Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Failure of Centrally Placed Objects to Control the Firing Fields of Hippocampal Place Cells

Previous work has shown that the angular position of hippocampal place cell firing fields is accurately controlled by the position of a single white cue card attached to the wall of a recording cylinder: when the card is rotated, fields rotate equally. In this study, we asked whether similar control could be exerted by three-dimensional objects placed directly in the recording arena. In each of several conditions, the locations of the objects relative to each other and their distances from the cylinder wall were fixed. In Experiment 1, the objects were all near the center of the cylinder. In this condition, the angular position of firing fields could, in general, not be predicted from the angular position of the object set. When a white wall card was added to the object arrangement, the stimulus ensemble exerted nearly ideal control over angular firing position. Nevertheless, when the card was withdrawn, the objects still did not control field position. In Experiment 2, place cells were recorded in the presence of two new arrangements of the same objects used in Experiment 1. In the “clustered objects” condition, the objects were placed next to each other, 10 cm from the wall. In the “objects-at-periphery” condition, the objects were put against the cylinder wall by equally increasing the distances among the objects. In both conditions, we found virtually ideal control by the objects over angular field position. These results indicate that the failure of stimulus control in Experiment 1 must be attributable to the arrangement of the objects and not to the nature of the objects themselves. Overall, the results are in line with behavioral studies that show that it is very difficult to teach rats to locate food relative to landmarks inside the behavioral arena.
MATLAB simulation of induction machine with saturable leakage and magnetizing inductances

At high stator phase currents, the effect of saturation of the stator and rotor leakage inductances becomes noticeable to the extent that the conventional machine model fails to represent the dynamic performances of induction machine. In this paper, a commercial software package, MATLAB is used to simulate the dynamic behaviour of induction machine with saturable inductances. The computer results presented in this paper show the errors resulting when the magnetizing, stator and rotor leakage inductances are assumed constant as in the case of conventional machine model. Key Words: Simulation, Saturation effect, Induction machine, Transient state, MATLAB. Botswana Journal of Technology Vol.13(2) 2004: 20-28
Distending Pressure Did Not Activate Acute Phase or Inflammatory Responses in the Airways and Lungs of Fetal, Preterm Lambs

Background Mechanical ventilation at birth causes airway injury and lung inflammation in preterm sheep. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is being increasingly used clinically to transition preterm infants at birth. Objective To test if distending pressures will activate acute phase reactants and inflammatory changes in the airways of fetal, preterm lambs. Methods The head and chest of fetal lambs at 128±1 day GA were surgically exteriorized. With placental circulation intact, fetal lambs were then randomized to one of five 15 minute interventions: PEEP of 0, 4, 8, 12, or 16 cmH2O. Recruitment volumes were recorded. Fetal lambs remained on placental support for 30 min after the intervention. The twins of each 0 cmH2O animal served as controls. Fetal lung fluid (FLF), bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL), right mainstem bronchi and peripheral lung tissue were evaluated for inflammation. Results Recruitment volume increased from 0.4±0.04 mL/kg at 4 cmH2O to 2.4±0.3 mL/kg at 16 cmH2O. The lambs were surfactant deficient, and all pressures were below the opening inflection pressure on pressure-volume curve. mRNA expression of early response genes and pro-inflammatory cytokines did not increase in airway tissue or lung tissue at any pressure compared to controls. FLF and BAL also did not have increases in early response proteins. No histologic changes or Egr-1 activation was present at the pressures used. Conclusion Distending pressures as high as 16 cmH2O did not recruit lung volume at birth and did not increase markers of injury in the lung or airways in non-breathing preterm fetal sheep.
Learned context dependent categorical perception in a songbird

To distinguish between vocal elements in communication, both songbirds and humans rely on categorical perception (CP) of smoothly varying acoustic spaces. Boundaries in CP are often not fixed, and can be biased, in both human speech and birdsong, by context. How contexutal information biases CP is not well understood. Here, we manipulate the information contained in auditory contextual cues to control CP of natural stimuli, using a 2-Alternative Choice (2AC) behavioral paradigm. We show that contextual information can bias CP of a smoothly varying acoustic stimuli, indicating that probabilistic inference contributes to context dependant perception. We follow this task with acute extracellular multichannel recordings on the secondary auditory nuclei caudal mesopallium (CM) and caudo-medial nidopallium (NCM) in the trained birds, investigating CP and contextual-related shifts in neural responses.
B-KD trees for hardware accelerated ray tracing of dynamic scenes

This paper introduces a new spatial index structure, called Bounded KD tree (B-KD tree), for realtime ray tracing of dynamic scenes. By presenting hardware units of all time critical B-KD tree algorithms in the context of a custom realtime ray tracing chip we show that this spatial index structure is well suited for hardware implementation. B-KD trees are a hybrid spatial index structure that combine the advantages of KD trees and Bounding Volume Hierarchies into a single, simple to handle spatial index structure. Similar to KD trees, B-KD trees are binary trees where each node considers only a single spatial dimension. However, instead of a single splitting plane that divides space into two disjoint sub-spaces, each node in B-KD trees contains two pairs of axis aligned planes that bound the geometry of its two child nodes. As a bounding volume approach B-KD trees allow for simple and efficient updates when changing geometry while maintaining the fast traversal operations and simple hardware implementation known from KD trees. This enables the support for dynamic scenes with constant mesh topology and coherent dynamic changes, like typical skinned meshes. Our hardware architecture contains several fixed-function units that completely handle skinning, updating, and ray tracing of dynamic scenes using B-KD trees. An FPGA prototype of this architecture already delivers realtime performance of up to 35 frames per second even when clocked at only 66 MHz.
Sero-epidemiological survey and risk factors associated with brucellosis in dogs in south-western Nigeria

Introduction In Nigeria, there is limited information on brucellosis particularly in dogs, despite its public health implications. We undertook a sero-epidemiological survey of brucellosis in dogs to determine the prevalence of the disease and associated risk factors for its occurrence in Nigeria. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted to screen dogs in south-western Nigeria for antibodies to Brucella sp using the rapid slide agglutination test (RSA) and Rose Bengal test (RBT), with positive samples confirmed respectively by serum agglutination test (SAT) and competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA). Data were analyzed with STATA-12. Results From the 739 dog sera tested, 81 (10.96%) were positive by RSA and 94 (12.72%) by RBT; these were corroborated with SAT (4/81; 4.94%) and cELISA (1/94; 1.06%), respectively. Logistic regression identified location (OR=0.04; 95% CI: 0.02-0.09), breed (OR=1.71; 95% CI: 1.34-2.19), age (OR=0.10; 95% CI: 0.04-0.30) and management system (OR=8.51; 95% CI: 1.07-68.05) as risk factors for Brucella infection by RSA. However, location (OR=10.83; 95% CI: 5.48-21.39) and history of infertility (OR=2.62; 95% CI: 1.41-4.84) were identified as risk factors using RBT. Conclusion Given the 10.96% to 12.72% seroprevalence of brucellosis recorded in this study, we advocate control of the disease in dogs, and public health education for those at risk of infection. Again, further studies are required to elucidate the role of dogs in the epidemiology of brucellosis in Nigeria considering the conducive human-animal interface and ecological factors responsible for the transmission of the disease.
Reference Beam Pattern Design for Frequency Invariant Beamforming Based on Fast Fourier Transform

In the field of fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based frequency invariant beamforming (FIB), there is still an unsolved problem. That is the selection of the reference beam to make the designed wideband pattern frequency invariant (FI) over a given frequency range. This problem is studied in this paper. The research shows that for a given array, the selection of the reference beam pattern is determined by the number of sensors and the ratio of the highest frequency to the lowest frequency of the signal (RHL). The length of the weight vector corresponding to a given reference beam pattern depends on the reference frequency. In addition, the upper bound of the weight length to ensure the FI property over the whole frequency band of interest is also given. When the constraints are added to the reference beam, it does not affect the FI property of the designed wideband beam as long as the symmetry of the reference beam is ensured. Based on this conclusion, a scheme for reference beam design is proposed.
BDNF Expression in Larval and Adult Zebrafish Brain: Distribution and Cell Identification

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a member of the neurotrophin family, has emerged as an active mediator in many essential functions in the central nervous system of mammals. BDNF plays significant roles in neurogenesis, neuronal maturation and/or synaptic plasticity and is involved in cognitive functions such as learning and memory. Despite the vast literature present in mammals, studies devoted to BDNF in the brain of other animal models are scarse. Zebrafish is a teleost fish widely known for developmental genetic studies and is emerging as model for translational neuroscience research. In addition, its brain shows many sites of adult neurogenesis allowing higher regenerative properties after traumatic injuries. To add further knowledge on neurotrophic factors in vertebrate brain models, we decided to determine the distribution of bdnf mRNAs in the larval and adult zebrafish brain and to characterize the phenotype of cells expressing bdnf mRNAs by means of double staining studies. Our results showed that bdnf mRNAs were widely expressed in the brain of 7 days old larvae and throughout the whole brain of mature female and male zebrafish. In adults, bdnf mRNAs were mainly observed in the dorsal telencephalon, preoptic area, dorsal thalamus, posterior tuberculum, hypothalamus, synencephalon, optic tectum and medulla oblongata. By combining immunohistochemistry with in situ hybridization, we showed that bdnf mRNAs were never expressed by radial glial cells or proliferating cells. By contrast, bdnf transcripts were expressed in cells with neuronal phenotype in all brain regions investigated. Our results provide the first demonstration that the brain of zebrafish expresses bdnf mRNAs in neurons and open new fields of research on the role of the BDNF factor in brain mechanisms in normal and brain repairs situations.
A Study of the Comparison of Learning Development in Reading Skills of Students from Grade 2 to 4 of Bilingual Education (Thai - Patani Malay) in the Four Southern Bordered Provinces of Thailand

The objectives of this research were to study the factors of the learning development in reading skills of Bilingual Education (Thai and Malay dialects) of the students in grade 2 to 4 in the four southern bordered provinces; Pattani, Yala, Narathiwas, and Satun, to compare the reading achievement of the students in grade 2 to 4 in reading skills between the eight experimental and comparison schools, and to demonstrate the learning development of the students in grade 2 to 4 of the experimental schools. The research project was conducted by Yala Rajabhat University in 2013 as the fourth consecutive year research project. In the 4 provinces, 159 respondents who used Malay as their mother tongue completed the tests. The data were analyzed by using software packages. In reading skills, most students of the experimental schools outscored the comparison schools. Their learning achievement of the experimental schools was lower than the past years significantly, but the comparison school students met the cutoff scores more than that of the comparison schools.
PathScan: a tool for discerning mutational significance in groups of putative cancer genes

MOTIVATION The expansion of cancer genome sequencing continues to stimulate development of analytical tools for inferring relationships between somatic changes and tumor development. Pathway associations are especially consequential, but existing algorithms are demonstrably inadequate. METHODS Here, we propose the PathScan significance test for the scenario where pathway mutations collectively contribute to tumor development. Its design addresses two aspects that established methods neglect. First, we account for variations in gene length and the consequent differences in their mutation probabilities under the standard null hypothesis of random mutation. The associated spike in computational effort is mitigated by accurate convolution-based approximation. Second, we combine individual probabilities into a multiple-sample value using Fisher-Lancaster theory, thereby improving differentiation between a few highly mutated genes and many genes having only a few mutations apiece. We investigate accuracy, computational effort and power, reporting acceptable performance for each. RESULTS As an example calculation, we re-analyze KEGG-based lung adenocarcinoma pathway mutations from the Tumor Sequencing Project. Our test recapitulates the most significant pathways and finds that others for which the original test battery was inconclusive are not actually significant. It also identifies the focal adhesion pathway as being significantly mutated, a finding consistent with earlier studies. We also expand this analysis to other databases: Reactome, BioCarta, Pfam, PID and SMART, finding additional hits in ErbB and EPHA signaling pathways and regulation of telomerase. All have implications and plausible mechanistic roles in cancer. Finally, we discuss aspects of extending the method to integrate gene-specific background rates and other types of genetic anomalies. AVAILABILITY PathScan is implemented in Perl and is available from the Genome Institute at: http://genome.wustl. edu/software/pathscan.
Political Learning and the Number of Parties: Why Age Matters

Party system fractionalization was re-invented as an unsolved puzzle after the fall of the Berlin Wall. While scholars agree that the stability of the party system is imperative for the proper functioning of democracy, many note the high number of political parties in the East European states. Still, we lack a systematic analysis of party system development in those countries. A possible reason for this gap is that extant theories on the number of parties were written with established democracies in mind and are thus unequipped to explain the dynamics taking place in young democracies. This dissertation attempts to fill this gap providing at least preliminary answers for the variation in the number of parties between new and more established democracies. My theory proposes that learning the effect of institutions is crucial to whether they actually have an effect or not and is integral to understanding the number of parties in a given system. Furthermore, I argue that certain institutional arrangements, for example the translation of votes into seats, may play a more important role than the district magnitude when present. I view learning as coming from trial-and-error experience which elite members get by political participation over time, as well as experience with a changing institutional environment both within and external to the party system as such. To test my propositions I use a three-level hierarchical model on district data of 20 European democracies. The results show that at the district level, age of democracy has a positive effect on the level of party system convergence and the effect is stronger in young democracies. The analysis further reveals that pre-electoral institutional constraints such as signatures and deposits have a positive and significant effect on party system convergence, while in the presence of EU-related events the convergence index drops, likely due to the additional incentives for political competition that such events bring. Public funding does not prove significant and the effect of age of democracy on party system convergence in mature democracies remains inconclusive as alternate specifications elicit varying results.
We are All Behavioral, More or Less: Measuring and Using Consumer-Level Behavioral Sufficient Statistics

Can a behavioral sufficient statistic empirically capture cross-consumer variation in behavioral tendencies and help identify whether behavioral biases, taken together, are linked to material consumer welfare losses? Our answer is yes. We construct simple consumer-level behavioral sufficient statistics? B-counts? by eliciting seventeen potential sources of behavioral biases per person, in a nationally representative panel, in two separate rounds nearly three years apart. B-counts aggregate information on behavioral biases within-person. Nearly all consumers exhibit multiple biases, in patterns assumed by behavioral sufficient statistic models (a la Chetty), and with substantial variation across people. B-counts are stable within-consumer over time, and that stability helps to address measurement error when using B-counts to model the relationship between biases, decision utility, and experienced utility. Conditional on classical inputs? risk aversion and patience, life-cycle factors and other demographics, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, and financial resources? B-counts strongly negatively correlate with both objective and subjective aspects of experienced utility. The results hold in much lower-dimensional models employing ? Sparsity B-counts? based on bias subsets (a la Gabaix) and/or fewer covariates, illuminating lower-cost ways to use behavioral sufficient statistics to help capture the combined influence of multiple behavioral biases for a wide range of research questions and applications.
Money, Lives, and Frames: What Evidence from Bulgarian Students Tells about Framing of Risky Choices

Prospect theory accounted for the framing effect by assuming an automatic translation of the problem content into expected utilities and a passive acceptance of the externally provided frame regardless of problem content. The size of the framing effect in the famous Asian Disease problem initially suggested that these assumptions are met but subsequent research showed otherwise. In a dataset collected during regular class sessions among Bulgarian students, a framing effect was found for monetary problems but not for the Disease problem. These results are consistent with previous findings by the author and add to the view that a top-down and domain-specific approach might be a necessary complication when one is aiming to account for the psychological processes during risky choices.
Discriminative power of the health status questionnaire 12 in relation to age, sex, and longstanding illness: findings from a survey of households in Great Britain.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess the ability of the health status questionnaire 12 (HSQ-12) to discriminate between older and younger age groups, its appropriateness for use with an older population in terms of the spread of responses across categories, floor or ceiling effects, and its ability to discriminate between those with and without a reported longstanding illness and type (sensitivity and specificity). DESIGN AND SETTING: The vehicle for the study was the Office for National Statistics (ONS) omnibus survey in Great Britain. The sampling frame was the British post-code address file of "small users", stratified by region, and socioeconomic factors. This file includes all private household addresses. The postal sectors were selected with probability proportional to size. Within each sector 30 addresses were selected randomly. The number of selected addresses was 3000. PARTICIPANTS: Altogether 1912 adults aged 16 and over were interviewed in person in their own homes, giving a response rate of 72%. MEASURES: The HSQ-12, and the ONS general household survey questions on longstanding illness; the ONS omnibus standard sociodemographic items. MAIN RESULTS: There were exceptionally high rates of item response in all age groups. The score differences by construct (e.g., age group, sex, longstanding illness) were in the expected directions with statistically significant age gradients. Age was associated with most of the HSQ-12 domains, although this association had interactions with longstanding illness or sex. The differences in HSQ-12 scores with reported longstanding illness and type of longstanding illness made theoretical sense, which supports the discriminative power of the scale. The frequency distributions for HSQ-12 items in relation to age and sex, and by reporting of longstanding illness are also presented here in order to demonstrate ceiling effects. Most respondents in all age groups achieved high (good) scores on the "social functioning" subscale. The HSQ-12 had good results for specificity when tested against reporting of a longstanding illness, although this was at the expense of sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: The results support the use of the HSQ-12 with older populations, particularly for those with chronic illnesses, although it will reveal relatively few problems among younger populations. The results presented here indicate that it will require supplementation with more sensitive disease and/or domain specific scales in the areas of interest or intervention, but it provides an acceptable, brief, core measure of health related quality of life. This paper present the first British normative data using the HSQ-12.
The Molecular Circadian Clock and Alcohol-Induced Liver Injury

Emerging evidence from both experimental animal studies and clinical human investigations demonstrates strong connections among circadian processes, alcohol use, and alcohol-induced tissue injury. Components of the circadian clock have been shown to influence the pathophysiological effects of alcohol. Conversely, alcohol may alter the expression of circadian clock genes and the rhythmic behavioral and metabolic processes they regulate. Therefore, we propose that alcohol-mediated disruption in circadian rhythms likely underpins many adverse health effects of alcohol that cut across multiple organ systems. In this review, we provide an overview of the circadian clock mechanism and showcase results from new studies in the alcohol field implicating the circadian clock as a key target of alcohol action and toxicity in the liver. We discuss various molecular events through which alcohol may work to negatively impact circadian clock-mediated processes in the liver, and contribute to tissue pathology. Illuminating the mechanistic connections between the circadian clock and alcohol will be critical to the development of new preventative and pharmacological treatments for alcohol use disorders and alcohol-mediated organ diseases.