Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Task-driven intra- and interarea communications in primate cerebral cortex

Significance How do multiple neurons communicate to solve a cognitive task? To answer this question, we investigate spike-train directional correlations across five primate cortical areas simultaneously recorded during a somatosensory discrimination task. Correlations are inferred using a nonparametric procedure that models spike trains as Markovian binary series and dynamically estimates the directed information between every neuron pair at different delays. We find that information processing during the discrimination task can be described by intra- and interarea decision-driven delayed correlations, which are no longer found when a monkey receives both stimuli but does not perform the task. Neural correlations during a cognitive task are central to study brain information processing and computation. However, they have been poorly analyzed due to the difficulty of recording simultaneous single neurons during task performance. In the present work, we quantified neural directional correlations using spike trains that were simultaneously recorded in sensory, premotor, and motor cortical areas of two monkeys during a somatosensory discrimination task. Upon modeling spike trains as binary time series, we used a nonparametric Bayesian method to estimate pairwise directional correlations between many pairs of neurons throughout different stages of the task, namely, perception, working memory, decision making, and motor report. We find that solving the task involves feedforward and feedback correlation paths linking sensory and motor areas during certain task intervals. Specifically, information is communicated by task-driven neural correlations that are significantly delayed across secondary somatosensory cortex, premotor, and motor areas when decision making takes place. Crucially, when sensory comparison is no longer requested for task performance, a major proportion of directional correlations consistently vanish across all cortical areas.
Sub-optimal algorithms for force distribution in multifingered grippers

The work described in this paper addresses the problem of determination of the appropriate distribution of forces between the fingers of a multifingered gripper grasping an object. The system is statically indeterminate and an optimal solution for this problem is desired for force control. A fast and efficient sub-optimal method for computing the grasping forces is presented. This method is based on the superposition of finger-interaction forces on equilibrating forces. An interaction force is defined as the component of the vector difference of the finger contact forces at any two fingers along the line joining the two contact points. They are computed based on the assumption that the normals at the point of contact pass through the centroid of the contact points and are therefore independent of the actual geometry of the object. The contact interaction is modelled as a point contact. The problems associated with making the algorithm independent of the object geometry are explored.
Numbers Are Not Enough. Why e-Learning Analytics Failed to Inform an Institutional Strategic Plan

Learning analytics offers higher education valuable insights that can inform strategic decision-making regarding resource allocation for educational excellence. Research demonstrates that learning management systems (LMSs) can increase student sense of community, support learning communities and enhance student engagement and success, and LMSs have therefore become core enterprise component in many universities. We were invited to undertake a current state analysis of enterprise LMS use in a large research-intensive university, to provide data to inform and guide an LMS review and strategic planning process. Using a new e-learning analytics platform, combined with data visualization and participant observation, we prepared a detailed snapshot of current LMS use patterns and trends and their relationship to student learning outcomes. This paper presents selected data from this "current state analysis" and comments on what it reveals about the comparative effectiveness of this institution's LMS integration in the service of learning and teaching. More critically, it discusses the reality that the institutional planning process was nonetheless dominated by technical concerns, and made little use of the intelligence revealed by the analytics process. To explain this phenomenon we consider theories of change management and resistance to innovation, and argue that to have meaningful impact, learning analytics proponents must also delve into the socio-technical sphere to ensure that learning analytics data are presented to those involved in strategic institutional planning in ways that have the power to motivate organizational adoption and cultural change.
Phylogeographic History and Gene Flow Among Giant Galápagos Tortoises on Southern Isabela Island

Volcanic islands represent excellent models with which to study the effect of vicariance on colonization and dispersal, particularly when the evolution of genetic diversity mirrors the sequence of geological events that led to island formation. Phylogeographic inference, however, can be particularly challenging for recent dispersal events within islands, where the antagonistic effects of land bridge formation and vicariance can affect movements of organisms with limited dispersal ability. We investigated levels of genetic divergence and recovered signatures of dispersal events for 631 Galápagos giant tortoises across the volcanoes of Sierra Negra and Cerro Azul on the island of Isabela. These volcanoes are among the most recent formations in the Galápagos (<0.7 million years), and previous studies based on genetic and morphological data could not recover a consistent pattern of lineage sorting. We integrated nested clade analysis of mitochondrial DNA control region sequences, to infer historical patterns of colonization, and a novel Bayesian multilocus genotyping method for recovering evidence of recent migration across volcanoes using eleven microsatellite loci. These genetic studies illuminate taxonomic distinctions as well as provide guidance to possible repatriation programs aimed at countering the rapid population declines of these spectacular animals.
The challenges of using an embedded MPI for hardware-based processing nodes

This paper presents several challenges and solutions in designing an efficient Message Passing Interface (MPI) implementation for embedded FPGA applications. Popular MPI implementations are designed for general-purpose computers which have significantly different properties and trade-offs than embedded platforms. Our work focuses on two types of interactions that are not present in typical MPI implementations. First, a number of improvements designed to accelerate software-hardware interactions are introduced, including a Direct Memory Access (DMA) engine with MPI functionality; the use of non-interrupting, non-blocking messages; and a proposed function, called MPI_Coalesce, to reduce the function call overhead from a series of sequential messages. These improvements resulted in a speed-up of 5-fold compared to an embedded software-only MPI implementation. Next, a novel dataflow message passing model is presented for hardware-hardware interactions to overcome the limitations of atomic messages, allowing hardware engines to communicate and compute simultaneously. This dataflow model provides a natural method for hardware designers to build high performance, MPI systems. Finally, two hardware cores, Tee cores and message watchdog timers, are introduced to provide a transparent method of debugging hardware MPI designs.
Donor Age of Human Platelet Lysate Affects Proliferation and Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

The regenerative potential declines upon aging. This might be due to cell-intrinsic changes in stem and progenitor cells or to influences by the microenvironment. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) raise high hopes in regenerative medicine. They are usually culture expanded in media with fetal calf serum (FCS) or other serum supplements such as human platelet lysate (HPL). In this study, we have analyzed the impact of HPL-donor age on culture expansion. 31 single donor derived HPLs (25 to 57 years old) were simultaneously compared for culture of MSC. Proliferation of MSC did not reveal a clear association with platelet counts of HPL donors or growth factors concentrations (PDGF-AB, TGF-β1, bFGF, or IGF-1), but it was significantly higher with HPLs from younger donors (<35 years) as compared to older donors (>45 years). Furthermore, HPLs from older donors increased activity of senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA-βgal). HPL-donor age did not affect the fibroblastoid colony-forming unit (CFU-f) frequency, immunophenotype or induction of adipogenic differentiation, whereas osteogenic differentiation was significantly lower with HPLs from older donors. Concentrations of various growth factors (PDGF-AB, TGF-β1, bFGF, IGF-1) or hormones (estradiol, parathormone, leptin, 1,25 vitamin D3) were not associated with HPL-donor age or MSC growth. Taken together, our data support the notion that aging is associated with systemic feedback mechanisms acting on stem and progenitor cells, and this is also relevant for serum supplements in cell culture: HPLs derived from younger donors facilitate enhanced expansion and more pronounced osteogenic differentiation.
Application of Semipermeable Membranes in Glucose Biosensing

Glucose biosensors have received significant attention in recent years due to the escalating mortality rate of diabetes mellitus. Although there is currently no cure for diabetes mellitus, individuals living with diabetes can lead a normal life by maintaining tight control of their blood glucose levels using glucose biosensors (e.g., glucometers). Current research in the field is focused on the optimization and improvement in the performance of glucose biosensors by employing a variety of glucose selective enzymes, mediators and semipermeable membranes to improve the electron transfer between the active center of the enzyme and the electrode substrate. Herein, we summarize the different semipermeable membranes used in the fabrication of the glucose biosensor, that result in improved biosensor sensitivity, selectivity, dynamic range, response time and stability.
A Decidable Fragment of Second Order Logic With Applications to Synthesis

We propose a fragment of many-sorted second order logic called EQSMT and show that checking satisfiability of sentences in this fragment is decidable. EQSMT formulae have an $\exists^*\forall^*$ quantifier prefix (over variables, functions and relations) making EQSMT conducive for modeling synthesis problems. Moreover, EQSMT allows reasoning using a combination of background theories provided that they have a decidable satisfiability problem for the $\exists^*\forall^*$ FO-fragment (e.g., linear arithmetic). Our decision procedure reduces the satisfiability of EQSMT formulae to satisfiability queries of $\exists^*\forall^*$ formulae of each individual background theory, allowing us to use existing efficient SMT solvers supporting $\exists^*\forall^*$ reasoning for these theories; hence our procedure can be seen as effectively quantified SMT (EQSMT) reasoning. Errata: We have modified the transformation step-2 (page 9) to correct for a slight error. Also, the description above Theorem 10 is different from the published version.
Paleoproterozoic high-pressure metamorphic history of the Salma eclogite on the Kola Peninsula, Russia

The Precambrian Salma eclogites on the Kola Peninsula, Russia, represent some of the oldest eclogites in the world; however, there has been much debate regarding whether the timing of their eclogite facies metamorphism is Archean (2.72–2.70 Ga) or Paleoproterozoic (1.92–1.88 Ga). New microstructural observations, pressure-temperature (P-T ) analyses, zircon inclusion analyses, and U-Pb zircon dating performed in this study suggest that eclogite facies metamorphism occurred at ca. 1.87 Ga under P-T conditions of 16–18 kbar and 750–770 °C. Metamorphic zircons with the age of 1.87 Ga have inclusions of garnet (Grt) + omphacite (Omp) + Ca-clinopyoxene (Cpx) + amphibole (Amp) + quartz (Qz) + rutile (Rt) ± biotite (Bt), as well as flat heavy rare earth element (HREE) patterns due to the presence of abundant amounts of garnet during peak eclogite facies metamorphism. The Paleoproterozoic ages (1.92–1.88 Ga) presented in previous studies are reinterpreted to represent prograde ages, rather than peak ages, because these ages have been inferred from U-Pb dating in zoisite-bearing zircon and Sm-Nd and Lu-Hf geochronologic analyses of garnet showing growth zoning. In contrast, the 2.73–2.72 Ga unzoned zircons with dark cathodoluminescence contain inclusions of Grt + Amp + plagioclase (Pl) + Qz + rutile (Rt) ± Bt and are relatively enriched in HREEs, suggesting that an initial amphibolite facies metamorphic event occurred during the Archean. This study also proposes that the Salma eclogites underwent granulite facies retrograde metamorphism at 10–14 kbar and 770–820 °C, with rapid decompression occurring soon after peak metamorphism ca. 1.87 Ga. The final period of retrograde amphibolite facies metamorphism occurred at 8–10 kbar and 590–610 °C. Whole-rock chemical analyses indicate that the Salma eclogites were originally tholeiitic basalts formed at a mid-ocean ridge. The occurrence of eclogite facies metamorphism ca. 1.87 Ga suggests that the collision between the Kola and Karelian continents occurred during the Paleoproterozoic, rather than the Archean. These results, as well as those of previous studies, imply that the subduction required to form eclogites may have begun during or before the Paleoproterozoic. LITHOSPHERE; v. 9; no. 6; p. 855–873; GSA Data Repository Item 2017317 | Published online 14 September 2017 https://doi.org/10.1130/L657.1
Modeling language evolution with codes that utilize context and phonetic features

We present methods for investigating processes of evolution in a language family by modeling relationships among the observed languages. The models aim to ﬁnd regularities—regular correspondences in lexical data. We present an al-gorithm which codes the data using phonetic features of sounds, and learns long-range contextual rules that condition recurrent sound correspondences between languages. This gives us a measure of model quality: better models ﬁnd more regularity in the data. We also present a procedure for imputing unseen data, which provides another method of model comparison. Our experiments demonstrate improvements in performance compared to prior work.
Sharing the Road: Autonomous Vehicles Meet Human Drivers

In modern urban settings, automobile traffic and collisions lead to endless frustration as well as significant loss of life, property, and productivity. Recent advances in artificial intelligence suggest that autonomous vehicle navigation may soon be a reality. In previous work, we have demonstrated that a reservation-based approach can efficiently and safely govern interactions of multiple autonomous vehicles at intersections. Such an approach alleviates many traditional problems associated with intersections, in terms of both safety and efficiency. However, the system relies on all vehicles being equipped with the requisite technology-a restriction that would make implementing such a system in the real world extremely difficult. In this paper, we extend this system to allow for incremental deployability. The modified system is able to accommodate traditional human-operated vehicles using existing infrastructure. Furthermore, we show that as the number of autonomous vehicles on the road increases, traffic delays decrease monotonically toward the levels exhibited in our previous work. Finally, we develop a method for switching between various human-usable configurations while the system is running, in order to facilitate an even smoother transition. The work is fully implemented and tested in our custom simulator, and we present detailed experimental results attesting to its effectiveness.
Audio source separation informed by redundancy with greedy multiscale decompositions

This paper describes a greedy algorithm for audio source separation of repeated musical patterns. The problem is understood as retrieving from a set of mixtures the part that is redundant among them and the parts that are specific to only one mixture. The key assumption is the sparsity of all the sources in the same multiscale dictionary. Synthetic and real life examples of source separation of hand cut repeated musical patterns are exposed. Results shows that the proposed method succeeds in simultaneously providing a sparse approximant of the mixtures and a separation of the sources.
Signatures of criticality arise from random subsampling in simple population models

The rise of large-scale recordings of neuronal activity has fueled the hope to gain new insights into the collective activity of neural ensembles. How can one link the statistics of neural population activity to underlying principles and theories? One attempt to interpret such data builds upon analogies to the behaviour of collective systems in statistical physics. Divergence of the specific heat—a measure of population statistics derived from thermodynamics—has been used to suggest that neural populations are optimized to operate at a “critical point”. However, these findings have been challenged by theoretical studies which have shown that common inputs can lead to diverging specific heat. Here, we connect “signatures of criticality”, and in particular the divergence of specific heat, back to statistics of neural population activity commonly studied in neural coding: firing rates and pairwise correlations. We show that the specific heat diverges whenever the average correlation strength does not depend on population size. This is necessarily true when data with correlations is randomly subsampled during the analysis process, irrespective of the detailed structure or origin of correlations. We also show how the characteristic shape of specific heat capacity curves depends on firing rates and correlations, using both analytically tractable models and numerical simulations of a canonical feed-forward population model. To analyze these simulations, we develop efficient methods for characterizing large-scale neural population activity with maximum entropy models. We find that, consistent with experimental findings, increases in firing rates and correlation directly lead to more pronounced signatures. Thus, previous reports of thermodynamical criticality in neural populations based on the analysis of specific heat can be explained by average firing rates and correlations, and are not indicative of an optimized coding strategy. We conclude that a reliable interpretation of statistical tests for theories of neural coding is possible only in reference to relevant ground-truth models.
Patients with deletions of 9q22q34 do not define a syndrome: three case reports and a literature review

Three children with deletions involving the 9q22q34 region are described. A review of clinical features of these three new patients and seven previously reported ones did not demonstrate a recognizable dysmorphic pattern. Our cases illustrate the need for repeat karyotyping at higher levels of resolution when there is a suspicion of a chromosome anomaly, since each deletion was missed on initial analysis.
AirAuth: towards attack-resilient biometric authentication using in-air gestures

AirAuth is a biometric, gesture-based authentication system based on in-air gesture input. We describe the operations necessary to sample enrollment gestures and to perform matching for authentication, using data from a short range depth sensor. We present the results of two initial user studies. A first study was conducted to crowd source a simple gesture set for use in further evaluations. The results of our second study indicate that AirAuth achieves a very high Equal Error Rate (EER-)based accuracy of 96.6 % for simple gesture set and 100 % for user-specific gestures. Future work will encompass the evaluation of possible attack scenarios and obtaining qualitative user feedback on usability advantages of gesture-based authentication.
The performability manager

The authors describe the performability manager, a distributed system component that contributes to a more effective and efficient use of system components and prevents quality of service (QoS) degradation. The performability manager dynamically reconfigures distributed systems whenever needed, to recover from failures and to permit the system to evolve over time and include new functionality. Large systems require dynamic reconfiguration to support dynamic change without shutting down the complete system. A distributed system monitor is needed to verify QoS. Monitoring a distributed system is difficult because of synchronization problems and minor differences in clock speeds. The authors describe the functionality and the operation of the performability manager (both informally and formally). Throughout the paper they illustrate the approach by an example distributed application: an ANSAware-based number translation service (NTS), from the intelligent networks (IN) area. <<ETX>>
Semi-automatic Incompatibility Localization for Re-engineered Industrial Software

After a legacy system is re-engineered, it is important to perform compatibility testing so as to identify the differences and reduce the introduced bugs. We can first apply symbolic execution to obtain an exhaustive set of test cases, then use them to check the compatibility of the old system and the new one. However there may be a lot of failed test cases which are a mix of erroneous and allowable incompatibilities. To locate the causes of failures detected during the testing, we apply multiple statistical bug localization techniques. We are able to localize 90% of the incompatibilities in 10% of the code for an industrial application with around 20k lines by Tarantula. And we identify the characteristics of failure causes which are difficult to be detected by statistical bug localization.
Determination of Total Homocysteine in Human Plasma by Isocratic High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

A simple, sensitive and precise isocratic HPLC method for the determination of total homocysteine in human plasma is described. The thiol compounds were liberated from plasma proteins by reduction with tri-n-butylphosphine and derivatized with a thiol-specific fluorogenic marker, 7-fluoro-benzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole-4-sulphonate. The derivatives were separated isocratically within 7 min by reversed-phase HPLC using a Superspher 100 RP-18 column as stationary phase. By using this approach more than 200 samples a day can be assayed for total homocysteine. The method was linear up to 100 mumol/l and proved to be sensitive with a detection limit of 0.1 mumol/l and the lowest limit of reliable quantification of 0.5 mumol/l for homocysteine in buffer. Intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were both < 4% at a concentration of 10 mumol/l homocysteine. Similar results were obtained for homocysteine concentrations between 0.5 and 100 mumol/l. The analytical recovery for these concentrations ranged from 94.9 to 117.0%. As compared to other protocols published so far, this modified method is less complicated but equally sensitive and reproducible and allows a rapid determination of total homocysteine and cysteine in human plasma under routine conditions.