Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring Neural Synchrony by Message Passing

A novel approach to measure the interdependence of two time series is proposed, referred to as "stochastic event synchrony" (SES); it quantifies the alignment of two point processes by means of the following parameters: time delay, variance of the timing jitter, fraction of "spurious" events, and average similarity of events. SES may be applied to generic one-dimensional and multi-dimensional point processes, however, the paper mainly focusses on point processes in time-frequency domain. The average event similarity is in that case described by two parameters: the average frequency offset between events in the time-frequency plane, and the variance of the frequency offset ("frequency jitter"); SES then consists of five parameters in total. Those parameters quantify the synchrony of oscillatory events, and hence, they provide an alternative to existing synchrony measures that quantify amplitude or phase synchrony. The pairwise alignment of point processes is cast as a statistical inference problem, which is solved by applying the max-product algorithm on a graphical model. The SES parameters are determined from the resulting pairwise alignment by maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation. The proposed interdependence measure is applied to the problem of detecting anomalies in EEG synchrony of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients; the results indicate that SES significantly improves the sensitivity of EEG in detecting MCI.
Multiple wavelength retrieval of tropospheric aerosol optical properties from MAXDOAS measurements in Beijing

Abstract. We report on the retrieval of aerosol extinction profiles at four wavelengths from ground-based multi-axis differential absorption spectroscopy (MAXDOAS) measurements performed in Beijing, China. Measurements were made over a 10-month time period (June 2008 to April 2009) using a newly developed MAXDOAS instrument. A retrieval algorithm, based on an on-line implementation of the radiative transfer code LIDORT and the optimal estimation technique, has been designed to provide near real time information on aerosol extinction vertical profiles. The algorithm was applied to O4 measurements at four wavelengths (360, 477, 577, and 630 nm). The total aerosol optical depths (AODs) calculated from the retrieved profiles exhibit higher values in spring and summer and lower values in autumn and winter. Comparison of the retrieved total AODs with values from a co-located CIMEL sunphotometer revealed a good correlation. The best results are obtained for the UV region with a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.91 and a slope of the linear regression fit of 1.1. At the longest wavelength, R drops down to 0.67 and the slope increases to 1.5. The results confirm that good quality O4 slant column measurements are essential for the success of the retrievals. A method is presented to determine a correction factor to account for systematic errors. It is demonstrated that the algorithm is capable of reliably retrieving aerosol extinction profiles for a wide range of atmospheric conditions (total AODs at 360 nm ranging from about 0.1 to 3). The results open up new perspectives for the extension of the algorithm for the near real time retrieval of trace gas vertical profiles.
The Modular Nature of Histone Deacetylase HDAC4 Confers Phosphorylation-dependent Intracellular Trafficking*

In C2C12 myoblasts, endogenous histone deacetylase HDAC4 shuttles between cytoplasmic and nuclear compartments, supporting the hypothesis that its subcellular localization is dynamically regulated. However, upon differentiation, this dynamic equilibrium is disturbed and we find that HDAC4 accumulates in the nuclei of myotubes, suggesting a positive role of nuclear HDAC4 in muscle differentiation. Consistent with the notion of regulation of HDAC4 intracellular trafficking, we reveal that HDAC4 contains a modular structure consisting of a C-terminal autonomous nuclear export domain, which, in conjunction with an internal regulatory domain responsive to calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV (CaMKIV), determines its subcellular localization. CaMKIV phosphorylates HDAC4in vitro and promotes its nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttlingin vivo. However, although 14-3-3 binding of HDAC4 has been proposed to be important for its cytoplasmic retention, we find this interaction to be independent of CaMKIV. Rather, the HDAC4·14-3-3 complex exists in the nucleus and is required to confer CaMKIV responsiveness. Our results suggest that the subcellular localization of HDAC4 is regulated by sequential phosphorylation events. The first event is catalyzed by a yet to be identified protein kinase that promotes 14-3-3 binding, and the second event, involving protein kinases such as CaMKIV, leads to efficient nuclear export of the HDAC4·14-3-3 complex.
Development of Guided Inquiry-Based Digestive System Teaching Materials to Improve Critical Thinking and Scientific Attitudes

Difficulty in understanding the material and the decline in student learning outcomes can be managed by developing teaching materials tailored to the needs of students. This study aims to develop guided inquiry-based digestive system teaching materials as a source of student learning to improve student's critical thinking and scientific attitude. The method used in this research is the Research and Development (R&D) with the steps used are: 1) Identify potential and problems; 2) collecting data; 3) product design; 4) design validation; 5) main product revision design; 6) small-scale trial; 7) second product revision; 8) wide-scale test; 9) product revision; 10) final product. Class Students research subjects XI MIPA 4 and XI MIPA 5 SMAN 5 Cirebon with 60 students as subject. The results showed: (1) guided inquiry-based teaching material products developed based on the guided inquiry syntax; (2) the validity of teaching materials based on the validation scores of material and media experts, respectively 95% and 96.25% with very valid criteria; (3) guided inquiry-based teaching materials based on results of the analysis of the description test and the analysis of the scientific attitude assessment question, it shows that teaching material effectively improve the learning outcomes of student’s critical thinking and scientific attitude. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that the digestive system teaching materials developed have characteristics based on the guided inquiry syntax, including: formulate the problem, make a hypothesis, planning an experiment, collecting data and conclusion, very valid and effective teaching materials improve critical thinking and scientific attitude of students.
The effects of familiarity and social hierarchy on group membership decisions in a social fish

Members of animal groups face a trade-off between the benefits of remaining with a familiar group and the potential benefits of dispersing into a new group. Here, we examined the group membership decisions of Neolamprologus pulcher, a group-living cichlid. We found that subordinate helpers showed a preference for joining familiar groups, but when choosing between two unfamiliar groups, helpers did not preferentially join groups that maximized their social rank. Rather, helpers preferred groups containing larger, more dominant individuals, despite receiving significantly more aggression within these groups, possibly owing to increased protection from predation in such groups. These results suggest a complex decision process in N. pulcher when choosing among groups, dependent not only on familiarity but also on the social and life-history consequences of joining new groups.
Using high-level information to detect key audio events in a tennis game

This paper describes how the detection of key audio events in a sports game (tennis) can be enhanced by the use of high-level information. High-level features are able to provide useful constraints on the detection procedure, and thus to improve detection performance. We define two types of event based information: event dependency and inter-event timing. These respectively characterize the identity of the next event and the time at which the next event will occur. Probabilistic models of high-level constraints are developed, and then integrated into our event detection framework. We test this approach on audio tracks extracted from two different tennis games. The results show that significant improvements in both accuracy and computational efficiency are obtained when applying high-level information.
Harmonin (Ush1c) is required in zebrafish Müller glial cells for photoreceptor synaptic development and function

SUMMARY Usher syndrome is the most prevalent cause of hereditary deaf-blindness, characterized by congenital sensorineural hearing impairment and progressive photoreceptor degeneration beginning in childhood or adolescence. Diagnosis and management of this disease are complex, and the molecular changes underlying sensory cell impairment remain poorly understood. Here we characterize two zebrafish models for a severe form of Usher syndrome, Usher syndrome type 1C (USH1C): one model is a mutant with a newly identified ush1c nonsense mutation, and the other is a morpholino knockdown of ush1c. Both have defects in hearing, balance and visual function from the first week of life. Histological analyses reveal specific defects in sensory cell structure that are consistent with these behavioral phenotypes and could implicate Müller glia in the retinal pathology of Usher syndrome. This study shows that visual defects associated with loss of ush1c function in zebrafish can be detected from the onset of vision, and thus could be applicable to early diagnosis for USH1C patients.
Intra-observer and inter-observer reliability and reproducibility of slit-lamp-adapted optical coherence tomography for evaluation of anterior chamber depth and central corneal thickness.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE To evaluate the intra-observer and inter-observer reproducibility of anterior chamber depth (ACD) and central corneal thickness (CCT) measurements taken by slit-lamp-adapted optical coherence tomography (SL-OCT) and to evaluate concordance of CCT and ACD values obtained by SL-OCT with gold standard devices. PATIENTS AND METHODS Three images of each eye were taken by two different operators using SL-OCT. ACD and CCT values obtained by each operator were determined and compared to one another and to ultrasonic pachymetry (CCT) and axial OCT biometry (ACD) values obtained by a third, masked operator. Intra-observer and inter-operator reproducibility was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). RESULTS Forty-one eyes of healthy subjects were enrolled. Mean CCT was 0.556 +/- 0.020, 0.557 +/- 0.019, and 0.532 +/- 0.032 and mean ACD was 3.12 +/- 0.36, 3.13 +/- 0.38, and 3.50 +/- 0.44 for operators 1, 2, and 3, respectively (P < .001, for both CCT and ACD). Intra-operator reproducibility for CCT (ICC of 0.948 to 0.995) and ACD (ICC of 0.972 to 0.987) was excellent. CONCLUSION SL-OCT provides highly reproducible measures for both CCT and ACD. SL-OCT yields higher values for CCT compared to ultrasonic pachymetry and lower values for ACD compared to axial OCT biometry. Caution should be taken when extrapolating these data into clinical practice until the differences between SL-OCT, axial OCT biometry, and ultrasonic pachymetry can be further elucidated.
High-pressure synthetic (Na0.97Mg0.03)(Mg0.43Fe0.17 3+Si0.40)Si2O6, with six-coordinated silicon, isostructural with P2/n omphacite

The title compound, (sodium magnesium) [magnesium iron(III) silicon] disilicate, (Na0.97Mg0.03)(Mg0.43Fe0.17 3+Si0.40)Si2O6, is isotypic with ordered P2/n omphacite. Its structure is characterized by single chains of corner-sharing SiO4 tetrahedra, extending along the c axis, which are crosslinked by bands of edge-sharing octahedra (site symmetry 2), statistically occupied by (Mg2+ + Fe3+ + Si4+). Between the bands built up of the octahedra are two non-equivalent highly distorted six-coordinated sites (site symmetry 2), statistically occupied by (Na + Mg). In contrast to omphacites, the great differences in size and charge between Mg2+ and Si4+ result in complete, rather than partial, ordering of Mg and Si into two distinct octahedral sites, whereas Fe3+ is disordered between the two sites. The octahedron filled by (Mg + Fe) is larger and markedly more distorted than that occupied by (Si + Fe). The average (Mg + Fe)—O and (VISi + Fe)—O bond lengths are 2.075 and 1.850 Å, respectively.
Bandwidth Estimation Based on MACD for DASH

Nowadays, Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) has become very popular in streaming multimedia contents. In order to offer better user experience and cope with dynamically varying network conditions, a big challenge is to estimate precisely next segment bandwidth, which is a significant premise in determining next multimedia bitrate, especially when multiple clients share the same bottleneck link. In this paper, we address an innovative mechanism to estimate the bandwidth based on MACD indicator and its two thresholds. Then, with the estimated bandwidth, we use GA to determine the next multimedia bitrate. Our simulation demonstrates that our proposed approach outperforms other existing schemes.
Antenatal care / prevention of mother to child HIV transmission and voluntary HIV counseling and testing records review

In Uganda, previous studies have shown a tremendous decline in HIV prevalence over the past two decades due to changes in sexual behavior with a greater awareness of the risks involved. However, studies in Fort-Portal municipality, a rural town in Western Uganda, continued to show a persistent high HIV prevalence despite the various interventions in place. We conducted a study to establish the current magnitude of HIV prevalence and the factors associated with HIV prevalence in this community. This cross-sectional study was conducted between July and November 2008. Participants were residents of Fort-Portal municipality aged 15-49 years. A populationbased HIV sero-survey and a clinical review of prevention of mother to child HIV transmission (PMTCT) and voluntary counseling and HIV Testing (VCT) records were used to collect quantitative data. An inteviewer administered structured questionnaire was used to collect qualitative data on social deographics, risk behaviour and community perceptions. Focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews provided supplementary data on community perceptions. Logistic regression was used in the analysis. The overall HIV prevalence in the general population was 16.1% [95% CI; 12.5-20.6]. Prevalence was lower among women (14.5%; 95% CI; 10.0-19.7) but not significantly different from that among men (18.7%; 95% CI; 12.5-26.3) (c=0.76, P=0.38). Having more than 2 sexual partners increased the odds of HIV by almost 2.5 times. None or low education and age over 35 years were independently associated with HIV prevalence (P<0.05). Most participants attributed the high HIV prevalence to promiscuity/multiple sexual partners (32.5%), followed by prostitution (13.6%), alcoholism (10.1%), carelessness (10.1%), poverty (9.7%), ignorance (9.5%)), rape (4.7%), drug abuse (3.6%) and others (malice/malevolence, laziness, etc.) (6.2%). Although there was a slight decline compared to previous reports, the results from this study confirm that HIV prevalence is still high in this community. In order to prevent new infections, the factors mentioned above need to be addressed, and we recommend that education aimed at changing individual behavior should be intensified in this community.
Spatiotopic coding and remapping in humans

How our perceptual experience of the world remains stable and continuous in the face of continuous rapid eye movements still remains a mystery. This review discusses some recent progress towards understanding the neural and psychophysical processes that accompany these eye movements. We firstly report recent evidence from imaging studies in humans showing that many brain regions are tuned in spatiotopic coordinates, but only for items that are actively attended. We then describe a series of experiments measuring the spatial and temporal phenomena that occur around the time of saccades, and discuss how these could be related to visual stability. Finally, we introduce the concept of the spatio-temporal receptive field to describe the local spatiotopicity exhibited by many neurons when the eyes move.
Efficacy of targeted chemoradiation and planned selective neck dissection to control bulky nodal disease in advanced head and neck cancer.

PURPOSE To determine the efficacy of targeted chemoradiation with the radiation plus platinum (RADPLAT) protocol and planned selective neck dissection in patients with N2 to N3 nodal disease associated with upper aerodigestive tract carcinoma. METHODS Analysis of 52 patients with N2a, N2b, or N3 disease involving 60 heminecks treated with intraarterial cisplatin, 150 mg/m2, and intravenous sodium thiosulfate, 9 g/m2, on days 1, 8, 15, and 22; radiation therapy, 180 to 200 cGy per fraction for 35 fractions (total dose, 68-74 Gy); and planned neck dissection (33 of 35 procedures were selective). RESULTS Of the 56 evaluable heminecks, a clinical complete response was achieved in 33 (59%). Within this group, 16 neck dissections were performed, none of which yielded disease on pathological examination. A clinical partial response was obtained in 21 heminecks, of which 18 subsequently had a neck dissection, yielding disease on pathological examination in 14. In all cases, it was possible to completely excise all adenopathy with clear margins on pathological examination. The rate of regional disease control among the 56 evaluable heminecks was 91% (51/56) (median follow-up, 36 months). Four failures were associated with uncontrolled disease at other sites, and 1 was an isolated neck recurrence. CONCLUSION Selective neck dissection appears to be an effective adjunct to targeted chemoradiation in controlling N2 to N3 neck disease.
Recalling Routes around London: Activation of the Right Hippocampus in Taxi Drivers

Functional imaging to date has examined the neural basis of knowledge of spatial layouts of large-scale environments typically in the context of episodic memory with specific spatiotemporal references. Much human behavior, however, takes place in very familiar environments in which knowledge of spatial layouts has entered the domain of general facts often referred to as semantic memory. In this study, positron emission tomography (PET) was used to examine the neural substrates of topographical memory retrieval in licensed London taxi drivers of many years experience while they recalled complex routes around the city. Compared with baseline and other nontopographical memory tasks, this resulted in activation of a network of brain regions, including the right hippocampus. Recall of famous landmarks for which subjects had no knowledge of their location within a spatial framework activated similar regions, except for the right hippocampus. This suggests that the hippocampus is involved in the processing of spatial layouts established over long time courses. The involvement of similar brain areas in routes and landmarks memory indicates that the topographical memory system may be primed to respond to any relevant topographical stimulation; however, the right hippocampus is recruited specifically for navigation in large-scale spatial environments. In contrast, nontopographical semantic memory retrieval involved the left inferior frontal gyrus, with no change in activity in medial temporal regions.
Exact evaluation of BER for arbitrary modulation and signaling in AWGN channel

Exact evaluation of the bit- and symbol error rates in two dimensional constellation is a fundamental problem of digital communications which has closed-form solutions for particular modulations and/or bits-to-symbol mapping. In this paper we propose a general method which yields the exact results for arbitrary modulation constellation, arbitrary bits-to-symbol mapping and deals with the case of non-uniform signalling. These three conditions define any digital transmission using memoryless modulation thus, our method is a general tool solving all problems tackled in the literature under constraints imposed on one or more of the parameters defining the modulation or signalling type. Such evaluation tool is of practical importance during the design of the modulation. Through numerical simulations we illustrate the advantages offered by the new method when compared to the bounding technique.
An end-to-end generative framework for video segmentation and recognition

We describe an end-to-end generative approach for the segmentation and recognition of human activities. In this approach, a visual representation based on reduced Fisher Vectors is combined with a structured temporal model for recognition. We show that the statistical properties of Fisher Vectors make them an especially suitable front-end for generative models such as Gaussian mixtures. The system is evaluated for both the recognition of complex activities as well as their parsing into action units. Using a variety of video datasets ranging from human cooking activities to animal behaviors, our experiments demonstrate that the resulting architecture outperforms state-of-the-art approaches for larger datasets, i.e. when sufficient amount of data is available for training structured generative models.
Land use, individual attributes, and travel behavior in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Dedication To my mom and dad, my husband Yuri, and my lovely girls Xenia and Julia. iii Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been made possible without the help, advice and support of many people. First, I would like to extend my profound thanks to my academic advisor, Prof. Fahui Wang, for his patience, professional advice, suggestions, and endless support offered from the very beginning of his working with me through the very end of this research. Thank you for leading me into an exciting world of transportation geography! I also wish to thank Prof. Chester Wilmot (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) who generously shared the data used for this study, offered time, help and personal friendship, I am greatly thankful. Prof. Lei Wang, who tirelessly advised me on writing, continuously encouraged me with my research, thank you for your interest, insightful suggestions, your support is very valuable to me. Prof. Barry Keim, thank you so much for stepping in at the very last minute, you have always believed in me.