Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Representations in Executive Function: Investigating a Developmental Link between Flexibility and Abstraction

Young children often perseverate, engaging in previously correct, but no longer appropriate behaviors. One account posits that such perseveration results from the use of stimulus-specific representations of a situation, which are distinct from abstract, generalizable representations that support flexible behavior. Previous findings supported this account, demonstrating that only children who flexibly switch between rules could generalize their behavior to novel stimuli. However, this link between flexibility and generalization might reflect general cognitive abilities, or depend upon similarities across the measures or their temporal order. The current work examined these issues by testing the specificity and generality of this link. In two experiments with 3-year-old children, flexibility was measured in terms of switching between rules in a card-sorting task, while abstraction was measured in terms of selecting which stimulus did not belong in an odd-one-out task. The link between flexibility and abstraction was general across (1) abstraction dimensions similar to or different from those in the card-sorting task and (2) abstraction tasks that preceded or followed the switching task. Good performance on abstraction and flexibility measures did not extend to all cognitive tasks, including an IQ measure, and dissociated from children’s ability to gaze at the correct stimulus in the odd-one-out task, suggesting that the link between flexibility and abstraction is specific to such measures, rather than reflecting general abilities that affect all tasks. We interpret these results in terms of the role that developing prefrontal cortical regions play in processes such as working memory, which can support both flexibility and abstraction.
Application of Duffing oscillator from big cycle motion to chaotic motion in the detection of water treeing in XLPE power cable

On-line detection is very important for XLPE power cables running. The application of Duffing oscillator from big cycle motion to chaotic motion in the detection of water treeing in XLPE power cable is proposed, which is used to improve the precision measuring of the weak 1 Hz characteristic current which is the token of water tree deterioration. The Duffing oscillator from big cycle motion to chaotic motion is more sensitively to same or near periodic signal than the traditional Duffing oscillator. Simulation shows that the Duffing oscillator from big cycle motion to chaotic motion is more suitable to be used to detect the 1 Hz characteristic current precisely and sensitively.
Impulsive Consensus for Complex Dynamical Networks with Nonidentical Nodes and Coupling Time-Delays

This paper investigates the problem of global consensus between a complex dynamical network (CDN) and a known goal signal by designing an impulsive consensus control scheme. The dynamical network is complex with respect to the uncertainties, nonidentical nodes, and coupling time-delays. The goal signal can be a measurable vector function or a solution of a dynamical system. By utilizing the Lyapunov function and Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional methods, robust global exponential stability criteria are derived for the error system, under which global exponential impulsive consensus is achieved for the CDN. These criteria are expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) and algebraic inequalities. Thus, the impulsive controller can be easily designed by solving the derived inequalities. Meanwhile, the estimations of the consensus rate for global exponential consensus are also obtained. Two examples with numerical simulations are worked out for illustration.
Use of Self-Regulation Principles to Improve Adolescent Treatment Adherence to the Medical Regimen for Diabetes

A substantial percentage of youngsters with diabetes have treatment adherence problems that inevitably reduce treatment efficacy. Effective adherence to a diabetes treatment regimen requires adolescents’ motivation to manage goal pursuit in the face of personal and situational obstacles. However, interventions are usually associated only with health promotion and not with the motivational structure typical of adolescents, their perceived purpose in life and their meaningful personal goals. Using principles for the motivation and self-regulation of goals adapted from the fields of social and personality psychology, we suggest a motivation-based conceptual framework to address the problem of treatment adherence. We argue that the failure to adhere to treatment is partially the result of the conflict between adolescents’ health-related goals and their personal goals. We suggest that adolescents’ motivation for treatment adherence can be increased and reinforced by forging an association between their personal life goals and their health-related goals. We present a two-phase model for goal setting and goal striving that aims to improve patient evaluation and ability to cope with resource delusion in the face of numerous self-regulatory challenges associated with adherence to the medical treatment regimen for diabetes.
Torus Immersions and Transformations

All possible immersions of a torus in 3D Euclidean space can be grouped into four regular homotopy classes. All possible immersions within one such class can be transfigured into one another through continuous smooth transformations that will put no tears, creases, or other regions of infinite curvature into the surface. This report introduces four simple, easy-to-understand representatives for these four homotopy classes and describes several transformations that convert a more complex immersion of some torus into one of these representatives. Among them are transformations that turn a torus inside out and others that will rotate its surface parameterization by 90 degrees.
Source Discrimination in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Objectives The context of memory experiences is referred to as source memory and can be distinguished from the content of episodic item memory. Source memory represents a crucial part of biographic events and elaborate memory experiences. Whereas individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were shown to have inefficient item memory, little is known about the context of memory experiences. Methods The present study compared 37 adult patients with a diagnosed ADHD with 40 matched healthy participants on a word list paradigm. Memory functions of encoding, retention and source discrimination were assessed. Furthermore, standardized measures of memory and executive control were applied in order to explore a qualitative differentiation of memory components. Results Adult patients with ADHD showed impaired performance in encoding of new information whereas the retention of encoded items was found to be preserved. The most pronounced impairment of patients with ADHD was observed in source discrimination. Regression models of cognitive functions on memory components supported some qualitative differentiation. Conclusions Data analysis suggests a differential pattern of memory impairment in adults suffering from ADHD with a particular deficit in source discrimination. Inefficient source discrimination in adults with ADHD can affect daily functioning by limiting biographic awareness and disturbing general cognitive processes.
Vascular smooth muscle cell phenotypic modulation in culture is associated with reorganisation of contractile and cytoskeletal proteins.

Smooth muscle cells (SMC) exhibit a functional plasticity, modulating from the mature phenotype in which the primary function is contraction, to a less differentiated state with increased capacities for motility, protein synthesis, and proliferation. The present study determined, using Western analysis, double-label immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy, whether changes in phenotypic expression of rabbit aortic SMC in culture could be correlated with alterations in expression and distribution of structural proteins. "Contractile" state SMC (days 1 and 3 of primary culture) showed distinct sorting of proteins into subcellular domains, consistent with the theory that the SMC structural machinery is compartmentalised within the cell. Proteins specialised for contraction (alpha-SM actin, SM-MHC, and calponin) were highly expressed in these cells and concentrated in the upper central region of the cell. Vimentin was confined to the body of the cell, providing support for the contractile apparatus but not co-localising with it. In line with its role in cell attachment and motility, beta-NM actin was localised to the cell periphery and basal cortex. The dense body protein alpha-actinin was concentrated at the cell periphery, possibly stabilising both contractile and motile apparatus. Vinculin-containing focal adhesions were well developed, indicating the cells' strong adhesion to substrate. In "synthetic" state SMC (passages 2-3 of culture), there was decreased expression of contractile and adhesion (vinculin) proteins with a concomitant increase in cytoskeletal proteins (beta-non-muscle [NM] actin and vimentin). These quantitative changes in structural proteins were associated with dramatic changes in their distribution. The distinct compartmentalisation of structural proteins observed in "contractile" state SMC was no longer obvious, with proteins more evenly distributed throughout the cytoplasm to accommodate altered cell function. Thus, SMC phenotypic modulation involves not only quantitative changes in contractile and cytoskeletal proteins, but also reorganisation of these proteins. Since the cytoskeleton acts as a spatial regulator of intracellular signalling, reorganisation of the cytoskeleton may lead to realignment of signalling molecules, which, in turn, may mediate the changes in function associated with SMC phenotypic modulation.
MSIsensor: microsatellite instability detection using paired tumor-normal sequence data

MOTIVATION Microsatellite instability (MSI) is an important indicator of larger genome instability and has been linked to many genetic diseases, including Lynch syndrome. MSI status is also an independent prognostic factor for favorable survival in multiple cancer types, such as colorectal and endometrial. It also informs the choice of chemotherapeutic agents. However, the current PCR-electrophoresis-based detection procedure is laborious and time-consuming, often requiring visual inspection to categorize samples. We developed MSIsensor, a C++ program for automatically detecting somatic microsatellite changes. It computes length distributions of microsatellites per site in paired tumor and normal sequence data, subsequently using these to statistically compare observed distributions in both samples. Comprehensive testing indicates MSIsensor is an efficient and effective tool for deriving MSI status from standard tumor-normal paired sequence data. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION https://github.com/ding-lab/msisensor
Cosine-neighbourhood-refinement: Towards a robust network formation mechanism

In this paper we consider the classical network formation problem where nodes want to connect to other nodes that have similar “interests”. This problem is of fundamental importance in the network formation of peer-to-peer networks and online social networks. For this problem, we study whether there exists an algorithm that is robust with respect to the underlying interest graph that models the similarity of nodes in the networks. With robust, we mean that the algorithm is simple and achieves high-performance for a variety of interest graph models. The concrete interest graph models that we consider are the widely used planted partition and latent space model. We propose a network formation mechanism based on a cosine-neighbourhood refinement step and formally show that it performs well for the planted partition model. In addition, it can be shown that this mechanism based on cosine-neighbourhood refinement step also performs well under a latent space model for a one-dimensional sphere. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a network formation mechanism has been shown to be robust and perform well for both the planted partition and latent space model. The proposed algorithm is simple and can be implemented in a distributed or centralized manner.
Rare, medium or welldone? Motivation behind behaviour in relation to consumption of animal products

Produktionen av animalier har en stor negativ inverkan pa miljon, anda har konsumtionen av kott fortsatt att oka. Ett urval av karnister, vegetarianer och veganer i Malmo, Sverige, och Berlin, Tyskland, studerades via semi-strukturerade intervjuer och med Grounded Theory som en metodologisk bas for datainsamling, analys och tolkning. Den geografiska jamforelsen motiverades av vissa uppfattade skillnader och likheter mellan staderna och som ansags kunna bidra till ett bredare perspektiv i studien. Genom att tillampa olika teorier stravade vi i denna studie efter att identifiera vilka faktorer som paverkar individens vilja och formaga att minska den egna konsumtionen av animaliska produkter. Det konstaterades att normer, varderingar, kunskap, ekonomiska incitament, tillganglighet och etiska aspekter var de mest inflytelserika faktorerna.
A Receive Antenna Directivity Diversity Method for MIMO-OFDM

Receive antenna selection diverrsity in MIMO-OFDM transmission is attractive because it can achieve better BER performance due to higher diversity gain obtained, keeping the cost and energy consumption low. However, how to select a suitable set of receive antenna elements is a key issue, with low computational and hardware complexity. In this paper, we propose an receive antenna directivity diversity method for a MIMO-OFDM system with RF-MEMS switches. We discuss the BER performance of the proposed method as well as conventional methods by computer simulations with the measured channel data in a 5 GHz frequency band.
Policy based management for next generation mobile networks

This paper describes a policy based management system envisaged to achieve management of networks and services in diversified radio environments. This work is conducted in the European project MONASIDRE currently developing a distributed management system for three coexisting technologies. The technologies are UMTS, Hiperlan and DVB. The common open policy service (COPS) has been selected to achieve part of the service and network management infrastructure.
Regularization super-resolution image fusion considering inaccurate image registration and observation noise

In this paper, a kind of super-resolution image fusion algorithm is proposed to regularize the distortion of the reconstructed high-resolution (HR) image caused by the inaccurate image registration and the observation noise. For this purpose, the registration error, caused by inaccurate image registration, is considered as the noise mean added in the observation noise known as additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Based on this consideration, two constraints are regulated pixel by pixel within the framework of Millerpsilas regularization, and combined with regularization parameters to construct one cost function. The regularization parameters are adaptively estimated in each pixel in terms of the registration error, as well as in each observation channel in terms of the AWGN. Simulation shows that the proposed regularized SR algorithm can fuse the information from multiple LR images effectively and achieve the reconstructed HR images with much sharper edges and higher PSNR.
Cortical Abnormalities and Non-Spatial Learning Deficits in a Mouse Model of CranioFrontoNasal Syndrome

Eph receptors and their ephrin ligands play critical roles in the development of the nervous system, however, less is known about their functions in the adult brain. Here, we investigated the function of ephrinB1, an ephrinB family member that is mutated in CranioFrontoNasal Syndrome. We show that ephrinB1 deficient mice (EfnB1Y/−) demonstrate spared spatial learning and memory but exhibit exclusive impairment in non-spatial learning and memory tasks. We established that ephrinB1 does not control learning and memory through direct modulation of synaptic plasticity in adults, since it is not expressed in the adult brain. Rather we show that the cortex of EfnB1Y/− mice displayed supernumerary neurons, with a particular increase in calretinin-positive interneurons. Further, the increased neuron number in EfnB1Y/− mutants correlated with shorter dendritic arborization and decreased spine densities of cortical pyramidal neurons. Our findings indicate that ephrinB1 plays an important role in cortical maturation and that its loss has deleterious consequences on selective cognitive functions in the adult.
Optimal Bandwidth Selection for Nonparametric Conditional Distribution and Quantile Functions

We propose a data-driven least-square cross-validation method to optimally select smoothing parameters for the nonparametric estimation of conditional cumulative distribution functions and conditional quantile functions. We allow for general multivariate covariates that can be continuous, categorical, or a mix of either. We provide asymptotic analysis, examine finite-sample properties via Monte Carlo simulation, and consider an application involving testing for first-order stochastic dominance of children’s health conditional on parental education and income. This article has supplementary materials online.
The mechanism of osmotic transfection of avian embryonic erythrocytes: analysis of a system for studying developmental gene expression

We have undertaken a study of the mechanism of DNA transfer into primary chicken erythrocytes by a method named osmotic transfection. The cells are subjected to controlled osmotic swelling in NH4Cl and then ruptured in a lower osmotic strength solution containing DNA and DEAE-dextran. The osmotic rupture results in transient formation of a single hole in the cell membrane, which is followed within hours by recovery of near normal levels of RNA and protein synthesis. The association of DNA with the cells is much greater for ruptured than for unruptured cells or for cells that have been lysed and resealed before DNA is added. Transient formation of pores in the cell membrane is apparently essential for high rates of macromolecular transfer into the cell. DEAE-dextran increases the amount of DNA associated with the cells, especially after cell rupture. Our understanding of the mechanism has allowed us to extend the application of osmotic transfection to essentially all developmental stages of avian erythroid differentiation. Osmotic transfections were done with plasmids containing the chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (cat) gene placed between the chicken beta-globin promoter and the 3' beta-globin enhancer. The pattern of CAT expression at sequential developmental stages parallels that of the endogenous gene, showing that osmotically transfected cells appear to retain developmental fidelity. The approach provides a convenient, sensitive, and flexible system for the study of transient gene expression as a function of development.
RELATIVE CLAUSE ATTACHMENT AMBIGUITY RESOLUTION IN PERSIAN

The present study seeks to find the way Persian native speakers resolve relative clause attachment ambiguities in sentences containing a complex NP of the type NP of NP followed by a relative clause (RC). Previous off-line studies have found a preference for high attachment; in the present study, an on-line technique was used to help identify the nature of this process. Persian speakers were presented with sentences that were semantically consistent with either high or low attachment resolution. Results of the analysis of reaction times from 32 participants by the use of RSVP technique revealed that high attachment is the strategy used by Persian native speakers for this type of ambiguity. The results are in harmony with the previous findings in the literature showing a high attachment preference by Persian native speakers. However, the findings are inconsistent with constrained based-models and suggest that native speaker use purely structure-based parsing strategies.
Development of an instrument to measure mothers' performance of self-care activities for children.

One who performs self-care activities for another is known as a dependent care agent, according to Orem. Attempts to study mothers' performance of self-care activities for children have been impeded by the lack of an instrument with which to measure dependent care agent performance. Findings based on a sample of 475 women indicate that the Dependent Care Agent (DCA) questionnaire developed in this study had a coefficient alpha of . 91, with item-total correlations ranging from . 27 to . 63. Although Orem's expected dimensions of universal, developmental, and health deviation requisites were not represented in the factor analysis, individual requisites for self-care were clearly present.
On Accurate Quotient Singular Value Computation in Floating-Point Arithmetic

This paper presents a new algorithm for floating-point computation of the quotient singular value decomposition of an arbitrary matrix pair $(A,B) \in \mathbf{R}^{m \times n} \times \mathbf{R}^{p \times n}$. In the case of full column rank $A$, the new algorithm computes all finite quotient singular values with high relative accuracy if $\min\{\kappa_2(AD),\ D\ \mbox{diagonal}\}$ is moderate and if an accurate rank revealing LU factorization of B is possible. Numerical experiments show that in such a case the new algorithm computes the quotient singular values of all pairs (AD,D1 BD2) with nearly the same accuracy, where D, D1, D2 are arbitrary diagonal nonsingular matrices.
Combining first-person and third-person gaze for attention recognition

This paper presents a method to recognize attentional behaviors from a head-mounted binocular eye tracker in triadic interactions. By taking advantage of the first-person view, we simultaneously estimate the first-person and third-person gaze. The first-person gaze is computed using an appearance-based method relying on local features. In parallel, head pose tracking allows determining the coarse gaze of people in the scene camera. Finally, knowing the first- and third-person gaze direction, scores are computed which permit to assign attention patterns to each frame. Our contributions are the followings: (i) head pose estimation based on localized regression, (ii) attention analysis, in particular mutual and shared gaze, including the first-person gaze, (iii) experiments conducted using a head-mounted appearance-based gaze tracker. Experiments on recorded data show encouraging results.