Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Astrocytes Control the Development of the Migration-Promoting Vasculature Scaffold in the Postnatal Brain via VEGF Signaling

New neurons are constantly being generated in the postnatal subventricular zone. They have to migrate long distances via the rostral migratory stream (RMS) to reach their final destination in the olfactory bulb (OB). In adults, these neuronal precursors migrate in chains, ensheathed by astrocytic processes, and travel toward the OB along blood vessels (BVs) that topographically outline the RMS. The molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to the development of the RMS and the formation of the migration-promoting vasculature scaffold in the adult mice remain unclear. We now reveal that astrocytes orchestrate the formation and structural reorganization of the vasculature scaffold in the RMS and, during early developmental stages, the RMS contains only a few BVs oriented randomly with respect to the migrating neuroblasts. The first parallel BVs appeared at the outer border of the RMS, where vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-expressing astrocytes are located. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function experiments revealed that astrocyte-derived VEGF plays a crucial role in the formation and growth of new BVs. Real-time videoimaging also showed that the migration of neuronal precursors in the developing RMS differs substantially from neuronal displacement in the adult migratory stream partially because of not yet fully developed vasculature scaffold. The downregulation of VEGF in vivo, specifically in the astrocytes of the developing RMS, affected the development of the vasculature scaffold and led to alterations in neuroblast migration. Altogether, our results demonstrate that astrocytes orchestrate the formation and growth of parallel BVs, crucial migration-promoting scaffolds in the adult migratory stream, via VEGF signaling.
Supplier development at Honda, Nissan and Toyota: comparative case studies of organizational capability enhancement

What factors facilitate and constrain the sustained development and replication of organizational capabilities of suppliers? This question is addressed in a comparison of historical case studies of Toyota, Nissan and Honda in Japan. First, as expected, replication difficulty is overcome by enabling companies to share the practice, rather than the representation, of tacit knowledge. Second, interdependence in the hierarchy of routines that constitute organizational capabilities has led companies to broaden the scope of supplier development over time. Third, this broadening challenges suppliers to accept customer companies' intervention in internal investment decisions, requiring a certain mode of corporate governance. It is argued that the boundary of a capability-based firm may go beyond legally distinct units of financial control when firms are subjected to a cumulative process of capability enhancement. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
The Bayesian Multilevel Trifactor Item Response Theory Model

Advancements in item response theory (IRT) have led to models for dual dependence, which control for cluster and method effects during a psychometric analysis. Currently, however, this class of models does not include one that controls for when the method effects stem from two method sources in which one source functions differently across the aspects of another source (i.e., a nested method–source interaction). For this study, then, a Bayesian IRT model is proposed, one that accounts for such interaction among method sources while controlling for the clustering of individuals within the sample. The proposed model accomplishes these tasks by specifying a multilevel trifactor structure for the latent trait space. Details of simulations are also reported. These simulations demonstrate that this model can identify when item response data represent a multilevel trifactor structure, and it does so in data from samples as small as 250 cases nested within 50 clusters. Additionally, the simulations show that misleading estimates for the item discriminations could arise when the trifactor structure reflected in the data is not correctly accounted for. The utility of the model is also illustrated through the analysis of empirical data.
High Precision and Fast Functional Mapping of Brain Circuitry through Laser Scanning Photostimulation and Fast Dye Imaging

The development of modern neuroscience tools has a significant impact on the progress in the field of neuroscience (Kandel, 1982). New tools has greatly faciliated the neuroscience resreach, and can be critical for studies of brain circuit organization and function. Although many approaches are useful by themselves, it is desirable to combine existing powerful techniques to harness each technique's advantages and compensate for limitations. In many brain areas, neuronal circuits are segregated into anatomically discrete areas such as specific lamina and modules or compartments (Mountcastle, 1997). Functional imaging of these brain areas is particularly useful in characterizing circuit properties. Fast voltagesensitive dye (VSD) imaging, which detects neuronal membrane potential changes via shifts in the dye absorption /or fluorescence emission in response to varying membrane potentials, offers a great means of simultaneous monitoring neuronal activities from many locations with high spatial and temporal resolutions. With new dyes and modern imaging apparatus, VSD imaging has been widely used to study spatiotemporal dynamics of population neuronal activity in cortical tissue both in vivo and in vitro (Grinvald & Hildesheim, 2004). Particularly, for in vitro brain slices, fast VSD imaging is important for mapping circuit organization and response dynamics, and more recently has been used to probe functional abnormalities in models of neurological and psychiatric disorders (Ang et al., 2006; Airan et al., 2007). One major limitation of most in vitro VSD imaging studies, however, lies in that the imaged neuronal responses are either spontaneous seizure activities through pharmacological manipulations or induced by electric stimulations (Petersen & Sakmann, 2001; Huang et al., 2004; Ang et al., 2006). Significant disadvantages of electric stimulation include indiscriminate activation of axons of passage, slow and inefficient placement of multiple stimulation locations, and tissue damage. In comparison, optical stimulation including laser scanning photostimulation (LSPS) either by glutamate uncaging or direct activation of light-sensitive channels (e.g., channelrhodopsin-2) enables rapid and noninvasive photoactivation of neurons with great convenience and superior spatial resolution in practical experiments (Callaway & Katz, 1993; Boyden et al., 2005; Petreanu et al., 2009). Combining whole-cell recordings from single neurons with photostimulation of clusters of presynaptic neurons permits extensive mapping of local functional inputs to individually recorded neurons (Schubert et al., 2003; Shepherd & Svoboda, 2005; Xu & Callaway, 2009).
Why Human Expertise is Critical for Data Mining

— Current data mining (DM) technology is not domain-specific and therefore rarely generates reliable, business actionable knowledge that can be used to improve the effectiveness of the decision-making process in the banking industry. Despite this shortcoming, banks continue to rely on DM, hoping to gain a competitive edge in the face of rising global competition and eroding profits. Using PCA and CHAID algorithm to analyze and evaluate a survey of 1,000 DM analysts revealed that the relationship between the level of human expertise and the enhancement of the value of DM are statistically significant. However, the current level of integrating expertise in the process of knowledge discovery appears less-than satisfactory given the low level of perceived success (25%) in using DM technology.
Redundancy and Aging of Efficient Multidimensional MDS Parity-Protected Distributed Storage Systems

The effect of redundancy on the aging of an efficient maximum distance separable (MDS) parity-protected distributed storage system that consists of MDS-parity protected array of storage units is explored. In light of the experimental evidences and survey data, this paper develops generalized expressions for the reliability of array storage systems based on more realistic time to failure distributions such as Weibull. For instance, a distributed disk array system is considered in which the array components are disseminated across the network and are subject to independent failure rates. Based on such, generalized closed-form hazard rate expressions are derived. These expressions are extended to estimate the asymptotical reliability behavior of large-scale storage networks equipped with MDS parity-based protection. Unlike previous studies, a generic hazard rate function is assumed, a generic MDS code for parity generation is used, and an evaluation of the implications of adjustable redundancy level for an efficient distributed storage system is presented. Results of this paper are applicable to any erasure correction code as long as it is accompanied with a suitable structure and an appropriate encoding/decoding algorithm such that the MDS property is maintained.
The mediating role of experience quality on authenticity and satisfaction in the context of cultural-heritage tourism

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of experience quality between the dimensions of authenticity and satisfaction in the context of cultural-heritage tourism. This paper investigates the direct influences of these variables on satisfaction and the indirect influences of two dimensions of authenticity on satisfaction through quality of experience. This study is a pioneer in analysing the influence of each of the two dimensions of authenticity on satisfaction via quality of experience in a cultural-heritage context. A questionnaire survey administered to 205 visitors in the City of York, United Kingdom, was analysed using the structural equation modelling technique. The findings confirmed the direct and indirect influence of the variable authenticity in its double perspective (objective and existential authenticity) on satisfaction. The findings also identified the mediating role of quality of experience on authenticity and satisfaction. It is therefore recommended that cultural tourism attractions should be offered that provide visitors with a high quality authentic and personal experience in order to enhance visitor satisfaction.
Spatial Mapping in Preschoolers: Close Comparisons Facilitate Far Mappings

To test the hypothesis that comparison processes facilitate schema extraction, we studied the effect of making comparisons on 3-year-olds' ability to perform mapping tasks. In 3 studies, children were tested on their ability to find a hidden toy in a model room after being shown its location in a perceptually different room. In Experiment 1 we found that seeing 2 similar hiding events-permitting a sequential comparison-improved 3-year-olds' performance on the mapping task. Experiment 2 showed a more striking effect: Simply comparing the initial hiding model with another nearly identical model helped children to succeed on the subsequent mapping task. Experiment 3 showed that the comparison effect was not simply due to an opportunity to interact with 2 examples, but was specific to comparing them. We conclude that comparing examples can facilitate children's noticing common relational schemas-in this case, a spatial relational schema-and their ability to use this system of relations in subsequent tasks.Our central hypothesis is that the process of comparison is a major force in children's learning and development. In this work, we test the specific claim that drawing comparisons among similar spatial arrays fosters insight into the common spatial relations, as assessed in a subsequent spatial mapping task.
Low-overhead adaptive constrast enhancement and power reduction for OLEDs

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display panels are becoming increasingly popular especially in mobile devices; one of the key characteristics of these panels is that their power consumption strongly depends on the displayed image. In this paper, we propose a new methodology to reduce the energy consumed by OLED displays that relies on image-specific pixel-by-pixel transformations, aimed at preserving the contrast of the image as much as possible while reducing the overall power. Unlike previous approaches, our method focuses specifically on the minimization of time and power overheads to implement the image transformation at runtime. To this end, we propose a transformation that can be executed online in real time, either in software, with low time overhead, or in a hardware accelerator with a small silicon footprint. Despite the great reduction in complexity, our results are comparable to those achieved with more complex approaches in terms of image quality. Moreover, our method allows to easily explore the full quality-versus-power tradeoff by acting on a few basic parameters; thus, it enables the runtime selection among multiple display quality settings, according to the status of the system.
Action recognition with motion-appearance vocabulary forest

In this paper we propose an approach for action recognition based on a vocabulary forest of local motion-appearance features. Large numbers of features with associated motion vectors are extracted from action data and are represented by many vocabulary trees. Features from a query sequence are matched to the trees and vote for action categories and their locations. Large number of trees make the process efficient and robust. The system is capable of simultaneous categorization and localization of actions using only a few frames per sequence. The approach obtains excellent performance on standard action recognition sequences. We perform large scale experiments on 17 challenging real action categories from Olympic Games1 . We demonstrate the robustness of our method to appearance variations, camera motion, scale change, asymmetric actions, background clutter and occlusion.
Exploring the impact of Cloud Computing adoption on organizational flexibility: A client perspective

Today's turbulent business environment poses a challenge of survival for all organizations. Flexibility to adapt to these changes is the key to success. Role of Information Technology innovations like Cloud Computing cannot be denied in achieving organizational flexibility. Introduction of cloud computing has changed the manner in which Information Technology services are delivered to the client, especially in terms of the IT services as utility. This study aims to understand the cloud computing adoption drivers and its impact on organizational flexibility. Case study approach was used for the study. Responses from ten Indian IT professionals from different organizations of various sectors were analyzed. Results suggest that decision to adopt cloud computing depends on factors like Relative Advantage, Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Vendor Credibility and organization's Attitude towards Using Technology. The survey also indicates that impact of cloud computing on organizational flexibility can be categorized as economic flexibility, process flexibility, performance flexibility and market flexibility.
Closing the Gap: Improved Bounds on Optimal POMDP Solutions

POMDP algorithms have made significant progress in recent years by allowing practitioners to find good solutions to increasingly large problems. Most approaches (including point-based and policy iteration techniques) operate by refining a lower bound of the optimal value function. Several approaches (e.g., HSVI2, SARSOP, grid-based approaches and online forward search) also refine an upper bound. However, approximating the optimal value function by an upper bound is computationally expensive and therefore tightness is often sacrificed to improve efficiency (e.g., sawtooth approximation). In this paper, we describe a new approach to efficiently compute tighter bounds by i) conducting a prioritized breadth first search over the reachable beliefs, ii) propagating upper bound improvements with an augmented POMDP and iii) using exact linear programming (instead of the sawtooth approximation) for upper bound interpolation. As a result, we can represent the bounds more compactly and significantly reduce the gap between upper and lower bounds on several benchmark problems.
Attributions of leaders’ charisma increase after their death: The mediating role of identity leadership and identity fusion

In the present research, we replicate previous research showing that death increases attributions of a leader’s charisma and that this is mediated by followers’ perceptions of a connection between the leader and their group (identity fusion). We also extend previous research by including identity leadership as a further mediator, examining the importance of a leaders’ perceived ability to strengthen the identity of the group they lead. Predictions were tested in the unique context of the death of two former German chancellors (Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl) with participants (n = 233) evaluating one of these leaders either before or after their death. Results show that the leaders’ identity leadership, identity fusion, and charisma were perceived to be significantly higher after their death. Analysis also supported the proposed serial mediation model in which condition (alive or dead) impacted charisma via identity leadership and then fusion. Results support claims that charisma is a social attribution.
Co-Evolution and Ontogenetic Change inCompeting

We investigate the dynamics of competitive co-evolution in the framework of two miniature mobile robots, a predator with a vision system and a faster prey with proximity sensors. Both types of robots are controlled by evolutionary neural netowrks. A variety of eecient chase-escape behaviors emerge in few generations. These results are analyzed in terms of variable tness landscapes and selection criteria. A new vision of artiicial evolution as generation and maintainance of adaptivity is suggested and contrasted with the theory and practice of mainstream evolutionary computation. In a second stage, diierent types of ontogenetic changes applied to the robot controllers are compared and the results are analyzed in the context of competitive co-evolution. It is shown that predators beneet from forms of directional changes whereas prey attempt to exploit unpredictable behaviors. These results and their eeect on co-evolutionary dynamics are then considered in relation to open-ended evolution in unpredictably changing environments.
The last twenty years

As we were pulling together this anniversary issue, the annual Pride in London parade was disrupted by a group of anti trans protestors with banners and flyers describing the trans movement as ‘anti-lesbianism’ and calling for ‘The L to leave this absurd coalition called LGBTQIA+’ (see Gabbatis, 2018). As Sally Hines (2018) has argued, although this represents a minority position within feminism – a point made in a number of reports and tweets which emphasized that there were only 10 protestors in a parade of 30,000 – transphobia has become highly visible in the UK because of its support by a number of high-profile journalists and its amplification through social media. It also draws its strength from a long and turbulent history of disagreement over the ‘correct’ feminist views of bodies, sex and gender; a history that has played out in what are commonly described as the ‘sex wars’, as Dennis Altman and Rosalind Gill and Shani Orgad note in their pieces for this issue. This has led to some bitter divisions in sex and gender politics, with particular groups of women – notably those who engage in kink and BDSM practices, produce or consume pornography, sex workers and trans women – continuing to bear the brunt of these disputes and to become symbolic as sticking points or limit cases for certain types of feminist politics. In the UK, the group Object! continues to represent this kind of politics with its objections to ‘5 key issues’ of pornography, prostitution, sex encounter venues, surrogacy and transgender practices. Across the broad fields which mark out the study and politics of sexuality and gender, more complex, critical and inclusive forms of theory and activism have developed since the sex wars, but what is often most visible and therefore apparently ‘mainstream’ – certainly in Anglo-American contexts – is a version of feminism that embraces conservative views of sex and gender, and is neglectful of – or even antagonistic towards – marginalized identities and practices. At the same time we are in a hopeful and interesting historical moment when gender and sexual diversities have quite strikingly challenged established ways of thinking about sex and gender. A number of contributors to this issue – including Christian Klesse and Jeff Hearn – remark on this shift towards the celebration of diversity. Susanna Paasonen – who devotes her contribution to this theme – shows Sexualities 2018, Vol. 21(8) 1211–1213 ! The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1363460718802585 journals.sagepub.com/home/sex
The last will be the first a study of European issue publics on Twitter

This article analyzes topics of European relevance on Twitter. It does so by examining #schengen and #ttip Twitter hashtags as a case study. The purpose of this article is to detect which accounts are most important in terms of the number of ties received, and whether they are elite or non-elite actors. This is done by calculating the in-degree and out-degree scores of nodes involved in the networks generated by the usage of the two hashtags. The research reveals that it is easier for civil society and citizens to enjoy an important level of attention similar to that of the media, institutions and politicians on topics of European relevance. The outcomes of this research are important when it comes to understanding how a digital platform such as Twitter contributes to bottom-up conversations about relevant European topics. What we learn here about the structure and configuration of these networks helps us obtaining a more fine-grained understanding of new forms of communication and interaction used by citizens, and their implications for the emergence of a European Public Sphere.
Quality palliative care for cancer and dementia in five European countries: some common challenges

Objectives: There is a growing consensus worldwide that palliative care needs to be both more inclusive of conditions other than cancer and to improve. This paper explores some common challenges currently faced by professionals providing palliative care for patients with either cancer or dementia across five countries. Method: One focus group (n = 7) and 67 interviews were conducted in 2012 across five countries: England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway, with professionals from dementia, cancer and palliative care settings. Results: The interviews revealed five common challenges faced across the five countries: communication difficulties (between services; and between professionals, and patients and their families); the variable extent of structural/functional integration of services; the difficulties in funding of palliative care services; problematic processes of care (boundaries, definitions, knowledge, skills and inclusiveness) and, finally, time constraints. Conclusion: These are not problems distinct to palliative care, but they may have different origins and explanations compared to other areas of health care. This paper explored deeper themes hidden behind a discourse about barriers and facilitators to improving care.