Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of Effective Connectivity during Own- and Other-Race Face Processing: A Granger Causality Analysis

Numerous developmental studies have suggested that other-race effect (ORE) in face recognition emerges as early as in infancy and develops steadily throughout childhood. However, there is very limited research on the neural mechanisms underlying this developmental ORE. The present study used Granger causality analysis (GCA) to examine the development of children's cortical networks in processing own- and other-race faces. Children were between 3 and 13 years. An old-new paradigm was used to assess their own- and other-race face recognition with ETG-4000 (Hitachi Medical Co., Japan) acquiring functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data. After preprocessing, for each participant and under each face condition, we obtained the causal map by calculating the weights of causal relations between the time courses of [oxy-Hb] of each pair of channels using GCA. To investigate further the differential causal connectivity for own-race faces and other-race faces at the group level, a repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the GCA weights for each pair of channels with the face race task (own-race face vs. other-race face) as the within-subject variable and the age as a between-subject factor (continuous variable). We found an age-related increase in functional connectivity, paralleling a similar age-related improvement in behavioral face processing ability. More importantly, we found that the significant differences in neural functional connectivity between the recognition of own-race faces and that of other-race faces were modulated by age. Thus, like the behavioral ORE, the neural ORE emerges early and undergoes a protracted developmental course.
How to evaluate the robustness of airlines schedules

Airlines schedules are built such as to maximize expected profit. Such schedules turn out to be more sensitive to delays and are hence unstable. The trend has thus evolved towards robust schedules, trading off between sensitivity with respect to disruptions (and hence lower delay costs) and higher operational costs in the deterministic schedule. In this paper, we discuss the different ways to evaluate the robustness. We first show that the definition of robustness is not unique, and mainly differs in the way it is modeled and evaluated. We compare different models for the Maintenance Routing Problem (MRP) according to the most common robustness metrics. We use data of a real airline to evaluate the robustness of different models aiming at increasing total slack in order to reduce delay propagation. We show that some of the robustness metrics are correlated but not necessarily positively. Furthermore, we show that for a same metric, the efficiency varies depending on several factors such as the objective of the model, whether or not the model uses historical data and in which way. We show that no solution is globally better than the others, but that all of them improve the original schedule.
nAChRs Mediate Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Endothelial Cells: Proliferation, Apoptosis, and Angiogenesis

Background Many patients with ischemic heart disease have cardiovascular risk factors such as cigarette smoking. We tested the effect of nicotine (a key component of cigarette smoking) on the therapeutic effects of human embryonic stem cell-derived endothelial cells (hESC-ECs). Methods and Results To induce endothelial cell differentiation, undifferentiated hESCs (H9 line) underwent 4-day floating EB formation and 8-day outgrowth differentiation in EGM-2 media. After 12 days, CD31+ cells (13.7±2.5%) were sorted by FACScan and maintained in EGM-2 media for further differentiation. After isolation, these hESC-ECs expressed endothelial specific markers such as vWF (96.3±1.4%), CD31 (97.2±2.5%), and VE-cadherin (93.7±2.8%), form vascular-like channels, and incorporated DiI-labeled acetylated low-density lipoprotein (DiI-Ac-LDL). Afterward, 5×106 hESC-ECs treated for 24 hours with nicotine (10−8 M) or PBS (as control) were injected into the hearts of mice undergoing LAD ligation followed by administration for two weeks of vehicle or nicotine (100 µg/ml) in the drinking water. Surprisingly, bioluminescence imaging (BLI) showed significant improvement in the survival of transplanted hESC-ECs in the nicotine treated group at 6 weeks. Postmortem analysis confirmed increased presence of small capillaries in the infarcted zones. Finally, in vitro mechanistic analysis suggests activation of the MAPK and Akt pathways following activation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Conclusions This study shows for the first time that short-term systemic administrations of low dose nicotine can improve the survival of transplanted hESC-ECs, and enhance their angiogenic effects in vivo. Furthermore, activation of nAChRs has anti-apoptotic, angiogenic, and proliferative effects through MAPK and Akt signaling pathways.
Undecimated wavelet-based Bayesian denoising in mixed Poisson-Gaussian noise with application on medical and biological images

Due to photon and readout noise biomedical images are generally contaminated by a mixed Poisson-Gaussian noise. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian image denoising methodology for images corrupted by a mixed Poisson-Gaussian noise. The proposed method first applies a Generalized Anscombe transform in order to convert the Poisson noise into Gaussian one. The PCM SαS Bayesian estimator using the undecimated wavelet transform is then performed to remove the Gaussian noise. Finally, the exact unbiased inverse of the Generalized Anscombe transformation is applied to improve the recovery of the estimated denoised image. The experiments on real medical and biological images show that the proposed approach outperforms the MS-VST method especially in the presence of a high Poisson-Gaussian noise. It also ensures a good compromise between the noise rejection and the conservation of fine details in the estimated denoised image.
Statistical Issues in Designing an Optimal Detection System with Multiple Heterogeneous Sensors

Combining individual tests or sensors in a detection system often improves overall diagnostic performance, and many optimal decision-theoretic combinations under many different criteria exist. However, when designing a detection system, cost-effectiveness is important, particularly when combining a set of sensors with heterogeneous individual cost and performance. We consider the expected cost of correct and incorrect decisions of the system, constrained by the budget available to select an optimal system with various combinations of different types of conditionally independent and dependent sensors. We illustrate the approach using a hypothetical network of two different types of air pollution monitors.
Prediction and modelling of doubly-charged ions in the Earth's upper atmosphere

Abstract. We discuss the existence of the doubly-charged ions N 2 ++ , O 2 ++ and O ++ in the Earth's ionosphere through the theoretical computation of density profiles over the altitude range 100-500km calculated with the TRANSCAR model. Photoproductions and electron impact productions are described in detail. The photochemical equilibrium assumption verified in this context yields density profiles, validated by comparison to the measurements of the satellite Atmosphere Explorer. Those three dications are lost essentially by dissociative recombination and collisions with the neutrals N 2 , O 2 and O. The metastable lifetime of N 2 ++ is 3s and is estimated at 4s for O 2 ++ . A survey of the sensitivity to geophysical parameters (solar activity, latitude and solar zenith angle) is also shown. Emphasis is cast on the need for rate constants for chemical reactions involving doubly-charged ions. The fit of the model yields an estimated value of 1.06±0.40x10 -10 cm 3 s -1 for the rate constant of the O ++ +O reaction.
Information and Ideas on the European Union Eusa Review Forum European Migration and Asylum Policies: What's the Scoop? beyond Fortress Europe? Trends in East-west Migration in Europe

HARDLY A DAY GOES BY WITHOUT major international newspapers reporting on Europe's problem with its migration policies. The international press points to the fact that Europe's demographics are unfavorable: the Europeans are having fewer babies whereas they need the extra people to provide labor on the eve of a major retirement boom. As a result, critics argue that Europe should have active migration policies to encourage migrants to work in Europe. They should learn from other immigration countries who have attracted many to their country as a place of destination. Of course Europe has had migrants – mostly guest workers – who have been around for many decades. However, there have been issues with the way in which guest workers have been treated in the host country. For the longest time they were seen as 'temporary work-ers' who would 'one day' return home. Clearly, after the third generation is born, that assumption is no longer valid (and really had been questionable for a number of years already). Having significant numbers of migrants in one's country begs the question of their integration and their treatment in the context of the EU. The most recent event that has awoken the whole discussion about migration, is the enlargement of the EU to the East. The mandate of the EU is to have freedom of movement of labor across the entire area. Yet it is regarding this very basic principle that some Member States feel uncomfortable. The question of migration was also part and parcel to the 'no' vote of many of those who voted against the Constitutional Treaty in the spring of 2005. Similarly, those who are against further enlargement to the East are often worried about 'mass migration' (for example from Turkey). Historical comparisons with earlier enlargements suggest this prospect of large-scale migration is exaggerated , but the argument has a strong appeal among populist leaders. Another group that often finds itself going through long procedures and not knowing its rights and duties, are refugees. Here too the EU has recently stepped in to provide policies for the whole of the EU rather than relying on individual Member States making separate policies. To shed some light on the issues, we asked five scholars to focus on various aspects of migration in the EU. Adrian Favell provides an overview of the issues surrounding East-West migration and analyses what is actually happening. He concludes …
Dynamic investment models with downside risk control

Mean-variance analysis has been broadly used in the theory and practice of portfolio management. However, the continuous analogy is not fully studied either academically or in practice. This thesis provides a similar efficient frontier to Markowitz (1952) and a general solution using martingale method employed in Cox and Huang (1989). Comparisons between the expected utility approach and the mean-variance analysis have been made. Traditional utility maximization cannot be used for explicit risk control of downside losses. An adjusted investment objective function by the worst case outcome is incorporated in the investment model. The problem can be divided into two subproblems as in Cox and Huang (1989). Closed form solution is derived for geometric Brownian motion and H A R A utility setting. An interesting result is that the investor's decision is governed by a single "security" a call option on a dynamic mutual fund. A similar strategy, Risk Neutral Excess Return(RNER), to Portfolio Insurance is discussed. With geometric Brownian motion, the R N E R strategy has a payoff structure similar to a straddle option strategy. Compare to the strategic asset allocation methods, such as Buy and Hold, Fixed Mix, and Portfolio Insurance , the new approach appears to be superior under a popular risk measure, Value at Risk(VaR). A new objective function is defined for applying stochastic programming to financial investment under uncertainty. Incomplete market conditions are considered in implementing this model. The risk neutral probability is fully studied using stochastic programming techniques.
The Animal Model Determines the Results of Aeromonas Virulence Factors

The selection of an experimental animal model is of great importance in the study of bacterial virulence factors. Here, a bath infection of zebrafish larvae is proposed as an alternative model to study the virulence factors of Aeromonas hydrophila. Intraperitoneal infections in mice and trout were compared with bath infections in zebrafish larvae using specific mutants. The great advantage of this model is that bath immersion mimics the natural route of infection, and injury to the tail also provides a natural portal of entry for the bacteria. The implication of T3SS in the virulence of A. hydrophila was analyzed using the AH-1::aopB mutant. This mutant was less virulent than the wild-type strain when inoculated into zebrafish larvae, as described in other vertebrates. However, the zebrafish model exhibited slight differences in mortality kinetics only observed using invertebrate models. Infections using the mutant AH-1ΔvapA lacking the gene coding for the surface S-layer suggested that this protein was not totally necessary to the bacteria once it was inside the host, but it contributed to the inflammatory response. Only when healthy zebrafish larvae were infected did the mutant produce less mortality than the wild-type. Variations between models were evidenced using the AH-1ΔrmlB, which lacks the O-antigen lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and the AH-1ΔwahD, which lacks the O-antigen LPS and part of the LPS outer-core. Both mutants showed decreased mortality in all of the animal models, but the differences between them were only observed in injured zebrafish larvae, suggesting that residues from the LPS outer core must be important for virulence. The greatest differences were observed using the AH-1ΔFlaB-J (lacking polar flagella and unable to swim) and the AH-1::motX (non-motile but producing flagella). They were as pathogenic as the wild-type strain when injected into mice and trout, but no mortalities were registered in zebrafish larvae. This study demonstrates that zebrafish larvae can be used as a host model to assess the virulence factors of A. hydrophila. This model revealed more differences in pathogenicity than the in vitro models and enabled the detection of slight variations in pathogenesis not observed using intraperitoneal injections of mice or fish.
On the Codification of Coordination: An Ontological Tool for Pattern Mining

One of the challenges developers face when dealing with parallelism is that purely static views of code tend not to reveal internal dynamics and causal relationships that can be problematic. This paper considers parallelism from multiple perspectives—from kinesthetic exercises involving elementary school children, to lines of code spanning six different parallelization mechanisms. We attempt to reconcile these views and develop an ontology designed to support pattern mining in parallel code bases. We show that, both kinesthetically and in the code bases, coordination emerges as a subtle entity that is difficult to identify in a coherent and conceptually concise manner. We believe that low level implementation patterns and micro patterns will be crucial for comprehension of coordination, and propose tool support for effective mining. Further, we suggest a means of accomplishing a semi-automated ontological mapping for parallelization mechanisms, and offer this up to help designers uncover patterns and pattern compositions.
Rational Investor Sentiment

We explain excess volatility, short-term momentum and long-term reversal of asset prices by a repeated game version of Keynes beauty contest. In every period the players can either place a buy or sell order on the asset market. The actual price movement is determined by average market orders and noise. It is common knowledge that the noise process is an exogenous random walk. Our model explains short-term momentum and long-term reversal of stock prices by unpredictable switches in the coordination of the players. When the players are coordinated on buying (selling), we say the market is in the up (down) mood. In this model changing investor sentiment is a rational strategy as it leads to a Nash equilibrium of the coordination game. We give experimental evidence in support of our claims. finance
Joint Bootstrapping of Corpus Annotations and Entity Types

Web search can be enhanced in powerful ways if token spans in Web text are annotated with disambiguated entities from large catalogs like Freebase. Entity annotators need to be trained on sample mention snippets. Wikipedia entities and annotated pages offer high-quality labeled data for training and evaluation. Unfortunately, Wikipedia features only one-ninth the number of entities as Freebase, and these are a highly biased sample of well-connected, frequently mentioned “head” entities. To bring hope to “tail” entities, we broaden our goal to a second task: assigning types to entities in Freebase but not Wikipedia. The two tasks are synergistic: knowing the types of unfamiliar entities helps disambiguate mentions, and words in mention contexts help assign types to entities. We present TMI, a bipartite graphical model for joint type-mention inference. TMI attempts no schema integration or entity resolution, but exploits the above-mentioned synergy. In experiments involving 780,000 people in Wikipedia, 2.3 million people in Freebase, 700 million Web pages, and over 20 professional editors, TMI shows considerable annotation accuracy improvement (e.g., 70%) compared to baselines (e.g., 46%), especially for “tail” and emerging entities. We also compare with Google’s recent annotations of the same corpus with Freebase entities, and report considerable improvements within the people domain.
Primacy of European Union Law : from theory to practice (Ritsumeikan University, LMU Munich, DAAD Joint Seminar on European Law 2010 with Seoul National University, Nanjing University, National Chengchi University, Chung Ang University organized by Ritsumeikan Law Association)

The primacy of European Union law is one of the fundamental principles of European Union law. As a conflict of law rule established by the European Court of Justice, it functions as a tool to ensure uniform application of European Union law within the Member States. However, this tool faces numerous obstacles when applied in practice. The aim of this essay is to demonstrate these problems. Therefore, the essay starts with a brief explanation of the theoretical aspects of the primacy of European Union law. Thereafter, the author discusses the problems the application of this principle has to cope with in practice and tries to make some recommendations as to how these problems could be solved. The essay ends with a summary.
Research on Occlusion in the Multiple Vehicle Detecting and Tracking System

A detection algorithm based on the occlusion reasoning and partial division block template matching is proposed since the occluded target can not be located accurately by the common located algorithm during tracking process. Locating target accurately is critical factors that affect the tracking performance and reliability. Occlusion reasoning method provides the occlusion alarm status of multiple targets in the frame t. By using the predicted information, the occlusion status is verified once again in the frame (t+1). If the occlusion status is enabled, partial division block template matching technique is employed. Using these algorithms, we can obtain the reliable locations of occluded objects respectively. Finally, the proposed algorithms are applied to real image sequences. Experimental results on the high way and urban road demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method
Relationship between psychosocial status, diabetes mellitus, and left ventricular systolic function in patients with stable multivessel coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND Negative emotional conditions contribute to the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). Depression and anxiety are prognostic factors in patients with CAD. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between emotional conditions and left ventricular (LV) systolic functions in CAD. METHODS 168 patients (102 men, 66 women, mean age 66.3 ± 9.9 years) with stable angina and multivessel disease (MVD) were included in the study. According to the LV ejection fraction (LVEF) in echocardiography, patients were divided into two groups, the preserved group (LVEF > 50%), and the impaired group (LVEF < 50%). The preserved group consisted of 94 patients and the impaired group consisted of 74 patients. Emotional status was evaluated using the Hamilton Depression (HAM-D), Hamilton Anxiety (HAM-A), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scores. RESULTS The prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) was significantly higher in the impaired group than in the preserved group (29.8% vs 56.8%, p < 0.01). The HAM-D, HAM-A, BAI and BDI scores were higher in the impaired group compared to the preserved group (HAM-D: 12.1 ± 3.3 vs 14.5 ± 2.3, p = 0.03; HAM-A: 12.7 ± 3.4 vs 14.3 ± 2.2, p = 0.01; BAI: 18.6 ± ± 6.4 vs 22.1 ± 6.6, p = 0.01 and BDI: 13.9 ± 2.5 vs 17.2 ± 2.0, p = 0.002, respectively). In multivariate analysis, BDI scores (odds ratio [OR]: 2.197, < 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.101-4.387; p = 0.026), HAM-A scores (OR: 1.912, < 95% Cl 1.092-2.974; p = 0.041) and DM (OR: 2.610, < 95% Cl 1.313-5.183; p = 0.006) were important risk factors for LV dysfunction in stable patients with MVD. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that emotional status and DM are factors associated with impaired LV systolic function in patients with stable CAD.
Efficient Parallel Job Scheduling Using Gang Service

Gang scheduling has been widely used as a practical solution to the dynamic parallel job scheduling problem. To overcome some of the limitations of traditional Gang scheduling algorithms, Concurrent Gang is proposed as a class of scheduling policies which allows the flexible and simultaneous scheduling of multiple parallel jobs. It hence improves the space sharing characteristics of Gang scheduling while preserving all other advantages. To provide a sound analysis of Concurrent Gang performance, a novel methodology based on the traditional concept of competitive ratio is also introduced. Dubbed dynamic competitive ratio, the new method is used to compare dynamic bin packing algorithms used in this paper. These packing algorithms apply to the Concurrent Gang scheduling of a workload generated by a statistical model. Moreover, dynamic competitive ratio is the figure of merit used to evaluate and compare packing strategies for job scheduling under multiple constraints. It will be shown that for the unidimensional case there is a small difference between the performance of best fit and first fit; first fit can hence be used without significant system degradation. For the multidimensional case, when memory is also considered, we concluded that the packing algorithm must try to balance the resource utilization in all dimensions simulataneously, instead of given priority to only one dimension of the problem.
Towards GCC-based automatic soft-core customization

Using soft-core processors on FPGAs offers the opportunity to customize the system design in order to accelerate the application. While this has always been possible manually by hardware designers, it requires distinct knowledge of design methods and of the microarchitecture of the soft-core. In this paper we show that a mature compiler like the GCC can be used for automatic generation of processor customizations directly from the C code of the application. To this end, we have extended the GCC to automatically select candidate sequences of the whole application and transform them into hardware extensions.