Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving the Efficacy of ERP-Based BCIs Using Different Modalities of Covert Visuospatial Attention and a Genetic Algorithm-Based Classifier

We investigated whether the covert orienting of visuospatial attention can be effectively used in a brain-computer interface guided by event-related potentials. Three visual interfaces were tested: one interface that activated voluntary orienting of visuospatial attention and two interfaces that elicited automatic orienting of visuospatial attention. We used two epoch classification procedures. The online epoch classification was performed via Independent Component Analysis, and then it was followed by fixed features extraction and support vector machines classification. The offline epoch classification was performed by means of a genetic algorithm that permitted us to retrieve the relevant features of the signal, and then to categorise the features with a logistic classifier. The offline classification, but not the online one, allowed us to differentiate between the performances of the interface that required voluntary orienting of visuospatial attention and those that required automatic orienting of visuospatial attention. The offline classification revealed an advantage of the participants in using the “voluntary” interface. This advantage was further supported, for the first time, by neurophysiological data. Moreover, epoch analysis was performed better with the “genetic algorithm classifier” than with the “independent component analysis classifier”. We suggest that the combined use of voluntary orienting of visuospatial attention and of a classifier that permits feature extraction ad personam (i.e., genetic algorithm classifier) can lead to a more efficient control of visual BCIs.
Online Nonparametric Learning, Chaining, and the Role of Partial Feedback

We investigate contextual online learning with nonparametric (Lipschitz) comparison classes under different assumptions on losses and feedback information. For full information feedback and Lipschitz losses, we characterize the minimax regret up to log factors by proving an upper bound matching a previously known lower bound. In a partial feedback model motivated by second-price auctions, we prove upper bounds for Lipschitz and semi-Lipschitz losses that improve on the known bounds for standard bandit feedback. Our analysis combines novel results for contextual second-price auctions with a novel algorithmic approach based on chaining. When the context space is Euclidean, our chaining approach is efficient and delivers an even better regret bound.
Conceptualisation, development and validation of green marketing orientation (GMO) of SMEs in India

Purpose – The purpose of the study is twofold. First, to examine the domain of green marketing construct in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in emerging economies (i.e. India) across electrical industries and, second, to assess its impact on the SMEs performance. Design/methodology/approach – All the owners of electrical industries (SMEs) operating in Jammu District, that is, 152, were contacted using census method. Findings – The study identifies and confirms five factors, namely, greening the process, green supply chain management, green strategic policy initiative, proactive energy conservation and green innovation of green marketing as important dimensions of green marketing orientation (GMO) scale. All the dimensions of the GMO scale have positive and significant impacts on performance of the firms. In addition, there exists stronger impact of green marketing dimensions on the customer business to business (B2B) satisfaction and employee retention. Research limitations/imp.
Essays on rising income inequality and quality of life in contemporary China

The primary contribution of the thesis is to propose the idea of collaboration from self efforts and social efforts to promote well-being in the research area of income inequality. The literature merely concerns the effect of income inequality on well-being based on social efforts which reflect on the measurement of income inequality according to social comparison. The thesis argues that this unilateral examination is unable to achieve coherence and unity between theory and empirical structure with respect to individual well-being and its corresponding statistical evidence is likely biased. Hence, the thesis introduces the new two-effort framework which enables a comprehensive and fair evaluation of social efforts such as government assistance and action on the issue of inequality. Through the application of such an idea into the analysis of China’s income inequality, the thesis has the following unprejudiced conclusions. China’s economy has retained strong growth over the past decades. Yet, the road to relieve the parallel outcome of rising income inequality from the robust growth is not optimistic. There is appreciable government policy on living standards in the short run but unfortunately, sustainable government intervention is scarce. This claim is drawn from three investigations of inequality by: i) examining the returns on social efforts and self efforts with respect to income inequality on living standards; ii) the influence of economic opportunity and security on individual income inequality; and iii), a case study of social efforts, government policy, particularly focusing on residential electricity pricing on household life burden.
Molecular mechanisms of autosomal recessive hypercholesterolemia

Purpose of review Autosomal recessive hypercholesterolemia (ARH) is a rare Mendelian dyslipidemia characterized by markedly elevated plasma LDL levels, xanthomatosis, and premature coronary artery disease. LDL receptor function is normal, or only moderately impaired in fibroblasts from ARH patients, but their cultured lymphocytes show increased cell-surface LDL binding, and impaired LDL degradation, consistent with a defect in LDL receptor internalization. Recently, the disorder was shown to be caused by mutations in a phosphotyrosine binding domain protein, ARH, which is required for internalization of low density lipoproteins in the liver. This review summarizes the findings of new investigations into the pathophysiology and molecular genetics of ARH. Recent findings All mutations that have been characterized to date preclude the synthesis of a full-length protein. GST-pulldown experiments indicate that the phosphotyrosine binding domain of ARH interacts with the internalization sequence (NPVY) in the cytoplasmic tail of LDLR, and that conserved motifs in the C-terminal portion of the protein bind to clathrin and to the β2-adaptin subunit of AP-2. Summary The available data suggest that ARH functions as an adaptor protein that couples LDLR to the endocytic machinery.
The sensitivity of distributional measures to the reference period of income

When individual or household incomes are collected for administrative or scientific surveys, the reference period of income is sometimes a month, sometimes a quarter, and sometimes a year. This reference period of income likely affects the shape of the distribution and derived measures of inequality, poverty, and mobility. Using employment histories of German residents, the present study systematically explores the sensitivity of distributional measures to the length of the reference period of income. Estimates from annual, quarterly and monthly distributions are provided for one and a half decades, starting from year 1991.
A Quantitative Perspective on Optimal Monetary Policy Cooperation between the US and the Euro Area

The objective of this paper is to examine the main features of optimal monetary policy cooperation within a micro-founded macroeconometric framework. First, using Bayesian techniques, we estimate a two-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model for the United States (US) and the euro area (EA). The main features of the new open economy macroeconomics (NOEM) are embodied in our framework: in particular, imperfect exchange rate pass-through and incomplete financial markets internationally. Each country model incorporates the wide range of nominal and real frictions found in the closed-economy literature: staggered price and wage settings, variable capital utilization and fixed costs in production. Then, using the estimated parameters and disturbances, we study the properties of the optimal monetary policy cooperation through welfare analysis, impulse responses and variance decompositions. JEL Classification: E4, E5, F4
Does Marriage Make Us Healthier? Inter-Country Comparative Evidence from China, Japan, and Korea

Objectives This study focuses on East Asian countries and investigates the difference in the marriage premium on the health-marriage protection effect (MPE) between younger and older generations and the intra-couple education concordance effect (ECE) on the health of married individuals. This study used inter-country comparative data from China, Japan, and Korea. Methods This study focused on individuals (n = 7,938) in China, Japan, and Korea who were sampled from the 2010 East Asian Social Survey. To investigate MPE and ECE, four health indicators were utilized: a physical and mental components summary (PCS and MCS), self-rated health status (Dself), and happiness level (Dhappy). Ordinary least squares regression was conducted by country- and gender-specific subsamples. Results We found that the MPE on PCS, MCS, and Dself was more significant for the older generation than for the younger generation in both China and Japan, whereas the results were inconclusive in Korea. With regard to the ECE on happiness (Dhappy), for both men and women, couples tend to be happier when both the husband and the wife are well educated (“higher balanced marriage”) compared to couples with a lower level of educational achievement (“lower balanced marriage”). Significant benefits from a “higher balanced marriage” on MCS and Dself were observed for women only. In contrast, no statistically significant differences in health status were observed between “higher balanced marriage” couples and couples with different levels of educational achievements (“upward marriage” or “downward marriage”). Conclusions This study found that (1) the MPE was more significant for the older generation, and (2) the health gap, particularly the happiness gap, between higher- and lower-balanced married couples was significant. The inter-country comparative findings are useful to explain how the role of marriage (and therefore of family) on health has been diluted due to the progress of industrialization and modernization.
Weight loss by mobile phone: a 1-year effectiveness study

Abstract Objective To investigate the short- and long-term effectiveness and the predictors of weight loss in a mobile phone weight-loss programme among healthy overweight adults. Design One hundred and twenty-five healthy, overweight (BMI = 26–36 kg/m2), 25–44-year-old, screened volunteers were randomized to an experimental group (n 62) to use a mobile phone-operated weight-loss programme or to a control group (n 63) with no intervention. Via text messaging, the programme instructed a staggered reduction of food intake and daily weight reporting with immediate tailored feedback. Assessments were at 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months for the experimental group; at 0 and 12 months for the control group. Main outcome variables were changes in body weight and waist circumference. Results By 12 months the experimental group had lost significantly more weight than the control group (4·5 (sd 5·0) v. 1·1 (sd 5·8) kg; F(1,80) = 8·0, P = 0·006) and had a greater reduction in waist circumference (6·3 (sd 5·3) v. 2·4 (sd 5·4) cm; F(1,80) = 55·2, P = 0·0001). Early weight loss, self-efficacy, contact frequency, attitudes towards the medium, changes in work and family life and changes made in dietary habits were the strongest predictors of weight loss. Conclusions This mobile phone weight-loss programme was effective in short- and long-term weight loss. As a minimum-advice, maximal-contact programme, it offers ideas for future weight-loss programmes.
Market panic on different time-scales

Cross-sectional signatures of market panic were recently discussed on daily time scales in [1], extended here to a study of cross-sectional properties of stocks on intra-day time scales. We confirm specific intra-day patterns of dispersion and kurtosis, and find that the correlation across stocks increases in times of panic yielding a bimodal distribution for the sum of signs of returns. We also find that there is memory in correlations, decaying as a power law with exponent 0.05. During the Flash-Crash of May 6 2010, we find a drastic increase in dispersion in conjunction with increased correlations. However, the kurtosis decreases only slightly in contrast to findings on daily time-scales where kurtosis drops drastically in times of panic. Our study indicates that this difference in behavior is result of the origin of the panic-inducing volatility shock: the more correlated across stocks the shock is, the more the kurtosis will decrease; the more idiosyncratic the shock, the lesser this effect and kurtosis is positively correlated with dispersion. We also find that there is a leverage effect for correlations: negative returns tend to precede an increase in correlations. A stock price feed-back model with skew in conjunction with a correlation dynamics that follows market volatility explains our observations nicely.
BELIEFS ABOUT THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY AMONG SOCIAL WORK GRADUATE STUDENTS

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Statement of Problem 1 Purpose of Study 4 Significance of the Project for Social Work Practice 8 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction 10 Statistics and Definitions 10 Statistics 10 Definitions 12 History of Heterosexist Attitudes 13 Theory Guiding Conceptualization 14 Social Learning Theory and Moral Development 14 Attitudes of Master of Social Work Students About LGBTQ Populations . 15 Attitudes of Social Workers About LGBTQ Populations 16 Social Work Education and Training 17 Summary 19 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS Introduction 20 Study Design 20
Exploitation of heuristics for virtual environments

Although generic usability heuristics lists have been popular with researchers and practitioners, emerging new technologies have called for more specific heuristics. One of these heuristics was proposed by Sutcliffe and Gault in 2004 [37]. This paper examines research which has cited these heuristics with the aim to see how it has been exploited. The results showed that a fifth of the papers citing the heuristics have used the heuristics fully or partly, and that researchers have adapted it to their current needs. Following this result we proposed that a patchwork of heuristics might be more useful than a single list. We evaluated a crisis management training simulator using the virtual reality heuristics and discussed how the outcome of the evaluation fitted the patchwork.
Competition for space during bacterial colonization of a surface

Competition for space is ubiquitous in the ecology of both microorganisms and macro-organisms. We introduce a bacterial model system in which the factors influencing competition for space during colonization of an initially empty habitat can be tracked directly. Using fluorescence microscopy, we follow the fate of individual Escherichia coli bacterial cell lineages as they undergo expansion competition (the race to be the first to colonize a previously empty territory), and as they later compete at boundaries between clonal territories. Our experiments are complemented by computer simulations of a lattice-based model. We find that both expansion competition, manifested as differences in individual cell lag times, and boundary competition, manifested as effects of neighbour cell geometry, can play a role in colonization success, particularly when lineages expand exponentially. This work provides a baseline for investigating how ecological interactions affect colonization of space by bacterial populations, and highlights the potential of bacterial model systems for the testing and development of ecological theory.
Macromitophagy is a longevity assurance process that in chronologically aging yeast limited in calorie supply sustains functional mitochondria and maintains cellular lipid homeostasis

Macromitophagy controls mitochondrial quality and quantity. It involves the sequestration of dysfunctional or excessive mitochondria within double-membrane autophagosomes, which then fuse with the vacuole/lysosome to deliver these mitochondria for degradation. To investigate a physiological role of macromitophagy in yeast, we examined how the atg32Δ-dependent mutational block of this process influences the chronological lifespan of cells grown in a nutrient-rich medium containing low (0.2%) concentration of glucose. Under these longevity-extending conditions of caloric restriction (CR) yeast cells are not starving. We also assessed a role of macromitophagy in lifespan extension by lithocholic acid (LCA), a bile acid that prolongs yeast longevity under CR conditions. Our findings imply that macromitophagy is a longevity assurance process underlying the synergistic beneficial effects of CR and LCA on yeast lifespan. Our analysis of how the atg32Δ mutation influences mitochondrial morphology, composition and function revealed that macromitophagy is required to maintain a network of healthy mitochondria. Our comparative analysis of the membrane lipidomes of organelles purified from wild-type and atg32Δ cells revealed that macromitophagy is required for maintaining cellular lipid homeostasis. We concluded that macromitophagy defines yeast longevity by modulating vital cellular processes inside and outside of mitochondria.
Renegades: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War

Preface: Spanish Tinderbox Introduction Part 1: Origins of the Volunteers 1 Who Were the Canadian Volunteers? 2 Why Did They Fight? Part 2: International Brigades 3 Going to War 4 Protecting Madrid 5 Aragon Battles 6 Retreats 7 Back to the Ebro 8 Leaving Spain Part 3: Discipline in the International Brigades 9 Crimes 10 Punishments Part 4: Renegades 11 The Photographer: Bill Williamson 12 The Idealist: William Krehm 13 The Doctor: Norman Bethune Part 5: Aftermath 14 Undesirables 15 Conclusion Postscript Appendix Bibliography Index
Backlash against Welfare Mothers: Past and Present

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Part I. Welfare Opposition: Causes and Consequences 1. Deferred Dreams, Broken Families, and Hardship: The Impact of Welfare Reform 2. Attacking Welfare, Promoting Work and Marriage: Continuity and Change in Welfare Opposition Part II. The First Welfare Backlash (1945--1979) 3. The 1950s Welfare Backlash and Federal Complicity 4. Explaining the Postwar Rise of Welfare Opposition 5. Southern Welfare Backlashes: Georgia and Kentucky 6. Western and Northern Welfare Backlashes: California and New York 7. Setting the Stage: The Failures of Liberal Innovation Part III. The Contemporary Welfare Backlash (1980--2004) 8. The Rise of the Republican Right and the New Democrats 9. Business Interests, Conservative Think Tanks, and the Assault on Welfare 10. Congressional Attacks on Welfare, 1980--2004 11. Rebuilding the Welfare State: Forging a New Deal for Working Families Appendix 1: States That Restricted Eligibility for ADC (1949--1960) Appendix 2: Variables and Data Sources Used in Quantitative Analysis Notes References Index
Regulation of human B-cell ontogeny.

biphenotypic B-lineage lymphoid/myeloid progenitor cells from fetal bone marrows and fetal livers, which likely represent the putative normal counterparts of leukemic blasts from CD19+CD13' biphenotypic acute leukemia patients. The immunobiologic features of normal and leukemic biphenotypic lymphoid/ myeloid progenitors, in particular their in vitro and in vivo proliferative and differentiative capacities, are currently being investigated in our laboratory.
A neural model of mechanisms of empathy deficits in narcissism

From a multidimensional perspective, empathy is a process that includes affective sharing and imagining and understanding the emotions of others. The primary brain structures involved in mediating the components of empathy are the anterior insula (AI), the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and specific regions of the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). The AI and ACC are the main nodes in the salience network (SN), which selects and coordinates the information flow from the intero- and exteroreceptors. AI might play a role as a crucial hub – a dynamic switch between 2 separate networks of cognitive processing: the central executive network (CEN), which is concerned with effective task execution, and the default mode network (DMN), which is involved with self-reflective processes. Given various classifications, a deficit in empathy may be considered a central dysfunctional trait in narcissism. A recent fMRI study suggests that deficit in empathy is due to a dysfunction in the right AI. Based on the acquired data, we propose a theoretical model of imbalanced SN functioning in narcissism in which the dysfunctional AI hub is responsible for constant DMN activation, which, in turn, centers one’s attention on the self. This might hinder the ability to affectively share and understand the emotions of others. This review paper on neural mechanisms of empathy deficits in narcissism aims to inspire and direct future research in this area.
On the epigenetic regulation of the human reelin promoter

Reln mRNA and protein levels are reduced by approximately 50% in various cortical structures of post-mortem brain from patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar illness with psychosis. To study mechanisms responsible for this down-regulation, we have analyzed the promoter of the human reelin gene. We show that the reelin promoter directs expression of a reporter construct in multiple human cell types: neuroblastoma cells (SHSY5Y), neuronal precursor cells (NT2), differentiated neurons (hNT) and hepatoma cells (HepG2). Deletion constructs confirmed the presence of multiple elements regulating Reln expression, although the promoter activity is promiscuous, i.e. activity did not correlate with expression of the endogenous gene as reflected in terms of reelin mRNA levels. Co-transfection of the -514 bp human reelin promoter with either Sp1 or Tbr1 demonstrated that these transcription factors activate reporter expression by 6- and 8.5-fold, respectively. Within 400 bp of the RNA start site there are 100 potential CpG targets for DNA methylation. Retinoic acid (RA)-induced differentiation of NT2 cells to hNT neurons was accompanied by increased reelin expression and by the appearance of three DNase I hypersensitive sites 5' to the RNA start site. RA-induced differentiation was also associated with demethylation of the reelin promoter. To test if methylation silenced reelin expression, we methylated the promoter in vitro prior to transfection. In addition, we treated NT2 cells with the methylation inhibitor aza-2'-deoxycytidine and observed a 60-fold increase in reelin mRNA levels. The histone deacetylase inhibitors trichostatin A (TSA) and valproic acid also induced expression of the endogenous reelin promoter, although TSA was considerably more potent. These findings indicate that one determinant responsible for regulating reelin expression is the methylation status of the promoter. Our data also raise the interesting possibility that the down-regulation of reelin expression documented in psychiatric patients might be the consequence of inappropriate promoter hypermethylation.