Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neural reorganization following bilateral injury of the fornix crus in a patient with traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE We report on a patient who appeared to demonstrate neural reorganization after head trauma resulting in bilateral injury of the fornix crus. CASE REPORT A 58-year-old male patient and 8 control subjects were recruited. The patient had undergone head trauma as the result of a car accident and had lost consciousness for 30 min. Brain magnetic resonance imaging, performed 3 years after the head trauma, showed no evidence of abnormality. RESULTS Discontinuation of both crus in the proximal region was observed on diffusion tensor tractography of the fornix. In the right fornix, an abnormal neural tract originating from the right crus passed through the splenium of the corpus callosum to connect with the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus. By contrast, in the left fornix, another abnormal neural tract originating from the left column passed through the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus and the splenium of the corpus callosum. None of these abnormal neural tracts was observed in normal subjects. CONCLUSION We presume that the abnormal neural tracts of the fornix observed in this patient were the result of neural reorganization triggered by bilateral injury of the fornix crus. The results of this study suggest a mechanism for recovery of the injured fornix following head trauma.
Building a Large-scale Multimodal Knowledge Base for Visual Question Answering

The complexity of the visual world creates significant challenges for comprehensive visual understanding. In spite of recent successes in visual recognition, a lack of common sense knowledge and the insufficiencies of joint reasoning still leave a large gap between computer vision models and their human counterparts for higher-level tasks such as question answering (QA). In this work, we build a multimodal knowledge base (KB) incorporating visual, textual and structured data, as well as their diverse relations for visual QA. Such a general-purpose approach presents major challenges in terms of scalability and quality. Our approach is to cast large-scale MRFs into a KB representation, and introduce a scalable knowledge base construction system by leveraging database techniques. We unify several visual QA tasks in a principled query language. Our KB achieves competitive results compared to purpose-built models, while exhibiting greater flexibility in visual QA.
Dust distribution in protoplanetary disks - Vertical settling and radial migration

We present the results of a three dimensional, locally isothermal, non-self-gravitating SPH code which models protoplanetary disks with two fluids: gas and dust. We ran simulations of a 1 Msun star surrounded by a 0.01 Msun disk comprising 99% gas and 1% dust in mass and extending from 0.5 to ~300 AU. The grain size ranges from 0.001 mm to 10 m for the low resolution (~25 000 SPH particles) simulations and from 0.1 mm to 10 cm for the high resolution (~160 000 SPH particles) simulations. Dust grains are slowed down by the sub-Keplerian gas and lose angular momentum, forcing them to migrate towards the central star and settle to the midplane. The gas drag efficiency varies according to the grain size, with the larger bodies being weakly influenced and following marginally perturbed Keplerian orbits, while smaller grains are strongly coupled to the gas. For intermediate sized grains, the drag force decouples the dust and gas, allowing the dust to preferentially migrate radially and efficiently settle to the midplane. The resulting dust distributions for each grain size will indicate, when grain growth is added, the regions when planets are likely to form.
Prolonged diarrhea due to ciprofloxacin-resistant campylobacter infection.

BACKGROUND Campylobacter causes >1 million infections annually in the United States. Fluoroquinolones (e.g., ciprofloxacin) are used to treat Campylobacter infections in adults. Although human infections with ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter have become increasingly common, the human health consequences of such infections are not well described. METHODS A case-control study of persons with sporadic Campylobacter infection was conducted within 7 FoodNet sites during 1998-1999. The E-test system (AB Biodisk) was used to test for antimicrobial susceptibility to ciprofloxacin; ciprofloxacin resistance was defined as a ciprofloxacin minimum inhibitory concentration of > or =4 microg/mL. We conducted a case-comparison study of interviewed persons who had an isolate tested. RESULTS Of 858 isolates tested, 94 (11%) were ciprofloxacin resistant. Among 290 persons with Campylobacter infection who did not take antidiarrheal medications, persons with ciprofloxacin-resistant infection had a longer mean duration of diarrhea than did persons with ciprofloxacin-susceptible infection (9 vs. 7 days [P=.04]). This difference was even more pronounced among the 63 persons who did not take antidiarrheal medications or antimicrobial agents (12 vs. 6 days [P=.04]). In a multivariable analysis-of-variance model, the persons with ciprofloxacin-resistant infection had a longer mean duration of diarrhea than did the persons with ciprofloxacin-susceptible infection (P=.01); this effect was independent of foreign travel. The association between ciprofloxacin resistance and prolonged diarrhea is consistent across a variety of analytical approaches. CONCLUSIONS Persons with ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter infection have a longer duration of diarrhea than do persons with ciprofloxacin-susceptible Campylobacter infection. Additional efforts are needed to preserve the efficacy of fluoroquinolones.
PKS 1622–253: A Weakly Accreting, Powerful Gamma-Ray Source

We discuss new deep radio observations of PKS 1622-253 and their implications for the energetics of the central engine that powers this strong high-energy gamma-ray source. Combining archival infrared and optical measurements with new millimeter observations, we show that even though the accretion flow in PKS 1622-253 is underluminous by quasar standards, a powerful superluminal jet is launched with a higher kinetic luminosity than most EGRET blazars. Only a few percent of the total jet kinetic luminosity is required to power even the most powerful gamma-ray flares that are observed. The implication is that a high-accretion system is not required in order to power the strongest high-energy gamma-ray sources.
Application domain independent policy conflict analysis using information models

A key part of the policy authoring process is analysis of the potential for newly created or modified policies to conflict with already deployed policies. We propose an approach for policy conflict analysis in which candidate policies (either newly created or modified) are analyzed on a pair-wise basis with already deployed policies, with potential conflicts between the policies being notified to the policy author. Central to the approach is a two-phase algorithm which, querying an information model, firstly determines the relationships between the pair of policies and, secondly, applies an application-specific conflict pattern to determine if the policies should be flagged as potentially conflicting. The algorithm is generic in the sense that all application specific information is encoded in the information model; as long as a minimal set of assumptions regarding the policy model are adhered to it can be applied in arbitrary application domains. In the paper we present the two phase algorithm and describe an implementation in which it is used to detect potential conflicts for both access control and filtering (firewall) policies.
Regulation of Synaptic Transmission at the Caenorhabditis elegans M4 Neuromuscular Junction by an Antagonistic Relationship Between Two Calcium Channels

In wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans, the synapse from motor neuron M4 to pharyngeal terminal bulb (TB) muscles is silent, and the muscles are instead excited by gap junction connections from adjacent muscles. An eat-5 innexin mutant lacking this electrical connection has few TB contractions and is unable to grow well on certain foods. We showed previously that this defect can be overcome by activation of the M4 → TB synapse. To identify genes that negatively regulate synaptic transmission, we isolated new suppressors of eat-5. To our surprise, these suppressors included null mutations in NPQR-type calcium channel subunit genes unc-2 and unc-36. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that Ca2+ entry through the NPQR-type channel inhibits synaptic transmission by activating the calcium-activated K+ channel SLO-1, thus antagonizing the EGL-19 L-type calcium channel.
Global Imbalances: Non-Conventional View

Maintaining today’s global imbalances would help to overcome the major disproportion of our times – income gap between developed and developing countries. This gap was widening for 500 years and only now, in the recent 50 years, there are some signs that this gap is starting to decrease. The chances to close this gap sooner rather than later would be better, if the West would go into debt, allowing developing countries to have trade surpluses that would help them develop faster. Previously, in 16-20th century, it was the West that was developing faster, accumulating surpluses in trade with “the rest” and using these surpluses to buy assets in developing countries, while “the rest” were going into debt. Now it is time for “the rest” to accumulate assets and for the West to go into debt.
La mise en oeuvre du modèle logistique multinomial emboîté dans l'analyse de la participation au marché du travail

This research constitutes an attempt of using a nested multinomial logit to model the individuals labour market participation. This model has the advantage of relaxing the assumption of the independence of irrelevant alternatives wich is a property of the multinomial logit model generally used in the literature. The utilization of this model, still unexploited in this research area, permits to enrich empirical studies informations and to improve these last's general pertinence. An empirical analysis of individuals choices among several labour market segments is conducted, in the case of Morocco, using a nested multinomial logit model. A comparative study with a more “traditional” multinomial logit model is runned. It shows a relative superiority of the nested multinomial logit model, notably invalidating the assumption of the independence of irrelevant alternatives. More, the evaluation of explanatory variable's marginal effects on occupational choices for the two “competing” models shows that the choice of either one may modify the basis of the conclusions stemming from that type of analysis. (Full text in French)
Analysis and Design of Balanced Dielectric Resonator Bandpass Filters

This paper introduces an effective approach for differentially exciting the rectangular dielectric resonator (DR), which lays a foundation for designing balanced DR bandpass filters (BPFs). By analyzing the properties of the DR, it can be found that the TE11δ mode can be used for differential-mode (DM) operation while TM11δ mode can be used for common-mode (CM) operation. Meanwhile, the two modes are split by drilling a hole at the center of the DR for enhancing the CM suppression of the proposed BPFs. According to the field distributions of the TE11δ mode, two types of differential feeding schemes (namely, feeding schemes I and II) are investigated, where the TE11δ mode can be well excited for constructing the DM passband. Two balanced BPFs based on the two feeding schemes are respectively designed, showing good DM bandpass response. A new asymmetric coupling route is introduced in the balanced BPF using the feeding scheme II to realize two transmission zeros in the lower and upper stopbands, improving the selectivity. For demonstration, it is fabricated and measured. The simulated and experimental results with good agreement are presented, which exhibits the best performance of the balanced BPFs so far, such as insertion loss (IL), selective skirt, and CM suppression.
Capital Income Taxation Revisited: The Roles of Information Friction and External Finance

This paper reexamines the classical issue of optimal taxation on capital income in an overlapping‐generations growth model where the risky capital‐producing projects are financed partially with external funds in the presence of costly state verification. In this context, we first show that the information friction creates standard credit market distortions that are exacerbated by both capital income taxation and external financing. We subsequently show from both growth and welfare perspectives that the optimal tax rate on capital income decreases with the severity of asymmetric information and the extent of external financing. Alternatively, our analysis suggests that the presence of informational friction in the credit market introduces a rationale for more conservative taxation on capital, especially when the need for external financing is high.
Habit, Production, and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns

Solutions to the equity premium puzzle should inform us about the cross-section of stock returns. An external habit model with heterogeneous firms reproduces numerous stylized facts about both the equity premium and the value premium. The equity premium is large, time-varying, and linked with consumption volatility. The cross-section of expected returns is log-linear in B/M, and the slope matches the data. The explanation for the value premium lies in the interaction between the cross-section of cash flows and the time-varying risk premium. Value firms are temporarily low productivity firms, which will eventually experience high cash flows. The present value of these temporally distant cash flows is sensitive to risk premium movements. The value premium is the reward for bearing this sensitivity. Empirical evidence verifies that value firms have higher cash-flow growth. The data also show that value stock returns are more sensitive to risk premium movements, as measured by consumption volatility shocks.
College Leadership Programs and Citizenship Development: Preparing Students to be Agents of Social Change

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Comparative Analysis of Power Plant Options for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS)

Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) extract heat from underground hot dry rock (HDR) by first fracturing the HDR and then circulating a geofluid (typically water) into it and bringing the heated geofluid to a power plant to generate electricity. This study focuses on analysis, examination, and comparison of leading geothermal power plant configurations with a geofluid temperature from 200 to 800 °C, and also analyzes the embodied energy of EGS surface power plants. The power generation analysis is focused on flash type cycles for using subcritical geofluid ( 374 °C). Key findings of this study include: (i) double-flash plants have 24.3%–29.0% higher geofluid effectiveness than single-flash ones, and 3%–10% lower specific embodied energy; (ii) the expansion type plants have geofluid effectiveness > 750 kJ/kg, significantly higher than flash type plants (geofluid effectiveness < 300 kJ/kg) and the specific embodied energy is lower; (iii) to increase the turbine outlet vapor fraction from 0.75 to 0.90, we include superheating by geofluid but that reduces the geofluid effectiveness by 28.3%; (iv) for geofluid temperatures above 650 °C, double-expansion plants have a 2% higher geofluid effectiveness and 5%–8% lower specific embodied energy than single-expansion ones.
Mechanical, Thermal, and Electrical Properties of Graphene-Epoxy Nanocomposites—A Review

Monolithic epoxy, because of its brittleness, cannot prevent crack propagation and is vulnerable to fracture. However, it is well established that when reinforced—especially by nano-fillers, such as metallic oxides, clays, carbon nanotubes, and other carbonaceous materials—its ability to withstand crack propagation is propitiously improved. Among various nano-fillers, graphene has recently been employed as reinforcement in epoxy to enhance the fracture related properties of the produced epoxy–graphene nanocomposites. In this review, mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of graphene reinforced epoxy nanocomposites will be correlated with the topographical features, morphology, weight fraction, dispersion state, and surface functionalization of graphene. The factors in which contrasting results were reported in the literature are highlighted, such as the influence of graphene on the mechanical properties of epoxy nanocomposites. Furthermore, the challenges to achieving the desired performance of polymer nanocomposites are also suggested throughout the article.
Social Networks that Matter: Twitter Under the Microscope

Scholars, advertisers and political activists see massive online social networks as a representation of social interactions that can be used to study the propagation of ideas, social bond dynamics and viral marketing, among others. But the linked structures of social networks do not reveal actual interactions among people. Scarcity of attention and the daily rythms of life and work makes people default to interacting with those few that matter and that reciprocate their attention. A study of social interactions within Twitter reveals that the driver of usage is a sparse and hidden network of connections underlying the “declared” set of friends and followers.
Random Regret Minimization and Random Utility Maximization in the Presence of Preference Heterogeneity: An Empirical Contrast

Random regret minimization (RRM) interpretations of discrete choices are growing in popularity as a complementary modeling paradigm to random utility maximization (RUM). While behaviorally very appealing in the sense of accommodating the regret of not choosing the best alternative, studies to date suggest that the differences in willingness to pay estimates, choice elasticities, and choice probabilities compared to RUM are small. However, the evidence is largely based on a simple multinomial logit (MNL) form of the RRM model. This paper revisits this behavioral contrast and moves beyond the multinomial logit model to incorporate random parameters, revealing the presence of preference heterogeneity. The important contribution of this paper is to see if the extension of RRM-MNL to RRM-mixed logit in passenger mode choice widens the behavioral differences between RUM and RRM. The current paper has identified a statistically richer improvement in fit of mixed logit compared to multinomial logit under RRM (and RUM) but found small differences overall between the empirical outputs of RUM and RRM, with no basis of an improved model fit between these two nonnested model forms. The inclusion of both model forms should continue to inform the likely range of behavioral outputs during investigation of a broader range of process heuristics designed to capture real world behavioral response.
Aircraft Measurements of Nitrogen Oxides, Ozone, and Carbon Monoxide during MINOS 2001: Distributions and Correlation Analyses

Abstract. We present mean altitude profiles of NO x , NO y , O 3 , and CO as measured by the DLR Falcon aircraft during the MINOS 2001 campaign over the Mediterranean in August 2001 and compare the data with results from other aircraft campaigns, namely the SIL 1996 (North Atlantic flight corridor), the POLINAT-2 (North Atlantic flight corridor), and the EXPORT 2000 (central Europe) campaigns. The MINOS NO y , O 3 , and CO mixing ratios in the free troposphere, especially between 4–8 km, are very similar to those measured during the EXPORT 2000 campaign. However, compared to the other campaigns the MINOS O 3 and CO were significantly higher in the boundary layer, by about 20 ppbV and 50 ppbV, respectively. In the second part of the paper the D[O 3 ]/D[NO y ], D[O 3 ]/D[CO], D[CO]/D[NO y ], and D[NO x ]/D[NO y ] trace gas correlations were calculated for the MINOS 2001 campaign. It was found that, within the scatter of the data, the overall average altitude profiles of the correlations compared well with data from a literature survey. The analysis of the mean vertical correlation profiles as measured during MINOS 2001 does therefore not single out special meteorological conditions and air mass origins over the Mediterranean in summer but reflects a more general condition of the free troposphere in the northern hemisphere. Correlation analyses for single flights at different altitudes, however, unambiguously identify air masses influenced by the stratosphere, whereas pollution plumes could only be identified with the help of back trajectories.
Substance P, Neurokinins A and B, and Synthetic Tachykinin Peptides Protect Mesencephalic Dopaminergic Neurons in Culture via an Activity-Dependent Mechanism

We evaluated the neuroprotective potential of tachykinin peptides using a model system in which mesencephalic dopaminergic (DA) neurons die spontaneously and selectively as they mature. The three native tachykinins, substance P (SP), neurokinin (NK) A, and NKB afforded substantial protection against DA cell demise. The selective NK1 receptor antagonist [d-Pro9,[spiro-γ-lactam] Leu10,Trp11]substance P (GR71251) was sufficient in itself to suppress the effect of SP, whereas a cotreatment with GR71251 and the NK3 receptor antagonist (R)-N-[α-(methoxycarbonyl)benzyl]-2-phenylquinoline-4-carboxamide (SB218795) was required to prevent the effects of both NKA and NKB. Consistent with these results, d-Ala-[L-Pro9,Me-Leu8]substance P(7–11) (GR73632), a selective agonist of NK1 receptors and [pro7]-NKB, a selective agonist of NK3 receptors, conferred protection to DA neurons, whereas (Lys3, Gly8-R-γ-lactam-Leu9)neurokinin A(3–10) (GR64349), which activates specifically NK2 receptors, did not. DA neurons rescued by tachykinins accumulated [3H]DA efficiently, which suggests that they were also totally functional. Neuroprotection by tachykinins was highly selective for DA neurons, rapidly reversed upon treatment withdrawal, and reproduced by but independent of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor. Survival promotion by tachykinins was abolished by blocking voltage-gated Na+ channels with tetrodotoxin or N-type voltage-gated Ca2+ channels with ω-conotoxin-MVIIA, which indicates that an increase in neuronal excitability was crucially involved in this effect. Together, these data further support the notion that the survival of mesencephalic DA neurons during development depends largely on excitatory inputs, which may be provided in part by tachykinins.