Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The power of using functional fMRI on small rodents to study brain pharmacology and disease

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an excellent tool to study the effect of pharmacological modulations on brain function in a non-invasive and longitudinal manner. We introduce several blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) fMRI techniques, including resting state (rsfMRI), stimulus-evoked (st-fMRI), and pharmacological MRI (phMRI). Respectively, these techniques permit the assessment of functional connectivity during rest as well as brain activation triggered by sensory stimulation and/or a pharmacological challenge. The first part of this review describes the physiological basis of BOLD fMRI and the hemodynamic response on which the MRI contrast is based. Specific emphasis goes to possible effects of anesthesia and the animal’s physiological conditions on neural activity and the hemodynamic response. The second part of this review describes applications of the aforementioned techniques in pharmacologically induced, as well as in traumatic and transgenic disease models and illustrates how multiple fMRI methods can be applied successfully to evaluate different aspects of a specific disorder. For example, fMRI techniques can be used to pinpoint the neural substrate of a disease beyond previously defined hypothesis-driven regions-of-interest. In addition, fMRI techniques allow one to dissect how specific modifications (e.g., treatment, lesion etc.) modulate the functioning of specific brain areas (st-fMRI, phMRI) and how functional connectivity (rsfMRI) between several brain regions is affected, both in acute and extended time frames. Furthermore, fMRI techniques can be used to assess/explore the efficacy of novel treatments in depth, both in fundamental research as well as in preclinical settings. In conclusion, by describing several exemplary studies, we aim to highlight the advantages of functional MRI in exploring the acute and long-term effects of pharmacological substances and/or pathology on brain functioning along with several methodological considerations.
Chikungunya Virus and Aedes Mosquitoes: Saliva Is Infectious as soon as Two Days after Oral Infection

Background Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are potential vectors of chikungunya virus (CHIKV). The recent CHIKV outbreaks were caused by a new variant characterized by a mutation in the E1 glycoprotein gene (E1-226V) which has favored a better transmissibility by Ae. albopictus. As Ae. albopictus tends to replace Ae. aegypti in many regions, one question remained: is Ae. albopictus as efficient as Ae. aegypti to transmit the variant E1-226V of CHIKV? Methodology and Findings We infected orally both species with the variant E1-226V and estimated the infection, the viral dissemination, and the transmission rate by real time RT-PCR. Additionally, we used an in vitro assay to determine the amount of virus delivered by mosquitoes in their saliva. We found that Ae. aegypti as well as Ae. albopictus ensured a high replication of the virus which underwent an efficient dissemination as detectable in the salivary glands at day 2 post-infection (pi). Infectious CHIKV particles were delivered by salivary glands from day 2 with a maximum at day 6 pi for Ae. albopictus (103.3 PFU) and day 7 pi for Ae. aegypti (102.5 PFU). Conclusions Ae. albopictus is slightly more efficient than Ae. aegypti to transmit the variant E1-226V of CHIKV. These results will help to design an efficient vector control to limit transmission as soon as the first human cases are diagnosed.
TUTORIAL REVIEW

In addition to high levels of catalytic activity and target product selectivity, promising heterogeneous catalysts must also possess sufficient levels stability for scale up, i.e. intensification, and industrialisation to be realised. However, this third – often determining – keystone is often overlooked, particularly in the academic literature. This tutorial review therefore covers several elements related to the study of heterogeneous catalyst stability during liquid phase operation, an increasingly important area of heterogeneous catalysis. Particular emphasis is placed upon how stability data can be obtained, how the various forms of catalyst deactivation can be experimentally identified, and attention is drawn to emerging methods by which such events can be overcome or minimised. Drawing on some of our teams recent research, particular emphasis is placed on the stability studies of Lewis acidic silicates, state-of-the-art catalysts for a range of emerging liquid-solid catalytic processes. Factors related to heterogeneous nanoparticle catalysts are also covered. The purpose of this review is to draw attention to the issue of solid catalyst stability during liquid phase operation, and provide researchers with the information required to begin kinetic and spectroscopic studies of this determining catalytic event.
Implementing English as a medium of instruction in a Ukrainian University: Challenges, adjustments, and opportunities

Abstract English as a medium of instruction (EMI) programs are an increasing phenomenon in European universities. This paper takes an ethnographic approach to understanding the impact of EMI on pedagogy in a private university in eastern Ukraine. Fieldwork was conducted over the 2010–2011 academic year in nine English-medium and three Russian-medium classes. Data indicated that EMI education posed staffing challenges, as teachers were either language experts with low content knowledge or were content experts with anxiety about their English language skills. In addition, it was at times difficult to obtain textbooks and other print resources in English. Some teachers found teaching in a foreign language necessitated adjustments to speaking pace, discipline, and general classroom discourse. Despite these issues, teachers and students saw teaching and learning in English as a worthwhile opportunity.
Additional cross‐cultural evidence on the selective usage of nonmaterial beliefs in explaining life events

Two studies, one conducted in the Netherlands (N=87) and one in Italy with two samples—Catholic Youth (N=41) and Young Communists (N=41)—assessed the cross-cultural generality of the previously confirmed hypothesis (Pepitone & Saffiotti, 1997) that six universal nonmaterial beliefs—fate, God, luck, chance, just punishment, and just reward—are used selectively to interpret life events. A ‘selective correspondence’ between the six beliefs and the standard life event cases specifically constructed to engage the belief-specializations was predicted. All three samples showed the predicted correspondence in terms of significant ordinal correlations in a 6 nonmaterial belief ×9 life events classification. In addition, the findings are consistent with the assumption that the degree of selective correspondence depends upon the importance of beliefs in the sample under study. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Systemics of Learning for a Revised Pedagogical Agenda

Introduction My primary aim in this essay is to expose some considerations that I feel have been vastly underrepresented in thinking about innovation in education, including innovations based on technology. The fundamental observations are (a) that education (or, individually, math, science, or technology education) is in essence a very large-scale system, and (b) that workable and optimal configurations of such a system are strongly constrained by interactions among its parts. The intricacies of constraint in a large-scale system mean that, try as we might, innovation must be responsive to much more than what most of us regularly see and think about, even as innovators of technology or educational practice. Of course, as a community we certainly do not yet know all about such interactions; hence we cannot anticipate them optimally. Yet it seems only sensible to consider what interactions exist and hope to develop strategies for actively dealing with them. My goal is to expose some important interactions, especially those that seem most important, but least recognized. For example, the need for “systemic reform” involves interactions in production and consumption of material, intellectual, and human resources in the professional practice of schooling. However, consideration of systemic reform is well recognized in the educational community, even if we are not yet coping optimally with the entailed interactions. So, I will not discuss it. Instead, my focus is primarily on interactions among different stages and kinds of knowledge. In the background of these considerations I hope to respond in some degree to the charge given to us as chapter authors of this volume. In particular, I reframe (so as optimally to connect to my chapter goal) and simplify the given agenda in the following two main questions:
Plasmid-Determined AmpC-Type β-Lactamases

The predominant mechanism for resistance to β-lactam antibiotics in gram-negative bacteria is the synthesis of β-lactamase. To meet this challenge, β-lactams with greater β-lactamase stability, including cephalosporins, carbapenems, and monobactams, were introduced in the 1980s. Resistance
New Conceptualizations of Practice: Common Principles in Three Paradigms Suggest New Concepts for Training

We argue herein that typical training procedures are far from optimal. The goat of training in real-world settings is, or should be, to support two aspects of posttraining performance: (a) the level of performance in the long term and (b) the capability to transfer that training to related tasks and altered contexts. The implicit or explicit assumption of those persons responsible for training is that the procedures that enhance performance and speed improvement during training will necessarily achieve these two goals. However, a variety of experiments on motor and verbal learning indicate that this assumption is often incorrect. Manipulations that maximize performance during training can be detrimental in the long term; conversely, manipulations that degrade the speed of acquisition can support the long-term goals of training. The fact that there are parallel findings in the motor and verbal domains suggests that principles of considerable generality can be deduced to upgrade training procedures.
DIVISION OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91125 DETECTING FAILURES OF BACKWARD INDUCTION: MONITORING INFORMATION SEARCH IN SEQUENTIAL BARGAINING

We ran three-round sequential bargaining experiments in which the perfect equilibrium o er was $1.25 and an equal split was $2.50. Subjects o ered $2.11 to other subjects, $1.84 to \robot" players (who are known to play subgame perfectly), and $1.22 to robots after instruction in backward induction. Measures of information search showed that subjects did not look at the amounts being divided in di erent rounds in the correct order, and for the length of time, necessary for backward induction, unless they were specifically instructed. The results suggest that most of the departure from perfect equilibrium is due to limited computation and some is due to fairness. The nancial support of NSF 88-09299 and NSF 90-23531 to the rst two authors is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank Rachel Croson, Brian Becker, Barry Blecherman, Gerard Cachon, David Goldstein, Teck-Hua Ho, Keith Weigelt, Ben Wilner, and many colleagues at Penn for their work and ideas. We also have received helpful comments from several referees and seminar participants at many universities including Harvard, Cornell, New York University, Penn State, Rochester, Toronto, Minnesota, MIT, and the International Conference on Game Theory (Florence) and BoWo IV (Bonn). E-mail: johnson00@wharton.upenn. edu.
Virtual Adversarial Training for Semi-Supervised Text Classification

Adversarial training provides a means of regularizing supervised learning algorithms while virtual adversarial training is able to extend supervised learning algorithms to the semi-supervised setting. However, both methods require making small perturbations to numerous entries of the input vector, which is inappropriate for sparse high-dimensional inputs such as one-hot word representations. We extend adversarial and virtual adversarial training to the text domain by applying perturbations to the word embeddings in a recurrent neural network rather than to the original input itself. The proposed method achieves state of the art results on multiple benchmark semi-supervised and purely supervised tasks. We provide visualizations and analysis showing that the learned word embeddings have improved in quality and that while training, the model is less prone to overfitting.
Online Bayesian estimation of hidden Markov models with unknown transition matrix and applications to IEEE 802.11 networks

We develop online Bayesian signal processing algorithms to estimate the state and parameters of a hidden Markov model (HMM) with unknown transition matrix. The first online estimator is based on the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) technique and uses a set of sufficient statistics to carry the information about the transition matrix. A deterministic variant of the SMC estimator is then developed, which is simpler to implement and offers superior performance. Finally, a novel approximate maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm is proposed. These algorithms offer a solution to the problem of estimating the number of competing terminals in an IEEE 802.11 network where better performance can be expected if the backoff parameters are adapted to the number of active users. Realistic simulations using the ns-2 network simulator are provided to demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed estimators.
Comprehension of pretence in children with autism

Impairments of pretend play are a diagnostic characteristic of autism. This has been interpreted in terms of a generative impairment. Specifically, children with autism are unable to generate the ideas for pretend play despite an intact underlying ability to understand pretence. The notion of a performance deficit affecting production only has, in part, been based upon observations that children with autism appear to have no difficulty understanding pretence. However, research investigating comprehension is somewhat limited and has only investigated a specific type of pretend play, namely pretend properties. The research reported here investigated the ability of children with autism to understand object substitution pretence and pretend gestures (i.e. using no substitutes). Children with autism (N = 36) matched for verbal ability (between 3 and 6 years) with typically developing children (N = 55) and children with moderate learning difficulties (N = 37) were questioned about a series of pretend actions, such as writing. The results revealed three main findings. First, children with autism appear to experience no notable difficulties comprehending functional play. Second, children with autism do encounter difficulties comprehending pretend play. A performance deficit is unable to explain these findings and it is suggested that there may be a more critical impairment in understanding how absent objects are represented. Finally, there was a trend for some kinds of object substitutions and gestures to be more impaired than others. One tentative interpretation is that as the degree of similarity between the referent and the substitute diminishes the representational connection becomes more difficult to understand, particularly when there is a need to inhibit salient but irrelevant cues.
Disaggregating Employment Protection: The Case of Disability Discrimination

Studies of the effects of employment protection frequently examine protective legislation as a whole. From a policy reform perspective, however, it is often critical to know which particular aspect of the legislation is responsible for its observed effects. The American with Disabilities Act (ADA), a 1990 federal law covering over 40 million Americans, is a clear case in point. Several empirical studies have suggested that the passage of the ADA reduced rather than increased employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. To the extent this is true, it is crucial to credibly disentangle the different features of this complex and multi-faceted law. Separately evaluating the distinct aspects of the ADA is important not only for determining how the law might best be reformed if some aspects of it produce negative employment effects, but also for improving our understanding of the potential consequences of ADA-like provisions in race and other civil rights laws. This paper exploits state-level variation in pre-ADA legal regimes governing disability discrimination to separately estimate the employment effects of each of the ADA's two primary substantive provisions. We find strong evidence that the immediate post-enactment employment effects of the ADA are attributable to its requirement of "reasonable accommodations" for disabled employees rather than to its potential imposition of firing costs for such employees. Moreover, the pattern of the ADA's effects across states suggests, contrary to widely discussed prior findings based on national-level data, that declining disabled employment after the immediate post-ADA period reflects other factors rather than the ADA itself.
A Close-Range Gesture Interaction with Kinect

A large number of tracking and gesture recognition algorithms and technologies have been developed in the field of human-computer interactions thanks to the introduction of cameras with depth sensors such as Microsoft's Kinect. Most of the techniques rely on skeleton tracking which is more suitable for distant and full body interaction. This paper presents a new real-time finger-gesture interaction system using Kinect v2 that identifies fingertips and finger gestures that enable the natural user interaction at a close distance. Our contribution also includes various gesture recognition algorithms using two and three fingers such as L-gesture, OK-gesture, Rock-gesture and Scissor-gesture, in addition to full hand and one-finger gestures. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our system through a fruit slicing game and compare the results to the Leap Motion device.
Frequency of mutations in the early growth response 2 gene associated with peripheral demyelinating neuropathies

Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies (HMSN) comprise a wide clinical spectrum of related disorders with defects in peripheral nerve myelination. More than 250 distinct mutations of the peripheral myelin protein 22 ( PMP22 ), myelin protein zero ( MPZ /P0), and connexin 32 (Cx32/ GJB1 ) genes have been reported in patients diagnosed with different forms of hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies, such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), Dejerine-Sottas syndrome (DSS), congenital hypomyelination (CH), and hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies (HNPP). To date, some 20 linked CMT loci and nine genes have been identified. Gene products include structural proteins (PMP22, MPZ), a gap junction protein (Cx32), and a transcription factor (EGR2). Recently, point mutations in the early growth response 2 ( EGR2 ) gene, located on human chromosome 10q21.1-q22.1, have been associated with hereditary neuropathies.1 The gene for EGR2 spans 4.3 kb, contains two coding exons,2 and is part of a multigene family encoding Cys2His2 type zinc finger proteins3 and may play a role in the regulation of cellular proliferation.4 EGR2 is a Schwann cell transcription factor that binds DNA through three zinc finger domains and is thought to regulate the expression of late myelin genes such as MPZ and myelin basic protein, thus playing a key role in myelogenesis.5 Human EGR2 is homologous to the mouse Krox20 gene,6 which is part of a transcriptional cascade involved in the development and segmentation of the hindbrain. Homozygous mice knocked out for Krox20 display abnormal rhombomere segmentation and neuronal migration in the developing hindbrain, resulting in anatomical abnormalities of the cranial nerves.7 Furthermore, mice homozygous for a targeted mutation deleting a major part of the gene including the entire zinc finger domain die shortly after birth.5 Surviving Krox20-/- mice show a trembling phenotype, have hypomyelination …
Leadership and power relationships based on culture and gender

Leadership and power are often used to influence people’s behavior. However, little is known about the degree and directional relationship between these two constructs and gender. Equally unknown is the degree of impact that culture and gender together may have on such a relationship. This paper attempts to establish an empirical relationship between these two constructs and culture along with gender. Baba and Ace’s modified instruments on leadership and Hinkin and Schriesheim’s instrument on five sources of power were used in surveying 486 students from four business schools in Korea and the USA to derive functional relationships between leadership and power. Results suggest there is a statistically significant relationship between power and leadership and that gender has an impact on that relationship. However, this study does not support the contention that gender plays an important role in cross‐cultural environments; instead, it plays an important role only when considered within a specific culture.
Feeding and Development of the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis, on Australian Native Plant Species and Implications for Australian Biosecurity

In any insect invasion the presence or absence of suitable food and oviposition hosts in the invaded range is a key factor determining establishment success. The glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis, is an important insect vector of the xylem-limited bacterial plant pathogen, Xylella fastidiosa, which causes disease in numerous host plants including food and feedstock crops, ornamentals and weeds. Both the pathogen and the vector are native to the Americas and are considered to be highly invasive. Neither has been detected in Australia. Twelve Australian native plant species present in the USA were observed over two years for suitability as H. vitripennis feeding, oviposition and nymph development hosts. Hosts providing evidence of adult or nymph presence were Leptospermum laevigatum, Acacia cowleana, Eremophila divaricata, Eucalyptus wandoo, Hakea laurina, Melaleuca laterita and Swainsona galegifolia. An oviposition-suitability field study was conducted with citrus, a favoured oviposition host, as a positive control. Citrus and L. laevigatum, A. cowleana, B. ericifolia×B. spinulosa, C. pulchella, E. divaricata, E. wandoo, H. laurina, and S. galegifolia were found to be oviposition hosts. Egg parasitism by the mymarid parasitoid Gonatocerus ashmeadi was observed on all Australian plants. A number of Australian plants that may facilitate H. vitripennis invasion have been identified and categorised as ‘high risk’ due to their ability to support all three life stages (egg, nymph and adult) of the insect in the field (L. laevigatum, A. cowleana, E. divaricata, H. laurina, and S. galegifolia). The implications of these host status and natural enemy research findings are discussed and placed in an Australian invasion context.