Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘Compulsive’ lever pressing in rats is enhanced following lesions to the orbital cortex, but not to the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala or to the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex

In a new rat model of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), ‘compulsive’ behaviour is induced by attenuating a signal indicating that a lever‐press response was effective in producing food. We have recently found that compulsive lever pressing is increased following lesions to the rat orbital cortex, in accordance with several lines of evidence implicating the orbitofrontal cortex in the pathophysiology of OCD. In view of the functional similarities between the orbital cortex, the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex, the present study compared the effects of lesions to these three regions. The present study replicated the finding that lesions to the rat orbital cortex enhance compulsive lever pressing. In contrast, lesions to the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and to the basolateral amygdala did not affect compulsive lever pressing. A comparison of these findings to current knowledge regarding similarities and differences in the functioning of the three regions sheds light on the mechanism by which signal attenuation induces compulsive lever pressing and on the role played by the orbital cortex in compulsive behaviour.
Scoring Coreference Partitions of Predicted Mentions: A Reference Implementation

The definitions of two coreference scoring metrics- B3 and CEAF-are underspecified with respect to predicted, as opposed to key (or gold) mentions. Several variations have been proposed that manipulate either, or both, the key and predicted mentions in order to get a one-to-one mapping. On the other hand, the metric BLANC was, until recently, limited to scoring partitions of key mentions. In this paper, we (i) argue that mention manipulation for scoring predicted mentions is unnecessary, and potentially harmful as it could produce unintuitive results; (ii) illustrate the application of all these measures to scoring predicted mentions; (iii) make available an open-source, thoroughly-tested reference implementation of the main coreference evaluation measures; and (iv) rescore the results of the CoNLL-2011/2012 shared task systems with this implementation. This will help the community accurately measure and compare new end-to-end coreference resolution algorithms.
Corporate governance and Board Effectiveness: beyond formalism

Mainstream research on boards of directors has been focusing on a direct relationship between board characteristics and firm performance, but up till now the results are inconclusive. Different reasons are put forward to explain this inconsistency, but it can be argued that ‘traditional’ board research has been neglecting potential intervening variables. In this paper we present a process-oriented model for board effectiveness by relying on the corporate governance literature and the literature on group effectiveness. We follow the input-process-output approach to extract the significant variables from literature and integrate them into a research framework for studying board effectiveness. In particular, we identify three intervening variables (cohesiveness, debate and conflict norms) which we believe mediate the effects of board characteristics on board performance. The rationale for including these ‘process’ variables is the belief that the interactions and relationships among board members determine to a large extent the collective outcomes of the board of directors. In this respect, the model goes beyond the traditional structural attributes of boards of directors to include behavioural or attitudinal measures of board effectiveness. It also highlights the need for a multi-disciplinary approach in empirical research on boards of directors.
Explorer The Mandarin Childhood Autism Spectrum Test ( CAST )

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A Lifespan Perspective on Embodied Cognition

Since its infancy embodied cognition research has fundamentally changed our understanding of how action, perception, and cognition relate to and interact with each other. Ideas from different schools of thought have led to controversial theories and a unifying framework is still being debated. In this perspective paper, we argue that in order to improve our understanding of embodied cognition and to take significant steps toward a comprehensive framework, a lifespan approach is mandatory. Given that most established theories have been developed and tested in the adult population, which is characterized by relatively robust and stable sensorimotor and cognitive abilities, we deem it questionable whether embodied cognition effects found in this population are representative for different life stages such as childhood or the elderly. In contrast to adulthood, childhood is accompanied by a rapid increase of sensorimotor and cognitive skills, and the old age by a decline of such capacities. Hence, sensorimotor and cognitive capacities, as well as their interactions, are more fragile at both extremes of the lifespan, thereby offering a unique window into the emergence of embodied cognition effects and age-related differences therein. A lifespan approach promises to make a major contribution toward a unifying and comprehensive theory of embodied cognition that is valid across the lifespan and ‘gets better with age. ’
Genome-wide interaction study of smoking and bladder cancer risk.

Bladder cancer is a complex disease with known environmental and genetic risk factors. We performed a genome-wide interaction study (GWAS) of smoking and bladder cancer risk based on primary scan data from 3002 cases and 4411 controls from the National Cancer Institute Bladder Cancer GWAS. Alternative methods were used to evaluate both additive and multiplicative interactions between individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and smoking exposure. SNPs with interaction P values < 5 × 10(-) (5) were evaluated further in an independent dataset of 2422 bladder cancer cases and 5751 controls. We identified 10 SNPs that showed association in a consistent manner with the initial dataset and in the combined dataset, providing evidence of interaction with tobacco use. Further, two of these novel SNPs showed strong evidence of association with bladder cancer in tobacco use subgroups that approached genome-wide significance. Specifically, rs1711973 (FOXF2) on 6p25.3 was a susceptibility SNP for never smokers [combined odds ratio (OR) = 1.34, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.20-1.50, P value = 5.18 × 10(-) (7)]; and rs12216499 (RSPH3-TAGAP-EZR) on 6q25.3 was a susceptibility SNP for ever smokers (combined OR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.67-0.84, P value = 6.35 × 10(-) (7)). In our analysis of smoking and bladder cancer, the tests for multiplicative interaction seemed to more commonly identify susceptibility loci with associations in never smokers, whereas the additive interaction analysis identified more loci with associations among smokers-including the known smoking and NAT2 acetylation interaction. Our findings provide additional evidence of gene-environment interactions for tobacco and bladder cancer.
Can Imprisonment Be Cheaper? The Law and Economics of Private Prisons

Custody is the most expensive method of punishment in the western world, as compared to other alternatives. Although expensive, prison is an indispensible instrument to deal with judgment proof or dangerous offenders. Hence, by using the law and economics approach, this paper explores prison privatization as an instrument for less expensive incarceration. This method has the potential to reduce the prison costs without hampering its quality. However, a restructuring of the current contracts is needed to achieve this purpose. The attention given to the topic of private prisons by the law and economics scholars, especially in the European context, is limited and this paper attempts to fill this gap. The present paper applies arguments from the bureaucracy and political science literature to explain the inefficiencies of public prisons. Subsequently, the potential problems of private prisons are presented through the principle-agent model and solutions are offered.
Impact of Congestion Charge on Retail: London Experience

The effect of London’s congestion charge on the retail sector has aroused considerable interest since the introduction of the scheme in February 2003. Many unusual events that may have had an impact on retail sales in central London happened in close succession in 2003 (e.g. the closure of the Central Line and the Iraq War). This makes it difficult to isolate the effect of the congestion charge which was introduced at about the same time. We investigate the impact of the congestion charge using a variety of econometric models applied to a total retail sales index for central London (monthly) and weekly retail sales data for six John Lewis stores (the Oxford Street store inside the charging zone and five other stores in the London area but outside the charging zone). The results from the analysis broadly suggest that the charge had a significant impact on sales at the John Lewis store in Oxford Street (inside the charging zone) over the period studied. However, the analysis also suggests the charge did not affect overall retail sales in central London, an area larger than but encompassing the congestion charging zone. While estimating the impact of the congestion charge, the study controls for other factors which may also influence retail sales such as London GVA (Gross Value Added), London tourism, Consumer Price Index (CPI), the closure of the Central Line and various annual events of importance to retail.
Internal Geography and External Trade: Regional Disparities in Italy, 1861-2011

This paper explores the interactions between external trade and regional disparities in the Italian economy since unification. It argues that the advantage of the North was initially based on natural advantage (in particular the endowment of water, intensive in silk production). From 1880 onwards the share of exports in GDP stagnated and then declined; domestic market access therefore became a key determinant of industrial location, inducing fast growing new sectors (especially engineering) to locate in regions with a large domestic market, i.e. in the North. From 1945 onwards trade growth and European integration meant that foreign market access was the decisive factor; the North had the advantage of proximity to these markets.
QUANTIFICATION OF RESIDUAL AXIAL CAPACITY OF BEAM- COLUMN JOINTS IN EXISTING CONCRETE BUILDINGS UNDER SEISMIC LOAD REVERSALS

Earthquake reconnaissance has reported the substantial damage that can result from inadequate beam-column joints in earthquake shaking. In some cases, failure of older- type corner joints appears to have led to building collapse. Insignificant research attention has been focused on beam-column joints of older construction that may be seismically vul- nerable. Concrete buildings constructed prior to developing details for ductility in the 1970s normally lack joint transverse reinforcement (unconfined joints). The available literature concerning the performance of such joints is relatively limited, but concerns about their seis- mic axial failure exist. The main goal of this study is to quantify the axial collapse vulnera- bility of shear-damaged unconfined exterior and corner beam-column joints under cyclic load reversals. The quantification of the residual axial capacity of these joints is performed incor- porating the test results of four full-scale three dimensional corner beam-column joint sub- assemblages, along with few other tests available in the literature to develop analytical mod- els for joint axial capacity. Two axial capacity models designed for unconfined joints were developed. The proposed models correlated with previous test results. Within the practical range of beam-column joint dimensions, the axial failure appears unlikely. However, this re- sult is obtained based on a small dataset. More tests are needed to verify the developed mod- els and to investigate the axial failure likelihood for joint dimensions not included in the presented models.
Towards culturally aware robot navigation

When we look towards the world of humans and robots harmonically working together in a social environment, the robots should behave in cultural norms. A culturally aware robot navigation is highly expected to enable mobile service robots to politely and respectfully navigate among humans in human-robot shared workspaces. In this paper, we present a foundation of culturally aware robot navigation for mobile service robots in a social environment. The culturally aware robot navigation system is developed by integrating extended personal spaces representing individual states and social interaction spaces representing human-robot interactions and human groups. The culturally aware robot navigation plays the role of human-aware decision making upon the conventional robot navigation system to ensure that a mobile service robot is capable of detecting and identifying social contexts and situations to culturally navigate in human appearances. Simulation results illustrate our methodological approach.
Rabstein in Mice Lymphosarcoma : Virus-induced Thymic-independent Disease

SUMMARY A new murine oncogenic virus has been isolated which induces solid lymphoid tumors within a short latent period. A unique feature of this disease is the lack of thymic involvement. Thymic-independent tumor induction distin guishes this virus from the other experimental murine lymphoid leukemia viruses. In addition, massive meningeal tumors, a myelocytic leukemoid reaction, and no evidence of a disseminated leukemia constitute this disease syndrome.
Architecture and Evaluation of the MIT Roofnet Mesh Network ( DRAFT )

This paper describes the design and performance of Roofnet, an 802.11b mesh network for Internet access. Roofnet consists of more than 40 nodes spread over an eight square kilometer urban area. Its principle design goal is to allow unmanaged deployment and operation, to better support the growth of community networks with open access policies. This goal has influenced many levels of the design, from the choice of antenna to the routing metric to the IP address allocation plan. A key challenge for an unmanaged wireless network is that lack of careful planning might render the network’s performance unusably low. For example, acceptable performance might require siting relay or wired gateway nodes in optimized locations, or using multiple frequencies to reduce interference, or improving signal strength with directional antennas. This paper evaluates Roofnet to show that it has good performance despite lack of planning: the average inter-node throughput is 88 kilobytes/second, even though the average inter-node route is three hops. The paper answers a number of questions about Roofnet’s architecture, such as the performance impacts of node density, gateway placement, and path length; finally, the paper compares Roofnet’s performance to the performance of an access-point network using the same set of nodes.
Occupational Stereotypes and Gender‐Specific Job Satisfaction

Using representative data containing information on job satisfaction and worker’s gender-specific prejudices, we investigate the relationship between stereotyping and job satisfaction. We show that women in stereotypically male jobs are significantly less satisfied with their work climate and job contents than in stereotypically female jobs but more satisfied with their income in those same jobs. Our findings indicate that women trade-off their higher income satisfaction against the negative consequences of stereotyping. As long as we take into account that stereotypically male jobs are physically more demanding than stereotypically female jobs, men are generally more satisfied with stereotypically male jobs.
Electrophysiological studies on the temporal organ of the Japanese house centipede, Thereuonema hilgendorfi

The response of the temporal organ (organ of Tomosvary) has been studied electrophysiologically in the Japanese house centipede ( Thereuonema hilgendorfi : Chilopoda). 1. 1. Receptor cells of the temporal organ show spontaneous discharges (15–40 impulses s−1) which are depressed in a phasic-tonic manner by carbon dioxide stimuli. Perfusion of the presumed receptor site with a carbon dioxide-containing solution also changes the impulse frequency. 2. 2. The impulse frequency of a receptor cell decreases linearly with a logarithmic increase in carbon dioxide concentration ranging from 0.001 % to 0.1 % in the phasic state and from 0.05% to 5.0% in the tonic state. These results suggest that the temporal organ of the house centipede functions as a carbon dioxide receptor, though it responds to other stimuli as described below. 3. 3. Changing the pH of a carbon dioxide-containing solution changes the impulse frequency, probably by changing the molar fraction of CO2 molecules in the lymph surrounding the receptor site. pH also directly influences the impulse frequency of the receptor cell, but the effect is smaller than that of CO2 molecules. 4. 4. Receptor cells respond to humidity changes, but the response is smaller than that to carbon dioxide. When receptor cells are stimulated by moist air (100% relative humidity, RH) after adaptation to dry air (0% RH), the impulse frequency increases by a factor of 1.29 ± 0.37 (mean ± S.D. measured for the first second, N = 29), and 1.16 % 0.28 (measured after adaptation to moist air, N = 29). 5. 5. Air-borne chemicals also affect the impulse frequency of a receptor cell; it is increased by amines and decreased by fatty acids and aldehydes. Effects of these chemicals are discussed in relation to changing the pH of lymph bathing the receptor site. Note:
Factors influencing income inequality across urban Argentina (1998-2003)

This paper tries to disentangle the most relevant determinants of spatial inequality in the urban areas of Argentina. The analysis is restricted to the period 1998-2003. The study is performed with a Panel Data approach using a random effects model. Results suggest that human capital, measured by rates of education completion, is an important contributor to spatial inequality. High rates of primary education appear to reduce inequality while higher rates of secondary education appear to increase it. Labor market characteristics also play a role: urban areas with higher unemployment rates, higher returns to education and a lower percentage of people employed in the secondary sector tend to have higher levels of inequality. Also, dependency and the percentage of people with unsatisfied basic needs have increasing-inequality effects. Finally, there seems to be a relationship between inequality and the level of development, though not with a clear inverted-U pattern as hypothesized by Kuznets. Results are robust to different measures of inequality and different income specifications.
A Fast and Stable Solver for Singular Integral Equations on Piecewise Smooth Curves

A scheme for the numerical solution of singular integral equations on piecewise smooth curves is presented. It relies on several techniques: reduction, Nystrom discretization, composite quadrature, recursive compressed inverse preconditioning, and multipole acceleration. The scheme is fast and stable. Its computational cost grows roughly logarithmically with the precision sought and linearly with overall system size. When the integral equation models a boundary value problem, the achievable accuracy may be close to the condition number of that problem times machine epsilon. This is illustrated by application to elastostatic problems involving zigzag-shaped cracks with up to twenty thousand corners and branched cracks with hundreds of triple junctions.
Negotiating a career in the academy: A comparison of decisions, strategies and definitions of success as described by male and female university administrators.

The problem of under representation of women in senior ranks of academia persists. The literature posits that at the heart of the issue are masculinist-gendered organizations that remain covertly inhospitable to women, families, and flexible career paths. After 40 years of examination and activism, academic women have not managed to shift the balance of power. This study asks what we can learn about career negotiation from senior academic administrators who work in places of power. In the first phase of the study, a phenomenological approach was used to interview six academic administrators (three men and three women) about: how their careers unfolded; their experience of negotiating for personal benefit; how they identified career opportunities; how they defined career success; what leadership traits were valued by their organization; what they saw as the rewards and drawbacks of administration; if they had experienced or witnessed gender bias; how they understood organizational power; how they balanced their public and private lives; and, how they saw the problem of under representation being resolved. In the second phase of the study, the experience of an administrative career was viewed through the lens of academic women who were either moving towards or away from such an option. Three theoretical frames were used to elucidate the research data: 1. Feminist standpoint theory; 2. Charles Taylor's three-axis expansion; and, 3. iii
An Event-related fMRI Study of Exogenous Facilitation and Inhibition of Return in the Auditory Modality

The orienting of attention to different locations in space is fundamental to most organisms and occurs in all sensory modalities. Orienting has been extensively studied in vision, but to date, few studies have investigated neuronal networks underlying automatic orienting of attention and inhibition of return to auditory signals. In the current experiment, functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral data were collected while healthy volunteers performed an auditory orienting task in which a monaurally presented tone pip (cue) correctly or incorrectly cued the location of a target tone pip. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the cue and target was 100 or 800 msec. Behavioral results were consistent with previous studies showing that valid auditory cues produced facilitation at the short SOA and inhibition of return at the long SOA. Functional results indicated that the reorienting of attention (100 msec SOA) and inhibition of return (800 msec SOA) were mediated by both common and distinct neuronal structures. Both attention mechanisms commonly activated a network consisting of fronto-oculomotor areas, the left postcentral gyrus, right premotor area, and bilateral tonsil of the cerebellum. Several distinct areas of frontal and parietal activation were identified for the reorienting condition, whereas the right inferior parietal lobule was the only structure uniquely associated with inhibition of return.