Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Combinatorial Model for Dentate Gyrus Sparse Coding

The dentate gyrus forms a critical link between the entorhinal cortex and CA3 by providing a sparse version of the signal. Concurrent with this increase in sparsity, a widely accepted theory suggests the dentate gyrus performs pattern separation—similar inputs yield decorrelated outputs. Although an active region of study and theory, few logically rigorous arguments detail the dentate gyrus’s (DG) coding. We suggest a theoretically tractable, combinatorial model for this action. The model provides formal methods for a highly redundant, arbitrarily sparse, and decorrelated output signal.To explore the value of this model framework, we assess how suitable it is for two notable aspects of DG coding: how it can handle the highly structured grid cell representation in the input entorhinal cortex region and the presence of adult neurogenesis, which has been proposed to produce a heterogeneous code in the DG. We find tailoring the model to grid cell input yields expansion parameters consistent with the literature. In addition, the heterogeneous coding reflects activity gradation observed experimentally. Finally, we connect this approach with more conventional binary threshold neural circuit models via a formal embedding.
An event-related potential examination of contour integration deficits in schizophrenia

Perceptual organization, which refers to the ability to integrate fragments of stimuli to form a representation of a whole edge, part, or object, is impaired in schizophrenia. A contour integration paradigm, involving detection of a set of Gabor patches forming an oval contour pointing to the right or left embedded in a field of randomly oriented Gabors, has been developed for use in clinical trials of schizophrenia. The purpose of the present study was to assess contributions of early and later stages of processing to deficits in contour integration, as well as to develop an event-related potential (ERP) analog of this task. Twenty-one patients with schizophrenia and 28 controls participated. The Gabor elements forming the contours were given a low or high degree of orientational jitter, making it either easy or difficult to identify the direction in which the contour was pointing. ERP results showed greater negative peaks at ~165 (N1 component) and ~270 ms for the low-jitter versus the high-jitter contours, with a much greater difference between jitter conditions at 270 ms. This later ERP component was previously termed Ncl for closure negativity. Source localization identified the Ncl in the lateral occipital object recognition area. Patients showed a significant decrease in the Ncl, but not N1, compared to controls, and this was associated with impaired behavioral ability to identify contours. In addition, an earlier negative peak was found at ~120 ms (termed N120) that differentiated jitter conditions, had a dorsal stream source, and differed between patients and controls. Patients also showed a deficit in the dorsal stream sensory P1 component. These results are in accord with impairments in distributed circuitry contributing to perceptual organization deficits and provide an ERP analog to the behavioral contour integration task.
Environmental Impact of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Module Production

Together with a number of PV companies an extensive effort has been made to collect Life Cycle Inventory data that represents the current status of production technology for crystalline silicon modules. The new data cover all processes from silicon feedstock production to cell and module manufacturing. All commercial wafer technologies are covered, that is multi- and monocrystalline wafers as well as ribbon technology. The presented data should be representative for the technology status in 2004, although for monocrystalline Si crystallisation further improvement of the data quality is recommended. On the basis of the new data a Life Cycle Assessment has been performed, which shows that c-Si PV systems are in a good position to compete with other energy technologies. Energy Pay-Back Times of 1.7-2.7 yr are found for South-European locations, while life-cycle CO 2 emissions are in the 30-45 g/kWh range. Clear perspectives exist for further improvements of roughly 40-50%.
Interacting Effects of Discharge and Channel Morphology on Transport of Semibuoyant Fish Eggs in Large, Altered River Systems

Habitat fragmentation and flow regulation are significant factors related to the decline and extinction of freshwater biota. Pelagic-broadcast spawning cyprinids require moving water and some length of unfragmented stream to complete their life cycle. However, it is unknown how discharge and habitat features interact at multiple spatial scales to alter the transport of semi-buoyant fish eggs. Our objective was to assess the relationship between downstream drift of semi-buoyant egg surrogates (gellan beads) and discharge and habitat complexity. We quantified transport time of a known quantity of beads using 2–3 sampling devices at each of seven locations on the North Canadian and Canadian rivers. Transport time was assessed based on median capture time (time at which 50% of beads were captured) and sampling period (time period when 2.5% and 97.5% of beads were captured). Habitat complexity was assessed by calculating width∶depth ratios at each site, and several habitat metrics determined using analyses of aerial photographs. Median time of egg capture was negatively correlated to site discharge. The temporal extent of the sampling period at each site was negatively correlated to both site discharge and habitat-patch dispersion. Our results highlight the role of discharge in driving transport times, but also indicate that higher dispersion of habitat patches relates to increased retention of beads within the river. These results could be used to target restoration activities or prioritize water use to create and maintain habitat complexity within large, fragmented river systems.
Intraoperative Complications of Cataract Surgery in Tehran Province, Iran

Purpose To determine the prevalence and types of intraoperative complications of cataract surgery and examine potential risk factors. Methods Data were obtained from the 2011 Iranian Cataract Surgery Survey in which information about cataract surgeries throughout the nation was collected. In the Province of Tehran, 55 centers and 1 week per season per center were randomly selected for sampling. In each center, the charts of all patients who underwent cataract surgery during the selected weeks (total of 20 weeks per center) were reviewed for data extraction. The prevalence of different types of intraoperative cataract surgery complications were determined, and their relationships with age, sex, surgical method, surgeon, and hospitalization time were examined. Results The prevalence of intraoperative complications of cataract surgery was 4.15% (95% confidence interval, 0.94 to 7.36). The prevalence of posterior capsular rupture with vitreous loss, posterior capsular rupture without vitreous loss, retrobulbar hemorrhage, suprachoroidal effusion/hemorrhage, intraocular lens drop, and nucleus drop was 2.86, 0.69, 0.06, 0.39, 0.03, and 0.11%, respectively. The prevalence of cataract surgery complications decreased from 6.95% in 2006 to 3.07% in 2010. The results of multiple logistic regression showed that surgery by residents, nonphacoemulsification methods of surgery, and patient age less than 10 years and more than 70 years were the risk factors for complications. Conclusions This study evaluated the prevalence of intraoperative complications of cataract surgery for the first time in Tehran Province. The prevalence of complications was high in this study. To achieve the goals of the Vision 2020 Initiative and improve surgical quality, it is necessary to minimize complication rates. Factors to note for decreasing complication rates include type of surgery, surgeon experience, and patient age.
The new spin: Effects of information control behaviours on source trustworthiness and persuasion

Given the high level of skepticism from the public toward politicians, this research explores the communication styles that separate public figures who are trusted and supported from those who are not. Contrary to conventional practice, it is argued that the use of ‘spin’ in political communication is a large factor contributing to the public’s negative perception of politicians. Political spin is defined as a communication style encompassing specific behaviours designed to appeal to the media, control information, and contain the meaning audiences derive from a message. This research operationalised spin as it is used in political communication and compared participants’ responses to messages with low and high levels of spin. The present research comprised three studies. In Study One, interviews were conducted with communication professionals to define the concept and specific ‘information control behaviours’ associated with spin. An ‘authenticity’ scale was then developed to measure audience responses to low and high-spin messages. In Study Two, 50 participants were randomly assigned to view a series of low or high-spin political messages. Participants rated messages from a confederate politician as well as actual politicians, government officials, and corporate representatives using the Authenticity Scale. Study Three was conducted throughout the 5-weeks of political campaigning prior to a general election. A representative sample of 60 voters was used each week in a repeated measures design to rate the political candidates and two confederate politicians using the Authenticity Scale. It was found that participants were able to clearly discern the degree of spin used by politicians when communicating a message. Messages containing a high level of spin elicited more negative attitudes and significantly lower levels of support for politicians, than messages containing a low level of spin. Specifically, participants’ perceptions of source trustworthiness and credibility were significantly higher for politicians using a low-spin style of communication. The findings are discussed in terms of the expectancy disconfirmation theory. The findings suggest that adopting a new low-spin style of communication will assist public figures to communicate more persuasively and to better engage an increasingly skeptical public.
Identifying the impact of global warming on population using a clustering based approach

Being one of the contemporary world's problems, global warming is a complex phenomenon with unavoidable immediate and long-term effects on human health. So far, population health has been little addressed by relating it to the global warming phenomenon. However, the reality of recent years has alerted the medical scientific community on the need to establish how aspects of human pathology are influenced/conditioned by environmental factors altered by global warming. In this paper we are focusing on the problem of identifying populational groups with high risks in the context of global warming. In this direction, a clustering based approach is introduced and an hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm is developed. Our approach can be useful in assisting physicians in detecting patients for which special profilactic measures should be developed. An experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm on a simple case study is provided, emphasizing the potential of our approach.
Lower bounds for (MOD p-MOD m) circuits

Modular gates are known to be immune for the random restriction techniques of previous authors. We demonstrate here a random clustering technique which overcomes this difficulty and is capable to prove generalizations of several known modular circuit lower bounds, characterizing symmetric functions computable by small (MOD/sub p/, AND/sub t/, MOD/sub m/) circuits. Applying a degree-decreasing technique together with random restriction methods for the AND gates at the bottom level, we also prove a hard special case of the constant degree hypothesis and other related lower bounds for certain (MOD/sub p/, MOD/sub m/, AND) circuits. Most of the previous lower bounds on circuits with modular gates used special definitions of the modular gates (i.e., the gate outputs one if the sum of its inputs is divisible by m, or is not divisible by m), and were not valid for more general MOD/sub m/ gates. Our methods are applicable-and our lower bounds are valid-for the most general modular gates as well.
Hemochromatosis and iron-overload screening in a racially diverse population.

BACKGROUND Iron overload and hemochromatosis are common, treatable conditions. HFE genotypes, levels of serum ferritin, transferrin saturation values, and self-reported medical history were studied in a multiethnic primary care population. METHODS Participants were recruited from primary care practices and blood-drawing laboratories. Blood samples were tested for transferrin saturation, serum ferritin, and C282Y and H63D mutations of the HFE gene. Before genetic screening, participants were asked whether they had a history of medical conditions related to iron overload. RESULTS Of the 99,711 participants, 299 were homozygous for the C282Y mutation. The estimated prevalence of C282Y homozygotes was higher in non-Hispanic whites (0.44 percent) than in Native Americans (0.11 percent), Hispanics (0.027 percent), blacks (0.014 percent), Pacific Islanders (0.012 percent), or Asians (0.000039 percent). Among participants who were homozygous for the C282Y mutation but in whom iron overload had not been diagnosed (227 participants), serum ferritin levels were greater than 300 mug per liter in 78 of 89 men (88 percent) and greater than 200 microg per liter in 79 of 138 women (57 percent). Pacific Islanders and Asians had the highest geometric mean levels of serum ferritin and mean transferrin saturation despite having the lowest prevalence of C282Y homozygotes. There were 364 participants in whom iron overload had not been diagnosed (29 C282Y homozygotes) who had a serum ferritin level greater than 1000 microg per liter. Among men, C282Y homozygotes and compound heterozygotes were more likely to report a history of liver disease than were participants without HFE mutations. CONCLUSIONS The C282Y mutation is most common in whites, and most C282Y homozygotes have elevations in serum ferritin levels and transferrin saturation. The C282Y mutation does not account for high mean serum ferritin levels and transferrin saturation values in nonwhites.
Optimal pilot symbol power allocation in multi-cell scenarios of LTE

The UMTS Long Term Evolution (LTE) allows the pilot symbol power to be adjusted with respect to that of the data symbols. In this paper, we derive optimal pilot power allocation in multi-cell scenarios under imperfect channel knowledge at the terminals. As cost function, we choose the post-equalization Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR). We show via simulations that this cost function indeed leads to maximum throughput.
Loss of p53 Attenuates the Contribution of IL-6 Deletion on Suppressed Tumor Progression and Extended Survival in Kras-Driven Murine Lung Cancer

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is involved in lung cancer tumorigenesis, tumor progression, metastasis, and drug resistance. Previous studies show that blockade of IL-6 signaling can inhibit tumor growth and increase drug sensitivity in mouse models. Clinical trials in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) reveal that IL-6 targeted therapy relieves NSCLC-related anemia and cachexia, although other clinical effects require further study. We crossed IL-6 -/- mice with Kras G12D mutant mice, which develop lung tumors after activation of mutant Kras G12D, to investigate whether IL-6 inhibition contributes to tumor progression and survival time in vivo. Kras G12D; IL-6 -/- mice exhibited increased tumorigenesis, but slower tumor growth and longer survival, than Kras G12D mice. Further, in order to investigate whether IL-6 deletion contributes to suppression of lung cancer metastasis, we generated Kras G12D; p53 flox/flox; IL-6 -/- mice, which developed lung cancer with a trend for reduced metastases and longer survival than Kras G12D; p53 flox/flox mice. Tumors from Kras G12D; IL-6 -/- mice showed increased expression of TNFα and decreased expression of CCL-19, CCL-20 and phosphorylated STAT3 (pSTAT3) than Kras G12D mice; however, these changes were not present between tumors from Kras G12D; p53 flox/flox; IL-6 -/- and Kras G12D; p53 flox/flox mice. Upregulation of pSTAT3 and phosphorylated AKT (pAKT) were observed in Kras G12D tumors with p53 deletion. Taken together, these results indicate that IL-6 deletion accelerates tumorigenesis but delays tumor progression and prolongs survival time in a Kras-driven mouse model of lung cancer. However, these effects can be attenuated by p53 deletion.
The Cultural and Creative Industries

A critical and Historical account of the cultural and creative industries as a policy discourse. It argues that the emergence of a cultural policy discourse was part of a progressive democratic politics from the 1960s onwards, taking cognizance of the emergence of new kinds of commercial popular culture. It suggests that this period saw the merging of aesthetics and culture in particular ways. The creative industries come from a different source which combined innovation theory, embedded economics and entrepreneurialism in ways that resulted in a much less progressive politics. The chapter ends by suggesting the the idea of the creative industries is now at an end.
Child and adolescent injury and death from urban firearm assaults: association with age, race, and poverty

Objective—To describe rates and trends in the incidence of non-fatal and fatal firearm assault among children (16 years old or younger) over an 11 year period in Chicago, Illinois and to identify the socioeconomic characteristics of community areas where assaults are common. Methods—The Chicago Police Department (CPD) records from 1986 through 1996 were reviewed for children assaulted with a firearm. United States census data for 1990 for Chicago were used to calculate incidence rates; census data were also used for community area (defined by census tract) socioeconomic descriptions. Results—The CPD recorded 11 163 pediatric firearm assaults during the study period: 10 571 non-fatal and 592 (5%) fatal. From 1986 through 1996 non-fatal assaults more than doubled, with the highest rates in 1994; fatal assaults tripled, with rates peaking in 1993–94. Significant increases in non-fatal firearm assaults occurred among black and Hispanic males and females. In 1994, compared with white males, the relative risk of non-fatal assault was 7.0 (95% confidence interval (CI) 5.3 to 9.1) for black males and 3.3 (95% CI 2.5 to 4.4) for Hispanic males; the relative risk was 1.5 (95% CI 1.1 to 2.1) for black females. A handgun was the firearm used in most assaults (88% of non-fatal and 84% of fatal). Within community areas, the correlation between non-fatal and fatal assault incidence was strong (r=0.80, p<0.001). The proportion of families with income below the 1989 poverty level ($12 674) and the per cent black race in the community area together accounted for 70% of the variance in assault rates. Conclusions—From 1986 to 1994 there were significant increases in both non-fatal and fatal firearm assaults, usually by handguns; thereafter, rates declined. Urban children who were victims of non-fatal firearm assault appear to come from the same population as those who suffer fatal assaults. Black and Hispanic youth living in poverty were at particular risk.
Oritavancin Combinations with β-Lactams against Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci

ABSTRACT Oritavancin possesses activity against vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In vitro data suggest synergy between beta-lactams (BLs) and vancomycin or daptomycin, agents similar to oritavancin. We evaluated the activities of BLs combined with oritavancin against MRSA and VRE. Oritavancin MICs were determined for 30 strains, 5 each of MRSA, daptomycin-nonsusceptible (DNS) MRSA, vancomycin-intermediate MRSA (VISA), heteroresistant VISA (hVISA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium. Oritavancin MICs were determined in the presence of subinhibitory concentrations of BLs. Oritavancin combined with ceftaroline, cefazolin, or nafcillin was evaluated for lethal synergy against MRSA, and oritavancin combined with ceftaroline, ampicillin, or ertapenem was evaluated for lethal synergy against VRE in 24-h time-kill assays. Oritavancin at 0.5× the MIC was combined with BLs at 0.5× the MIC or the biological free peak concentration, whichever one was lower. Synergy was defined as a ≥2-log10-CFU/ml difference between the killing achieved with the combination and that achieved with the most active single agent at 24 h. Oritavancin MICs were ≤0.125 μg/ml for all MRSA isolates except three VISA isolates with MICs of 0.25 μg/ml. Oritavancin MICs for VRE ranged from 0.03 to 0.125 μg/ml. Oritavancin in combination with ceftaroline was synergistic against all MRSA phenotypes and statistically superior to all other combinations against DNS MRSA, hVISA, and MRSA isolates (P < 0.02). Oritavancin in combination with cefazolin and oritavancin in combination with nafcillin were also synergistic against all MRSA strains. Synergy between oritavancin and all BLs was revealed against VRE strain 8019, while synergy between oritavancin and ampicillin or ertapenem but not ceftaroline was demonstrated against VRE strain R7164. The data support the potential use of oritavancin in combination with BLs, especially oritavancin in combination with ceftaroline, for the treatment of infections caused by MRSA. The data from the present study are not as strong for oritavancin in combination with BLs for VRE. Further study of both MRSA and VRE in more complex models is warranted.
Resistance to Asian soybean rust in soybean lines with the pyramided three Rpp genes

In this study, the influence of genetic background on the resistance level of a soybean line carrying Rpp2, Rpp4, and Rpp5 was evaluated by backcrossing it with a susceptible variety. It was also evaluated eight lines which carry these Rpp genes against five Asian soybean rust (ASR) isolates, in order to determine the likely range of resistance against ASR isolates differing in pathogenicity. The results indicated that a high level of resistance against various ASR isolates could be retained in lines carrying the three Rpp genes in susceptible genetic backgrounds, although minor influences of plant genetic background and ASR pathogenicity to the ASR resistance could occur. Thus, lines with the pyramided three Rpp genes should be effective against a complex pathogen population consisting of diverse Phakopsora pachyrhizi isolates.