Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Context-Based Facilitation in Visual Word Recognition: Evidence for Visual and Lexical But Not Pre-Lexical Contributions

Abstract Word familiarity and predictive context facilitate visual word processing, leading to faster recognition times and reduced neuronal responses. Previously, models with and without top-down connections, including lexical-semantic, pre-lexical (e.g., orthographic/phonological), and visual processing levels were successful in accounting for these facilitation effects. Here we systematically assessed context-based facilitation with a repetition priming task and explicitly dissociated pre-lexical and lexical processing levels using a pseudoword (PW) familiarization procedure. Experiment 1 investigated the temporal dynamics of neuronal facilitation effects with magnetoencephalography (MEG; N = 38 human participants), while experiment 2 assessed behavioral facilitation effects (N = 24 human participants). Across all stimulus conditions, MEG demonstrated context-based facilitation across multiple time windows starting at 100 ms, in occipital brain areas. This finding indicates context-based facilitation at an early visual processing level. In both experiments, we furthermore found an interaction of context and lexical familiarity, such that stimuli with associated meaning showed the strongest context-dependent facilitation in brain activation and behavior. Using MEG, this facilitation effect could be localized to the left anterior temporal lobe at around 400 ms, indicating within-level (i.e., exclusively lexical-semantic) facilitation but no top-down effects on earlier processing stages. Increased pre-lexical familiarity (in PWs familiarized utilizing training) did not enhance or reduce context effects significantly. We conclude that context-based facilitation is achieved within visual and lexical processing levels. Finally, by testing alternative hypotheses derived from mechanistic accounts of repetition suppression, we suggest that the facilitatory context effects found here are implemented using a predictive coding mechanism.
Supporting VBR VoIP Traffic in IEEE 802.11 WLAN in PCF Mode

With fast deployment of wireless local area networks (WLANs), the ability of WLAN to support real time services with stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements is attracting ever-increasing research interest. In this paper, we evaluate the capability of the point coordination function (PCF), which is part of the medium access control (MAC) mechanisms specified in the IEEE 802.11 standard for WLANs to support voice over IP (VoIP) applications. The capability of PCF mode in support of variable bit rate (VBR) VoIP traffic is investigated, where the silence suppression technique is employed in voice codecs so that no packets are generated in silence period. The impact of voice traffic burstiness and load on the average end to end delay is also evaluated, and various voice models are used to compare the results. Our simulation shows that under the PCF mode the end to end delay of VoIP traffic may be effectively reduced by using VBR mode for the VoIP traffic. Moreover, the end to end delay is not sensitive to the burstiness of the voice traffic. These features make the PCF channel access method a promising alternative for conveying VoIP traffic in present IEEE 802.11 WLANs.
Time and space-correlated plasma potential measurements in the near field of a coaxial Hall plasma discharge

Space- and time-correlated measurements of floating and plasma potential are made in the near field, external flow cathode region of a coaxial Hall plasma discharge using an emissive probe synchronized to quasicoherent fluctuations in discharge current. The luminous axial feature frequently observed in the near field of operating plasma accelerators is found to be concomitant with a spike in the plasma potential (and electron temperature). The structure of the plasma potential allows for multiple avenues for back-streaming ions to accelerate toward the discharge front pole and may pull some classes of ions toward the central axis. The fluctuations in plasma properties exhibit a complex structure at frequencies on the order of the so-called “breathing mode” ionization instability often seen in these types of discharges. Most notably, the plasma potential appears to fluctuate in a helical fashion, resembling tilted drift waves rotating about the central axis. A simple analysis of these waves draws attention.
Cognitive function, physical activity, and aging: Possible biological links and implications for multimodal interventions

ABSTRACT Increasing evidence shows the positive effect of physical activity (PA) on maintaining cognitive function. Both processes seem intrinsically linked to each other. The most likely mechanism is a reciprocal stimulation of neuroplasticity. Based on extensive experimental work on animals and humans, the concept of an enriched environment, including PA and challenging cognitive tasks, has provided the basis to systematically assess possible interventions for successful aging. I will use recent findings on brain mechanisms associated with PA and its effects on higher cognitive function at a systems and molecular level to demonstrate the need to design effective interventions. Such interventions should be designed to take advantage of the presumed compensatory mechanisms of elderly individuals, thereby limiting functional decline in higher cognitive performance in aging people. My review of the most recent relevant publications concerning this topic supports the notion that it is a promising approach to provide cognitive training and PA in conjunction, since the combination may generate synergistic beneficial changes than either one individually. Multimodal training programs should therefore be tested. However, at present there is insufficient evidence to conclude that multimodal interventions are superior to isolated cognitive or physical exercise interventions, since major studies addressing this topic are lacking. These studies are needed to conclusively prove that both strategies will positively interact when used in combined interventions. Finally the use of modern technology for these interventions will be discussed.
GRETA: Graph-Based Tag Assignment for GitHub Repositories

GitHub is a well-known software community where a large number of software repositories are hosted. Since large amounts of documents and code in GitHub repositories are in a mess, users cannot search or understand them efficiently. One solution is to employ a tag system, which annotates each repository with several tags. Thus, the GitHub repositories can be more efficiently accessed and understood. However, GitHub does not provide any automated tools of tagging repositories. In order to tackle this problem, we propose GRETA, a novel graph-based approach to assigning tags for repositories on GitHub. The core insight of GRETA is (1) to construct an Entity-Tag Graph (ETG) for GitHub using the domain knowledge from StackOverflow, and (2) to assign tags for repositories by taking a random walk algorithm. We have implemented GRETA and also developed a repository search engine for GitHub using the tag assignment results of GRETA. We have evaluated GRETA against several baseline methods to investigate its effectiveness of tagging GitHub repositories. The results show GRETA achieves up to 35% of F-Measure, outperforming the baseline methods. Besides, the GRETA-based search engine gains a higher NDCG value than the search engine provided by GitHub, indicating that it significantly enhances the search ability on GitHub with the tagged repositories.
Characterization of Quasi-Stationarity Regions for Vehicle-to-Vehicle Radio Channels

We analyze the nonwide-sense-stationarity (nonWSS) of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) radio channels using three metrics: 1) the correlation matrix distance (CMD); 2) the wideband spectral divergence (SD); and 3) the shadow fading correlation. The analysis is based on measurements carried out at 5.3 GHz using a 30 × 4 MIMO system in suburban, urban, and underground parking areas. Several factors such as the existence of a line-of-sight (LOS), the speed of cars, and the antenna array size and configuration are considered in the analysis of non-WSS. It is found that quasi-stationarity region ranges from 3 to 80 m in different V2V scenarios, and is strongly affected by the above factors. Based on the comparison of the equivalent quasi-stationarity region size estimated by the three metrics, it is suggested to use SD and shadowing correlation metrics for systems with small electrical array apertures and to use CMD metric only for arrays with large electrical apertures.
A New Way to Measure Divergence of Output across Countries *

This paper introduces a new way to measure divergence of output across countries. It measures how productivity, technology or output per worker in each country follow the global frontier. We find that during the years 1970-2008 most countries followed the global frontier only partially, so they diverged from it. We use the tools of ‘development accounting’ to measure by how much countries follow the global technology frontier and find that the rates of following it are even lower. Finally, we show that the result of βconvergence in growth regressions, should be interpreted as convergence of output in each country to its own productivity path, but does not imply convergence across countries.
Idiosyncratic Production Risk, Growth, and the Business Cycle

We introduce a neoclassical growth economy with idiosyncratic production risk and incomplete markets. Each agent is an entrepreneur operating her own technology with her own capital stock. The general equilibrium is characterized by a closed-form recursion in the CARA-normal case. Incomplete markets introduce a risk premium on private equity, which reduces the demand for investment. As compared to complete markets, the steady state can thus have both a lower capital stock due to investment risk, and a lower interest rate due to precautionary savings. Furthermore, the anticipation of high real interest rates in the future feeds back into high risk premia and low investment in the present, thus slowing down convergence to the steady state. Our results highlight the importance of private risk premia for capital accumulation and business cycles.
Effectiveness of Smartphone Application in Histology Practice

In recent years, the use of smartphone applications for education is increasing. Although applications are being used for various educational aspects such as exams, the study of medical educational application is lacking. This study aims to investigate the effect of educational applications on medical education by analyzing the utility of and satisfaction with educational applications for histology courses in medical schools. The researcher employed an application called “BAND” that can be used to upload and share microscopic figures taken during histology lectures. A total of 82 first-grade students from Keimyung University Medical School who participated in this study expressed satisfaction with using “BAND”. A total of 68 (83%) students were satisfied with learning histology through the application, and 72 (88%) students indicated that using the application was greatly helpful for the organizational practice test and expressed overall satisfaction with the application use. This benefit was because of easy contact (29.9%), searching ability (29.9%), and memory with humorous methods by friends (20.7%). And it application is most helpful during epithelium section (20.8%) and student want to use this application for anatomy (40.3%) or microbiology (38.8%) practices. The study results imply the need for further research so that the educational application can be used in various medical education fields in the future.
Strengths and weakness of decision support systems in reservoir operation

Aiming at sustainable development, decision-making for operation of large dams requires the assessment of complex interrelations with neighbouring environmental, economic and social subsystems. To solve this kind of highly unstructured problems often DSS are recommended. This paper presents strengths and weaknesses of DSS application in general, focusing however on large dam operation. A characterization of the large dam system at a very abstract level will define the scope of DSS application. The term DSS will be specified and elements of a DSS introduced. Strengths and weaknesses of DSS will be discussed at a general level that joins most DSS. Subsequently the specific methods applied in model and tool base of a DSS will be researched . In conclusion, the results will be summarized into recommendations for the application of DSS in the large dam context.
A near real-time approach for convolutive blind source separation

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for real-time signal processing of convolutive blind source separation (CBSS), which is a promising technique for acoustic source separation in a realistic environment, e.g., room/office or vehicle. First, we apply an overlap-and-save (sliding windows with overlapping) strategy that is most suitable for real-time CBSS processing; this approach can also aid in solving the permutation problem. Second, we consider the issue of separating sources in the frequency domain. We introduce a modified correlation matrix of observed signals and perform CBSS by diagonalization of the matrix. Third, we propose a method that can diagonalize the modified correlation matrix by solving a so-called normal equation for CBSS. One desirable feature of our proposed algorithm is that it can solve the CBSS problem explicitly, rather than stochastically, as is done with conventional algorithms. Moreover, a real-time separation of the convolutive mixtures of sources can be performed. We designed several simulations to compare the effectiveness of our algorithm with its counterpart, the gradient-based approach. Our proposed algorithm displayed superior convergence rates relative to the gradient-based approach. We also designed an experiment for testing the efficacy of the algorithm in real-time CBSS processing aimed at separating acoustic sources in realistic environments. Within this experimental context, the convergence time of our algorithms was substantially faster than that of the gradient-based algorithms. Moreover, our algorithm converges to a much lower value of the cost function than that of the gradient-based algorithm, ensuring better performance.
Autocrine laminin-5 ligates 6 4 integrin and activates RAC and NF B to mediate anchorage-independent survival of mammary tumors

1 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine and 2 Department of Bioengineering, Institute for Medicine and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 3 Program in Epithelial Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305 4 Department of Cell Biology, Cytokinetics, Inc., South San Francisco, CA 94080 5 Wells Center for Pediatrics Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202
Protective Effects of Berberine on Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation/Reperfusion on Oligodendrocyte Cell Line (OLN-93)

Background: Oligodendrocytes, the myelinating glial cells of central nervous system, are highly vulnerable to ischemic-induced excitotoxic insult, a phenomenon in which calcium overload triggers cell death. Berberine is an alkaloid extracted from medicinal herbs as Coptidis Rhizoma with several pharmacological effects like inhibition of neuronal apoptosis in cerebral ischemia. Methods: We examined the effects of berberine (0.5-4 μM) and glutamate receptors antagonists (MK-801 [10 μM] and NBQX [30 μM]) on OLN-93 cell line (a permanent immature rat oligodendrocyte) during (30, 60, 240 min) oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD)/24 h reperfusion. The cells were cultured in 12-well plates. The cells were exposed to glucose-free medium and hypoxia in a small anaerobic chamber. Cell viability was evaluated by MTT (3-[4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide) assay. The intracellular calcium levels also were evaluated by Ca2+-sensitive indicator Fura-2/AM in presence or absence of berberine (2 μM) during 30 min chemical OGD by NaN3 (20 mM). Student's t-test and ANOVA were used for statistical analysis. Results: Berberine, MK-801and NBQX significantly increased oligodendrocyte viability in all 3 time-scheduled oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion. Berberine at 2 μM produced peak of protection, and increased cell viability to 83%, 77%, and 79% during 30, 60, 240 min ischemic experiments, respectively (P < 0.001). Berberine significantly attenuated intracellular Ca2+ rise induced by chemical ischemia, and this effect of berberine was significantly stronger than MK-801 and NBQX (P < 0.001). Conclusions: We concluded that berberine protected OLN-93 oligodendrocyte against ischemic induced excitotoxic injury. Attenuation of intracellular Ca2+ overload by berberine may be the key mechanism that saved OLN-93 from excitotoxicity damage.
Correlation of clinical and virologic responses to antiviral treatment and regulatory T cell evolution in patients with hepatitis C virus-induced mixed cryoglobulinemia vasculitis.

OBJECTIVE Mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC) vasculitis is an autoimmune disorder associated with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We previously reported that MC vasculitis is associated with a quantitative defect of peripheral blood regulatory T cells. The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the evolution of this defect during the course of antiviral treatment. METHODS Treg cell frequencies and numbers were analyzed in 131 patients with chronic HCV infection (including 66 with MC vasculitis) and 20 healthy volunteer donors. Measurements were taken before, during, and after treatment with PEGylated interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin. RESULTS At baseline, patients with MC vasculitis had a significantly lower frequency and number of Treg cells than did patients without MC vasculitis. Complete remission of MC vasculitis following antiviral treatment was associated with a significant increase in Treg cell levels compared with baseline. In contrast, Treg cell levels in nonresponders or partial responders, which did not differ from those in complete responders at baseline, remained unchanged over the course of the study. CONCLUSION The strong positive correlation between clinical responses and Treg cell levels provides further support for the central role of Treg cells in the pathogenesis of HCV-induced MC vasculitis and emphasizes the dual role of Treg cells in chronic HCV infection: while Treg cells may hinder viral elimination, they also limit autoimmune injury.
Bandwidth Allocation Strategies in Wide-Band Integrated Networks

A common digital transmission facility in a wide-band integrated service digital network (ISDN) provides shared access to a community of heterogeneous users. Traffic demands from these users vary in their arrival rate, their service time, and their bit rate. In order for this type of communication system to handle its traffic demands with high efficiency and flexibility, a close control of access to the shared bandwidth is required. We model the system by a general multiserver queueing system where customers demand service from a random number of servers. If no waiting is allowed, this queueing model is readily analyzed, and various server allocation strategies can be studied. If the various access requests are queued for service, then the system calls for efficient strategies for allocating servers to waiting customers. In this case, exact analysis of the underlying queueing model becomes quite difficult. For this case, we present some analytic and simulation results of the performance of the system under several server allocation policies.
Descriptive Epidemiology of Typhoid Fever during an Epidemic in Harare, Zimbabwe, 2012

Background Typhoid fever remains a significant public health problem in developing countries. In October 2011, a typhoid fever epidemic was declared in Harare, Zimbabwe - the fourth enteric infection epidemic since 2008. To orient control activities, we described the epidemiology and spatiotemporal clustering of the epidemic in Dzivaresekwa and Kuwadzana, the two most affected suburbs of Harare. Methods A typhoid fever case-patient register was analysed to describe the epidemic. To explore clustering, we constructed a dataset comprising GPS coordinates of case-patient residences and randomly sampled residential locations (spatial controls). The scale and significance of clustering was explored with Ripley K functions. Cluster locations were determined by a random labelling technique and confirmed using Kulldorff's spatial scan statistic. Principal Findings We analysed data from 2570 confirmed and suspected case-patients, and found significant spatiotemporal clustering of typhoid fever in two non-overlapping areas, which appeared to be linked to environmental sources. Peak relative risk was more than six times greater than in areas lying outside the cluster ranges. Clusters were identified in similar geographical ranges by both random labelling and Kulldorff's spatial scan statistic. The spatial scale at which typhoid fever clustered was highly localised, with significant clustering at distances up to 4.5 km and peak levels at approximately 3.5 km. The epicentre of infection transmission shifted from one cluster to the other during the course of the epidemic. Conclusions This study demonstrated highly localised clustering of typhoid fever during an epidemic in an urban African setting, and highlights the importance of spatiotemporal analysis for making timely decisions about targetting prevention and control activities and reinforcing treatment during epidemics. This approach should be integrated into existing surveillance systems to facilitate early detection of epidemics and identify their spatial range.
Genitourinary syndrome of menopause: effects on related factors, quality of life, and self-care power

Introduction This study aimed to determine the effects of genitourinary syndrome of menopause on related factors, quality of life, and self-care power. Material and methods This case-control epidemiological study included 300 postmenopausal women aged 48-60 years who were divided into two groups: the case group (141) with genitourinary syndrome and the control group (159) without genitourinary syndrome. Data were evaluated by chi-square and t-tests in independent groups and logistic regression analysis. Results The incidence of genitourinary syndrome of menopause was 0.61 times higher in women with a lower educational level than in those with a high educational level, 0.44 times higher in those with chronic disease than in those without, 2.54 times higher in those who continuously used medication than in those who did not, and 2.45 times higher in those with urinary incontinence than in those without. The mean Self-Care Power Scale score was significantly higher in the control group (101.52 ±21.50) than in the case group (83.96 ±25.64). The mean Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Scale score was significantly higher in the case group (65.52 ±33.47) than in the control group (37.06 ±25.81). Conclusions Low educational level, chronic disease, urinary incontinence, and continuous drug use are associated with genitourinary syndrome of menopause, which negatively affects the quality of life and self-care power in women.