Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of audiovisual interactions on working memory: Use of the combined N-back + Go/NoGo paradigm

Background Approximately 94% of sensory information acquired by humans originates from the visual and auditory channels. Such information can be temporarily stored and processed in working memory, but this system has limited capacity. Working memory plays an important role in higher cognitive functions and is controlled by central executive function. Therefore, elucidating the influence of the central executive function on information processing in working memory, such as in audiovisual integration, is of great scientific and practical importance. Purpose This study used a paradigm that combined N-back and Go/NoGo tasks, using simple Arabic numerals as stimuli, to investigate the effects of cognitive load (modulated by varying the magnitude of N) and audiovisual integration on the central executive function of working memory as well as their interaction. Methods Sixty college students aged 17–21 years were enrolled and performed both unimodal and bimodal tasks to evaluate the central executive function of working memory. The order of the three cognitive tasks was pseudorandomized, and a Latin square design was used to account for order effects. Finally, working memory performance, i.e., reaction time and accuracy, was compared between unimodal and bimodal tasks with repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results As cognitive load increased, the presence of auditory stimuli interfered with visual working memory by a moderate to large extent; similarly, as cognitive load increased, the presence of visual stimuli interfered with auditory working memory by a moderate to large effect size. Conclusion Our study supports the theory of competing resources, i.e., that visual and auditory information interfere with each other and that the magnitude of this interference is primarily related to cognitive load.
Effects of Free-Stream Turbulence on Transition of a Separated Boundary Layer Over the Leading-Edge of a Constant Thickness Airfoil

This paper describes the change in the transition mechanism of a separated boundary layer formed from the semicircular leading-edge of a constant thickness airfoil as the free-stream turbulence (fst) increases. Experiments are carried out in a low-speed wind tunnel for three levels of fst (Tu = 0.65%, 4.6%, and 7.7%) at two Reynolds numbers (Re) 25,000 and 55,000 (based on the leading-edge diameter). Measurements of velocity and surface pressure along with flow field visualizations are carried out using a planar particle image velocimetry (PIV). The flow undergoes separation in the vicinity of leading-edge and reattaches in the downstream forming a separation bubble. The shear layer is laminar up to 20% of separation length, and then, the perturbations are amplified in the second-half attributing to breakdown and reattachment. The bubble length is highly susceptible to change in Tu. At low fst, the primary mode of instability of the shear layer is Kelvin–Helmholtz (K-H), although the local viscous effect may not be neglected. At high fst, the mechanism of shear layer rollup is bypassed with transient growth of perturbations along with evidence of spot formation. The predominant shedding frequency when normalized with respect to the momentum thickness at separation is almost constant and shows a good agreement with the previous studies. After reattachment, the flow takes longer length to approach a canonical boundary layer.
Structural and functional changes in the retina in Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is caused by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, originating in the substantia nigra pars compacta and characterised by bradykinesia, rest tremor and rigidity. In addition, visual disorders and retinal abnormalities are often present and can be identified by decreased visual acuity, abnormal spatial contrast sensitivity or even difficulty in complex visual task completion. Because of their early onset in patients with de novo Parkinson’s disease, the anatomical retinal changes and electrophysiological modification could be valuable markers even at early stages of the disease. However, due to the concomitant occurrence of normal ageing, the relevance and specificity of these predictive values can be difficult to interpret. This review examines retinal dysfunction arising in Parkinson’s disease. We highlight the electrophysiological delays and decreased amplitude in the electroretinography recorded in patients and animal models. We relate this to coexisting anatomical changes such as retinal nerve fibre layer and macular thinning, measured using optical coherence tomography, and show that functional measures are more consistent overall than optical coherence-measured structural changes. We review the underlying chemical changes seen with loss of retinal dopaminergic neurons and the effect of levodopa treatment on the retina in Parkinson’s disease. Finally, we consider whether retinal abnormalities in Parkinson’s disease could have a role as potential markers of poorer outcomes and help stratify patients at early stages of the disease. We emphasise that retinal measures can be valuable, accessible and cost-effective methods in the early evaluation of Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis with potential for patient stratification.
Military Ideology and Foreign Policy: A Constructivist Examination of the IRGC'S Ideological Influence

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) pervades most aspects of life in post-revolutionary Iran. Ostensibly the regime’s security organisation, the IRGC’s political clout and economic heft enable it to extend its influence beyond security and into foreign policy. This study employs a constructivist perspective, casting light on the key elements of the IRGC’s identity, notably its religious discourse. In doing so, it develops our understanding of how the organisation’s beliefs and values affect the foreign policy agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This article draws on IRGC press statements, ideological training materials and its constitutive charter in conjunction with an analysis of the organisation's behaviour to delineate an image of an organisation staunchly loyal to the total imperium of the ‘House of Leader’, and which buttresses the regime with its militant, violent and religiously hardline outlook. Working to promote rather than define Ayatollah Khamenei’s system of Islamic governance, the IRGC’s role is closer to that of enforcer and implementer than of autonomous agent of foreign policy. This article contributes to the wider literature on constructivist idealism by highlighting the importance of ideas as relational and performative elements of foreign policy.
Determination of meteoroid physical properties from tristatic radar observations

In this work we give a review of the meteor head echo observations carried out with the tristatic 930 MHz EISCAT UHF radar system during four 24 h runs between 2002 and 2005 and compare these with earlier observations. A total number of 410 tristatic meteors were observed. We describe a method to determine the position of a compact radar target in the common volume monitored by the three receivers and demonstrate its applicability for meteor stud- ies. The inferred positions of the meteor targets have been utilized to estimate their velocities, decelerations and direc- tions of arrival as well as their radar cross sections with un- precedented accuracy. The velocity distribution of the mete- oroids is bimodal with peaks at 35-40 km/s and 55-60 km/s, and ranges from 19-70 km/s. The estimated masses are be- tween 10 9 -10 5.5 kg. There are very few detections below 30 km/s. The observations are clearly biased to high-velocity meteoroids, but not so biased against slow meteoroids as has been presumed from previous tristatic measurements. Fi- nally, we discuss how the radial deceleration observed with a monostatic radar depends on the meteoroid velocity and the angle between the trajectory and the beam. The finite beamwidth leads to underestimated meteoroid masses if ra- dial velocity and deceleration of meteoroids approaching the radar are used as estimates of the true quantities in a momen- tum equation of motion. atmosphere at about 70-140 km altitude. The echoes are characterized by being transient and Doppler shifted. The received power is confined in range, as from a point source, and the target moves with the line-of-sight velocity of the meteoroid.
Particle injection and acceleration at earth's bow shock - Comparison of upstream and downstream events

The injection and acceleration of thermal solar wind ions at the quasi-parallel earth's bow shock during radial interplanetary magnetic field conditions is investigated. Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers/Ion Release Module satellite observations of complete proton spectra, and of heavy ion spectra above 10 keV/Q, made on September 12, 1984 near the nose of the shock, are presented and compared to the predictions of a Monte Carlo shock simulation which includes diffusive shock acceleration. It is found that the spectral observations are in good agreement with the predictions of the simulation when it is assumed that all accelerated ions originate in the solar wind and are injected into the acceleration mechanism by thermal leakage from the downstream plasma. The efficiency, which is determined directly from the downstream observations, is high, with at least 15 percent of the solar wind energy flux going into accelerated particles. The comparisons allow constraints to be placed on the rigidity dependence of the scattering mean free path and suggest that the upstream solar wind must be slowed substantially by backstreaming accelerated ions prior to undergoing a sharp transition in the viscous subshock. 75 refs.
Semiglobal nonlinear output regulation with adaptive internal model

We address the problem of output regulation for nonlinear systems driven by a linear exosystem whose natural frequencies are not known a priori. We present a classical solution in terms of the parallel connection of a robust stabilizer and an internal model, where the latter is adaptively tuned to the device that reproduces the control required to maintain the output-zeroing condition. We obtain robust regulation (i.e. in presence of parameter uncertainties) with a semiglobal domain of convergence for a significant class of nonlinear minimum-phase system.
Atmospheric plasma induced sterilization and chemical neutralization

Summary form only given, as follows. We are studying chemical neutralization and surface decontamination using atmospheric plasma discharges. The plasma can be generated using either DC, AC or pulsed discharges. The electrodes which generate the plasma consist of a ground plane and an array of pins. The array is constructed so that various gases, like argon or helium, can be flowed past the pins where the discharge is initiated. Results indicate that the atmospheric plasma is effective in sterilizing surfaces with biological contaminants like E-coli and bacillus. Exposure times of less than four minutes in an air plasma result in a decrease in live colony counts by six orders of magnitude. Results on neutralization of chemical warfare agent simulants will also be presented. The decomposition chemistry, by-product formation, and electrical energy consumption of the system will be discussed. Standard characterization techniques for determining composition of the processed gaseous and liquid effluents, like gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy, are being utilized.
Stabilization of bilinear systems via linear state feedback control

In this paper we consider the problem of stabilizing a bilinear system via linear state feedback control. A procedure is proposed which, given a polytope V surrounding the origin of the state space, finds, if existing, a controller in the form u = Kx, such that the zero equilibrium point of the closed loop system is asymptotically stable and V is enclosed into the domain of attraction of the equilibrium. The controller design requires the solution of a convex optimization problem involving linear matrix inequalities. An example illustrates the applicability of the proposed technique.
Marconi, radio waves, and the ionosphere

The life story of Marconi is too well documented to need detailed repetition, but there are certain facts about his early years which bear directly upon his quite remarkable success and indeed which relate to the early development of the subject of wireless telegraphy. Anyone looking at the early history of radio wave propagation and of Marconi's major role in it, cannot fail to be impressed with certain facts. Thus it is surely remarkable that in February 1896 when he first took his black wireless boxes to England, Marconi was only 21 years old and it is to be remembered that not only was he a very young man but he had had very little formal training in science. The second remarkable fact is that on 2 June 1896, i.e., within a few weeks of arriving in England (he was now just 22) he filed with the British Patent Office a provisional patent specification (the first of many) to safeguard his commercial interests in wireless communication. The third striking fact is that just one year later, in the summer of 1897, at the age of 23 he and his friends formed the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited (soon to be renamed the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company) with an initial capital of £100,000. The shares in the new company were quickly subscribed; Marconi himself received £15,000 in cash and also held a large number of the shares.
Photoluminescence of quasi-direct transitions in disordered In/sub 1-x/Ga/sub x/P/graded GaP alloys

We have examined the photoluminescence and photoluminescence kinetics of a series of In/sub 1-x/Ga/sub x/P alloys in an effort: 1) to elucidate the electronic structure of the conduction band versus alloy composition, especially near the direct-indirect crossover; 2) to determine precisely the composition of the direct-indirect crossover, and its temperature dependence; and 3) to understand the nonradiative decay mechanism and its temperature dependence. We find that the fundamental bandgap is only determined by the /spl Gamma//sub 1c/ and X/sub 1c/ states in samples with Ga-compositions ranging from 0.58 to 0.75, and that the 2-K direct-indirect crossover from /spl Gamma//sub 1c/, to X/sub 1c/ occurs at x=0.69 and is not strongly temperature-dependent. Further, we find, in agreement with our spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements at room temperature, that the mixing near crossover is rather complicated and leads to the previous observation of quasi-direct transitions. Our combined photoluminescence and spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements have therefore clearly resolved the controversy regarding the bandgap crossover. This has strong implications for the realization of InGaP-based efficient light-emitting devices with emission at higher energies.
Further remarks on the geometry of two-dimensional non-linear σ-models

A class of extended supersymmetric two-dimensional non-linear sigma -models can be formulated in terms of constrained extended superfields. The conditions for these constraints to be linearisable are examined. These conditions involve generalised Nijenhuis tensors and curvature tensors constructed from the complex structures on the target manifold. Off-shell constrained extended superfields are constructed for the Yang-Mills sector of the (2, 0) and (4, 0) models. These superfields will exist provided that certain conditions are satisfied; these conditions are most conveniently expressed in terms of the geometry of fibre bundles. The existence of (4, 0) superfields implies that the general (4, 0) sigma -model with Yang-Mills sector is ultraviolet finite.
Parallel syndrome extraction with shared flag qubits for Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes of distance three

To perform achieve fault-tolerant quantum computation, one can use flagged syndrome extraction with fewer ancilla qubits. However, it suffers from long circuit depth if one stabilizer is measured at a time. Previously, Reichardt showed that it is possible to measure multiple stabilizers with at most one shared flag qubit for certain small quantum codes. In this paper, we propose a procedure for general Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes of distance three so that multiple $Z$-stabilizers ($X$-stabilizers) can be fault-tolerantly measured in parallel with one shared flag qubit. We simulate the memory and computation pseudo-thresholds for various code schemes. In particular, our parallel scheme based on Shor's nine-qubit code performs better than known seven- and nine-qubit schemes in the literature.
Internet Use and the Happiness of Rural Residents: The Role of Education and Health

The rapid development of the Internet in China in recent years has greatly penetrated into all aspects of people’s lives and production. In rural areas of China, little is known from previous studies about the relationship between the Internet and happiness. Based on data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) collected in 2016 and 2018, this study investigates the impact of the Internet use on the happiness of rural residents and its mechanism. The results show that, first, the fixed-effects model indicates that the Internet significantly increases the happiness of rural residents. Second, the multiple mediating effects analysis shows that Internet use can improve rural residents’ happiness by promoting the household education human capital. To be more specific, excessive Internet use leads to lower levels of household health human capital. However, a lower level of health does not necessarily bring about a lower level of happiness. In this paper, the mediating effects of household education human capital and household health human capital are 17.8% and 9.5%, respectively. Third, the heterogeneity analysis found that there was a significant positive correlation between Internet use and rural residents’ happiness in western regions of China, while it is insignificant in the eastern and central regions; for households with a huge labor force, Internet use dramatically improves their happiness by enhancing their household education human capital. Education and health have different roles to play in terms of the happiness of rural residents. Therefore, this suggests that the physical and psychological health of rural residents should be taken into account when the Internet strategies to improve general well-being are under development.
Clinical, Morphological, and Molecular Study on Grade 2 and 3 Pleomorphic Xanthoastrocytoma

Purpose: Pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma (PXA) is an uncommon astrocytoma that tends to occur in children and young adults and has a relatively favorable prognosis. The 2021 WHO classification of tumors of the central nervous system (CNS WHO), 5th edition, rates PXAs as grade 2 and grade 3. The histological grading was based on mitotic activity (≥2.5 mitoses/mm2). This study specifically evaluates the clinical, morphological, and, especially, the molecular characteristics of grade 2 and 3 PXAs. Methods: Between 2003 and 2021, we characterized 53 tumors with histologically defined grade 2 PXA (n = 36, 68%) and grade 3 PXA (n = 17, 32%). Results: Compared with grade 2 PXA, grade 3 PXA has a deeper location and no superiority in the temporal lobe and is more likely to be accompanied by peritumoral edema. In histomorphology, epithelioid cells and necrosis were more likely to occur in grade 3 PXA. Molecular analysis found that the TERT promoter mutation was more prevalent in grade 3 PXA than in grade 2 PXA (35% vs. 3%; p = 0.0005) and all mutation sites were C228T. The cases without BRAF V600E mutation or with necrosis in grade 3 PXA had a poor prognosis (p = 0.01). Conclusion: These data define PXA as a heterogeneous astrocytoma. Grade 2 and grade 3 PXAs have different clinical and histological characteristics as well as distinct molecular profiles. TERT promoter mutations may be a significant genetic event associated with anaplastic progression. Necrosis and BRAF V600E mutation play an important role in the prognosis of grade 3 PXA.
Entropy growth in the early universe, and the search for determining if gravity is classical or quantum , part II (Do physical laws/ physics parameter constants remain invariant from a prior universe, to the present universe?)

The invariance of physical law between a prior to a present universe is brought up, as a continuation of analyzing entropy in today's universe, and the relationship of entropy to information content in a prior universe. If or not there is enough information to preserve the amount of physical law also may play a role as to if or not additional dimensions for cosmological dynamics is necessary. Introduction. author, Beckwith, is aware of how data compression, and organized information from a prior universe to a present universe is often mistakenly conflated with intelligent design. In order to avoid such specious logic, the present paper's inquiry is restricted to the essentials of finding what minimum amount of information transfer from a prior to a present universe is necessary to possibly preserve the minimum structure and character of physical law from prior to present universe. I.e. Dr. Beckwith has no interest in following in the foot steps of Dr. Tippler. Secondly, the author, Beckwith, is fully aware that photons in our present day have no mass. A speculation as to a tiny effective minimum photon mass, is presented along the line's of Honig's (1974) document before red shift values of Z=1100. Before 380 thousand years after the big bang, there was still photon related cosmological evolutions as defined by J. A. S. Lima (1996), which can be summarized, for temperature related behavior as photons having number and energy densities
Acute deletion of the central MR/GR steroid receptor correlates with changes in LTP, auditory neural gain, and GC-A cGMP signaling

The complex mechanism by which stress can affect sensory processes such as hearing is still poorly understood. In a previous study, the mineralocorticoid (MR) and/or glucocorticoid receptor (GR) were deleted in frontal brain regions but not cochlear regions using a CaMKIIα-based tamoxifen-inducible CreERT2/loxP approach. These mice exhibit either a diminished (MRTMXcKO) or disinhibited (GRTMXcKO) auditory nerve activity. In the present study, we observed that mice differentially were (MRTMXcKO) or were not (GRTMXcKO) able to compensate for altered auditory nerve activity in the central auditory pathway. As previous findings demonstrated a link between central auditory compensation and memory-dependent adaptation processes, we analyzed hippocampal paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) and long-term potentiation (LTP). To determine which molecular mechanisms may impact differences in synaptic plasticity, we analyzed Arc/Arg3.1, known to control AMPA receptor trafficking, as well as regulators of tissue perfusion and energy consumption (NO-GC and GC-A). We observed that the changes in PPF of MRTMXcKOs mirrored the changes in their auditory nerve activity, whereas changes in the LTP of MRTMXcKOs and GRTMXcKOs mirrored instead the changes in their central compensation capacity. Enhanced GR expression levels in MRTMXcKOs suggest that MRs typically suppress GR expression. We observed that hippocampal LTP, GC-A mRNA expression levels, and ABR wave IV/I ratio were all enhanced in animals with elevated GR (MRTMXcKOs) but were all lower or not mobilized in animals with impaired GR expression levels (GRTMXcKOs and MRGRTMXcKOs). This suggests that GC-A may link LTP and auditory neural gain through GR-dependent processes. In addition, enhanced NO-GC expression levels in MR, GR, and MRGRTMXcKOs suggest that both receptors suppress NO-GC; on the other hand, elevated Arc/Arg3.1 levels in MRTMXcKOs and MRGRTMXcKOs but not GRTMXcKOs suggest that MR suppresses Arc/Arg3.1 expression levels. Conclusively, MR through GR inhibition may define the threshold for hemodynamic responses for LTP and auditory neural gain associated with GC-A.