Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discriminative learning and inference in the Recurrent Temporal RBM for melody modelling

We are interested in modelling musical pitch sequences in melodies in the symbolic form. The task here is to learn a model to predict the probability distribution over the various possible values of pitch of the next note in a melody, given those leading up to it. For this task, we propose the Recurrent Temporal Discriminative Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RTDRBM). It is obtained by carrying out discriminative learning and inference as put forward in the Discriminative RBM (DRBM), in a temporal setting by incorporating the recurrent structure of the Recurrent Temporal RBM (RTRBM). The model is evaluated on the cross entropy of its predictions using a corpus containing 8 datasets of folk and chorale melodies, and compared with n-grams and other standard connectionist models. Results show that the RTDRBM has a better predictive performance than the rest of the models, and that the improvement is statistically significant.
Sex and the Self

A 5-year longitudinal study of African American adolescents, aged 10 to 12 at Time 1, used the prototype/willingness (prototype) model to examine the (social) cognitive effects of the onset of sexual behavior on self-concept. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that becoming sexually active was related to favorable changes in adolescents' self-concepts and that this effect was moderated by gender. The effect was more pronounced among boys than girls. Positive self-concept, in turn, was related to subsequent risky sexual behavior. Sexual onset was also associated with positive changes in adolescents' images of the typical adolescent who has sex (i.e., sex prototype). This increase in prototype favorability marginally predicted subsequent willingness to have risky sex. In sum, sexual debut was related to increases in adolescents' self-concepts and risk cognitions, both of which predicted risky sexual behavior.
Increasing habitat complexity on seawalls: Investigating large‐ and small‐scale effects on fish assemblages

Abstract The construction of artificial structures in the marine environment is increasing globally. Eco‐engineering aims to mitigate the negative ecological impacts of built infrastructure through designing structures to be multifunctional, benefiting both humans and nature. To date, the focus of eco‐engineering has largely been on benefits for benthic invertebrates and algae. Here, the potential effect of eco‐engineered habitats designed for benthic species on fish was investigated. Eco‐engineered habitats (“flowerpots”) were added to an intertidal seawall in Sydney Harbour, Australia. Responses of fish assemblages to the added habitats were quantified at two spatial scales; large (among seawalls) and small (within a seawall). Data were collected during high tide using cameras attached to the seawall to observe pelagic and benthic fish. At the larger spatial scale, herbivores, planktivores, and invertebrate predators were generally more abundant at the seawall with the added flowerpots, although results were temporally variable. At the smaller spatial scale, certain benthic species were more abundant around flowerpots than at the adjacent control areas of seawall, although there was no general pattern of differences in species density and trophic group abundance of pelagic fish between areas of the seawall with or without added habitats. Although we did not find consistent, statistically significant findings throughout our study, the field of research to improve fish habitat within human‐use constraints is promising and important, although it is in its early stages (it is experimental and requires a lot of trial and error). To advance this field, it is important to document when effects were detected, and when they were not, so that others can refine the designs or scale of habitat enhancements or their study approaches (e.g., sampling protocols).
Thrombin Induces Increased Expression and Secretion of VEGF from Human FS4 Fibroblasts, DU145 Prostate Cells and CHRF Megakaryocytes

Summary Angiogenesis is required for tumor growth and metastasis. It has recently been suggested that thrombin is a potent promoter of angio-genesis. We therefore examined the possibility that thrombin could be inducing the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which promotes endothelial growth. Primary human FS4 fibroblasts as well as tumor cell lines: prostate DU145 and megakaryocyte CHRF were incubated with thrombin (0.25-1 unit/ml) for 1-8 hrs and then examined for mRNA by Northern Analysis. Enhanced mRNA (~3-4 fold over base line) was noted at 2-4 hrs, with 0.5 u/ml thrombin. The effect was specific for thrombin activity on its PAR-1 receptor, since equal units of hirudin completely inhibited the response and the thrombin effect could be mimicked with the 14 mer thrombin receptor activation peptide (TRAP). Upregulation of mRNA was associated with enhanced VEGF protein synthesis and secretion as assayed by immunoblot. Enhanced expression of VEGF mRNA was not secondary to enhanced transcription (nuclear run on experiments), but due to an >3 fold stabilization of mRNA (Actinomycin D chase experiment). Enhanced VEGF mRNA stabilization is promoted by the PI3Kinase and serine/threonine kinase pathways, since thrombin-induced mRNA expression is inhibited by Wortmanin and H7. No effect was noted with the MAPKinase inhibitor, PD98059. Thus, thrombin-induced tumori-genesis and metastasis is associated with enhanced VEGF protein synthesis and secretion via the stabilization of VEGF mRNA promoted by the PI3Kinase and serine/threonine kinase pathways. This could help explain how thrombin promotes angiogenesis.
Cell adhesion to protein-micropatterned-supported lipid bilayer membranes.

A new method for constructing controlled interfaces between cells and synthetic supported lipid bilayer membranes is reported. Microcontact printing is used to define squares and grid lines of fibronectin onto glass, which subsequently direct the self-assembly of fluid lipid bilayers onto the complementary, uncoated regions of the surface. Features of fibronectin as small as 5 microm effectively control the lateral organization of the lipid bilayers. These fibronectin barriers also facilitate the adhesion of endothelial cells, which exhibit minimal adhesion to fluid supported lipid bilayers alone. Cells selectively adhere to the features of fibronectin, spanning over and exposing the cells to the intervening regions of supported lipid bilayer. Cell spreading is correlated with both the geometry and dimensions of the fibronectin barriers. Importantly, lipids underlying adherent cells are laterally mobile, suggesting that, in contrast to the regions of fibronectin, cells were not in direct contact with the supported membrane. Protein micropatterning thus provides a valuable tool for controlling supported membranes and for juxtaposing anchorage-dependent cells with lipid bilayers. These systems should be generally useful for studying specific interactions between cells and biomolecules incorporated into supported membranes, and as an approach for integrating living cells with synthetic, laterally complex surfaces.
A Survey and Thematic Analysis Approach as Input to the Design of Mobile Music GUIs

Mobile devices represent a growing research field within NIME, and a growing area for commercial music software. They present unique design challenges and opportunities, which are yet to be fully explored and exploited. In this paper, we propose using a survey method combined with qualitative analysis to investigate the way in which people use mobiles musically. We subsequently present as an area of future research our own PDplayer, which provides a completely self contained end application in the mobile device, potentially making the mobile a more viable and expressive tool for musicians.
Switching Languages, Switching Palabras (Words): An Electrophysiological Study of Code Switching

Switching languages has often been associated with a processing cost. In this study, the authors used event-related potentials to compare switches between two languages with within-language lexical switches as bilinguals read for comprehension. Stimuli included English sentences and idioms ending either with the expected English words, their Spanish translations (code switches), or English synonyms (lexical switches). As expected, lexical switches specifically enhanced the N400 response in both context types. Code switches, by contrast, elicited an increased negativity over left fronto-central sites in the regular nonidiomatic sentences (250-450 ms) and a large posterior positivity (450-850 ms) in both context types. In addition, both lexical and code switches elicited a late frontal positivity (650-850 ms) relative to expected completions, especially in idioms. Analysis of the individual response patterns showed correlations with vocabulary skills in English and in Spanish. Overall, the electrophysiological data suggest that for some speakers in some contexts, the processing of a code switch may actually be less costly than the processing of an unexpected within-language item.
TAPping into High Quality Teachers: Preliminary results from the Teacher Advancement Program comprehensive school reform

The Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) is a comprehensive school reform with the goal to attract, retain, and motivate quality teachers. By aggressively recruiting new teachers, providing a career continuum, introducing teacher-led professional development, implementing rigorous teacher accountability, and paying teachers based on their position, teaching skills, and how much their students achieve, TAP schools change their organizational structure to support and reward high-quality instruction. This study examined TAP's preliminary impact on student achievement and teacher attitudes. Using a multivariate-multilevel model for measuring student learning, we compared the growth in achievement of students from TAP schools to the growth in achievement of students from matched controls. Our preliminary results suggest that TAP schools' achievement grew significantly (E.S. = .35 and .41 for 2001 and 2002, respectively) more than controls. However, the magnitude of the achievement gains varied by school and fidelity of implementation.
Twelve Years of Unsupervised Dependency Parsing

: In the last 12 years, there has been a big progress in the ﬁeld of unsupervised dependency parsing. Different approaches however sometimes differ in motivation and deﬁnition of the problem. Some of them allow using resources that are forbidden by others, since they are treated as a kind of supervision. The goal of this paper is to deﬁne all the variants of unsupervised dependency parsing problem and show their motivation, progress, and the best re-sults. We also discuss the usefulness of the unsupervised parsing generally, both for the formal linguistics and for the applications.
Prediction of heart rate changes from speech features during interaction with a misbehaving dialog system

Most research on detecting a speaker’s cognitive state when interacting with a dialog system has been based on selfreports, or on hand-coded subjective judgments based on audio or audio-visual observations. This study examines two questions: (1) how do undesirable system responses affect people physiologically, and (2) to what extent can we predict physiological changes from the speech signal alone? To address these questions, we use a new corpus of simultaneous speech and high-quality physiological recordings in the product returns domain (the SRI BioFrustration Corpus). “Triggers” were used to frustrate users at specific times during the interaction to produce emotional responses at similar times during the experiment across participants. For each of eight return tasks per participant, we compared speaker-normalized pre-trigger (cooperative system behavior) regions to posttrigger (uncooperative system behavior) regions. Results using random forest classifiers show that changes in spectral and temporal features of speech can predict heart rate changes with an accuracy of ~70%. Implications for future research and applications are discussed.
Preference for Dried Bonito Broth in Olfactory-Blocked or Taste Nerve-Sectioned Mice in the Two-Bottle Choice Test

We investigated how gustatory and olfactory information contributes to the preference for dried bonito broth in mice. In the two-bottle preference test, intact mice consumed dried bonito broth in preference to water or an amino acid-nucleotide (AN) solution containing the same concentration of amino acids and nucleotides as that in dried bonito broth. It was observed that mice with transected bilateral chorda tympani (CT) nerves, those with transected bilateral glossopharyngeal (GL) nerves, and those that were intranasally administered with zinc sulfate preferred dried bonito broth to water. Zinc sulfate was used to produce a temporary loss of olfaction. In the two-bottle preference test with dried bonito broth and an AN solution, the preference for the former was reduced in mice with transected bilateral GL nerves and in those with an olfactory blockade, but not in mice with transected bilateral CT nerves. These results suggest that dried bonito broth was preferred over the AN solution, and that simultaneous inputs from olfaction and the GL nerve contributed to this preference.
Coherence resonance in a spatial prisoner's dilemma game

We study effects of additive spatiotemporal random variations, introduced to the payoffs of a spatial prisoner's dilemma game, on the evolution of cooperation. In the absence of explicit payoff variations the system exhibits a phase transition from a mixed state of cooperators and defectors to a homogenous state of defectors belonging to the directed percolation universality class. By introducing nonzero random variations to the payoffs, this phase transition can be reverted in a resonance-like manner depending on the variance of noise, thus marking coherence resonance in the system. We argue that explicit random payoff variations present a viable mechanism that promotes cooperation for defection temptation values substantially exceeding the one marking the transition point to homogeneity by deterministic payoffs.
Systematic Detection of Polygenic cis-Regulatory Evolution

The idea that most morphological adaptations can be attributed to changes in the cis-regulation of gene expression levels has been gaining increasing acceptance, despite the fact that only a handful of such cases have so far been demonstrated. Moreover, because each of these cases involves only one gene, we lack any understanding of how natural selection may act on cis-regulation across entire pathways or networks. Here we apply a genome-wide test for selection on cis-regulation to two subspecies of the mouse Mus musculus. We find evidence for lineage-specific selection at over 100 genes involved in diverse processes such as growth, locomotion, and memory. These gene sets implicate candidate genes that are supported by both quantitative trait loci and a validated causality-testing framework, and they predict a number of phenotypic differences, which we confirm in all four cases tested. Our results suggest that gene expression adaptation is widespread and that these adaptations can be highly polygenic, involving cis-regulatory changes at numerous functionally related genes. These coordinated adaptations may contribute to divergence in a wide range of morphological, physiological, and behavioral phenotypes.
The hypothetical N-glycan charge: a number that characterizes protein glycosylation.

The production of recombinant glycoprotein therapeutics requires characterization of glycosylation with respect to the lot-to-lot consistency. Here we introduce the ¿hypothetical N-glycan charge Z' as a parameter that allows to characterize the protein glycosylation in a simple, however, efficient manner. The hypothetical N-glycan charge of a given glycoprotein is deduced from the N-glycan mapping profile obtained via HPAE-PAD. In HPAEC, N-glycans are clearly separated according to their charge, i.e., their number of sialic acid residues, providing distinct regions for neutral structures as well as for the mono- di-, tri, and tetrasialylated N-glycans (Hermentin et al., 1992a). Z is defined as the sum of the products of the respective areas (A) in the asialo, monosialo, disialo, trisialo, tetrasialo, and pentasialo region, each multiplied by the corresponding charge: [formula: see text] Thus, a glycoprotein with mostly C4-4* structures will provide Z approximately equal to 400 (e.g., rhu EPO (CHO), Z = 361), a glycoprotein carrying largely C3-3* structures will amount to Z approximately equal to 300 (e.g., bovine fetuin, Z = 290), a glycoprotein with mostly C2-2* structures will have Z approximately equal to 200 (e.g., human serum transferrin, Z = 207, or human plasma AT III, Z = 180), and a glycoprotein carrying only high-mannose type or trunkated structures will provide Z approximately equal to 0 (e.g., bovine pancreas ribonuclease B, Z = 15, and hen ovomucoid, Z = 15, respectively). The determination of Z was validated in multiple repetitive experiments and proved to be highly accurate and reliable. Z may therefore be regarded as a new and characteristic parameter for protein N-glycosylation.
Benefits and Membership: a Reappraisal of Interest Group Activity

XCHANGE theory has been used frequently in recent years to explain political behavior and interaction. This approach has been applied most extensively to the interdependent relationship between interest group staff employees and their members to explain organizational operations.l The theory's proponents, in this instance, have argued that staff-member relationships are formed and maintained because of a mutually satisfactory exchange of group benefits for membership dues and other contributions. Both parties interact to improve their position by rationally utilizing available resources. In making this argument, a number of exchange theorists question whether public policies are important factors in the exchange process.2 They cite several reasons why it is irrational to join interest groups in order to support collective action for achieving policy goals. First, there are high costs imposed on members. Second, public policy goods are collectively shared by everyone having common characteristics, not just by those paying membership dues. And, finally, individuals have the freedom to join the group or not. Mancur Olson and Robert Salisbury both note that interest groups produce many nonpolicy goods for membership consumption.3 They indicate that such peripheral benefits as insurance programs, legal representation, research assistance, and social functions are the major inducements to group membership. These selectively received goods (that is, those goods available only to organizational members) are seen as so important to the members that they allow group leaders the latitude to promote whatever public policies they want. In other words, these are the goods for which membership dues are supposedly exchanged; and other activities are seen as unimportant to staff-member relations. These studies, however, do not directly apply the theory to a particular interest group. Nor do any other works empirically examine the validity of the theory as an explanation for interest group membership. An illuminating article by Norman Luttbeg and Harmon Zeigler shows significant attitudinal differences between education association staff and members, but it only confirms some aspects of the exchange argument.4 The study presented here, on the other hand, under-
The Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale: reliability and validity of a brief screening test

Although excessive and compulsive shopping has been increasingly placed within the behavioral addiction paradigm in recent years, items in existing screens arguably do not assess the core criteria and components of addiction. To date, assessment screens for shopping disorders have primarily been rooted within the impulse-control or obsessive-compulsive disorder paradigms. Furthermore, existing screens use the terms ‘shopping,’ ‘buying,’ and ‘spending’ interchangeably, and do not necessarily reflect contemporary shopping habits. Consequently, a new screening tool for assessing shopping addiction was developed. Initially, 28 items, four for each of seven addiction criteria (salience, mood modification, conflict, tolerance, withdrawal, relapse, and problems), were constructed. These items and validated scales (i.e., Compulsive Buying Measurement Scale, Mini-International Personality Item Pool, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) were then administered to 23,537 participants (Mage = 35.8 years, SDage = 13.3). The highest loading item from each set of four pooled items reflecting the seven addiction criteria were retained in the final scale, The Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale (BSAS). The factor structure of the BSAS was good (RMSEA = 0.064, CFI = 0.983, TLI = 0.973) and coefficient alpha was 0.87. The scores on the BSAS converged with scores on the Compulsive Buying Measurement Scale (CBMS; 0.80), and were positively correlated with extroversion and neuroticism, and negatively with conscientiousness, agreeableness, and intellect/imagination. The scores of the BSAS were positively associated with anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem and inversely related to age. Females scored higher than males on the BSAS. The BSAS is the first scale to fully embed shopping addiction within an addiction paradigm. A recommended cutoff score for the new scale and future research directions are discussed.
Changes and conflicts : Korean immigrant families in New York

1.Changes and Conflicts in Family Life. 2.The Korean Community in New York. 3.Confucianism and the Korean Family System. 4.Marital Relations. 5.Child Care and Child Socialization. 6.Adjustment among the Elderly. 7.Transnational Kin and Family Ties. 8.Continuity and Change among Korean Immigrants. References.
Convergence of Bergman measures for high powers of a line bundle

Let L be a holomorphic line bundle on a compact complex manifold X of dimension n, and let exp(-\phi) be a continuous metric on L. Fixing a measure dμ on X gives a sequence of Hilbert spaces consisting of holomorphic sections of tensor powers of L. We prove that the corresponding sequence of scaled Bergman measures converges, in the high tensor power limit, to the equilibrium measure of the pair (K,\phi), where K is the support of dμ, as long as dμ is stably Bernstein-Markov with respect to (K,\phi). Here the Bergman measure denotes dμ times the restriction to the diagonal of the pointwise norm of the corresponding orthogonal projection operator. In particular, an extension to higher dimensions is obtained of results concerning random matrices and classical orthogonal polynomials.
Comprehension Strategy Instruction: Teaching Narrative Text Structure Awareness.

Research shows that students who have a good understanding of narrative text structure have fewer problems comprehending stories. Research also suggests that many students require explicit instruction in how to comprehend this text type. While some children are able to figure out the more elaborate structure of narrative text on their own (i.e., that stories have a plot, characters, setting, and theme), there are others who are not so lucky. Teachers play an important role assisting students to develop a good understanding of narrative text structure awareness. This article briefly outlines what research has to say about comprehension strategy instruction and then describes how teachers can go about teaching a comprehension strategy, narrative text structure awareness with the aim of enhancing children's comprehension of this text type.