Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Behaviorally Relevant Abstract Object Identity Representation in the Human Parietal Cortex

The representation of object identity is fundamental to human vision. Using fMRI and multivoxel pattern analysis, here we report the representation of highly abstract object identity information in human parietal cortex. Specifically, in superior intraparietal sulcus (IPS), a region previously shown to track visual short-term memory capacity, we found object identity representations for famous faces varying freely in viewpoint, hairstyle, facial expression, and age; and for well known cars embedded in different scenes, and shown from different viewpoints and sizes. Critically, these parietal identity representations were behaviorally relevant as they closely tracked the perceived face-identity similarity obtained in a behavioral task. Meanwhile, the task-activated regions in prefrontal and parietal cortices (excluding superior IPS) did not exhibit such abstract object identity representations. Unlike previous studies, we also failed to observe identity representations in posterior ventral and lateral visual object-processing regions, likely due to the greater amount of identity abstraction demanded by our stimulus manipulation here. Our MRI slice coverage precluded us from examining identity representation in anterior temporal lobe, a likely region for the computing of identity information in the ventral region. Overall, we show that human parietal cortex, part of the dorsal visual processing pathway, is capable of holding abstract and complex visual representations that are behaviorally relevant. These results argue against a “content-poor” view of the role of parietal cortex in attention. Instead, the human parietal cortex seems to be “content rich” and capable of directly participating in goal-driven visual information representation in the brain. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The representation of object identity (including faces) is fundamental to human vision and shapes how we interact with the world. Although object representation has traditionally been associated with human occipital and temporal cortices, here we show, by measuring fMRI response patterns, that a region in the human parietal cortex can robustly represent task-relevant object identities. These representations are invariant to changes in a host of visual features, such as viewpoint, and reflect an abstract level of representation that has not previously been reported in the human parietal cortex. Critically, these neural representations are behaviorally relevant as they closely track the perceived object identities. Human parietal cortex thus participates in the moment-to-moment goal-directed visual information representation in the brain.
Seeking a Foundation for Context-Aware Computing

Context-aware computing is generally associated with elements of the ubiquitous computing program, and the opportunity to distribute computation and interaction through the environment rather than concentrating it at the desktop computer. However, issues of context have also been important in other areas of human-computer interaction research. I argue that the scope of context-based computing should be extended to include not only ubiquitous computing, but also recent trends in tangible interfaces as well as work on sociological investigations of the organization of interactive behavior. By taking a view of context-aware computing that integrates these different perspectives, we can begin to understand the foundational relations that tie them all together, and that provide a framework for understanding the basic principles behind these various forms of embodied interaction. In particular, I point to phenomenology as a basis for the development of a new framework for design and evaluation of context-aware technologies.
CSL Model Checking for Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets

This paper presents a continuous stochastic logic (CSL) model-checking algorithm for generalized stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs). CSL is a temporal logic defined over continuous time Markov chains (CTMCs). GSPNs are a class of stochastic Petri nets in which Sojourn times in states are either exponentially distributed (tangible states) or deterministically zero (vanishing states). Although vanishing states have zero probabilities, they can be relevant for the definition of system properties expressed as CSL formulae: the semantics of CSL is therefore modified accordingly. The paper then shows how the set of GSPN states which satisfy a CSL formula can be computed through the solution of CTMCs produced from a series of embedded discrete time Markov chains modified according to the formula being checked
On a few Diophantine equations, in particular, Fermat's last theorem

This is a survey on Diophantine equations, with the purpose being to give the flavour of some known results on the subject and to describe a few open problems. We will come across Fermat’s last theorem and its proof by Andrew Wiles using the modularity of elliptic curves, and we will exhibit other Diophantine equations which were solved al aWiles. We will exhibit many families of Thue equations, for which Baker’s linear forms in logarithms and the knowledge of the unit groups of certain families of number fields prove useful for finding all the integral solutions. One of the most difficult conjecture in number theory, namely, the ABC conjecture, will also be described. We will conclude by explaining in elementary terms the notion of modularity of an elliptic curve.
Bridging the Gaps Between Students' Perceptions of Group Project Work and Their Teachers' Expectations

The authors report findings from a study into students' and teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of group project work (PW) in promoting students' motivation and learning. The authors gathered students' views on whether PW satisfied their basic psychological needs, affected their motivation, and created opportunities for life skills development. In addition, the authors interviewed 13 of the teachers to assess the extent to which their perceptions matched those of their students. The findings showed that, in general, the students recognized the benefits of PW and perceived themselves as fairly motivated to do PW. However, some of the teachers felt that their students' lack of motivation and competence hindered their performance in PW. Nevertheless, when teachers and students were able to reconcile their differences and reciprocate each other's expectations, PW was carried out effectively, with students and teachers benefiting from the experience.
Implementation of a Psychosocial Intervention Program for Working Caregivers

The overall aim of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a multicomponent, psychosocial intervention specifically designed to meet the unique needs of caregivers who are balancing caregiving duties with work responsibilities. Seventy-one family caregivers employed at a private, nonprofit institution in South Florida were randomized to either the Caregiver Workstation condition (n = 35) or a control condition (n = 36). Sixty-two caregivers completed the 5-month follow-up. Our results indicate that an intervention tailored to the time demands of a working caregiver is feasible, acceptable to caregivers, and has the potential to have positive long-term effects. Currently, there are limited data available regarding the benefits of employer programs for caregivers or the type of programs caregivers find most useful. This pilot study is the first step in developing a working caregiver intervention program that can be implemented on a broad-scale basis.
How common is abuse in Greece? Studying cases with femoral fractures

AIMS To examine the extent of undiagnosed child abuse in Greece by studying young children with femoral fractures, which may be associated with abuse. METHODS Fifty seven consecutive cases of children under 6 years of age with femoral fracture were identified from the Emergency Department Injury Surveillance System database. Controls were 4162 children with other orthopaedic injuries from the same database. RESULTS Whereas in the literature about one third of femoral injuries among young children are attributed to child abuse, no child in the studied series had been diagnosed or even investigated in this context. Nevertheless, the pattern of occurrence of femoral injuries was compatible with that of child abuse, in that patients were frequently very young boys of low socioeconomic status, and the accident had frequently occurred under poorly identified or implausible conditions at time periods when most family members were crowded at home. CONCLUSIONS Epidemiological risk factors for child abuse characterise femoral fractures in young children in Greece. It appears that child abuse is present in this country as in most other cultures. There is a clear need for refocusing medical personnel and hospital social services so that the problem is revealed, quantified, and appropriately dealt with.
Tepper School of Business 1029-2009 Accounting for Banks , Capital Regulation and Risk-Taking

This paper examines risk-taking incentives in banks under different accounting regimes with capital regulation. In the model the bank’s decisions of capital issuance and investment policy are jointly determined. Given exogenous minimum capital requirement, the bank is more likely to issue equity capital in excess of the minimum required level and implement less risky investment policy under either lower-of-cost-ormarket accounting or fair value accounting than under historical cost accounting. But fair value accounting may induce more risk-taking compared to lower-of-cost-or-market accounting due to short term interest in the part of the bank. However, the disciplining role of lower-of-cost-or-market accounting may discourage bank’s incentive to exert project discovery effort ex-ante if the ex-ante effort plays an important role. From the regulator’s perspective, the optimal accounting choice will be governed by a tradeoff between the social cost of capital regulation and the efficiency of the bank’s project discovery efforts. When the former effect dominates, the regulator prefers lower-ofcost-or-market accounting; when the later effect dominates, the regulator may prefer other regimes. ∗This paper is based on the second part of my dissertation at Columbia University. I am especially grateful for the support and guidance from my advisor Tim Baldenius. I have also benefited a lot from members of my dissertation committee: Patrick Bolton, Hui Chen, Bjorn Jorgensen, and Nahum Melumad. I would also like to thank Jon Glover, Thomas Hemmer (2009 AAA session discussant), Pierre Liang, Xiaojing Meng, Gil Sadka and seminar participants at Columbia University for their helpful comments and suggestions. Any errors are my own. †Contact: Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213. Email: jlill@andrew.cmu. edu
Will You Listen? An Examination of Parasocial Interaction and Credibility in Radio

A quasi-experiment was designed to examine the effects of social media on parasocial relationships and credibility for on-air radio hosts. Hypotheses and research questions were tested using 4 experimental conditions. A sample of 240 participants were randomly assigned to a condition and then asked to complete a survey. Results showed that social media appeared to have a negative effect on the strength of a parasocial relationship as well as on credibility.
Effects of cultural schemata on students' test-taking processes for cloze tests: a multiple data source approach

The present study investigated how schemata activated by culturally familiar words might have influenced students’ cloze test-taking processes. Sixty Japanese EFL students were divided into two groups with equivalent English reading proficiency. They completed either a culturally familiar or an unfamiliar version of a cloze test. Partially replicating Chihara et al.’s (1989) experiment, several unfamiliar words in the original cloze test passage were changed to more familiar ones in the modified version. Unlike in Chihara et al. (1989), however, students were asked to give verbal reports of their test-taking processes, and to recall the passage after they had completed the tests. Thus, the two groups’ test-taking activities were compared in terms of: 1) item performance; 2) expressing correct understanding of the key terms while solving the items and recalling; 3) the amount of text information they used to complete the items; and 4) the quantities and qualities of the final recalls. Results demonstrated that those who read the culturally familiar cloze text tried to solve more items and generally understood the text better, which resulted in better performances than those of the students who read the original text. These results also support the claim that cloze tests can measure higher-order processing abilities.
4-Alkylated Silver–N-Heterocyclic Carbene (NHC) Complexes with Cytotoxic Effects in Leukemia Cells

Computational chemistry has shown that backbone‐alkylated imidazoles ought to be efficient ligands for transition metal catalysts with improved carbene‐to‐metal donation. In this work, such alkylated imidazoles were synthesized and complexed with silver(I) by means of an eight/nine‐step synthetic pathway we devised to access a new class of biologically active silver complexes. The synthesis involves selective iodination of the imidazole backbone, followed by Sonogashira coupling to replace the backbone iodine. The installed alkyne moiety is then subjected to reductive hydrogenation with Pearlman’s catalyst. The imidazole N1 atom is arylated by the palladium‐catalyzed Buchwald N‐arylation method. The imidazole N3 position was then methylated with methyl iodine, whereupon the synthesis was terminated by complexation of the imidazolium salt with silver(I) oxide. The synthetic pathway provided an overall yield of ≈20 %. The resulting complexes were tested in vitro against HL60 and MOLM‐13 leukemic cells, two human‐derived cell lines that model acute myeloid leukemia. The most active compounds exhibiting low IC50 values of 14 and 27 μM, against HL60 and MOLM‐13 cells, respectively. The imidazole side chain was found to be essential for high cytotoxicity, as the imidazole complex bearing a C7 side chain at the 4‐position was four‐ to sixfold more potent than the corresponding imidazole elaborated with a methyl group.
Perceptual bistability in auditory streaming: How much do stimulus features matter?

The auditory two-tone streaming paradigm has been used extensively to study the mechanisms that underlie the decomposition of the auditory input into coherent sound sequences. Using longer tone sequences than usual in the literature, we show that listeners hold their first percept of the sound sequence for a relatively long period, after which perception switches between two or more alternative sound organizations, each held on average for a much shorter duration. The first percept also differs from subsequent ones in that stimulus parameters influence its quality and duration to a far greater degree than the subsequent ones. We propose an account of auditory streaming in terms of rivalry between competing temporal associations based on two sets of processes. The formation of associations (discovery of alternative interpretations) mainly affects the first percept by determining which sound group is discovered first and how long it takes for alternative groups to be established. In contrast, subsequent per.
MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN KOMUNIKASI DAN DISPOSISI MATEMATIK SISWA SEKOLAH MENENGAH ATAS MELALUI PEMBELAJARAN GENERATIF

Penelitian ini merupakan suatu kuasi eksperimen berdesain pretes-postes kelompok kontrol dengan tujuan menelaah kemampuan komunikasi, dan disposisi matematik siswa melalui pembelajaran generatif. Laporan ini adalah bagian dari penelitian tesis dengan subyek penelitian sebanyak 70 siswa kelas X dari satu SMA Negeri di Cimahi. Instrumen penelitian terdiri dari satu tes uraian komunikasi matematik, dan satu skala disposisi matematik. Penelitian menemukan bahwa kemampuan komunikasi siswa yang memperoleh pembelajaran generatif mencapai mutu yang cukup baik dan itu lebih baik daripada mutu siswa yang memperoleh pembelajaran konvensional. Namun penelitian ini juga menemukan tidak ada perbedaan disposisi matematik siswa pada kedua pembelajaran dan disposisi matematik siswa telah tergolong cukup baik. Selain itu, penelitian ini juga menemukan terdapat asosiasi antara kemampuan komunikasi matematik, dan disposisi matematik, serta siswa menunjukkan persepsi yang baik terhadap pembelajaran generatif. Kata kunci : disposisi matematik, komunikasi matematik, pembelajaran generatif , persepsi terhadap pembelajaran generatif.
Delivery of RNA and Its Intracellular Translation into Protein Mediated by SDS-CTAB Vesicles: Potential Use in Nanobiotechnology

Catanionic vesicles are supramolecular aggregates spontaneously forming in water by electrostatic attraction between two surfactants mixed in nonstoichiometric ratios. The outer surface charges allow adsorption to the biomembrane by electrostatic interactions. The lipoplex thus obtained penetrates the cell by endocytosis or membrane fusion. We examined the possible cytotoxic effects and evaluated the transfection efficiency of one vesicle type as compared to known commercial carriers. We show that the individual components of two different vesicles types, CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) and DDAB (didodecyldimethylammonium bromide) are detrimental for cell survival. We also assayed the cytotoxicity of SDS-DDAB vesicles and showed dose and time dependency, with the DDAB component being per se extremely cytotoxic. The transfection efficiency of exogenous RNA mediated by SDS-CTAB increases if vesicles assemble in the presence of the reporter RNA; finally, freezing abrogates the transfection ability. The results of our experimental strategy suggest that catanionic vesicles may be adopted in gene therapy and control of antiproliferative diseases.
Activity of antifolates against Pneumocystis carinii dihydrofolate reductase and identification of a potent new agent

The therapy of Pneumocystis carinii (PC) pneumonia is often unsuccessful, particularly in patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Because of difficulties in growing the organism in vitro or obtaining purified organisms, current treatment choices have been made with little information on the metabolic effects of therapeutic agents on PC. This report quantitates the effects of the commonly used antifolates as well as the classic antineoplastic antifolate methotrexate and a lipid-soluble analogue, trimetrexate, on the target enzyme, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), in the PC organisms. Trimethoprim and pyrimethamine were found to be weak inhibitors (ID50 = 39,600 and 2,800 nM, respectively), while methotrexate and trimetrexate were potent reductase inhibitors (ID50 = 1.4 and 26.1 nM, respectively). transport studies with radiolabeled compounds showed that compounds with the classic folate structure (methotrexate and leucovorin) were not taken up by the intact PC organisms. In contrast, trimetrexate exhibited rapid uptake. These results suggest a major therapeutic advantage may be gained by combining a potent, readily transported PC DHFR inhibitor such as trimetrexate with the reduced folate leucovorin to achieve a highly potent antiprotozoan effect while preventing toxicity to mammalian cells.
Role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) results from a complex series of interactions between susceptibility genes, the environment, and the immune system. Recently, some studies provided strong evidence that the process of autophagy affects several aspects of mucosal immune responses. Autophagy is a cellular stress response that plays key roles in physiological processes, such as innate and adaptive immunity, adaptation to starvation, degradation of aberrant proteins or organelles, antimicrobial defense, and protein secretion. Dysfunctional autophagy is recognized as a contributing factor in many chronic inflammatory diseases, including IBD. Autophagy plays multiple roles in IBD pathogenesis by altering processes that include intracellular bacterial killing, antimicrobial peptide secretion by Paneth cells, goblet cell function, proinflammatory cytokine production by macrophages, antigen presentation by dendritic cells, and the endoplasmic reticulum stress response in enterocytes. Recent studies have identified susceptibility genes involved in autophagy, such as NOD2, ATG16L1, and IRGM, and active research is ongoing all over the world. The aim of this review is a systematic appraisal of the current literature to provide a better understanding of the role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of IBD. Understanding these mechanisms will bring about new strategies for the treatment and prevention of IBD.
Bilateral extraluminal ectopic ureters in a Maine Coon cat

Ectopic ureters are rarely observed in cats. Therefore, for a better chance of success in the corrective surgical procedure and survival of the patient, diagnosis should be confirmed early. This report illustrates the occurrence of bilateral ectopic ureters in a seven month old Maine Coon cat and describes the medical and surgical management adopted for correction of the abnormality.
Pharmacokinetics and Comparative Bioavailability of Two Vinpocetine Tablet Formulations in Healthy Volunteers by Using the Metabolite Apovincaminic Acid as Pharmacokinetic Parameter

Summary The objective of this study was to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of apovincaminic acid, the main metabolite of vinpocetine ((3±,16±)-eburnamenine-14-carboxylic acid ethyl ester, CAS 42971-09-5), and to assess the average bioequivalence of two immediate release formulations of 10 mg vinpocetine tablets in 24 healthy male volunteers. The relative bioavailability of the test (generic) product (Vimpocetina ®) with respect to the reference product was determined in a single dose, randomized, crossover study. A simple, rapid specific and reliable high performance liquid chromatographic method coupled with mass spectrometry detection has been developed and validated for vinpocetine and apovincaminic acid. However, only the concentrations of the metabolite could be used for bioequivalence determinations because the concentrations of the parent drug were too low to be accurately measured in the biological matrix. The compartmental analysis of the metabolite’s appearance-disappearance in blood shows similarity with first-order kinetics of a drug extravascularly administered. The apparent pharmacokinetic constants were determined. The mean values for the Cmax were 49.5 (± 16) ng/ml for test and 51.4 (± 14) ng/ml for the reference product. The mean values for the AUC0– ∞ were 95 (± 29) ng/ml · h for test and 96.9 (± 26) ng/ml · h for reference, respectively. The 90 % confidence intervals for test/reference mean ratios of the plasma pharmacokinetic variables Cmax and AUC0–∞ lie between 0.83 – 1.08 and 0.88 – 1.08, respectively, which is within the conventional bioequivalence range of 80 – 125 % (Schuirman test). The difference between Tmax of the test and reference products was statistically non-significant (Friedman test). The test product is therefore bioequivalent to the reference product with respect to the rate and extent of apovincaminic acid pharmacokinetics.