Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal modularity and memory capacity of neural reservoirs

The neural network is a powerful computing framework that has been exploited by biological evolution and by humans for solving diverse problems. Although the computational capabilities of neural networks are determined by their structure, the current understanding of the relationships between a neural network’s architecture and function is still primitive. Here we reveal that a neural network’s modular architecture plays a vital role in determining the neural dynamics and memory performance of the network of threshold neurons. In particular, we demonstrate that there exists an optimal modularity for memory performance, where a balance between local cohesion and global connectivity is established, allowing optimally modular networks to remember longer. Our results suggest that insights from dynamical analysis of neural networks and information-spreading processes can be leveraged to better design neural networks and may shed light on the brain’s modular organization. Author Summary Understanding the inner workings of the human brain is one of the greatest scientific challenges. It will not only advance the science of the human mind, but also help us build more intelligent machines. In doing so, it is crucial to understand how the structural organization of the brain affects functional capabilities. Here we reveal a strong connection between the modularity of a neural network and its performance in memory tasks. Namely, we demonstrate that there is optimal modularity for memory performance. Our results suggest a design principle for artificial recurrent neural networks as well as a hypothesis that may explain not only the existence but also the strength of modularity in the brain.
DNA Vaccine for West Nile Virus Infection in Fish Crows (Corvus ossifragus)

A DNA vaccine for West Nile virus (WNV) was evaluated to determine whether its use could protect fish crows (Corvus ossifragus) from fatal WNV infection. Captured adult crows were given 0.5 mg of the DNA vaccine either orally or by intramuscular (IM) inoculation; control crows were inoculated or orally exposed to a placebo. After 6 weeks, crows were challenged subcutaneously with 105 plaque-forming units of WNV (New York 1999 strain). None of the placebo inoculated–placebo challenged birds died. While none of the 9 IM vaccine–inoculated birds died, 5 of 10 placebo-inoculated and 4 of 8 orally vaccinated birds died within 15 days after challenge. Peak viremia titers in birds with fatal WNV infection were substantially higher than those in birds that survived infection. Although oral administration of a single DNA vaccine dose failed to elicit an immune response or protect crows from WNV infection, IM administration of a single dose prevented death and was associated with reduced viremia.
Ozone monitoring instrument calibration

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) was launched on July 15, 2004 on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Observing System Aura satellite. The OMI instrument is an ultraviolet-visible imaging spectrograph that uses two-dimensional charge-coupled device detectors to register both the spectrum and the swath perpendicular to the flight direction with a 115/spl deg/ wide swath, which enables global daily ground coverage with high spatial resolution. This paper presents the OMI design and discusses the main performance and calibration features and results.
A phase IIa randomised clinical study of GNbAC1, a humanised monoclonal antibody against the envelope protein of multiple sclerosis-associated endogenous retrovirus in multiple sclerosis patients

Background: GNbAC1 is an immunoglobulin (IgG4) humanised monoclonal antibody against multiple sclerosis-associated retrovirus (MSRV)-Env, a protein of endogenous retroviral origin, expressed in multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions, which is pro-inflammatory and inhibits oligodendrocyte precursor cell differentiation. Objective: This is a randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled dose-escalation study followed by a six-month open-label phase to test GNbAC1 in MS patients. The primary objective was to assess GNbAC1 safety in MS patients, and the other objectives were pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic assessments. Methods: Ten MS patients were randomised into two cohorts to receive a single intravenous infusion of GNbAC1/placebo at doses of 2 or 6 mg/kg. Then all patients received five infusions of GNbAC1 at 2 or 6 mg/kg at four-week intervals in an open-label setting. Safety, brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), pharmacokinetics, immunogenicity, cytokines and MSRV RNA expression were studied. Results: All patients completed the study. GNbAC1 was well tolerated in all patients. GNbAC1 pharmacokinetics is dose-linear with mean elimination half-life of 27–37 d. Anti-GNbAC1 antibodies were not detected. Cytokine analysis did not indicate an adverse effect. MSRV-transcripts showed a decline after the start of treatment. Nine patients had stable brain lesions at MRI. Conclusion: The safety, pharmacokinetic profile, and pharmacodynamic responses to GNbAC1 are favourable in MS patients over a six-month treatment period.
EFFECT OF SPRINT TRAINING ON SWIM PERFORMANCE AND WHITE MUSCLE METABOLISM DURING EXERCISE AND RECOVERY IN RAINBOW TROUT (SALMO GAIRDNERI)

Summary Experimental fish were sprint trained by individual chasing for 30 s on alternate days for 9 weeks. Ten trained and 10 untrained animals were rapidly freezeclamped at rest and 0,1 , 3 and 6h after a 5-min chase. Swimming speed of 10 fish in each group was measured in a 2-min chase. Phosphocreatine (PCr), creatine, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), adenosine diphosphate (ADP), adenosine monophosphate (AMP), glycogen, glucose-1-phosphate (G-l-P), glucose-6-phosphate (G-6-P), fructose-6-phosphate (Fru-6-P), glucose, glycerol-3-phosphate (Glyc-3P), pyruvate and lactate were measured on extracts from freeze-dried white muscle. Trained fish swam 14% further in 2min, with 90% of this difference occurring between 20 and 50 s. Trained fish accumulated 32% more lactate, but showed no differences in glycogen or PCr depletion, and 22 % less ATP depletion, suggesting increased use of exogenous glucose. Glycogen repletion in early recovery, and lactate clearance between 1 and 3h after exercise, were also enhanced in trained fish. Energy stores (ATP equivalents) were higher after exercise and especially during recovery in trained fish. Overall, sprint training minimizes endogenous fuel depletion during exhaustive swimming, even though swim speed (and distance) increases, and enhances the rate of metabolic recovery following the swim.
INTEGRATING ENTREPRENEURIAL SELF-EFFICACY INTO EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITIES

Educational institutions are urged to provide more enterprising individuals who will either act as entrepreneurs, or will be able to manage their careers and lives in an entrepreneurial way. The purpose of this study is to address the role of teaching at universities in maximizing entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and to examine the possibility to maximize the likelihood of entrepreneurial behavior by enhancing entrepreneurial self-efficacy with university students. The study investigates the impact that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has on the development of entrepreneurial motivation and behavior using a sample of 324 students of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek in Croatia. The results of the research indicate that students demonstrate a higher propensity for entrepreneurial behavior and a higher probability of starting their own business if they feel more self-efficient. The research has also highlighted that teaching at universities does not significantly improve the perception of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in students and that firsthand experience has a more important role in that. An important conclusion to emerge from this research is that in order to influence entrepreneurial behavior, it is necessary to make better use of experience-based learning and supplement university courses with components of informal and/or non-formal education. Keywords: Entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, university, communities of practice
Is remembering less specifically part of an avoidant coping style? Associations between memory specificity, avoidant coping, and stress

ABSTRACT Individuals higher on avoidant coping may remember fewer specific autobiographical memories and more nonspecific memories on the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) in order to protect themselves from the painful emotions accompanying some specific memories. Habitually remembering this way (overgeneral memory) may be a risk factor for depression. In Studies 1 and 2 (nondepressed samples), avoidant coping was associated with more specific memories and fewer overgeneral memories, at odds with the functional avoidance view. In Study 3 (depressed sample), there were no significant relationships between AMT indices and avoidant coping. Results are discussed in light of ironic process theory.
Research in International Business and Finance Corporate Social Performance, Ownership Structure, and Corporate Governance in France

Keywords: Corporate social performance Ownership type Ownership structure Corporate governance France a b s t r a c t Empirical evidence of the influence of shareholders and gover-nance practices on corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies is mixed, and most studies have been conducted in the United States. This study of the French market and its unique characteristics reveals the forms of shareholding and CSR implementations, thereby shedding new light on the influence of shareholders on corporate social performance (CSP). Specifically, with a sample of French listed companies, the authors investigate how ownership concentration, ownership type, and governance practices relate to CSP. The geography of capital is relevant, but little evidence arises of the importance of shareholders' identity. That is, neither family nor institutional shareholders influence CSP, and large shareholders seem to place less emphasis on CSR, suggesting that they are reluctant to invest in it. Finally, the results related to good governance practices are mixed, but board independence provides a foundation for good CSR.
Output feedback stabilization of positive switching linear discrete-time systems

The problem of stabilizing positive switching discrete-time systems by output feedback is studied and solved in this paper. First, necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of such controllers are presented for non-switching positive systems, which are then extended to positive switching systems. The proposed conditions, formulated as LMIs, can be directly used for controller synthesis. An example made up of three subsystems is studied to show the applicability of the proposed technique.
Joint Optimization of Source Power Allocation and Distributed Relay Beamforming in Multiuser Peer-to-Peer Relay Networks

In this paper, we consider the joint optimization of the source power allocation and relay beamforming weights in distributed multiuser peer-to-peer (MUP2P) relay networks applying the amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol. We adopt a quality-of-service (QoS) based approach, in which the total power transmitted from all sources and relays is minimized while guaranteeing the prescribed QoS requirement of each source-destination pair. The QoS is modeled as a function of the receive signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the destinations. Unlike the existing contributions, the transmitted powers of the sources and the beamforming weights of the relays are optimized jointly in this paper. Introducing an appropriate transformation of variables, the QoS based source power allocation and distributed relay beamforming (PADB) problem can be equivalently transformed into a difference of convex (DC) program, which can be efficiently solved with local optimality using the constrained concave convex procedure (CCCP). Based on this procedure, we also propose an iterative feasibility search algorithm (IFSA) to find an initial feasible point of the DC program. The analytic study of the proposed solution confirms that it converges to a local optimum of the PADB problem. Numerical results show that our solution outperforms (in terms of the total transmitted power) the alternating optimization procedure and the exact penalty based DC algorithm. In addition, the proposed IFSA outperforms the alternating optimization algorithm in finding feasible points of the DC program (i.e., the equivalence of the PADB problem).
A New Actuation Approach for Human Friendly Robot Design

In recent years, many successful robotic manipulator designs have been introduced. However, there remains the challenge of designing a manipulator that possesses the inherent safety characteristics necessary for human-centered robotics. In this paper, we present a new actuation approach that has the requisite characteristics for inherent safety while maintaining the performance expected of modern designs. By drastically reducing the effective impedance of the manipulator while maintaining high-frequency torque capability, we show that the competing design requirements of performance and safety can be successfully integrated into a single manipulation system.
Facilitated Attentional Disengagement from Negative Information in Relation to Self-Reported Depressive Symptoms of Dutch Female Undergraduate Students

Prior research has shown that depressive symptoms are associated with an enhanced attention toward negative stimuli and difficulty of disengaging attention from negative stimuli. The current study was an extension of a 2005 study by Koster and colleagues. A different stimulus presentation time and word set were used. The whole range of depressive symptoms was included in this sample instead of creating dichotomized groups. The Exogenous Cueing Task with negative, positive, and neutral cues was administered to 85 female undergraduate university students. Participants completed the Beck's Depression Inventory-II–NL questionnaire to measure self-reported depression. Contrary to previous findings, depressive symptoms were related to a facilitated rather than impaired attentional disengagement from negative stimuli. An explanation for the discrepancy with findings from Koster, et al. may be the different stimulus presentation time (1,000 msec. instead of 500 or 1,500 msec).
A social-evolutionary approach to compose a similarity function used on event recommendation

With the development of web 2.0, social networks have achieved great space on the internet, with that many users provide information and interests about themselves. There are expert systems that use the user's interests to recommend different products, these systems are known as Recommender Systems. One of the main techniques of a Recommender Systems is the Collaborative Filtering (User based) which recommends products to users based on what other similar people liked in the past. However, the methods to determine similarity between users have presented some problems. Therefore, this work presents a proposal of using social variables in the composition of the similarity function applied to a user on the recommendation of events. To test the proposal, details of friends and events of two target-users of the social network Facebook have been extracted. The results were compared with different deterministic heuristics, the Euclidean Distance and a aleatory method. The proposed model showed promising results and great potential to expand to different contexts.
A DC technique for determining GaAs MESFET thermal resistance

A novel DC electrical method (DCEM) is described for measuring the thermal resistance of GaAs MESFETs using the temperature dependence of the gate metal resistivity. The method requires a DC current to be passed (end-to-end) through the gate stripe to monitor the average temperature of the channel. The DCEM can measure the average thermal resistance over the entire operating range of a Schottky-gate MESFET using only DC measuring instruments. An example is given showing the thermal resistance of an ion-implanted 0.5- mu m GaAs MESFET as a function of DC power dissipation. <<ETX>>
Maintenance erlotinib improves clinical outcomes of unresectable advanced non-small cell lung cancer: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of erlotinib as maintenance therapy in patients with unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by evidence-based methodology. Six eligible studies including 4,372 patients were analyzed. Erlotinib was administered to 2,191 patients as maintenance treatment, while the remaining patients received a placebo or observation only. The meta-analysis was performed using Reviewer Manager Version 5.12 software. Compared with the control group, maintenance erlotinib improved progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) with moderate heterogeneity. Results from the random effects model analysis for OS were not in concordance with the difference observed in the fixed effects model analysis. Administration of erlotinib only after chemotherapy obtained a higher objective response rate (ORR). Safety analyses indicated a slight increase in side-effects. The most common adverse events (AEs) were diarrhea and rash, which were usually manageable. There was no significant difference in treatment-related deaths. Erlotinib produced significant clinical benefits with acceptable toxicity as a maintenance strategy in patients with unresectable NSCLC, particularly when sequentially administered with chemotherapy. However, more well-designed randomized control trials (RCTs) are required to identify patients that may derive greater benefits from maintenance with erlotinib, and whether the use of erlotinib as maintenance therapy is more efficient than second-line treatment should also be investigated.
Motion Deblurring from a Single Image using Circular Sensor Motion

Image blur caused by object motion attenuates high frequency content of images, making post‐capture deblurring an ill‐posed problem. The recoverable frequency band quickly becomes narrower for faster object motion as high frequencies are severely attenuated and virtually lost. This paper proposes to translate a camera sensor circularly about the optical axis during exposure, so that high frequencies can be preserved for a wide range of in‐plane linear object motion in any direction within some predetermined speed. That is, although no object may be photographed sharply at capture time, differently moving objects captured in a single image can be deconvolved with similar quality. In addition, circular sensor motion is shown to facilitate blur estimation thanks to distinct frequency zero patterns of the resulting motion blur point‐spread functions. An analysis of the frequency characteristics of circular sensor motion in relation to linear object motion is presented, along with deconvolution results for photographs captured with a prototype camera.
Connected Choice and the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem

We study the computational content of the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem in the Weihrauch lattice. Connected choice is the operation that finds a point in a non-empty connected closed set given by negative information. One of our main results is that for any fixed dimension the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem of that dimension is computably equivalent to connected choice of the Euclidean unit cube of the same dimension. Another main result is that connected choice is complete for dimension greater than or equal to two in the sense that it is computably equivalent to Weak Kőnig’s Lemma. While we can present two independent proofs for dimension three and upward that are either based on a simple geometric construction or a combinatorial argument, the proof for dimension two is based on a more involved inverse limit construction. The connected choice operation in dimension one is known to be equivalent to the Intermediate Value Theorem; we prove that this problem is not idempotent in contrast to the case of dimension two and upward. We also prove that Lipschitz continuity with Lipschitz constants strictly larger than one does not simplify finding fixed points. Finally, we prove that finding a connectedness component of a closed subset of the Euclidean unit cube of any dimension greater than or equal to one is equivalent to Weak Kőnig’s Lemma. In order to describe these results, we introduce a representation of closed subsets of the unit cube by trees of rational complexes.
The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Msh2 and Msh6 proteins form a complex that specifically binds to duplex oligonucleotides containing mismatched DNA base pairs

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes six proteins, Msh1p to Msh6p, that show strong amino acid sequence similarity to MutS, a central component of the bacterial mutHLS mismatch repair system. Recent studies with humans and S. cerevisiae suggest that in eukaryotes, specific MutS homolog complexes that display unique DNA mismatch specificities exist. In this study, the S. cerevisiae 109-kDa Msh2 and 140-kDa Msh6 proteins were cooverexpressed in S. cerevisiae and shown to interact in an immunoprecipitation assay and by conventional chromatography. Deletion analysis of MSH2 indicated that the carboxy-terminal 114 amino acids of Msh2p are important for Msh6p interaction. Purified Msh2p-Msh6p selectively bound to duplex oligonucleotide substrates containing a G/T mismatch and a +1 insertion mismatch but did not show specific binding to +2 and +4 insertion mismatches. The mismatch binding specificity of the Msh2p-Msh6p complex, as measured by on-rate and off-rate binding studies, was abolished by ATP. Interestingly, palindromic substrates that are poorly repaired in vivo were specifically recognized by Msh2p-Msh6p; however, the binding of Msh2p-Msh6p to these substrates was not modulated by ATP. Taken together, these studies suggest that the repair of a base pair mismatch by the Msh2p-Msh6p complex is dependent on the ability of the Msh2p-Msh6p-DNA mismatch complex to use ATP hydrolysis to activate downstream events in mismatch repair.
Initial Experience of Platelet Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Inhibition With Abciximab During Carotid Stenting: A Safe and Effective Adjunctive Therapy

Background and Purpose— Abciximab has been shown to decrease periprocedural ischemic complications after coronary intervention. However, the adjunctive use of abciximab in carotid stenting has not been adequately studied. We sought to determine the efficacy and safety of abciximab in carotid stenting. Methods— Carotid stenting was performed in 151 consecutive patients determined to be at high surgical risk by a vascular surgeon. Of these, 128 consecutive patients received adjuvant therapy with abciximab (0.25 mg/kg bolus before the lesion was crossed with guidewire and 0.125 &mgr;g · kg−1 · min−1 infusion for 12 hours.). A heparin bolus of 50 U/kg was given, and activated clotting time was maintained between 250 to 300 seconds. All patients received aspirin and thienopyridine. Procedural and 30-day outcomes were compared between the control (n=23) and abciximab (n=128) groups. Results— The 2 groups had similar baseline characteristics. Procedural events were more frequent in the control group (8%; 1 major stroke and 1 neurological death) compared with the abciximab group (1.6%; 1 minor stroke and 1 retinal infarction;P =0.05). On 30-day follow-up, 1 patient presented with delayed intracranial hemorrhage in the abciximab group. There were no other major bleeding complications. Conclusions— Adjunctive use of abciximab for carotid stenting is safe with no increase in the risk of intracranial hemorrhage. This adjunctive therapy with potent glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibition may help to reduce periprocedural adverse events in patients undergoing carotid stenting.