons in a case of focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis associated with cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection

The identification of large numbers of tubuloreticular inclusions (TRIs) in renal biopsies may be useful to raise diagnostic suspicion for certain clinical entities, particularly autoimmune diseases and viral infections. We report a case of a 65-year-old female with a 2-week history of malaise, massive proteinuria and lower extremity edema of acute onset. A renal biopsy was performed and the diagnosis of non-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tip-located, early focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) was established. The electron microscopy examination was remarkable for the presence of diffuse foot process effacement and frequent TRIs in the endothelial cells of the glomerular capillary loops, endothelium of arterioles and cytoplasm of fibroblasts in the interstitium, highly suggestive of an underlying etiology. Patient clinical and laboratory workup revealed the absence of an autoimmune disease but the presence of a subclinical cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Therefore, we highlight that the identification of TRIs is a useful indicator of systemic interferon activity. In the present case, the unusual location of numerous TRIs was associated with a subclinical CMV infection in an immunocompetent patient.
Physiological and Anatomical Organization of Multiwhisker Response Interactions in the Barrel Cortex of Rats

To understand the physiological properties and anatomical organization of the spatiotemporal interaction of the responses to multiwhisker stimulation in neurons of the rat barrel cortex, single-unit recordings of 114 neurons were performed across all layers (layer II/III, n = 39; IV, n = 33; V/VI, n = 42) of the posteromedial barrel subfield of the primary somatosensory cortex of anesthetized rats. Two neighboring principal and adjacent whiskers (PW and AW, respectively) in the same row were deflected rostrally or caudally at varying interstimulus intervals (ISIs). In 37% of the neurons, the response to the combined stimulus was significantly larger than the sum of the responses to stimulation of the individual whiskers. In instances in which response facilitation was observed, selectivity was noted for the combination (75%) of the PW with a particular AW or for a particular direction (60%) of whisker deflection. The direction bias of the responses to multiwhisker stimulation was well correlated with that of the sum of the responses to single whisker stimulation (r = 0.83; p < 0.001). The pattern and magnitude of the response interaction in the neurons of the superficial layers were closely related to the location of the recorded cell in the barrel columns. Multiwhisker stimulation at short ISIs (≤3 msec) evoked prominent response facilitation in cells located close to the border between two columns (p < 0.05, one-way ANOVA), where two excitatory inputs were expected to arrive at the same time. Our results suggest that the spatiotemporal patterns of multiwhisker stimulation, such as whisker combination, direction of deflection, and timing, are expressed as different magnitudes of response interaction, which depends on the proximity of cells to home and adjacent barrel columns.
The survival of Escherichia coli on drying and rehydration.

SUMMARY: By direct observation of individual organisms in a micro-culture chamber and by viable plate counts, a study has been made of the function of sugar/colloid mixtures in promoting the survival of Gram-negative bacteria on drying. The high death rate after drying in sugar alone was due mainly to cell-wall damage caused during rehydration by the temporary osmotic pressure set up by the sugar within the cell, leading to the formation of spheroplasts not capable of division. Spheroplast formation was largely prevented and survival greatly enhanced by controlled rehydration, showing that the sugar component was the primary protective agent. The complementary role of the protein or ‘protective colloid’ appears to lie in its ability to compress the cell wall against the contracted plasma membrane in plasmolysed cells, thus decreasing the volume of the interspace between the two membranes and so limiting the sugar trapped therein to a safe amount. These observations were corroborated by cell volume measurements in the ultracentrifuge.
In Vitro Host-Cell Susceptibility to Usutu Virus

We investigated the susceptibility to Usutu virus (Flavivirus) of 13 permanent cell lines, 3 primary cell cultures, and chicken embryos. Vero, PK-15, and goose embryo fibroblast cells developed cytopathic effects; however, viral multiplication was detected in all mammalian cell types by immunohistochemical tests. Chicken embryo fibroblast cells and chicken embryos were resistant.
Finance, The Discreet Regulator : How Financial Activities Shape and Transform the World

The global financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007 has brought the financial industry to centre stage. While most current analysis focuses on the way finance can be regulated in the topical context of the economic crisis, this book aims to show how financial activities actually shape and transform the world. Highlighting that the true regulators of the economy are not only regulatory state authorities, the book demonstrates that the financial sphere really does contribute to rule-setting. It argues that actors that seem to be the objects of regulation or intervene only at its fringe are in fact 'discreet regulators' which provide the institutional framework that fosters the creation and globalization of markets. Building on a series of case studies, Finance: The Discreet Regulator highlights how public authorities and private actors jointly regulate the real world, with joint regulation being dominated by a multiplicity of financial actors, and looks at a variety of key players, who take part in the very heart of the regulatory process.