Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of perceptual weighting of binaural cues on perceived location

This project investigated how interaural timing and level differences (ITDs and ILDs, respectively) can affect the perceived location of a sound when either one cue was at zero degrees azimuth (midline) and the other was not, or when they both were at non-zero azimuthal locations. Six subjects, including one with severe to profound hearing loss, participated in this study. Several cue combinations were tested, including conditions in which one cue was fixed (at either 30, 60, or 90 degrees) and the other was varied to be between 0 and 60 away from the fixed cue. It was hypothesized that non-zero cues would be weighted more heavily when the other cue was located at zero; whereas, when both cues were at non-zero locations it was hypothesized that both cues would be weighted more evenly, especially when they lie on either side of midline, in which case it was hypothesized that the perceived location would be between the cues presented. Results showed that both the normal hearing listeners and the listener with severe hearing loss have similar patterns. The results ultimately did not support all hypotheses, and different patterns were seen when comparing the three main conditions wherein the reference cue was located at 30, 60, or 90 degrees azimuth.
Local distribution and toxicity of prolonged hippocampal infusion of muscimol.

OBJECT The activity of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter, is reduced in the hippocampus in patients with complex partial seizures from mesial temporal sclerosis. To provide preliminary safety and distribution data on using convection-enhanced delivery of agents to treat complex partial seizures and to test the efficacy and safety of regional selective neuronal suppression, the authors infused muscimol, a GABA-A receptor agonist, directly into the hippocampus of nonhuman primates using an integrated catheter electrode. METHODS Ten rhesus monkeys were divided into three groups: 1) use of catheter electrode alone (four monkeys); 2) infusion of escalating concentrations of muscimol followed by vehicle (three monkeys); and 3) infusion of vehicle and subsequent muscimol mixed with muscimol tracer (three monkeys). Infusions were begun 5 days after catheter electrode placement and continued for 5.6 days before switching to the other agent. Head magnetic resonance (MR) images and electroencephalography recordings were obtained before and during the infusions. Brain histological studies and quantitative autoradiography were performed. Neurological function was normal in controls and when muscimol concentrations were 0.125 mM or less, whereas higher concentrations (0.5 and 1 mM) produced reversible apathy and somnolence. Fluid distribution was demonstrated on MR images and muscimol distribution was demonstrated on autoradiographs throughout the hippocampus and adjacent white matter. CONCLUSIONS Targeted modulation of neuronal activity is a reasonable research strategy for the investigation and treatment of medically intractable epilepsy.
Program on Technology Innovation : Optimal Bidding in Power Markets : Q-Learning for Adaptive Agents 1016229

This is an EPRI Technical Update report. A Technical Update report is intended as an informal report of continuing research, a meeting, or a topical study. It is not a final EPRI technical report. Agents that can develop policies through trial-and-error interaction with their environments are especially interesting for use in agent-based modeling of economic processes such as spot markets. Well-designed adaptive agents have the potential to independently discover strategies in complex environments beyond what can be reasonably hard-coded into heuristic agents or expected of human game-participants. This report describes an investigation into the use of machine learning techniques for agent design in an electricity market model. Building on earlier work in the field of agent-based modeling (ABM), the project incorporated a Q-Learning reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm within agents representing power generation companies in a spot electricity market. Électricité de France and EPRI sponsored the work under the umbrella of their collaborative Power Market Initiative. Results & Findings Much as an animal learns to act intelligently within its environment, a reinforcement learning-based agent gradually learns that certain actions are more valuable than others. Simulations run in this study showed that Q-Learning agents tasked with learning to compete in a spot electricity market can independently discover optimal behavior. Applying the approach to more realistic situations involving complex trading decisions on multiple timescales greatly increases the time needed to arrive at the best solution, but these inherent obstacles to easy scalability can be addressed through novel approximation techniques. The second-stage redesign of the agent framework undertaken in this study points towards approaches that can inform future exploration of adaptive ABM. Challenges & Objectives Individuals and firms involved in electric power market regulation and regional transmission organizations (RTOs) engaged in market rule design undertaking or considering simulation to support design efforts will find this report valuable. Applying adaptive ABM to investigations of such cross-market influences as energy, reserves, transmission rights, financial trades, and capacity is of particular interest. The work reported here contributes toward this goal. Applications, Values & Use Adaptive ABM is an emerging field. Because so much of the debate over electricity market design centers on questions about resource adequacy and capacity investment, some of the most promising applications of agent-based modeling are to the assessment of market rules related to multi-part decisions involving investment, capacity markets, and reserves markets. The results reported here show the promise of RL in such …
Risks and Perils in LBO Transactions

In this study we analyze the risks and perils arising from LBO transactions, in order to consider the impact of private equity in this category of transactions. From this perspective, focusing attention on 2,450 deals occurred during the period 2002-2011, our study adds to previous literature that has investigated the post-LBO operating performance and the factors that can determine the success of those deals. In particular, by running a multivariate regression analysis in order to test for different research hypothesis proposed by literature dealing with the determinants of LBO deals, we confirm the validity of the assets stripping hypothesis, even if we find evidence that the presence of private equity, among other factors, can help to mitigate that peril. We find evidence that, especially in the short term, enterprises suffer from a slight deterioration in operating performance compared to their situation before the buyout. Moreover, under specific circumstances, enterprises experience a slight improvement in the ability to generate cash. Finally, we find positive evidence about the presence of private equity investors, which are mainly able to promote the growth of firms, as well as to increase the capability to generate cash, rather than generate positive effects on the level of employment. At the same time, we find also evidence that the presence of private equity investors is a significant determinant of distress for firms involved in LBO transactions.
Decreased aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage incidence rate in elderly population than in middle aged population: a retrospective analysis of 8,144 cases in Mainland China

Purpose: Rupture of an intracranial aneurysm is the most common cause of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), which is a life-threatening acute cerebrovascular event that typically affects working-age people. This study aims to investigate the aneurysmal SAH incidence rate in elderly population than in middle aged population in China. Materials and methods: Aneurysmal SAH cases were collected retrospectively from the archives of 21 hospitals in Mainland China. All the cases collected were from September 2016 and backward consecutively for a period of time up to 8 years. SAH was initially diagnosed by brain computed tomography, and CT angiography (CTA) or digital subtraction angiography (DSA) was followed and SAH was confirmed to be due to cerebral aneurysm. When for cases multiple bleeding occurred, the age of the first SAH was used in this study. The toltal incidence from all hospital at each age were summed together for females and males; then adjusted by the total population number at each age for females and males. The total population data was from the 2010 population census of the People's Republic of China. Results: In total there were 8,144 cases, with 4,861 females and 3,283 males. Our analysis shows for both females and males the relative aneurysmal SAH rate started to decrease after around 65 years old. The males the relative aneurysmal SAH rate might have started to decrease after around 55 years old. Conclusion: In contrast to previous reports, our data demonstrated a decreased aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage incidence rate in elderly population than in middle aged population. Our data therefore support the hypothesis that aneurysms do not grow progressively once they form but probably either rupture or stabilize and that very elderly patients are at a reduced risk of rupture compared with atients who are younger with the same-sized aneurysms.
Detection of Target Phonemes in Spontaneous and Read Speech

Although spontaneous speech occurs more frequently in most listeners' experience than read speech, laboratory studies of human speech recognition typically use carefully controlled materials read from a script. The phonological and prosodic characteristics of spontaneous and read speech differ considerably, however, which suggests that laboratory results may not generalise to the recognition of spontaneous speech. in the present study listeners were presented with both spontaneous and read speech materials, and their response time to detect word-initial target phonemes was measured. Responses were, overall, equally fast in each speech mode. However, analysis of effects previously reported in phoneme detection studies revealed significant differences between speech modes. in read speech but not in spontaneous speech, later targets were detected more rapidly than earlier targets, and targets preceded by long words were detected more rapidly than targets preceded by short words. in contrast, in spontaneous speech but not in read speech, targets were detected more rapidly in accented than in unaccented words and in strong than in weak syllables. An explanation for this pattern is offered in terms of characteristic prosodic differences between spontaneous and read speech. The results support claims from previous work that listeners pay great attention to prosodic information in the process of recognising speech.
Immunologic properties of purified epidermal Langerhans cells. Distinct requirements for stimulation of unprimed and sensitized T lymphocytes

Langerhans cells (LC) are Ia+ leukocytes that account for less than 2% of the cells in murine epidermal isolates. We purified LC by cell sorting to study their capacity to stimulate antigen-specific responses from unprimed and sensitized T cells. Sorting was performed after 12 or 72 h of epidermal culture, since our earlier work had indicated that LC became immunologically active during that time interval. At 12 and 72 h, the LC were uniformly and equally rich in the Ia glycoproteins that are recognized by helper T cells. At both time points, LC were comparable in their capacity to stimulate sensitized helper T lymphocytes, and would cluster the T cells in an antigen-dependent fashion at 4 degrees C. However, 12-h LC did not sensitize T cells, as indicated by their inactivity in stimulating the primary MLR or antibody response, and they were unable to cluster T cells in an antigen-independent fashion at 37 degrees C. The latter properties were acquired during 72 h of culture. As a result, the function of 72-h LC fully resembled that of lymphoid dendritic cells. We propose that the maturation of stimulatory function within the dendritic cell lineage represents an important control point in the induction phase of cell- mediated immunity.
Korean Elementary ESOL Students' English Language Anxiety and Defense Mechanism in the ESOL and Mainstream Classes: Theoretical and Pedagogical Implications for TESOL

With the purpose to filling in the gap of the previous research, which paid little attention to the language anxiety of young children, this study has examined the dynamics of language anxiety with a main focus on young Korean elementary ESOL students in an American school setting. First of all, this study found that the ESOL class was less anxiety provoking than mainstream classes. Second, the reasons for this difference seemed to be: 1) the lower level of English proficiency required in the ESOL class and 2) homogeneity of the ESOL class as nonnative English speakers, 3) the self-evident but important corollary that ESOL class is taught by a teacher who had formal ESOL education training. Third, facing English language anxiety, the participants of this study displayed a range of coping strategies, and every participant used some or all of them in greater or lesser degrees in both ESOL and mainstream classes. The defense mechanisms most commonly shown by the participants were flight behaviors, especially avoidance. Fourth, the defense mechanisms employed in the ESOL class and mainstream classes had been different not only in the extent of but also in the diversity of coping strategies. Defense mechanisms other than avoidance, associated with mainstream classes were boredom, rationalization, fantasy, competition, anticipation, and displacement. In contrast, defense mechanisms, related to the ESOL class were limited to reaction formation, competition and fantasy. Lastly, the teachers in the research site appeared to well recognize the presence of language anxiety, and accordingly employed a number of mitigating strategies for the ESOL students, including being a facilitator and frequently praising their works. Among the teachers, the ESOL teacher made the most complete use of mitigating strategies. Along with those used by mainstream teachers, she had also employed additional mitigating strategies, such as giving instruction clearly by using a model. However, this study found one case different from the
Individual differences in rational thought.

Much research in the last 2 decades has demonstrated that humans deviate from normative models of decision making and rational judgment. In 4 studies involving 954 participants, the authors explored the extent to which measures of cognitive ability and thinking dispositions can predict discrepancies from normative responding on a variety of tasks from the heuristics and biases literature including the selection task, belief bias in syllogistic reasoning, argument evaluation, base-rate use, covariation detection, hypothesis testing, outcome bias, if-only thinking, knowledge calibration, hindsight bias, and the false consensus paradigm. Significant relationships involving cognitive ability were interpreted as indicating algorithmic-level limitations on the computation of the normative response. Relationships with thinking dispositions were interpreted as indicating that styles of epistemic regulation can predict
Why Do States Adopt Renewable Portfolio Standards?: An Empirical Investigation

Renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) for electricity generation are politically popular in many U.S. states although economic analysis suggests they are not first-best policies. We present an empirical analysis of the political and economic factors that drive state governments to adopt an RPS, and the factors that lead to the inclusion of in-state requirements given the adoption of an RPS. Although advocates claim an RPS will stimulate job growth, we find that states with high unemployment rates are slower to adopt an RPS. Local environmental conditions and preferences have no significant effect on the timing of adoption. Overall, RPS adoption seems to be driven more by political ideology and private interests than by local environmental and employment benefits, raising questions as to when environmental federalism serves the public interest.
Parietal rTMS Disrupts the Initiation but not the Execution of On-line Adjustments to a Perturbation of Object Size

Previous studies have implicated the human parietal lobes in the on-line guidance of action. However, no study to date has examined at what stage in the on-line adjustment process do the parietal lobes play their most critical role. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was applied over the left intraparietal sulcus as participants reached to grasp a small or large illuminated cylinder. On some trials, the illumination could suddenly switch from the small to large cylinder, or vice-versa. SmallLarge switches were associated with relatively early grip aperture adjustments, whereas LargeSmall switches were associated with relatively late grip aperture adjustments. When rTMS was applied early in the movement, it disrupted on-line adjustments to SmallLarge target switches, but not to LargeSmall switches. Conversely, when rTMS was applied late in the movement, it disrupted adjustments to LargeSmall target switches but not to SmallLarge switches. The timing of the disruption by rTMS appeared linked to the initiation of the adjustment. It was concluded that the left parietal lobe plays a critical role in initiating an on-line adjustment to a change in target size, but not in executing that adjustment. The implications of these results for current views of on-line control are discussed.
UWB radar for target detection: DCT versus matched filter approaches

In this paper, we study sense-through-foliage target detection using ultra-wideband (UWB) radar. We propose a Discrete-Cosine-Transform (DCT)-based approach for sense-through-foliage target detection when the echo signal quality is good. We compared our approach with the ideal case when both echos are available, i.e., echos with target and without target. We also compared our approach against the scheme in which 2-D image was created via adding voltages with the appropriate time offset as well as the matched filter-based approach. We observed that the matched filter-based couldn't work well because the UWB channel has memory. Simulation results show that our DCT-based scheme works much better than the existing approaches.
The Development of an Agent-Based Modeling Framework for Simulating Engineering Team Work

Team working is becoming increasingly important in modern organizations due to its beneficial outcomes. A team's performance levels are determined by complex interactions between the attributes of its individual members, the communication and dynamics between members, the working environment, and the team's work tasks. As organizations evolve, so too does the nature of team working. During the past two decades, product development in engineering organizations has increasingly been undertaken by multidisciplinary integrated product teams. Such increasing complexity means that the nature of research methods for studying teams must also evolve. Accordingly, this paper proposes an agent-based modeling approach for simulating team working within an engineering environment, informed by research conducted in two engineering organizations. The model includes a number of variables at an individual level (competency, motivation, availability, response rate), team level (communication, shared mental models, trust), and task level (difficulty, workflow), which jointly determine team performance (quality, time to complete the task, time spent working on the task). In addition to describing the model's development, the paper also reports the results of various simulation runs that were conducted in response to realistic team working scenarios, together with its validation. Finally, the paper discusses the model's practical applications as a tool for facilitating organizational decision making with respect to optimizing team working.
Social influence and physical activity in older females: understanding channels & types

The purpose of this study was to explore the channels and types of social influence that may be associated with physical activity in older females. The study used a mixed methods design. First, a qualitative study was used to confirm the channels and types of social influence perceived by older females as being important. The channels and types of social influence identified were then used to construct a questionnaire that was used in the second study to explore how the channels and types might be related to different levels of physical activity. In Study One, two focus groups were conducted with a total of 15 participants. During the focus groups, participants completed a circle map of influences relating to physical activity and then discussions followed using a semi-structured interview guide. These discussions were analyzed to verify the main channels and types of social influence. Three main channels were discussed: influences from family, friends, and healthcare workers. In terms of types of influence, obedience, compliance, conformity, and modelling were all mentioned in conjunction with at least one of the channels during the focus groups. In Study Two, 145 older females completed the Older Adult Exercise Status Inventory (OA-ESI; O'Brien-Cousins, 1996) along with a questionnaire designed specifically for this study to assess social influence channels and types. Factor analysis of the social influence items revealed five factors: family; friends obedience/ compliance; friends modelling; health care workers obedience/compliance; and healthcare workers -modelling.
Normal volume and cellular contents of pleural fluid

The pleural space in healthy humans was thought to contain a few milliliters of fluid, based on extrapolation from animal studies. However, because of the obvious technical difficulties in atraumatically retrieving such a small volume of fluid, the exact volume and cellular content of human pleural fluid has not been known. Development of a minimally invasive pleural lavage technique has allowed, for the first time, the measurement of volume and cellular content of the pleural fluid in healthy humans.