Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling orientation and ocular dominance columns in the visual cortex

In this thesis, we develol) a macroscopic model of the formation of ocular dominance and orientation colunns in the manmmalian visual cortex. We not only reproduce the static patterns of orientation pinwheels and ocular dominance stri)pes seen in the macaque monkey, b)ut also model the development of these p)atterns, paying particular attention to the ob)served stability of the adult resp)onse. We model ocular dominamce as a scalar field. Initial cond(litions, reflecting small fluctuations around a binocular response. (develop into a p)attern of domains corresponding to the observed monocular bands. The domains are sep)arated by domain walls where ocular (dominance changes rap)idly. Competition be('tween short range exhitations. which favor continuity, and long range inhibitions, which favor diversity, stabilize the do(mains and result in a pattcrn of strip)es. Orientation is modeled(1 b a complex nuli)er to reflect b)oth its preferenice and selectivity. An initial pattern. consisting of small fluctuations around zero selectivity, evolves into a iattern containing vortices, which are naturally associated with the observed pinwlheels. Pairs of vortices of opposite circulation ex)erience anl ffec(tive att.raction, and slowly mliove toward each other, eventually annihilating to create a mIore uniforml response. We are ablle to stabili:.-; the pattern of vortices and rep)roduce olbserved( correlations between the ocular dolminance and orientation p)atterns, by inclu(ling a local coupling between the two fields. It is natural to think of this coupling as a result of the cortex's limited comIutational cap)acity, i.e. areas which respond strongly to orientation cannot simultaneously respond strongly to ocular dominance. In addition to coup)ling between ocular dominance and orientation patterns, we consider weak coup)ling to a large numlber of unknown fields represented by static randomness. This miore generalized coupling can exp)lain the presence of stable orientation p)atterns in animals which do not have detectal)ble ocular dominance bands. Thesis Supervisor: Meiran Kardar Title: Professor of Physics
The N domain of Smad 7 is essential for specific inhibition of transforming growth factor-signaling

nhibitory Smads (I-Smads) repress signaling by cytokines of the transforming growth factor(TGF) superfamily. I-Smads have conserved carboxy-terminal Mad homology 2 (MH2) domains, whereas the amino acid sequences of their amino-terminal regions (N domains) are highly divergent from those of other Smads. Of the two different I-Smads in mammals, Smad7 inhibited signaling by both TGFand bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), whereas Smad6 was less effective in inhibiting TGFsignaling. Analyses using deletion mutants and chimeras of Smad6 and Smad7 revealed that the MH2 domains were responsible for the inhibition of both TGFand BMP signaling by I-Smads, but the isolated MH2 domains of Smad6 and Smad7 were I less potent than the full-length Smad7 in inhibiting TGFsignaling. The N domains of I-Smads determined the subcellular localization of these molecules. Chimeras containing the N domain of Smad7 interacted with the TGFtype I receptor (T R-I) more efficiently, and were more potent in repressing TGFsignaling, than those containing the N domain of Smad6. The isolated N domain of Smad7 physically interacted with the MH2 domain of Smad7, and enhanced the inhibitory activity of the latter through facilitating interaction with TGFreceptors. The N domain of Smad7 thus plays an important role in the specific inhibition of TGFsignaling.
MEFV mutations in systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

OBJECTIVES Autoinflammatory diseases constitute a large spectrum of monogenic diseases like FMF or cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS) and complex genetic trait diseases such as systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SoJIA). An increased rate of MEFV mutations has been shown among patients with PAN and HSP, in populations where FMF is frequent. The aim of the study is to search for MEFV mutations in our patients with SoJIA and see whether these mutations had an effect on disease course or complications. METHODS Thirty-five children with the diagnosis of SoJIA were screened for 12 MEFV mutations. The control data were obtained from a previous study of our centre determining the carrier frequency in Turkish population. RESULTS Two patients were homozygous and three patients were heterozygous for the M694V mutation. One patient was a compound heterozygote for the M680I/V726A mutations. Heterozygous V726A mutation was found in one patient. The overall mutation frequency of patients was 14.28%. This figure had been compared with the previously published rate of disease-causing mutations in this country, which is 5%. Disease-causing mutations were found to be significantly more frequent in the SoJIA patients than the population (P < 0.01). Among these, M694V was the leading mutation with a frequency of 10% in SoJIA. Six patients carrying MEFV mutations were among the most resistant cases requiring biological therapy. CONCLUSION SoJIA patients had a significantly higher frequency of MEFV mutations but clinical studies with large number of patients are needed to confirm the association of MEFV mutations with SoJIA and its course.
Pension Fund Financial Planning

A number of recent events have led corporate sponsors of defined benefit pension plans to search for improved financial planning techniques. These events include the trend to expand benefits, depressed equity markets, high rates of inflation and the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) which has often resulted in expanded vested benefits, higher pension contributions, and increased fiduciary responsibility. In many cases pension contributions have become a significant burden on corporate financial resources.
WatchSense: On- and Above-Skin Input Sensing through a Wearable Depth Sensor

This paper contributes a novel sensing approach to support on- and above-skin finger input for interaction on the move. WatchSense uses a depth sensor embedded in a wearable device to expand the input space to neighboring areas of skin and the space above it. Our approach addresses challenging camera-based tracking conditions, such as oblique viewing angles and occlusions. It can accurately detect fingertips, their locations, and whether they are touching the skin or hovering above it. It extends previous work that supported either mid-air or multitouch input by simultaneously supporting both. We demonstrate feasibility with a compact, wearable prototype attached to a user's forearm (simulating an integrated depth sensor). Our prototype---which runs in real-time on consumer mobile devices---enables a 3D input space on the back of the hand. We evaluated the accuracy and robustness of the approach in a user study. We also show how WatchSense increases the expressiveness of input by interweaving mid-air and multitouch for several interactive applications.
Fuzzy control using genetic algorithm for gas collectors of coke ovens

The pressure system of gas collectors of coke oven is a multivariable non-linear process. A new model of the fuzzy control using the genetic algorithm for the pressure system of gas collectors of coke oven is proposed in this paper. The improved genetic algorithm is an on-line technique and is used to optimize the parameters of the fuzzy controller and to eliminate coupling of the pressure between the gas collector pipe of the coke oven1# and one of the coke oven2# in real-time. The simulation results show that this method is satisfied and efficient.
An empirical comparison of "wiimote" gun attachments for pointing tasks

We evaluated and compared four input methods using the Nintendo Wii Remote for pointing tasks. The methods used (i) the "A" button on top of the device, (ii) the "B" button on the bottom of the device, (iii) the Intec Wii Combat Shooter attachment and (iv) the Nintendo Wii Zapper attachment. Fitts' throughput for all four input methods was calculated for both button-up and button-down events. Results indicate that the throughput of the Wii Remote using the A button is 2.85 bps for button-down events. Performance with the Intec Wii Combat Shooter attachment was significantly worse than with the other input methods, likely due to the trigger mechanism. Throughput for button-down target selection using the B button was highest at 2.93 bps.
Security testing of the communication among Android applications

An important reason behind the popularity of smartphones and tablets is the huge amount of available applications to download, to expand functionalities of the devices with brand new features. In fact, official stores provide a plethora of applications developed by third parties, for entertainment and business, most of which for free. However, confidential data (e.g., phone contacts, global GPS position, banking data and emails) could be disclosed by vulnerable applications. Sensitive applications should carefully validate exchanged data to avoid security problems. In this paper, we propose a novel testing approach to test communication among applications on mobile devices. We present a test case generation strategy and a testing adequacy criterion for Android applications. Our approach has been assessed on three widely used Android applications.
Asymptotic density and the coarse computability bound

For r ∈( 0, 1) we say that a set A ⊆ ω is coarsely computable at density r if there is a computable set C such that {n : C(n) = A(n)} has lower density at least r . L et γ( A)= sup{r : A is coarsely computable at density r}. We study the interactions of these concepts with Turing reducibility. For example, we show that if r ∈ (0, 1) there are sets A0, A1 such that γ( A0) = γ( A1) = r where A0 is coarsely computable at density r while A1 is not coarsely computable at density r . W e show that a real r ∈( 0, 1) is equal to γ( A)for some c.e. set A if and only if r is left-� 0 . A surprising result is that if G is a � 0 1-generic set, and A T G with γ( A)= 1, then A is coarsely computable at density 1.
Metronidazole Concentrations in Human Plasma, Saliva, and Gingival Crevice Fluid after a Single Dose

Metronidazole concentrations were estimated in four human volunteers after a single dose of 750 mg taken orally. Samples of blood, saliva, and gingival crevice fluid were collected before intake and during the following 24 hours. The concentrations of metronidazole in plasma and saliva were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The concentrations in gingival fluid were estimated by a capillary agar-diffusion assay. The results of the metronidazole measurements as obtained by both methods were significantly correlated. The peak concentrations of metronidazole in plasma and saliva were in the same range, 8.7-13.8 μ g/mL, and similar concentrations were found in the gingival fluid samples. It is concluded that metronidazole taken orally has similar pharmacokinetics in both saliva and plasma, and that a single oral dose of 750 mg metronidazole leads to a concentration of the drug in the gingival crevice fluid that exceeds the minimal inhibitory concentration for most anaerobic oral micro-organisms.
CRYPTIC PRECOCIOUS/MED12 is a Novel Flowering Regulator with Multiple Target Steps in Arabidopsis

The proper timing of flowering is of crucial importance for reproductive success of plants. Regulation of flowering is orchestrated by inputs from both environmental and endogenous signals such as daylength, light quality, temperature and hormones, and key flowering regulators construct several parallel and interactive genetic pathways. This integrative regulatory network has been proposed to create robustness as well as plasticity of the regulation. Although knowledge of key genes and their regulation has been accumulated, there still remains much to learn about how they are organized into an integrative regulatory network. Here, we have analyzed the CRYPTIC PRECOCIOUS (CRP) gene for the Arabidopsis counterpart of the MED12 subunit of the Mediator. A novel dominant mutant, crp-1D, which causes up-regulation of SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1 (SOC1), FRUITFULL (FUL) and APETALA1 (AP1) expression in a FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT)-dependent manner, was identified in an enhancer screen of the early-flowering phenotype of 35S::FT. Genetic and molecular analysis of both crp-1D and crp loss-of-function alleles showed that MED12/CRP is required not only for proper regulation of SOC1, FUL and AP1, but also for up-regulation of FT, TWIN SISTER OF FT (TSF) and FD, and down-regulation of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). These observations suggest that MED12/CRP is a novel flowering regulator with multiple regulatory target steps both upstream and downstream of the key flowering regulators including FT florigen. Our work, taken together with recent studies of other Mediator subunit genes, supports an emerging view that the Mediator plays multiple roles in the regulation of flowering.
Dynamic model of space continuous prisoner's dilemma and the Repast S simulation

Prisoner's Dilemma, which is a basic model adopted by the vast majority of co-evolution researchers, not only is a classic paradigm for studying co-evolution but also is a classic paradigm of modern business management for researching the enterprises, between which there is competition and cooperation. In this paper, a dynamic model of spatial continuous Prisoner's Dilemma (CPD) will be suggested, which is based on Killingback's continuous Prisoner's Dilemma model, and then the relationship between the individual investment cost-revenue and average investment volume will be analyzed by a simulation experiment using Repast S tool, which was developed by university of Chicago Social Sciences Research Centre, finally the emerging co-evolution reasons will be explained in the aspect of temptation value.
Abelian Magnetic Monopoles and Topologically Massive Vector Bosons in Scalar-Tensor Gravity with Torsion Potential

A Lagrangian formulation describing the electromagnetic interaction — mediated by topologically massive vector bosons — between charged, spin-½ fermions with an Abelian magnetic monopole in a curved space–time with nonminimal coupling and torsion potential is presented. The covariant field equations are obtained. The issue of coexistence of massive photons and magnetic monopoles is addressed in the present framework. It is found that despite the topological nature of photon mass generation in curved space–time with isotropic dilaton field, the classical field theory describing the nonrelativistic electromagnetic interaction between a point-like electric charge and magnetic monopole is inconsistent.
Work in progress - an integrated programming environment suitable for distance learning

Autonomous robots are used as a vehicle to learn programming in C and Java, to design neural network controllers, to experiment with finite state machines and to explore operating system concepts. Our environment is deployed as (i) physical robots, (ii) multi-robot simulation written as a Java application, (iii) distributed multi-robot simulation using client-server architecture running on the Web. This paper details the design rationale, implementation, deployment and reports evaluation of the work to date. The software is freely available from the author at c.price@worc.ac. uk.
Identifying Predictors of Cumulative Healthcare Costs in Incident Atrial Fibrillation: A Population‐Based Study

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) has substantial impacts on healthcare resource utilization. Our objective was to understand the pattern and predictors of cumulative healthcare costs in AF patients after incident diagnosis in an emergency department (ED). Methods and Results Patients discharged after a first presentation of AF to an ED in Ontario, Canada, were identified from April 1, 2005, through March 31, 2010. Per‐patient cumulative healthcare costs were determined until death or March 31, 2012. Join‐point analyses identified clinically relevant cost phases. Hierarchical generalized linear models with a logarithmic link and gamma distribution determined predictors of cost per phase. Our cohort was 17 980 patients. During a mean follow‐up of 3.9 years, 17.1% of patients died. Three distinct cost phases were identified: 2‐month post–index ED visit phase, 12‐month predeath phase, and a stable/chronic phase. The mean cost per patient in the first month post–index ED visit was $1876 (95% CI $1822 to $1931), $8050 (95% CI $7666 to $8434) in the month before death, and $640 (95% CI $624 to $655) per month for the stable/chronic phase. The main cost component in the post‐index phase was physician services (32% of all costs) and hospitalizations for the predeath phase (72% of all costs). The CHA2DS2‐VASc clinical risk score was a strong predictor of costs (rate ratio 1.91 and 5.08 for score of 7 versus score of 0 in predeath phase and postindex phase, respectively). Conclusions There are distinct phases of resource utilization in AF, with highest costs in the predeath phase.
Learning to Start for Sequence to Sequence Architecture

The sequence to sequence architecture is widely used in the response generation and neural machine translation to model the potential relationship between two sentences. It typically consists of two parts: an encoder that reads from the source sentence and a decoder that generates the target sentence word by word according to the encoder's output and the last generated word. However, it faces to the cold start problem when generating the first word as there is no previous word to refer. Existing work mainly use a special start symbol to generate the first word. An obvious drawback of these work is that there is not a learnable relationship between words and the start symbol. Furthermore, it may lead to the error accumulation for decoding when the first word is incorrectly generated. In this paper, we proposed a novel approach to learning to generate the first word in the sequence to sequence architecture rather than using the start symbol. Experimental results on the task of response generation of short text conversation show that the proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art approach in both of the automatic and manual evaluations.
A localized backbone renovating algorithm for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks

In this paper we propose and analyze a localized backbone renovating algorithm (LBR) to renovate a broken backbone in the network. This research is motivated by the problem of virtual backbone maintenance in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, where the coverage area of nodes are disks with identical radii. According to our theoretical analysis, the proposed algorithm has the ability to renovate the backbone in a purely localized manner with a guaranteed connectivity of the network, while keeping the backbone size within a constant factor from that of the minimum CDS. Both the communication overhead and computation overhead of the LBR algorithm are O(k), where k is the number of nodes broken or added. We also conduct extensive simulation study on connectivity, backbone size, and the communication/computation overhead. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can always keep the renovated backbone being connected at low communication/computation overhead with a relatively small backbone, compared with other existing schemes. Furthermore, the LBR algorithm has the ability to deal with arbitrary number of node failures and additions in the network.
Cardiac Dimensions over 5 Years in Highly Trained Long-Distance Runners and Sprinters

Abstract Aims: We assessed the changes in cardiac morphology between elite endurance-trained runners (n = 42) and elite sprinters (n = 34) over a 5-year period. In addition, we studied the relationship between heart size and maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 max). Methods: At the beginning of 5 consecutive seasons, all athletes underwent an incremental running test to determine VO2 max and a color-coded pulsed Doppler examination to determine baseline echocardiographic variables. We hypothesized that cardiac morphology had reached its upper limit in elite athletes, and showed only minor changes during 5 years of regular training. Results: Although all echocardiographic variables remained stable in nearly all sprinters studied, in the endurance runners (who presented higher cardiac cavity dimensions compared with sprinters), variations in heart morphology became evident from the third season, and were within established physiological limits. Conclusion: Only 6 (17%) endurance runners and 3 (9%) sprinters showed a left ventricular internal diameter of > 60 mm (the threshold pathological value) at end diastole at some point during the observational period. Moreover, no statistically significant association was detected between changes in VO2 max and changes in heart size. After 5 years of intense training, the changes of the echocardiographic variables examined remained different between endurance runners and sprinters.
Dynamic susceptibility-weighted perfusion imaging of high-grade gliomas: characterization of spatial heterogeneity.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The advent of new anti-angiogenic therapies has created the need for better defining regions of abnormal vascularity in order to add specificity to the classification of high-grade gliomas. This study investigated MR imaging parameters corresponding to the peak height and percent recovery of the T2* relaxivity curve to characterize angiogenesis and microvascular leakage within the T2 and contrast-enhancing abnormalities in high-grade gliomas. METHODS Dynamic susceptibility-weighted MR imaging was performed in 41 patients with untreated high-grade glioma during the first pass and recirculation phase of a gadolinium bolus injection. Normalized peak height and percent recovery of the post-bolus signal were calculated on a voxel by voxel basis within the T2 and contrast-enhancing lesions (T2L, CEL) and compared between grade III and grade IV gliomas. RESULTS Grade IV gliomas showed significantly larger volumes of abnormal peak height and recovery compared to grade III patients (P < .01). Within the CEL, grade IV gliomas exhibited significantly higher peak height values than grade III patients (P < .05). Enhancing grade III patients (n = 7) demonstrated higher minimum values of percent recovery within both regions compared to grade IV patients. Non-enhancing grade III gliomas (n = 11) had significantly elevated minimum percent recovery values when compared to the T2L-CEL region in grade IV patients (n = 23; P < .05). CONCLUSION Direct measurement of the spatial distribution of tumor microvasculature characteristics has shown considerable heterogeneity within different regions of grade III and grade IV gliomas. Peak height and percent recovery parameters help to improve the specificity for characterization of the degree of angiogenesis and microvascular leakage in these tumors and may be useful in evaluating response to treatment.