Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Saccade Target Selection in the Superior Colliculus: A Signal Detection Theory Approach

How the brain selects one action from among multiple options is unknown. A main tenet of signal detection theory (SDT) is that sensory stimuli are represented as noisy information channels. Therefore, the accuracy of selection might be predicted by how well neuronal activity representing alternatives can be distinguished. Here, we apply an SDT framework to a motor system by recording from superior colliculus (SC) neurons during performance of a color, oddball selection task. We recorded from sets of four neurons simultaneously, each of the four representing one of the four possible targets. Because the electrode placement constrained the position of the stimuli in the visual field, the stimulus arrangement varied across experiments. This variability in stimulus arrangement led to variability in choices allowing us to explore the relationship between SC neuronal activity and performance accuracy. SC target neurons had higher levels of discharge than SC distractor neurons in subsets of trials when selection performance was very accurate. In subsets of trials when performance was poor, the discharge level decreased in target neurons and increased in distractor neurons. Accurate performance was associated with larger separations between neuronal activity from targets and distractors as quantified by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area and d′ (an index of discriminability). Poorer performance was associated with less separation of target and distractor neuronal activity. ROC area and d′ scaled approximately linearly with performance accuracy. Furthermore, ROC area and d′ increased as saccade onset approached. Together, the results indicate that SC buildup neuronal activity signals the saccadic eye movement decision.
The relationship between genes affecting the development of epilepsy and approaches to epilepsy therapy

The epilepsies are a clinically heterogeneous group of common brain diseases which are refractory to pharmacotherapy in up to one-third of patients. The discovery of DNA variants that cause or predispose to epilepsy has the potential to lead to new treatments that are based on the protein products or functional pathways of implicated genes. Overlap of gene classes involved in several broad phenotypic categories of epilepsy provides a means to prioritize various genetic leads for therapy development. In cases of epilepsy that are influenced strongly by single genetic defects, treatments may be personalized based upon the structural nature of the DNA alteration rather than on the function of the defective gene(s) or pathway(s). However, since most cases of epilepsy may be polygenic, the extent to which this approach may be widely applicable is unclear, thus creating a need for development of new target-based medications as well as further refinement of currently effective therapies.
A Multicriteria Decision Making Approach for Estimating the Number of Clusters in a Data Set

Determining the number of clusters in a data set is an essential yet difficult step in cluster analysis. Since this task involves more than one criterion, it can be modeled as a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. This paper proposes a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM)-based approach to estimate the number of clusters for a given data set. In this approach, MCDM methods consider different numbers of clusters as alternatives and the outputs of any clustering algorithm on validity measures as criteria. The proposed method is examined by an experimental study using three MCDM methods, the well-known clustering algorithm–k-means, ten relative measures, and fifteen public-domain UCI machine learning data sets. The results show that MCDM methods work fairly well in estimating the number of clusters in the data and outperform the ten relative measures considered in the study.
Factors Associated With K-12 Teachers' Use of Environment-Based Education

The term environment-based education describes a form of school-based environmental education in which an instructor uses the local environment as a context for integrating subjects and a source of real world learning experiences. Despite the growing body of evidence that supports the educational efficacy of this instructional approach and its foundation of high-quality environmental education, relatively few teachers seem to practice environment-based education (University of Maryland Survey Research Center, 2000). In the context of encouraging more widespread adoption of this formal instructional approach, the author used exploratory survey research with a convenience sample of 287 teachers to investigate influences on teachers' decisions to use and their abilities to implement environment-based education. The author used analysis of variance and discriminant function analyses, and results suggest that environmental literacy knowledge and skills and environmental sensitivity are important in teachers' decisions to use and their abilities to implement environment-based education.
The role of extracellular polymers on Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm biomass and metabolic activity

Staphylococcus epidermidis is now well established as a major nosocomial pathogen, associated with indwelling medical devices. Its major virulence factor is related with the ability to adhere to indwelling medical devices and form biofilms. In this study, the biofilm matrix of four S. epidermidis clinical isolates was extracted and the polysaccharides and proteins content was quantified. The results were correlated with the total biofilm biomass (determined by crystal violet assay) and cellular metabolic activity (evaluated with XTT reduction assay). According to the results, the exopolymers studied play an important role not only on structure and biofilm biomass but also on cellular activity. Thus, the strain forming biofilms with the highest level of polysaccharides (S. epidermidis 1457) also formed thicker biofilms but with the lowest metabolic activity. The protein concentration also varied among strains, with the biofilm matrix of S. epidermidis 9142 presenting a higher concentration of proteins comparing to the remaining strains. This fact indicates the different levels of importance that matrix proteins can hold on biofilm composition among strains albeit overall, it is suggested that extracellular protein production it is not a determinative factor for biofilm total biomass. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Differences in leadership styles and behaviour across hierarchical levels in UK organisations

Several studies have examined the leadership styles and behaviour of managers across hierarchical levels to see whether or not the styles and behaviour are similar. The present study collected data from over 400 managers in the UK to research the topic. It found that generally there are significant differences in the leadership styles between senior and first‐level managers, but not between senior and middle‐level managers or between middle and first‐level managers. The study suggests that differences in the leadership styles practised by managers may be blurred in organisations with short chains of command, while it will tend to be pronounced in organisations with long chains of command, other things being equal. Overall, while there was a weak but statistically significant difference between the leadership styles of senior and first‐level managers, the differences in their leadership behaviour was statistically strong. The implications of these results are explored.
The linear model of innovation: Maurice Holland and the research cycle

In 1928, Maurice Holland, Director of the Engineering and Industrial Research Division at the US National Research Council, produced a paper on what he called the ‘research cycle’. He portrayed the development of modern industries as a series of sequential steps from basic research to commercialization of technological inventions. The present article documents the source or context of the research cycle, the arguments on which it relies, and the use to which it was put, namely persuading more industrialists to build research laboratories in order to accelerate the development of industry. It suggests that Holland turned a frequently heard but poorly formalized argument into a ‘theory’, paving the way for what came to be called ‘the linear model of innovation’.
Effects of infusion rate of intravenously administered morphine on physiological, psychomotor, and self-reported measures in humans.

Although the rate of onset of a drug effect is commonly believed to contribute to a drug's abuse liability, only a few systematic experimental studies have been conducted examining this notion. The present study determined the profile of physiological, psychomotor, and self-reported effects of infusion rate (a key means of manipulating onset of drug action) of intravenously administered morphine, the prototypical analgesic with a known abuse liability in human participants. Two doses of morphine sulfate (5 and 10 mg/70 kg, i.v.) and a placebo dose (0 mg/70 kg, i.v.) were administered to healthy volunteers under three infusion rates (2 min bolus, 15 min, and 60 min). Faster infusions of morphine produced greater positive subjective effects than slower infusions on visual analog scale measures of good drug effect, drug liking, and high. Faster infusions also resulted in greater self-reported drug effects and opioid agonist effects, without producing significant physiological or psychomotor impairment. Importantly, faster rates of drug infusion produced significantly higher morphine plasma levels than slower rates, and morphine plasma levels followed a similar pattern and timing of peak effect as the self-reported effects of the drug. Moreover, morphine produced dose-dependent increases in self-reported drug effects, opioid agonist effects, and morphine plasma levels in the study. Results suggest that the pharmacokinetic properties of a drug, including the dosage administered and the rate of at which it is administered may function to jointly affect the abuse liability of the drug.
Personal Reasons for Withdrawal from Team Sports and the Influence of Significant others among Youth Athletes

The aim of this study was to identify the main reasons for withdrawal from team sports and to examine the influence of significant others (i.e., coaches, parents, peers, and siblings) in the decision making concerning withdrawal from youth sports. An attempt was also made to compare withdrawal components and the influence of significant others in terms of gender, level of competition and years of involvement in youth sports. The participants in this study were young football (American soccer) (n=397), ice hockey (n=88) and basketball (n=50) players who had terminated their participation in their sports. Principal component analysis was used to reduce the number of withdrawal items and identify principal withdrawal components. The results indicated that having other things to do and a decline in excitement were the most important reasons for withdrawal. Coaches and teammates appeared to be the two main groups of significant others who influenced young player's decision making related to their withdrawal. Statistically significant differences in withdrawal components related to ability and social issues were found between gender and years of involvement. The present findings highlight the factors that are related to the incidence of withdrawal, and at the same time, underline the role of significant others within the contexts of sport participation. Recommendations and practical implications for coaches and policy makers to reduce the withdrawal rate among young athletes are provided.
Incorporation of Peptides Targeting EGFR and FGFR1 into the Adenoviral Fiber Knob Domain and Their Evaluation as Targeted Cancer Therapies

Abstract Oncolytic virotherapies based on adenovirus 5 (Ad5) hold promise as adjunctive cancer therapies; however, their efficacy when delivered systemically is hampered by poor target cell specificity and preexisting anti-Ad5 immunity. Ovarian cancer represents a promising target for virotherapy, since the virus can be delivered locally into the peritoneal cavity. Both epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) are overexpressed in the majority of human tumors, including ovarian cancer. To generate adenoviral vectors with improved tumor specificity, we generated a panel of Ad5 vectors with altered tropism for EGFR and FGFR, rather than the natural Ad5 receptor, hCAR. We have included mutations within AB loop of the viral fiber knob (KO1 mutation) to preclude interaction with hCAR, combined with insertions in the HI loop to incorporate peptides that bind either EGFR (peptide YHWYGYTPQNVI, GE11) or FGFR1 (peptides MQLPLAT, M*, and LSPPRYP, LS). Viruses were produced to high titers, and the integrity of the fiber protein was validated by Western blotting. The KO1 mutation efficiently ablated hCAR interactions, and significantly increased transduction was observed in hCARlow/EGFRhigh cell lines using Ad5.GE11, while transduction levels using Ad5.M* or Ad5.LS were not increased. In the presence of physiological concentrations of human blood clotting factor X (hFX), significantly increased levels of transduction via the hFX-mediated pathway were observed in cell lines, but not in primary tumor cells derived from epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) ascites samples. Ad5-mediated transduction of EOC cells was completely abolished by the presence of 2.5% serum from patients, while, surprisingly, incorporation of the GE11 peptide resulted in significant evasion of neutralization in the same samples. We thus speculate that incorporation of the YHWYGYTPQNVI dodecapeptide within the fiber knob domain may provide a novel means of circumventing preexisting Ad5 immunity that warrants further investigation.
Communication and conflict in young Mexican students: Messages and attitudes

This study involved a population of young Mexican students (N = 526, ages nine to seventeen). It used U.S. instruments to evaluate these students' attitudes about conflict, communication skills, conflict styles, and conflict management message styles in a Hispanic school environment in order to explore the degree of applicability of these instruments to young Spanish-speaking students and to analyze the relations between these constructs. A model in which attitudes about conflict and communication skills predict the conflict management messages was shown to be signi.cant after the corresponding structural analysis.
Estimating High-Dimensional Directed Acyclic Graphs with the PC-Algorithm

We consider the PC-algorithm (Spirtes et al., 2000) for estimating the skeleton and equivalence class of a very high-dimensional directed acyclic graph (DAG) with corresponding Gaussian distribution. The PC-algorithm is computationally feasible and often very fast for sparse problems with many nodes (variables), and it has the attractive property to automatically achieve high computational efficiency as a function of sparseness of the true underlying DAG. We prove uniform consistency of the algorithm for very high-dimensional, sparse DAGs where the number of nodes is allowed to quickly grow with sample size n, as fast as O(na) for any 0 < a < ∞. The sparseness assumption is rather minimal requiring only that the neighborhoods in the DAG are of lower order than sample size n. We also demonstrate the PC-algorithm for simulated data.
The Tell-Tale Hand

Abstract. The second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), an inconspicuous, but sexually differentiated anatomical trait (men present lower 2D:4D than women), has received intense research interest recently. Fairly strong evidence points to 2D:4D as a biomarker for the organizational (permanent) effects of prenatal testosterone on the brain and behavior. 2D:4D has been shown to be a correlate of a wealth of sex-dependent, hormonally influenced traits and phenotypes, which reach into the domains of behavior, fertility, health, physique, sexuality, and sports and also deeply into differential psychology (ability, cognition, and personality). This study investigated whether individual differences in 2D:4D are related to individual differences in attractiveness, sex typicality, and other attributes ascribed to palm images by raters. For both sexes, more sex-atypical trait expressions (i.e., higher 2D:4D in male, but lower 2D:4D in female palm specimens) were related to higher aggregate ratings of attractiveness, he.
Underlying cause of death in Danish patients with multiple sclerosis: results from the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry

OBJECTIVES To determine the underlying causes of death in a large population based register series of patients with multiple sclerosis. METHODS The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry, which contains virtually all diagnosed cases of multiple sclerosis in Denmark who were alive in 1949 plus cases with onset of multiple sclerosis in the period 1949–93, who have been diagnosed and notified by 1 January 1994, was linked with the Danish Registry of Causes of Death, in which ICD codes for causes of death from the death certificate are stored for all Danish citizens. RESULTS 6068 register cases of multiple sclerosis, who had died in the period 1951–93, were included. Multiple sclerosis was noted on the death certificate as the underlying cause of death in 55.4%; cardiac or vascular diseases in 17.6%; cancers in 8.6%; respiratory or infectious diseases in 5.1%; other natural causes in 9.5%; accident or suicide in 3.8%. The distribution varied with age at death. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were computed on the basis of the 8142 incident cases, who had onset of multiple sclerosis within the period 1951–93; the SMRs for causes of death other than multiple sclerosis were highest for infectious or pulmonary diseases: 2.46 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 2.04–2.94); suicide: 1.62 (95% CI 1.29–2.01); cardiac or vascular diseases: 1.34 (95% CI 1.22–1.48); accidents 1.34 (95% CI 1.02–1.71); and significantly lower than unity for cancers: 0.79 (95% CI 0.70–0.90), lower for men than for women. CONCLUSIONS More than half of the patients with multiple sclerosis die from multiple sclerosis or complications of the disease. Among other causes, patients with multiple sclerosis have an increased risk of dying from heart or vascular diseases but a reduced risk of dying from cancer. An increased risk of death from suicide and accidents can be indirectly attributed to multiple sclerosis. The diminished risk of dying from cancer may be a result of incomplete ascertainment of cancers in disabled patients with multiple sclerosis.
‘Save our Solsbury!’: The anatomy of an anti‐roads protest

Anti‐Road protest in the United Kingdom mushroomed in the mid‐1990s, with high profile campaigns at Twyford Down (1992), Oxleas Wood and Wanstead, London (1993–94) Bath (1994), Blackburn (1994–95), Glasgow Pollock (1994–95), and Newbury (1996). A detailed excavation of one such protest at Solsbury Hill, Bath shows the mobilising factors behind such protests are more than the road itself: but discourses of ecology, community defence and risk. Analysis of the protest and of these agendas using social movement theory shows the anti‐roads movement to be a negotiation ‐sometimes involving confrontation ‐ between activists whose primary focus is on forcing policy‐makers to stop the building of this particular road and more generally to change their pro‐road agenda; and those engaged in a more explicitly countercultural protest against wider ‘car culture’. The strategy of the former is best conceptualised under the Resource Mobilisation approach, while that of the latter fits more explicitly with the New Social .
Leadership Propensity and Sales Performance among Sales Personnel and Managers in a Specialty Retail Store Setting

We propose that specialty store managers, as well as outside sales personnel attached to the store, have selling responsibilities. In addition, we propose that sales personnel, as well as store managers, should have a propensity for leadership, which reflects an individual’s enduring disposition to exhibit leadership within the context of his or her organizational roles. In two studies, we develop a new individual difference measure of propensity to lead and investigate its nomological validity within a specialty retail store environment. As predicted, leadership propensity was predictive of self-rated sales performance and a proclivity to identify prospects through cold calls to close sales, to reveal customer orientation, and to exhibit organizational citizenship behavior. We found that propensity to lead did not differ between salespeople and retail store managers, but we found that the respondent’s role moderated the relationship between propensity to lead and supervisor performance ratings. Study limitations and managerial implications of this heretofore unidentified trait of salespeople are discussed.
Preparation Meeting Opportunity: How Do College Students Prepare for Public Speeches?

Nearly half a million students prepare classroom speeches each year, but little is known about overall preparation time and the relative proportions of time used for each speech preparation activity. Further, we do not know the specific speech preparation activities that result in higher speech grades. Public speaking students completed journal entries over the course of a semester detailing their speech preparation process. Multiple regression revealed the relationship of time spent in five writing activities and overall speech grade averages. Overall preparation time correlated significantly with higher speech grades; in addition, students who spent more time in delivery and practice earned higher speech grades.
Les migrations des jeunes Sahéliens : affirmation de soi et émancipation

Dans les migrations Sud-Nord, les jeunes hommes occupent une place pre-ponderante. Leur irruption dans l'espace public depasse largement le cadre des pays du Sud et deborde dans les espaces des pays du Nord. Une des manifestations patentes de cette presence reside aussi dans leur mobilite qui traduit notamment une demarche conquerante de nouveaux mondes. Desir ardent et presque obses-sionnel de mobilite auquel des cours tragiques mettent parfois fin de maniere bru-tale, a l'instar du « demi-suicide » des deux jeunes garcons guineens morts de froid dans le train d'atterrissage de l'avion qui devait les « arracher » a leur pays pour les conduire vers l'Europe. Comment qualifier un tel acte dont les auteurs ont cher-che a expliquer le sens dans un pamphlet testamentaire en meme temps que sorte de manifeste de la jeunesse du continent ? Aujourd'hui, la propension migratoire semble presente chez tous les jeunes du continent et concerne meme des categories encore dans l'adolescence. Dans cer-tains pays du Sahel (Mali, Mauritanie, Senegal), massivement la jeunesse des villes vient rejoindre celle de contrees rurales au passe migratoire plus ancien dans un projet commun : partir au Nord. Jamais projet n'a rencontre autant de suffrages au sein d'une jeunesse tant urbaine que rurale et nourri autant de reves, de fan-tasmes et d'imaginaires. Bien que plus ou moins soutenus dans cette initiative par leurs familles et les parents deja partis, la demarche d'emigrer n'en est pas moins discrete, parfois solitaire et secrete. Partir pour « fuir la misere » et l'injustice, decouvrir le monde, echapper a un univers etrique, faire fortune, se former…, les mobiles qui guident les acteurs sont divers et multiples. Pourtant, il est difficile de dire que le migrant est l'affame confronte au dilemme existentiel : partir ou mourir. Au demeurant, ceux qui sont soumis a une telle alternative ne partent generalement pas, faute de pouvoir le faire, et perissent sur place a moins qu'une operation humanitaire ne les sauve in extremis. Quelle souffrance, sans doute aussi forte que la faim, anime donc ces jeunes qui prennent la voie de l'exil au prix parfois de leur vie avec comme credo : reussir ou y rester ? Car on est loin souvent des situations de misere extreme. Prise en charge