Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Distorted Visual Feedback on the Sense of Agency

It has been hypothesized that an internal model is involved in controlling and recognizing one’s own actions (action attribution). This results from a comparison process between the predicted sensory feedback of the action and its real sensory consequences. The aim of the present study is to distinguish the respective importance of two action parameters (time and direction) on such an attribution judgment. We used a device that allows introduction of discordance between the movements actually performed and the sensory feedback displayed on a computer screen. Participants were asked to judge whether they were viewing (1) their own movements, (2) their own movements modified (spatially or temporally displaced), or (3) those of another agent (i.e, the experimenter). In fact, in all conditions they were only shown their own movements either unaltered or modified by varying amounts in space or time. Movements were only attributed to another agent when therewas a high spatial discordance between participants’ hand movements and sensory feedback. This study is the first to show that the direction of movements is a cardinal feature in action attribution, whereas temporal properties of movements play a less important role.
Phenotypic Convergence Mediated by GGDEF-Domain-Containing Proteins

ABSTRACT GGDEF domain-containing proteins have been implicated in bacterial signal transduction and synthesis of the second messenger molecule cyclic-di-GMP. A number of GGDEF proteins are involved in controlling the formation of extracellular matrices. AdrA (Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium) and HmsT (Yersinia pestis) contain GGDEF domains and are required for extracellular cellulose production and biofilm formation, respectively. Here we show that hmsT is able to restore cellulose synthesis to a Salmonella serovar Typhimurium adrA mutant and that adrA can replace hmsT in Y. pestis Hms-dependent biofilm formation. Like Y. pestis HmsT overproducers, Y. pestis cells carrying adrA under the control of an arabinose-inducible promoter produced substantial biofilms in the presence of arabinose. Finally, we demonstrate that HmsT is involved in the synthesis of cyclic di-GMP.
Global attractivity, I/O monotone small-gain theorems, and biological delay systems

This paper further develops a method, originally introduced by Angeli and the second author, for proving global attractivity of steady states in certain classes of dynamical systems. In this approach, one views the given system as a negative feedback loop of a monotone controlled system. An auxiliary discrete system, whose global attractivity implies that of the original system, plays a key role in the theory, which is presented in a general Banach space setting. Applications are given to delay systems, as well as to systems with multiple inputs and outputs, and the question of expressing a given system in the required negative feedback form is addressed.
Reversible displacive phase transition in [Ni(en)3]2+(NO3−)2: a potential temperature calibrant for area-detector diffractometers

The coordination complex [Ni(en) 3 ] 2+ (NO - 3 ) 2 (en = 1,2-diaminoethane) undergoes a sharp reversible displacive phase transition at ∼109 K, changing space group from P6 3 22 above the transition temperature to P6 5 22 below. The phase change is accompanied by a tripling of the c axis on cooling, resulting in an easy detection of the transition in images from area-detector diffractometers. The transition has been followed using a Nonius KappaCCD and a Bruker SMART APEX CCD. Data sets were collected over the temperature range 100-113 K and integrated using the low-temperature orientation matrix. Reflections with / ¬= 3n show a smooth and rapid decrease in intensity to zero on warming from 106.5 to 111 K. The results are reproducible to within ±2 K in two laboratories and suggest that this compound may be useful as a liquid-nitrogen cryo-calibrant for diffraction instruments equipped with area detectors.
Formation and evolution of the Magellanic Clouds – I. Origin of structural, kinematic and chemical properties of the Large Magellanic Cloud

We investigate the dynamical and chemical evolution of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) interacting with the Galaxy and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) based on a series of self-consistent chemodynamical simulations. Our numerical models are aimed at explaining the entire properties of the LMC, i.e. the observed structure and kinematics of its stellar halo and disc components as well as the populations of the field stars and star clusters. The main results of the present simulations are as follows. Tidal interaction between the Clouds and the Galaxy during the last 9 Gyr has transformed the initially thin, non-barred LMC disc into three different components: central bar, thick disc and kinematically hot stellar halo. The central bar is composed of both old field stars and newly formed ones, with the two fractions being equal in its innermost part. The final thick disc has central velocity dispersion of ∼30 km s−1 and shows rotationally supported kinematics with Vm/σ0∼ 2.3. The stellar halo is formed during the interaction, and consists mainly of old stars originating from the outer part of the initially thin LMC disc. The outer halo shows velocity dispersion of ∼40 km s−1 at a distance of 7.5 kpc from the LMC centre and has a somewhat inhomogeneous distribution of stars. The stellar halo contains relatively young, metal-rich stars with a mass fraction of 2 per cent. Repetitive interaction between the Clouds and the Galaxy has moderately enhanced the star formation rate to ∼0.4 M⊙ yr−1 in the LMC disc. Most of the new stars (∼90 per cent) are formed within the central 3 kpc of the disc, in particular, within the central bar for the last 9 Gyr. Consequently, the half-mass radius is different by a factor of 2.3 between old field stars and newly formed ones. Efficient globular cluster formation does not occur until the LMC starts interacting violently and closely with the SMC (∼3 Gyr ago). The newly formed globular cluster system has a disc-like distribution with rotational kinematics, and its mean metallicity is ∼1.2 higher than that of new field stars because of pre-enrichment by the formation of field stars prior to cluster formation. The LMC evolution depends on its initial mass and orbit with respect to the Galaxy and the SMC. In particular, the epoch of the bar and thick disc formation and the mass fraction of the stellar halo depend on the initial mass of the LMC. Based on these results, we discuss the entire formation history of the LMC, the possible fossil records of past interaction between the Clouds and the Galaxy, and the star formation history of the SMC for the past several Gyr.
Unusual Childhood Waking as a Possible Precursor of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake

Simple Summary The paper investigates whether young children may waken before earthquakes through a cause other than foreshocks. It concludes there is statistical evidence for this, but the mechanism best supported is anxiety produced by Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) electromagnetic waves. Abstract Nearly 1,100 young students living in Japan at a range of distances up to 500 km from the 1995 Kobe M7 earthquake were interviewed. A statistically significant abnormal rate of early wakening before the earthquake was found, having exponential decrease with distance and a half value approaching 100 km, but decreasing much slower than from a point source such as an epicentre; instead originating from an extended area of more than 100 km in diameter. Because an improbably high amount of variance is explained, this effect is unlikely to be simply psychological and must reflect another mechanism—perhaps Ultra-Low Frequency (ULF) electromagnetic waves creating anxiety—but probably not 222Rn excess. Other work reviewed suggests these conclusions may be valid for animals in general, not just children, but would be very difficult to apply for practical earthquake prediction.
Binding constants of membrane-anchored receptors and ligands: A general theory corroborated by Monte Carlo simulations.

Adhesion processes of biological membranes that enclose cells and cellular organelles are essential for immune responses, tissue formation, and signaling. These processes depend sensitively on the binding constant K2D of the membrane-anchored receptor and ligand proteins that mediate adhesion, which is difficult to measure in the "two-dimensional" (2D) membrane environment of the proteins. An important problem therefore is to relate K2D to the binding constant K3D of soluble variants of the receptors and ligands that lack the membrane anchors and are free to diffuse in three dimensions (3D). In this article, we present a general theory for the binding constants K2D and K3D of rather stiff proteins whose main degrees of freedom are translation and rotation, along membranes and around anchor points "in 2D," or unconstrained "in 3D. " The theory generalizes previous results by describing how K2D depends both on the average separation and thermal nanoscale roughness of the apposing membranes, and on the length and anchoring flexibility of the receptors and ligands. Our theoretical results for the ratio K2D/K3D of the binding constants agree with detailed results from Monte Carlo simulations without any data fitting, which indicates that the theory captures the essential features of the "dimensionality reduction" due to membrane anchoring. In our Monte Carlo simulations, we consider a novel coarse-grained model of biomembrane adhesion in which the membranes are represented as discretized elastic surfaces, and the receptors and ligands as anchored molecules that diffuse continuously along the membranes and rotate at their anchor points.
Deficiency in TLR4 signal transduction ameliorates cardiac injury and cardiomyocyte contractile dysfunction during ischemia

Toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4), a proximal signalling receptor in innate immune responses to lipopolysaccharide of gram‐negative pathogens, is expressed in the heart. Accumulating evidence have consolidated the notion that TLR4 plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of cardiac dysfunction. However, the molecular mechanisms of TLR4 responsible for ischemia‐induced cardiac dysfunction remain unclear. To address the signalling mechanisms of TLR4‐deficiency cardioprotection against ischemic injury, in vivo regional ischemia was induced by occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery in wild‐type (WT) C3H/HeN and TLR4‐mutated C3H/HeJ mice. The results demonstrated that blunted ischemic activation of p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase and JNK signalling occurred in C3H/HeJ hearts versus C3H/HeN hearts, while ERK and AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) signalling pathways were augmented during ischemia in C3H/HeJ hearts versus C3H/HeN hearts. Intriguingly, ischemia‐stimulated endoplasmic reticulum stress was higher in C3H/HeN hearts than that in C3H/HeJ as demonstrated by up‐regulation of Grp78/BiP, Gadd153/CHOP and IRE‐1α. Myocardial infarct, caspase‐3 activity and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) staining demonstrated that C3H/HeN hearts suffered more damage than those of C3H/HeJ hearts during ischemia. Moreover, isolated cardiomyocytes from C3H/HeJ hearts showed resistance to hypoxia‐induced contractile dysfunction compared to those from C3H/HeN hearts, which are associated with greater hypoxic activation of AMPK and ERK signalling, better intracellular Ca2+ handling in C3H/HeJ versus C3H/HeN cardiomyocytes. These findings suggest that the cardioprotective effects against ischemic injury of hearts with deficiency in TLR4 signalling may be mediated through modulating AMPK and ERK signalling pathway during ischemia.
How Did the IGM become Enriched

The enrichment of the intergalactic medium with heavy elements is a process that lies at the nexus of poorly-understood aspects of physical cosmology. We review current understanding of the processes that may remove metals from galaxies, the basic predictions of these models, the key observational constraints on enrichment, and how intergalactic enrichment may be used to test cosmological simulations.
Work-place conflicts A case study on coping strategies of VET teachers Darmstadt, Arbeitsbereich Europäische Berufsbildungsforschung des Instituts für All- gemeine Pädagogik und Berufspädagogik der TU Darmstadt, 2005

The paper you are about to read is based on the following statements: Dealing with conflicts in the work place is a necessary part of the training of VET teachers. These processes are essential to acquire the problem solving competences that are essential when working with trainees later on. One of the fundamental prerequisites for this is one’s ability to reflect one’s very own ways of dealing with conflicts in the workplace. This can be supported e.g. through analysing a simulation of a set conflict. A case study used this approach with students of a teaching course. This paper presents the conception that underpins this case study as wells as its results. The study is not representative due to its limited scale; yet the results clearly highlight the knowledge and strategies the students draw upon when solving conflicts.
Novel Approaches to Biomolecular Sequence Indexing

In many biomolecular database applications involving string/sequence data, it is common to have similarity search in the form of near neighbor queries or nearest neighbor queries. The similarity between strings/sequences are typically measured in terms of the least costly set of allowed edit operations that transform one string/sequence to another. In this survey, we briefly describe some of the recent developments in biomolecular sequence indexing methods that allow efficient similarity search. Our focus here is on global similarity measures that compare sequences in full; such measures are important for comparing protein sequences and smaller biomolecules. Examples include character and block edit distances and their weighted variants. Two major approaches are summarized here: distance based indexing and embeddings of general sequence similarity measures to Hamming distance, for which efficient indexing methods are available.
Metacognitive Thinking Level Amongst a Sample of Yarmouk University Students in the Light of Some Variables

This study aimed at identifying the level of metacognitive thinking amongst Yarmouk University students in the light of the variables of: gender, university year, specialization, and academic achievement level. The sample of the study consisted of (1102) students: (514) males and (588) females, distributed over the four years of the B. Sc. And B.A. programs, in the faculties of humanities and science.
Long-term Caries Preventive Effects of a School-Based Fluoride Mouth Rinse Program in Adulthood

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term caries preventive effects of school-based fluoride mouth rinse (FMR) program in adults aged 20 years and older. 637 mothers aged from 20 to 39 years were surveyed. Clinical examinations were carried out for subjects to obtain data on dental caries prevalence when they visited local health centers to take their children for medical and dental check-ups at 1.5- or 3-years old. We also obtained information regarding the FMR program: the duration that the subjects participated between nursery school and junior high school. When analyzing data, subjects were divided into 4 groups: FMR from nursery to junior high school group (N-JH group, n=22), FMR limited to the elementary school group (El group, n=62), FMR no-experience group (n=545), and other subjects whose FMR experience is not clear (n=8). For evaluation of the FMR program effect, multiple regression analysis was used. As independent variable, the FMR program patterns were converted into dummy data, and mean DMFT was used as dependent variable. The results of multiple regression analysis between mean DMFT and FMR program patterns showed that the N-JH group and El group were negatively associated with the mean DMFT (ß=-0.20, p<0.001 for N-JH group and ß=-0.11, p=0.003 for El group). The positive caries preventive effects of school-based FMR program from nursery school to junior high school can continue in adults aged 20 years and older.
Clinical and Laboratory Findings Including the Diagnostic Value of the Widal Test in Pediatric Cases of Typhoid Fever in Tehran

Background and Objective: The diagnosis of typhoid fever in children is a challenge due to the non-specific clinical picture. The current role of the Widal test for diagnosis in developing countries has not been clear. Materials and Methods: Charts were reviewed on all children ≤ 15 years of age discharged from 5 pediatric teaching hospitals in Tehran from 1991 to 2004 with a diagnosis of typhoid fever. The Widal test was performed on 58 children with confirmed and 40 children with probable typhoid fever and as control groups, 40 febrile children admitted with infections other than typhoid fever, and 40 afebrile children admitted for elective surgery. Results: For the confirmed cases of typhoid fever, 33 (57%) were male and the mean age was 7.5 ± 3.5 years. Fever was present in 56 cases (97%) and the mean duration of fever before admission was 14 ± 8 days. Other symptoms included tachycardia (60%), anorexia (60%), vomiting (60%), diarrhea (57%), abdominal pain (48%), and headache (34%). Hepatomegaly was present in 55% of cases, splenomegaly in 44%, and Rose spots in 14% of them. Positive cultures were from blood (45/58), stool (18/58), and bone marrow (12/17) with 4 cases having only positive bone marrow cultures. Positive titers of at least 1:40 for anti “O” and/or anti “H” agglutinins were found in 78% of confirmed cases, 65% of possible cases, 12.5% of febrile controls, and no afebrile controls. Conclusion: The Widal test remains a useful test for diagnosis of typhoid fever in developing countries where blood cultures may not be available or may be negative because of prior antibiotic therapy. A titer of at least 1:40 for anti “O” and/or anti “H” agglutinin should be considered a positive titer in Iranian children.
of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Title Speaking Rationally : Uniform Information Density as an Optimal Strategy for Language Production Permalink

We provide evidence for a rational account of language production, Uniform Information Density (UID, Jaeger, 2006; Levy & Jaeger, 2007). Under the assumption that communication can usefully be understood as information transmission over a capacity-limited noisy channel, an optimal strategy in language production is to maintain a uniform rate of information transmission close to the channel capacity. This theory predicts that speakers will make strategic use of the flexibility allowed by their languages. Speakers should plan their utterances so that elements with high information are lengthened, and elements with low information are shortened, making the amount of information transmitted per time more uniform (and hence closer to the optimum). In three corpus studies, we show that American English speakers’ use of contractions (“you are” → “you’re”) follows the predictions of UID. We then explore further implications of UID for production planning.
The local surface density of disc matter mapped by Hipparcos

We determine the surface density of matter in the disc of the Galaxy at the solar position using K giant stars. The local space density and luminosity function of the giants is determined using parallaxes from the Hipparcos satellite; for more distant giants, observed in a cone at the South Galactic Pole, distances are determined using intermediate-band DDO photometry (which has been calibrated to the Hipparcos absolute magnitudes). From this sample, we determine the gravitational potential vertically of the local Galactic disc, by comparing the number of giant stars observed in the cone with the number expected for various models of the matter distribution in the disc. We derive an estimate of the dynamical disc mass surface density of 56 ± 6 M ○. pc -2 , which may be compared to an estimate of 53 M ○. pc -2 in visible matter. For all gravitating matter (disc + dark halo) we find the total density within 1.1 kpc of the disc midplane to be 74 ± 6 M ○. pc -2 . As has been found by a number of studies, including our own, we find no compelling evidence for significant amounts of dark matter in the disc.
THE BENEFITS OF MISCOMMUNICATION IN COMMUNICATION GAMES

This paper investigates the effect of communication error on the performance of a communication technology with respect to equilibrium outcomes such as information transmission, communication costs, and welfare. In particular, I analyze a general class of communication games between an informed sender and an uninformed receiver that nests a variety of classic communication technologies such as cheap talk, verifiable messages, and costly signaling. In this class of communication games, communication error can often increase welfare by improving the tradeoff between information transmission and communication costs. Roughly speaking, communication error relaxes the relationship between the sender’s communication strategy—which determines communication costs—and the induced distribution of posterior beliefs—which determines the informativeness of the communication mechanism and thus the quality of the receiver’s decision making. As a result, communication error may improve the quality of information transmission without increasing communication costs and/or reduce communication costs without changing the quality of information transmission. I illustrate such gains from communication error in a competitive version of the Spence signaling game. In particular, I characterize optimal communication error structures and derive necessary and sufficient conditions for which optimal communication error can make all types of agents strictly better off than in any equilibrium that is implementable without communication error. This requires perfect information transmission to be sufficiently costly (or not implementable) on the one hand and partial information transmission to be sufficiently valuable on the other. Thus, gains from communication error can be large in many settings in which information transmission is particularly valuable. In these cases, communication error can even transform a communication technology that makes all types of the sender worse off into one that makes everyone better off. I would like to thank Gary Becker, Emir Kamenica, Derek Neal, Eric Nielsen, Phil Reny, Richard Van Weelden and the participants of various working groups for helpful comments and suggestions.