Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling the development of organization for orientation preference in primary visual cortex

The cerebral cortex of mammals comprises a series of topographic maps, forming sensory and motor areas such as those in the visual, auditory, and somatosensory systems. Understanding the rules that govern the development of these maps and how this topographic organization relates to information processing is critical for the understanding of cortical processing and whole brain function. Previous computational models have shown that topographic maps can develop through a process of self-organization, if spatially localized patches of cortical neurons are activated by particular stimuli. This thesis presents a series of computational models, based on this principle of self-organization, that focus on the development of the map of orientation preference in primary visual cortex (V1). This map is the prototypical example of topographic map development in the brain, and is the most widely studied, however the same self-organizing principles can also apply to maps of many other visual features and maps in many other sensory areas. Experimental evidence indicates that orientation preference maps in V1 develop in a stable way, with the initial layout determined before eye opening. This constraint is at odds with previous self-organizing models, which have used biologically unfounded ad-hoc methods to obtain robust and reliable development. Such mechanisms inherently lead to instability, by causing massive reorganization over time. The first model presented in this thesis (ALISSOM) shows how ad-hoc methods can be replaced with biologically realistic homeostatic mechanisms that lead to development that is both robust and stable. This model shows for the first time how orientation maps can remain stable despite the massive circuit reconstruction and change in visual inputs occurring during development. This model also highlights the requirements for homeostasis in the developing visual circuit. A second model shows how this development can occur using circuitry that is consistent with the known wiring in V1, unlike previous models. This new model, LESI, contains Long-range Excitatory and Short-range Inhibitory connections between model neurons. Instead of direct long-range inhibition, it uses di-synaptic inhibition to ensure that when visual stimuli are at high contrast, long-range excitatory connections have an overall inhibitory influence. The results match previous models in the special case of the high-contrast inputs that drive development most strongly, but show how the behavior relates to the underlying circuitry, and also make it possible to explore
Community Design: growing one's own information infrastructure

This paper examines the phenomenon of Community Design. It is a radical phenomenon in that community members collectively grow their own community information infrastructures without the intervention of professionals typically associated with such endeavors. A recently initiated comparative study draws on ongoing, longitudinal research engagements with a small number of communities and has identified a set of characteristics that apply across these communities that undertake Community Design. We present the characteristics grouped into three dimensions of community: organizational, social and technical. Finally, we draw attention to future research topics that we see as relevant to the expanding scopes of Participatory Design.
Knowledge Judgments in "Gettier" Cases

“Gettier cases” have played a major role in Anglo-American analytic epistemology over the past fifty years. Philosophers have grouped a bewildering array of examples under the heading “Gettier case. ” Philosophers claim that these cases are obvious counterexamples to the “traditional” analysis of knowledge as justified true belief, and they treat correctly classifying the cases as a criterion for judging proposed theories of knowledge. Cognitive scientists recently began testing whether philosophers are right about these cases. It turns out that philosophers were partly right and partly wrong. Some “Gettier cases” are obvious examples of ignorance, but others are obvious examples of knowledge. It also turns out that much research in this area of philosophy is marred by experimenter bias, invented historical claims, dysfunctional categorization of examples, and mischaracterization by philosophers of their own intuitive judgments about particular cases. Despite these shortcomings, lessons learned from studying “Gettier cases” are leading to important insights about knowledge and knowledge attributions, which are central components of social cognition.
Effects and Mechanism of Action of a Tribulus terrestris Extract on Penile Erection

Purpose Tribulus terrestris has been used as an aphrodisiac. However, little is known about the effects and mechanism of action of T. terrestris on penile erection. Therefore, the effect of a T. terrestris extract and the mechanism of action of the extract on relaxation of the corpus cavernosum (CC) were investigated. The erectogenic effects of an oral preparation of the extract were also assessed. Materials and Methods The relaxation effects and mechanism of action of the T. terrestris extract on rabbit CC were investigated in an organ bath. The intracavernous pressure (ICP) was calculated after oral administration of the extract for 1 month to evaluate whether the relaxation response of the CC shown in the organ bath occurred in vivo. Additionally, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) were measured in the CC by immunoassay. Smooth muscle relaxation was expressed as the percentage decrease in precontraction induced by phenylephrine. The ICP was also assessed in rats after oral administration of the extract for 1 month, and changes in concentrations of cGMP and cAMP were monitored. Results Concentration-dependent relaxation effects of the extract on the CC were detected in the organ bath study. Relaxation of the CC by the T. terrestris extract was inhibited in both an endothelium-removed group and an L-arginen methyl ester pretreatment group. The ICP measured after oral administration of the T. terrestris extract for 1 month was higher than that measured in the control group, and a significant increase in cAMP was observed in the T. terrestris extract group. Conclusions The T. terrestris extract induced concentration-dependent relaxation of the CC in an organ bath. The mechanism included a reaction involving the nitric oxide/nitric oxide synthase pathway and endothelium of the CC. Moreover, in an in vivo study, the T. terrestris extract showed a significant concentration-dependent increase in ICP. Accordingly, the T. terrestris extract may improve erectile function.
Exploring the use of juju in Nigerian human trafficking networks: considerations for criminal investigators

Abstract This exploratory study examines a seemingly unique method of control used to psychologically bind Nigerian women and children to their traffickers. In order to manipulate the victims’ fear of spiritual retribution, they initially undergo a juju ritual whereby they swear an oath to the spirit world, promising not to escape or disclose their exploitation to the authorities. The aim of this research was to explore how this process affects the victim and what considerations this phenomena raises for criminal investigators. The methodology employed qualitative data obtained through interviews with front-line practitioners from the United Kingdom. Results suggest the oath is one of several mechanisms used by traffickers to instil fear. Others include rape, physical threats, threats of deportation and perceptions of police corruption. The main recommendations are to empathise with the victim’s fear of spiritual retribution; develop trust and rapport; take a joint-agency approach and provide access to psychological and spiritual counselling.
Provided for Non-commercial Research and Educational Use Only. Not for Reproduction, Distribution or Commercial Use. the Primate Hippocampus and Episodic Memory

author's institution, for non-commercial research and educational use including without limitation use in instruction at your institution, sending it to specific colleagues who know you, and providing a copy to your institution's administrator. All other uses, reproduction and distribution, including without limitation commercial reprints, selling or licensing copies or access, or posting on open internet sites, your personal or institution's website or repository, are prohibited. For exceptions, permission may be sought for such use through Elsevier's permissions site at: Abstract: Humans can remember where in space they have seen an object. In this example of one-trial event or episodic memory, an association must be formed between an object and a place ''out there,'' and the place can be recalled with the object as a recall cue, or the object can be recalled with the place as a recall cue. Hippocampal spatial view neurons in primates provide allocentric representations of a view of space ''out there. '' The responses depend on where the monkey is looking; and can be updated by idiothetic (self-motion) inputs provided by eye movements when the view is hidden. In a room-based object–place memory task, some hippocampal neurons respond to the objects shown, some to the places viewed, and some to combinations of the places viewed and the objects present in those locations. In an object–place recall task when the location in space at which an object has been seen is recalled by the presentation of the object, some primate hippocampal neurons maintain their responding to the object recall cue in a delay period without the object being visible while the place is being recalled; and other neurons respond to the place being recalled. Other spatial view neurons form associations with the rewards present at particular locations in space. These findings and computational neuroscience neural network models of how the hippocampus could implement episodic memory help to show how the primate including human hippocampus is involved in episodic memory.
Toward an Empirical Determination of the ZZ Ceti Instability Strip

We present atmospheric parameters for a large sample of DA white dwarfs that are known to be photometrically constant. For each star, we determine the effective temperature and surface gravity by comparing high signal-to-noise ratio optical spectra to the predictions of detailed model atmosphere calculations. We also report the successful prediction and detection of photometric variability in G232-38 based on similar Teff and log g determinations. The atmospheric parameters derived for this sample of constant stars, as well as those for the known sample of bright ZZ Ceti stars (now boosted to a total of 39), have been obtained in a highly homogeneous way. We combine them to study the empirical red and blue edges, as well as the purity of the ZZ Ceti instability strip. We find that the red edge is rather well constrained, whereas there exists a rather large range of possibilities for the slope of the blue edge. Furthermore, the ZZ Ceti instability strip that results from our analysis contains no nonvariable white dwarfs. Our sample of constant stars is part of a much broader spectroscopic survey of bright (V < 17) DA white dwarfs, which we have recently undertaken. We also present here some preliminary results of this survey. Finally, we revisit the analysis by Mukadam et al. of the variable and nonvariable DA stars uncovered as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Their erroneous conclusion of an instability strip containing several nonvariable stars is traced back to the low signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopic observations used in that survey.
Pengaruh Job Demand Pada Burnout dengan Job Resource dan Personal Resource sebagai Pemoderasi: Studi pada PT Kusumaputra Santosa Karanganyar

ABSTRAK Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah menganalisis dampak dari job demand terhadap tingkat burnout dan menganalisis efek dari pemoderasi ( job resource dan personal resource ) terhadap hubungan antara job demand dengan burnout di PT Kusumaputra Santosa Karanganyar.Penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian kuantitatif dengan jumlah sampel responden 232 orang. Teknik analisis datanya menggunakan regresi linier sederhana dan MRA ( Moderating Regression Analysis) untuk mengetahui pengaruh dari pemoderasinya.Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah: 1) Dimensi-dimensi Job demand (qualitative job demand, quantitative demand dan Organizational demand) berpengaruh positif pada Burnout, 2) Job Resource dan Personal Resource mampu menjadi quasi moderasi dalam hubungan antara Qualitative Demand pada Burnout, 3) Job Resource dan Personal Resource mampu menjadi prediktor moderasi dalam hubungan Quantitative Demand pada Burnout, 4) Job Resource dan Personal Resource mampu menjadi prediktor moderasi dalam hubungan Organizational Demand pada Burnout. Kata Kunci: seminar, nasional, Job Demand, Burnout, Job Resource, Personal Resource
Concrete Human Psychology

For L. S. Vygotsky the end of the '20s was a time of intensive theoretical and experimental work in developing the basic postulates of his cultural-historical theory of the human mind. The relatively calm and, in spite of everything, happy first five years of his life in Moscow, after moving there in 1924 from Gomel', lay behind him. This was a period of his development as a psychologist when his star was in the ascendancy; when within a few years, this still quite young man was transformed from a provincial teacher, known to no one, into one of the leading and most outstanding figures in young Soviet psychology, a scholar with an inviolable scientific authority, surrounded by a group of young, also talented, and solemnly dedicated disciples; a man with a deep awareness of his mission in the development of science, full of ideas, intentions, and plans, most of which, unfortunately, were destined to remain unrealized because of Vygotsky's premature death. Vygotsky worked all these years rapidly and intensi.
Offline handwritten Malayalam Character Recognition based on chain code histogram

Optical Character Recognition plays an important role in Digital Image Processing and Pattern Recognition. Even though ambient study had been performed on foreign languages like Chinese and Japanese, effort on Indian script is still immature. OCR in Malayalam language is more complex as it is enriched with largest number of characters among all Indian languages. The challenge of recognition of characters is even high in handwritten domain, due to the varying writing style of each individual. In this paper we propose a system for recognition of offline handwritten Malayalam vowels. The proposed method uses Chain code and Image Centroid for the purpose of extracting features and a two layer feed forward network with scaled conjugate gradient for classification.
New Jupiter and Saturn Formation Models Meet Observations

The wealth of observational data about Jupiter and Saturn provides strong constraints to guide our understanding of the formation of giant planets. The size of the core and the total amount of heavy elements in the envelope have been derived from internal structure studies by Saumon & Guillot. The atmospheric abundance of some volatile elements has been measured in situ by the Galileo probe or by remote sensing. In this Letter, we show that, by extending the standard core accretion formation scenario of giant planets by Pollack et al. to include migration and protoplanetary disk evolution, it is possible to account for all of these constraints in a self-consistent manner.
A deep multi-band investigation of IC 2391

Aims. We report the outcome of a deep multiwavelength study of the IC 2391 young open cluster. We attempt to uncover new low-mass and sub-stellar members of the cluster and identify new debris disk objects. Methods. We observed a 30 x 30 square arcmin area in IC 2391 using the wide-field imager at the ESO 2.2m telescope. The completeness limits of the photometry at the 3σ level are V = 24.7, R C = 23.7, and I C = 23.0, faint enough to reveal sub-stellar members down to ∼0.03 M ⊙ . Our membership criteria are based on use of our optical data in combination with JHK S magnitudes from the 2MASS catalog. We also estimate the physical parameters of the selected candidates. Debris disk candidates are identified on the basis of their infrared excess emission using near- and mid-infrared photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Results. Our optical survey, which has a limiting magnitude at the 3σ level 1-2 mag fainter than previous optical surveys conducted in IC 2391, revealed 29 new low-mass member candidates of the cluster. We estimate the contamination to be at least ∼50%. We constrain the fraction of sub-stellar objects in the range 8-15% and discuss possible explanations of the deficit of brown dwarfs in this cluster. We also identify 10 candidates in the cluster showing IR excess emission consistent with the presence of debris disks.
Social Violations of Expectations and Peer Influence in Adolescents

A violation of expectations produces a prediction error, a learning signal by which organisms update current understanding and knowledge of expectations. The primary neural locus implicated in violations of expectations is the ventral striatum (VS), which undergoes significant development during adolescence, a period marked by sensitivity and responsivity to social feedback and reward. The VS demonstrates increased activation for reward and reward prediction errors in this age group compared to other age groups. Importantly, the VS is also recruited when adolescents take risks and are in the presence of their peers. While a few studies have examined social violations of expectations in adults, to our knowledge, none have examined social violations of expectations in adolescents. The goal of this dissertation was to implement novel, ecologically valid designs to determine whether neural responses to realistic social feedback from a friend was associated with a common risky behavior, substance use, in adolescents. We found that adolescents recruited the VS for positive social violations of expectations compared to negative violations of expectations, and were happiest when their social expectations were met (compared to positive or negative violations). We found that adolescents who recruited the VS more for violations of expectations reported greater substance use, while adolescents who recruited the VS less for violations of expectations reported lesser substance use, increased susceptibility to peer influence, and were more susceptible to peer influence in an experimental manipulation. Taken together, this body of work suggests adolescents who are more attuned to social cues from peers (and are likely to modify their behaviors in response) require smaller expectancy violations to experience reward; while those who engage in increased social risk taking require greater expectancy violations by comparison to experience reward. Implications of this work are discussed with regard to determining which adolescents are most likely to take greater social (substance use) risks, based on their VS response to social violations of expectations.
PAS Domains: Internal Sensors of Oxygen, Redox Potential, and Light

SUMMARY PAS domains are newly recognized signaling domains that are widely distributed in proteins from members of the Archaea and Bacteria and from fungi, plants, insects, and vertebrates. They function as input modules in proteins that sense oxygen, redox potential, light, and some other stimuli. Specificity in sensing arises, in part, from different cofactors that may be associated with the PAS fold. Transduction of redox signals may be a common mechanistic theme in many different PAS domains. PAS proteins are always located intracellularly but may monitor the external as well as the internal environment. One way in which prokaryotic PAS proteins sense the environment is by detecting changes in the electron transport system. This serves as an early warning system for any reduction in cellular energy levels. Human PAS proteins include hypoxia-inducible factors and voltage-sensitive ion channels; other PAS proteins are integral components of circadian clocks. Although PAS domains were only recently identified, the signaling functions with which they are associated have long been recognized as fundamental properties of living cells.
Assessment of Sal Seedlings and Herbaceous Flora in the Khairbar Plantation of Sarguja Forest Division, Chhattisgarh

In the present study an attempt has been made to evaluate the growth performance of sal seedlings and also assess the diversity of herbaceous flora in the Khairbar plantation of Sarguja forest division during the year 2013-14. Study reveals that there are prominent variations in the height of the seedlings in Khairbar plantation. The root shoot ratio of seedlings ranged between 0.31 to 0.74. The total height of seedlings ranged from 24.00 to 90.00 cm. The girth of individual seedling ranged between 4.00 and 12.00 cm. The number of branches per seedling ranged between 4.00-17.00. The average collar diameter of sal seedling was 1.96 cm and the sturdiness ranged from 15.09-42.86. Total of 27 herbaceous species comprising 15 families were encountered in the study area. The total density of the herb species was 776000 individuals ha-1 and the maximum density was recorded for Mellilotus alba (64000 individuals ha-1), while minimum for Achyranthus aspera, Malvastrum coromandelicum and Rumex dentatus (12000 individuals ha-1 for each, respectively). The Shannon index (H’) of herbaceous species was 4.606, Simpson index (Cd) was 0.045, Species richness (d) was 1.917 and Equitability (e) was 1.397, respectively. It was observed that the growth performance of sal seedling in the Khairbar plantation site is quiet slow as compared to the other tropical species. It may also be due to the higher population of the herbaceous species. The herbaceous species compete with the sal species for the sharing of the resources for the growth and development. Microclimate and management aspects are the major concern for the good growth performance of the species in plantation sites.
Cultura bene comune? Strategie di resistenza e riappropriazione dal basso in una città mediterranea

Il paper intende esplorare il rapporto tra beni comuni, strategie di resistenza e produzione culturale a Catania attraverso un’analisi di esperienze di occupazione e/o riappropriazione dal basso di spazi finalizzati all’offerta e al consumo di (contro)cultura, che rifiutano le logiche di mercificazione della citta neoliberista. Attraverso indagini sul campo, interviste in profondita e l’analisi della documentazione prodotta dagli attivisti, la ricerca intende valutare le sovrapposizioni tra motivazioni artistico-culturali e le pratiche discorsive ispirate agli urban commons e alla democrazia partecipativa, nonche le relazioni da un lato con gli attori istituzionali e, dall’altro, con il tessuto socio-economico e culturale della citta. Culture as a common? Strategies of grassroots resistance and reappropriation in the creative city The paper aims at exploring the relation between commons, resistance strategies and cultural production in Catania through analysing different cases of occupation of spaces for (counter)cultural production and consumption, thus rejecting the commodification logics of the neoliberal “creative city”. Resulting from fieldwork, in-depth interviews and document analysis, our research aims at evaluating the overlapping between artistic-cultural reasons and discursive practices inspired by the urban commons and participative democracy, as well as the relations with both institutional actors and the socio-economic and cultural milieu of the city.