Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deficits in Letter-Speech Sound Associations but Intact Visual Conflict Processing in Dyslexia: Results from a Novel ERP-Paradigm

The reading and spelling deficits characteristic of developmental dyslexia (dyslexia) have been related to problems in phonological processing and in learning associations between letters and speech-sounds. Even when children with dyslexia have learned the letters and their corresponding speech sounds, letter-speech sound associations might still be less automatized compared to children with age-adequate literacy skills. In order to examine automaticity in letter-speech sound associations and to overcome some of the disadvantages associated with the frequently used visual-auditory oddball paradigm, we developed a novel electrophysiological letter-speech sound interference paradigm. This letter-speech sound interference paradigm was applied in a group of 9-year-old children with dyslexia (n = 36) and a group of typically developing (TD) children of similar age (n = 37). Participants had to indicate whether two letters look visually the same. In the incongruent condition (e.g., the letter pair A-a) there was a conflict between the visual information and the automatically activated phonological information; although the visual appearance of the two letters is different, they are both associated with the same speech sound. This conflict resulted in slower response times (RTs) in the incongruent than in the congruent (e.g., the letter pair A-e) condition. Furthermore, in the TD control group, the conflict resulted in fast and strong event-related potential (ERP) effects reflected in less negative N1 amplitudes and more positive conflict slow potentials (cSP) in the incongruent than in the congruent condition. However, the dyslexic group did not show any conflict-related ERP effects, implying that letter-speech sound associations are less automatized in this group. Furthermore, we examined general visual conflict processing in a control visual interference task, using false fonts. The conflict in this experiment was based purely on the visual similarity of the presented objects. Visual conflict resulted in slower RTs, less negative N2 amplitudes and more positive cSP in both groups. Thus, on a general, basic level, visual conflict processing does not seem to be affected in children with dyslexia.
Robust Retinal Blood Vessel Segmentation Based on Reinforcement Local Descriptions

Retinal blood vessels segmentation plays an important role for retinal image analysis. In this paper, we propose robust retinal blood vessel segmentation method based on reinforcement local descriptions. A novel line set based feature is firstly developed to capture local shape information of vessels by employing the length prior of vessels, which is robust to intensity variety. After that, local intensity feature is calculated for each pixel, and then morphological gradient feature is extracted for enhancing the local edge of smaller vessel. At last, line set based feature, local intensity feature, and morphological gradient feature are combined to obtain the reinforcement local descriptions. Compared with existing local descriptions, proposed reinforcement local description contains more local information of local shape, intensity, and edge of vessels, which is more robust. After feature extraction, SVM is trained for blood vessel segmentation. In addition, we also develop a postprocessing method based on morphological reconstruction to connect some discontinuous vessels and further obtain more accurate segmentation result. Experimental results on two public databases (DRIVE and STARE) demonstrate that proposed reinforcement local descriptions outperform the state-of-the-art method.
Induced Expression of AtLEC1 and AtLEC2 Differentially Promotes Somatic Embryogenesis in Transgenic Tobacco Plants

Arabidopsis LEAFY COTYLEDON (LEC) genes, AtLEC1 and AtLEC2, are important embryonic regulators that play key roles in morphogenesis and maturation phases during embryo development. Ectopic expression of AtLEC1 and AtLEC2 in tobacco caused abnormality in transgenic seedling. When transgenic seeds germinated on medium containing 30 µM DEX, LEC1 transgenic seedlings were ivory and fleshy, with unexpanded cotyledons, stubby hypocotyls, short roots and no obvious callus formation at the shoot meristem position. While LEC2 transgenic seedlings formed embryonic callus on the shoot apical meristem and somatic embryo-like structures emerged from the surface of the callus. When callus were transferred to hormone free MS0 medium more shoots were regenerated from each callus. However, shoot formation was not observed in LEC1 overexpressors. To investigate the mechanisms of LEC2 in somatic embryogenesis, we studied global gene expression by digital gene expression profiling analysis. The results indicated that ectopic expression of LEC2 genes induced accumulation of embryo-specific proteins such as seed storage proteins, late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins, fatty acid biosynthetic enzymes, products of steroid biosynthesis related genes and key regulatory genes of the embryo development. Genes of plant-specific transcription factors such as NAC domain protein, AP2 and GRAS family, resistance-related as well as salicylic acid signaling related genes were up-regulated in LEC2 transgenic seedlings. Ectopi c expression of LEC2 induced large number of somatic embryo formation and shoot regeneration but 20 d DEX induction of LEC1 is not sufficient to induce somatic embryogenesis and shoot formation. Our data provide new information to understand the mechanisms on LEC2 gene’s induction of somatic embryogenesis.
A Simplicial Branch and Bound Duality-Bounds Algorithm to Linear Multiplicative Programming

A simplicial branch and bound duality-bounds algorithm is presented to globally solving the linear multiplicative programming (LMP). We firstly convert the problem (LMP) into an equivalent programming one by introducing auxiliary variables. During the branch and bound search, the required lower bounds are computed by solving ordinary linear programming problems derived by using a Lagrangian duality theory. The proposed algorithm proves that it is convergent to a global minimum through the solutions to a series of linear programming problems. Some examples are given to illustrate the feasibility of the present algorithm.
Effects of one month treatment with propranolol and metoprolol on the relaxant and contractile function of isolated trachea from rats exposed to cigarette smoke for four months

Abstract Background and objective: The effects of one-month treatment of β-adrenergic receptor (AR) blockers on the relaxant function of airway in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are unknown. A passive cigarette smoking rat model was used to investigate the effect of β-AR blockers. Methods: Thirty-six rats were randomly divided into six groups: control (C); propranolol (P); metoprolol (M); smoking (S); smoking + propranolol (SP); and smoking + metoprolol (SM). Histological analysis of the lungs was done and isolated tracheal segments were studied in vitro to assess the contractile and relaxant function of the smooth muscle. The level of norepinephrine (NE) was measured. Results: Airway inflammation was more severe in group S than group C (p < 0.001), and it was alleviated in group SP (p < 0.001) while had no change in group SM. After propranolol or metoprolol administration, the level of NE was significantly lower in both SP and SM groups (p < 0.01). The maximal contractile response to acetylcholine (Ach) in groups S and SM was increased compared to group C (p < 0.01). Propranolol significantly inhibited contractile response in group SP (p < 0.05), while metoprolol did not show the same effect. The curve of maximum relaxant rate to isoprenaline (Iso) shifted to the left in group SP (p < 0.01), while group SM showed no changes. Conclusion: One-month treatment with propranolol increased the relaxant effect mediated by the β2-AR and decreased the contractile response to Ach by reducing the level of NE.
Mining Coherent Gene Clusters from Three-Dimensional Microarray Data ⁄

Extensive studies have shown that mining microarray data sets is important in bioinformatics research and biomedical applications. In this paper, we explore a novel type of 3dimensional microarray data sets, which records the expression levels of various genes under a set of samples during a series of time points. In particular, we propose the mining of coherent gene clusters from such data sets. Each cluster contains a subset of genes and a subset of samples such that the genes are coherent on the samples along the time series. The coherent gene clusters may identify the samples corresponding to some phenotypes (e.g., diseases), and suggest the candidate genes correlated to the phenotypes. We present two e‐cient algorithms, namely the Sample-Gene Search and the Gene-Sample Search, to mine the complete set of coherent gene clusters. We empirically evaluate the performance of our approaches on both a real microarray data set and synthetic data sets. The test results have shown that our approaches are both e‐cient and efiective to flnd meaningful coherent gene clusters.
Untersuchung zur Kernsymptomatik bei Kindern mit einer kindlichen Sprechapraxie im Alter von 4–7 Jahren

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund: Kinder, die unter Sprechapraxie leiden, haben Probleme bei der Planung und Programmierung von sprechmotorischen Einheiten. Ätiologie, Definition und Diagnosekriterien dieses Störungsbildes werden kontrovers diskutiert. Kindliche Sprechapraxien (CAS) sind schwer abzugrenzen von kindlichen phonetisch-artikulatorischen Störungen sowie von ausgeprägten phonologischen Störungen (PhS), die ebenfalls zu den Aussprachestörungen zählen. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie war es, die Kernsymptomatik von kindlichen Sprechapraxien zu untersuchen und zu zeigen, inwiefern sich diese Merkmale von der Symptomatik phonologisch gestörter Kinder unterscheiden. Methode: Wir haben 8 sprechapraktische Kinder, 10 phonologisch gestörte Kinder und 10 Kontrollkinder im Alter von 4–7 Jahren während der Produktion von Wörtern, Pseudowörtern und Silben aufgenommen. Die in den Äußerungen enthaltenen Vokale wurden sowohl akustisch als auch perzeptiv analysiert. Die Konsonanten untersuchten wir ebenfalls perzeptiv. Ergebnisse: Beide Analyseformen ergeben hinsichtlich der auftretenden Vokal- und Konsonantenfehler deutliche Unterschiede zwischen allen 3 Untersuchungsgruppen, insbesondere, wenn es sich um Pseudowörter handelt.
Mechanism independence for texture-modulation detection is consistent with a filter-rectify-filter mechanism

The ability of the visual system to detect stimuli that vary along dimensions other than luminance or color— “second-order” stimuli—has been of considerable interest in recent years. An important unresolved issue is whether different types of second-order stimuli are detected by a single, all purpose, mechanism, or by mechanisms that are specific to stimulus type. Using a conventional psychophysical paradigm, we show that for a class of second-order stimuli—textures sinusoidally modulated in orientation (OM), spatial frequency (FM), and contrast (CM)—the human visual system employs mechanisms that are selective to stimulus type. Whereas the addition of a subthreshold mask to a test pattern of the same stimulus type was found to facilitate the detection of the test, no facilitation was observed when mask and test were of different types, suggesting mechanism independence for the different types of stimulus. This finding raises the important question of whether mechanism independence is compatible with the well-known filter-rectify-filter (FRF) model of second-order stimulus detection, since FRF mechanisms, in principle, do not discriminate between stimulus types. We show that for all mask/test combinations except those with CM masks, the FRF mechanism giving the largest response to the test modulation is largely unaffected by subthreshold levels of a different stimulus-type mask. For this reason, we cannot rule out the possibility that FRF mechanisms mediate the detection of our stimuli. For combinations involving CM masks, however, we propose that a process of contrast normalization renders the test stimulus insensitive to the mask stimulus.
Von Neumann stability conditions for the convection-diffusion equation Report 95-48

A method is presented to easily derive von Neumann stability conditions for a wide variety of time discretization schemes for the convection-di usion equation. Spatial discretization is by the -scheme or the fourth order central scheme. The use of the method is illustrated by application to multistep, Runge-Kutta and implicit-explicit methods, such as are in current use for ow computations, and for which, with few exceptions, no su cient von Neumann stability results were available.
Returning to work after childbirth: opportunities and inequalities

Les taux inegaux de retour au travail apres une naissance existent et ont persiste durant la derniere decennie parmi les femmes de differentes classes sociales. L'A. examine la relation entre les intentions de retour au travail des femmes pendant la grossesse et la position de la femme sur le marche du travail apres la naissance de l'enfant et confirme l'importance de la position de classe.
Zipf’s Law in Non-Fluent Aphasia

Abstract We studied Zipf’s law in the spontaneous speech of four people with non-fluent aphasia, and compared that to the spontaneous speech of four speakers from the Corpus of Spoken Dutch. Our results show no worse fit to Zipf’s law for aphasic compared to healthy speech but only a difference in slope. We argue that the fact that Zipf’s law is unaffected in people with aphasia, who suffer from problems with word retrieval rather than word storage, suggests that it is the organization of the mental lexicon that renders speech to conform to Zipf’s law and not the word retrieval system.
Indexation et apprentissage de termes et de relations à partir de comptes rendus de radiologie. (Indexation and learning of terms and relations from reports of radiology)

Dans le domaine medical, l'informatisation des professions de sante et le developpement du dossier medical personnel (DMP) entraine une progression rapide du volume d'information medicale numerique. Le besoin de convertir et de manipuler toute ces informations sous une forme structuree constitue un enjeu majeur. C'est le point de depart de la mise au point d'outils d'interrogation appropries pour lesquels, les methodes issues du traitement automatique du langage naturel (TALN) semblent bien adaptees. Les travaux de cette these s'inscrivent dans le domaine de l'analyse de documents medicaux et traitent de la problematique de la representation de l'information biomedicale (en particulier du domaine radiologique) et de son acces. Nous proposons de construire une base de connaissance dediee a la radiologie a l'interieur d'une base de connaissance generale (reseau lexico-semantique JeuxDeMots). Nous montrons l'interet de l'hypothese de non separation entre les differents types de connaissances dans le cadre d'une analyse de documents. Cette hypothese est que l'utilisation de connaissances generales, en plus de celles de specialites, permet d'ameliorer significativement l'analyse de documents medicaux.Au niveau du reseau lexico-semantique, l'ajout manuel et automatise des meta-informations sur les annotations (informations frequentielles, de pertinences, etc) est particulierement utile. Ce reseau combine poids et annotations sur des relations typees entre des termes et des concepts ainsi qu'un mecanisme d'inference dont l'objet est d'ameliorer la qualite et la couverture du reseau. Nous decrivons comment a partir d'informations semantiques presentes dans le reseau, il est possible de definir une augmentation des index bruts construits pour chaque comptes rendus afin d'ameliorer la recherche documentaire. Nous presentons, ensuite, une methode d'extraction de relations semantiques entre des termes ou concepts. Cette extraction est realisee a l'aide de patrons linguistiques auxquels nous avons rajoute des contraintes semantiques.Les resultats des evaluations montrent que l'hypothese de non separation entre les differents types de connaissances ameliorent la pertinence de l'indexation. L'augmentation d'index permet une amelioration du rappel alors que les contraintes semantiques ameliorent la precision de l'extraction de relations.
Progress in Nanomedicine and Medical Nanorobotics

1. Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine . 1 2. Medical Nanomaterials and Nanodevices . 3 2.1. Nanopores . 3 2.2. Artificial Binding Sites and Molecular Imprinting . 4 2.3. Quantum Dots and Nanocrystals . 4 2.4. Fullerenes and Nanotubes . 5 2.5. Nanoshells and Magnetic Nanoprobes . 6 2.6. Targeted Nanoparticles and Smart Drugs . 7 2.7. Dendrimers and Dendrimer-Based Devices . 10 2.8. Radio-Controlled Biomolecules . 11 3. Microscale Biological Robots . 13 3.1. Engineered Viruses . 13 3.2. Engineered Bacteria . 14 4. Medical Nanorobotics . 16 4.1. Early Thinking in Medical Nanorobotics . 16 4.2. Nanorobot Parts and Components . 16 4.3. Self-Assembly and Directed Parts Assembly . 23 4.4. Positional Assembly and Molecular Manufacturing . 29 4.5. Nanorobot Applications Designs and Scaling Studies . 39 References . 44
Photoemission from diamond and fullerene films for advanced accelerator applications

The photoemission properties of thin diamond and fullerene films were investigated for advanced accelerator applications, using subpicosecond laser pulses at three different wavelengths (650, 325, and 217 nm). The quantum efficiency (QE) obtained at 217 nm with a boron-doped, p-type, (111) polycrystalline diamond film (2.6/spl middot/10/sup -4/) was only five times smaller than the QE obtained with a mirror polished copper sample (1.3/spl middot/10/sup -3/) but more than nine times larger than the QE obtained with a pure diamond film or with natural diamond monocrystals. Similar results were obtained for the two-photon electron yields at 325 mm. The electron yields obtained with pure fullerene films were small and comparable to the ones observed with the pure diamond samples. With 650 mn pulses, the damage threshold of the [110] Type IIa natural diamond monocrystal (9.38/spl middot/10/sup 4/ /spl mu/J cm/sup -2/), defined here as the fluence leading to an onset of ion emission, was 25 times larger than the damage threshold for a copper sample (3.75/spl middot/10/sup 3/ /spl mu/J cm/sup -2/). The damage threshold of the boron-doped sample at the same wavelength was two times larger than that of copper. Damage thresholds with 325 nm pulses were lower, and with 217 mn pulses ion emission was observed at all fluences probably attributed to ablation of surface hydrocarbon contaminants. Results show that high-quality high-boron concentration diamond films could be a good candidate for high-RF electron guns.
SuperLoRA: Parameter-Efficient Unified Adaptation of Multi-Layer Attention Modules

Low-rank adaptation (LoRA) and its variants are widely employed in fine-tuning large models, including large language models for natural language processing and diffusion models for computer vision. This paper proposes a generalized framework called SuperLoRA that unifies and extends different LoRA variants, which can be realized under different hyper-parameter settings. Introducing grouping, folding, shuffling, projecting, and tensor factoring, SuperLoRA offers high flexibility compared with other LoRA variants and demonstrates superior performance for transfer learning tasks especially in the extremely few-parameter regimes.
A new approach to program testing

The current approach for testing a program is, in principle, quite primitive. Some small sample of the data that a program is expected to handle is presented to the program. If the program produces correct results for the sample, it is assumed to be correct. Much current work focuses on the question of how to choose this sample. We propose that a program can be more effectively tested by executing it "symbolically. " Instead of supplying specific constants as input values to a program being tested, one supplies symbols. The normal computational definitions for the basic operations performed by a program can be expanded to accept symbolic inputs and produce symbolic formulae as output. If the flow of control in the program is completely independent of its input parameters, then all output values can be symbolically computed as formulae over the symbolic inputs and examined for correctness. When the control flow of the program is input dependent, a case analysis can be performed producing output formulae for each class of inputs determined by the control flow dependencies. Using these ideas, we have designed and implemented an interactive debugging/testing system called EFFIGY.
Prospect Theory. An Analysis of Decision Making Under Risk

Abstract : The theoretical basis of decision analysis is utility theory, which describes the principles upon which people wish to base their decisions. This article questions the validity of utility theory and offers an alternative, 'prospect theory. ' In addition to providing evidence in support of prospect theory, this paper discusses its implications for the theory and practice of decision analysis. It suggests, for example, ways in which subtle changes in elicitation procedure can have marked effects on people's expressed values.
Heat Shock Protein 70 Promotes Cell Survival by Inhibiting Lysosomal Membrane Permeabilization

Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) is a potent survival protein whose depletion triggers massive caspase-independent tumor cell death. Here, we show that Hsp70 exerts its prosurvival function by inhibiting lysosomal membrane permeabilization. The cell death induced by Hsp70 depletion was preceded by the release of lysosomal enzymes into the cytosol and inhibited by pharmacological inhibitors of lysosomal cysteine proteases. Accordingly, the Hsp70-mediated protection against various death stimuli in Hsp70-expressing human tumor cells as well as in immortalized Hsp70 transgenic murine fibroblasts occurred at the level of the lysosomal permeabilization. On the contrary, Hsp70 failed to inhibit the cytochrome c–induced, apoptosome-dependent caspase activation in vitro and Fas ligand–induced, caspase-dependent apoptosis in immortalized fibroblasts. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed that endosomal and lysosomal membranes of tumor cells contained Hsp70. Permeabilization of purified endo/lysosomes by digitonin failed to release Hsp70, suggesting that it is physically associated with the membranes. Finally, Hsp70 positive lysosomes displayed increased size and resistance against chemical and physical membrane destabilization. These data identify Hsp70 as the first survival protein that functions by inhibiting the death-associated permeabilization of lysosomes.
Notice of RetractionReal Estate Investment and Regional Economic Growth: Evidence from Shandong Province

This paper, based on Shandong's quarterly time-series data from the first quarter of 2002 to the second quarter of 2008 and applying methods of co-integration test, error correction model (ECM), Granger causality test, impulse response function, variance decomposition etc., makes an empirical analysis of the relationship between real estate investment and Shandong's gross domestic product (GDP). It is shown from the results of the empirical analysis that there exists remarkably credible unilateral Granger causality relationship between real estate investment and regional GDP, and real estate investment is the Granger cause of the growth of regional GDP.