Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The web of laughter: frontal and limbic projections of the anterior cingulate cortex revealed by cortico-cortical evoked potential from sites eliciting laughter

According to an evolutionist approach, laughter is a multifaceted behaviour affecting social, emotional, motor and speech functions. Albeit previous studies have suggested that high-frequency electrical stimulation (HF-ES) of the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) may induce bursts of laughter—suggesting a crucial contribution of this region to the cortical control of this behaviour—the complex nature of laughter implies that outward connections from the pACC may reach and affect a complex network of frontal and limbic regions. Here, we studied the effective connectivity of the pACC by analysing the cortico-cortical evoked potentials elicited by single-pulse electrical stimulation of pACC sites whose HF-ES elicited laughter in 12 patients. Once these regions were identified, we studied their clinical response to HF-ES, to reveal the specific functional target of pACC representation of laughter. Results reveal that the neural representation of laughter in the pACC interacts with several frontal and limbic regions, including cingulate, orbitofrontal, medial prefrontal and anterior insular regions—involved in interoception, emotion, social reward and motor behaviour. These results offer neuroscientific support to the evolutionist approach to laughter, providing a possible mechanistic explanation of the interplay between this behaviour and emotion regulation, speech production and social interactions. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cracking the laugh code: laughter through the lens of biology, psychology and neuroscience’.
Experimental study of bubble competition and spike competition in Richtmyer–Meshkov flows

Abstract Shock-tube experiments on various two-bubble and two-spike interfaces are performed to examine the dependence of bubble competition and spike competition on the initial spectra and density ratio of the interface. The differences in the influences of bubble competition and spike competition on the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability are highlighted for the first time. The bubble-competition effect is mainly dependent on the initial spectra of the two-bubble configuration. In contrast, the spike-competition effect is determined by both the initial spectra and density ratio. The extended buoyancy–drag model is adopted to explain the variation of the drag force imposed on the long-wavelength and short-wavelength structures as the initial conditions change. Based on the spectrum analysis, it is found that the constituent modes of two-bubble and two-spike interfaces have different contributions to the long-wavelength and short-wavelength perturbation growths. A generalised, nonlinear, analytical model is then established to quantify the bubble-competition effect and spike-competition effect considering arbitrary initial spectra and density ratio. The bubble-competition effect is believed to be stronger than the spike-competition effect at a high density ratio because it suppresses the high-frequency perturbation growth more evidently.
Nonlinear modeling of chaotic time series: Theory and applications

We review recent developments in the modeling and prediction of nonlinear time series. In some cases apparent randomness in time series may be due to chaotic behavior of a nonlinear but deterministic system. In such cases it is possible to exploit the determinism to make short term forecasts that are much more accurate than one could make from a linear stochastic model. This is done by first reconstructing a state space, and then using nonlinear function approximation methods to create a dynamical model. Nonlinear models are valuable not only as short term forecasters, but also as diagnostic tools for identifying and quantifying low-dimensional chaotic behavior. During the past few years methods for nonlinear modeling have developed rapidly, and have already led to several applications where nonlinear models motivated by chaotic dynamics provide superior predictions to linear models. These applications include prediction of fluid flows, sunspots, mechanical vibrations, ice ages, measles epidemics and human speech. 162 refs., 13 figs.
In Vivo Near-Infrared Noninvasive Glucose Measurement and Detection in Humans

In optical noninvasive glucose detection, how to detect the glucose-caused signals from the constant human variations and disturbed probing conditions is always the biggest challenge. Developing effective measurement strategies is essential to realize the detection. A near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy-based strategy is studied to effectively solve the in vivo measurement issues, obtaining clean blood glucose-caused signals. Two solutions composing our strategy are applied to the NIR spectroscopy-based measurement system to acquire clean raw signals in the data collection, which are a customized high signal-to-noise ratio multi-ring InGaAs detector to reduce the influence of human variations, and a fixing and aiming method to reproduce a consistent measurement condition. Seventeen cases of glucose tolerance test (GTT) on healthy and diabetic volunteers were conducted to validate the strategy. The human experiment results clearly show that the expected blood glucose changes have been detected at 1550 nm. The average correlation coefficient of the 17 cases of GTT between light signal and glucose reference reaches 0.84. The proposed measurement strategy is verified feasible for the glucose detecting in vivo. The strategy provides references to further studies and product developments for the NIR spectroscopy-based glucose measurement and references to other optical measurements in vivo. Graphical Abstract
AR4CAD

Infrastructure-mounted sensors that monitor roads can provide essential information for manual drivers and automated vehicles, e.g., positions of other vehicles occluded by buildings. However, human drivers and passengers have to trust and accept their use. This raises the question of how trust can be increased in such a scenario. One important factor for this is understanding the available information, including its quality and, for passengers of automated vehicles, the actions planned based on it. For this, augmented reality is a promising visualization technology because it can present the relevant information integrated into the physical world. Thus, this work develops a taxonomy of augmented reality visualizations for connected automated and manual driving. It is intended to classify and compare existing visualizations, identify novel visualizations, and provide a common language for discussions. The use case infrastructure-supported automated driving is explored by suggesting augmented reality visualizations to inform passengers of automated vehicles and are intended to increase trust. They present information available from infrastructure and onboard sensors as well as the driving decisions based on it. Finally, we evaluated the visualizations' influence on trust in an automated vehicle by conducting a driving simulator study (N=18). Results indicate a high dependency of trust on presenting driving decisions and information on road users but less on location-specific information.
Technological spillovers from multinational presence

This article undertakes a critical review of existing spillover analyses and proposes a unique analytical framework for examining technological spillovers in a manufacturing industry setting. The proposed framework overlaps three different literature strands: cluster and network dynamics, technological innovations and spillover literature. It enables to determine the extent to which multinational presence in a host country stimulates spillover occurrence to local firms as well as their nature. Using this framework, the kinds of spillovers and the channels through which they occur most can be equally determined – this is particularly relevant for policy intervention in a technically backward country. Finally, it allows determination of factors and conditions under which spillovers from multinationals occur.
Flying over Brazilian Organizations with Zeppelin: A Preliminary Panoramic Picture of Continuous Software Engineering

Context: Software organizations have faced several challenges, such as the need for faster deliveries, frequent changes in requirements, lower tolerance to failures and the need to adapt to contemporary business models. Agile practices have allowed organizations to shorten development cycles and increase customer collaboration. However, this has not been enough. Organizations should evolve to continuous and data-driven development in a continuous software engineering approach. Continuous Software Engineering (CSE) consists of a set of practices and tools that support a holistic view of software development with the purpose of making it faster, iterative, integrated, continuous and aligned with business. Implementing CSE requires changes in the organization’s culture, practices and structure, which may not be easy. Objective: We aim to provide a preliminary picture of CSE adoption in Brazilian organizations. Method: We adapted and used Zeppelin, a diagnostic instrument of CSE adoption based on the Stairway to Heaven Model (StH) to perform a survey with 28 Brazilian organizations aiming at investigating the adoption of CSE practices. Results: The results indicate that organizations have better addressed agile and continuous deployment practices than the ones related to continuous integration and continuous experimentation, but this scenario changes a bit depending on the organization type. They also show that CSE adoption has been heterogeneous, but there are patterns in the adoption of some practices. Conclusion: Although the StH model proposes a sequential and evolutionary path for CSE adoption, organizations have not always followed it systematically. There are indeed CSE practices that depend on others and thus contribute to sequential implementation. However, organizations tend to adopt the practices gradually, covering different stages, and evolving according to the organization needs.
Explainable Convolutional Neural Networks: A Taxonomy, Review, and Future Directions

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have shown promising results and have outperformed classical machine learning techniques in tasks such as image classification and object recognition. Their human-brain like structure enabled them to learn sophisticated features while passing images through their layers. However, their lack of explainability led to the demand for interpretations to justify their predictions. Research on Explainable AI or XAI has gained momentum to provide knowledge and insights into neural networks. This study summarizes the literature to gain more understanding of explainability in CNNs (i.e., Explainable Convolutional Neural Networks). We classify models that made efforts to improve the CNNs interpretation. We present and discuss taxonomies for XAI models that modify CNN architecture, simplify CNN representations, analyze feature relevance, and visualize interpretations. We review various metrics used to evaluate XAI interpretations. In addition, we discuss the applications and tasks of XAI models. This focused and extensive survey develops a perspective on this area by addressing suggestions for overcoming XAI interpretation challenges, like models’ generalization, unifying evaluation criteria, building robust models, and providing interpretations with semantic descriptions. Our taxonomy can be a reference to motivate future research in interpreting neural networks.
Algebraic geometry for scientists and engineers

Rational and polynomial parametrizations Fractional linear transformations Cubic curves Cubic surfaces and general hypersurfaces Outline of the theory of plane curves Affine plane and projective plane Sphere with handles Functions and differentials on a curve Polynomials and power series Review of abstract algebra Some commutative algebra Hensel's lemma and Newton's theorem More about Newton's theorem Branches and valuations Divisors of functions and differentials Weierstrass preparation theorem Intersection multiplicity Resolution of singularities of plane curves Infinitely near singularities Parametrizing a quartic with three double points Characteristic pairs Criterion for one place and Jacobian problem Inversion formula and Jacobian problem Surfaces Hypersurfaces Resolution of singularities of algebraic surfaces Birational and polyrational transformations Valuations and birational correspondence Rational cylinders through a variety Resultants.
Smell Patterns as Indicators of Design Degradation: Do Developers Agree?

Design degradation problems occur as a result of sub-optimal decisions that negatively impact internal software quality. These problems can affect isolated elements (e.g., a class) or multiple code elements (e.g., components). When neglected, design degradation increases maintenance costs. In this scenario, refactoring is paramount to keep internal software quality. However, the identification and removal of design degradation problems are not trivial tasks. For example, architectural documentation is an artifact that facilitates the identification of architectural problems, but often the documentation is unavailable or outdated. Hence, developers rely on the source code, mainly by identifying code smells. A code smell is a sub-optimal decision in the system implementation that can often be considered a counterpart of design degradation problems. Code smells allow developers to spot a design degradation problem and use them to reason about which refactoring operations need to be applied. Certain groups of code smells, called smell patterns, seem to indicate some specific design degradation problems. Intending to investigate the usefulness of smell patterns to help developers in the identification and removal of design degradation problems, we have conducted a quasi-experiment with 13 professional developers. Developers agree that smell patterns are indicators of design degradation problems, but their perceptions are influenced by factors such as the development platform (e.g., Android), type of functionality, and effort for refactoring the problem. Furthermore, they see as degradation problems only the sub-optimal decisions not intentionally taken. Among the smell patterns investigated, the patterns for Fat Interface, Concern Overload, and Scattered Concern were the most useful indicators of design degradation. We also observed that refactorings associated with code smells contribute to the (partial) removal of degradation problems. Our results led us to develop an automated tool to support developers during the identification and removal of some design degradation problems.
Towards Implicit Interaction in Highly Automated Vehicles - A Systematic Literature Review

The inclusion of in-vehicle sensors and increased intention and state recognition capabilities enable implicit in-vehicle interaction. Starting from a systematic literature review (SLR) on implicit in-vehicle interaction, which resulted in 82 publications, we investigated state and intention recognition methods based on (1) their used modalities, (2) their underlying level of automation, and (3) their considered interaction focus. Our SLR revealed a research gap addressing implicit interaction in highly automated vehicles (HAVs). Therefore, we discussed how the requirements for implicit state and intention recognition methods and interaction based on them are changing in HAVs. With this, open questions and opportunities for further research in this area were identified.
Toward Optimal Softcore Carry-aware Approximate Multipliers on Xilinx FPGAs

Domain-specific accelerators for signal processing, image processing, and machine learning are increasingly being implemented on SRAM-based field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Owing to the inherent error tolerance of such applications, approximate arithmetic operations, in particular, the design of approximate multipliers, have become an important research problem. Truncation of lower bits is a widely used approximation approach; however, analyzing and limiting the effects of carry-propagation due to this approximation has not been explored in detail yet. In this article, an optimized carry-aware approximate radix-4 Booth multiplier design is presented that leverages the built-in slice look-up tables (LUTs) and carry-chain resources in a novel configuration. The proposed multiplier simplifies the computation of the upper and lower bits and provides significant benefits in terms of FPGA resource usage (LUTs saving 38.5%–42.9%), Power Delay Product (PDP saving 49.4%–53%), performance metric (LUTs × critical path delay (CPD) × PDP saving 68.9%–73.1%) and errors (70% improvement in mean relative error distance) compared to the latest state-of-the-art designs. Therefore, the proposed designs are an attractive choice to implement multiplication on FPGA-based accelerators.
A database type approach for progressing action theories with bounded effects

In this paper we study the progression of situation calculus action theories that arc able to handle a class of actions that, while extremely simple conceptually and common in many settings, cannot be handled by previous approaches. Specifically, based on the notion of safe-range queries from database theory and just-in-time action histories, we present a new type of action theories that ensures that actions have bounded effects over a restricted range of objects. Such theories may represent incomplete information and can be progressed by directly updating the knowledge base in an algorithmic manner.
Misexpression of the Homologues of Bryophyte Gametophyte-to-Sporophyte Control Genes in Arabidopsis Results in Germline Reprogramming and Phenotypes that Mirror Apomictic Development

Evidence from the model bryophytes Physcomitrium and Marchantia suggests that a BELL-KNOX genetic module acts as a master regulator controlling sporophyte identity. Investigating any conservation of this system in flowering plants has proved challenging, but studies of the Arabidopsis eostre mutant and naturally apomictic angiosperms point to ectopic activation of KNOX and BELL transcription factors mediating the switch from sexual to apomictic development. We show here that in Arabidopsis, ectopic expression, under a germline-specific promoter, of KNOX and BELL genes not normally expressed in the gametophytes both disrupts germ cell specification and causes defects in cell identity throughout gametophyte development – some mirroring events seen in naturally apomictic plants. A better understanding of this TALE-HD genetic module in flowering plants may thus help to unravel the molecular control of higher plant life cycles, while providing a route to engineering synthetic apomixis in crops. This study also highlights the utility of applying data from bryophytes, where the ontogeny transitions are spatio-temporally distinct, to apomixis research in angiosperms.
Cryogenic electron tomography reveals novel structures in the apical complex of Plasmodium falciparum

Intracellular infectious agents, like the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, face the daunting challenge of how to invade a host cell. This problem may be even harder when the host cell in question is the enucleated red blood cell. Evolution has provided P. falciparum and related single-celled parasites within the phylum Apicomplexa with a collection of organelles at their apical end that mediate invasion. This apical complex includes at least two sets of secretory organelles, micronemes and rhoptries, and several structural features like apical rings and a putative pore through which proteins may be introduced into the host cell during invasion. In this paper, we perform cryogenic electron tomography (cryo-ET) on isolated merozoites to visualize the apical machinery. Through tomography reconstruction of cellular compartments, we see new details of known structures like the rhoptry tip interacting directly with a rosette resembling the recently described rhoptry-secretory-apparatus (RSA), or with an apical vesicle docked beneath the RSA. Subtomogram averaging reveals that the apical rings have a fixed number of repeating units, each of which is similar in overall size and shape to the units in the apical rings of tachyzoites of Toxoplasma gondii. Comparison of these polar rings in Plasmodium and Toxoplasma parasites also reveals them to have a structurally conserved assembly patterning. These results provide new insight into the essential features of this remarkable machinery used by apicomplexan parasites to invade their respective host cells.
Multicentre comparison of biological and functional properties of mesenchymal stromal cells from different sources cultivated using a harmonised manufacturing workflow

Background Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), commonly sourced from adipose tissue, bone marrow and umbilical cord, have been widely used in many medical conditions due to their therapeutic potential. Yet, the still limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms of action hampers clinical translation. Clinical potency can vary considerably depending on tissue source, donor attributes, but importantly, also culture conditions. Lack of standard procedures hinders inter-study comparability and delays the progression of the field. The aim of this study was A-to assess the impact on MSC characteristics when different laboratories performed analysis on the same MSC material using harmonised culture conditions and B-to understand source-specific differences. Methods Three independent institutions performed a head-to-head comparison of human-derived adipose (A-), bone marrow (BM-), and umbilical cord (UC-) MSCs using harmonised culture conditions. In each centre, cells from one specific tissue source were isolated and later distributed across the network to assess their biological properties, including cell expansion, immune phenotype, and tri-lineage differentiation (part A). To assess tissue specific function, angiogenic and immunomodulatory properties and the in vivo biodistribution were compared in one expert lab (part B). Results By implementing a harmonised manufacturing workflow, we obtained largely reproducible results across three independent laboratories in part A of our study. Unique growth patterns and differentiation potential were observed for each tissue source, with similar trends observed between centres. Immune phenotyping verified expression of typical MSC surface markers and absence of contaminating surface markers. Depending on the established protocols in the different laboratories, quantitative data varied slightly. Functional experiments in part B concluded that conditioned media from BM-MSCs significantly enhanced tubulogenesis and endothelial migration in vitro. In contrast, immunomodulatory studies reported superior immunosuppressive abilities for A-MSCs. Biodistribution studies in healthy mice showed lung entrapment after administration of all three types of MSCs, with a significantly faster clearance of BM-MSCs. Conclusion These results show the heterogeneous behaviour and regenerative properties of MSCs as a reflection of intrinsic tissue-origin properties while providing evidence that the use of standardised culture procedures can reduce but not eliminate inter-lab and operator differences. Highlights In this study, we have: - Provided a harmonised manufacturing workflow that has demonstrated reproducible results across three independent laboratories when expanding MSCs. - Defined a multi-assay matrix capable of identifying functional differences in terms of angiogenesis, wound healing abilities and immunosuppressive properties. - Demonstrated similar in vivo biodistribution properties regardless of cell origin.