Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Training in Cortical Control of Neuroprosthetic Devices Improves Signal Extraction from Small Neuronal Ensembles

We have recently developed a closed-loop environment in which we can test the ability of primates to control the motion of a virtual device using ensembles of simultaneously recorded neurons /29/. Here we use a maximum likelihood method to assess the information about task performance contained in the neuronal ensemble. We trained two animals to control the motion of a computer cursor in three dimensions. Initially the animals controlled cursor motion using arm movements, but eventually they learned to drive the cursor directly from cortical activity. Using a population vector (PV) based upon the relation between cortical activity and arm motion, the animals were able to control the cursor directly from the brain in a closed-loop environment, but with difficulty. We added a supervised learning method that modified the parameters of the PV according to task performance (adaptive PV), and found that animals were able to exert much finer control over the cursor motion from brain signals. Here we describe a maximum likelihood method (ML) to assess the information about target contained in neuronal ensemble activity. Using this method, we compared the information about target contained in the ensemble during arm control, during brain control early in the adaptive PV, and during brain control after the adaptive PV had settled and the animal could drive the cursor reliably and with fine gradations. During the arm-control task, the ML was able to determine the target of the movement in as few as 10% of the trials, and as many as 75% of the trials, with an average of 65%. This average dropped when the animals used a population vector to control motion of the cursor. On average we could determine the target in around 35% of the trials. This low percentage was also reflected in poor control of the cursor, so that the animal was unable to reach the target in a large percentage of trials. Supervised adjustment of the population vector parameters produced new weighting coefficients and directional tuning parameters for many neurons. This produced a much better performance of the brain-controlled cursor motion. It was also reflected in the maximum likelihood measure of cell activity, producing the correct target based only on neuronal activity in over 80% of the trials on average. The changes in maximum likelihood estimates of target location based on ensemble firing show that an animal's ability to regulate the motion of a cortically controlled device is not crucially dependent on the experimenter's ability to estimate intention from neuronal activity.
The Myths of Restoration Ecology

Humanity’s ever-increasing ability to effect environmental change on a number of spatial and temporal scales requires tough decisions about how we view, value, and manage ecosystems. For example, advances in agriculture that support vastly more people per unit area than hunting and gathering are clearly a positive outcome for society. However, many beneficial land-use practices, including agriculture, may ultimately degrade ecosystems. To function as a society, some amount of ecosystem alteration must occur to support the human population, but we are ultimately dependent on ecosystem services. Our actions both intentionally and unwittingly alter the goods and services of many ecosystems on which we rely, and by entering into this relationship of altering ecosystems, we incur responsibility to our neighbors and to future generations. However, the difficult decisions have largely been avoided by the expectations and confidence in conservation and, in particular, ecological restoration.
Musical intervention enhances infants’ neural processing of temporal structure in music and speech

Significance Musicians show enhanced musical pitch and meter processing, effects that generalize to speech. Yet potential differences between musicians and nonmusicians limit conclusions. We examined the effects of a randomized laboratory-controlled music intervention on music and speech processing in 9-mo-old infants. The Intervention exposed infants to music in triple meter (the waltz) in a social environment. Controls engaged in similar social play without music. After 12 sessions, infants’ temporal information processing was assessed in music and speech using brain measures [magnetoencephalography (MEG)]. Compared with controls, intervention infants exhibited enhanced neural responses to temporal violations in both music and speech, in both auditory and prefrontal cortices. The intervention improves infants’ detection and prediction of auditory patterns, skills important to music and speech. Individuals with music training in early childhood show enhanced processing of musical sounds, an effect that generalizes to speech processing. However, the conclusions drawn from previous studies are limited due to the possible confounds of predisposition and other factors affecting musicians and nonmusicians. We used a randomized design to test the effects of a laboratory-controlled music intervention on young infants’ neural processing of music and speech. Nine-month-old infants were randomly assigned to music (intervention) or play (control) activities for 12 sessions. The intervention targeted temporal structure learning using triple meter in music (e.g., waltz), which is difficult for infants, and it incorporated key characteristics of typical infant music classes to maximize learning (e.g., multimodal, social, and repetitive experiences). Controls had similar multimodal, social, repetitive play, but without music. Upon completion, infants’ neural processing of temporal structure was tested in both music (tones in triple meter) and speech (foreign syllable structure). Infants’ neural processing was quantified by the mismatch response (MMR) measured with a traditional oddball paradigm using magnetoencephalography (MEG). The intervention group exhibited significantly larger MMRs in response to music temporal structure violations in both auditory and prefrontal cortical regions. Identical results were obtained for temporal structure changes in speech. The intervention thus enhanced temporal structure processing not only in music, but also in speech, at 9 mo of age. We argue that the intervention enhanced infants’ ability to extract temporal structure information and to predict future events in time, a skill affecting both music and speech processing.
Evaluation of a Policy-Based QoS Management Architecture over an IPv6 DiffServ testbed

In this paper we present the implementation of a bandwidth broker architecture for the centralized management of the QoS in native IPv6 DiffServ networks in a multi-domain environment. The bandwidth broker has been programmed in JAVA and uses COPS-PR as an infra-domain communication protocol and SIBBSv6 as an inter-domain communication protocol. The latter protocol is also presented. SIBBSv6 is a variation of the SIBBS inter-domain communication protocol with some new features such as the IPv6 support. The evaluation of the proposed architecture has been tested by implementing a real IPv6 DiffServ testbed composed of three domains. Each of these domains is managed by the developed bandwidth broker named BBv6. The results of these tests and the corresponding conclusions are also presented.
Foxa1 Reduces Lipid Accumulation in Human Hepatocytes and Is Down-Regulated in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver

Triglyceride accumulation in nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) results from unbalanced lipid metabolism which, in the liver, is controlled by several transcription factors. The Foxa subfamily of winged helix/forkhead box (Fox) transcription factors comprises three members which play important roles in controlling both metabolism and homeostasis through the regulation of multiple target genes in the liver, pancreas and adipose tissue. In the mouse liver, Foxa2 is repressed by insulin and mediates fasting responses. Unlike Foxa2 however, the role of Foxa1 in the liver has not yet been investigated in detail. In this study, we evaluate the role of Foxa1 in two human liver cell models, primary cultured hepatocytes and HepG2 cells, by adenoviral infection. Moreover, human and rat livers were analyzed to determine Foxa1 regulation in NAFL. Results demonstrate that Foxa1 is a potent inhibitor of hepatic triglyceride synthesis, accumulation and secretion by repressing the expression of multiple target genes of these pathways (e.g., GPAM, DGAT2, MTP, APOB). Moreover, Foxa1 represses the fatty acid transporter protein FATP2 and lowers fatty acid uptake. Foxa1 also increases the breakdown of fatty acids by inducing peroxisomal fatty acid β-oxidation and ketone body synthesis. Finally, Foxa1 is able to largely up-regulate UCP1, thereby dissipating energy and consistently decreasing the mitochondria membrane potential. We also report that human and rat NAFL have a reduced Foxa1 expression, possibly through a protein kinase C-dependent pathway. We conclude that Foxa1 is an antisteatotic factor that coordinately tunes several lipid metabolic pathways to block triglyceride accumulation in hepatocytes. However, Foxa1 is down-regulated in human and rat NAFL and, therefore, increasing Foxa1 levels could protect from steatosis. Altogether, we suggest that Foxa1 could be a novel therapeutic target for NAFL disease and insulin resistance.
New differential operator and noncollapsed RCD
spaces

We show characterizations of non-collapsed compact $RCD(K, N)$ spaces, which in particular confirm a conjecture of De Philippis-Gigli on the implication from the weakly non-collapsed condition to the non-collapsed one in the compact case. The key idea is to give the explicit formula of the Laplacian associated to the pull-back Riemannian metric by embedding in $L^2$ via the heat kernel. This seems the first application of geometric flow to the study of RCD spaces.
Mediating Effects of Organizational Commitment and Perceived Organizational Support on HRM Practices and Turnover Intention: A Study of Private Universities in Bangladesh

Excessive employee turnover is detrimental to any organization. High rate of faculty turnover especially in the private universities has become one of the most pressing issues for higher educational institutions in Bangladesh. The main objective of this study was to empirically determine the significant human resource management(HRM) practices that influence the faculty turnover intention in the said context. Earlier study had suggested that employees’ positive perceptions of organizational human resource practices could lead to increased organizational commitment (OC) and perceived organizational support (POS), which in turn could negatively influence employees’ behavioral intention. The present study had explored the mediating role of OC and POS on the relationship between some HRM practices and faculty turnover intention. The study employed the survey method approach. The researcher had collected the survey data for statistical analysis to test the hypothesized relationships between the variables which were studied. The study had used a number of different statistical techniques such as factor analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regressions and hierarchical multiple regression for analyzing the data. The results of the study had provided the general support for the hypotheses. They revealed that gender and age were among the variables that had significantly and positively influenced the faculty turnover intention. Among the six independent variables, faculty job security, faculty compensation and faculty supervisory support were found to be significantly and negatively related to faculty turnover intention. In addition, they also confirmed that affective commitment, continuance commitment and perceived organizational support were significantly and negatively related to the faculty turnover intention. Furthermore, the results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses also indicated that affective commitment, continuance commitment and perceived organizational support mediate the relationship between HRM practices and faculty turnover intention. Specifically, affective and continuance commitment partially mediate the relationship between faculty compensation, faculty supervisory support and faculty turnover intention relationship, while affective commitment fully mediates the faculty job security and faculty turnover intention relationship. Perceived organizational support fully mediates the relationship between HRM practices and faculty turnover intention. The empirical relationships between HRM practices, organizational commitment, perceived organizational support and faculty turnover intention suggested that it would be beneficial to the management of private universities to improve faculty turnover situation. Besides that, the contributions, the limitations and implications of the study were also discussed.
The Relationship between Values and Practice

Previous research on whistle-blowers has tended to focus on the individual as the unit of analysis rather than on the organization or its subunits. Subunit level analysis of survey data from 15 subunits of the U.S. government was used to examine the relationship between members' values concerning wrongdoing and whistle-blowing and the organization's practices. We conclude that "positive" organizational climates may discourage serious wrong-doing and encourage whistle-blowing under some conditions, but the relationship is not as straightforward as might be expected.
Plasma Protein Characteristics of Long-Term Hemodialysis Survivors

Hemodialysis (HD) patients are under recurrent circulatory stress, and hemodialysis has a high mortality rate. The characteristics of plasma proteomes in patients surviving long-term HD remain obscure, as well as the potential biomarkers in predicting prognoses. This study reports the proteome analyses of patient plasma from non-diabetic long-term HD (LHD, dialysis vintage 14.9±4.1 years, n = 6) and the age/sex/uremic etiology-comparable short-term HD (SHD, dialysis vintage 5.3±2.9 years, n = 6) using 2-DE and mass spectrometry. In addition, a 4-year longitudinal follow-up of 60 non-diabetic HD patients was subsequently conducted to analyze the baseline plasma proteins by ELISA in predicting prognosis. Compared to the SHD, the LHD survivors had increased plasma vitamin D binding proteins (DBP) and decreased clusterin, apolipoprotein A-IV, haptoglobin, hemopexin, complement factors B and H, and altered isoforms of α1-antitrypsin and fibrinogen gamma. During the 45.7±15 months for follow-up of the 60 HD patient cases, 16 patients died. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that HD patients with the lowest tertile of the baseline plasma DBP level have a significantly higher mortality rate. Multivariate Cox regression analysis further indicated that DBP is an independent predictor of mortality. In summary, the altered plasma proteins in LHD implicated accelerated atherosclerosis, defective antioxidative activity, increased inflammation/infection, and organ dysfunction. Furthermore, lower baseline plasma DBP in HD patients is related to mortality. The results suggest that the proteomic approach could help discover the potential biomarker in HD prognoses.
The  ${\sim } 3\,{\times } 10^{20}$  cm $^{-3}$  Electron Concentration and Low Specific Contact Resistivity of Phosphorus-Doped Ge on Si by In-Situ Chemical Vapor Deposition Doping and Laser Annealing

The phosphorus incorporation by chemical vapor deposition and activation by laser annealing reaches the electron concentration of ~3 × 10<sup>20</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup>. The pulsed laser not only activates the phosphorus but also produces the biaxial tensile strain of 0.35%. With the nickel germanide contact, the specific contact resistivity reaches as low as 1.5 × 10<sup>-8</sup> Ω-cm<sup>2</sup> by greatly reducing the tunneling distance. Due to 4% misfit between Ge and Si, there are still misfit dislocations near the Ge/Si interface. The misfit dislocations at the Ge/Si interface lead to the ideality factor of 1.6 for the Ge/Si hetero-junction diode with ON/OFF ratio of ~1 × 10<sup>5</sup>.
Analysis of the publications on the applications of particle swarm optimisation

Particle swarm optimisation (PSO) has been enormously successful. Within little more than a decade hundreds of papers have reported successful applications of PSO. In fact, there are so many of them, that it is difficult for PSO practitioners and researchers to have a clear up-to-date vision of what has been done in the area of PSO applications. This brief paper attempts to fill this gap, by categorising a large number of publications dealing with PSO applications stored in the IEEE Xplore database at the time of writing.
Potentiation of the Baroreceptor‐Heart Rate Reflex By Sympathectomy in Conscious Rats

In both animals and humans, stimuli leading to sympathetic activation are accompanied by an impairment of the baroreceptor-heart rate reflex. To determine whether sympathetic activity normally interferes with this reflex function we examined in conscious Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats the effect of chemical sympathectomy by 6-hydroxydopamine on the bradycardic response to baroreceptor stimulation induced by raising blood pressure via intravenous phenylephrine boluses; control rats received vehicle. Spontaneously hypertensive rats were also studied because in these animals there is both a baroreceptor reflex impairment and a sympathetic overactivity. Baroreceptor reflex sensitivity, calculated as the ratio of the peak increase in pulse interval to the peak increase in mean arterial pressure, was 75% greater in sympathectomized WKY rats than in control WKY rats (L28±0.15 versus 0.73±0.10 msec/mm Hg, mean±SEM; p<0.0l). The sympathectomy-induced increase in sensitivity was even larger in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) (1.26±0.12 versus 0.44±0.06 msec/mm Hg in sympathectomized SHR versus control SHR, +186%; p<0.01) so that the impaired baroreceptor reflex sensitivity observed in control SHR as compared with control WKY rats (-40%, p< 0.01) was no longer detectable in the sympathectomized groups. To establish whether the sympathectomy-induced potentiation of the reflex was due to an increase in cardiac responsiveness to vagal stimuli, we subjected separate groups of anesthetized, vagotomized SHR and WKY rats to graded electrical stimulation of the right efferent vagus. The bradycardic effects of vagal stimulation, however, were similar in sympathectomized and control animals. It is concluded that 1) sympathetic nerve activity normally exerts an antagonistic effect on the baroreceptor-heart rate reflex, 2) this phenomenon is much more pronounced in SHR than in WKY rats and may contribute to the baroreceptor reflex impairment typical of the former animals, and 3) the sympathectomyinduced potentiation of the reflex does not depend on an increase in cardiac vagal responsiveness.
Platelet Reactivity in Patients With Stroke and Hyperlipidemia, GPIbα Assessment

The aim of this study was to assess platelet reactivity in patients after ischemic stroke and to investigate the influence of hyperlipidemia (HL) on platelet activity markers. A total of 41 patients after ischemic stroke were divided into the following 2 groups: patients with HL and patients with normolipidemia. Expression of CD42b on resting, thrombin-activated blood platelets, and fibrinogen level was assessed. The CD42b-positive platelets were analyzed using the flow cytometer, anti-CD61, and anti-CD42b monoclonal antibodies. The results confirmed increased platelet reactivity to thrombin in all patients after ischemic stroke manifested by significantly lower CD42b expression and percentage of CD42b(+) platelets after activation by thrombin. The influence of HL on the expression of CD42b on resting and thrombin-activated platelets was not found. However, increased level of fibrinogen but no influence of HL on fibrinogen concentration was observed in patients after ischemic stroke. Increased susceptibility to platelet agonists was found in patients after ischemic stroke in the convalescent phase.
[Clinical observation on relation between nasal mucosa contact point and headache].

OBJECTIVE To verify the correlation between nasal contact point and headache and to discuss the significance of nasal endoscopic surgery through observation of clinical outcomes in patients with nasal mucosa contact point treated by endoscopic surgery. METHODS Forty-five patients diagnosed as nasal mucosa contact headache were treated by nasal endoscopic surgery. The results were analyzed retrospectively, including headache degree, headache frequency, lasting time and total time between before and 6, 18, and 24 months after operation. The data were processed by rank-sum test by SPSS 18.0 software. RESULTS 6, 18 and 24 months after operation, the headache degree (VAS scores were 1.50 [0; 4.00], 2.00 [0; 5.00], 3.25 [0; 5.75], respectively) was relieved (VAS score was 6.00 [5.25; 8.25] before operation) dramatically (Z value were -4.913, -4.070 and -3.095, respectively, all P < 0.01). The total time of headache 6, 18, 24 months after operation (It were 0.07 [0; 3.50], 0.26 [0; 7.77], 1.04[0; 17.15] h, respectively) was shortened (It was 25.20 [4.00; 186.00] h before operation) significantly (Z value were -4.368, -3.652, -2.500, respectively, all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS One of the key causes of patients suffered from intractable headaches is mucosal contact in the nasal cavity. The pain in these patients could be relieved through surgical correction of intranasal anatomic abnormalities. Nasal mucosa contact might not be the only etiology of intractable headache since the mechanism of headache is complicated and variable. The effect of endoscopic surgery needs to be estimated by long-term follow-up.
Real-Time Implementation of an Artificial Stereo Audio Extension Method

In this paper, we address the issue of the real-time implementation of an artificial stereo audio extension method that provides stereophonic audio from a mono audio source. First, the floating-point arithmetic programming of the method is performed. Then, the computationally complex parts of the floating-point operations are converted into fixed-point operations to allow them to operate in real time. The performance of a real-time implementation is evaluated by measuring the processing time and root mean square (RMS) value. Consequently, it is shown that partial fixed-point arithmetic programming reduces the processing time by 48.7%, with an RMS value of-90.50 dB, compared to the floating-point arithmetic programming.