Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overt Visual Attention as a Causal Factor of Perceptual Awareness

Our everyday conscious experience of the visual world is fundamentally shaped by the interaction of overt visual attention and object awareness. Although the principal impact of both components is undisputed, it is still unclear how they interact. Here we recorded eye-movements preceding and following conscious object recognition, collected during the free inspection of ambiguous and corresponding unambiguous stimuli. Using this paradigm, we demonstrate that fixations recorded prior to object awareness predict the later recognized object identity, and that subjects accumulate more evidence that is consistent with their later percept than for the alternative. The timing of reached awareness was verified by a reaction-time based correction method and also based on changes in pupil dilation. Control experiments, in which we manipulated the initial locus of visual attention, confirm a causal influence of overt attention on the subsequent result of object perception. The current study thus demonstrates that distinct patterns of overt attentional selection precede object awareness and thereby directly builds on recent electrophysiological findings suggesting two distinct neuronal mechanisms underlying the two phenomena. Our results emphasize the crucial importance of overt visual attention in the formation of our conscious experience of the visual world.
Perceptual inference and learning in autism : a behavioral and neurophysiological approach

How we perceive our environment relies both on sensory information and on our priors or expectations. Within the Baysian framework, these priors capture the underlying statistical regularities of our environment and allow inferring sensation causes. Recently, Bayesian brain theories suggested that autistic symptoms could arise from an atypical weighting of sensory information and priors. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is characterized defined by difficulties in social interactions, by restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, and by an atypical sensory perception.This thesis aims at characterizing perceptual inference and learning in ASD, and studies sensory sensitivity and prior learning. This was investigated using behavioral tasks, computational models, questionnaires, functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy in adults with or without ASD. Sensory profiles in people with high autism spectrum quotients were first refined, using a questionnaire that we validated in French. The study of perceptual learning strategies then revealed that subjects with ASD were less inclined to spontaneously use a learning style enabling generalization. The implicit learning of priors was explored and showed that subjects with ASD were able to build up a prior but had difficulties adjusting it in changing contexts. Finally, the investigation of the neurophysiological correlates and molecular underpinnings of a similar task showed that perceptual decisions biased by priors relied on a distinct neural network in ASD, and was not related to the same modulation by the glutamate/GABA ratio.The overall results shed light on an atypical learning and weighting of priors in ASD, resulting in an abnormal perceptual inference. A Bayesian approach could help characterizing ASD and could contribute to ASD diagnosis and care
Emergence of MERS-CoV in the Middle East: Origins, Transmission, Treatment, and Perspectives

Two years have passed since the initial description of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), yet the epidemic is far from being controlled. The high case fatality rate, the recent steep increase in reported cases, and the potential to cause a global pandemic during the upcoming Hajj season are serious concerns. Although a wealth of information about the pathophysiology, proposed animal reservoir, and intermediate host has been revealed, many questions remain unanswered. We herein review MERS-CoV, covering its proposed origins, route of transmission, treatment options, and future perspectives.
Multiple Linkage Disequilibrium Mapping Methods to Validate Additive Quantitative Trait Loci in Korean Native Cattle (Hanwoo)

The efficiency of genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) depends on power of detection for quantitative trait loci (QTL) and precision for QTL mapping. In this study, three different strategies for GWAS were applied to detect QTL for carcass quality traits in the Korean cattle, Hanwoo; a linkage disequilibrium single locus regression method (LDRM), a combined linkage and linkage disequilibrium analysis (LDLA) and a BayesCπ approach. The phenotypes of 486 steers were collected for weaning weight (WWT), yearling weight (YWT), carcass weight (CWT), backfat thickness (BFT), longissimus dorsi muscle area, and marbling score (Marb). Also the genotype data for the steers and their sires were scored with the Illumina bovine 50K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips. For the two former GWAS methods, threshold values were set at false discovery rate <0.01 on a chromosome-wide level, while a cut-off threshold value was set in the latter model, such that the top five windows, each of which comprised 10 adjacent SNPs, were chosen with significant variation for the phenotype. Four major additive QTL from these three methods had high concordance found in 64.1 to 64.9Mb for Bos taurus autosome (BTA) 7 for WWT, 24.3 to 25.4Mb for BTA14 for CWT, 0.5 to 1.5Mb for BTA6 for BFT and 26.3 to 33.4Mb for BTA29 for BFT. Several candidate genes (i.e. glutamate receptor, ionotropic, ampa 1 [GRIA1], family with sequence similarity 110, member B [FAM110B], and thymocyte selection-associated high mobility group box [TOX]) may be identified close to these QTL. Our result suggests that the use of different linkage disequilibrium mapping approaches can provide more reliable chromosome regions to further pinpoint DNA makers or causative genes in these regions.
The global footprint of mobile communications: The ecological and economic perspective

This article quantifies the global carbon footprint of mobile communication systems, and discusses its ecological and economic implications. Using up-to-date data and life cycle assessment models, we predict an increase of CO2 equivalent emissions by a factor of three until 2020 compared to 2007, rising from about 86 to 235 Mto CO2e, suggesting a steeper increase than predicted in the well-known SMART2020 report. We provide a breakdown of the global carbon footprint, which reveals that production of mobile devices and global radio access network operation will remain the major contributors, accompanied by an increasing share of emissions due to data transfer in the backbone resulting from rising mobile traffic volumes. The energy bill due to network operation will gain increasing importance in cellular business models. Furthermore, technologies to reduce energy consumption are considered a key enabler for the spread of mobile communications in developing countries. Taking into account several scenarios of technological advancement and rollout, we analyze the overall energy consumption of global radio access networks and illustrate the saving potential of green communication technologies. We conclude that, conditioned on quick implementation and alongside other "classical" improvements of spectral efficiency, these technologies offer the potential to serve three orders of magnitude more traffic with the same overall energy consumption as today.
Temporal scaling in river flow: can it be chaotic? / L’invariance d’échelle de l’écoulement fluvial peut-elle être chaotique?

Abstract Abstract Identification of the presence of scaling in the river flow process has been a challenging problem in hydrology. Studies conducted thus far have viewed this problem essentially from a stochastic perspective, because the river flow process has traditionally been assumed to be a result of a very large number of variables. However, recent studies employing nonlinear deterministic and chaotic dynamic concepts have reported that the river flow process could also be the outcome of a deterministic system with only a few dominant variables. In the wake of such reports, a preliminary attempt is made in this study to investigate the type of scaling behaviour in the river flow process (i.e. chaotic or stochastic). The investigation is limited only to temporal scaling. Flow data of three different scales (daily, 5-day and 7-day) observed in each of three rivers in the USA: the Kentucky River in Kentucky, the Merced River in California and the Stillaguamish River in Washington, are analysed. It is assumed that the dynamic behaviour of the river flow process at these individual scales provides clues about the scaling behaviour between these scales. The correlation dimension is used as an indicator to distinguish between chaotic and stochastic behaviours. The results are mixed with regard to the type of flow behaviour at individual scales and, hence, to the type of scaling behaviour, as some data sets show chaotic behaviour while others show stochastic behaviour. They suggest that characterization (chaotic or stochastic) of river flow should be a necessary first step in any scaling study, as it could provide important information on the appropriate approach for data transformation purposes.
Spillover and Backward Linkage Effects of FDI: Empirical Evidence for the UK

Recent work (including that of the author) on the impact of FDI has been based on microlevel (i.e. firms, establishments or plants) data, since this allows much greater control when examining such issues as whether FDI plants are more productive or innovative; whether there are spillovers to indigenous plants from FDI; and whether foreign-owned plants can facilitate the building-up of clusters. The traditional approach (which is still prevalent in the literature) considers whether those industries and/or regions with the greatest concentrations of FDI experience higher productivity, growth, spillovers, clustering affects, but such analysis does not tackle the issue of cause-and-effect and therefore amounts to little more than observing correlations between the growth of FDI in an industry/region and the overall growth of the industry/region. If FDI plants are attracted to co-locate with better performing industries and/or ‘regions’ (to benefit from potential spillovers themselves), then this does not amount to FDI necessarily being the source of greater economic benefits. Thus the purpose of this review paper is to report on the empirical evidence for the UK (recent and historical) specifically related to: (i) FDI plants – are they ‘better’ (i.e. have higher productivity, or more innovative, etc)? And predicated on whether FDI is better: (ii) are there spillovers from FDI? Lastly, (iii) are clusters established around FDI plants? The limitations of this evidence-base are discussed and, together with the results reported in the literature, resulting in some key research questions that need to be addressed in future empirical work, especially at the spatial level in the UK.
The dynamical background of polar mesosphere winter echoes from simultaneous EISCAT and ESRAD observations

Abstract. On 30 October 2004 during a strong solar proton event, layers of enhanced backscatter from altitudes between 55 and 75km have been observed by both ESRAD (52MHz) and the EISCAT VHF (224MHz) radars. These echoes have earlier been termed Polar Mesosphere Winter Echoes, PMWE. After considering the morphology of the layers and their relation to observed atmospheric waves, we conclude that the radars have likely seen the same phenomenon even though the radars' scattering volumes are located about 220km apart and that the most long-lasting layer is likely associated with wind-shear in an inertio-gravity wave. An ion-chemistry model is used to determine parameters necessary to relate wind-shear induced turbulent energy dissipation rates to radar backscatter. The model is verified by comparison with electron density profiles measured by the EISCAT VHF radar. Observed radar signal strengths are found to be 2-3 orders of magnitude stronger than the maximum which can be expected from neutral turbulence alone, assuming that previously published results relating radar signal scatter to turbulence parameters, and turbulence parameters to wind shear, are correct. The possibility remains that some additional or alternative mechanism may be involved in producing PMWE, such as layers of charged dust/smoke particles or large cluster ions.
Microscopic Description of 2D Topological Phases, Duality, and 3D State Sums

Doubled topological phases introduced by Kitaev, Levin, and Wen supported on two-dimensional lattices are Hamiltonian versions of three-dimensional topological quantum field theories described by the Turaev-Viro state sum models. We introduce the latter with an emphasis on obtaining them from theories in the continuum. Equivalence of the previous models in the ground state is shown in case of the honeycomb lattice and the gauge group being a finite group by means of the well-known duality transformation between the group algebra and the spin network basis of lattice gauge theory. An analysis of the ribbon operators describing excitations in both types of models and the three-dimensional geometrical interpretation are given.
EU ETS Facets in the Net: How Account Types Influence the Structure of the System

In this work, we investigate which countries have been more central during Phases I and II of the European Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) with respect to the different types of accounts operating in the system. We borrow a set of centrality measures from Network Theory's tools to describe how the structure of the system has evolved over time and to identify which countries have been in the core or in the periphery of the network. In doing this, we investigate by means of extensive partitions on the different types of accounts and transactions characterizing the EU ETS whether the role of intermediaries (approximated by Person Holding Accounts - PHAs) has affected the overall structure of the system. Preliminary findings over the period 2005-2012 suggest that PHAs have played a prominent role in the transaction of permits, heavily influencing the configuration of the system. This motivates further research on the impact of non-regulated entities in the EU ETS design.
Image coding using vector quantization: a review

A review of vector quantization techniques used for encoding digital images is presented. First, the concept of vector quantization is introduced, then its application to digital images is explained. Spatial, predictive, transform, hybrid, binary, and subband vector quantizers are reviewed. The emphasis is on the usefulness of the vector quantization when it is combined with conventional image coding techniques, or when it is used in different domains. >
Weighted-Median Based Distributed Fault Detection for Wireless Sensor Networks

The existence of faulty sensor measurements in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) will cause not only a degradation of the network quality of service but also a huge burden of the limited energy. This paper investigates using the spatial correlation of sensor measurements to detect the faults in WSNs. Specially, (1) a novel approach of weighting the neighbors' measurements is presented, (2) a method to characterize the difference between sensor measurements is introduced, (3) a weighted median fault detection scheme (WMFDS) is proposed and evaluated for both binary decisions and real number measurements. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed WMFDS can attractively obtain the high detection accuracy and considerably reduce the false alarm probability even in the existence of large fault sets. It is demonstrated that the proposed WMFDS is of excellent performance in fault detection for WSNs.
The Concept of ‘Working People’

This article interrogates the concept of ‘working people’. Lenin and other classical Marxists commonly used terms like labouring people, working people, or rural poor. Typically, they were used as descriptive, or, at best, as terms of political art rather than theoretical science. The inspiration in this article for the use of the term ‘working people’ comes from Walter Rodney. Building on previous work, the article relates the concept of working people to a modified definition of primitive accumulation under neo-liberalism, that is, as a process of surplus extraction by capital based on expropriation of a part of necessary consumption of the producer. It is argued that this is the material basis common to all sectors of what is here understood as working people.
Producing a Set of Models for the Iron Homeostasis Network

The continuous parts of complex biological systems are often modeled by use of Ordinary DifferentialEquations (ODE). When experimental data are available, they usually have large variability, for exampledue to variability in cell cultures. Since data on a given system are scarce, one generally uses data fromdifferent cell types, different organisms, or different conditions. All this translates into large parameteruncertainty. To cope with this situation and try to integrate all available data in a consistent model, werepresent such data by intervals rather than single numerical values. The ranges of the intervals varydepending on the type of experiment and the nature of the experimental system. Some parameters orconcentrations are not known at all and are initially deﬁned to belong to the physiological domain. Thisset of intervals deﬁne the search space. Other experimental data are expressed in terms of inequalitiesinvolving derived quantities. Our goal is to build a set of models that satisfy all the constraints deducedfrom experiments, and to analyze the salient features of the dynamics of this set of models.We present a method for modeling biological systems which combines formal techniques on inter-vals, numerical simulations and formal veriﬁcation of STL (Signal Temporal Logic) formula. This allowsus to consider intervals for each parameter and to describe the expected behavior of the model. We applythis method to the modeling of the cellular iron homeostasis network in precursors of erythroid cells.A core model [5] has been presented previously. Herein, we describe a more evolved model in whichthe regulation mechanism acting at the translational level is explicitly considered. This leads to a largermodel with more parameters and the integration of newly obtained experimental data. This new modelprovides a more detailed description of the regulatory mechanism, including quantitative considerationspertaining to the involved species, and it should allow us to more precisely address pending biologi-cal questions. The higher level of complexity of this model, compared to the core model, required thedevelopment of a method to characterize efﬁciently steady states.In Section 2, we describe the iron homeostasis network, and, in Section 3, the corresponding model.Then, in the Section 4, we describe the method used. We ﬁnally explain the work that remains to be doneand conclude.
Distinct Conformations of the Corticotropin Releasing Factor Type 1 Receptor Adopted following Agonist and Antagonist Binding Are Differentially Regulated*

The corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) type 1 receptor (CRF1) is a class B family G protein-coupled receptor that regulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal stress axis. Astressin is an amino-terminal truncated analog of CRF that retains high affinity binding to the extracellular domain of the receptor and is believed to act as a neutral competitive antagonist of receptor activation. Here we show that despite being unable to activate the CRF1 receptor, astressin binding results in the internalization of the receptor. Furthermore, entirely different pathways of internalization of CRF1 receptors are utilized following CRF and astressin binding. CRF causes the receptor to be phosphorylated, recruit β-arrestin2, and to be internalized rapidly, likely through clathrin-coated pits. Astressin, however, fails to induce receptor phosphorylation or β-arrestin2 recruitment, and internalization is slow and occurs through a pathway that is insensitive to inhibitors of clathrin-coated pits and caveolae. The fate of the internalized receptors also differs because only CRF-induced internalization results in receptor down-regulation. Furthermore, we present evidence that for astressin to induce internalization it must interact with both the extracellular amino terminus and the juxtamembrane domain of the receptor. Astressin binds with 6-fold higher affinity to full-length CRF1 receptors than to a chimeric protein containing only the extracellular domain attached to the transmembrane domain of the activin IIB receptor, yet two 12-residue analogs of astressin have similar affinities for both proteins but are unable to induce receptor internalization. These data demonstrate that agonists and antagonists for CRF1 receptors promote distinct conformations, which are then differentially regulated.
Formation of supermassive black holes by direct collapse in pre-galactic haloes

We describe a mechanism by which supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can form directly in the nuclei of protogalaxies, without the need for 'seed' black holes left over from early star formation. Self-gravitating gas in dark matter haloes can lose angular momentum rapidly via runaway, global dynamical instabilities, the so-called 'bars within bars' mechanism. This leads to the rapid build-up of a dense, self-gravitating core supported by gas pressure - surrounded by a radiation pressure-dominated envelope - which gradually contracts and is compressed further by subsequent infall. We show that these conditions lead to such high temperatures in the central region that the gas cools catastrophically by thermal neutrino emission, leading to the formation and rapid growth of a central black hole. We estimate the initial mass and growth rate of the black hole for typical conditions in metal-free haloes with T vir ∼ 10 4 K, which are the most likely to be susceptible to runaway infall. The initial black hole should have a mass of? 20 M ⊙ , but in principle could grow at a super-Eddington rate until it reaches ∼10 4 10 6 M ⊙ . Rapid growth may be limited by feedback from the accretion process and/or disruption of the mass supply by star formation or halo mergers. Even if super-Eddington growth stops at ∼10 3 -10 4 M ⊙ , this process would give black holes ample time to attain quasar-size masses by a redshift of 6, and could also provide the seeds for all SMBHs seen in the present Universe.