Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Objective assessment of the functional role of spike train correlations using information measures

The functional role of correlations between neuronal spike trains remains strongly debated. This debate partly stems from the lack of a standardized analysis technique capable of accurately quantifying the role of correlations in stimulus encoding. We believe that information theoretic measures may represent an objective method for analysing the functional role of neuronal correlations. Here we show that information analysis of pairs of spike trains allows the information content present in the firing rate to be disambiguated from any extra information that may be present in the temporal relationships of the two spike trains. We validate and illustrate the method by applying it to simulated data with variable degrees of known synchrony, and by applying it to recordings from pairs of sites in the primary visual cortex of anaesthetized cats. We discuss the importance of information theoretic analysis in elucidating the neuronal mechanisms underlying object identification.
Effect of Roadside Vegetation Cutting on Moose Browsing

Moose (Alces americanus ) vehicle collisions (MVCs) are an issue throughout the distribution of moose. Many mitigation strategies have been tested and implemented to reduce the number of MVCs, but there have been few empirical analyses of the effectiveness of roadside vegetation cutting. The goal of this study was to determine if roadside vegetation cutting attracted moose into roadside areas to browse on the vegetation regrowth. We hypothesized that moose would be attracted to roadside areas with cut vegetation. Consequently, we predicted that there would be higher levels of browsing in cut areas compared to uncut areas. To determine if moose were browsing more in cut or uncut areas, we measured the number of plants browsed by moose in paired treatment (cut on or after 2008) and control (not cut since at least 2008) sites, along with a suite of potential environmental covariates. Using a model selection approach, we fit generalized linear mixed-effects models to determine the most parsimonious set of environmental variables to explain variation in the proportion of moose browse among sites. In contrast to our hypothesis, our results show that the proportion of moose browse in the uncut control areas was significantly higher than in the cut treatment areas. The results of this study suggest that recently cut roadside areas (7 years or less based on our work) may create a less attractive foraging habitat for moose. The majority of the variance in the proportion of moose browse among sites was explained by treatment type and nested plot number within site identification (34.16%), with additional variance explained by traffic region (5.00%) and moose density (4.35%). Based on our study, we recommend that vegetation cutting be continued in roadside areas in Newfoundland as recently cut areas may be less attractive browsing sites for moose.
A ZigZag-decodable code with the MDS property for distributed storage systems

A code is said to have the MDS property if it maps K source blocks into N coded blocks, while any K out of the N coded blocks allow recovery of the original K source blocks. A new vector code that has the MDS property is designed. It allows the source blocks to be recovered by using a fast algorithm called ZigZag decoding. It can serve as the Fractional Repetition code, a regenerating code for distributed storage systems. The overall design becomes very simple to implement, as node failure can be handled by uncoded and exact repair while data retrieval can be performed by XOR operations.
A posteriori error analysis for locally conservative mixed methods

In this work we present a theoretical analysis for a residual-type error estimator for locally conservative mixed methods. This estimator was first introduced by Braess and Verfurth for the Raviart-Thomas mixed finite element method working in mesh-dependent norms. We improve and extend their results to cover any locally conservative mixed method under minimal assumptions, in particular, avoiding the saturation assumption made by Braess and Verfurth. Our analysis also takes into account discontinuous coefficients with possibly large jumps across interelement boundaries. The main results are applied to the P1 nonconforming finite element method and the interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method as well as the mixed finite element method.
What children on the autism spectrum have to ‘say’ about using high‐tech voice output communication aids (VOCAs) in an educational setting

This paper focuses on accessing the experiences of three boys who are on the autism spectrum to identify what using a voice output communication aid (VOCA), within a classroom setting, means to them. The methods used to identify the boys' perspectives are described and evaluated. Establishing these through direct methods of engagement proved problematic but working with parents and school staff as ‘expert guides’ provided a rich insight into what using a VOCA appeared to mean to the boys. The findings suggest that using a computer‐based VOCA can be viewed by children with autism as a pleasurable and motivating activity. This technology also seems to offer the potential for a much broader developmental impact for these children than that currently recognised within the research literature.
Information Asymmetry, Social Networking Site Word of Mouth, and Mobility Effects on Social Commerce in Korea

The purpose of this research is to examine the issues that affect customers' behavioral character and purchasing behavior. The study proposes a research hypothesis with independent variables that include social presence, trust, and information asymmetry, and the dependent variable purchase decision making, to explain differentiated customer decision making processes in social commerce (S-commerce). To prove the hypothesis, positive verification was performed by focusing on mediating effects through a customer uncertainty variable and moderating effects through mobility and social networking site word of mouth (SNS WOM) variables. The number of studies on customer trends has rapidly increased together with the market size of S-commerce. However, few studies have examined the negative variables that make customers hesitant to make decisions in S-commerce. This study investigates the causes of customer uncertainty and focuses on deducing the control variables that offset this negative relationship. The study finds that in customers' S-commerce purchasing actions, the SNS WOM and mobility variables show control effects between information asymmetry and uncertainty and between trust and uncertainty. Additionally, this research defines the variables related to customer uncertainty that are hidden in S-commerce, and statistically verifies their relationship. The research results can be used in Internet marketing practices to establish marketing mix strategies for customer demand or as research data to predict customer behavior. The results are scientifically meaningful as a precedent for research on customers in S-commerce.
The Influence of Natural Scene Dynamics on Auditory Cortical Activity

The efficient cortical encoding of natural scenes is essential for guiding adaptive behavior. Because natural scenes and network activity in cortical circuits share similar temporal scales, it is necessary to understand how the temporal structure of natural scenes influences network dynamics in cortical circuits and spiking output. We examined the relationship between the structure of natural acoustic scenes and its impact on network activity [as indexed by local field potentials (LFPs)] and spiking responses in macaque primary auditory cortex. Natural auditory scenes led to a change in the power of the LFP in the 2–9 and 16–30 Hz frequency ranges relative to the ongoing activity. In contrast, ongoing rhythmic activity in the 9–16 Hz range was essentially unaffected by the natural scene. Phase coherence analysis showed that scene-related changes in LFP power were at least partially attributable to the locking of the LFP and spiking activity to the temporal structure in the scene, with locking extending up to 25 Hz for some scenes and cortical sites. Consistent with distributed place and temporal coding schemes, a key predictor of phase locking and power changes was the overlap between the spectral selectivity of a cortical site and the spectral structure of the scene. Finally, during the processing of natural acoustic scenes, spikes were locked to LFP phase at frequencies up to 30 Hz. These results are consistent with an idea that the cortical representation of natural scenes emerges from an interaction between network activity and stimulus dynamics.
IgG 4 Cholangiopathy

IgG4 cholangiopathy can involve any level of the biliary tree which exhibits sclerosing cholangitis or pseudotumorous hilar lesions. Most cases are associated with autoimmune pancreatitis, an important diagnostic clue. Without autoimmune pancreatitis, however, the diagnosis of IgG4-cholangiopathy is challenging. Indeed such cases have been treated surgically. IgG4-cholangiopathy should be diagnosed based on serological examinations including serum IgG4 concentrations, radiological features, and histological evidence of IgG4+ plasma cell infiltration. Steroid therapy is very effective even at disease relapse. A Th2-dominant immune response or the activation of regulatory T cells seems to be involved in the underlying immune reaction. It is still unknown why IgG4 levels are specifically elevated in patients with this disease. IgG4 might be secondarily overexpressed by Th2 or regulatory cytokines given the lack of evidence that IgG4 is an autoantibody.
Distributed Representations of Rule Identity and Rule Order in Human Frontal Cortex and Striatum

Humans are able to flexibly devise and implement rules to reach their desired goals. For simple situations, we can use single rules, such as “if traffic light is green then cross the street. ” In most cases, however, more complex rule sets are required, involving the integration of multiple layers of control. Although it has been shown that prefrontal cortex is important for rule representation, it has remained unclear how the brain encodes more complex rule sets. Here, we investigate how the brain represents the order in which different parts of a rule set are evaluated. Participants had to follow compound rule sets that involved the concurrent application of two single rules in a specific order, where one of the rules always had to be evaluated first. The rules and their assigned order were independently manipulated. By applying multivariate decoding to fMRI data, we found that the identity of the current rule was encoded in a frontostriatal network involving right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, right superior frontal gyrus, and dorsal striatum. In contrast, rule order could be decoded in the dorsal striatum and in the right premotor cortex. The nonhomogeneous distribution of information across brain areas was confirmed by follow-up analyses focused on relevant regions of interest. We argue that the brain encodes complex rule sets by “decomposing” them in their constituent features, which are represented in different brain areas, according to the aspect of information to be maintained.
Towards green design guidelines for thermally comfortable streets

Creating thermally comfortable streetscapes is a rather new challenge for urban designers in The Netherlands and other countries with moderate climates. This is due to the lack of evidence based design guidelines. By combining research methods from micrometeorology and landscape architecture, we work on the development of such guidelines. For that purpose, we investigated physical and psychological impacts of street greenery on thermal comfort in three street types with varying vegetation density. Our preliminary results, based on a data analysis of one day of our measurement series, did not show significant cooling effects through greenery. Similar air temperatures were measured. In streets with large tree crowns on both sides, the mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) was 2.5 K lower than in streets without greenery. However, higher Tmrt values were found in streets with smaller trees and small front gardens. Interview results indicated that people perceived thermal conditions in streets with greenery to be more comfortable than in streets without greenery, even though they were hardly aware of this positive influence of street greenery on their thermal comfort. Furthermore, people significantly valued the presence of greenery in aesthetic terms. Our results suggest that street greenery contributes to both, improving physical and -more significantlyimproving psychological thermal comfort and raising aesthetic appreciation of streetscapes.
Regression-based Online Anomaly Detection for Smart Grid Data

With the widely used smart meters in the energy sector, anomaly detection becomes a crucial mean to study the unusual consumption behaviors of customers, and to discover unexpected events of using energy promptly. Detecting consumption anomalies is, essentially, a real-time big data analytics problem, which does data mining on a large amount of parallel data streams from smart meters. In this paper, we propose a supervised learning and statistical-based anomaly detection method, and implement a Lambda system using the in-memory distributed computing framework, Spark and its extension Spark Streaming. The system supports not only iterative detection model refreshment from scalable data sets, but also real-time detection on scalable live data streams. This paper empirically evaluates the system and the detection algorithm, and the results show the effectiveness and the scalability of the proposed lambda detection system.
The X‐ray transient XTE J1859 + 226 in outburst and quiescence

We present optical photometry and spectroscopy of the X-ray transient XTE J1859+226, obtained during outburst and its subsequent decay to quiescence. Both the X-ray and optical properties are very similar to those of well-studied black hole soft X-ray transients. We have detected three mini-outbursts, when XTE J1859+226 was approaching quiescence, as has been previously detected in the soft X-ray transients GRO J0422+32 and GRS 1009-45. By 2000 August 24 the system had reached quiescence with R = 22.48 ′ 0.07. The estimated distance to the source is ∼11 kpc. Photometry taken during quiescence shows a sinusoidal modulation with a peak to peak amplitude of about 0.4 mag. A period analysis suggests that periods from 0.28 to 0.47 d are equally possible at the 68 per cent confidence level. The amplitude of the quiescent light curve and the relatively low ratio of X-ray to optical flux indicate that the binary inclination should be high. The measured colours during the outburst allow us to obtain the basic properties of the disc, which agrees well with irradiated disc model predictions.
A Short History of the B-Cell-Associated Surface Molecule CD40

This perspective traces developments using monoclonal antibody technology that led to the discovery of CD40, a receptor that on B cells mediates “T cell help” and on dendritic cells helps to program CD8 T cell responses. I discuss some things that we got right during the path of discovery and some things we missed. Immunotherapies that block or stimulate the CD40 pathway hold great promise for treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancers.
Pricing Swap Credit Risk with Copulas

We apply copula functions to evaluate counterpart risk in swap transactions. Using copulas allows to generalise the approach proposed by Sorensen and Bollier (1994), allowing for dependence between swap rates and counterparty default. Counterpart risk is represented by a sequence of vulnerable swaptions, which are priced using Cherubini and Luciano (2002) approach. Using copulas grants maximum flexibility with the choice of term structure and default risk models, as well as with the specification of the dependence structure between interest rate and credit risk. Closed form hedging and pricing formulas are derived for extreme depen#
Relationship between Soil Physico-Chemical Properties and Available Macronutrients in Loamy Sand Soils

The deficiency of nutrients has become major constraint to productivity and sustainability of soils. For the better growth of plants, amongst many other factors, thirteen essential elements are required to be present in soil in proper proportion and available form. Amongst these elements, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are categorized as macronutrients and are required in larger quantity than the other nutrients. The selection of proper rate of these plant nutrients is based on the knowledge of nutrient requirements of crop and nutrient supplying power of the soil. Macronutrients are important for maintaining soil health and also increasing productivity of crops. The most important constituents in soil is organic matter, an appreciable amount of organic matter in soil tremendously increase soil fertility. Decay of organic matter release nitrogen, phosphorus and mineral nutrients in a form available to plant. Availability of N, P and K induce better germination of seeds and hence subsequent better growth and stronger root development. Agriculture activities change the soil chemical, physical and biological properties. The core constraints in relation to land use include, depletion of organic matter due to wide spread use of biomass as fuel, depletion of nutrients, removal of top soil by erosion, change of physical properties and increased soil salinity. Hence an attempt was made to assess the available status of macronutrients and their relationship with different properties of soils of Gharsana tehsil of Sriganganagar district.
Tuberculosis in renal transplant recipients on various immunosuppressive regimens.

BACKGROUND Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and tacrolimus (TAC) are more potent than conventional immunosuppressive drugs, i.e. azathioprine, cyclosporin and prednisolone, and may be associated with an increase in the incidence of infections in the post-transplantation (post-tx) period. The aim of this study was to determine if the use of either or both of MMF and TAC for immunosuppression in renal transplant recipients increases the prevalence or modifies the clinical presentation of tuberculosis (TB), when compared with conventional therapy. METHODS The medical records of 443 adult patients who received a kidney transplant between 1994 and 2002 were reviewed retrospectively. Comparisons were made between patients who had conventional immunosuppressive treatments (cyclosporin, azathioprine and prednisolone) or an alternative regimen (including MMF, TAC or both). RESULTS We found 20 patients (4.5%) to have post-tx TB. There were 13 cases of TB (age 38.9+/-10.6 years) among 328 patients who received conventional immunosuppressants (group I) (4.0%) and seven cases (age 24.2+/-7.4 years) among 115 (6.1%) who received an alternative immunosuppressive regimen (group II) (P>0.05). The patients in group II were younger than the patients in group I (P = 0.002). A significantly higher number of patients in group II developed TB within the first 6 months post-tx (P = 0.042). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding clinical and radiographic presentations or outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Immunosuppression with TAC or MMF is associated with the development of TB earlier in the post-tx period and in younger patients.
The Rodney L . White Center for Financial Research The Persistence and Pricing of the Cash Component of Earnings

Following Sloan (1996), numerous studies show that the cash component of earnings is more persistent than the accrual component of earnings. In this paper, we show that the higher persistence of the cash component of earnings is attributable to net cash distributions to equityholders. This result holds despite the fact that net cash distributions to equityholders account for less than one third of the total variation in the cash component of earnings. We also show that investors correctly anticipate the lower persistence of the remaining cash component of earnings, contradicting Sloan’s hypotheses that investors naively fixate on earnings. *We are grateful for the comments of Todd Doersch and workshop participants at Georgetown University and UCLA. Errors are our own. The Persistence and Pricing of the Cash Component of Earnings Abstract: Following Sloan (1996), numerous studies show that the cash component of earnings is more persistent than the accrual component of earnings. In this paper, we show that the higher persistence of the cash component of earnings is attributable to net cash distributions to equityholders. This result holds despite the fact that net cash distributions to equityholders account for less than one third of the total variation in the cash component of earnings. We also show that investors correctly anticipate the lower persistence of the remaining cash component of earnings, contradicting Sloan’s hypotheses that investors naively fixate on earnings. Following Sloan (1996), numerous studies show that the cash component of earnings is more persistent than the accrual component of earnings. In this paper, we show that the higher persistence of the cash component of earnings is attributable to net cash distributions to equityholders. This result holds despite the fact that net cash distributions to equityholders account for less than one third of the total variation in the cash component of earnings. We also show that investors correctly anticipate the lower persistence of the remaining cash component of earnings, contradicting Sloan’s hypotheses that investors naively fixate on earnings.
Higher cohomology triples and holomorphic extensions

We introduce equations for special metrics, and notions of stability for some new types of augmented holomorphic bundles. These new examples include holomorphic extensions, and in this case we prove a Hitchin-Kobayashi correspondence between a certain deformation of the Hermitian-Einstein equations and our definition of stability for an extension.
Should All Cars Be Electric by 2025? The Electric Car Debate in Europe

The car is still the most common mode of transport in Western countries, particularly so across the European Union, as it accounts for about two-thirds of daily commuting. So far, measures aiming to reduce automobile traffic and incentives for the modal shift to public transport and non-polluting methods of travel (walking, cycling, etc.) have had little effect. Moreover, the car lies at the core of a very complex system that has proven to be difficult to unlock. In light of these challenges, using new types of engine power may appear to be a solution. Electric vehicles have the potential to improve the efficiency, affordability, and sustainability of the transport system. However, there remains much uncertainty as to how such a transition from one type of engine to another may unfold, and where it could take place within the European context. In June 2017, the H2020 project SHAPE-ENERGY launched an online debate on the Debating Europe platform with the question: “Should all cars be electric by 2025? ”. The aim of the debate was to elicit citizens views on whether the goal could be reached, how and with which consequences. The diversity of the vantage points that have appeared in the subsequent discussion generated by the strands of debate allows us to bring into discussion the viewpoints and arguments that are not often addressed in the literature on the adoption of electric cars in a comprehensive way. The article sheds light on those debates across Europe, in order to bring new insights to European policymakers that are seeking to promote the market for electric vehicles. It also broadens the scope and offers important contributions to scholarly debates on the diffusion and adoption of such vehicles.