Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Decoding of Nonstationary Neural Activity in Motor Cortex

Neural decoding has played a key role in recent advances in brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) by converting brain signals into control commands to drive external devices such as robotic limbs or computer cursors. A number of practical algorithms including the well-known linear regression and Kalman filter models have been used to predict continuous movement in a real-time online context using recordings from a chronically implanted multielectrode microarray in the motor cortex. Though effective, those models were often based on a strong assumption that the neural signal sequence is a stationary process. Recent work, however, indicates that the motor system significantly varies over time. To characterize the dynamic relationship between neural signals and hand kinematics, here we develop an adaptive approach for each of the linear regression and Kalman filter methods. Experimental results show that the new adaptive algorithms generate more accurate decoding than the nonadaptive algorithms. To make the new algorithms feasible in an online situation, we further develop a recursive update approach and theoretically demonstrate its superior efficiency. In particular, the adaptive Kalman filter is shown to be more accurate and efficient. We also test the new methods in a simulated BMI experiment where the true hand motion is not known. The successful performance suggests these methods could be useful decoding algorithms for practical applications.
A Lower Limit Ωm-ΩΛ on Using Gravitational Lensing in the Hubble Deep Field

We calculate the expected number of multiply imaged galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), using photometric redshift information for galaxies with mI<27 that were detected in all four HDF passbands. A comparison of these expectations with the observed number of strongly lensed galaxies places a lower limit on the current value of Ωm-ΩΛ, where Ωm is the cosmological mass density of the universe and ΩΛ is the normalized cosmological constant. Based on current estimates of the HDF luminosity function and associated uncertainties in individual parameters, our 95% confidence lower limit on Ωm-ΩΛ is between -0.44, if there are no strongly lensed galaxies in the HDF, and -0.73, if there are two strongly lensed galaxies in the HDF. For a flat universe (Ωm+ΩΛ=1), ΩΛ<0.58-0.79 (95% confidence limit). If the only lensed galaxy in the HDF is the one presently viable candidate, then in a flat universe (Ωm+ΩΛ=1), ΩΛ<0.79 (95% confidence limit). These lower limits are compatible with estimates based on high-redshift supernovae and with previous limits based on gravitational lensing.
A long way from New York City: Socially stratified contact-induced phonological convergence in Ganluo Ersu (Sichuan, China)

Abstract Labov's classic study, The Social Stratification of English in New York City (1966), paved the way for generations of researchers to examine sociolinguistic patterns in many different communities (Bell, Sharma, & Britain, 2016). This research paradigm has traditionally tended to focus on Western industrialized communities and large world languages and dialects, leaving many unanswered questions about lesser-studied indigenous minority communities. In this study, we examine whether Labovian models for age, sex, and social stratification (Labov, 1966, 2001; Trudgill, 1972, 1974) may be effectively applied to a small, endangered Tibeto-Burman language in southwestern China: Ganluo Ersu. Using new field recordings with 97 speakers, we find evidence of phonological change in progress as Ganluo Ersu consonants are converging toward Chinese phonology. The results suggest that when an endangered language undergoes convergence toward a majority language due to intense contact, this convergence is manifested in a socially stratified way that is consistent with many of the predictions of the classic Labovian sociolinguistic principles.
Genomic imbalances in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma identified by molecular cytogenetic techniques

This review summarizes the chromosomal changes detected by molecular cytogenetic approaches in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), the ninth most common malignancy in the world. Whole genome analyses of ESCC cell lines and tumors indicated that the most frequent genomic gains occurred at 1, 2q, 3q, 5p, 6p, 7, 8q, 9q, 11q, 12p, 14q, 15q, 16, 17, 18p, 19q, 20q, 22q and X, with focal amplifications at 1q32, 2p16-22, 3q25-28, 5p13-15.3, 7p12-22, 7q21-22, 8q23-24.2, 9q34, 10q21, 11p11.2, 11q13, 13q32, 14q13-14, 14q21, 14q31-32, 15q22-26, 17p11.2, 18p11.2-11.3 and 20p11.2. Recurrent losses involved 3p, 4, 5q, 6q, 7q, 8p, 9, 10p, 12p, 13, 14p, 15p, 18, 19p, 20, 22, Xp and Y. Gains at 5p and 7q, and deletions at 4p, 9p, and 11q were significant prognostic factors for patients with ESCC. Gains at 6p and 20p, and losses at 10p and 10q were the most significant imbalances, both in primary carcinoma and in metastases, which suggested that these regions may harbor oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Gains at 12p and losses at 3p may be associated with poor relapse-free survival. The clinical applicability of these changes as markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of ESCC, or as molecular targets for personalized therapy should be evaluated.
Virus Entry, Assembly, Budding, and Membrane Rafts

SUMMARY As intracellular parasites, viruses rely heavily on the use of numerous cellular machineries for completion of their replication cycle. The recent discovery of the heterogeneous distribution of the various lipids within cell membranes has led to the proposal that sphingolipids and cholesterol tend to segregate in microdomains called membrane rafts. The involvement of membrane rafts in biosynthetic traffic, signal transduction, and endocytosis has suggested that viruses may also take advantage of rafts for completion of some steps of their replication cycle, such as entry into their cell host, assembly, and budding. In this review, we have attempted to delineate all the reliable data sustaining this hypothesis and to build some models of how rafts are used as platforms for assembly of some viruses. Indeed, if in many cases a formal proof of raft involvement in a virus replication cycle is still lacking, one can reasonably suggest that, owing to their ability to specifically attract some proteins, lipid microdomains provide a particular milieu suitable for increasing the efficiency of many protein-protein interactions which are crucial for virus infection and growth.
Morphology Changes of Both Corona Aged Original and Nano-inorganic Hybrid Polyimide Films Characterized by SEM

Morphology changes of both corona-aged original and nano-inorganic hybrid polyimide film were characterized by SEM. 4 kV power frequency voltage and 4 kV, 5 kHz square pulse voltage were applied to the specimen respectively. It was found that the honeycomb structure appeared on the aged surface of original film, and crack and some inorganic like substance exhibit on the aged surface of the nano-inorganic hybrid film. After square pulse corona aging, the surface of corona region was more scorching than that of after power frequency aging
Do We Need Binary Features for 3D Reconstruction?

Binary features have been incrementally popular in the past few years due to their low memory footprints and the efficient computation of Hamming distance between binary descriptors. They have been shown with promising results on some real time applications, e.g., SLAM, where the matching operations are relative few. However, in computer vision, there are many applications such as 3D reconstruction requiring lots of matching operations between local features. Therefore, a natural question is that is the binary feature still a promising solution to this kind of applications? To get the answer, this paper conducts a comparative study of binary features and their matching methods on the context of 3D reconstruction in a recently proposed large scale mutliview stereo dataset. Our evaluations reveal that not all binary features are capable of this task. Most of them are inferior to the classical SIFT based method in terms of reconstruction accuracy and completeness with a not significant better computational performance.
A formal method for avoiding hyperstaticity when connecting an exoskeleton to a human member

The design of a robotic exoskeleton often focuses on replicating the kinematics of the human limb that it is connected to. However, human joint kinematics is so complex that in practice, the kinematics of artificial exoskeletons fails to reproduce it exactly. This discrepancy results in hyperstaticity. Namely, uncontrolled interaction forces appear.
Towards a statement of the S-adic conjecture through examples

The $S$-adic conjecture claims that there exists a condition $C$ such that a sequence has a sub-linear complexity if and only if it is an $S$-adic sequence satisfying Condition $C$ for some finite set $S$ of morphisms. We present an overview of the factor complexity of $S$-adic sequences and we give some examples that either illustrate some interesting properties or that are counter-examples to what could be believed to be ''a good Condition $C$''.
Gait recognition based on gait pal and pal entropy image

Human Gait recognition is one of the most promising research areas at the moment. Gait is the style or manner of walking on foot. Gait recognition aims to identify individuals by the manner in which they walk. Existing Gait representations which capture both motion and appearance information are sensitive to changes in various covariate conditions such as carrying and clothing. In this paper, we propose a novel temporal representation of Gait using Pal and Pal Entropy (GPPE) for each cycle of the silhouettes. The Principal component analysis is applied to each of the features extracted to create a feature matrix. Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used for training and testing of individuals by the proposed method. Extensive experiments on the Treadmill dataset and the CASIA datasets A, B, C have been carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed representation of Gait.
Price- and wage- inflation targeting: variations on a theme by Erceg, Henderson, and Levin

1 Truman (2003) provides the current list (see page 1), and a discussion of inflation targeting in practice. The literature on inflation targeting is vast; interesting discussions include Faust and Henderson (2003) and Bernanke et al. (1999). 2 The New Neoclassical Synthesis adds nominal inertia to the Real Business Cycle model. Goodfriend and King (1997) outlined the synthesis, and gave it the name. Woodford (2003) provides a masterful introduction to this class of models. The NNS was quickly adopted as a framework for monetary policy evaluation, and a large literature has ensued.
Real-time depth sectioning: Isolating the effect of stress on structure development in pressure-driven flow

Transient structure development at a specific distance from the channel wall in a pressure-driven flow is obtained from a set of real-time measurements that integrate contributions throughout the thickness of a rectangular channel. This “depth sectioning method” retains the advantages of pressure-driven flow while revealing flow-induced structures as a function of stress. The method is illustrated by applying it to isothermal shear-induced crystallization of an isotactic polypropylene using both synchrotron x-ray scattering and optical retardance. Real-time, depth-resolved information about the development of oriented precursors reveals features that cannot be extracted from ex-situ observation of the final morphology and that are obscured in the depth-averaged in-situ measurements. For example, at 137 °C and at the highest shear stress examined (65 kPa), oriented thread-like nuclei formed rapidly, saturated within the first 7 s of flow, developed significant crystalline overgrowth during flow and did not relax after cessation of shear. At lower stresses, threads formed later and increased at a slower rate. The depth sectioning method can be applied to the flow-induced structure development in diverse complex fluids, including block copolymers, colloidal systems, and liquid-crystalline polymers.
Supervising juveniles and adults: organizational context, professional orientations, and probation and parole officer behaviors

Abstract Observers of probation and parole suggest that organizational context and officers’ ‘working philosophy’ – how they see their job – may be instrumental in predicting supervision activities, yet few studies have examined this relationship. The present study contributes to the knowledge base on probation practices by examining the organizational context in which officers work – juvenile justice versus criminal justice – and officers’ individual work orientations on their tendencies to engage in various tasks related to supervising their clients. Data were collected through the use of an online questionnaire from a sample of juvenile and adult probation and parole officers employed in South Carolina during the spring of 2014. The study found that organizational context was a significant predictor of intended and actual behavior. On the other hand, professional orientation largely failed to significantly predict behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Outer common tangents and nesting of convex hulls of two disjoint simple polygons in linear time and constant workspace

We describe an algorithm for computing the outer common tangents of two disjoint simple polygons using linear time and only constant workspace. A tangent of a polygon is a line touching the polygon such that all of the polygon lies on the same side of the line. An outer common tangent of two polygons is a tangent of both polygons such that the polygons lie on the same side of the tangent. Each polygon is given as a read-only array of its corners in cyclic order. The algorithm detects if an outer common tangent does not exist, which is the case if and only if the convex hull of one of the polygons is contained in the convex hull of the other. Otherwise, two corners defining an outer common tangent are returned. This was not known to be possible in linear time and constant workspace prior to this paper.
Prenatal and Childhood Growth, and Hospitalization for Alcohol Use Disorders in Adulthood: The Helsinki Birth Cohort Study

Background Small birth size - an indicator of a sub-optimal prenatal environment - and variation in growth after birth have been associated with non-communicable diseases in later life. We tested whether birth size or growth in childhood associated with the risk of hospital admission for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) from early to late adulthood. Methods The sample comprised 6544 men and 6050 women born between 1934 and 1944 in Helsinki, Finland. Data on anthropometric measures were extracted from medical records and diagnoses of AUD from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register and Causes of Death Register covering a 40-year period from 1969 to 2008. Results Altogether 171 women (2.8%) and 657 men (10.0%) were diagnosed at a hospital with AUD. After adjusting for major confounders, shorter length at birth, shorter height up to two years of age, and lower weight at two years associated with hospitalization for AUD in women. In men, slower growth in height, particularly from 2 to 7 years, and slower weight gain from 7 to 11 years as well as shorter height and lower weight at 7 and 11 years associated with a diagnosis of AUD in men. Conclusions Pre- and postnatal growth associates with the risk for AUD later in life differently in women than in men: the fetal period and infancy seem to be the sensitive periods for women, whereas those for men the occur from toddlerhood onwards.
SOME ISOMORPHISMS FOR THE BRAUER GROUPS OF A HOPF ALGEBRA

Using equivalences of categories we provide general isomorphisms between the Brauer groups of different Hopf algebras. One of those is used to prove that the Brauer groups BC(k, H 4, rt ) for every dual quasitriangular structure rt on Sweedler's Hopf algebra H 4 are all isomorphic to the direct sum of (k, +) and the Brauer-Wall group of k.
Parsing-based sarcasm sentiment recognition in Twitter data

Sentiment Analysis is a technique to identify people's opinion, attitude, sentiment, and emotion towards any specific target such as individuals, events, topics, product, organizations, services etc. Sarcasm is a special kind of sentiment that comprise of words which mean the opposite of what you really want to say (especially in order to insult or wit someone, to show irritation, or to be funny). People often expressed it verbally through the use of heavy tonal stress and certain gestural clues like rolling of the eyes. These tonal and gestural clues are obviously not available for expressing sarcasm in text, making its detection reliant upon other factors. In this paper, two approaches to detect sarcasm in the text of Twitter data were proposed. The first is a parsing-based lexicon generation algorithm (PBLGA) and the second was to detect sarcasm based on the occurrence of the interjection word. The combination of two approaches is also shown and compared with the existing state-of-the-art approach to detect sarcasm. First approach attains a 0.89, 0.81 and 0.84 precision, recall and f - score respectively. Second approach attains 0.85, 0.96 and 0.90 precision, recall and f - score respectively in tweets with sarcastic hashtag.
PROCYCLICAL INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL FLOWS, DEBT OVERHANG AND VOLATILITY

In this paper, is show how procyclical capital flows originate boom-bust and sunspot episodes in a neoclassical growth model of a small, open economy. All markets are perfect, with the exception of the fact that some upper, endogenous limit is imposed on how much the economy can borrow from foreign creditors, due to potential debtor default. It is shown that the steady state is locally indeterminate when the credit multiplier is larger than some threshold level, whereas saddle-point stability prevails when the credit multiplier is low enough. As a consequence, high levels of the credit multiplier lead to both booms followed by busts and sunspot-driven volatility near the steady state, while, in contrast, low levels ensure monotonic convergence. Compared with saddle-path equilibria, boom-bust and sunspot equilibria are associated with both lower welfare and debt overhang, that is, a crowding-out effect of credit : when the economy is highly leveraged, it uses savings to cut down foreign debt, at the expense of both human and physical investment. Numerical examples show that volatility arises at rather low values of financial development and for debt-to-GDP ratios that fall within the range of available estimates. Finally, the effects of shocks to the world interest rate on output and consumption are amplified and persistent in the debt overhang regime.
Concurrent error detection schemes for fault-based side-channel cryptanalysis of symmetric block ciphers

Fault-based side-channel cryptanalysis is very effective against symmetric and asymmetric encryption algorithms. Although straightforward hardware and time redundancy-based concurrent error detection (CED) architectures can be used to thwart such attacks, they entail significant overheads (either area or performance). The authors investigate systematic approaches to low-cost low-latency CED techniques for symmetric encryption algorithms based on inverse relationships that exist between encryption and decryption at algorithm level, round level, and operation level and develop CED architectures that explore tradeoffs among area overhead, performance penalty, and fault detection latency. The proposed techniques have been validated on FPGA implementations of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) finalist 128-bit symmetric encryption algorithms.
Exocytotic exposure and recycling of membrane antigens of chromaffin granules: ultrastructural evaluation after immunolabeling

The exocytotic exposure and retrieval of an antigen of chromaffin granule membranes were studied with chromaffin cells isolated from bovine adrenal medulla. Cells were incubated with an antiserum against glycoprotein III followed by fluorescein- or gold-labeled anti-IgG. Immunofluorescence on the cell surface was present in a patchy distribution irrespective of whether bivalent antibodies or Fab fragments were used. During subsequent incubation these fluorescent membrane patches were internalized within 45 min. At the ultrastructural level immunogold-labeled patches were present on the surface of stimulated cells. During incubation (5 min to 6 h) these immunolabeled membrane patches became coated, giving rise to coated vesicles and finally to smooth vesicles. These latter vesicles were found spread throughout the cytoplasm including the Golgi region, but Golgi stacks did not become labeled. Part of the immunolabel was transferred to multivesicular bodies, which probably represent a lysosomal pathway. 30 min after incubation immunolabel was also found in electron-dense vesicles apparently representing newly formed chromaffin granules. After 6 h of incubation immunolabel was found in vesicles indistinguishable from mature chromaffin granules. These results provide direct evidence that after exocytosis membranes of chromaffin granules are selectively retrieved from the plasma membrane and are partly recycled to newly formed chromaffin granules, providing a shuttle service from the Golgi region to the plasma membrane.
How societal stereotypes might form and evolve via cumulative cultural evolution

The current article examines how societal stereotypes might form and evolve through a process of cumulative cultural evolution as social information is repeatedly passed from person to person. Social psychology research has done much to inform our understanding about the substantial influence stereotypes exert on us as individuals and on our society, yet comparatively little is known about how society's pools of stereotype knowledge form and how they evolve. Here, we review evidence that as social information is repeatedly passed from person to person, there is a continuous cycle of stereotype formation and evolution that is driven by constraints and biases in (a) observations of the social environment, (b) cognitive representations of the social environment, and (c) social transmissions of cognitive representations of the social environment. We suggest the reason stereotypes exist and persist is because they are perfectly adapted for human cognition and the reason they are perfectly adapted for human cognition is because they are the cumulative product of human cognition.
The Staphylococcus aureus rsbW(orf159) Gene Encodes an Anti-Sigma Factor of SigB

ABSTRACT SigB, a newly discovered alternative sigma factor ofStaphylococcus aureus, has been shown to play an important role in stress responses and the regulation of virulence factors. ThersbW (orf159) gene is immediately upstream ofsigB. Its gene product is homologous to Bacillus subtilis RsbW which under appropriate conditions binds toB. subtilis SigB and functions as an anti-sigma factor or negative posttranslational regulator. To define the function ofS. aureus RsbW, both the S. aureus SigB and RsbW proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. Cross-linking experiments with these purified proteins revealed that RsbW was capable of specific binding to SigB. In an in vitro transcription runoff assay, RsbW prevented SigB-directed transcription from the sar P3 promoter, a known SigB-dependent promoter, and the inhibitory activity of RsbW was found to be concentration dependent. We also identified SigB promoter consensus sequences upstream of the genes encoding alkaline shock protein 23 and coagulase and have demonstrated SigB and RsbW dependence for the promoters in vitro. These results show that RsbW is a protein sequestering anti-sigma factor of S. aureus SigB and suggest that SigB activity in S. aureus is regulated posttranslationally.