Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oscillation Encoding of Individual Differences in Speech Perception

Individual differences in second language (L2) phoneme perception (within the normal population) have been related to speech perception abilities, also observed in the native language, in studies assessing the electrophysiological response mismatch negativity (MMN). Here, we investigate the brain oscillatory dynamics in the theta band, the spectral correlate of the MMN, that underpin success in phoneme learning. Using previous data obtained in an MMN paradigm, the dynamics of cortical oscillations while perceiving native and unknown phonemes and nonlinguistic stimuli were studied in two groups of participants classified as good and poor perceivers (GPs and PPs), according to their L2 phoneme discrimination abilities. The results showed that for GPs, as compared to PPs, processing of a native phoneme change produced a significant increase in theta power. Stimulus time-locked analysis event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) showed differences for the theta band within the MMN time window (between 70 and 240 ms) for the native deviant phoneme. No other significant difference between the two groups was observed for the other phoneme or nonlinguistic stimuli. The dynamic patterns in the theta-band may reflect early automatic change detection for familiar speech sounds in the brain. The behavioral differences between the two groups may reflect individual variations in activating brain circuits at a perceptual level.
Determining the farmer demand for olive oil premium support: the case of Izmir, Turkey.

The contribution is aimed at the research testing the reflection of olive oil premium support on farmers on the case of izmir, in Aegean region which is an important production area. The findings point out that small farms benefit less from the premium applications. The Probit and heckman analysis showed that new policies directed at the small farms are required. in this context, different levels of premium for small farms should be paid, some inputs should be provided, and small producers should be assisted in marketing especially by promoting the farmers through co-operatives. Extension works organized for small farmers may have an informative and incentive role on the premium applications. Tax exemptions and crop aids are also appropriate tools for the small farmers to get more premiums.
Title: 1 Context Dependence of Receptive Field Remapping in Superior Colliculus 2 3 4 Authors: 5

28 Our perception of the positions of objects in our surroundings is surprisingly unaffected by movements 29 of the eyes, head, and body. This suggests that the brain has a mechanism for maintaining perceptual 30 stability, based either on the spatial relationships among visible objects or internal copies of its own 31 motor commands. Strong evidence for the latter mechanism comes from the remapping of visual 32 receptive fields that occurs around the time of a saccade. Remapping occurs when a single neuron 33 responds presaccadically to visual stimuli placed in the spatial location that will be occupied after the 34 completion of a saccade. Although evidence for remapping has been found in many brain areas, 35 relatively little is known about how it interacts with sensory context. This interaction is important for 36 understanding perceptual stability more generally, as the brain may rely on extraretinal signals or visual 37 signals to different degrees in different contexts. Here we have studied the interaction between visual 38 stimulation and remapping by recording from single neurons in the superior colliculus (SC) of the 39 macaque monkey, using several different visual stimulus conditions. We find that remapping responses 40 are highly sensitive to low-level visual signals, with the overall luminance of the visual background 41 exerting a particularly powerful influence. Specifically, although remapping was fairly common in 42 complete darkness, such responses were usually decreased or abolished in the presence of modest 43 background illumination. Thus the brain might make use of a strategy that emphasizes visual 44 landmarks over extraretinal signals whenever the former are available. 45 46
Computing occupancy grids from multiple sensors using linear opinion pools

Perception is a key component for any robotic system. In this paper we present a method to construct occupancy grids by fusing sensory information using Linear Opinion Pools. We used lidar sensors and a stereo-vision system mounted on a vehicle to make the experiments. To perform the validation, we compared the proposed method with the fusion method previously used in the Bayesian Occupancy Filter framework, using real data taken from highway and urban scenarios. The results show that our method is better at dealing with conflicting information coming from the sensors. We propose an implementation on parallel hardware which allows real-time execution.
A DNA test to sex most birds

Birds are difficult to sex. Nestlings rarely show sex‐linked morphology and we estimate that adult females appear identical to males in over 50% of the world's bird species. This problem can hinder both evolutionary studies and human‐assisted breeding of birds. DNA‐based sex identification provides a solution. We describe a test based on two conserved CHD (chromo‐helicase‐DNA‐binding) genes that are located on the avian sex chromosomes of all birds, with the possible exception of the ratites (ostriches, etc.; Struthioniformes). The CHD‐W gene is located on the W chromosome; therefore it is unique to females. The other gene, CHD‐Z, is found on the Z chromosome and therefore occurs in both sexes (female, ZW; male, ZZ). The test employs PCR with a single set of primers. It amplifies homologous sections of both genes and incorporates introns whose lengths usually differ. When examined on a gel there is a single CHD‐Z band in males but females have a second, distinctive CHD‐W band.
A Probably Approximately Correct Answer to Distributed Stochastic Optimization in a Non-stationary Environment

This paper considers a distributed stochastic optimization problem where the goal is to minimize the time average of a cost function subject to a set of constraints on the time averages of a related stochastic processes called penalties. We assume that a delayed information about an event in the system is available as a common information at every user, and the state of the system is evolving in an independent and non-stationary fashion. We show that an approximate Drift-plus-penalty (DPP) algorithm that we propose achieves a time average cost that is within some positive constant epsilon of the optimal cost with high probability. Further, we provide a condition on the waiting time for this result to hold. The condition is shown to be a function of the mixing coefficient, the number of samples (w) used to compute an estimate of the distribution of the state, and the delay. Unlike the existing work, the method used in the paper can be adapted to prove high probability results when the state is evolving in a non-i.i. d and non-stationary fashion. Under mild conditions, we show that the dependency of the error bound on w is exponential, which is a significant improvement compared to the exiting work.
Prognostic impact of alternative splicing-derived hMENA isoforms in resected, node-negative, non-small-cell lung cancer

Risk assessment and treatment choice remain a challenge in early non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Alternative splicing is an emerging source for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic tools. Here, we investigated the prognostic value of the actin cytoskeleton regulator hMENA and its isoforms, hMENA11a and hMENAΔv6, in early NSCLC. The epithelial hMENA11a isoform was expressed in NSCLC lines expressing E-CADHERIN and was alternatively expressed with hMENAΔv6. Enforced expression of hMENAΔv6 or hMENA11a increased or decreased the invasive ability of A549 cells, respectively. hMENA isoform expression was evaluated in 248 node-negative NSCLC. High pan-hMENA and low hMENA11a were the only independent predictors of shorter disease-free and cancer-specific survival, and low hMENA11a was an independent predictor of shorter overall survival, at multivariate analysis. Patients with low pan-hMENA/high hMENA11a expression fared significantly better (P≤0.0015) than any other subgroup. Such hybrid variable was incorporated with T-size and number of resected lymph nodes into a 3-class-risk stratification model, which strikingly discriminated between different risks of relapse, cancer-related death, and death. The model was externally validated in an independent dataset of 133 patients. Relative expression of hMENA splice isoforms is a powerful prognostic factor in early NSCLC, complementing clinical parameters to accurately predict individual patient risk.
Ratchair: furniture learns to move itself with vibration

An Egyptian statue on display at the Manchester Museum mysteriously spins on its axis every day; it is eventually discovered that this is due to anisotropic friction forces, and that the motile power comes from imperceptible mechanical waves caused by visitors' footsteps and nearby traffic. This phenomena involves microscopic ratchets, and is pervasive in the microscopic world - this is basically how muscles contract. It was the source of inspiration to think about everyday objects that move by harvesting external vibration rather than using mechanical traction and steering wheels. We propose here a strategy for displacing objects by attaching relatively small vibration sources. After learning how several random bursts of vibration affect its pose, an optimization algorithm discovers the optimal sequence of vibration patterns required to (slowly but surely) move the object to a very different specified position. We describe and demonstrate two application scenarios, namely assisted transportation of heavy objects with little effort on the part of the human and self arranging furniture, useful for instance to clean classrooms or restaurants during vacant hours.
A Developmental Bias in Reading Frame Usage by Human Fetal Thymic TCRBDJ Transcripts is not Present in Genomic TCRBDJ Rearrangements

We have previously reported that reading-frame usage and functional diversification is developmentally regulated, with virtually all TCRB DJ mRNA transcripts using a single reading frame at 8 weeks of gestational age, tapering to 50% by adult life. We used the polymerase chain reaction to create genomic libraries of DJ rearrangements in the TCRB locus from thymuses at 7.7, 10, and 16 weeks of gestational age, and from adult thymuses. Clones were randomly picked and sequenced to determine junctional sequences and reading-frame utilization. The resulting data address the hypothesis that cells bearing genomic joints in reading frame one are preferentially selected during fetal life. This hypothesis predicts that reading- frame bias would also be observed among genomic DJ joints. Instead, we observed random utilization of the three possible D-region reading frames among genomic D1s1 => J1s1 joints during fetal life. Similar results were obtained at 7.7 weeks of gestational age in a second thymus in which both RNA and DNA were simultaneously isolated and used to create libraries of TCRBDJ transcripts or rearrangements. We conclude that reading-frame utilization is random among genomic D1s1-JB1s1 rearrangements and that the preferential usage of a single reading frame among mRNA transcripts of TCRB DJ transcripts is the result of preferential transcription of genomic TCRB DJ joints in a single reading frame, or that TCRB DJ transcripts have a longer half-life than transcripts in reading frames two or three.
Robust and high‐order effective boundary conditions for perfectly conducting scatterers coated by a thin dielectric layer

A new approach is considered to construct effective boundary conditions for the solution of problems related to the scattering of electromagnetic waves by perfectly conducting cylinders coated by a thin dielectric shell. These boundary conditions aim to be both robust and of high order while remaining set in terms of surface differential operators involving at most second-order derivatives. Error estimates yield a theoretical basis for the use of these boundary conditions in practical computations. Some numerical experiments at frequencies beyond the range of validity of the usual impedance boundary conditions validate the efficiency of the approach.
Influence of the Instructions on the Performance and Establishment of Memorization Strategies in Space Judgments

Studies of visual space perception have been assuming that people have an internal representation of the physical space that surrounds them. A variety of psychophysical procedures has been used in an attempt to measure the properties of visual space. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of the mental representation and the strategies adopted to acquire and retain visuo-spatial information of a configuration as a function of two types of instructions. Thirty-eight undergraduate and graduate students participated in the study and were distributed in perceptive and mnemonic experimental conditions. The effect of the instructions (intentional and incidental) on the representation of the distances among the objects of the scene was estimated using exponents of power function, based on the reproduction of the distances among the stimuli of the scene. The results revealed that judgments made under intentional instructions were more frequently based on strategies related to the location of the stimuli, whereas judgments originating from incidental instructions were based on strategies related to the name of the stimuli. It was observed that the intentional instruction facilitated a more accurate mental representation of the observed experimental configuration, enhancing participants' performance. Los estudios sobre la percepción visual del espacio asumen que las personas tienen una representación interna del espacio físico que les rodea. Con la finalidad de medir las propiedades de tal percepción visual se han empleado distintos procedimientos psicofísicos. El propósito de este trabajo fue el de evaluar la precisión de la representación mental y de las estrategias adoptadas para adquirir y retener la información del espacio visible en función de dos tipos de instrucciones. Treinta y ocho estudiantes universitarios y licenciados participaron en el estudio, distribuyéndose en las condiciones experimentales perceptiva y mnemónica. Se estimó el efecto de las instrucciones (intencionales e incidentales) sobre la representación de las distancias entre los objetos del escenario empleando los exponentes de la función potencial, basado en la reproducción de las distancias entre los estímulos del escenario. Los resultados mostraron que los juicios realizados bajo instrucciones intencionales se basaban con mayor frecuencia en estrategias relacionadas con la ubicación de los estímulos, mientras que los juicios bajo instrucciones incidentales se basaban en estrategias relacionadas con el nombre de los estímulos. Se observó que las instrucciones intencionales facilitaron una representación mental más precisa de la configuración experimental observada, mejorando la ejecución de los participantes.
Genetic algorithms with a robust solution searching scheme

A large fraction of studies on genetic algorithms (GAs) emphasize finding a globally optimal solution. Some other investigations have also been made for detecting multiple solutions. If a global optimal solution is very sensitive to noise or perturbations in the environment then there may be cases where it is not good to use this solution. In this paper, we propose a new scheme which extends the application of GAs to domains that require the discovery of robust solutions. Perturbations are given to the phenotypic features while evaluating the functional value of individuals, thereby reducing the chance of selecting sharp peaks (i.e., brittle solutions). A mathematical model for this scheme is also developed. Guidelines to determine the amount of perturbation to be added is given. We also suggest a scheme for detecting multiple robust solutions. The effectiveness of the scheme is demonstrated by solving different one- and two-dimensional functions having broad and sharp peaks.
A Case for Symbol Interdependency 1 Symbolic or Embodied representations : A Case for Symbol Interdependency

A Case for Symbol Interdependency 2 Abstract Current directions in cognitive science suggest that language processing is either embodied or symbolic. Instead of posing the question whether language comprehension is embodied or symbolic, the question should be to what extent language comprehension is embodied and symbolic. The current study relies on the theoretical model that considers symbols as interdependent abstract systems of meaning occasionally grounded in the comprehenders " embodied experience of the world. Such a symbolic interdependency system would explain how symbolic representations are built onto embodied representations, would provide a convenient mnemonic support for language users and would explain why humans have and other species don " t have language. Statistical algorithms like Latent Semantic Analysis can be considered models of mechanisms behind symbol interdependency, able to reveal some of the embodied relations captured in language.
A Switching Approach to Designing Finite-Time Synchronization Controllers of Coupled Neural Networks

This paper is concerned with the finite-time synchronization issue of nonlinear coupled neural networks by designing a new switching pinning controller. For the fixed network topology and control strength, the newly designed controller could optimize the synchronization time by regulating a parameter α (0 ≤ α <; 1). The control law presented in this paper covers both continuous controllers and discontinuous ones, which were studied separately in the past. Some criteria are discussed in detail on how to shorten the synchronization time for the strongly connected networks. Finally, the results are generalized to any network topologies containing a directed spanning tree, and one numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.
Drug resistance in cancer: molecular evolution and compensatory proliferation

Targeted therapies have revolutionized cancer treatment. Unfortunately, their success is limited due to the development of drug resistance within the tumor, which is an evolutionary process. Understanding how drug resistance evolves is a prerequisite to a better success of targeted therapies. Resistance is usually explained as a response to evolutionary pressure imposed by treatment. Thus, evolutionary understanding can and should be used in the design and treatment of cancer. In this article, drug-resistance to targeted therapies is reviewed from an evolutionary standpoint. The concept of apoptosis-induced compensatory proliferation (AICP) is developed. It is shown that AICP helps to explain some of the phenomena that are observed experimentally in cancers. Finally, potential drug targets are suggested in light of AICP.
Glutamate receptor-induced 45Ca2+ accumulation in cortical cell culture correlates with subsequent neuronal degeneration

Murine neuronal and glial cell cultures exposed briefly to glutamate accumulated large amounts of 45Ca2+ from the extracellular medium during the exposure. Most of the accumulation likely reflected influx into neurons, as little accumulation was observed in similarly treated glial cultures. When the concentration of glutamate was varied between 10 and 1000 microM, or exposure duration was varied between 0 and 10 min, the amount of 45Ca2+ accumulation correlated closely with the amount of neuronal death 24 hr later. Both 45Ca2+ accumulation and cell death could be attenuated in a dose-dependent manner by the competitive NMDA antagonist D-aminophosphonovalerate or the noncompetitive antagonist dextrorphan, with IC50 values of approximately 100 microM and 15 microM, respectively. In contrast, neither 45Ca2+ accumulation nor cell death was blocked by the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4- isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA)/kainate antagonist 6-cyano-7- nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX) in the presence of high glycine. With brief exposure, high concentrations of AMPA, kainate, or K+ produced much less death or 45Ca2+ accumulation than produced by glutamate, especially if 10 microM MK-801 was included in the exposure medium to block NMDA receptor activation. Kainate- or AMPA-induced 45Ca2+ accumulation or neuronal cell death was blocked with CNQX. However, high K(+)-triggered 45Ca2+ accumulation was only partially blocked with CNQX plus MK-801, consistent with mediation by voltage-gated Ca2+ channels. In addition to measuring the accumulation of 45Ca2+ occurring during agonist exposure, we also assessed accumulation during the 30 min immediately following completion of a 3–5 min exposure to 500 microM NMDA. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Fault-tolerant linear solvers via selective reliability

Energy increasingly constrains modern computer hardware, yet protecting computations and data against errors costs energy. This holds at all scales, but especially for the largest parallel computers being built and planned today. As processor counts continue to grow, the cost of ensuring reliability consistently throughout an application will become unbearable. However, many algorithms only need reliability for certain data and phases of computation. This suggests an algorithm and system codesign approach. We show that if the system lets applications apply reliability selectively, we can develop algorithms that compute the right answer despite faults. These "fault-tolerant" iterative methods either converge eventually, at a rate that degrades gracefully with increased fault rate, or return a clear failure indication in the rare case that they cannot converge. Furthermore, they store most of their data unreliably, and spend most of their time in unreliable mode. We demonstrate this for the specific case of detected but uncorrectable memory faults, which we argue are representative of all kinds of faults. We developed a cross-layer application / operating system framework that intercepts and reports uncorrectable memory faults to the application, rather than killing the application, as current operating systems do. The application in turn can mark memory allocations as subject to such faults. Using this framework, we wrote a fault-tolerant iterative linear solver using components from the Trilinos solvers library. Our solver exploits hybrid parallelism (MPI and threads). It performs just as well as other solvers if no faults occur, and converges where other solvers do not in the presence of faults. We show convergence results for representative test problems. Near-term future work will include performance tests.
The population of black widow pulsars

We consider the population of black widow pulsars (BWPs). The large majority of these are members of globular clusters. For minimum companion masses 0.1 M⊙ are systems relaxing to equilibrium after a relatively rece nt capture event. We point out that all binary millisecond pulsars (MSPs) with orbital periods P < 10 hr are BWPs (our line of sight allows us to see the eclipses in 10 out of 16 cases). This implies that recycled MSPs emit either in a wide fan beam or a pencil beam close to the spin plane. Simple evolutionary ideas favour a fan beam.
Pedagogical Transcription for Multimodal Sitar Performance

Most automatic music transcription research is concerned with producing sheet music from the audio signal alone. However, the audio data does not include certain performance data which is vital for the preservation of instrument performance techniques and the creation of annotated guidelines for students. We propose the use of modified traditional instruments enhanced with sensors which can obtain such data; as a case study we examine the sitar.