Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Music and Memory: An Introduction

This far-ranging book shows how human memory influences the organization of music. The book is divided into two parts. The first part presents basic ideas about memory and perception from cognitive psychology and, to some extent, cognitive linguistics. Topics include auditory processing, perception, and recognition. The second part describes in detail how the concepts from the first part are exemplified in music. The presentation is based on three levels of musical experience: event fusion (the formation of single musical events from acoustical vibrations in the air, on a time scale too small to exhibit rhythm), melody and rhythm, and form. The focus in the latter is on the psychological conditions necessary for making large-scale -- that is, formal -- boundaries clear in music rather than on traditional musical forms. The book also discusses the idea that much of the language used to describe musical structures and processes is metaphorical. It encourages readers to consider the possibility that the process of musical composition can be "a metaphorical transformation of their own experience into sound. " The book also touches on unresolved debates about psychological musical universals, information theory, and the operation of neurons. It requires no formal musical training and contains a glossary and an appendix of listening examples.
Sequence-based typing of genetic targets encoded outside of the O-antigen gene cluster is indicative of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli serogroup lineages

Serogroup classifications based upon the O-somatic antigen of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) provide significant epidemiological information on clinical isolates. Each O-antigen determinant is encoded by a unique cluster of genes present between the gnd and galF chromosomal genes. Alternatively, serogroup-specific polymorphisms might be encoded in loci that are encoded outside of the O-antigen gene cluster. Segments of the core bacterial loci mdh, gnd, gcl, ppk, metA, ftsZ, relA and metG for 30 O26 STEC strains have previously been sequenced, and comparative analyses to O157 distinguished these two serogroups. To screen these loci for serogroup-specific traits within a broader range of clinically significant serogroups, DNA sequences were obtained for 19 strains of 10 additional STEC serogroups. Unique alleles were observed at the gnd locus for each examined STEC serogroup, and this correlation persisted when comparative analyses were extended to 144 gnd sequences from 26 O-serogroups (comprising 42 O : H-serotypes). These included O157, O121, O103, O26, O5 : non-motile (NM), O145 : NM, O113 : H21, O111 : NM and O117 : H7 STEC; and furthermore, non-toxin encoding O157, O26, O55, O6 and O117 strains encoded distinct gnd alleles compared to STEC strains of the same serogroup. DNA sequencing of a 643 bp region of gnd was, therefore, sufficient to minimally determine the O-antigen of STEC through molecular means, and the location of gnd next to the O-antigen gene cluster offered additional support for the co-inheritance of these determinants. The gnd DNA sequence-based serogrouping method could improve the typing capabilities for STEC in clinical laboratories, and was used successfully to characterize O121 : H19, O26 : H11 and O177 : NM clinical isolates prior to serological confirmation during outbreak investigations.
Measurement of right ventricular end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes by the thermodilution technique.

At the present time there is no entirely satisfactory index of ventricular function. End-diastolic pressure is often used as it can be relatively easily measured and, with other factors, is related to the length of myocardial fibres at the end of diastole. Ventricular end-diastolic volume (EDV) is, however, a much closer approximation of fibre length, because, as Starling and Visscher (1927) have shown, it determines the force of subsequent ventricular contraction and the stroke volume (SV). Endsystolic volume (ESV) and the ratio ESV/EDV are also indicators of ventricular functional capacity. Early attempts to measure heart volumes were made using measurements from x-rays (Rohrer, 1916; Geigel, 1920; Kahlstorf, 1932). The advent of angiocardiography has provided another line of approach (Rushmer and Thal, 1951; Dodge et al., 1960; Arvidsson, 1961; Miller and Swan, 1964). Indicator dilution curves may also be used to measure ventricular volumes. The curves used to measure cardiac output have a smooth downslope produced by the gradual removal of indicator from the heart. In fact, the indicator is expelled from the ventricle in small amounts with each systole, and the changes in concentration at the sensing site take place in a stepwise fashion. This stepwise washout is modified by the relatively slow time response of the sensing device and the conducting system carrying blood to it from the sensing site. Fig. 1 shows a diagrammatic representation of a washout curve with a stepwise decrease in indicator concentration. It also shows the way in which the ratio ESV/EDV can be calculated from it.
Superpixelizing Binary MRF for Image Labeling Problems

Superpixels have become prevalent in computer vision. They have been used to achieve satisfactory performance at a significantly smaller computational cost for various tasks. People have also combined superpixels with Markov random field (MRF) models. However, it often takes additional effort to formulate MRF on superpixel-level, and to the best of our knowledge there exists no principled approach to obtain this formulation. In this paper, we show how generic pixel-level binary MRF model can be solved in the superpixel space. As the main contribution of this paper, we show that a superpixel-level MRF can be derived from the pixel-level MRF by substituting the superpixel representation of the pixelwise label into the original pixel-level MRF energy. The resultant superpixel-level MRF energy also remains submodular for a submodular pixel-level MRF. The derived formula hence gives us a handy way to formulate MRF energy in superpixel-level. In the experiments, we demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on several computer vision problems.
Frequencies of human neutrophil antigen-4 and human neutrophil antigen-5 among Thai blood donors

Context: Antibodies against human neutrophil antigens (HNAs) are implicated in immune-mediated neutropenia, transfusion-related acute lung injury and febrile transfusion reactions. Aims: This study aimed to determine HNA gene frequencies of the HNA-4 and HNA-5 systems among Thai populations and compare these frequencies with those previously reported for other populations. Materials and Methods: 800 DNA samples obtained from 500 unrelated healthy blood donors from Bangkok and 300 samples from Chiang Mai, Thailand were included. Samples were typed for each HNA allele including HNA-4a, HNA-4b, HNA-5a, and HNA-5b using an in-house polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primer technique. Results: The frequencies of HNA-4a and HNA-4b alleles in central Thais were 0.975 and 0.025, respectively and for Northern Thais, their frequencies were 0.965 and 0.035, respectively. For HNA-5a and HNA-5b alleles, their frequencies were 0.771 and 0.229; 0.748, and 0.252 in central and Northern Thais, respectively. The frequencies of HNA-4 and HNA-5 systems in central Thais are closely related to those in Northern Thais (P > 0.05). However, their frequencies were different from other populations (P < 0.001), except HNA-5a and HNA-5b gene frequencies in Thais were similar to Caucasians (P > 0.05). Conclusion: This study could contribute to predict the risk of alloimmunization to HNA-4 and HNA-5 systems, especially in feto-maternal incompatibility in Thais.
Lazarus1, a DUF300 Protein, Contributes to Programmed Cell Death Associated with Arabidopsis acd11 and the Hypersensitive Response

Background Programmed cell death (PCD) is a necessary part of the life of multi-cellular organisms. A type of plant PCD is the defensive hypersensitive response (HR) elicited via recognition of a pathogen by host resistance (R) proteins. The lethal, recessive accelerated cell death 11 (acd11) mutant exhibits HR-like accelerated cell death, and cell death execution in acd11 shares genetic requirements for HR execution triggered by one subclass of R proteins. Methodology/Principal Findings To identify genes required for this PCD pathway, we conducted a genetic screen for suppressors of acd11, here called lazarus (laz) mutants. In addition to known suppressors of R protein-mediated HR, we isolated 13 novel complementation groups of dominant and recessive laz mutants. Here we describe laz1, which encodes a protein with a domain of unknown function (DUF300), and demonstrate that LAZ1 contributes to HR PCD conditioned by the Toll/interleukin-1 (TIR)-type R protein RPS4 and by the coiled-coil (CC)-type R protein RPM1. Using a yeast-based topology assay, we also provide evidence that LAZ1 is a six transmembrane protein with structural similarities to the human tumor suppressor TMEM34. Finally, we demonstrate by transient expression of reporter fusions in protoplasts that localization of LAZ1 is distributed between the cytosol, the plasma membrane and FM4–64 stained vesicles. Conclusions/Significance Our findings indicate that LAZ1 functions as a regulator or effector of plant PCD associated with the HR, in addition to its role in acd11-related death. Furthermore, the similar topology of a plant and human DUF300 proteins suggests similar functions in PCD across the eukaryotic kingdoms, although a direct role for TMEM34 in cell death control remains to be established. Finally, the subcellular localization pattern of LAZ1 suggests that it may have transport functions for yet unknown, death-related signaling molecules at the plasma membrane and/or endosomal compartments. In summary, our results validate the utility of the large-scale suppressor screen to identify novel components with functions in plant PCD, which may also have implications for deciphering cell death mechanisms in other organisms.
PolyNews : delivering multiple aspects of news to mitigate media Bias = PolyNews : 사건의 다면적 전달을 통해 매체 편향 현상을 완화하는 뉴스 서비스

The bias of news media is an inherent flaw of the news production process, spanning news gathering, writing, and editing stages. Producer’s subjective valuation, wittingly or unwittingly, takes place during the daily production process. The resulting bias often causes a sharp increase in political polarization and in the cost of conflict on social issues such as Iraq war [7]. With the rapid growth of the Internet news media, it gets very difficult, if not impossible, for readers to have penetrating views on realities against such bias. We present PolyNews, a novel Internet news service framework aiming at mitigating the effect of media bias. PolyNews automatically creates and promptly provides readers with multiple classified viewpoints on a news event of interest. As such, it effectively helps readers understand a fact from a plural of viewpoints and formulate their own, more balanced viewpoints free from specific biased views. The proposed focus-based clustering is realized through two important clustering steps, i.e., news structure-based clustering and collaborative clustering. We analyze well-known news writing rules and obtain clues on how focus is expressed inside an article to automatically abstract the focus of an article.
MLA. Software for multilevel analysis of data with two levels. User's guide for version 4.1

Preface This manual describes MLA, Version 1.0b, a computer program developed for multilevel analysis of data with two levels. The MLA program can be characterized by four major properties: • User-friendly interface. • Extensive options for simulation, in particular, three options for bootstrapping mul-tilevel models. • Simple estimation methods, providing an alternative for the complex iterative estimation procedures that are commonly used to estimate the parameters of multilevel models. • A fast algorithm, using the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno optimization method to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of all model parameters. The MLA program runs as a stand-alone batch program on 286-, 386-and 486-based personal computers under DOS. It uses simple ASCII text files as input and output. The program is easy to use by means of a number of statements starting with a keyword. Models are specified by simply formulating the model equations. This manual provides the necessary information for the new user to fit multilevel models with two levels to a hierarchical data set. It is expected that the user has basic knowledge of regression analysis. A brief introduction to multilevel analysis and related concepts is given in the first chapter. References to three major textbooks on multilevel analysis can be found in the text. The MLA program was developed, and is being further developed, by Frank Busing, Erik Meijer, and Rien van der Leeden. As the version number indicates, this manual describes a beta version. We are still doing research to polish and improve certain simulation options. We would very much appreciate hearing about any of your experiences using the program and this manual. Please contact us by email: We would like to thank Jan de Leeuw and Ita Kreft for helpful discussions, comments, and references. The Institute for Educational Research in the Netherlands (SVO) is gratefully acknowledged for supporting this project by a grant (SVO, project no. 93713).
Analysis of Protein Interaction Networks for the Detection of Candidate Hepatitis B and C Biomarkers

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are the major causes of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The resolution or chronicity of acute infection is dependent on a complex interplay between virus and innate/adaptive immunity. The mechanisms that lead a significant proportion of patients to more severe liver disease are not clearly defined and involve virus induced host gene/protein alterations. The utilization of protein interaction networks (PINs) is expected to identify novel aspects of the disease concerning the patients' immune response to virus as well as the main pathways that are involved in the development of fibrosis and HCC. In this study, we designed several PINs for HBV and HCV and employed topological, modular, and functional analysis techniques in order to determine significant network nodes that correspond to prominent candidate biomarkers. The networks were built using data from various interaction databases. When the overall PINs of HBV and HCV were compared, 48 nodes were found in common. The implementation of a statistical ranking procedure indicated that three of them are of higher importance.
Assessment of Defense Styles and Mechanisms in Iranian Patients Suffering from Obsessive Compulsive or Panic Disorders versus Normal Controls using Persian Version of Defense Style Questionnaire-40

Objective The aim of this study was to compare defense styles and mechanisms in adult patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and panic disorder (PD) with normal subjects in Iran. Methods Defensive patterns of 22 patients with OCD, 28 patients with PD and those of 116 normal individuals (as a control group) were assessed using the Farsi version of Defense Style Questionnaire-40 (DSQ-40). The content validity of this questionnaire was done prior to the initiation of the present study. Results Both groups of patients with OCD or PD used more immature and less mature styles compared to the control group. No significant difference was observed in the use of neurotic style between the two groups. Conclusion It is suggested that immature defenses may have an important role in the pathogenesis of OCD and PD.
Chromosomal Copy Number Variation, Selection and Uneven Rates of Recombination Reveal Cryptic Genome Diversity Linked to Pathogenicity

Pathogenic fungi constitute a growing threat to both plant and animal species on a global scale. Despite a clonal mode of reproduction dominating the population genetic structure of many fungi, putatively asexual species are known to adapt rapidly when confronted by efforts to control their growth and transmission. However, the mechanisms by which adaptive diversity is generated across a clonal background are often poorly understood. We sequenced a global panel of the emergent amphibian pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), to high depth and characterized rapidly changing features of its genome that we believe hold the key to the worldwide success of this organism. Our analyses show three processes that contribute to the generation of de novo diversity. Firstly, we show that the majority of wild isolates manifest chromosomal copy number variation that changes over short timescales. Secondly, we show that cryptic recombination occurs within all lineages of Bd, leading to large regions of the genome being in linkage equilibrium, and is preferentially associated with classes of genes of known importance for virulence in other pathosystems. Finally, we show that these classes of genes are under directional selection, and that this has predominantly targeted the Global Panzootic Lineage (BdGPL). Our analyses show that Bd manifests an unusually dynamic genome that may have been shaped by its association with the amphibian host. The rates of variation that we document likely explain the high levels of phenotypic variability that have been reported for Bd, and suggests that the dynamic genome of this pathogen has contributed to its success across multiple biomes and host-species.
A functional study of auditory verbal imagery

Background. We used functional MRI to examine the functional anatomy of inner speech and different forms of auditory verbal imagery (imagining speech) in normal volunteers. We hypothesized that generating inner speech and auditory verbal imagery would be associated with left inferior frontal activation, and that generating auditory verbal imagery would involve additional activation in the lateral temporal cortices. Methods. Subjects were scanned, while performing inner speech and auditory verbal imagery tasks, using a 1.5 Tesla magnet. Results. The generation of inner speech was associated with activation in the left inferior frontal/insula region, the left temporo-parietal cortex, right cerebellum and the supplementary motor area. Auditory verbal imagery in general, as indexed by the three imagery tasks combined, was associated with activation in the areas engaged during the inner speech task, plus the left precentral and superior temporal gyri (STG), and the right homologues of all these areas. Conclusions. These results are consistent with the use of the ‘articulatory loop' during both inner speech and auditory verbal imagery, and the greater engagement of verbal self-monitoring during auditory verbal imagery.
VSSIM: Virtual machine based SSD simulator

In this paper, we present a virtual machine based SSD Simulator, VSSIM (Virtual SSD Simulator). VSSIM intends to address the issues of the trace driven simulation, e.g. trace re-scaling, accurate replay, etc. VSSIM operates on top of QEMU/KVM with software based SSD module. VSSIM runs in realtime and allows the user to measure both the host performance and the SSD behavior under various design choices. VSSIM can flexibly model the various hardware components, e.g. the number of channels, the number of ways, block size, page size, planes per chip, program, erase, read latency of NAND cells, channel switch delay, and way switch delay. VSSIM can also facilitate the implementation of the SSD firmware algorithms. To demonstrate the capability of VSSIM, we performed a number of case studies. The results of the simulation study deliver an important guideline in the firmware and hardware designs of future NAND based storage devices. Followings are some of the findings: (i) as the page size increases, the performance benefit of increasing the channel parallelism against increasing the way parallelism becomes less significant, (ii) due to the bi-modality in IO size distribution, FTL should be designed to handle multiple mapping granularity, (iii) hybrid mapping does not work in four or more way SSD due to severe log block fragmentation, (iv) as a performance metric, the Write Amplification Factor can be misleading, (v) compared to sequential write, random write operation can be benefited more from the channel level parallelism and therefore in multi-channel environment, it is beneficial to categorize larger fraction of IO as random. VSSIM is validated against commodity SSD, Intel X25M SSD. VSSIM models the sequential IO performance of X25M within 3% offset.
Suitability and Transferability of the Resource-Based Habitat Concept: A Test With an Assemblage of Butterflies

A functional definition of the habitat-concept based on ecological resources incorporates three interconnected parameters: composition, configuration and availability of the resources. The intersection of those parameters represents the functional habitat of a given population or species. Resource composition refers to the co-occurrence of the resources required by each individual to complete its life cycle. Resource configuration refers both to the way individual resources are spatially distributed within the habitat and the way all the resources are organized in the habitat space. Resource availability refers to the accessibility and procureability of resources. Variation in these variables is predicted to influence the demography of the population. To test the suitability of this definition and its transferability across landscapes, we first conducted a very detailed study on habitat and resource use of five butterfly species within a large nature reserve. Second, we conducted a larger-scale study, focusing on metapopulations of two species. We monitored demography for each species and tested whether its variation can be explained by (1) the vegetation type, (2) the vegetation composition or (3) the availability and configuration of the species-specific ecological resources. To confirm that resource availability and configuration reflect habitat quality, we also assessed their impacts on individual morphology. Whatever the investigated spatial scale, our results quantitatively demonstrate the overall better performance of the resource-based habitat approach compared to other most commonly used approaches. Our analysis allowed us to assess the relative importance of each ecological resource in terms of both their availability and organization relative to the species’ abundance, demography and individual fitness measures. Resource availability did not play the predominant role in defining habitat quality as it was in most cases overruled by resource organization. Finally, we confirmed the between-population transferability of the habitat definition and quality estimates while adopting a resource-based habitat approach. Our study clearly demonstrates the suitability of the resource-based definition of the habitat. Therefore, we argue that this approach should be favored for species of conservation concern. Although most conclusions so far have emerged from butterfly studies, the resource-based definition of the habitat should also be ecologically relevant to many other organisms.