Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oscillatory brain activity in memory disorders

Neuronal oscillations are thought to underlie interactions between distinct brain regions required for normal memory functioning. This study aimed at elucidating the neuronal basis of memory abnormalities in neurodegenerative disorders. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to measure oscillatory brain signals in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease causing progressive cognitive decline, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a disorder characterized by mild but clinically significant complaints of memory loss without apparent impairment in other cognitive domains. Furthermore, to help interpret our AD/MCI results and to develop more powerful oscillatory MEG paradigms for clinical memory studies, oscillatory neuronal activity underlying declarative memory, the function which is afflicted first in both AD and MCI, was investigated in a group of healthy subjects. An increased temporal-lobe contribution coinciding with parieto-occipital deficits in oscillatory activity was observed in AD patients: sources in the 6–12.5 Hz range were significantly stronger in the parieto-occipital and significantly weaker in the right temporal region in AD patients, as compared to MCI patients and healthy elderly subjects. Further, the auditory steady-state response, thought to represent both evoked and induced activity, was enhanced in AD patients, as compared to controls, possibly reflecting decreased inhibition in auditory processing and deficits in adaptation to repetitive stimulation with low relevance. Finally, the methodological study revealed that successful declarative encoding and retrieval is associated with increases in occipital gamma and right hemisphere theta power in healthy unmedicated subjects. This result suggests that investigation of neuronal oscillations during cognitive performance could potentially be used to investigate declarative memory deficits in AD patients. Taken together, the present results provide an insight on the role of brain oscillatory activity in memory function and memory disorders.
School Choice Programs: The Impacts on Housing Values

We review both the theoretical and empirical literature relating to the impact of school choice programs, particularly voucher programs, on residential property values. Beginning with the seminal works of Charles Tiebout (1956) and Thomas Nechyba (1999, 2000, 2003), we describe the sorting equilibrium theories that arise in the context of public school assignments based strictly on geographic catchment areas. We then consider the implications of allowing students to attend schools other than those to which they are assigned, particularly in a school voucher context. Finally, we review the empirical tests of these theories to date. The important concepts addressed in this paper are: 1) assigned schools lead to a separating equilibrium that results in segregation on the basis of income, school quality and property values; 2) school choice programs undermine this separating equilibrium by severing the link between place of residence and school assignment.
Rifapentine Pharmacokinetics and Tolerability in Children and Adults Treated Once Weekly With Rifapentine and Isoniazid for Latent Tuberculosis Infection.

BACKGROUND In a phase 3, randomized clinical trial (PREVENT TB) of 8053 people with latent tuberculosis infection, 12 once-weekly doses of rifapentine and isoniazid had good efficacy and tolerability. Children received higher rifapentine milligram per kilogram doses than adults. In the present pharmacokinetic study (a component of the PREVENT TB trial), rifapentine exposure was compared between children and adults. METHODS Rifapentine doses in children ranged from 300 to 900 mg, and adults received 900 mg. Children who could not swallow tablets received crushed tablets. Sparse pharmacokinetic sampling was performed with 1 rifapentine concentration at 24 hours after drug administration (C24). Rifapentine area under concentration-time curve (AUC) was estimated from a nonlinear, mixed effects regression model (NLME). RESULTS There were 80 children (age: median, 4.5 years; range, 2-11 years) and 77 adults (age: median, 40 years; all ≥18 years) in the study. The geometric mean rifapentine milligram per kilogram dose was greater in children than in adults (children, 23 mg/kg; adults, 11 mg/kg). Rifapentine geometric mean AUC and C24 were 1.3-fold greater in children (all children combined) than in adults. Children who swallowed whole tablets had 1.3-fold higher geometric mean AUC than children who received crushed tablets, and children who swallowed whole tablets had a 1.6-fold higher geometric mean AUC than adults. The higher rifapentine doses in children were well tolerated. To obtain rifapentine exposures comparable in children to adults, dosing algorithms modeled by NLME were developed. CONCLUSIONS A 2-fold greater rifapentine dose for all children resulted in a 1.3-fold higher AUC compared to adults administered a standard dose. Use of higher weight-adjusted rifapentine doses for young children are warranted to achieve systemic exposures that are associated with successful treatment of latent tuberculosis infection in adults.
ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THIRD-PARTY PRODUCTS EVALUATION SYSTEMS : LESSONS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY

This paper studies one key characteristic shared by a growing number of industries—their products are continuously monitored and evaluated by third-party systems such as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for public protection. By studying differences in ratings and commercial performance of products across different countries, marketing managers can obtain general insights into why, and anticipate when evaluation boards, operating in different global markets, are likely to rate the same product differently. Since different ratings may lead to differences in commercial performance, the product evaluations often require local adaptations. Two related issues are examined in this paper. First, the impact of the product’s evaluation by the local evaluation board upon its commercial performance (consequences) is studied. Local country covariates such as mandatory vs. voluntary evaluation boards and cultural characteristics such as masculinity are employed as moderators between the product’s evaluation and its local performance. Second, the key drivers of the boards evaluations (antecedents) are studied, taking into account both the nature of the product and the nature of the evaluation board. Implications of the results for the motion picture industry as well as other industries are discussed from a managerial, research, and public policy perspective.
The Energy Spectrum of Anomalous X-ray Pulsars and Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters

Context. Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) exhibit characteristic X-ray luminosities (both soft and hard) of around 10 35 erg s −1 and characteristic power-law, hard X-ray spectra extending to about 200 keV. Two AXPs also exhibit pulsed radio emission. Aims. Assuming that AXPs and SGRs accrete matter from a fallback disk, we attempt to explain both the soft and the hard X-ray emission as the result of the accretion process. We also attempt to explain their radio emission or the lack of it. Methods. We test the hypothesis that the power-law, hard X-ray spectra are produced in the accretion flow mainly by bulk-motion Comptonization of soft photons emitted at the neutron star surface. Fallback disk models invoke surface dipole magnetic fields of 10 12 −10 13 G, which is what we assume here. Results. Unlike normal X-ray pulsars, for which the accretion rate is highly super-Eddington, the accretion rate is approximately Eddington in AXPs and SGRs and thus the bulk-motion Comptonization operates efficiently. As an illustrative example we reproduce both the hard and the soft X-ray spectra of AXP 4U 0142+61 well using the XSPEC package compTB. Conclusions. Our model seems to explain both the hard and the soft X-ray spectra of AXPs and SGRs, as well as their radio emission or the lack of it, in a natural way. It might also explain the short bursts observed in these sources. On the other hand, it cannot explain the giant X-ray outbursts observed in SGRs, which may result from the conversion of magnetic energy in local multipole fields.
Integrated Longitudinal Employee-Employer Data for the United States

This paper discusses the critical need, in social sciences, for the development of a database infrastructure that captures the complex interactions among households and businesses at the micro level and characterizes the dynamics of the modern economy. The creation of such an infrastructure has posed a major challenge to national statistical institutes. Since most institutes collect, store, and disseminate data on the engines of economic growth--businesses and households--in twin data silos, proposals to integrate the two face technical, monetary, legal, and policy obstacles that go far beyond the norm of data collection activities. Recent efforts at the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) Program at the U.S. Census Bureau have finally made this critical data infrastructure achievable and accessible.
Coding Rate and Duration of Vocalizations of the Frog, Xenopus laevis

Vocalizations involve complex rhythmic motor patterns, but the underlying temporal coding mechanisms in the nervous system are poorly understood. Using a recently developed whole-brain preparation from which “fictive” vocalizations are readily elicited in vitro, we investigated the cellular basis of temporal complexity of African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). Male advertisement calls contain two alternating components—fast trills (∼300 ms) and slow trills (∼700 ms) that contain clicks repeated at ∼60 and ∼30 Hz, respectively. We found that males can alter the duration of fast trills without changing click rates. This finding led us to hypothesize that call rate and duration are regulated by independent mechanisms. We tested this by obtaining whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in the “fictively” calling isolated brain. We discovered a single type of premotor neuron with activity patterns correlated with both the rate and duration of fast trills. These “fast-trill neurons” (FTNs) exhibited long-lasting depolarizations (LLDs) correlated with each fast trill and action potentials that were phase-locked with motor output—neural correlates of call duration and rate, respectively. When depolarized without central pattern generator activation, FTNs produced subthreshold oscillations and action potentials at fast-trill rates, indicating FTN resonance properties are tuned to, and may dictate, the fast-trill rhythm. NMDA receptor (NMDAR) blockade eliminated LLDs in FTNs, and NMDAR activation in synaptically isolated FTNs induced repetitive LLDs. These results suggest FTNs contain an NMDAR-dependent mechanism that may regulate fast-trill duration. We conclude that a single premotor neuron population employs distinct mechanisms to regulate call rate and duration.
Hamiltonian thermodynamics of charged black holes

We consider the most general diffeomorphism invariant action in 1+1 spacetime dimensions that contains a metric, dilaton and Abelian gauge field, and has at most second derivatives of the fields. Our action contains a topological term (linear in the Abelian field strength) that has not been considered in previous work. We impose boundary conditions appropriate for a charged black hole confined to a region bounded by a surface of fixed dilaton field and temperature. By making some simplifying assumptions about the quantum theory, the Hamiltonian partition function is obtained. This partition function is analyzed in some detail for the Reissner-Nordstrom black hole and for the rotating BTZ black hole.
Malaysian Research Students Encounter with Information Seeking Process for Academic Purposes

This paper investigates the various barriers that university students’ encounter in efforts to seek information for academic purposes. It focuses on skills deployed by these students to overcome this lack. University students from four different fields of study are sampled to address their research-information seeking processes and needs in their daily academic life. The needs are matched to strategies applied that suggest coping mechanisms of fulfilling the demands of the course taken. This research analyses these barriers and coping mechanisms as a means of enhancing students’ research-information seeking skills. Findings show that the main barrier towards information seeking processes among university students is their inability to seek and evaluate information. They also struggle to locate information needed for academic purposes. The students also claim that they have difficulty in finding online information due to limited network and Internet access. Students need to have access to strong Internet bandwidths to obtain required information, such as the web resources and online databases. This access provided by the library plays an important role in helping them meet their information needs. It is recommended that the library and the librarians should plan an appropriate course of action such as information skill training to overcome the identified barriers by enhancing current services and facilities which guide students to improve their information seeking processes for academic purposes.
Measurement of [O III] Emission in Lyman-Break Galaxies

Measurements of [O III] emission in Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z > 3 are presented. Four galaxies were observed with narrowband filters using the near-IR camera on the Keck I 10 m telescope. A fifth galaxy was observed spectroscopically during the commissioning of NIRSPEC, the new infrared spectrometer on Keck II. The emission-line spectrum is used to place limits on the metallicity. Comparing these new measurements with others available from the literature, we find that strong oxygen emission in LBGs may suggest subsolar metallicity for these objects. The [O III] λ5007 line is also used to estimate the star formation rate (SFR) of the LBGs. The inferred SFRs are higher than those estimated from the UV continuum, and may be evidence for dust extinction.
Understanding experiences of families and their partnerships as they navigate early intervention, transition, and early childhood special education

iv CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION . 1 Background and Context. 1 Problem Statement . 3 Statement of Purpose and Research Questions . 4 Research Approach . 4 Methodology . 6 Dissertation Organization . 7 References . 8 CHAPTER 2. UNDERSTANDING HOW PARENTS DESCRIBE IDEAL PARTNERSHIPS AND THE ROLES EMBEDDED WITHIN: A CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY. 11 Abstract . 1
Species Collapse via Hybridization in Darwin’s Tree Finches

Species hybridization can lead to fitness costs, species collapse, and novel evolutionary trajectories in changing environments. Hybridization is predicted to be more common when environmental conditions change rapidly. Here, we test patterns of hybridization in three sympatric tree finch species (small tree finch Camarhynchus parvulus, medium tree finch Camarhynchus pauper, and large tree finch: Camarhynchus psittacula) that are currently recognized on Floreana Island, Galápagos Archipelago. Genetic analysis of microsatellite data from contemporary samples showed two genetic populations and one hybrid cluster in both 2005 and 2010; hybrid individuals were derived from genetic population 1 (small morph) and genetic population 2 (large morph). Females of the large and rare species were more likely to pair with males of the small common species. Finch populations differed in morphology in 1852–1906 compared with 2005/2010. An unsupervised clustering method showed (a) support for three morphological clusters in the historical tree finch sample (1852–1906), which is consistent with current species recognition; (b) support for two or three morphological clusters in 2005 with some (19%) hybridization; and (c) support for just two morphological clusters in 2010 with frequent (41%) hybridization. We discuss these findings in relation to species demarcations of Camarhynchus tree finches on Floreana Island.
RDE-based transistor-level gate simulation for statistical static timing analysis

Existing industry-practice statistical static timing analysis (SSTA) engines use black-box gate-level models for standard cells, which have accuracy problems as well as require massive amounts of CPU time in Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation. In this paper we present a new transistor-level non-Monte Carlo statistical analysis method based on solving random differential equations (RDE) computed from modified nodal analysis (MNA). In order to maintain both high accuracy and efficiency, we introduce a simplified statistical transistor model for 45nm technology and below. The model is combined with our new simulation-like engine which can do both implicit non-MC statistical simulation and deterministic simulation fast and accurately. The statistics of delay and slew are calculated by means of the proposed analysis method. Experiments show the proposed method is both run time efficient and very accurate.
Determining the Moments of Queue-Length Distribution of Discriminatory Processor-Sharing Systems with Phase-Type Service Requirements

In this paper, we study discriminatory processor sharing systems in which different customer classes receive different rates of service according to class weights. DPS systems have many interesting applications in modelling of, e.g., computer or telecommunication systems. In prior work, assuming phase-type service requirement distribution, the moments of the number of customers have been found as a solution of a system of linear equations. In this paper, we present an alternative approach to the same problem allowing us to derive similar results. We use a method based on the theory of Markov decision processes and show that exact results are achieved. The moments of the queue length distribution may be solved from a system of linear equations. While not as efficient as the previous method, our approach also provides the value function of the system which may be used in policy optimization.
Understanding how tailored communications work: The eVects of message quality and congruency on perceptions of health messages

Recent research has documented the eVectiveness of tailoring health behavior change messages to characteristics of the recipients, but little is known about the processes underlying these eVects. Drawing from the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), we examined the role of message scrutiny in moderating the congruency eVect (Mann, Sherman, & UpdegraV, 2004). One hundred and thirtysix undergraduate participants read either a strong or weak message promoting regular dental Xossing with a frame (gain vs. loss) that either matched or mismatched their motivational orientation (approach vs. avoidance). Results showed that participants were sensitive to argument quality in the matched but not mismatched conditions. Further, argument quality moderated the eVect of congruency on participants’ attitudes and perceived norms regarding Xossing, as well as their subsequent self-reported Xossing behavior. Results suggest that increased message scrutiny underlies message tailoring eVects.
The effect of music therapy on the level of anxiety in the patients undergoing coronary angiography

The sedative effects of music on healthy and sick individuals are known for centuries. Nowadays, nursing has used the efficacy of music therapy in interventions. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of music, which the patients undergoing a coronary angiography for the first time listened to during the intraoperative period, on the level of anxiety in the patients. The study was conducted experimentally as a pretest/posttest control group design. Data collection form; state-trait anxiety inventory, CDs and CD player were used. Inventories were applied to the patients before the process. The study group (100 patients) listened to music throughout the intervention, whilst the control group (100 patients) listened to no music. At the end of the process, all patients were given the same state anxiety inventory once more. The data was assessed by number, percentage, mean distribution with The paired t-test and t test. It was found that the difference between the mean state anxiety scores obtained before and during the coronary angiography were significantly higher in the study group (4.04 ± 1.15) than the control group (2.01 ± 0.10) (p = 0.000). It was concluded that the music listened to during the coronary angiography process had an impact on the intraoperative anxiety levels of the patients.
Longitudinal Sales Responses with Online Reviews

The longitudinal impact of online consumer reviews on hotel sales is studied. Different from previous efforts using pure ratings, this study explores the extraction and representation of consumer sentiments within review comments in an iterative approach. Initially, we define a few primary attributes as seeds to mine review patterns which are frequently used by consumers to express their sentiments. Opinion words, being used to express the specific opinions, are then discovered based on the primary attributes and the review patterns. More new attributes, opinion words and review patterns can be obtained in an iterative manner. Afterwards, each comment will be rated with a pertinent score to reflect the consumer sentiment. Both consumer ratings and sentiment ratings are used to ex-amine the economic effect of reviews on hotel sales. Evaluations on practical hotel-booking reviews and sales data are conducted and several important findings are revealed.
Inter-Relationship between Rhinitis and Conjunctivitis in Allergic Rhinoconjunctivitis and Associated Risk Factors in Rural UK Children

Objective Allergic conjunctivitis (AC) is a common condition, especially in childhood. The extent to which it occurs concurrently with or independently from allergic rhinitis (AR) has not been well described. Aim To examine the inter-relationship between rhinitis and conjunctivitis and the epidemiological risk factors for these conditions in a rural UK population. Methods Cross-sectional study of rural school children (aged 5–11 years). Parental questionnaires were used to diagnose allergic outcomes (including conjunctivitis, rhinitis and rhinoconjunctivitis), and to collect data on atopic history, demographic and environmental exposures. Odds ratios of allergic outcome by exposure were examined adjusted for age, sex, breastfeeding, family history of allergy, number of older and younger siblings. Results Prevalence of conjunctivitis was 17.5%, rhinitis 15.1% and rhinoconjunctivitis 13.0%. Seasonality of symptoms varied by condition: 64.7% of those with conjunctivitis had seasonal symptoms (April-Sept only), 46.7% of those with rhinitis and 92.2% of those with rhinoconjunctivitis. Living on a farm consistently reduced the risk of conjunctivitis (odds ratio 0.47, 95%CI 0.29–0.79, p = 0.004), rhinitis (OR 0.57, 95%CI 0.33–1.01, p = 0.05) and rhinoconjunctivitis (OR 0.57, 95%CI 0.32–1.03, p = 0.06). Exposure to farm animals (particularly in early life), current consumption of unpasteurised milk and playing in a barn or stable significantly reduced the risk of all three conditions. Conclusion More children had parent-reported conjunctivitis than rhinitis. The majority of children with either condition also reported symptoms with the other condition. Farmers’ children have less eye and/or nasal symptoms. A number of farming variables linked with the farm microbial environment are likely to be mediating the protective effect.