Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Topological Organization of Functional Brain Networks in Healthy Children: Differences in Relation to Age, Sex, and Intelligence

Recent studies have demonstrated developmental changes of functional brain networks derived from functional connectivity using graph theoretical analysis, which has been rapidly translated to studies of brain network organization. However, little is known about sex- and IQ-related differences in the topological organization of functional brain networks during development. In this study, resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) was used to map the functional brain networks in 51 healthy children. We then investigated the effects of age, sex, and IQ on economic small-world properties and regional nodal properties of the functional brain networks. At a global level of whole networks, we found significant age-related increases in the small-worldness and local efficiency, significant higher values of the global efficiency in boys compared with girls, and no significant IQ-related difference. Age-related increases in the regional nodal properties were found predominately in the frontal brain regions, whereas the parietal, temporal, and occipital brain regions showed age-related decreases. Significant sex-related differences in the regional nodal properties were found in various brain regions, primarily related to the default mode, language, and vision systems. Positive correlations between IQ and the regional nodal properties were found in several brain regions related to the attention system, whereas negative correlations were found in various brain regions primarily involved in the default mode, emotion, and language systems. Together, our findings of the network topology of the functional brain networks in healthy children and its relationship with age, sex, and IQ bring new insights into the understanding of brain maturation and cognitive development during childhood and adolescence.
A Linguistic Framework to Distinguish between Genuine and Deceptive Online Reviews

 Abstract —With the advent of social media, online reviews are increasingly perceived as being more genuine than traditional marketer-generated information. However, users’ growing penchant for reviews has resulted in the rise of deceptive opinion spamming, which involves posting misleading reviews to influence users’ impression on products and services insidiously. As a result, it has become challenging for users to distinguish between genuine and deceptive reviews. Hence, this paper develops a linguistic framework to distinguish between genuine and deceptive reviews based on their readability, genre and writing style. The framework is empirically tested by drawing from publicly available secondary datasets. The findings suggest that readability and writing style of reviews could be significant linguistic cues to distinguish between genuine and deceptive comments. In terms of genre however, differences between genuine and deceptive reviews were largely inconspicuous.
Impacts of extreme precipitation and seasonal changes in precipitation on plants

Abstract. The global hydrological cycle is predicted to become more intense in future climates, with both larger precipitation events and longer times between events in some regions. Redistribution of precipitation may occur both within and across seasons, and the resulting wide fluctuations in soil water content (SWC) may dramatically affect plants. Though these responses remain poorly understood, recent research in this emerging field suggests the effects of redistributed precipitation may differ from predictions based on previous drought studies. We review available studies on both extreme precipitation (redistribution within seasons) and seasonal changes in precipitation (redistribution across seasons) on grasslands and forests. Extreme precipitation differentially affected above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP), depending on whether extreme precipitation led to increased or decreased SWC, which differed based on the current precipitation and aridity index of the site. Specifically, studies to date reported that extreme precipitation decreased ANPP in mesic sites, but, conversely, increased ANPP in xeric sites, suggesting that plant-available water is a key factor driving responses to extreme precipitation. Similarly, the effects of seasonal changes in precipitation on ANPP, phenology, and leaf and fruit development varied with the effect on SWC. Reductions in spring or summer generally had negative effects on plants, associated with reduced SWC, while subsequent reductions in autumn or winter had little effect on SWC or plants. Similarly, increased summer precipitation had a more dramatic impact on plants than winter increases in precipitation. The patterns of response suggest xeric biomes may respond positively to extreme precipitation, while comparatively mesic biomes may be more likely to be negatively affected. Moreover, seasonal changes in precipitation during warm or dry seasons may have larger effects than changes during cool or wet seasons. Accordingly, responses to redistributed precipitation will involve a complex interplay between plant-available water, plant functional type and resultant influences on plant phenology, growth and water relations. These results highlight the need for experiments across a range of soil types and plant functional types, critical for predicting future vegetation responses to future climates.
Fine structure of the X-ray and radio emissions of the quiet solar corona.

Two deep soft X-ray exposures of a quiet region on the Sun were made with the SXT telescope on board the Yohkoh satellite on 20 Feb 1995. We report on the spatial X-ray ne structure. Regions of enhanced X-ray emission, more than two orders of magnitude fainter than previously reported X-ray bright points, are loosely associated with bipolar regions in the magnetic network. The power spectrum of quiet X-ray images at small spatial scales is similar to that of active regions, but ex- hibits a kink at a scale of 25;000 km, possibly connected to the supergranular structure. The spatial X-ray structures in the timeaveragedimageamounttoanrmsamplitudewhichis6%of the mean value. The X-ray structures correlate with contempo- raneous radio maps obtained by the VLA at wavelengths of 1.3, 2.0, and 3.6 cm. The amplitude of the brightness variations in theimagesincreaseswithradiowavelength,i.e.,withincreasing height. The cross-correlation coefcient with the absolute mag- netic eld strength, however, generally decreases with height, consistent with the idea of bipolar regions in the network and of the magnetic eld deviating from vertical in the upper chro- mosphere. The X-ray observations require an enhanced pressure in the corona above the magnetic network, but suggest similar tem- peratures. Model calculations show that, under a constant tem- perature, an rms density increase (relative to that in the cell interior) ranging from about 20% in the chromosphere to 60% in the low corona is sufcient to explain the observed standard deviations due to the spatial structures in radio waves and soft X-rays, respectively.
Evidence for the non-influence of salinity variability on the Porites coral Sr/Ca palaeothermometer

Abstract. Porites coral-based sea surface temperature (SST) reconstructions are obtained from the measurement of skeleton Sr/Ca ratio. However, the influence of salinity in the incorporation of these trace elements in the Porites aragonitic skeleton is still poorly documented. Laboratory experiments indicate that in three different coral species (not including the widely used Porites genus), salinity does not influence the Sr/Ca thermometer. In this study, we test the salinity effect on Porites Sr/Ca-based SST reconstructions at monthly and interannual timescales in open-ocean environmental conditions. We use a large spatial compilation of published Porites data from the Red Sea and Pacific and Indian oceans. Additionally to those published records, we add a new eastern Pacific coral Sr/Ca record from Clipperton Atoll. Using two different salinity products (Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) SSS reanalyses version 2.2. 4, Carton and Giese, 2008; and instrumental SSS from the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, France (IRD) Delcroix et al., 2011), we find no evidence of salinity bias on the Sr/Ca SST proxy at monthly and interannual timescales. We conclude that Porites Sr/Ca is a reliable palaeothermometer that is not influenced by salinity variability.
Cortical Deactivation Induced by Subcortical Network Dysfunction in Limbic Seizures

Normal human consciousness may be impaired by two possible routes: direct reduced function in widespread cortical regions or indirect disruption of subcortical activating systems. The route through which temporal lobe limbic seizures impair consciousness is not known. We recently developed an animal model that, like human limbic seizures, exhibits neocortical deactivation including cortical slow waves and reduced cortical cerebral blood flow (CBF). We now find through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that electrically stimulated hippocampal seizures in rats cause increased activity in subcortical structures including the septal area and mediodorsal thalamus, along with reduced activity in frontal, cingulate, and retrosplenial cortex. Direct recordings from the hippocampus, septum, and medial thalamus demonstrated fast poly-spike activity associated with increased neuronal firing and CBF, whereas frontal cortex showed slow oscillations with decreased neuronal firing and CBF. Stimulation of septal area, but not hippocampus or medial thalamus, in the absence of a seizure resulted in cortical deactivation with slow oscillations and behavioral arrest, resembling changes seen during limbic seizures. Transecting the fornix, the major route from hippocampus to subcortical structures, abolished the negative cortical and behavioral effects of seizures. Cortical slow oscillations and behavioral arrest could be reconstituted in fornix-lesioned animals by inducing synchronous activity in the hippocampus and septal area, implying involvement of a downstream region converged on by both structures. These findings suggest that limbic seizures may cause neocortical deactivation indirectly, through impaired subcortical function. If confirmed, subcortical networks may represent a target for therapies aimed at preserving consciousness in human temporal lobe seizures.
Age of Onset, Nutritional Determinants, and Seasonal Variations in Menarche in Rural Bangladesh

Menarche is an important milestone in the development of female adolescents. The study assessed the age at menarche using recall, its seasonality, and association with marital and nutritional status (using midupper arm circumference [MUAC]) among 3,923 female adolescents aged 12–19 years in a rural area of Bangladesh. At the time of assessment, most (88%) adolescents had attained menarche at the mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 12.8 (1.4) years. Age of onset of menarche among married adolescents (13%) occurred earlier than in those who were unmarried (12.6±1.3 years vs 12.9±1.4 years, p<0.01). Age at menarche was negatively associated with MUAC after adjusting for age and marital status (β=−0.10, p<0.01). More than 50% of the adolescents had an onset of menarche during winter (χ 2=634.97; p<0.001), with peaks in December and January. In this rural population, the current age at menarche was found to be slightly lower than the previous estimates of 13.0 years in Bangladesh. An early onset of menarche was associated with season and better nutritional status of the female adolescents and may be associated with early marriage.
Working Memory and Attention – A Conceptual Analysis and Review

There is broad agreement that working memory is closely related to attention. This article delineates several theoretical options for conceptualizing this link, and evaluates their viability in light of their theoretical implications and the empirical support they received. A first divide exists between the concept of attention as a limited resource, and the concept of attention as selective information processing. Theories conceptualizing attention as a resource assume that this resource is responsible for the limited capacity of working memory. Three versions of this idea have been proposed: Attention as a resource for storage and processing, a shared resource for perceptual attention and memory maintenance, and a resource for the control of attention. The first of these three is empirically well supported, but the other two are not. By contrast, when attention is understood as a selection mechanism, it is usually not invoked to explain the capacity limit of working memory – rather, researchers ask how different forms of attention interact with working memory, in two areas. The first pertains to attentional selection of the contents of working memory, controlled by mechanisms of filtering out irrelevant stimuli, and removing no-longer relevant representations from working memory. Within working memory contents, a single item is often selected into the focus of attention for processing. The second area pertains to the role of working memory in cognitive control. Working memory contributes to controlling perceptual attention – by holding templates for targets of perceptual selection – and controlling action – by holding task sets to implement our current goals.
INDEPENDENT AXES OF GENETIC VARIATION AND PARALLEL EVOLUTIONARY DIVERGENCE OF OPERCLE BONE SHAPE IN THREESPINE STICKLEBACK

Evolution of similar phenotypes in independent populations is often taken as evidence of adaptation to the same fitness optimum. However, the genetic architecture of traits might cause evolution to proceed more often toward particular phenotypes, and less often toward others, independently of the adaptive value of the traits. Freshwater populations of Alaskan threespine stickleback have repeatedly evolved the same distinctive opercle shape after divergence from an oceanic ancestor. Here we demonstrate that this pattern of parallel evolution is widespread, distinguishing oceanic and freshwater populations across the Pacific Coast of North America and Iceland. We test whether this parallel evolution reflects genetic bias by estimating the additive genetic variance–covariance matrix (G) of opercle shape in an Alaskan oceanic (putative ancestral) population. We find significant additive genetic variance for opercle shape and that G has the potential to be biasing, because of the existence of regions of phenotypic space with low additive genetic variation. However, evolution did not occur along major eigenvectors of G, rather it occurred repeatedly in the same directions of high evolvability. We conclude that the parallel opercle evolution is most likely due to selection during adaptation to freshwater habitats, rather than due to biasing effects of opercle genetic architecture.
Effects of conditioning depolarization and repetitive stimulation on Q beta and Q gamma charge components in frog cut twitch fibers

Charge movement was measured in frog cut twitch fibers with the double Vaseline-gap technique. Steady-state inactivation of charge movement was studied by changing the holding potential from -90 mV to a level ranging from -70 to -30 mV. Q beta and Q gamma at each holding potential were separated by fitting the Q-V plot with a sum of two Boltzmann distribution functions. At -70 mV Q beta and Q gamma were inactivated to 54.0% (SEM 2.2) and 82.7% (SEM 3.0) of the amounts at - 90 mV. At holding potentials greater than or equal to -60 mV, more Q gamma was inactivated than Q beta, and at -30 mV Q gamma was completely inactivated but Q beta was not. There was no holding potential at which Q beta was unaffected and Q gamma was completely inactivated. The differences between the residual fractions of Q beta and Q gamma are significant at all holding potentials (P less than 0.001-0.05). The plot of the residual fraction of Q beta or Q gamma versus holding potential can be fitted well by an inverted sigmoidal curve that is a mirror image of the activation curve of the respective charge component. The pair of curves for Q gamma correlates well with those for tension generation or Ca release obtained by other investigators. The time courses of the inactivation of Q beta and Q gamma were studied by obtaining several Q-V plots with conditioning depolarizations lasting 1-20 s and separating each Q-V plot into Q beta and Q gamma components by fitting with a sum of two Boltzmann distribution functions. The inactivation time constant of Q beta was found to be 5- 10 times as large as that of Q gamma. During repetitive stimulation, prominent I gamma humps could be observed in TEST-minus-CONTROL current traces and normal Q gamma components could be separated from the Q-V plots, whether 20 or 50 mM EGTA was present in the internal solution, whether 2 or 10 stimulations were used, and whether the stimuli were separated by 400 ms or 6 s. Repetitive stimulation slowed the kinetics of the I gamma hump and could shift the Q-V curve slightly in the depolarizing direction in some cases, resulting in an apparent suppression of charge at the potentials that fall on the steep part of the Q-V curve.
Capital Allocation and Per-Unit Risk in Inhomogeneousand Stressed Credit Portfolios

This article considers the application of gradient allocation and portfolio optimization to credit portfolios. The assumption of linearity of risk that is implied by the use of gradient allocation is challenged in a setting of inhomogeneity and stress scenarios. To see the effects of mathematically derived portfolio optimization on real-life examples, we consider a number of insightful examples. This challenges mathematical results and enables a financial interpretation of the latter. The results reveal that per-unit risk is not disturbed by moderate inhomogeneity in most cases, whereas a change in portfolio composition as well as stress can influence the portfolio optimization decision significantly. The importance of incorporating sensitivity analysis and stress testing into reporting structures and optimization decisions is emphasized.
Multivariate genetic analysis of cognitive abilities in an adolescent twin sample

The sources of covariation among cognitive measures of Inspection Time, Choice Reaction Time, Delayed Response Speed and Accuracy, and IQ were examined in a classical twin design that included 245 monozygotic (MZ) and 298 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. Results indicated that a factor model comprising additive genetic and unique environmental effects was the most parsimonious. In this model, a general genetic cognitive factor emerged with factor loadings ranging from 0.28 to 0.64. Three other genetic factors explained the remaining genetic covariation between various speed and Delayed Response measures with IQ. However, a large proportion of the genetic variation in verbal (54%) and performance (25%) IQ was unrelated to these lower order cognitive measures. The independent genetic IQ variation may reflect information processes not captured by the elementary cognitive tasks, Inspection Time and Choice Reaction Time, nor our working memory task, Delayed Response. Unique environmental effects were mostly nonoverlapping, and partly represented test measurement error.
Exosomes in human semen carry a distinctive repertoire of small non-coding RNAs with potential regulatory functions

Semen contains relatively ill-defined regulatory components that likely aid fertilization, but which could also interfere with defense against infection. Each ejaculate contains trillions of exosomes, membrane-enclosed subcellular microvesicles, which have immunosuppressive effects on cells important in the genital mucosa. Exosomes in general are believed to mediate inter-cellular communication, possibly by transferring small RNA molecules. We found that seminal exosome (SE) preparations contain a substantial amount of RNA from 20 to 100 nucleotides (nts) in length. We sequenced 20–40 and 40–100 nt fractions of SE RNA separately from six semen donors. We found various classes of small non-coding RNA, including microRNA (21.7% of the RNA in the 20–40 nt fraction) as well as abundant Y RNAs and tRNAs present in both fractions. Specific RNAs were consistently present in all donors. For example, 10 (of ∼2600 known) microRNAs constituted over 40% of mature microRNA in SE. Additionally, tRNA fragments were strongly enriched for 5’-ends of 18–19 or 30–34 nts in length; such tRNA fragments repress translation. Thus, SE could potentially deliver regulatory signals to the recipient mucosa via transfer of small RNA molecules.
Efferent Association Pathways from the Rostral Prefrontal Cortex in the Macaque Monkey

The different prefrontal cortical regions exert executive control over processing occurring in posterior cortical regions. We examined with the autoradiographic method, in the macaque monkey, the course and terminations of the efferent corticocortical connections of the rostral prefrontal region, the function of which is least understood. Three efferent streams of fibers organized into three distinct fasciculi convey rostral prefrontal influences on posterior cortical areas. These connections provide powerful insights into the cortical regions on which executive control is being exercised. The lateral stream of fibers via the extreme capsule targets the midsection of the auditory superior temporal region and the multisensory areas of the superior temporal sulcus, thus permitting control over the most integrated aspects of cognitive processing. The fibers coursing through the extreme capsule originating in areas 10 and 9 continue as part of the white matter of the superior temporal gyrus (i.e., the middle longitudinal fasciculus) to target the midportion of the superior temporal gyrus (areas TAa, TS2, and TS3) and adjacent multisensory area TPO within the upper bank of the superior temporal sulcus. Some of the fibers from areas 10 and 9 that enter the extreme capsule terminate in the ventral part of the insula. The dorsomedial limbic stream via the cingulate fasciculus targets the anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, as well as the retrosplenial cortex, allowing control over motivational and memory processes. A ventral limbic stream via the uncinate fasciculus targets the temporal proisocortex and the amygdala, indicating an additional powerful influence over the emotional motivational sphere.
Contextual scene segmentation of driving behavior based on double articulation analyzer

Various advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs) have recently been developed, such as Adaptive Cruise Control and Precrash Safety System. However, most ADASs can operate in only some driving situations because of the difficulty of recognizing contextual information. For closer cooperation between a driver and vehicle, the vehicle should recognize a wider range of situations, similar to that recognized by the driver, and assist the driver with appropriate timing. In this paper, we assumed a double articulation structure in driving behavior data and segmented driving behavior into meaningful chunks for driving scene recognition in a similar manner to natural language processing (NLP). A double articulation analyzer translated the driving behavior into meaningless manemes, which are the smallest units of the driving behavior just like phonemes in NLP, and from them it constructed navemes, which are meaningful chunks of driving behavior just like morphemes. As a result of this two-phase analysis, we found that driving chunks equivalent to language words were closer to the complicated or contextual driving scene segmentation produced by human recognition.