Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Set Probability Technique for Detecting Relative Time Order Across Multiple Neurons

With the development of multielectrode recording techniques, it is possible to measure the cell firing patterns of multiple neurons simultaneously, generating a large quantity of data. Identification of the firing patterns within these large groups of cells is an important and a challenging problem in data analysis. Here, we consider the problem of measuring the significance of a repeat in the cell firing sequence across arbitrary numbers of cells. In particular, we consider the question, given a ranked order of cells numbered 1 to N, what is the probability that another sequence of length n contains j consecutive increasing elements? Assuming each element of the sequence is drawn with replacement from the numbers 1 through N, we derive a recursive formula for the probability of the sequence of length j or more. For n < 2j, a closed-form solution is derived. For n 2j, we obtain upper and lower bounds for these probabilities for various combinations of parameter values. These can be computed very quickly. For a typical case with small N (<10) and large n (<3000), sequences of 7 and 8 are statistically very unlikely. A potential application of this technique is in the detection of repeats in hippocampal place cell order during sleep. Unlike most previous articles on increasing runs in random lists, we use a probability approach based on sets of overlapping sequences.
Generative Face from Random Data, on 'How Computers Imagine Humans'

In the recent years, face detection technologies have been widely used by artists to create digital art. Face detection provides new forms of interaction, and allows digital artefacts to detect the presence of human beings, through video capture and facial detection, in real-time. In this paper we explore the algorithm proposed by Paul Viola and Michael Jones, presented in 2001, in order to generate imagined faces from visual randomness.
WELFARE ECONOMICS AND EXISTENCE OF AN EQUILIBRIUM FOR A COMPETITIVE ECONOMY

I. The proof of the existence of an equilibrium for a competitive economy is given by Arrow and Debreu [I] and many others such as Gale [4], Kuhn [6], McKenzie [8], [ g ] , and Nikaido [IO]. In this note, we shall give another proof of the existence of an equilibrium, putting emphasis on the welfare aspect of the competitive equilibrium (1). As is well known, an equilibrium point of an economic system under perfect competition is an efficient state in Pareto's sense in which we cannot make anyone better off without making someone worse off. In other words, i t can be said that a competitive equilibrium is a maximum point of some properly defined social welfare function subject to the resource and technological constraints. In the following, we shall show that a competitive equilibrium is a maximum point of a social welfare function which is a linear combination of utility functions of consumers, with the weights in the Combination in inverse proportion to the marginal utilities of income. Then, the existence of an equilibrium is equivalent to the existence of a maximum point of this special welfare function. Therefore, we can prove the former by showing the latter. 2. Let us construct our economic model, the existence of whose equilibrium we shall prove, as follows. Let there be m goods, n consumers, and I firms. Let x , be a consumption vector (whose element is x t t 2 o), xi be an initial holding vector (whose element is ;, 3> o), and U c (x,) be the utility (function) of the i th consumer. Let y k be a production vector of the kth firm whose element y k r > o (< 0) is the output (input) of the i th good, and Y k be the possible set of y k , i. e. , the set of y k which satisfies the restriction on production F k (ye) >_ 0. Let P (whose element P , 2 0) be the price vector. For a non-free good, P, > 0 . Let h i k be the proportion of profit o i the k t h firm distributed to the i t h consumer. We define an equilibrium point under perfect competition: Definition I. The following are the conditions of an equilibrizcm point (x i j y k , P):
Which Price Level to Target? Strategic Delegation in a Sticky Price and Wage Economy

This paper assesses the value of delegating price level targets to a discretionary central bank in an economy with nominal frictions in both labor and product markets. In contrast to recent studies that demonstrate the benefits of targeting the price of output, model simulations provide evidence that favors targeting the price of labor, or the nominal wage, instead. While both policies impart inertia (a salient feature of commitment), wage targeting dominates output price targeting because the former delivers more favorable tradeoffs between the stabilization goals appearing in the social welfare function. Delegating joint price and wage targets, however, nearly replicates the commitment policy from a timeless perspective.
Dimerization of Resveratrol Induced by Red Light and Its Synergistic Analgesic Effects with Cobra Neurotoxin

Resveratrol polymer has better effects than monomer in some aspects as reported, but most of synthetic methods acquire severe conditions and no analgesic effects are investigated. A novel method is found to synthesize resveratrol polymer by excitation of photosensitizer pheophorbide at red light of 630 nm. The polymer was analyzed by fluorescence spectra and HPLC, further isolated by preparative liquid chromatography and identified as a resveratrol dimer by MS and NMR. Analgesic effects were measured by acetic acid writhing and hot‐plate test in mice. The resveratrol dimer has the stronger analgesic effects than monomer, and drug combination of the dimer and cobra neurotoxin enhances and prolongs analgesic effects, suggesting the synergistic action. Simulation of molecular interaction reveals that the dimer spontaneously binds to cobra neurotoxin and makes a complex substance. The dimer can interact with cyclooxygenase‐2, μ receptor and nicotine receptor, the synergistic analgesic effects of the complex are attributed to its multiple targets role. The combination of resveratrol dimer and cobra neurotoxin may make up for their deficiencies in analgesic effects, and has prospects in clinical use.
Dose-dense high-dose methylprednisolone and rituximab in the treatment of relapsed or refractory high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia

This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of dose-dense high-dose methylprednisolone (HDMP) plus rituximab (Rtx) in patients with high-risk CLL. Twenty-nine patients with relapsed or progressive CLL with adverse cytogenetics (17p deletion, TP53 mutation, 11q deletion, and/or trisomy 12) and/or progression within 12 months of fludarabine treatment were included. HDMP (1 g/m2) was administered daily for 5 days of each treatment course. Rtx was administered on days 1 (375 mg/m2) and 5 (500 mg/m2) of the first treatment course, on days 1 (500 mg/m2) and 5 (500 mg/m2) of the second course, and on day 1 (500 mg/m2) of courses 3–6. The cycles were repeated every 21 days. The overall response rate (ORR) was 62%, and 28% of patients had stable disease. In 13 patients with 17p deletion/TP53 mutation, ORR was 69%. After 22 months, the median progression-free and overall survivals were 12 and 31 months, respectively. The most frequent toxicity was hyperglycemia, and three deaths occurred in the study. Dose-dense treatment with HDMP and Rtx is an effective therapy with a favorable safety profile in patients with high-risk CLL, including those with 17p deletion/TP53 mutation.
Clinical assessment of body hair growth in women.

A method was developed for the semiquantitative assessment of body hair growth, and suitable for use in the study of clinical problems associated with hirsuties in women. Five gradings based on densities and areas involved, were determined for each of 11 sites. Findings from application of the method to a control group of 430 women (ages, 15–74 years) are reported. Hair tended to increase on the face and disappear from all other sites with advancing years. In younger age groups a significant amount of hair was found on the forearm and leg in most subjects, but a zero grading was much the commonest finding at all other sites. It is suggested that 2 factors may be involved: one of protective nature with main expression on the forearm and leg, and the other related to hormone levels or sensitivity, with clearest expression elsewhere. An “hormonal” score obtained by adding the gradings obtained from 9 of the 11 sites (excluding the forearm and leg) is being employed in clinical studies.
Record linkage approaches in big data: A state of art study

Record Linkage aims to find records in a dataset that represent the same real-world entity across many different data sources. It is a crucial task for data quality. With the evolution of Big Data, new difficulties appeared to deal mainly with the 5Vs of Big Data properties; i.e. Volume, Variety, Velocity, Value, and Veracity. Therefore Record Linkage in Big Data is more challenging. This paper investigates ways to apply Record Linkage algorithms that handle the Volume property of Big Data. Our investigation revealed four major issues. First, the techniques used to resolve the Volume property of Big Data mainly depend on partitioning the data into a number of blocks. The processing of those blocks is parallelly distributed among many executers. Second, MapReduce is the most famous programming model that is designed for parallel processing of Big Data. Third, a blocking key is usually used for partitioning the big dataset into smaller blocks; it is often created by the concatenation of the prefixes of chosen attributes. Partitioning using a blocking key may lead to unbalancing blocks, which is known as data skew, where data is not evenly distributed among blocks. An uneven distribution of data degrades the performance of the overall execution of the MapReduce model. Fourth, to the best of our knowledge, a small number of studies has been done so far to balance the load between data blocks in a MapReduce framework. Hence more work should be dedicated to balancing the load between the distributed blocks.
BOOTSTRAPPING THE NUMBER OF FACTORS IN THE ARBITRAGE PRICING THEORY

The number of factors in the APT are reexamined through a new methodology called the bootstrap, which provides a nonparametric alternative to the chi-square test used in prior research. Results suggest that the number of statistically significant factors does not increase when the number of firms increases. Moreover, only the first factor is consistently significant across sample sizes of thirty, sixty, and ninety firms.
Interregional Knowledge Spillovers and Occupational Choice in a Model of Free Trade and Endogenous Growth

A two region model of horizontal innovation with free trade and occupational choice is used to examine the spatial patterns of innovation and manufacturing industry in interior and core-periphery long-run equilibria. The inclusion of skill heterogeneity among workers creates a tension between stabilizing productivity effects that coincide with reallocations of workers across industries, and destabilizing productivity effects that arise with localized stocks of knowledge capital. We find that while core-periphery equilibria are always saddlepath stable, interior equilibria are saddlepath stable when knowledge spillovers exceed a threshold level but are unstable otherwise. In addition, incorporating skill heterogeneity into the model allows for interior equilibria with asymmetric shares for innovation and industry.
Towards a political economy of the theory of economic policy

The theory of economic policy, in its mathematical modes, may be said to have had two incarnations, identified in terms of pre-Lucasian and ultra-Lucasian on a time-scale, whose origin can be traced to the Scandinavian works of the 1920s and early 1930s, beginning with Lindahl (1924, 1929), Frisch (1933) and Myrdal (1933). The end - mercifully (meant perversely) - of the ultra-Lucasian period, in Frances Fukuyama senses, might well have been the date of Prescott's Nobel Prize Lecture (Prescott, 2004). The codification of what may be called the `classical' theory of economic policy was initiated in the pioneering formalisations by Frisch (1949, a, b), and Tinbergen (1952), elegantly summarised in Bent Hansen's early, advanced, text book (Hansen, 1955). The launching pads for the ultra-Lucasian period were the Lucas Critique (Lucas, 1975), the elementary saddle-point dynamics based policy ineffectiveness `theorem' in a Rational Expectations context by Sargent and Wallace (1976) and the Dynamic Programming based Time-Invariance proposition in Kydland and Prescott(1977). In this essay I try, first of all, to trace a path of the mathematisation of the theory of economic policy, from this specific origin to the stated culminating point. Secondly, an attempt is made to expose the nature of the Emperor's New (Mathematical) Clothes in which the mathematisation of the theory of economic policy was attired. Finally, it is shown that the obfuscation by the mathematics of efficiency, equilibrium and the fundamental theorems of welfare economics can be dispelled by an enlightened, alternative, mathematisation that makes it possible to resurrect the poetic tradition in economics and ‘connect the prose in us with the passion’ for policy in the manner in which Geoff Harcourt has `connected' them.
The Relationship between Upper Arm Anthropometrical Measures and Vertical Jump Displacement

Int J Exerc Sci 1(1) : 22-29, 2008. The purpose of this study was to determine if upper body segment length or mass contributes to vertical jump (VJ) displacement. Seventeen men (n=9) and women (n=8) who were active recreationally participated in this investigation. Subjects performed VJ for maximal displacement, and skeletal length measurements of the humerus (acromion following the lateral lip to the greater tuberosity), ulna (olecranon to the ulnar styloid process), and hand (lunate to distal end of third phalanx) were obtained by palpation of boney landmarks and a standard tape measure. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients were used to compare the data with statistical significance accepted at the p=0.05 level. Length of the ulna was the only upper body limb measurement that was significantly correlated with the vertical jump (P = 0.04). As the regression equation to predict VJ from ulnar length was not significant, it appears that neither intrinsic upper arm skeletal length nor arm segment mass is a strong predictor of VJ displacement.
Social Efficiency of Entry with Market Leaders

We offer a new respective to the social efficiency of entry by considering an industry with a quantity setting leader and free entry of followers. We show that whether free entry with a homogeneous product is socially excessive or insufficient depends on the identity of the leader (which is either domestic or foreign), the marginal cost difference between the leader and the followers, and whether there are scale economies. In a closed economy, entry is socially excessive (insufficient) in the presence of scale economies if the marginal cost difference between the leader and the followers is small (large), but without scale economies, entry is always socially insufficient. In an open economy with the foreign leader, entry is always socially insufficient. Our results show concern to the anti-competitive entry regulation policies following the previous literature showing socially excessive entry in Cournot oligopolies with homogeneous products and perfectly competitive input sector.
Battlefield visitor motivations: explorations in the Great War town of Ieper, Belgium

In this study a quantitative method was used to measure the motivations for education, holiday and remembrance for an international sample of visitors to the Great War town of Ieper in Belgium. Three clusters could be formed based upon different structure and intensity of their motivations. A small number of visitors could be identified as pilgrims, while the remainder were tourists, and they evidenced most of the characteristics of the pilgrims. The theory of thanatourism provides a framework through which the motivations and experiences of battlefield tourists for remembrance and education as well as leisure can be better understood. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An analysis of non-financial factors associated with financial distress

This article examines factors associated with financial distress among 1006 Spanish manufacturings (SMEs), distinguishing high and low technology industries. Financial distress is analysed using industrial organizational theory through the Porter's five competitive forces model (external factors) and the resource based view through strategic variables (internal factors), such as training, planning, innovation, technology and quality. Two different sources of information were used in the study: Qualitative information related to environmental conditions and strategic variables was gathered through a questionnaire addressed to the firm manager. Quantitative information to identify whether the firm was in financial distress was gathered from the balance sheets and earning statements of the firms. Evidence from this study shows that environmental conditions and some strategic variables are associated with financial distress. The results found that young SMEs with low technology and in a highly competitive environment had a higher probability of financial distress. High bargaining power of buyers and high degree of rivalry among existing competitors were positively associated with financial distress. Financial distress in high-technology industries was not affected by external factors. However, firms with a quality certification have better quality control procedures that ultimately improve financial performance of firms in the technology industries.
Optimal power flow formulation in market of retail wheeling

Power system deregulation along with retail wheeling was proposed in legislation for the future power system operation. Retail wheeling implies customers have more choices. One important option is the power supplier providing cheaper power. In this paper, the authors introduce new concepts of generation sets and load sets to model the behavior of power supply and load distribution in the new retail wheeling market. Formation of the optimal power flow (OPF) problem, in which public interests are maximized, is demonstrated. The IEEE-14 bus system is used as an example.
Output sub‐optimization in the small firm

Examines output determination in a sample of 50 small engineering firms with up to 100 employees in the Hampshire, Sussex, Dorset and Wiltshire region during 1992‐1997. Face‐to‐face interviews using a personal, open, unstructured approach were conducted in all firms with selected follow‐up discussions during the five‐year period. The findings indicate disconcerting problems of output determination within the sample. As a result of non‐optimum approaches to output determination displayed by the firms, financial returns will inevitably tend to remain disappointing for the small engineering firm. Seeks to provide all those interested in the promotion of business activity in the small firm sector, such as industry itself, higher education, government departments, the advisory bodies, consultants and local authorities, with a clearer appreciation of the real motivations and weaknesses behind output decision making.
Genetic linkage analyses redefine the roles of PfCRT and PfMDR1 in drug accumulation and susceptibility in Plasmodium falciparum

Resistance to quinoline antimalarial drugs has emerged in different parts of the world and involves sets of discrete mutational changes in pfcrt and pfmdr1 in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. To better understand how the different polymorphic haplotypes of pfmdr1 and pfcrt contribute to drug resistance, we have conducted a linkage analysis in the F1 progeny of a genetic cross where we assess both the susceptibility and the amount of accumulation of chloroquine, amodiaquine, quinine and quinidine. Our data show that the different pfcrt and pfmdr1 haplotypes confer drug‐specific responses which, depending on the drug, may affect drug accumulation or susceptibility or both. These findings suggest that PfCRT and PfMDR1 are carriers of antimalarial drugs, but that the interaction with a drug interferes with the carriers' natural transport function such that they are now themselves targets of these drugs. How well a mutant PfCRT and PfMDR1 type copes with its competing transport functions is determined by its specific sets of amino acid substitutions.
Modulation of in vivo insulin action by dietary protein during pregnancy.

Rats were provided with a standard 20% protein diet or an isocaloric 8% protein diet from day 1 of gestation and were studied on day 19 of pregnancy. Fetal numbers per dam were unchanged, but total fetal weight at day 19 of gestation was reduced by 10% (P < 0.001) in the 8% protein group. In the basal state, endogenous glucose production (Ra) and muscle glucose uptake/phosphorylation were not significantly affected by dietary protein content. The glucose infusion rate required to maintain glycemia and Ra during euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp (insulin infusion rate of 4.17 mU.kg-1.min-1) were reduced in the 8% protein group by 17% (P < 0.05) and 76% (P < 0.001), respectively. Suppression of Ra by insulin was not significant in the 20% protein group. Insulin-stimulated glucose disappearance (Rd) was 24% lower (P < 0.001) in the 8% protein group (25.0 +/- 0.8 mg.min-1.kg-1) than in the 20% protein group (32.7 +/- 0.5 mg.min-1.kg-1). The overall increment in muscle glucose utilization index (mean of 6 muscles) elicited by insulin was impaired by 38.1 +/- 4.0%. Insulin suppressed nonesterified fatty acid concentration (NEFA) by 83% (P < 0.001) and plasma triacylglycerol concentration (TAG) by 67% (P < 0.05) in the 20% protein group but evoked only a 43% (P < 0.01) decline in plasma NEFA and did not significantly suppress plasma TAG in the 8% protein group. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
[The psychopathological aspects of oral lichen planus (OLP)].

The etiopathology of oral lichen planus (OLP) is still uncertain. It is probably caused by a T lymphocytes cell-mediated autoimmune reaction. This reaction, caused by different pathogenic noxae, develops in subjects with a specific genetic pattern (HLA-DR on the keratinocytes) and some psychic attitude (higher Hamilton anxiety scale (HAS) and Hamilton depression scale (HDS) scores. In literature a psychic component has been often mentioned in OLP etiopathology. This work is a case-control study of replication: it aims to evaluate the importance of psychopathologic trait in patients affected by OLP. The study has been carried out on 16 patients (7 male and 9 female--average age 56) with OLP histologically confirmed. Before biopsy, they had been tested with: General health questionnaire (GHQ). Hamilton anxiety scale (HAS). Hamilton depression scale (HDS) with melancholia scale (MES). We have also studied a survey group of 14 patients affected by leukoplakia and neoplasms of the oral cavity (12 males and 2 female--average age 51). Before biopsy the survey group has been tested with the same questionnaire faced by the studied group. We chose the survey group as follows. Patients with leukoplakia show such similar lesions to OLP that the diagnosis is often histological; as far as patients with oral cavity tumours are concerned we hypothesized a more than usual anxious and depressed behaviour. We compared the score of the OLP patients to the one of the survey group patients using the "One-way Analysis of Variance" (ANOVA) method. The results confirmed that the patients with OLP showed very high scores in HAS and HDS, while the survey group scores were significantly lower. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)