Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
I-POMDP: An infomax model of eye movement

Modeling eye-movements during search is important for building intelligent robotic vision systems, and for understanding how humans select relevant information and structure behavior in real time. Previous models of visual search (VS) rely on the idea of ldquosaliency mapsrdquo which indicate likely locations for targets of interest. In these models the eyes move to locations with maximum saliency. This approach has several drawbacks: (1) It assumes that oculomotor control is a greedy process, i.e., every eye movement is planned as if no further eye movements would be possible after it. (2) It does not account for temporal dynamics and how information is integrated as over time. (3) It does not provide a formal basis to understand how optimal search should vary as a function of the operating characteristics of the visual system. To address these limitations, we reformulate the problem of VS as an Information-gathering Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (I-POMDP). We find that the optimal control law depends heavily on the Foveal-Peripheral Operating Characteristic (FPOC) of the visual system.
Improved controlled start-up stochastic LDPC decoder for efficient FPGA-based implementation

This paper introduces a new and an improved controlled start-up stochastic (CSS) architecture of Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) decoding, to implement fully parallel FPGA-based decoders. The developed architecture uses a new variable nodes structure with larger internal memory lengths, to improve the convergence, without significant additional field programmable gate array (FPGA) resource. To validate the advantage of the proposed approach, a medium (1024, 512) and short (200, 100) codes are implemented. The results of Xilinx Virtex-6 VLX240T FPGA shoes that the variable node internal memories lengths can be increased from 2-bit, used in CSS and Delayed Stochastic (DS) decoders, to 64-bit without addition resource.
Social Support and Psychological Distress in a Group of Incarcerated Young Offenders

Using Power, Champion, and Aris's Significant Others Scale, the present study examined the function and structure of social support in a group of incarcerated young offenders. Support across nine key relationships from both outside and inside the prison were examined. The study aimed to examine social support as a key variable in coping with incarceration. Furthermore, the study examined the role that social support plays in the experience of self-reported psychological distress (anxiety, depression, and hopelessness) while incarcerated The importance of prison relationships-with a close friend and members of prison staff in the experience of psychological distress-was highlighted, where distressed inmates were more likely to report discrepancies in the actual/ideal levels of both emotional and practical support. Regression analyses highlighted the importance of relationships with the staff as predictors of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness.
Vertical Information Sharing in a Volatile Market

When demand is uncertain, manufacturers and retailers often have private information on future demand, and such information asymmetry impacts strategic interaction in distribution channels. In this paper, we investigate a channel consisting of a manufacturer and a downstream retailer facing a product market characterized by short product life, uncertain demand, and price rigidity. Assuming the firms have asymmetric information about the demand volatility, we examine the potential benefits of sharing information and contracts that facilitate such cooperation. We conclude that under a wholesale price regime, information sharing may not improve channel profits when the retailer underestimates the demand volatility but the manufacturer does not. Although information sharing is always beneficial under a two-part tariff regime, it is in general not sufficient to achieve information sharing and additional contractual arrangements are necessary. The contract types we consider to facilitate sharing are profit sharing and buy back contracts.
Pre- and Postnatal Lung Development, Maturation, and Plasticity Effects of oligohydramnios on lung growth and maturation in the fetal rat

Kitterman, Joseph A. , Cheryl J. Chapin, Jeff N. Vanderbilt, Nicolas F. M. Porta, Louis M. Scavo, Leland G. Dobbs, Robert Ertsey, and Jon Goerke. Effects of oligohydramnios on lung growth and maturation in the fetal rat. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 282: L431–L439, 2002. First published October 5, 2001; 10.1152/ ajplung.00161. 2001. —Oligohydramnios (OH) retards fetal lung growth by producing less lung distension than normal. To examine effects of decreased distension on fetal lung development, we produced OH in rats by puncture of uterus and fetal membranes at 16 days of gestation; fetuses were delivered at 21 or 22 days of gestation. Controls were position-matched littermates in the opposite uterine horn. OH lungs had lower weights and less DNA, protein, and water, but no differences in saturated phosphatidylcholine, surfactant proteins (SP)-A and -B, and mRNA for SP-A, -B, -C, and -D. To evaluate effects on epithelial differentiation, we used RTI40 and RTII70, proteins specific in lung to luminal surfaces of alveolar type I and II cells, respectively. At 22 days of gestation, OH lungs had less RTI40 mRNA (P 0.05) and protein (P 0.001), but RTII70 did not differ from controls. With OH, type I cells (in proportion to type II cells) covered less distal air space perimeter (P 0.01). We conclude that OH, which retards lung growth, has little effect on surfactant and impedes formation of type I cells relative to type II cells.
A Chimeric Toxin Vaccine Protects against Primary and Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection

ABSTRACT The global emergence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has contributed to the recent surge in severe antibiotic-associated diarrhea and colonic inflammation. C. difficile produces two homologous glucosylating exotoxins, TcdA and TcdB, both of which are pathogenic and require neutralization to prevent disease occurrence. However, because of their large size and complex multifunctional domain structures, it has been a challenge to produce native recombinant toxins that may serve as vaccine candidates. Here, we describe a novel chimeric toxin vaccine that retains major neutralizing epitopes from both toxins and confers complete protection against primary and recurrent CDI in mice. Using a nonpathogenic Bacillus megaterium expression system, we generated glucosyltransferase-deficient holotoxins and demonstrated their loss of toxicity. The atoxic holotoxins induced potent antitoxin neutralizing antibodies showing little cross-immunogenicity or protection between TcdA and TcdB. To facilitate simultaneous protection against both toxins, we generated an active clostridial toxin chimera by switching the receptor binding domain of TcdB with that of TcdA. The toxin chimera was fully cytotoxic and showed potent proinflammatory activities. This toxicity was essentially abolished in a glucosyltransferase-deficient toxin chimera, cTxAB. Parenteral immunization of mice or hamsters with cTxAB induced rapid and potent neutralizing antibodies against both toxins. Complete and long-lasting disease protection was conferred by cTxAB vaccinations against both laboratory and hypervirulent C. difficile strains. Finally, prophylactic cTxAB vaccination prevented spore-induced disease relapse, which constitutes one of the most significant clinical issues in CDI. Thus, the rational design of recombinant chimeric toxins provides a novel approach for protecting individuals at high risk of developing CDI.
A Source‐Monitoring Account of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Patients with Schizophrenia

&NA; Auditory verbal hallucinations are a common and distressing symptom experienced by patients with schizophrenia. They can be understood as arising from an impairment in reality monitoring—the process by which internally and externally generated events are distinguished. This impairment might arise through primary abnormalities in the reality‐monitoring mechanism or through secondary mechanisms (abnormalities in the perceptual characteristics of internally generated events or in the perception of externally generated events). This article examines evidence for and against an association between abnormalities in reality monitoring and auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia. A comprehensive review of the psychological literature suggests that there is little evidence for an association between auditory verbal hallucinations and secondary mechanisms leading to abnormalities in reality monitoring. There is some evidence suggesting that hallucinators show a primary reality‐monitoring abnormality that is most apparent when patients are required to distinguish self from other in real time. To draw firmer conclusions, however, it is imperative that future studies select patient populations precisely, match control groups, and use consistent criteria for defining hallucinators.
Prevalence of Psychiatric Diagnoses and Challenging Behaviors in a Community-Based Population of Adults With Intellectual Disability

Previous research has suggested substantial variation in prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and also differential patterns of associations between psychiatric disorders and challenging behaviors in people with ID. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence rate of specific psychiatric disorders and challenging behaviors and the relationship between them in a community-based sample of individuals with ID. A community-based sample of 159 adults primarily with mild and moderate ID was surveyed for the presence of psychiatric disorders and challenging behaviors using the Behavior Problem Inventory and the Psychiatric Assessment Schedule (PAS-ADD). Individuals who met threshold on the PAS-ADD were subsequently evaluated using the Mini PAS-ADD Interview. Screening for psychiatric disorders using the PAS-ADD indicated a prevalence rate of 10%. There was a large discrepancy between the overall rate of challenging behaviors (45%) and the rate of psychiatric disorders identified by the Mini PAS-ADD Interview (6%). However, the rate of more severe behavior problems (8%) was closer to the rate of psychiatric disorders (6%). Thirty-one percent of people with severe challenging behaviors also were rated as having psychiatric disorders and odd ratio analysis indicates that individuals with severe challenging behaviors are substantially more likely to present with a psychiatric disorder. However, the relationship between different topographies of challenging behaviors and discrete diagnostic categories of psychiatric disorders appears to be unclear. This study reports a low prevalence of psychiatric disorders in a community-based population. The presence of severe challenging behaviors appears to have some association with psychiatric disorders but does not appear specific to discrete diagnostic categories. Clinicians and researchers need to debate the validity of considering challenging behaviors atypical manifestations of psychiatric disorders.
1 QUANTITY DISCOUNTS AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR ORGANIC PRODUCTS : EVIDENCE FROM MULTI-UNIT AUCTIONS

Faical – maybe we should just focus this paper purely on the WTP estimates and the issue of the whether quantity discount strategies would be a warranted marketing strategy. So review the organic WTP studies and quantity discount literature – my guess is that no one has evaluated the issue of quantity discounts in organic food marketing. This will be the contribution of our study. No need to mention/focus on
Numerical optimization on the Euclidean group with applications to camera calibration

We present the cyclic coordinate descent (CCD) algorithm for optimizing quadratic objective functions on SE(3), and apply it to a class of robot sensor calibration problems. Exploiting the fact that SE(3) is the semidirect product of SO(3) and /spl Rfr//sup 3/, we show that by cyclically optimizing between these two spaces, global convergence can be assured under a mild set of assumptions. The CCD algorithm is also invariant with respect to choice of fixed reference frame (i.e., left invariant, as required by the principle of objectivity). Examples from camera calibration confirm the simplicity, efficiency, and robustness of the CCD algorithm on SE(3), and its wide applicability to problems of practical interest in robotics.
On Common Meta-Linguistic Aspects of Intrusion Detection and Testing

The current research into intrusion detection (ID) makes only marginal use of results obtained by the com- munity concerned with formal verication/valid ation (V&V) and formal testing understood as its particular technique. To harmonize the ideas and methods used by separate research communities, we develop a discourse space (a taxonomy), in which the linguistic problems common to testing (in particu- lar passive testing) and intrusion detection are captured. The main conceptual premises and consequences of adopting this taxonomy are discussed.
PROPOSTA DE UM MODELO DE ANÁLISE DO COMPROMETIMENTO COM A SUSTENTABILIDADE

A sustentabilidade vem sendo apontada como uma solucao para os problemas ambientais vivenciados. Contudo, esse conceito e apresentado de maneira ampla e vaga, favorecendo sua apropriacao e utilizacao nos mais diferentes discursos, nem sempre representando comprometimento com a natureza ou com a humanidade. Nesse contexto, esse estudo elabora um modelo que pudesse orientar estudos que busquem analisar o comprometimento individual ou coletivo com a sustentabilidade. Na sua construcao, considerou-se que os diferentes paradigmas ambientais determinam como os individuos ou grupo de individuos lidam com a natureza e se posicionam diante dos problemas ambientais. A partir dos dois paradigmas predominantes, o Antropocentrismo e o Ecocentrismo, em suas vertentes individualista e coletivista, propos-se um terceiro, a Sustentabilidade-centrismo, que superaria a dicotomia humanidade/natureza predominante nos dois primeiros. O modelo proposto representa um primeiro esforco de caracterizar e relacionar os diferentes paradigmas ambientais, permitindo sua adocao em estudos empiricos.
Inferring network properties of cortical neurons with synaptic coupling and parameter dispersion

Computational models at different space-time scales allow us to understand the fundamental mechanisms that govern neural processes and relate uniquely these processes to neuroscience data. In this work, we propose a novel neurocomputational unit (a mesoscopic model which tell us about the interaction between local cortical nodes in a large scale neural mass model) of bursters that qualitatively captures the complex dynamics exhibited by a full network of parabolic bursting neurons. We observe that the temporal dynamics and fluctuation of mean synaptic action term exhibits a high degree of correlation with the spike/burst activity of our population. With heterogeneity in the applied drive and mean synaptic coupling derived from fast excitatory synapse approximations we observe long term behavior in our population dynamics such as partial oscillations, incoherence, and synchrony. In order to understand the origin of multistability at the population level as a function of mean synaptic coupling and heterogeneity in the firing rate threshold we employ a simple generative model for parabolic bursting recently proposed by Ghosh et al. (2009). Further, we use here a mean coupling formulated for fast spiking neurons for our analysis of generic model. Stability analysis of this mean field network allow us to identify all the relevant network states found in the detailed biophysical model. We derive here analytically several boundary solutions, a result which holds for any number of spikes per burst. These findings illustrate the role of oscillations occurring at slow time scales (bursts) on the global behavior of the network.
A new continuous‐flow cell separation method based on cell density: Principle, apparatus, and preliminary application to separation of human buffy coat

With the recent progress in transfusion medicine, separation and isolation of cells in a large quantity is becoming increasingly important. At present, the continuous cell separation method in a preparative scale is limited to apheresis and elutriation: the former is mainly used for collection of platelet and buffy coat from the whole blood, while the latter separates cells virtually according to their size. Here we introduce a continuous flow method that separates cells entirely based on cell density. The method is gentle and capable of processing a large number of cells. The potential capability of the method was demonstrated on separation of lymphocytes and granulocytes from human buffy coat. Lymphocytes were enriched to 90% in the fraction at density = 1.065 and granulocytes are isolated in fractions at density = 1.075–1.080 while red cells were completely retained at the periphery of the channel. CD34 cells were distributed around 1.065 and coeluted with lymphocytes, suggesting that further enrichment requires focusing the density gradient around 1.070. The method could process 109 nucleated cells in 2 hours. Our preliminary results suggest that the present method is an effective and efficient means to separate blood cells. J. Clin. Apheresis 16:186–191, 2001. Published 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
High performance JPEG decoder based on FPGA

This paper describes designing a realtime Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) decoder which is capable of high definition images decoding and realized in a Xilinx Vertex 5 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). We propose a highly efficient pipelining FPGA implementation of the two-dimensional inverse discrete cosine transformation. Ping-pong buffer is introduced in order to improve decoding performance. This JPEG decoder IP performs decompression of 1920 × 1080 pixels images with a speed of 30 frames per second at a required operating frequency as low as 100 MHz.
Transferable Anergy: Superantigen Treatment Induces CD4+ T Cell Tolerance That Is Reversible and Requires CD4−CD8− Cells and Interferon γ

Bacterial superantigens induce peripheral unresponsiveness in CD4+ T cell populations that express appropriate Vβ chains. We have used Vβ3/Vα11 T cell receptor transgenic (Tg) mice and the Vβ3-specific superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) to further investigate the mechanisms that contribute to such unresponsiveness. As in other models, in vivo exposure to SEA rendered the Tg CD4+ cells unresponsive to subsequent restimulation in vitro with antigen or mitogens. However, when the SEA-treated CD4+ cells were completely purified away from all other contaminating cells, they regained the ability to proliferate and secrete cytokines. Moreover, enriched CD4−CD8− cells from the SEA-treated mice suppressed the responses of fresh control CD4+ cells in mixed cultures indicating that the apparent “anergy” was both transferable and reversible. Further analysis demonstrated that interferon γ, but not the Fas receptor, played a critical role in the suppression.
Children of Mothers with Eating Disorders: A Preliminary Study

This study investigated the extent of psychiatric disorder and abnormalities of weight and growth amongst children of mothers with eating disorders. The design was a cross-sectional study, in which mothers were identified by attendance at specialist eating disorder services. Assessments included interviews with the mothers and children, questionnaires included EAT and child behaviour questionnaires (Rutter A scale), and weight and height of mothers and children was measured. Thirteen mothers who had 26 children participated in the study. The findings were that mothers had chronic eating disorders and high rates of marital difficulties and separation. Amongst the children 50 per cent had psychiatric disorders, and 32 per cent abnormalities of weight or growth. Female offspring tended to have low body weight. Mothers underestimated their children's dietary needs. The adjustment and growth of this group of children should be considered when mothers request help for themselves. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and Eating Disorders Association.
Revealing Topological Organization of Human Brain Functional Networks with Resting-State Functional near Infrared Spectroscopy

Background The human brain is a highly complex system that can be represented as a structurally interconnected and functionally synchronized network, which assures both the segregation and integration of information processing. Recent studies have demonstrated that a variety of neuroimaging and neurophysiological techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion MRI and electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography can be employed to explore the topological organization of human brain networks. However, little is known about whether functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a relatively new optical imaging technology, can be used to map functional connectome of the human brain and reveal meaningful and reproducible topological characteristics. Results We utilized resting-state fNIRS (R-fNIRS) to investigate the topological organization of human brain functional networks in 15 healthy adults. Brain networks were constructed by thresholding the temporal correlation matrices of 46 channels and analyzed using graph-theory approaches. We found that the functional brain network derived from R-fNIRS data had efficient small-world properties, significant hierarchical modular structure and highly connected hubs. These results were highly reproducible both across participants and over time and were consistent with previous findings based on other functional imaging techniques. Conclusions Our results confirmed the feasibility and validity of using graph-theory approaches in conjunction with optical imaging techniques to explore the topological organization of human brain networks. These results may expand a methodological framework for utilizing fNIRS to study functional network changes that occur in association with development, aging and neurological and psychiatric disorders.
A Phase I trial using local regional treatment, nonlethal irradiation, intratumoral and systemic polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid polylysine carboxymethylcellulose to treat liver cancer: in search of the abscopal effect

Purpose To determine the safety of an approach to immunologically enhance local treatment of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) by combining nonlethal radiation, local regional therapy with intratumoral injection, and systemic administration of a potent Toll-like receptor (TLR) immune adjuvant. Methods Patients with HCC not eligible for liver transplant or surgery were subject to: 1) 3 fractions of 2-Gy focal nonlethal radiation to increase tumor antigen expression, 2) intra-/peri-tumoral (IT) injection of the TLR3 agonist, polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid polylysine carboxymethylcellulose (poly-ICLC), to induce an immunologic “danger” response in the tumor microenvironment with local regional therapy, and 3) systemic boosting of immunity with intramuscular poly-ICLC. Primary end points were safety and tolerability; secondary end points were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years. Results Eighteen patients with HCC not eligible for surgery or liver transplant were treated. Aside from 1 embolization-related severe adverse event, all events were ≤grade II. PFS was 66% at 6 months, 39% at 12 months, and 28% at 24 months. Overall 1-year survival was 69%, and 2-year survival 38%. In patients <60 years old, 2-year survival was 62.5% vs. 11.1% in patients aged >60 years (P<0.05). Several patients had prolonged PFS and OS. Conclusion Intra-tumoral injection of the TLR3 agonist poly-ICLC in patients with HCC is safe and tolerable when combined with local nonlethal radiation and local regional treatment. Further work is in progress to evaluate if this approach improves survival compared to local regional treatment alone and characterize changes in anticancer immunity.