Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ERP analysis of cognitive sequencing: a left anterior negativity related to structural transformation processing

A major objective of cognitive neuroscience is to identify those neurocomputational processes that may be shared by multiple cognitive functions vs those that are highly specific. This problem of identifying general vs specialized functions is of particular interest in the domain of language processing. Within this domain, event related brain potential (ERP) studies have demonstrated a left anterior negativity (LAN) in a range 300–700 ms, associated with syntactic processing, often linked to grammatical function words. These words have little or no semantic content, but rather play a role in encoding syntactic structure required for parsing. In the current study we test the hypothesis that the LAN reflects the operation of a more general sequence processing capability in which special symbols encode structural information that, when combined with past elements in the sequence, allows the prediction of successor elements. We recorded ERPs during a non-linguistic sequencing task that required subjects (n = 10) to process special symbols possessing the functional property defined above. When compared to ERPs in a control condition, function symbol processing elicits a left anterior negative shift between temporal and spatial characteristics quite similar to the LAN described during function word processing in language, supporting our hypothesis. These results are discussed in the context of related studies of syntactic and cognitive sequence processing.
Analysis of LTE radio parameters in different environments and transmission modes

The ever-growing need for higher data transmission capacity drives the network service providers to build cellular Long term evolution (LTE) networks in urban areas. 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) LTE is the evolution of the UMTS in response to the ever-increasing demand for high speed data and high quality multimedia broadcast services. LTE promises to deliver an unrivalled user experience with ultrafast broadband and very low latency and at the same time, a very compelling business proposition for operators with flexible spectrum bandwidth, smooth migration and the ability to deliver low cost per bit voice and data services. LTE is designed to have wider channels up to 20 MHz, with low latency and packet optimized radio access technology. The peak data rate envisaged for LTE is 100 Mbps in downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink. LTE has many promising features like bandwidth scalability. It is developed to support both the time division duplex as well as frequency division duplex mode. This paper provides analyses of the performance of radio parameters required for efficient LTE radio planning through numerous simulations in different transmission modes and radio environments. It mainly highlights the throughput and Block Error Rate (BLER) with respect to Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) on the physical layer and in network context through different simulation environments.
CONFIRMATION OF A FARADAY ROTATION MEASURE ANOMALY IN CYGNUS

We confirm the reality of a reversal of the sign of the Faraday rotation measure in the Galactic plane in Cygnus (Lazio et al. ), possibly associated with the Cygnus OB1 association. The rotation measure changes by several hundred rad m−2 over an angular scale of 2°–5°. We show that a simple model of an expanding plasma shell with an enhanced density and magnetic field can account for the magnitude and angular scale of this feature. This model is consistent with observations of Hα emission as well as other observations in this part of sky. We suggest that this structure is physically associated with a superbubble produced by the Cygnus OB1 association.
Adoption of mobile advertising [empirical evidence from a developing country]

The world has undergone rapid changes over the last three decades due to advances in Information and communication Technologies (ICT). Among the ICTs, mobile technology is seen to be the most favorable and rapidly evolving technology. Mobile technology is playing an increasingly significant role in the lives of people around the world. In developing economies, mobile phones have changed the lifestyles of people from all segments of the population. Mobile technology is easier, faster and considerably cheaper to deploy than fixed technology, making mobile technology the most feasible solution in closing the digital divide and socioeconomic gap between people. One of the new revenue generating areas for mobile operators is mobile advertising (m-advertising). In this paper, factors influencing consumer adoption of m-advertising in Malaysia is studied. Using a sample of 300 respondents in Malaysia, the study identifies Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Social Influence (SI) as the strongest factors influencing the acceptance of the m-advertising. The study provides valuable insights for policy makers and telecommunication operators in formulating policies to enhance m-advertising adoption in Malaysia.
Diagnostics and Application of an Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Generated With a Hollowneedle-Plate Dielectric Barrier Discharge

An atmospheric pressure needle plasma is generated with a hollowneedle-plate dielectric barrier discharge, and the plasma parameters are measured by optical emission spectroscopy. The length of the needle plasma reaches 3 cm with an argon flow rate in the range from 3.5 to 6.1 ml/min when the applied voltage is 7.2 kV. The spatial distribution of oxygen-atom spectral-line intensity indicates that there is a large concentration of excited oxygen atoms in the middle of the plasma. Gas temperature is estimated by simulating the spectrum of OH radical around 309 nm. The spatial distribution of gas temperature along the plasma is uniform. Gas temperature decreases with the increase in argon flow rate. Electron density determined by the Stark broadening of is in the range from to when the electron temperature is 1-4 eV. The application of plasma in the modification of material surface is demonstrated.
Effect of 0.3% Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose/Dextran Versus 0.18% Sodium Hyaluronate in the Treatment of Ocular Surface Disease in Glaucoma Patients: A Randomized, Double-Blind, and Controlled Study

Abstract Purpose: To compare the efficacy and safety of 0.3% hydroxypropyl methylcellulose/dextran (HPMC/dextran) and 0.18% sodium hyaluronate (SH) in the treatment of ocular surface disease in patients using antiglaucoma drugs containing preservatives. Methods: This was a double-blind, randomized, parallel-group study in 70 glaucoma patients with Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) score greater than 20 points and/or presence of ocular signs. Patients were randomized to receive either preservative-free 0.3% HPMC/dextran (n=35) or preservative-free 0.18% SH (n=35). Treatment was 1 drop in each eye, 4 times a day. Data were collected at baseline, at day 7 and day 28. Results: The groups were homogeneous at baseline. At day 28, both treatments showed significant improvements (P<0.05) in the mean OSDI score, lid skin and lid margin inflammation, conjunctival injection, and expressibility of meibomian glands, corneal staining score, fluorescein tear breakup time (FBUT), and Schirmer I test. However, the mean OSDI score, lid margin inflammation and conjunctival injection showed significant improvements (P<0.05) in the SH group at days 7 and 28, compared to the HPMC/dextran group. FBUT and the Schirmer I test also showed significant improvements (P<0.05) in the SH group compared to the HPMC/dextran group, at day 28. No adverse reactions were observed in either group. Conclusions: Preservative-free artificial tear, 0.3% HPMC/dextran, and 0.18% SH, caused a significant relief of the ocular surface disease in glaucoma patients. However, 0.18% SH led to a greater improvement in ocular signs and symptoms than 0.3% HPMC/dextran.
Probing dark matter decay and annihilation with Fermi LAT observations of nearby galaxy clusters

Galaxy clusters are promising targets for indirect dark matter searches. Gamma-ray signatures from the decay or annihilation of dark matter particles inside these clusters could be observable with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Based on three years of Fermi LAT gamma-ray data, we analyze the flux coming from eight nearby clusters individually as well as in a combined likelihood analysis. Concentrating mostly on signals from dark matter decay, we take into account uncertainties of the cluster masses as determined by X-ray observations and model the cluster emission as extended sources. Searching for different hadronic and leptonic decay and annihilation spectra, we do not find significant emission from any of the considered clusters and present limits on the dark matter lifetime and annihilation cross-section. We compare our lifetime limits derived from cluster observations with the limits that can be obtained from the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGBG), and find that in case of hadronic decay the cluster limits become competitive at dark matter masses below a few hundred GeV. In case of leptonic decay, however, galaxy cluster limits are stronger than the limits from the EGBG over the full considered mass range. Finally, we show that in presence of dark matter substructures down to 10? 6 solar masses the limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section could improve by a factor of a few hundred, possibly going down to the thermal cross-section of 3 ? 10? 26cm3s? 1 for dark matter masses 150GeV and annihilation into b. As a direct application of our results, we derive limits on the lifetime of gravitino dark matter in scenarios with R-parity violation. Implications of these limits for the possible observation of long-lived superparticles at the LHC are discussed.
Cathemerality and Lunar Periodicity of Activity Rhythms in Owl Monkeys of the Argentinian Chaco

Although most South American owl monkeys are mainly nocturnal, Aotus azarai azarai of the Argentinean Chaco regularly shows diurnal activity. In this study we examined the strong influence of moonlight on its diurnal and nocturnal activity, as well as the interaction of moonlight effects with other exogenous factors. We analyzed long-term automated activity recordings obtained with accelerometer collars from 7 owl monkeys during 2003 and 2004. Our data show marked lunar periodic and seasonal modulations of the owl monkeys’ activity pattern. On full moon days they were active throughout the whole night and displayed reduced activity during the day. With a new moon, activity decreased during the dark portion of the night, peaked during dawn and dusk and extended over the bright morning hours. Waxing and waning moons induced a significant increase in activity during the first and the second half of the night, respectively. During the cold winter months the monkeys displayed twice as much activity throughout the warmer bright part of the day than during the rest of the year. These findings indicate that A. a. azarai is mainly a dark-active species, but is still able to shift a considerable portion of activity into the bright part of the day if unfavourable lighting and/or temperature conditions prevail during the night.
Lightly Supervised Transliteration for Machine Translation

We present a Hebrew to English transliteration method in the context of a machine translation system. Our method uses machine learning to determine which terms are to be transliterated rather than translated. The training corpus for this purpose includes only positive examples, acquired semi-automatically. Our classifier reduces more than 38% of the errors made by a baseline method. The identified terms are then transliterated. We present an SMT-based transliteration model trained with a parallel corpus extracted from Wikipedia using a fairly simple method which requires minimal knowledge. The correct result is produced in more than 76% of the cases, and in 92% of the instances it is one of the top-5 results. We also demonstrate a small improvement in the performance of a Hebrew-to-English MT system that uses our transliteration module.
Improving the Performance Against Force Variation of EMG Controlled Multifunctional Upper-Limb Prostheses for Transradial Amputees

We investigate the problem of achieving robust control of hand prostheses by the electromyogram (EMG) of transradial amputees in the presence of variable force levels, as these variations can have a substantial impact on the robustness of the control of the prostheses. We also propose a novel set of features that aim at reducing the impact of force level variations on the prosthesis controlled by amputees. These features characterize the EMG activity by means of the orientation between a set of spectral moments descriptors extracted from the EMG signal and a nonlinearly mapped version of it. At the same time, our feature extraction method processes the EMG signals directly from the time-domain to reduce computational cost. The performance of the proposed features is tested on EMG data collected from nine transradial amputees performing six classes of movements each with three force levels. Our results indicate that the proposed features can achieve significant reductions in classification error rates in comparison to other well-known feature extraction methods, achieving improvements of ≈ 6% to 8% in the average classification performance across all subjects and force levels, when training with all forces.
Cardioprotection specific for the G protein Gi2 in chronic adrenergic signaling through β2-adrenoceptors

Two subtypes of β-adrenoceptors, β1 and β2, mediate cardiac catecholamine effects. These two types differ qualitatively, e.g., regarding G protein coupling and calcium channel stimulation. Transgenic mice overexpressing human β2-adrenoceptors survive high-expression levels, unlike mice overexpressing β1-adrenoceptors. We examined the role of inhibitory Gi proteins, known to be activated by β2- but not β1-adrenoceptors, on the chronic effects of human β2-adrenoreceptor overexpression in transgenic mice. These mice were crossbred with mice where Gαi2, a functionally important cardiac Gi α-subunit, was inactivated by targeted gene deletion. Survival of β2-adrenoreceptor transgenic mice was reduced by heterozygous inactivation of Gαi2. Homozygous knockout/β2-adrenoreceptor transgenic mice died within 4 days after birth. Heterozygous knockout/β2-adrenoreceptor transgenic mice developed more pronounced cardiac hypertrophy and earlier heart failure compared with β2-adrenoreceptor transgenic mice. Single calcium-channel activity was strongly suppressed in heterozygous knockout/β2-adrenoreceptor transgenic mice. In cardiomyocytes from these mice, pertussis toxin treatment in vitro fully restored channel activity and enhanced channel activity in cells from homozygous Gαi2 knockout animals. Cardiac Gαi3 protein was increased in all Gαi2 knockout mouse strains. Our results demonstrate that Gαi2 takes an essential protective part in chronic signaling of overexpressed β2-adrenoceptors, leading to prolonged survival and delayed cardiac pathology. However, reduction of calcium-channel activity by β2-adrenoreceptor overexpression is due to a different pertussis-toxin-sensitive pathway, most likely by Gαi3. This result indicates that subtype-specific signaling of β2-adrenoreceptor functionally bifurcates at the level of Gi, leading to different effects depending on the Gα isoform.
Context and Individual Characteristics Modulate the Association between Oxytocin Receptor Gene Polymorphism and Social Behavior in Border Collies

Recent studies suggest that the relationship between endogenous oxytocin and social affiliative behavior can be critically moderated by contextual and individual factors in humans. While oxytocin has been shown to influence human-directed affiliative behaviors in dogs, no study investigated yet how such factors moderate these effects. Our study aimed to investigate whether the context and the dogs’ individual characteristics moderate the associations between the social affiliative (greeting) behavior and four single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene. We recorded the greeting behavior in three contexts: (1) when the dog first met an unfamiliar experimenter, (2) during a separation from the owner, and (3) after the experimenter approached the dog in a threatening manner. In the latter two contexts (during separation and after threatening), we categorized the dogs into stressed and non-stressed groups based on their behavior in the preceding situations. In line with previous studies, we found that polymorphisms in the OXTR gene are related to the greeting behavior of dogs. However, we also showed that the analyzed SNPs were associated with greeting in different contexts and in different individuals, suggesting that the four SNPs might be related to different functions of the oxytocin system. The -213A/G was associated with greeting only when the dog had no prior negative experience with the experimenter. The rs8679682 was found in association with greeting in all three contexts but these associations were significant only in non-stressed dogs. The -94T/C was associated with greeting only when the dog was stressed and had an interaction with the sex of the dog. The -74C/G SNP was associated with greeting only when the dog was stressed during separation and also had a sex interaction. Taken together, our results suggest that, similarly to humans, the effects of oxytocin on the dogs’ social behavior are not universal, but constrained by features of situations and individuals. Understanding these constraints helps further clarify how oxytocin mediates social behavior which, in the long run, could improve the application of oxytocin in pharmacotherapy.
The Effects of Propofol or Sevoflurane on the Estimated Cerebral Perfusion Pressure and Zero Flow Pressure

The zero flow pressure (ZFP) is the pressure at which blood flow ceases through a vascular bed. Using transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, we investigated the effects of propofol or sevoflurane on the estimated cerebral perfusion pressure (eCPP) and ZFP in the cerebral circulation. Twenty-three healthy patients undergoing nonneurosurgical procedures under general anesthesia were studied. After induction of anesthesia using propofol, the anesthesia was maintained with either propofol infusion (n = 13) or sevoflurane (n = 10). Middle cerebral artery flow velocity, noninvasive arterial blood pressure, and end-tidal carbon dioxide partial pressure were recorded awake as a baseline, and during steady-state anesthesia at normocapnia (baseline end-tidal carbon dioxide partial pressure) and hypocapnia (1 kPa below baseline). The eCPP and ZFP were calculated using an established formula. The mean arterial blood pressure decreased in both groups. The eCPP decreased significantly in the propofol group (median, from 58 to 41 mm Hg) but not in the sevoflurane group (from 60 to 62 mm Hg). Correspondingly, ZFP increased significantly in the propofol group (from 25 to 33 mm Hg) and it decreased significantly in the sevoflurane group (from 27 to 7 mm Hg). Hypocapnia did not change eCPP or ZFP in the propofol group, but it significantly decreased eCPP and increased ZFP in the sevoflurane group.
Melanocortin 4 receptor mutations contribute to the adaptation of cavefish to nutrient-poor conditions

Significance The propensity for weight gain is detrimental to modern human health. However, under environmental conditions where nutrients are limiting, this trait can be highly adaptive. Currently, the genetic basis of population level differences in appetite control and metabolism is still largely mysterious. Here, we describe changes in metabolism that evolved in the small tetra Astyanax mexicanus as it adapted from surface rivers to the nutrient-poor environment found in caves. We identified coding mutations in melanocortin 4 receptor responsible for an increase in appetite and starvation resistance of cavefish compared with surface fish populations. These results provide important genetic insights into metabolic evolution and show that mutations in a single gene can have profound effects on multiple physiological adaptations. Despite recent advances in the understanding of morphological evolution, the genetic underpinnings of behavioral and physiological evolution remain largely unknown. Here, we study the metabolic changes that evolved in independently derived populations of the Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus. A hallmark of cave environments is scarcity of food. Cavefish populations rely almost entirely on sporadic food input from outside of the caves. To survive under these conditions, cavefish have evolved a range of adaptations, including starvation resistance and binge eating when food becomes available. The use of these adaptive strategies differs among independently derived cave populations. Although all cavefish populations tested lose weight more slowly than their surface conspecifics during restricted rations, only a subset of cavefish populations consume more food than their surface counterparts. A candidate gene-based screen led to the identification of coding mutations in conserved residues of the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) gene, contributing to the insatiable appetite found in some populations of cavefish. Intriguingly, one of the mutated residues has been shown to be linked to obesity in humans. We demonstrate that the allele results in both reduced maximal response and reduced basal activity of the receptor in vitro. We further validate in vivo that the mutated allele contributes to elevated appetite, growth, and starvation resistance. The allele appears to be fixed in cave populations in which the overeating phenotype is present. The presence of the same allele in multiple caves appears to be due to selection from standing genetic variation present in surface populations.
Self-Assembled Modified Soy Protein/Dextran Nanogel Induced by Ultrasonication as a Delivery Vehicle for Riboflavin

A simple and green approach was developed to produce a novel nanogel via self-assembly of modified soy protein and dextran, to efficiently deliver riboflavin. First, modified soy protein was prepared by heating denaturation at 60 °C for 30 min or Alcalase hydrolysis for 40 min. Second, modified soy protein was mixed with dextran and ultrasonicated for 70 min so as to assemble nanogels. The modified soy protein-dextran nanogels were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ζ-potential studies to confirm the formation of NGs. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the NGs to be spherical with core-shell structures, in the range of 32–40 nm size. The nanogels were stable against various environmental conditions. Furthermore, the particle size of the nanogels hardly changed with the incorporation of riboflavin. The encapsulation efficiency of nanogels was found to be up to 65.9% at a riboflavin concentration of 250 μg/mL. The nanogels exhibited a faster release in simulated intestine fluid (SIF) compared with simulated gastric fluid (SGF). From the results obtained it can be concluded that modified soy protein-dextran nanogels can be considered a promising carrier for drugs and other bioactive molecule delivery purposes.