Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cortico-Striatal-Thalamic Loop Circuits of the Salience Network: A Central Pathway in Psychiatric Disease and Treatment

The salience network (SN) plays a central role in cognitive control by integrating sensory input to guide attention, attend to motivationally salient stimuli and recruit appropriate functional brain-behavior networks to modulate behavior. Mounting evidence suggests that disturbances in SN function underlie abnormalities in cognitive control and may be a common etiology underlying many psychiatric disorders. Such functional and anatomical abnormalities have been recently apparent in studies and meta-analyses of psychiatric illness using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Of particular importance, abnormal structure and function in major cortical nodes of the SN, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insula (AI), have been observed as a common neurobiological substrate across a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders. In addition to cortical nodes of the SN, the network’s associated subcortical structures, including the dorsal striatum, mediodorsal thalamus and dopaminergic brainstem nuclei, comprise a discrete regulatory loop circuit. The SN’s cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical loop increasingly appears to be central to mechanisms of cognitive control, as well as to a broad spectrum of psychiatric illnesses and their available treatments. Functional imbalances within the SN loop appear to impair cognitive control, and specifically may impair self-regulation of cognition, behavior and emotion, thereby leading to symptoms of psychiatric illness. Furthermore, treating such psychiatric illnesses using invasive or non-invasive brain stimulation techniques appears to modulate SN cortical-subcortical loop integrity, and these effects may be central to the therapeutic mechanisms of brain stimulation treatments in many psychiatric illnesses. Here, we review clinical and experimental evidence for abnormalities in SN cortico-striatal-thalamic loop circuits in major depression, substance use disorders (SUD), anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and eating disorders (ED). We also review emergent therapeutic evidence that novel invasive and non-invasive brain stimulation treatments may exert therapeutic effects by normalizing abnormalities in the SN loop, thereby restoring the capacity for cognitive control. Finally, we consider a series of promising directions for future investigations on the role of SN cortico-striatal-thalamic loop circuits in the pathophysiology and treatment of psychiatric disorders.
Motor-Motor Adaptation: Preliminary Findings

This study investigated the relationship between speech perception and speech production. An experimental technique called motor-motor adaptation was devised. Subjects produced a speech token repeatedly (20 to 40 repetitions), then produced a second token one time. These tokens all contained stop consonants and were subsequently analyzed for voice onset time. The results paralleled previous findings using the experimental procedure, perceptuomotor adaptation. The present study supports the notion of a perception-production link.
Evaluating the Performance of Static Versus Dynamic Models of Credit Default: Evidence From Long-Term Small Business Administration-Guaranteed Loans

The financial crisis exposed the limitations of credit risk models to risk managers, financial regulators, investors and rating agencies. We compare the performance of conventional static-scoring techniques employed in practice with dynamic survival-time models to predict dollar losses on a portfolio of smallbusiness loans.We find that the dynamic models consistently generate more accurate dollar-loss forecasts over multiple time periods and performance horizons. Ourresultssupportthehypothesisthatseasoningisakeyfactorinthedevelopment ofaccuratelossforecastsforlonger-termamortizingloans(eg,small-businessand mortgageloans). Furthermore,ourresultssuggestthatbanksconsiderdeveloping capital adequacy, loan-loss provisioning and securitized loan valuation models with a dynamic sample and model design.
Reduction of the number of spectral bands in LANDSAT images with projection methods: pertinence of the resulting information

Dans cet article, nous presentons des techniques de projection de donnees, lineaires et non lineaires, que nous avons utilisees afin de reduire le nombre de bandes spectrales a traiter dans des images multispectrales de type Landsat. Les methodes presentees sont l'Analyse en Composantes Curvilignes (ACC, methode non lineaire), ainsi qu'une optimisation de celle-ci (appelee ACCinitACP) obtenue a partir de l'Analyse en Composantes Principales (ACP, methode lineaire). Afin d'evaluer la pertinence de l'information restante apres reduction du nombre de bandes spectrales, nous avons applique une segmentation sur les images originales et sur les images reduites par chaque methode de projection. Nous avons ainsi pu constater que l'organisation du paysage est preservee par ces transformations. Cet article montre en outre les resultats suivants : l'ACC est un outil tres interessant pour le traitement des images multispectrales ; l'ACC peut reellement etre consideree comme une extension non-lineaire de l'ACP ; l'ACCinitACP donne des resultats identiques a ceux de l'ACC tout en reduisant les temps de calculs de la transformation. This paper describes applications of linear and nonlinear projection methods, in order to obtain a reduction of the number of spectral bands in LANDSAT multispectral images. We present Curvilinear Component Analysis (CCA, nonlinear method) and an optimisation of it based on the use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA, linear method). In order to evaluate the pertinence of the information kept by each transformation, we then apply segmentation on the transformed and original images. This processing allows us to show that the structure (the landscape organization) of the image is preserved by each transformation. This paper tends to show several results: CCA is an improvement for dimensions reduction of multispectral images; CCA is really a nonlinear extension of PCA; CCA optimisation through PCA (called CCAinitPCA) allows a reduction of the calculations, providing a result identical to that of CCA. Keywords : Teledetection, imagerie multispectrale, methodes de projection, segmentation; Remote sensing, multispectral image processing, projection methods, segmentation. Journal des Sciences Pour l\'Ingenieur. Vol. 7 2006: pp. 10-19
Association of homocysteine level with biopsy-proven non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a meta-analysis

Previous studies have reported inconsistent findings regarding the association between plasmatic higher of homocysteine level and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. We aimed to investigate this association by conducting a meta-analysis. Literature was searched on PubMed from inception to January 2015. Eight studies evaluating plasma level of homocysteine in biopsy-proven non-alcoholic fatty liver disease subjects compared to healthy controls were included. Compared with the controls, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients witnessed a higher level of homocysteine [standard mean difference (SMD): 0.66 µmol/L, 95% CI: 0.41, 0.92 µmol/L], and were associated with a significant increased risk for hyperhomocysteinemia [odds ratio (OR) 5.09, 95% CI: 1.69, 15.32]. In addition, patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver presented 0.45 µmol/L higher levels of homocysteine compared to healthy controls (95% CI: 0.09, 0.82 µmol/L), whereas non-alcoholic steatohepatitis patients had 1.02 µmol/L higher levels of homocysteine (95% CI: 0.28, 1.76 µmol/L). There was neither difference of folate level nor vitamin B12 level between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease subjects and healthy controls. This study revealed that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients presented an increased serum concentration of homocysteine, and were associated with an increased risk of hyperhomocysteinemia. Further studies are needed to demonstrate a causal role of hyperhomocysteinemia in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Synchronous Information Presented in 40-HZ Flicker Enhances Visual Feature Binding

Recent neurophysiological studies have encouraged speculation that the synchronization of spatially distributed neural assemblies (at around 40 Hz in the neocortex) is responsible for the binding of discrete stimulus components into coherent wholes during visual object perception. Using a novel paradigm, we demonstrated specific figural priming under 40-Hz stimulus modulation conditions. Further, under these conditions, observers were not aware of the prime's existence, nor did the prime act as a stimulus-driven attentional cue. These findings provide the first psychophysical support for a theory of preattentive coding of visual objects, based on an externally entrained and thereby synchronized 40-Hz feature-binding mechanism.
Changing ethics - changing perceptions

The concept of ethics is something that all researchers must come to terms with every time they consider a study involving humans or animals. Since the Nuremberg Trials, the changing needs of the research community with regards to research design and the recruitment of participants has seen requirements for participation in studies change dramatically with respect to ethical guidelines. The aim of this thesis is to investigate, through well-documented long-term public health cohort studies, how changing perceptions of ethics have impacted on research design and outcomes. The research has been undertaken particularly from an epidemiological point of view as well as in terms of rates of participation. In order to explore the evolution of ethical thinking and its potential effect on long-term longitudinal cohort studies with a public health bias, an iterative search process was employed to determine eligible studies and to extract relevant papers for the literature review. Examination of response rates in the context of the recruitment processes and ethical constructs in place at the time of recruitment was also undertaken. In addition to qualifying the nature of change in the ethical landscape, it is important to note that questions and changes resulting from ethics frameworks and committees may affect both the implementation and interpretation of the proposed work. By establishing this framework of change, the thesis explores and examines the impact of what can be coined as the ―New Ethics Research Environment‖. A retrospective examination of landmark studies with respect to how they may be affected by contemporary guidelines was used to illustrate the influence of the New Ethics Research Environment on large scale cohort studies which impact on health research outcomes at both an international and local level. The significance of this thesis is that it highlights the fact that ethics, as a construct in long-term research, generally has the most impact during recruitment and initial implementation of the study. Ethics, as an evolving concept, does not appear to affect long term studies which do not, themselves, change in scope – that is, those studies with only one cohort and no change in methodology. However, when cohorts are continually recruited, changing ethics and changing perceptions have significantly impacted on cohort selection and methodology both prospectively and retrospectively.
The Influence of Financial Performance on Higher Education Academic Quality.

A variety of academic and financial performance metrics are used to assess higher education institution performance. However, there is no consensus on the best performance measures. Signaling theory and agency theory are used to frame the challenges of assessing post-secondary institution performance related to information asymmetry between the institution and stakeholders. Agency costs may be reduced with a better understanding of the relationship among assessment variables. This quantitative study uses multiple linear regressions to identify and describe the relationship between financial performance and academic quality in 1,045 public and private not-for-profit U.S. colleges and universities. U.S. News & World Report rankings serve as a measure of perceived academic quality performance and ratios developed by KPMG and Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC (2005) are used to measure financial performance. Initial findings provide evidence that a large number of schools could be considered financially weak performers. However, results also reveal a positive relationship between financial performance and percieved academic quality in groups with a high concentration of financially strong schools. Findings suggest that financial performance may be used to signal academic performance, reducing information asymmetry and simplifying monitoring of providers. Furthermore, better performance information has potential to inform college choice and, therefore influence access and student success. Recommendations for research, practice and policy have potential to create opportunities for better stakeholder decisions. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Education (EdD) Department Executive Leadership First Supervisor Guillermo Montes Second Supervisor David Martin Subject Categories Education This dissertation is available at Fisher Digital Publications: http://fisherpub.sjfc. edu/education_etd/117 The Influence of Financial Performance on Higher Education Academic Quality
A unified lexical processing framework based on the Margin Infused Relaxed Algorithm. A case study on the Romanian Language

General natural language processing and text-to-speech applications require certain (lexical level) processing steps in order to solve some frequent tasks such as lemmatization, syllabification, lexical stress prediction and phonetic transcription. These steps usually require knowledge of the word’s lexical composition (derivative morphology, inflectional affixes, etc.). For known words all applications use lexicons, but there are always out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words that impede the performance of NLP and speech synthesis applications. In such cases, either rule based or data-driven techniques are used to automatically process these OOV words and generate the desired results. In this paper we describe how the above mentioned tasks can be achieved using a Perceptron with the Margin Infused Relaxed Algorithm (MIRA) and sequence labeling.
Political Economy and Network Analysis: An Untapped Convergence *

As recently as the 1970s, sociologists, with a few exceptions, paid little attention to the economy. This has changed in the past three decades, however. During this time, two seemingly disparate, and yet potentially compatible, fields have emerged: political economy and economic sociology. Both approaches have roots that go back at least to the nineteenth century, and it would be more appropriate to refer to the two fields as the " new political economy " and " new economic sociology " respectively. For my purposes here, I shall refer to them simply as political economy and economic sociology. 1 Political economy has emphasized the embeddedness of economic activity within larger political institutions. Its focus in recent years has been on examining the effects of those institutions on variations in the nature of capitalist economies across nations. Economic sociology, at least as practiced in North America, has emphasized more micro and meso-level economic action. Its focus has been on subjects such as the behavior of firms within product markets and the meanings that economic actors draw from the cultures in which they operate. Although much of the work within both political economy and economic sociology has been framed within an institutional perspective (albeit with sometimes very different conceptions of institutions), many economic sociologists have relied heavily on an alternative approach: social network analysis. In this paper, I argue that network analysis has the potential for bringing together the fields of political economy and economic sociology. Given that their practitioners rarely engage one another, I believe that this integration would benefit scholars within both areas. 2 In the following sections I discuss the relation between political economy and network analysis, and argue that the two approaches are fully compatible. I illustrate this compatibility with a discussion of the field of power structure research—an area in which scholars have examined the relations between corporations and the state. I then discuss the decline of power structure research, and how renewed attention to this area 1 Some scholars in the economic sociology area in North America refer to the field as the new economic sociology (see Dobbin, 2004). The term new political economy has also been used, primarily in Europe. See the British journal, New Political Economy. brought together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic with the goal of creating a dialogue between the two approaches. 2 could provide a means of linking political …
Managerial comparisons of four developed countries : France, Britain, United States, and Russia

In a modern industrial society, the managerial function may be viewed primarily as one of adapting the enterprise to changing conditions; whether a company does or does not grow depends on its managerial ability to adjust rapidly to change. Success in carrying out this function differs sharply between highly industrialized countries and can be explained partly on the basis of national differences in managerial backgrounds and selection and reward procetures and partly on the basis of national value systems. This is the important hypothesis that forms the basis of David Granick's study and which he tests by means of detailed case studies in large scale enterprises in three major industrial countries.Chapters in Part I form the theoretical core of the study--they present a model of economic growth that uses managerial adaptability as a key variable, discuss the effect of value systems on managerial behavior, and explore the effect that national managerial career patterns has upon managerial structure and behavior. Part II comprises representative case studies of corporate structure and behavior in France and Britain, which are examined against the background of United States and Russian managerial behavior. Part III introduces a considerable amount of original data on the education of managers, the nature of their careers within their companies, the level of their earnings relative to that of blue-collar workers, and the nature of the bonus systems under which they work; it differentiates the four countries studied according to these variables. Two problem areas of managerial decision making--investment behavior and the methods of internal company pricing--are explored in Part IV, and reasons are presented for the major national differences in the solutions employed. Part V sums up the study and briefly treats developments in large-scale French and British industry since the original interviews were conducted.Professor Granick's study adds a valuable and solid piece of research evaluation to the still very limited literature on international business and comparative management. It provides considerable insight into the backgrounds, value systems, and behavior of managers in the countries studied and reveals how the manner in which management interacts with different social and cultural environments affects the progress of major corporations. The book is an unusual mixture of sophisticated economic and behavioral analysis and should appeal to a heterogeneous group of readers, ranging from those concerned with economic growth and international business to microeconomics and industrial sociologists.
Aphid parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) in cultivated and non-cultivated areas of Markazi Province, Iran

The fauna of aphid parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae), as well as their diversity and tritrophic (parasitoid-host aphid-host plant) associations in cultivated and non-cultivated areas of Markazi province, was studied during 2004–2009. Thirty species of Aphidiinae belonging to 9 genera were identified. There are presented, in total, 73 associations with 32 host aphids occurring on 42 host plants. Five parasitoid-aphid associations are newly recorded from Iran. Lysiphlebus cardui (Marshall) is newly recorded for the fauna of Iran. Lysiphlebus fabarum (Marshall) and Diaeretiella rapae (M’Intosh) were the most abundant species in non-cultivated (72.96%) and cultivated (41.17%) areas, respectively. In the non-cultivated areas, L. fabarum was found on eight aphid species, while in cultivated areas it was only found on Aphis craccivora Koch. In cultivated areas, Sitobion avenae (F.) has the greatest diversity of parasitoids (Shanon-Weiner H = 0.875) whereas in non-cultivated areas the greatest diversity of parasitoids was recorded upon Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) (Shanon-Weiner H = 1.149). Significant differences were found between diversity of two ecosystems based on the overall diversity indices. Both species diversity and evenness were greater in cultivated ecosystems. The results are discussed in relation to the over-all parasitoid-aphid-plant associations in the area.
Nonuniform multirate filter banks: analysis and design with an 𝒽∞ performance measure

A general multirate filter-bank system with multiple channels and nonuniform bands is studied with the reconstruction performance measured by the worst-case energy gain (/spl Hscr//sub /spl infin// norm) of the error system between the multirate system and a pure time-delay system. Using blocking and polyphase decomposition, we associate with the multirate system an equivalent linear time-invariant (LTI) system whose transfer matrix can be computed by a simple procedure. Based on this LTI system, the optimal design problem can be reduced to one of /spl Hscr//sub /spl infin// optimization, which can be solved by ready-made software in many cases. For illustration, optimal synthesis filters are designed for a two-channel example, and their properties are studied in detail.
Distinguishing community-associated from hospital-associated Clostridium difficile infections in children: implications for public health surveillance.

BACKGROUND Children are increasingly recognized as being at risk for C. difficile infection (CDI), even without prior exposure to antibiotics or the healthcare environment. We aimed to distinguish risk factors, clinical course, and outcomes between healthcare facility-associated (HA) and community-associated (CA) CDI. METHODS This was a retrospective, observational cohort study conducted at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Baltimore, Maryland. All inpatients, aged ≥1 year, hospitalized from July 2003 to July 2012 and diagnosed with CDI based on clinical characteristics and confirmatory laboratory testing were included. The main outcome was CDI, categorized as HA-CDI, CA-CDI, and "indeterminate" (classified as disease onset in the community, 4-12 weeks from hospital discharge). RESULTS Two hundred two pediatric inpatients were diagnosed with CDI, of whom 38 had CA-CDI, 144 had HA-CDI, and 20 had indeterminate CDI. Children with indeterminate CDI had baseline characteristics similar to those identified for HA-CDI. Children hospitalized with CA-CDI were less likely to have comorbidities (odds ratio [OR], 0.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], .03-.65; P = .013), to have been exposed to antibiotics (OR, 0.17; 95% CI, .07-.44; P < .001), or prior surgeries (OR, 0.03; 95% CI, .00-.24; P = .001), compared to children with HA-CDI. Compared with HA-CDI, children with CA-CDI had a trend toward more episodes of septic shock (P = .07), toxic megacolon (P = .04), and recurrences (P = .04). CONCLUSIONS In a hospitalized cohort, CA-CDI is more often seen in previously healthy children without antibiotic exposure or comorbid conditions and has more frequent complications and recurrences compared to HA-CDI. For surveillance purposes, "indeterminate" CDI should be allocated to HA-CDI rather than CA-CDI.