Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MoBILAB: an open source toolbox for analysis and visualization of mobile brain/body imaging data

A new paradigm for human brain imaging, mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI), involves synchronous collection of human brain activity (via electroencephalography, EEG) and behavior (via body motion capture, eye tracking, etc.), plus environmental events (scene and event recording) to study joint brain/body dynamics supporting natural human cognition supporting performance of naturally motivated human actions and interactions in 3-D environments (Makeig et al., 2009). Processing complex, concurrent, multi-modal, multi-rate data streams requires a signal-processing environment quite different from one designed to process single-modality time series data. Here we describe MoBILAB (more details available at sccn.ucsd.edu/wiki/MoBILAB), an open source, cross platform toolbox running on MATLAB (The Mathworks, Inc.) that supports analysis and visualization of any mixture of synchronously recorded brain, behavioral, and environmental time series plus time-marked event stream data. MoBILAB can serve as a pre-processing environment for adding behavioral and other event markers to EEG data for further processing, and/or as a development platform for expanded analysis of simultaneously recorded data streams.
Visual cortex development in the ferret. I. Genesis and migration of visual cortical neurons

The production of ferret visual cortical neurons was studied using 3H- thymidine autoradiography. The genesis of cortical neurons begins on or slightly before embryonic day 20 (E20) of the 41 d gestational period, continues postnatally until 2 weeks after birth (P14), and follows an inside-out radial gradient with neurons for the deeper cortical layers being generated before those for the superficial layers. Layer I neurons are generated both early (E20-E30) and late (P1-P14) in the period of cortical neurogenesis and, thus, provide at least a partial exception to the inside-out gradient of cortical neurogenesis. Tangential gradients of cortical neurogenesis extend across areas 17 and 18 in both the anterior-to-posterior and lateral-to-medial directions. Neither of these gradients bears a meaningful relationship to the cortical representation of the visual field. Most infragranular and granular layer neurons are generated prenatally, while most supragranular layer neurons are produced postnatally. Neurons destined for a given layer are produced over a period of several days, and the neurons generated on any given day contribute to the formation of 2 or more cortical layers. In general, prenatally generated neurons complete their migration in 1 week or less, while most postnatally generated neurons require approximately 2 weeks to complete their migration.
Correlation of Topic Model and Student Grades Using Comment Data Mining

Assessment of learning progress and learning gain play a pivotal role in education fields. New technologies like comment data mining promote the use of new types of contents; student comments highly reflect student learning attitudes and activities compared to more traditional methods and they can be a powerful source of data for all forms of assessment. A teacher just asks students after every lesson to freely describe and write about their learning situations and behaviors. This paper proposes new methods based on a statistical latent class "Topics" for the task of student grade prediction; our methods convert student comments using latent semantic analysis (LSA) and probabilistic latent semantic analysis (PLSA), and generate prediction models using support vector machine (SVM) and artificial neural network (ANN) to predict student final grades. The experimental results show that our methods can accurately predict student grades based on comment data.
Three Voices/One Message: The Importance of Mimesis for Human Morality

Our twenty-first century is a time of turbulence. Some of that turbulence is derived from not fully understanding what makes us moral. This article reassesses human morality in order to identify what nurtures and what distorts our moral nature. Such a reassessment potentially offers hope for a way through the escalating violence in our world that currently threatens to destroy us. This article focuses on three voices: the voice of anthropological philosopher Rene Girard, whose mimetic theory calls us to wake up about our role in creating violence; the voice of medieval scholastic John Duns Scotus, whose moral theory is enjoying a renaissance in our contemporary world; and the voice of neuroscience with its unfolding knowledge about how human neurophysiology mediates our actions and our morality. Central to all three messages is the concept of empathy. The term "empathy" is only about a hundred years old.1 It is defined by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as the action of and the capacity for "understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing
Work-family policies and the effects of children on women's employment hours and wages

Welfare state generosity around work-family policies appears to have somewhat contradictory effects, at least for some measures of gender equality. Work-family policies, in encouraging higher levels of women's labor market participation, may have also contributed to lower wage-levels for women relative to men, for instance. We consider the relationship between particular work-family policies and mothers’ employment outcomes. Analyses use data on employed women aged 25–45 from the Luxembourg Income Study for 21 countries across Eastern and Western Europe, North America, Israel, and Australia. We estimate within each country differences in employment hours and wages for women based on their number of children. Then, we examine the association of estimated per child penalties in wage and employment hours with country-level data on leaves and childcare. Work-family policies are generally associated with positive employment outcomes for mothers, relative to childless women. Work-facilitating policies such as childcare for young children have decisively positive effects on mothers’ employment hours and wages. Work-reducing policies, such as parental leave, however, can have positive effects if the leaves are moderate in length, but tradeoffs if the leaves are long.
We Value What Values Us: The Appeal of Identity‐Affirming Science

Members of the public (Study 1; n = 184) and university students (Study 2; n = 101) evaluated a piece of research and indicated their support for its continuation. The research findings were held constant, but the methods that revealed those findings were attributed to either neuroscience or social science, and the conclusions based on those findings were biased either in favor of men or in favor of women. Study 1 revealed that participants were more positive about research that affirmed their gender identity and that was based on neuroscience rather than social science. Study 2 found this pattern to be apparent in more specialist samples. Indeed, participants with some scientific training were more influenced by research that affirmed the reader's gender identity. Participants with less scientific training, in comparison, were more influenced by the type of science described when making judgments about the value of the research. Contrary to popular claims, this suggests that scientific knowledge alone is no protection against the effects of bias on research evaluation. Implications for the practice and popularization of science are discussed.
‘Multi-Epitope-Targeted’ Immune-Specific Therapy for a Multiple Sclerosis-Like Disease via Engineered Multi-Epitope Protein Is Superior to Peptides

Antigen-induced peripheral tolerance is potentially one of the most efficient and specific therapeutic approaches for autoimmune diseases. Although highly effective in animal models, antigen-based strategies have not yet been translated into practicable human therapy, and several clinical trials using a single antigen or peptidic-epitope in multiple sclerosis (MS) yielded disappointing results. In these clinical trials, however, the apparent complexity and dynamics of the pathogenic autoimmunity associated with MS, which result from the multiplicity of potential target antigens and “epitope spread”, have not been sufficiently considered. Thus, targeting pathogenic T-cells reactive against a single antigen/epitope is unlikely to be sufficient; to be effective, immunospecific therapy to MS should logically neutralize concomitantly T-cells reactive against as many major target antigens/epitopes as possible. We investigated such “multi-epitope-targeting” approach in murine experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) associated with a single (“classical”) or multiple (“complex”) anti-myelin autoreactivities, using cocktail of different encephalitogenic peptides vis-a-vis artificial multi-epitope-protein (designated Y-MSPc) encompassing rationally selected MS-relevant epitopes of five major myelin antigens, as “multi-epitope-targeting” agents. Y-MSPc was superior to peptide(s) in concomitantly downregulating pathogenic T-cells reactive against multiple myelin antigens/epitopes, via inducing more effective, longer lasting peripheral regulatory mechanisms (cytokine shift, anergy, and Foxp3+ CTLA4+ regulatory T-cells). Y-MSPc was also consistently more effective than the disease-inducing single peptide or peptide cocktail, not only in suppressing the development of “classical” or “complex EAE” or ameliorating ongoing disease, but most importantly, in reversing chronic EAE. Overall, our data emphasize that a “multi-epitope-targeting” strategy is required for effective immune-specific therapy of organ-specific autoimmune diseases associated with complex and dynamic pathogenic autoimmunity, such as MS; our data further demonstrate that the “multi-epitope-targeting” approach to therapy is optimized through specifically designed multi-epitope-proteins, rather than myelin peptide cocktails, as “multi-epitope-targeting” agents. Such artificial multi-epitope proteins can be tailored to other organ-specific autoimmune diseases.
Interventional MR angiography with a floating table.

A floating table was integrated into a setup for performance of interventional magnetic resonance (MR) angiography procedures with actively visualized catheters and biplanar real-time image fusion. The setup was evaluated by performing catheterizations in eight pigs. The floating table enabled the authors to follow actively visualized instruments in the pigs' vasculature during MR imaging-guided interventional angiography procedures while performing real-time biplanar MR imaging. Interventional MR angiography with a floating table enables the field of view to be moved along with the instrument tip to the region of interest and thus enhances the usability and flexibility of the interventional MR imaging setup.
Wireless power charging system for mobile device based on magnetic resonance coupling

In this paper, the development wireless power charging system for mobile device based on magnetic resonance coupling is proposed. The system is comprised of three parts; a transmitter circuit to generate the AC signal to be transferred, transmitting and receiving radiators to transfer the power of AC signal wirelessly, and a receiver circuit to convert the received AC signal into DC voltage for charging the mobile device. The system is designed to work at frequency of 10MHz empowered by an Op-Amp AD8067ART at the transmitter to produce the AC signal. The radiators for transmitting and receiving 10MHz AC signal are implemented using microstrip line which is separated each other by narrow space to obtain the optimum coupling. Whilst the receiver is constructed of a simple voltage doubler circuit which also works as a rectifier. From the experimental characterization, it is demonstrated that the wireless power charging system with 0.8mm distance of radiators is able to produce 4.08V DC at the output of receiver circuit chargeable a battery of mobile phone in which this voltage is equivalent to 12.2VPP AC signal at the transmitter circuit.
Myocardial ischaemia in patients with coronary endothelial dysfunction: insights from body surface ECG mapping and implications for invasive evaluation of chronic chest pain.

AIMS Coronary endothelial dysfunction (ED), by predisposing to abnormal vasomotion, may cause chest pain in individuals with non-obstructed coronary arteries. The aim of this study was to correlate the magnitude of coronary ED with the presence and extent of inducible myocardial ischaemia using body surface electrocardiogram (ECG) mapping in symptomatic patients. METHODS AND RESULTS In 30 patients with chest pain and angiographically normal coronary arteries or mild atherosclerosis, we studied endothelium-dependent responses with acetylcholine (ACH) and endothelium-independent function with nitroglycerin and adenosine in the left anterior descending artery. Eighty-lead body surface ECG maps were collected at baseline and after each dose of ACH. There was a significant correlation between the maximal change in epicardial diameter with ACH and the magnitude of ST-segment shift [r = -0.44 (95% CI: -0.097 to -0.69), P = 0.015]. Patients with ≥ 0.05 mV ST-segment shift/lead had greater epicardial vasoconstriction (31.6 vs. 15.6%, P = 0.019), and lower coronary flow reserve (2.9 vs. 3.6, P = 0.047) compared with those with ST-segment shift <0.05 mV. Four patients had inducible ischaemia with ACH in the absence of abnormal epicardial or global microvascular vasomotion (>20% decrease in diameter or <50% increase in blood flow). CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that abnormal vasomotion due to coronary ED is associated with myocardial ischaemia in patients with chest pain. The magnitude of ischaemia correlates with the extent of ED. A small subset of patients develop myocardial ischaemia during ACH infusion without significant abnormalities in epicardial or global microvascular endothelium-dependent blood flow responses.
Modular model for Mercury's magnetospheric magnetic field confined within the average observed magnetopause

Accurate knowledge of Mercury's magnetospheric magnetic field is required to understand the sources of the planet's internal field. We present the first model of Mercury's magnetospheric magnetic field confined within a magnetopause shape derived from Magnetometer observations by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft. The field of internal origin is approximated by a dipole of magnitude 190 nT RM3, where RM is Mercury's radius, offset northward by 479 km along the spin axis. External field sources include currents flowing on the magnetopause boundary and in the cross‐tail current sheet. The cross‐tail current is described by a disk‐shaped current near the planet and a sheet current at larger (≳ 5 RM) antisunward distances. The tail currents are constrained by minimizing the root‐mean‐square (RMS) residual between the model and the magnetic field observed within the magnetosphere. The magnetopause current contributions are derived by shielding the field of each module external to the magnetopause by minimizing the RMS normal component of the magnetic field at the magnetopause. The new model yields improvements over the previously developed paraboloid model in regions that are close to the magnetopause and the nightside magnetic equatorial plane. Magnetic field residuals remain that are distributed systematically over large areas and vary monotonically with magnetic activity. Further advances in empirical descriptions of Mercury's magnetospheric external field will need to account for the dependence of the tail and magnetopause currents on magnetic activity and additional sources within the magnetosphere associated with Birkeland currents and plasma distributions near the dayside magnetopause.
Development of musical preferences in adulthood

This exploratory study deals with the investigation on the development of musical preferences and their functions in adulthood. The study aims at elaborating factors that have got an influence on the development of musical preferences and their functional context in everyday life. Thus 48 musical amateurs of three different generations, 25-35 years, 45-55 years and 65-75 years, 16 subjects each (8 male, 8 female) kept a music diary for a week, in which they documented their music listening behaviour. Subsequent to the music diary the subjects were investigated on the changes of musical preferences and functions of music in their biography by means of a two- part interview consisting of a half-standardized and a narrative part. Out of the data on age, gender and education only the variable age has got a significant influence on musical preferences and functions of music. The music preferred by the oldest subjects differs clearly from the musical preferences of the two younger groups of subjects. With growing age the factors having an influence on musical preferences and coming from the individual's environment, e.g. friends, partners, media (except the radio) decrease rapidly in every age group. Altogether the oldest subjects tend to be rather mere music
Web Site for Collaboration and Task Distribution in Video Caption Creation-C 3

The purpose of this project is to expedite the process of subtitle file creation through two means: distribution of labor and intelligent language analysis. At present, subtitle file creation is inefficient, as there is little to no collaborative subtitling aid software in existence. This forces one user to sit and navigate through an entire video to caption it. In addition, the task of finding each individual caption’s beginning and end point in the video’s time sequence is laborious and
Adolescent depression, cortisol and DHEA

Since the mid-1980s Ian Goodyer and his colleagues have been engaged in trying to understand the dynamics of the relationship between acute and chronic life stresses and depression in adolescents (Goodyer et al. 1985, 1986). One of the great strengths of their work has been their attention to an array of potential risk factors ranging from the apparently exogenous (such as life events, e.g. Goodyer et al. 1988; Goodyer & Altham, 1991; Goodyer, 1999), through those of uncertain origin (e.g. peer and family relationships and problems, Goodyer et al. 1990), to those that can be regarded as being endogenous to the child (e.g. measures of temperament or endocrine function, Goodyer et al. 1993, 1996, 1998; Herbert et al. 1996). They have then typically attempted to determine how subsets of these factors interact in the generation of disorder (see Goodyer, 2002 for a speculative presentation of his current thinking about the relationships between social adversity and depression). A second characteristic of their research lies in its frequent attention to outcomes over time, as opposed to cross-sectional relationships (e.g. Goodyer et al. 1997a,b). Thirdly, in line with growing evidence that the relationships between environmental stress (and perhaps neuro-anatomical correlates) and depression change as repeated episodes occur (Lewinsohn et al. 1999; Daley et al. 2000), they have distinguished among first, recurrent, remitting and chronic depressive episodes. The group's latest work, presented in this issue (Goodyer et al. 2003), nicely illustrates these characteristics, and their extension to consideration of potential dynamic relations among endocrine parameters in relation to psychopathology.
Travel Behavior among Latino Immigrants

This article investigates the determinants of Latino immigrants’ travel mode choices (auto alone, carpool, transit, and other modes) from six different immigrant gateways: Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of living in ethnically concentrated locations and working in ethnically concentrated employment sectors in shaping their choices. The results indicate that living in areas with higher ethnic concentrations increases both the likelihood of carpooling and of taking public transit. Furthermore, working in an ethnic niche is a strong predictor of carpooling versus driving alone in five metropolitan areas, and of taking transit versus driving alone in four metropolitan areas.
Microglia Overexpressing the Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor Receptor Are Neuroprotective in a Microglial-Hippocampal Organotypic Coculture System

Microglia with increased expression of the macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor (M-CSFR; c-fms) are found surrounding plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in mouse models for AD and after ischemic or traumatic brain injury. Increased expression of M-CSFR causes microglia to adopt an activated state that results in proliferation, release of cytokines, and enhanced phagocytosis. To determine whether M-CSFR-induced microglial activation affects neuronal survival, we assembled a coculture system consisting of BV-2 microglia transfected to overexpress the M-CSFR and hippocampal organotypic slices treated with NMDA. Twenty-four hours after assembly of the coculture, microglia overexpressing M-CSFR proliferated at a higher rate than nontransfected control cells and exhibited enhanced migration toward NMDA-injured hippocampal cultures. Surprisingly, coculture with c-fms-transfected microglia resulted in a dramatic reduction in NMDA-induced neurotoxicity. Similar results were observed when cocultures were treated with the teratogen cyclophosphamide. Biolistic overexpression of M-CSFR on microglia endogenous to the organotypic culture also rescued neurons from excitotoxicity. Furthermore, c-fms-transfected microglia increased neuronal expression of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), the M-CSFR, and neurotrophin receptors in the NMDA-treated slices, as determined with laser capture microdissection. In the coculture system, direct contact between the exogenous microglia and the slice was necessary for neuroprotection. Finally, blocking expression of the M-CSF ligand by exogenous c-fms-transfected microglia with a hammerhead ribozyme compromised their neuroprotective properties. These results demonstrate a protective role for microglia overexpressing M-CSFR in our coculture system and suggest under certain circumstances, activated microglia can help rather than harm neurons subjected to excitotoxic and teratogen-induced injury.
Diffusion tensor mapping of the human brain using single‐shot line scan imaging

A recently developed single‐shot line scan imaging technique for diffusion measurements (Finsterbusch and Frahm, Magn Reson Med 1999;42:772–778) was extended to full diffusion tensor mapping of the human brain. Because the sequence acquires stimulated echoes from individual columns of magnetization (“lines”), the approach is affected neither by spatial aliasing when studying inner volumes nor by resonance offset effects or T2* dephasing as in diffusion‐weighted echoplanar imaging. Experiments on healthy subjects were performed at 2.0 T using 31 single‐shot images (5b values, 6 orientations, 520 msec each) at 1.5 × 1.5 mm 2 resolution (interpolated) and 6.0 mm section thickness. Apart from calculated images with isotropic diffusion weighting, the results include maps of the six independent diffusion tensor components, the apparent diffusion coefficient, the relative anisotropy, and the main diffusion direction. The achievable signal‐to‐noise ratio and resolution allow the identification of differently oriented nerve fibers in the brain stem. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2000;12:388–394. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.