Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the relevance of fMRI-based prior in the EEG inverse problem: a bayesian model comparison approach

Characterizing the cortical activity from electro- and magneto-encephalography (EEG/MEG) data requires solving an ill-posed inverse problem that does not admit a unique solution. As a consequence, the use of functional neuroimaging, for instance, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), constitutes an appealing way of constraining the solution. However, the match between bioelectric and metabolic activities is desirable but not assured. Therefore, the introduction of spatial priors derived from other functional modalities in the EEG/MEG inverse problem should be considered with caution. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian characterization of the relevance of fMRI-derived prior information regarding the EEG/MEG data. This is done by quantifying the adequacy of this prior to the data, compared with that obtained using an noninformative prior instead. This quantitative comparison, using the so-called Bayes factor, allows us to decide whether the informative prior should (or not) be included in the inverse solution. We validate our approach using extensive simulations, where fMRI-derived priors are built as perturbed versions of the simulated EEG sources. Moreover, we show how this inference framework can be generalized to optimize the way we should incorporate the informative prior.
Dual Simian Foamy Virus/Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infections in Persons from Côte d’Ivoire

Zoonotic transmission of simian retroviruses in West-Central Africa occurring in primate hunters has resulted in pandemic spread of human immunodeficiency viruses (HIVs) and human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLVs). While simian foamy virus (SFV) and simian T- lymphotropic virus (STLV)-like infection were reported in healthy persons exposed to nonhuman primates (NHPs) in West-Central Africa, less is known about the distribution of these viruses in Western Africa and in hospitalized populations. We serologically screened for SFV and STLV infection using 1,529 specimens collected between 1985 and 1997 from Côte d’Ivoire patients with high HIV prevalence. PCR amplification and analysis of SFV, STLV, and HIV/SIV sequences from PBMCs was used to investigate possible simian origin of infection. We confirmed SFV antibodies in three persons (0.2%), two of whom were HIV-1-infected. SFV polymerase (pol) and LTR sequences were detected in PBMC DNA available for one HIV-infected person. Phylogenetic comparisons with new SFV sequences from African guenons showed infection likely originated from a Chlorocebus sabaeus monkey endemic to Côte d’Ivoire. 4.6% of persons were HTLV seropositive and PCR testing of PBMCs from 15 HTLV seroreactive persons identified nine with HTLV-1 and one with HTLV-2 LTR sequences. Phylogenetic analysis showed that two persons had STLV-1-like infections, seven were HTLV-1, and one was an HTLV-2 infection. 310/858 (53%), 8/858 (0.93%), and 18/858 (2.1%) were HIV-1, HIV-2, and HIV-positive but undifferentiated by serology, respectively. No SIV sequences were found in persons with HIV-2 antibodies (n = 1) or with undifferentiated HIV results (n = 7). We document SFV, STLV-1-like, and dual SFV/HIV infection in Côte d’Ivoire expanding the geographic range for zoonotic simian retrovirus transmission to West Africa. These findings highlight the need to define the public health consequences of these infections. Studying dual HIV-1/SFV infections in immunocompromised populations may provide a new opportunity to better understand SFV pathogenicity and transmissibility in humans.
Selective inhibition of MBNL1–CCUG interaction by small molecules toward potential therapeutic agents for myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2)†

Myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) is an incurable neuromuscular disease caused by expanded CCUG repeats that may exhibit toxicity by sequestering the splicing regulator MBNL1. A series of triaminotriazine- and triaminopyrimidine-based small molecules (ligands 1–3) were designed, synthesized and tested as inhibitors of the MBNL1–CCUG interaction. Despite the structural similarities of the triaminotriazine and triaminopyrimidine units, the triaminopyrimidine-based ligands bind with low micromolar affinity to CCUG repeats (Kd ∼ 0.1–3.6 µM) whereas the triaminotriazine ligands do not bind CCUG repeats. Importantly, these simple and small triaminopyrimidine ligands exhibit both strong inhibition (Ki ∼ 2 µM) of the MBNL1–CCUG interaction and high selectivity for CCUG repeats over other RNA targets. These experiments suggest these compounds are potential lead agents for the treatment of DM2.
An Experimental Study of Financial Portfolio Selection with Visual Analytics for Decision Support

We investigate the decision process as applied to the practical task of choosing a financial portfolio. We developed PortfolioCompare, an interactive visual analytic decision support tool that helps the consumer quickly create, compare and choose among several portfolios consisting of different financial instruments. PortfolioCompare facilitates the analysis of risk and return aspects of each portfolio considered. We investigate behavior in this task using an economic experiment in which the user actively creates and compares portfolios from a set of funds. We elicit risk preferences using a separate task and find that subjects using PortfolioCompare make decisions that are closer to their risk tolerance as compared to subjects presented with similar information in textual form. This finding suggests that PortfolioCompare helps understand risk aspects of portfolios. Portfolio selections are improved during the course of the decision process, suggesting that this tool is valuable for decision support.
Convex coders and oversampled A/D conversion: theory and algorithms

Signal reconstruction in oversampled A/D conversion (ADC) is classically performed by lowpass ltering the quantized signal. This leads to a mean squared error (MSE) inversely proportional to R 2n+1 where R is the oversampling rate and n is the order of the converter. However, while the estimate given by this reconstruction has the same bandwidth as that of the original analog signal, we show that it does not necessarily lead to the same digital sequence when fed into the same A/D converter. Moreover, under some assumptions, we show analytically that an estimate having the same bandwidth and giving the same digital sequence as those of the original signal should yield an MSE with an upper bound inversely proportional to R 2n+2 , instead of R 2n+1 ; that is an improvement of 3 dB per octave of oversampling, regardless of the order of the converter. We propose a structural analysis covering most currently known conngurations of over-sampled ADC, which enables us to identify sets of input analog signals giving the same digital sequences. This is based on the direct knowledge of the conversion mechanisms and includes circuit imperfections if they can be measured. The inherent property of convexity of these sets gives us theoretical means to achieve estimates which have the same bandwidth as and reproduce the digital sequence of a given input signal. We designed computer im-plementable algorithms which achieve such estimates. Using these algorithms, we performed numerical experiments on sinusoidal inputs which connrm the R 2n+2 behavior of the signal reconstruction MSE. Moreover, we do not observe any performance decay in keeping this R 2n+2 behavior, when converters include circuit imperfections up to 1%.
Coping Strategies as a Mediator of Hardiness and Stress among Rescue Workers

ABSTRACT The current study intends to explore the mediating role of coping strategies in the stress-hardiness relationship among rescue workers of Gujrat. A sample of 151 rescue workers was taken from Gujrat by using the convenience sampling technique. Personal Views Survey III-R (PVSIII-R) by Maddi (2001), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) by Cohen (1994) and Brief Cope Inventory (BCI) by Carver (1997) were individually administered to the participants to investigate the hardiness, stress and coping strategies, respectively. Findings of Pearson Product Moment Correlation indicated significant negative correlations among stress and hardiness, stress and problem-focused coping, and positive relationship between stress and avoidant coping. Mediation analysis revealed that coping plays a mediating role between stress and hardiness. These findings hold implications for rescue workers so that they can increase levels of hardiness and ameliorate the usage of effective coping strategies to cope with stressful situations.
Emerging viral diseases of fish and shrimp

The rise of aquaculture has been one of the most profound changes in global food production of the past 100 years. Driven by population growth, rising demand for seafood and a levelling of production from capture fisheries, the practice of farming aquatic animals has expanded rapidly to become a major global industry. Aquaculture is now integral to the economies of many countries. It has provided employment and been a major driver of socio-economic development in poor rural and coastal communities, particularly in Asia, and has relieved pressure on the sustainability of the natural harvest from our rivers, lakes and oceans. However, the rapid growth of aquaculture has also been the source of anthropogenic change on a massive scale. Aquatic animals have been displaced from their natural environment, cultured in high density, exposed to environmental stress, provided artificial or unnatural feeds, and a prolific global trade has developed in both live aquatic animals and their products. At the same time, over-exploitation of fisheries and anthropogenic stress on aquatic ecosystems has placed pressure on wild fish populations. Not surprisingly, the consequence has been the emergence and spread of an increasing array of new diseases. This review examines the rise and characteristics of aquaculture, the major viral pathogens of fish and shrimp and their impacts, and the particular characteristics of disease emergence in an aquatic, rather than terrestrial, context. It also considers the potential for future disease emergence in aquatic animals as aquaculture continues to expand and faces the challenges presented by climate change.
Efficient multi-domain ESD analysis and verification for large SoC designs

An efficient layout-based multi-domain ESD analysis and verification method has been developed for large SoC designs containing thousands of bumps. A fast resistance and current density check for ESD discharging paths across multiple diodes/clamps represented as I-V curves is performed, including on-chip signal/power/ground/package grid. Real application examples are shown.
Blueprints: illustrating architecture and technical parts using hardware-accelerated non-photorealistic rendering

Outlining and enhancing visible and occluded features in drafts of architecture and technical parts are essential techniques to visualize complex aggregated objects and to illustrate position, layout, and relations of their components.In this paper, we present blueprints, a novel non-photorealistic hardware-accelerated rendering technique that outlines visible and non-visible perceptually important edges of 3D objects. Our technique is based on the edge map algorithm and the depth peeling technique to extract these edges from arbitrary 3D scene geometry in depth-sorted order. After edge maps have been generated, they are composed in image space using depth sprites, which allow us to combine blueprints with further 3D scene contents. We introduce depth masking to dynamically adapt the number of rendering passes for highlighting and illustrating features of particular importance and their relation to the entire assembly. Finally, we give an example of blueprints that visualize and illustrate ancient architecture in the scope of cultural heritage.
Evaluation of the Antioxidant Capacities and Cytotoxic Effects of Ten Parmeliaceae Lichen Species

Parmeliaceae represents the largest and widespread family of lichens and includes species that attract much interest regarding pharmacological activities, due to their production of unique secondary metabolites. The current work aimed to investigate the in vitro antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of the methanol extracts of ten Parmeliaceae species, collected in different continents. Methanol extraction afforded high phenolic content in the extracts. The antioxidant activity displayed by lichens was evaluated through chemical assays, such as the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activities and the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). A moderately positive correlation was found between the phenolic content and the antioxidant properties for all the species: R: 0.7430 versus ORAC values, R: 0.7457 versus DPPH scavenging capacity, and R: 0.7056 versus FRAP reducing power. The methanol extract of Flavoparmelia euplecta exhibited the highest ORAC value, the extract of Myelochroa irrugans showed the maximum DPPH scavenging capacity, and Hypotrachyna cirrhata methanol extract demonstrated the highest reducing power. Further, the cytotoxic activity of the ten species was investigated on the human cancer cell lines HepG2 and MCF-7; Myelochroa irrugans exhibited the highest anticancer potential. The pharmacological activities shown here could be attributed to their phytochemical constituents.
Parameter Study and Optimization of a Color-Based Object Classification System

Typical computer vision systems usually include a set of components such as a preprocessor, a feature extractor, and a classifier that together represent an image processing pipeline. For each component there are different operators available. Each operator has a different number of parameters with individual parameter domains. The challenge in developing a computer vision system is the optimal choice of the available operators and their parameters to construct the appropriate pipeline for the problem at hand. The task of finding the optimal combination and setting depends strongly on the definition of the term optimal. Optimality can reach from minimal computational time to maximal recognition rate of a system. Using the example of the color-based object classification system, this contribution presents a comprehensive approach for finding an optimal system by defining the required image processing pipeline, defining the optimization problem for the classification and improving the optimization by taking parameter studies into consideration. This unique approach produces a color-based classification system with an illuminant independent structure.
Coastal flood damage and adaptation costs under 21st century sea-level rise

Significance Coastal flood damages are expected to increase significantly during the 21st century as sea levels rise and socioeconomic development increases the number of people and value of assets in the coastal floodplain. Estimates of future damages and adaptation costs are essential for supporting efforts to reduce emissions driving sea-level rise as well as for designing strategies to adapt to increasing coastal flood risk. This paper presents such estimates derived by taking into account a wide range of uncertainties in socioeconomic development, sea-level rise, continental topography data, population data, and adaptation strategies. Coastal flood damage and adaptation costs under 21st century sea-level rise are assessed on a global scale taking into account a wide range of uncertainties in continental topography data, population data, protection strategies, socioeconomic development and sea-level rise. Uncertainty in global mean and regional sea level was derived from four different climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5, each combined with three land-ice scenarios based on the published range of contributions from ice sheets and glaciers. Without adaptation, 0.2–4.6% of global population is expected to be flooded annually in 2100 under 25–123 cm of global mean sea-level rise, with expected annual losses of 0.3–9.3% of global gross domestic product. Damages of this magnitude are very unlikely to be tolerated by society and adaptation will be widespread. The global costs of protecting the coast with dikes are significant with annual investment and maintenance costs of US$ 12–71 billion in 2100, but much smaller than the global cost of avoided damages even without accounting for indirect costs of damage to regional production supply. Flood damages by the end of this century are much more sensitive to the applied protection strategy than to variations in climate and socioeconomic scenarios as well as in physical data sources (topography and climate model). Our results emphasize the central role of long-term coastal adaptation strategies. These should also take into account that protecting large parts of the developed coast increases the risk of catastrophic consequences in the case of defense failure.
Branch-Specific Plasticity Enables Self-Organization of Nonlinear Computation in Single Neurons

It has been conjectured that nonlinear processing in dendritic branches endows individual neurons with the capability to perform complex computational operations that are needed to solve for example the binding problem. However, it is not clear how single neurons could acquire such functionality in a self-organized manner, because most theoretical studies of synaptic plasticity and learning concentrate on neuron models without nonlinear dendritic properties. In the meantime, a complex picture of information processing with dendritic spikes and a variety of plasticity mechanisms in single neurons has emerged from experiments. In particular, new experimental data on dendritic branch strength potentiation in rat hippocampus have not yet been incorporated into such models. In this article, we investigate how experimentally observed plasticity mechanisms, such as depolarization-dependent spike-timing-dependent plasticity and branch-strength potentiation, could be integrated to self-organize nonlinear neural computations with dendritic spikes. We provide a mathematical proof that, in a simplified setup, these plasticity mechanisms induce a competition between dendritic branches, a novel concept in the analysis of single neuron adaptivity. We show via computer simulations that such dendritic competition enables a single neuron to become member of several neuronal ensembles and to acquire nonlinear computational capabilities, such as the capability to bind multiple input features. Hence, our results suggest that nonlinear neural computation may self-organize in single neurons through the interaction of local synaptic and dendritic plasticity mechanisms.
Backbone Colorings and Generalized Mycielski’s Graphs∗

For a graph G and its spanning tree T the backbone chromatic number, BBC(G,T ), is defined as the minimum k such that there exists a coloring c : V (G) → {1, 2, . , k} satisfying |c(u) − c(v)| ≥ 1 if uv ∈ E(G) and |c(u) − c(v)| ≥ 2 if uv ∈ E(T ). Broersma et al. [1] asked whether there exists a constant c such that for every triangle-free graph G with an arbitrary spanning tree T the inequality BBC(G,T ) ≤ χ(G) + c holds. We answer this question negatively by showing the existence of triangle-free graphs Rn and their spanning trees Tn such that BBC(Rn, Tn) = 2χ(Rn) − 1 = 2n − 1. In order to answer the question we obtain a result of independent interest. We modify the well known Mycielski’s construction and construct triangle-free graphs Jn, for every integer n, with chromatic number n and 2-tuple chromatic number 2n (here 2 can be replaced by any integer t).
Enabling Social Interaction Through Embodiment in Ex CITE

—The emerging demographic trends toward an aging population involve an unﬂagging research of ways of assisting elderly people to stay independent for as long as possible. This means to be active at home and in the labour market, to prevent social isolation and promote societal inclusion. Both ICT and robotics technologies can contribute to help achieving these goals. This paper introduces the aims of the Ambient Assisted Living project Ex CITE whose main objective is to enhance a robotic platform for telepresence with features enabling social interaction from a domestic environment to the outside world. The whole Ex CITE project uses a user-centered approach hence it evolves around an intensive evaluation to be performed in situ, on a PanEuropean scale. An existing prototype, called Giraff, is to be deployed to targeted end-users, and reﬁned taking into account outcome of the evaluation. This paper introduces the objectives of Ex CITE and offers a description of its initial activities particularly focused on the user evaluation.
Duygusal Marka Deneyimi, Marka Ayırt Ediciliği, Marka Çekiciliği ve Marka Savunuculuğu Arasındaki İlişkiler - The Relationship Between The Affective Brand Experience, Brand Distinctiveness, Brand Attractiveness and The Brand Advocacy

Many brands such as i-pod, i-phone, i-pad, Nintendo Wii, or Pokemon Go, which have a very high popularity in the 21st century, are almost inadequate in explaining the procurement decision process with only product functional benefit only in the product category. Consumers such an advocate followers of brands are not in a position to think only of making rational purchasing decisions with these brands. These creative and innovative brands carry out marketing activities that add value to consumers' feelings, emotions, intellectual structures and curiosity. More particularly consumers who have affective brand experience define brands as more attractive and more distinctive. In this context, this study researches the relationship between affective brand experience, brand attractiveness, brand distinctiveness and thebrand advocacy on the users of technology brands and aims to analyze the variables that influence brand advocacy.
Refactoring Intermediately Executed Code to Reduce Cache Capacity Misses

The growing memory wall requires that more attention is given to the data cache behavior of programs. In this paper, attention is given to the capacity misses i.e. the misses that occur because the cache size is smaller than the data footprint between the use and the reuse of the same data. The data footprint is measured with the reuse distance metric, by counting the distinct memory locations accessed between use and reuse. For reuse distances larger than the cache size, the associated code needs to be refactored in a way that reduces the reuse distance to below the cache size so that the capacity misses are eliminated. In a number of simple loops, the reuse distance can be calculated analytically. However, in most cases profiling is needed to pinpoint the areas where the program needs to be transformed for better data locality. This is achieved by the reuse distance visualizer, RDVIS, which shows the intermediately executed code for critical data reuses. In addition, another tool, SLO, annotates the source program with suggestions for locality ptimization. Both tools have been used to analyze and to refactor a number of SPEC2000 benchmark programs with very positive results.
Efficient Multimodal Registration Using Least-Squares

Multimodal image registration is a difficult problem in both medical imaging and remote sensing. The least-squares cost function has generally been overlooked for multimodal registration problems due to an underlying assumption that the two images being registered must have corresponding intensities. More recently, methods that employ the least-squares cost function have been developed to efficiently evaluate the globally optimal shift and intensity remapping simultaneously. However, these methods estimate the translation and not the rotation. In this paper we propose a method for using the least-squares cost function efficiently for multimodal registration. By modeling rotation using a linear approximation, we find the globally optimal translation and intensity remapping, and locally optimal rotation angle. In a series of experiments based on registering PD-, T1-, and T2-weighted magnetic resonance images, our method performs better than mutual information.