Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decoding Temporal Information: A Model Based on Short-Term Synaptic Plasticity

In the current paper it is proposed that short-term plasticity and dynamic changes in the balance of excitatory–inhibitory interactions may underlie the decoding of temporal information, that is, the generation of temporally selective neurons. Our initial approach was to simulate excitatory–inhibitory disynaptic circuits. Such circuits were composed of a single excitatory and inhibitory neuron and incorporated short-term plasticity of EPSPs and IPSPs and slow IPSPs. We first showed that it is possible to tune cells to respond selectively to different intervals by changing the synaptic weights of different synapses in parallel. In other words, temporal tuning can rely on long-term changes in synaptic strength and does not require changes in the time constants of the temporal properties. When the units studied in disynaptic circuits were incorporated into a larger single-layer network, the units exhibited a broad range of temporal selectivity ranging from no interval tuning to interval-selective tuning. The variability in temporal tuning relied on the variability of synaptic strengths. The network as a whole contained a robust population code for a wide range of intervals. Importantly, the same network was able to discriminate simple temporal sequences. These results argue that neural circuits are intrinsically able to process temporal information on the time scale of tens to hundreds of milliseconds and that specialized mechanisms, such as delay lines or oscillators, may not be necessary.
Short-term and long-term effects of violent media on aggression in children and adults.

OBJECTIVES To test whether the results of the accumulated studies on media violence and aggressive behavior are consistent with the theories that have evolved to explain the effects. We tested for the existence of both short-term and long-term effects for aggressive behavior. We also tested the theory-driven hypothesis that short-term effects should be greater for adults and long-term effects should be greater for children. DESIGN Meta-analysis. PARTICIPANTS Children younger than 18 years and adults. MAIN EXPOSURES Violent media, including TV, movies, video games, music, and comic books. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Measures of aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal (eg, heart rate, blood pressure), and helping behavior. RESULTS Effect size estimates were combined using meta-analytic procedures. As expected, the short-term effects of violent media were greater for adults than for children whereas the long-term effects were greater for children than for adults. The results also showed that there were overall modest but significant effect sizes for exposure to media violence on aggressive behaviors, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, arousal levels, and helping behavior. CONCLUSIONS The results are consistent with the theory that short-term effects are mostly due to the priming of existing well-encoded scripts, schemas, or beliefs, which adults have had more time to encode. In contrast, long-term effects require the learning (encoding) of scripts, schemas, or beliefs. Children can encode new scripts, schemas, and beliefs via observational learning with less interference and effort than adults.
A-NICE-MC: Adversarial Training for MCMC

Existing Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are either based on general-purpose and domain-agnostic schemes which can lead to slow convergence, or hand-crafting of problem-specific proposals by an expert. We propose A-NICE-MC, a novel method to train flexible parametric Markov chain kernels to produce samples with desired properties. First, we propose an efficient likelihood-free adversarial training method to train a Markov chain and mimic a given data distribution. Then, we leverage flexible volume preserving flows to obtain parametric kernels for MCMC. Using a bootstrap approach, we show how to train efficient Markov chains to sample from a prescribed posterior distribution by iteratively improving the quality of both the model and the samples. A-NICE-MC provides the first framework to automatically design efficient domain-specific MCMC proposals. Empirical results demonstrate that A-NICE-MC combines the strong guarantees of MCMC with the expressiveness of deep neural networks, and is able to significantly outperform competing methods such as Hamiltonian Monte Carlo.
Quality of work‐life model for teachers of private universities in Pakistan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore various dimensions of quality of work‐life (QWL) as it affects the life and attitude at work of teachers of private universities in Lahore, Pakistan.Design/methodology/approach – The study was quantitative in nature. A survey was conducted with 360 faculty members from private universities in Lahore, in order to find out their perceptions of QWL, and its spill‐over effect on employee commitment, engagement, job involvement and reputation of the university.Findings – It was found that perceived value of work, work climate, work‐life balance and satisfaction with relationships in life were the major factors which shaped work attitudes and employee perceptions of overall quality of work‐life.Research limitations/implications – The data were cross‐sectional, collected at one point in time and relatively small in size. The responses are limited to private organizations, excluding public universities.Originality/value – The study makes both a scholarly and pract.
Associations Between Insulin Resistance, Free Fatty Acids, and Oocyte Quality in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome During In Vitro Fertilization

Context: Both polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and obesity are associated with specific reproductive health complications, including lower oocyte quality and clinical pregnancy rates in assisted conception cycles, which may be a result of metabolism-induced changes in the oocyte through the microenvironment of follicular fluid. Free fatty acids (FFAs) are important biomedical indicators of abnormal lipid metabolism and have pronounced effects on cells, leading to changes in metabolism, cell growth, and differentiation Objective: Our objective was to determine the effect of FFA metabolism in plasma and follicular fluid on oocyte quality in the women with PCOS undergoing in vitro fertilization. Design and Setting: Ninety-three women undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment, including 55 with PCOS and 38 age-matched controls, were recruited. PCOS patients were divided into obese and nonobese subgroups on the basis of their body mass index. Main Outcome Measures: Embryo quality was morphologically assessed, and serum sex hormone and insulin levels were measured. FFAs in plasma and follicular fluid were measured using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results: PCOS was found to be associated with significantly higher LH/FSH, total T, free androgen index (FAI), and lower SHBG levels, independent of obesity(P < .05). Obese women with PCOS had a significantly higher total T level, FAI, fasting insulin, insulin resistance index as determined by homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance, and lower SHBG levels than the nonobese women with PCOS (P < .05). The embryo fragmentation score was significantly positively correlated with the oleic acid concentration in all PCOS patients (r = 0.22, P = .04, for nonobese patients and r = 0.25, P = .03, for obese patients). Conclusions: Our findings clearly demonstrated that PCOS is associated with significantly higher FAI and insulin resistance levels and decreased plasma SHBG levels, independent of body mass index. Obese PCOS patients had higher palmitoleic acid and oleic acid levels in both the plasma and follicular fluid than did the control subject and nonobese PCOS patients. Our results indicated that developmental competence is associated with oleic and stearic acid concentrations, which may contribute to the poor pregnancy outcomes in patients with PCOS.
Radiative age mapping of the remnant radio galaxy B2 0924+30 : The LOFAR perspective

We have observed the steep spectrum radio source B2 0924+30 using the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) telescope. Hosted by a z = 0.026 elliptical galaxy, it has a relatively large angular size of 12′ (corresponding to 360 kpc projected linear size) and a morphology reminiscent of a remnant Fanaroff-Riley type II (FRII) radio galaxy. Studying active galactic nuclei (AGN) radio remnants can give us insight into the time-scales involved into the episodic gas accretion by AGNs and their dependence on the AGN host environment. The proximity of the radio galaxy allows us to make detailed studies of its radio structure and map its spectral index and radiative age distribution. We combine LOFAR and archival images to study the spectral properties at a spatial resolution of 1′. We derive low frequency spectral index maps and use synchrotron ageing models to infer ages for different regions of the source. Thus, we are able to extend the spectral ageing studies into a hitherto unexplored frequency band, adding more robustness to our results. Our detailed spectral index mapping, while agreeing with earlier lower resolution studies, shows flattening of the spectral index towards the outer edges of the lobes. The spectral index of the lobes is $\alpha^{609}_{140} \sim -1$ and gradually steepens to $\alpha^{609}_{140} \sim -1.8$ moving towards the inner edges of the lobes. Using radiative ageing model fitting we show that the AGN activity ceased around 50 Myr ago. We note that the outer regions of the lobes are younger than the inner regions which is interpreted as a sign that those regions are remnant hotspots. We demonstrate the usefulness of maps of AGN radio remnants taken at low frequencies and suggest caution over the interpretation of spectral ages derived from integrated flux density measurements versus age mapping. The spectral index properties as well as the derived ages of B2 0924+30 are consistent with it being an FRII AGN radio remnant. LOFAR data are proving to be instrumental in extending our studies to the lowest radio frequencies and enabling analysis of the oldest source regions.
An Antibody Fusion Protein for Cancer Immunotherapy Mimicking IL-15 trans-Presentation at the Tumor Site

Cytokines driving the immune response are powerful tools for cancer immunotherapy, but their application is generally limited by severe systemic toxicity. Targeted approaches by means of antibody–cytokine fusion proteins might enable focus on the cytokine activity to the tumor site, thereby reducing unwanted side effects. Here, we investigated the possibility to improve the efficiency of interleukin (IL)-15 presentation in a targeted approach by the incorporation of an IL-15Rα chain fragment, mimicking physiologic trans-presentation. Therefore, an antibody cytokine fusion protein (scFv_RD_IL-15) composed of an antibody moiety targeting the tumor stromal fibroblast activation protein (FAP), an extended IL-15Rαsushi domain (RD) and IL-15 was generated, exhibiting antibody-mediated specific binding and cytokine activity in soluble and targeted form. Comparative analysis with a corresponding antibody fusion protein devoid of RD (scFv_IL-15) showed for scFv_RD_IL-15 in solution enhanced stimulatory activity on Mo7e (IL-15Rβγ) cells and reduced proliferation response on CTLL-2 (IL-15Rαβγ) cells, while in FAP-targeted, that is, membrane-bound form, comparable proliferation of CTLL-2 (IL-15Rαβγ) cells was obtained. In addition, scFv_RD_IL-15 achieved in its soluble and target-bound form stronger proliferation and cytotoxicity on unstimulated and activated T cells, respectively. Furthermore, in vivo analysis in a lung metastasis tumor mouse model revealed a superior antitumor effect for scFv_RD_IL-15 in comparison with that obtained by an untargeted or RD missing version of IL-15 fusion protein. Thus, tumor-directed trans-presentation of IL-15 in association with RD in form of an antibody fusion protein seems to be a promising approach to further improve the antitumor effect of IL-15. Mol Cancer Ther; 11(6); 1279–88. ©2012 AACR.
Influence of culture, family and individual differences on choice of gender‐dominated occupations among female students in tertiary institutions

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of family, individual difference and cultural factors on the choice of gender‐dominated occupations among female students in some tertiary institutions.Design/methodology/approach – A field‐based survey approach was adopted to collect quantitative data through the means of questionnaires from 340 female students randomly selected from tertiary institutions in Southwest Nigeria.Findings – Hierarchical multiple‐regression statistical analysis employed revealed that family, individual differences and cultural factors were good predictors (collectively and independently) of choice of gender‐dominated occupations of female students.Research limitations/implications – These findings were limited to nursing and engineering professions as well as variables investigated. Thus, future researchers should make efforts to extend the study's scope to other professions that could be categorized as gender‐dominated occupations.Originality/value – The fin.
Political Corruption: Problems and Perspectives

As the twentieth century comes to an end, one of the issues which has dominated its ®nal decade ± political corruption ± shows little sign of diminishing in importance. The evidence is abundant. In the United States of America and the United Kingdom, two of the world's most well-established democracies, recent national elections have been punctuated by stories relating to corruption: in the former, President Bill Clinton has been dogged both by the so-called Whitewater scandal, and by questions over how his 1996 re-election campaign was funded; in the latter, JohnMajor's Conservative government found itself caught up during the 1997 election campaign in allegations about `sleaze', centring in particular on the `cash-for-questions' issue. In a rather less well-established democracy, Pakistan, the government of Benazir Bhutto was dismissed in early November 1996 by President Farooq Leghari, accused (amongst other things) of undermining judicial independence and engaging in massive corruption. The following day, India's former prime minister, Narasimha Rao, already accused of vote-buying and forgery, was charged with criminal conspiracy to cheat a businessman. In Russia, still struggling to establish democracy on a secure footing, President Boris Yeltsin admitted in March 1997 that `[o]ne of the main faults of the Russian authorities at all levels is corruption'. These examples (all of which have occurred since the original deadline for submission of manuscripts to this volume) are merely illustrative of a phenomenon which was seen until quite recently as being virtually the preserve of authoritarian or `developing' nations ± basically, that is, non-democracies (or, at best, proto-democracies). Where political corruption existed in democratic nations, certainly established western democracies, it was usually viewed as an aberrant deviation from the norm. Such a view was undermined by the extraordinary revelations of systemic corruption which began to emerge in Italy
Morphometric and Mating Compatibility of Dectes texanus texanus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from Soybean and Sunflower

Abstract The cerambycid Dectes texanus texanus LeConte that infests soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. , is thought to be the same Dectes that damages sunflower, Helianthus annuus L. However, morphometric characteristics and mating compatibility between individuals from soybean and sunflower fields have not been assessed. Eight hundred eighty stalks of soybean and sunflower residues infested with Dectes were collected from Texas and Kansas. Outside stalk diameter of sunflower (22.6 mm) was 3.2 times greater than that of soybean. Diameters of tunnels by Dectes in sunflower and soybean were 7.0 and 3.4 mm, respectively. Widths of head capsules and pronotums were ≈1.3 times greater for Dectes larvae from sunflower than soybean. Larval, pupal, and adult Dectes from sunflower were ≈2.5 times heavier and 1.3 times longer than from soybean. Adults reared from residues of soybean and sunflower were paired to evaluate mating compatibility. Although individuals collected and reared from different crop residues differed significantly in size, percentage of mating success by Dectes from the two crops (26.2%) did not differ significantly from that by adults from the same kind of crop (34.9%). Results indicated that Dectes that infest soybean and sunflower are the same species and reconfirmed that farmers should not plant soybean and sunflower in rotation or in adjacent fields.
Hierarchical Semantic Content Analysis and Its Applications in Multimedia Summarization and Browsing

Television (TV) services have been becoming increasingly important in our daily life. With the advent of communication technologies, a large variety of TV content is delivered to customers through various channels, and an important challenge for content providers is to efficiently manage such abundant content. In this chapter, we first review key techniques in semantic multimedia (audio-visual sequences) content analysis and two important applications, namely content browsing and summarization. Subsequently, we propose a hierarchical analysis framework for modeling the semantic importance of different units in an audio-visual sequence, i.e. sequence, scene, shot, and frame, by using low-level as well as high-level audio-visual cues. Based on the semantic analysis framework, a feasible solution to generate TV content summaries, which can efficiently extract the most important clips and frames from the original sequences, is proposed for rapid browsing of multimedia content. Subjective evaluations and comparison to two state-of-the-art summarization methods have demonstrated that the proposed TV content summarization solution can efficiently extract the most representative excerpts from the original sequences, and it can be further used in rapid TV content browsing.
Organizational Social Network Research: Core Ideas and Key Debates

Abstract Given the growing popularity of the social network perspective across diverse organizational subject areas, this review examines the coherence of the research tradition (in terms of leading ideas from which the diversity of new research derives) and appraises current directions and controversies. The leading ideas at the heart of the organizational social network research program include: an emphasis on relations between actors; the embeddedness of exchange in social relations; the assumption that dyadic relationships do not occur in isolation, but rather form a complex structural pattern of connectivity and cleavage beyond the dyad; and the belief that social network connections matter in terms of outcomes to both actors and groups of actors across a range of indicators. These leading ideas are articulated in current debates that center on issues of actor characteristics, agency, cognition, cooperation versus competition, and boundary specification. To complement the review, we provide a glossar.
Comparison between Windowed FFT and Hilbert-Huang Transform for analyzing time series with Poissonian fluctuations: A case study

Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) is a novel data analysis technique for nonlinear and non-stationary data. We present a time-frequency analysis of both simulated light curves and an X-ray burst from the X-ray burster 4U 1702--429 with both the HHT and the Windowed Fast Fourier Transform (WFFT) methods. Our results show that the HHT method has failed in all cases for light curves with Poissonian fluctuations which are typical for all photon counting instruments used in astronomy, whereas the WFFT method can sensitively detect the periodic signals in the presence of Poissonian fluctuations; the only drawback of the WFFT method is that it cannot detect sharp frequency variations accurately.
Mechanics of head fold formation: investigating tissue-level forces during early development

During its earliest stages, the avian embryo is approximately planar. Through a complex series of folds, this flat geometry is transformed into the intricate three-dimensional structure of the developing organism. Formation of the head fold (HF) is the first step in this cascading sequence of out-of-plane tissue folds. The HF establishes the anterior extent of the embryo and initiates heart, foregut and brain development. Here, we use a combination of computational modeling and experiments to determine the physical forces that drive HF formation. Using chick embryos cultured ex ovo, we measured: (1) changes in tissue morphology in living embryos using optical coherence tomography (OCT); (2) morphogenetic strains (deformations) through the tracking of tissue labels; and (3) regional tissue stresses using changes in the geometry of circular wounds punched through the blastoderm. To determine the physical mechanisms that generate the HF, we created a three-dimensional computational model of the early embryo, consisting of pseudoelastic plates representing the blastoderm and vitelline membrane. Based on previous experimental findings, we simulated the following morphogenetic mechanisms: (1) convergent extension in the neural plate (NP); (2) cell wedging along the anterior NP border; and (3) autonomous in-plane deformations outside the NP. Our numerical predictions agree relatively well with the observed morphology, as well as with our measured stress and strain distributions. The model also predicts the abnormal tissue geometries produced when development is mechanically perturbed. Taken together, the results suggest that the proposed morphogenetic mechanisms provide the main tissue-level forces that drive HF formation.
A comprehensive analysis of sequence variants and putative disease-causing mutations in photoreceptor-specific nuclear receptor NR2E3

Purpose The photoreceptor-specific orphan nuclear receptor NR2E3 is a key regulator of transcriptional events during photoreceptor differentiation in mammalian retina. Mutations in NR2E3 are associated with enhanced S-cone syndrome and related retinal phenotypes that reveal characteristic excess of S-cone function. This study was undertaken to determine biochemical as well as functional consequences of reported sequence variants and disease-causing mutations in NR2E3. Methods Twenty-five different mutations in the wild-type NR2E3 expression construct were generated by site-directed mutagenesis and performed nuclear localization, gel-shift, rhodopsin promoter activity assays, and co-immunoprecipitation in cultured mammalian cells. Results Of the 25 mutant proteins, 15 mislocalize at least partially to the cytoplasm. Eight of the nine changes in the DNA-binding domain (DBD) and 12 of the 14 mutations in the ligand-binding domain (LBD) of NR2E3 exhibited reduced DNA-binding and transcriptional activation of the rhodopsin promoter. Moreover, these mutations dramatically altered the interaction of NR2E3 with NRL as well as with CRX. Two NR2E3 variants between DBD and LBD showed no effect on any biochemical or functional parameter tested. Conclusions These data provide a better understanding of sequence variants, validate disease-causing mutations, and demonstrate the significance of DBD and LBD in mediating NR2E3 function. These studies contribute to molecular mechanisms underlying retinal phenotypes caused by NR2E3 mutations.