Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Does Not Influence the Speed–Accuracy Tradeoff in Perceptual Decision-making: Evidence from Three Independent Studies

In perceptual decision-making tasks, people balance the speed and accuracy with which they make their decisions by modulating a response threshold. Neuroimaging studies suggest that this speed–accuracy tradeoff is implemented in a corticobasal ganglia network that includes an important contribution from the pre-SMA. To test this hypothesis, we used anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to modulate neural activity in pre-SMA while participants performed a simple perceptual decision-making task. Participants viewed a pattern of moving dots and judged the direction of the global motion. In separate trials, they were cued to either respond quickly or accurately. We used the diffusion decision model to estimate the response threshold parameter, comparing conditions in which participants received sham or anodal tDCS. In three independent experiments, we failed to observe an influence of tDCS on the response threshold. Additional, exploratory analyses showed no influence of tDCS on the duration of nondecision processes or on the efficiency of information processing. Taken together, these findings provide a cautionary note, either concerning the causal role of pre-SMA in decision-making or on the utility of tDCS for modifying response caution in decision-making tasks.
Can We Identify the Financial Cycle

AbstractThe following sections are included:IntroductionData and MethodologyFrequency-based filter analysisTurning-point analysisCharacterizing Cycles in Individual SeriesFrequency-based filter analysis: Short-term and medium-term cyclesTurning-point analysis: Short-term and medium-term cyclesWhat happens around financial crises? Toward a Measure of the Financial CycleMethodology for the combination of seriesSelection of seriesResultsPolicy Context: Regime-Dependence and “Unfinished Recessions”ConclusionsReferences
Scandal and Silence: Media Responses to Presidential Misconduct

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Dedication Chapter 1: High Crimes or Misdemeanors? Chapter 2: Analyzing Media and Presidential ScandalChapter 3: Private Lives in the Public Sphere. What Do Journalists Know, and When Do They Tell It? Chapter 4: Secret Sins of 2008: The McCain, Edwards and Clinton Families' Values Chapter 5: Dodging Scandals - and the Draft Chapter 6: Rathergate: From a Scandal of Politics to a Scandal of Journalism Chapter 7: Harkening to Other Matters: What News Looks like When a Scandal is Silenced Appendix to Chapter 7: Harken Data Tables Chapter 8: Silenced Scandals of Grave Misconduct Chapter 9: Recalibrating Scandal and Silence References Notes
Antibacterial Effects of Glycyrrhetinic Acid and Its Derivatives on Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogen in humans and causes serious problems due to antibiotic resistance. We investigated the antimicrobial effect of glycyrrhetinic acid (GRA) and its derivatives against 50 clinical S. aureus strains, including 18 methicillin-resistant strains. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of GRA, dipotassium glycyrrhizate, disodium succinoyl glycyrrhetinate (GR-SU), stearyl glycyrrhetinate and glycyrrhetinyl stearate were evaluated against various S. aureus strains. Additionally, we investigated the bactericidal effects of GRA and GR-SU against two specific S. aureus strains. DNA microarray analysis was also performed to clarify the mechanism underlying the antibacterial activity of GR-SU. We detected the antimicrobial activities of five agents against S. aureus strains. GRA and GR-SU showed strong antibacterial activities compared to the other three agents tested. At a higher concentration (above 2x MIC), GRA and GR-SU showed bactericidal activity, whereas at a concentration of 1x MIC, they showed a bacteriostatic effect. Additionally, GRA and GR-SU exhibited a synergistic effect with gentamicin. The expression of a large number of genes (including transporters) and metabolic factors (carbohydrates and amino acids) was altered by the addition of GR-SU, suggesting that the inhibition of these metabolic processes may influence the degree of the requirement for carbohydrates or amino acids. In fact, the requirement for carbohydrates or amino acids was increased in the presence of either GRA or GR-SU. GRA and GR-SU exhibited strong antibacterial activity against several S. aureus strains, including MRSA. This activity may be partly due to the inhibition of several pathways involved in carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism.
From Helplessness To Hope: The Seminal Career Of Martin Seligman

This book explores a specific field of psychological research, but it also celebrates the profound contributions to this field of Martin E. P. Seligman. Therefore, the book blends the history of this research enterprise and Seligman's own intellectual history. This chapter reviews the modest origins of the phenomenon of "learned helplessness" in the animal laboratory, its extensions to human beings (especially those displaying dramatic failures of adaptation), and its eventual emergence as "learned optimism. " The remainder of the book documents two major themes. First, the insights arising out of research on learned helplessness have been extended to almost every domain of modern psychology. And second Seligman has played a significant role in almost all of these extensions. In fact, this book makes a fitting tribute to the man whose fingerprints appear on every chapter. Although the research discussed in this book focuses on optimism and hope, the research story does not begin there. Rather, it begins with the opposite end of the pole—helplessness. As will become apparent Seligman is now a strong proponent of the development of a positive psychology, but the historic, intellectual seeds of the view that underlies this new emphasis are very much in negative psychology. The critical first step in thinking that made this development possible was an appreciation of the negative consequences of the inability to control important environmental events. It is this inability that produces the learned helplessness phenomenon.
Catching up on state transitions in Cygnus X-1

In 2005 February we observed Cygnus X-1 over a period of 10 days quasi-continuously with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and the Ryle telescope. We present the results of the spectral and timing analysis on a timescale of 90 min and show that the behavior of Cyg X-1 is similar to that found during our years long monitoring campaign. As a highlight we present evidence for a full transition from the hard to the soft state that happened during less than three hours. The observation provided a more complete picture of a state transition than before, especially concerning the evolution of the time lags, due to unique transition coverage and analysis with high time resolution.
The Specie Standard as a Contingent Rule: Some Evidence for Core and Peripheral Countries, 1880-1990

The specie standard that prevailed before 1914 was a contingent rule. Under the rule specie convertibiltity could be suspended in the event of a well understood, exogenously produced emergency, such as a war, on the understanding that after the emergency had safely passed convertibility would be restored at the original parity. Market agents would regard successful adherence as evidence of a credible commitment and would allow th authorities access to seignorage and bond finance at favorable terms. This paper surveys the history of the specie standard as a contingent rule for 21 countries divided into core and peripheral countries. As a comparison we also briedfly consider the Bretton Woods system and the recent managed floating regime. We then present evidence across four regimes (pre-1914 gold standard; interward gold standard; Bretton Woods; the subsequent managed exchange rate float) for the 21 countries on the stability of macro variables as well as on the demand shocks (reflecting policy actions specific to the regime) and supply shocks (reflecting shocks to the environment independence of the regime). These measures allow us to determine whether adherents to the rule consistently pursued different policy actions from nonadherents, and whether persistent adverse shocks to the environment may, for some countries, have precluded adherence to the rule.
Ethanol Affects the Development of Sensory Hair Cells in Larval Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Children born to mothers with substantial alcohol consumption during pregnancy can present a number of morphological, cognitive, and sensory abnormalities, including hearing deficits, collectively known as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The goal of this study was to determine if the zebrafish lateral line could be used to study sensory hair cell abnormalities caused by exposure to ethanol during embryogenesis. Some lateral line sensory hair cells are present at 2 days post-fertilization (dpf) and are functional by 5 dpf. Zebrafish embryos were raised in fish water supplemented with varying concentrations of ethanol (0.75%–1.75% by volume) from 2 dpf through 5 dpf. Ethanol treatment during development resulted in many physical abnormalities characteristic of FAS in humans. Also, the number of sensory hair cells decreased as the concentration of ethanol increased in a dose-dependent manner. The dye FM 1-43FX was used to detect the presence of functional mechanotransduction channels. The percentage of FM 1-43-labeled hair cells decreased as the concentration of ethanol increased. Methanol treatment did not affect the development of hair cells. The cell cycle markers proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) demonstrated that ethanol reduced the number of sensory hair cells, as a consequence of decreased cellular proliferation. There was also a significant increase in the rate of apoptosis, as determined by TUNEL-labeling, in neuromasts following ethanol treatment during larval development. Therefore, zebrafish are a useful animal model to study the effects of hair cell developmental disorders associated with FAS.
Analysis of Group Coding of Multiple Amino Acids in Artificial Neural Network Applied to the Prediction of Protein Secondary Structure

In this paper, a new method involving group coding is introduced into Artificial Neural Network in the prediction of the secondary structure of the proteins. This method, to a larger degree, take advantage of information of amino acids groups which possibly plays a significant role in determining the secondary structure of the particular position. Experiments are conducted to test the efficiency of this method. The result shows that the prediction accuracy is significantly improved, compared to the former method using single residue coding. We further discuss the mechanism of group coding in the model and discuss its further improvement in secondary prediction and other significant fields on structure and function prediction of bio-macromolecule based on sequence analysis.
Toward facial re-identification: Experiments with data from an operational surveillance camera plant

Person re-identification (ReID) is a popular topic of research. Almost all existing ReID approaches employ local and global body features (e.g., clothing color and pattern, body symmetry, etc.). These `body ReID' methods implicitly assume that facial resolution is too low to aid in the ReID process. We assert that faces, even when captured in low resolution environments, may contain unique and stable features for ReID. Such `facial ReID' approaches are relatively unexplored in the literature. In this work, we explore facial ReID using a new dataset that was collected from a real surveillance network in a municipal rapid transit system. It is a challenging ReID dataset, as it includes intentional changes in persons' appearances over time. We conduct multiple experiments on this dataset, exploiting deep neural networks to extract dense, low resolution facial features to boost matching stability. We conclude that in cases where pedestrian appearance changes, low resolution faces can be utilized to improve ReID matching performance.
Characterization of Asia 1 sdAb from Camels Bactrianus (C. bactrianus) and Conjugation with Quantum Dots for Imaging FMDV in BHK-21 Cells

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), caused by FMD virus (FMDV), is a highly contagious viral disease affecting cloven-hoofed animals. Camelids have a unique immunoglobulin profile, with the smallest functional heavy-chain antibodies (sdAb or VHH) naturally devoid of light chains with antigen-binding capacity. We screened and characterized five sdAbs against FMDV by immunized library from C. bactrianus with Asia 1 virus-like particles (VLPs). Three of five recombinant sdAbs were stably expressed in E.coli, remained highly soluble, and were serotype-specific for VP1 protein of FMDV Asia 1 by ELISA. These failed to completely neutralize the Asia 1 virus. According to the KD value of binding affinity to three sdAbs, which ranged from 0.44 to 0.71 nm by SPR, sdAb-C6 was selected and conjugated with Zn/CdSe quantum dots (QDs) to form a QDs-C6 probe, which was used to trace and image the subcellular location of FMDV in BHK-21 cells. The results show that FMD virions were observed from 3 h.p.i. , and most of virions were distributed on one side of the nucleus in the cytoplasm. We demonstrate the utility of sdAbs as functionalized QDs are powerful tools for FMDV research.
Matching Between Heterogeneous Workers and Firms

This paper investigates the matching patterns among agents who are heterogeneous in productivity, in a labor market characterized by frictions. Utility from matching is fully transferable. Agents have to choose which type of partners to match with. There is a possibility of multiple equilibria. The general characteristics of a matching equilibrium are reviewed. Conditions for existence of the different types of equilibria are laid out. Conditions on the production function are given, restricting the number of possible equilibria. An application is studied. It is found that wage dispersion is higher when agents match with a larger set of productivity types, also resulting in lower unemployment. Some evidence is provided to support the notion that Europe may be in the type of matching equilibrium that would result in higher unemployment and lower wage dispersion than in the U.S., as empirically observed. This emphasizes that studying the matching behavior of heterogeneous agents is an important part of the cross-country study of labor markets.
Regulation of Thalamic Development by Sonic Hedgehog

The thalamus is strategically positioned within the caudal diencephalic area of the forebrain, between the mesencephalon and telencephalon. This location is important for unique aspects of thalamic function, to process and relay sensory and motor information to and from the cerebral cortex. How the thalamus comes to reside within this region of the central nervous system has been the subject of much investigation. Extracellular signals secreted from key locations both extrinsic and intrinsic to the thalamic primordium have recently been identified and shown to play important roles in the growth, regionalization, and specification of thalamic progenitors. One factor in particular, the secreted morphogen Sonic hedgehog (Shh), has been implicated in spatiotemporal and threshold models of thalamic development that differ from other areas of the CNS due, in large part, to its expression within two signaling centers, the basal plate and the zona limitans intrathalamica, a dorsally projecting spike that separates the thalamus from the subthalamic region. Shh signaling from these dual sources exhibit unique and overlapping functions in the control of thalamic progenitor identity and nuclei specification. This review will highlight recent advances in our understanding of Shh function during thalamic development, revealing similarities, and differences that exist between species.
Do Insider Trades Reflect Superior Knowledge About Future Cash Flow Realizations?

This paper examines whether insider trades reflect the insiders' superior knowledge of future cash flow realizations, as proxied by the firm's future return and earnings performance. We find strong evidence that insider trades are positively associated with the firm's future earnings performance. This relation is shown to be incremental to the book-to-market and past return relations documented in Rozeff and Zaman (1998), suggesting that insiders trade on both transitory security misvaluation and private information about future cash-flow payoffs. We find that insider trading behavior within each book-to-market portfolio varies with the horizon of the subsequent earnings news. Insider purchases are significantly positively related to next year's earnings news across all book-to-market portfolios, while the sign of the relation between insider purchases and contemporaneous earnings is negative (positive) for glamour (value) firms. Finally, we show that the relation between insider trades and future earnings performance is amplified (attenuated) as the likely ex ante benefits (costs) to trading on financial performance information increase.
Estimating Poverty in Pakistan The Non-food Consumption Share Approach

This paper provides a framework within which the sectoral structure of absolute poverty can be analysed. Non-food consumption share approach is used to measure incidence of poverty, which can also be used as a proxy for family welfare. Headcount index is used to examine the structure of poverty by principal sectors of employment. Location index is also presented to evaluate the concentration of the poor in each sector. The results lead to the conclusions that incidence of poverty has increased at all levels and that it is greater in rural areas than in urban areas. There are wide variations in the incidence of poverty among different sectors and it has increased in almost all the sectors except the finance and trade sectors during the period under consideration. The agriculture and construction sectors are found to be badly affected areas. According to the distribution of the poor criterion, the agriculture sector is at the top, followed by the manufacturing, trade, and community and social services sectors. Finally, location index also indicates that the majority of the poor in Pakistan is in the agriculture sector.
The Borrower's Curse: Optimism, Finance and Entrepreneurship

This paper argues that most of the facts characterizing small-scale businesses, including high failure rates, reliance on bank credit rather than equity finance, relatively low interest rate margins, and credit rationing, can be explained by a tendency for those who are excessively optimistic to dominate new entrants. Drawing on findings in psychology, the authors model entrants as relatively naive optimizers. Banks on the other hand are viewed as well informed and efficient processors of information. Copyright 1996 by Royal Economic Society.
Robust Sahel drying in response to late 20th century forcings

The African Sahel experienced severe drying between the 1950s and the 1980s, with partial recovery since. We compare Sahel rainfall in the 20th century, pre‐industrial, and increased greenhouse gases (GHG) simulations produced for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The simulations forced by 20th century concentrations of aerosol and GHG reproduce (i) a global change in SST akin to that associated with Sahel drought and (ii) a correspondent drying of the Sahel. We conclude that late 20th century Sahel climate was significantly dryer than pre‐industrial, and at least 30% of the drying was externally forced. Comparison between 20th century runs and runs forced by GHG alone reveals the key role of reflective aerosols: they force a gradient in SST that excites robust drying in the northern edge of the Atlantic Inter‐Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and in the Sahel.
Quasigraded Lie Algebras and Modified Toda Field Equations

We construct a family of quasigraded Lie algebras that coincide with the defor- mations of the loop algebras in "principal" gradation and admit Kostant-Adler-Symes scheme. Using them we obtain new Volterra coupled systems and modified Toda field equations for all series of classical matrix Lie algebras g.
Exploring Logical Rules Based on Causal Semantics Analysis of Relational Data

For reasoning with uncertain knowledge causal semantics analysis is investigated to propose logical rules, which can represent multi-level semantic knowledge of the relationship between the data and information implicated.These rules constitutes several tree structures named decision forest, the number of trees and stopping criteria can be set automatically. Empirical studies on a set of natural domains show that decision forest has clear advantages with respect to the generalization ability.
Lipid Analysis of Greek Walnut Oil (Juglans regia L.)

The walnut oil (Juglans regia L.) total lipids (TL) were extracted by the Bligh-Dyer method and the lipid classes have been isolated by chromatographic techniques and they were analyzed by high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) /FID and GC-MS. The oil was found to be rich in neutral lipids (96.9% of total lipids) and low in polar lipids (3.1% of total lipids). The neutral lipid fraction consisted mainly of triacylglycerides whereas the polar lipids mainly consisted of sphingolipids. GC-MS data showed that the main fatty acid was linoleic acid. Unsaturated fatty acids were found as high as 85%, while the percentage of the saturated fatty acids was found 15%. Two types of liposomes were prepared from the isolated walnut oil phospholipids and characterized as new formulations. These formulations may have future applications for encapsulation and delivery of drugs and cosmetic active ingredients.
Effect of Feeding Palm Oil By-Products Based Diets on Total Bacteria, Cellulolytic Bacteria and Methanogenic Archaea in the Rumen of Goats

Rumen microorganisms are responsible for digestion and utilization of dietary feeds by host ruminants. Unconventional feed resources could be used as alternatives in tropical areas where feed resources are insufficient in terms of quality and quantity. The objective of the present experiment was to evaluate the effect of diets based on palm oil (PO), decanter cake (DC) or palm kernel cake (PKC) on rumen total bacteria, selected cellulolytic bacteria, and methanogenic archaea. Four diets: control diet (CD), decanter cake diet (DCD), palm kernel cake diet (PKCD) and CD plus 5% PO diet (CPOD) were fed to rumen cannulated goats and rumen samples were collected at the start of the experimental diets (day 0) and on days 4, 6, 8, 12, 18, 24 and 30 post dietary treatments. Feeding DCD and PKCD resulted in significantly higher (P<0.05) DNA copy number of total bacteria, Fibrobacter succinogenes, Ruminococcus flavefeciens, and Ruminococcus albus. Rumen methanogenic archaea was significantly lower (P<0.05) in goats fed PKCD and CPOD and the trend showed a severe reduction on days 4 and 6 post experimental diets. In conclusion, results indicated that feeding DCD and PKC increased the populations of cellulolytic bacteria and decreased the density of methanogenic archaea in the rumen of goats.