Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Merlin-Arthur Games and Stoquastic Complexity

MA is a class of decision problems for which `yes'-instances have a proof that can be efficiently checked by a classical randomized algorithm. We prove that MA has a natural complete problem which we call the stoquastic k-SAT problem. This is a matrix-valued analogue of the satisfiability problem in which clauses are k-qubit projectors with non-negative matrix elements, while a satisfying assignment is a vector that belongs to the space spanned by these projectors. Stoquastic k-SAT is the first non-trivial example of a MA-complete problem. We also study the minimum eigenvalue problem for local stoquastic Hamiltonians that was introduced in quant-ph/0606140, stoquastic LH-MIN. A new complexity class StoqMA is introduced so that stoquastic LH-MIN is StoqMA-complete. Lastly, we consider the average LH-MIN problem for local stoquastic Hamiltonians that depend on a random or `quenched disorder' parameter, stoquastic AV-LH-MIN. We prove that stoquastic AV-LH-MIN is contained in the complexity class \AM, the class of decision problems for which yes-instances have a randomized interactive proof with two-way communication between prover and verifier.
Outcome and its predictors in Guillain–Barré syndrome

Despite the use of plasma exchanges and intravenous immunoglobulins, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) still carries non-negligible morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, the psychosocial consequences of GBS may persist longer than expected. Various aetiological, clinical, electrophysiological and immunological factors may carry prognostic predictive value. The objective of this article was to perform a summary of the current knowledge-base on outcome and its determinants in adequately-treated adult-onset GBS. Relevant prospective literature was reviewed through a Medline search of English-language articles published between 1966 and March 2012. GBS causes severe persistent disability in 14% of patients at 1 year. Loss of full strength, persistent pain and need for professional change occurs in about 40%. Mortality is of about 4% within the first year. Analysis of prognostic predictors consistently demonstrates the negative impact of higher age, preceding diarrhoea, greater disability/weaker muscles at admission, short interval between symptom-onset and admission, mechanical ventilation and absent/low amplitude compound muscle action potentials. Further outcome studies will soon be underway and may in future contribute to adequately integrate all potential factors in more reliable predictive models.
Role of the pharyngeal plexus in initiation of swallowing.

SINCLAIR, k%J.JAM J. Role of the pharyngeal pbxus in initiation of swallowing. Am. J. Physiol. 221(5) : 1260-1263. 1971. -In preparation for stimulation studies, 22 cats were electrolytically decerebrated. The intact cephalic branch of the pharyngeal branch of the vagus nerve (Za) was electrically stimulated to determine its role in the initiation of the swallowing reflex. Comparative data were recorded for the superior laryngeal nerve (SLN) and the glossopharyngeal nerve (GPN). Swallowing was noted visually and recorded electromyographically. Stimulation of branch 22a resulted in swallowing in six cases out of 18. Chronaxie and optimum frequency of stimulation for swallowing for branch ,? ;? a were 0.11 msec and 30-50 cycles/set, respectively. Afferents for swallowing were shown to be distributed among pharyngeal branches of the GPN. Stimulation studies indicated that the GPN is the primary afferent for swallowing initiated from the pharynx: branch 22a played a minor role. A composite schema is presented of those nerves that were found to contain afferents for swallowing. Small and larger sized fibers are suggested as interacting centrally to explain the observation that electrical stimulation of the SLN elicits swallowing more readily than stimulation of the GPN.
Interfacial design and structure of protein/polymer films on oxidized AlGaN surfaces

Protein detection using biologically or immunologically modified field-effect transistors (bio/immunoFETs) depends on the nanoscale structure of the polymer/protein film at sensor interfaces (Bhushan 2010 Springer Handbook of Nanotechnology 3rd edn (Heidelberg: Springer); Gupta et al 2010 The effect of interface modification on bioFET sensitivity, submitted). AlGaN-based HFETs (heterojunction FETs) are attractive platforms for many protein sensing applications due to their electrical stability in high osmolarity aqueous environments and favourable current drive capabilities. However, interfacial polymer/protein films on AlGaN, though critical to HFET protein sensor function, have not yet been fully characterized. These interfacial films are typically comprised of protein–polymer films, in which analyte-specific receptors are tethered to the sensing surface with a heterobifunctional linker molecule (often a silane molecule). Here we provide insight into the structure and tribology of silane interfaces composed of one of two different silane monomers deposited on oxidized AlGaN, and other metal oxide surfaces. We demonstrate distinct morphologies and wear properties for the interfacial films, attributable to the specific chemistries of the silane monomers used in the films. For each specific silane monomer, film morphologies and wear are broadly consistent on multiple oxide surfaces. Differences in interfacial film morphology also drive improvements in sensitivity of the underlying HFET (coincident with, though not necessarily caused by, differences in interfacial film thickness). We present a testable model of the hypothetical differential interfacial depth distribution of protein analytes on FET sensor interfaces with distinct morphologies. Empirical validation of this model may rationalize the actual behaviour of planar immunoFETs, which has been shown to be contrary to expectations of bio/immunoFET behaviour prevalent in the literature for the last 20 years. Improved interfacial properties of bio/immunoHFETs have improved bio/immunoHFET performance: better understanding of interfaces may lead to mechanistic understanding of FET sensor properties and to clinical translation of the immunoFET platform.
The European Large Area ISO Survey - VIII. 90-μm final analysis and source counts

We present a re-analysis of the European Large Area Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) Survey (ELAIS) 90-mum observations carried out with ISOPHOT, an instrument on board the ISO of the European Space Agency. With more than 12 deg(2), the ELAIS survey is the largest area covered by ISO in a single programme and is about one order of magnitude deeper than the IRAS 100-mum survey. The data analysis is presented and was mainly performed with the PHOT interactive analysis software but using the pairwise method of Stickel et al. for signal processing from edited raw data to signal per chopper plateau. The ELAIS 90-mum catalogue contains 237 reliable sources with fluxes larger than 70 mJy and is available in the electronic version of this article. Number counts are presented and show an excess above the no-evolution model prediction. This confirms the strong evolution detected at shorter (15 mum) and longer (170 mum) wavelengths in other ISO surveys. The ELAIS counts are in agreement with previous works at 90 mum and in particular with the deeper counts extracted from the Lockman hole observations. Comparison with recent evolutionary models show that the models of Franceschini et al. and Guiderdoni et al. (which includes a heavily extinguished population of galaxies) give the best fit to the data. Deeper observations are nevertheless required to discriminate better between the model predictions in the far-infrared, and are scheduled with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which has already started operating, and will also be performed by ASTRO-F.
“We Deal With Symptoms Rather Than Causes”: Antipoverty Policy Making in Occupied Palestinian Territories

ABSTRACT Since the Palestinian National Authority assumed governance, antipoverty reforms implemented to combat social problems and traumatic stressors have had limited success. Few empirical studies have investigated policy-making obstacles in this context. Using a social protection framework, this study examined the policy-making environment in Occupied Palestinian Territories. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with Palestinian ministry officials and archival records. Findings revealed a restrictive, obstacle-ridden environment that severely constrains development of high-quality policies for meeting needs of Palestinian citizens. Some limitations were similar to those in other emerging nations; others were unique to the case of Palestine. Policy and research implications are discussed.
A New Wave: A Dynamic Approach to Genetic Programming

Wave is a novel form of semantic genetic programming which operates by optimising the residual errors of a succession of short genetic programming runs, and then producing a cumulative solution. These short genetic programming runs are called periods, and they have heterogeneous parameters. In this paper we leverage the potential of Wave's heterogeneity to simulate a dynamic evolutionary environment by incorporating self adaptive parameters together with an innovative approach to population renewal. We conduct an empirical study comparing this new approach with multiple linear regression~(MLR) as well as several evolutionary computation~(EC) methods including the well known geometric semantic genetic programming~(GSGP) together with several other optimised Wave techniques. The results of our investigation show that the dynamic Wave algorithm delivers consistently equal or better performance than Standard GP (both with or without linear scaling), achieves testing fitness equal or better than multiple linear regression, and performs significantly better than GSGP on five of the six problems studied.
Time-dependent rescalings and Lyapunov functionals for some kinetic and fluid models

Abstract We apply the method of time-dependent rescalings which has been developed by G. Rein and the author to a model kinetic equation, to the Euler equations for a perfect polytropic gas and to a model with friction and heat transfer. We build Lyapunov functionals which are in the case of the fluid models improved versions of the estimates which have been found by J.-Y. Chemin and D. Serre (see [2], [14]).
The observed ionization rate of the intergalactic medium and the ionizing emissivity at z≥ 5: evidence for a photon-starved and extended epoch of reionization

Galaxies and quasars are thought to provide the bulk of the photons responsible for ionizing the hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM). We use a large set of hydrodynamical simulations, combined with measurements of the Lya opacity of the IGM taken from the literature, to obtain robust estimates of the photoionization rate per hydrogen atom at z = 5 and 6. We find the photoionization rate drops by a factor of 2 and 4, respectively, compared to our recent measurements at z= 2-4. The number of ionizing photons emitted by known sources at z = 5 and 6, based on an extrapolation of source numbers below the detection limit and standard assumptions for the relationship between the ionizing emissivity and observed luminosity density at 1500 A, are in reasonable agreement with the photoionization rates inferred from the Lyα forest if the escape fraction of ionizing photons from galaxies is large (≥20 per cent). The expected number of ionizing photons from observed sources at these redshifts therefore appears sufficient to maintain the IGM in its highly ionized state. Claims to the contrary may be attributed to the adoption of an unduly high value for the clumping factor of ionized hydrogen. Using physically motivated assumptions for the mean free path of ionizing photons our measurements of the photoionization rate can be turned into an estimate of the ionizing emissivity. In comoving units the inferred ionizing emissivity is nearly constant over the redshift range 2-6 and corresponds to 1.5-3 photons emitted per hydrogen atom over a time interval corresponding to the age of the Universe at z = 6. This strongly suggests that the epoch of reionization was photon-starved and extended. Completion of reionization at or before z = 6 requires either an emissivity which rises towards higher redshifts or one which remains constant but is dominated by sources with a rather hard spectral index. For standard assumptions, the ionizing emissivity required for completion of reionization at or before z = 6 lies at the upper end of recently reported values from searches for high-redshift galaxies at z = 8-10.
Narratives of mothers in stepfamily situations: an exploratory investigation

This project explores the topography of stepfamily relationships through the prism of the mother, a view as yet rarely explored. Recorded interviews of eleven mothers were examined using narrative, phenomenological, grounded theory methods, within a Gestalt theoretical framework and refined into first person narratives of their experience as mothers and stepmothers. The overall aim of the research is to develop resources for stepfamily members and inform and educate psychotherapists who work with individuals or couples with stepfamily issues or problems, an area lacking in much information on this at present. The findings indicate that while many social scientists reject biological determinism within stepfamily dynamics, an acceptance of evolutionary theory opens out the analysis to provide greater understanding of the stepfamily landscape. Further, the study shows that some features of stepfamily dynamics have similarities to the workings of psychotherapeutic groups, and vice versa. Therefore stepfamily situations can be a useful metaphor for therapy group interventions and the possibility exists to develop this theory further as an addition to the existing knowledge of group dynamics. Products of the project include a series of workshops, development of exercises that illuminate stepfamily issues and the launch of an organisation StepIn ASAP, Advancing Stepfamily Awareness through Psychotherapy.
Encoding of Aversion by Dopamine and the Nucleus Accumbens

Adaptive motivated behavior requires rapid discrimination between beneficial and harmful stimuli. Such discrimination leads to the generation of either an approach or rejection response, as appropriate, and enables organisms to maximize reward and minimize punishment. Classically, the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the dopamine projection to it are considered an integral part of the brain’s reward circuit, i.e., they direct approach and consumption behaviors and underlie positive reinforcement. This reward-centered framing ignores important evidence about the role of this system in encoding aversive events. One reason for bias toward reward is the difficulty in designing experiments in which animals repeatedly experience punishments; another is the challenge in dissociating the response to an aversive stimulus itself from the reward/relief experienced when an aversive stimulus is terminated. Here, we review studies that employ techniques with sufficient time resolution to measure responses in ventral tegmental area and NAc to aversive stimuli as they are delivered. We also present novel findings showing that the same stimulus – intra-oral infusion of sucrose – has differing effects on NAc shell dopamine release depending on the prior experience. Here, for some rats, sucrose was rendered aversive by explicitly pairing it with malaise in a conditioned taste aversion paradigm. Thereafter, sucrose infusions led to a suppression of dopamine with a similar magnitude and time course to intra-oral infusions of a bitter quinine solution. The results are discussed in the context of regional differences in dopamine signaling and the implications of a pause in phasic dopamine release within the NAc shell. Together with our data, the emerging literature suggests an important role for differential phasic dopamine signaling in aversion vs. reward.
Acoustic and Data-driven Features for Robust Speech Activity Detection

In this paper we evaluate different features for speech activity detection (SAD). Several signal processing techniques are used to derive acoustic features that capture attributes of speech useful in differentiating speech segments in noise. The acoustic features include short-term spectral features, long-term modulation features both derived using Frequency Domain Linear Prediction (FDLP), and joint spectro-temporal features extracted using 2D filters on a cortical representation of speech. Posteriors of speech and non-speech from a trained multi-layer perceptron are also used as data-driven features for this task. These feature extraction techniques form part of an elaborate feature extraction front-end where information spanning several hundreds of milliseconds of the signal are used along with heteroscedastic linear discriminant analysis for dimensionality reduction. Processed feature outputs from the proposed front-end are used to train SAD systems based on Gaussian mixture models for processing of speech from multiple languages transmitted over noisy radio communication channels under the ongoing DARPA Robust Automatic Transcription of Speech (RATS) program. The proposed front-end performs significantly better than standard acoustic feature extraction techniques in these noisy conditions.
The Mechanism of 2 , 4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid Neurotoxicity on Rat Brain Tissue by Using FTIR Spectroscopy

Previous studies demonstrated that the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), toxicity may be due to cell death by apoptosis. 2,4-D is approved to be associated with many disorders especially neurotoxicity. FTIR spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to investigate the neurotoxicity induced by LD50 dose of 2,4-D onto the cerebellum rat brain tissue. In response to 2,4-D stress, there is a significant increase in the intensities as well as bands area of 3463cm , 3276cm and 3165cm bands; the first band corresponds to the changes in the number of lipids hydroperoxyl and to lipid hydroxyl groups formed by oxidation. There are decrease in membrane lipid polarity, increase the disorder and the looseness of lipid chain packing and a significant increase in the formation of carbonyl compounds. Moreover, protein content and secondary structure were significantly influenced upon 2,4-D intoxication. Consistent with the IR results, EM analysis revealed morphological changes in the 2,4-D treated cerebellum tissue including nuclear damage with massive condensation of chromatin, mitochondrial matrix swelling, loss of cristae and rough endoplasmic reticulum dilatation and vesiculation. Thus, 2,4-D influences membrane lipid polarity, fluidity and protein order, in addition to the morphological changes all of which can be considered as apoptosis biomarkers. [Gehan A. Raouf, Safaa Y. Qusti, Awatef M. Ali. and Tahani H. Dakhakhni. The Mechanism of 2,4Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid Neurotoxicity on Rat Brain Tissue by Using FTIR Spectroscopy Life Sci J 2012;9(4):1686-1697] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 259
Simulated Response of the Arctic Freshwater Budget to Extreme NAO Wind Forcing

Abstract The authors investigate the response of the Arctic Ocean freshwater budget to changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) using a regional-ocean configuration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology GCM (MITgcm) and carry out several different 10-yr and 30-yr integrations. At 1/6° (∼18 km) resolution the model resolves the major Arctic transport pathways, including Bering Strait and the Canadian Archipelago. Two main calculations are performed by repeating the wind fields of two contrasting NAO years in each run for the extreme negative and positive NAO phases of 1969 and 1989, respectively. These calculations are compared both with a control run and the compiled observationally based freshwater budget estimate of Serreze et al. The results show a clear response in the Arctic freshwater budget to NAO forcing, that is, repeat NAO negative wind forcing results in virtually all freshwater being retained in the Arctic, with the bulk of the freshwater content being pooled in the Beaufort gyre.
A hybrid BCI study: Temporal optimization for EEG single-trial classification by exploring hemodynamics from the simultaneously measured NIRS data

In this paper we introduced a new method to optimally select the time window for a single-trial classification problem in BCI system. As a hybrid-BCI, we combine EEG and NIRS signals to improve the performance of BCI system. Since there's a coupled relationship between EEG and NIRS, we try to define the activation state of subject's brain according to the changes of hemoglobin. We therefore defined the maximum point of HbO changes to be the time when the brain was fully activated. Then we chose the EEG data according to this critical time point with a 3 s window, which is almost within 6-9s according to the NIRS signal. With this selected time window, there is a significantly improvement of decoding accuracy from 69% to 79% compared to the original time window (1-12 s).
Zimbabwe’s Migrants and South Africa’s Border Farms. The Roots of Impermanence

Review Number: 1969 Publish date: Thursday, 11 August, 2016 Author: Maxim Bolt ISBN: 9781107111226 Date of Publication: 2015 Price: £52.39 Pages: 270pp. Publisher: Cambridge University Press Publisher url: http://www.cambridge. org/gb/academic/subjects/anthropology/social-and-cultural-anthropology/zimbabwesmigrants-and-south-africas-border-farms-roots-impermanence? format=HB Place of Publication: Cambridge Reviewer: Richard Daglish
Seasonal changes of antidiuretic hormone action on sodium transport across frog skin.

HONG, SUK KI, CHUN SIK PARK, YANG SAENG PARK, AND JIN KYUNG KIM. Seasonal changes of antidiuretic hormone action on sodium transport acruss frog skin. Am. J. Physiol. 215(2) : 439-443. 1968. -The stimulating effect of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) on Na transport across isolated frog skin (Runa temporuriu) was studied monthly, along with the glycogen contents of liver and muscle. ADH induced a sustained marked increase in short-circuit current (SCC) during the cold seasons, while it induced a transient slight rise in SCC during the warm seasons. Moreover, the glycogen content of the liver and muscle was markedly greater during the cold season than during the warm season. However, blood glucose and plasma free fatty acid levels showed no clear seasonal variations. When the inside bathing solution was fortified with certain substrates such as glucose, pyruvate, acetate, or P-hydroxybutyrate, the SCC increased significantly in summer frogs but not in winter frogs. Intermediates of TCA cycle were without effect in both seasons. Moreover, summer frogs which are refractory to ADH became responsive to this hormone when the inside bathing solution was fortified with pyruvate or P-hydroxybutyrate but not with other substrates. However, winter frogs responded to ADH similarly both in presence and absence of substrates. On the basis of these findings, it was postulated tentatively that the characteristic seasonal changes in the stimulating effect of ADH on Na transport across frog skin are primarily attributable to corresponding changes in the substrate content of the skin.