Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamics of Multiple-Choice Decision Making

Neuroscientists have carried out comprehensive experiments to reveal the neural mechanisms underlying the perceptual decision making that pervades daily life. These experiments have illuminated salient features of decision making, including probabilistic choice behavior, the ramping activity of decision-related neurons, and the dependence of decision time and accuracy on the difficulty of the task. Spiking network models have reproduced these features, and a two-dimensional mean field model has demonstrated that the saddle node structure underlies two-alternative decision making. Here, we reduced a spiking network model to an analytically tractable, partial integro-differential system and characterized not only multiple-choice decision behaviors but also the time course of neural activities underlying decisions, providing a mechanistic explanation for the observations noted in the experiments. First, we observed that a two-bump unstable steady state of the system is responsible for two-choice decision making, similar to the saddle node structure in the two-dimensional mean field model. However, for four-choice decision making, three types of unstable steady states collectively predominate the time course of the evolution from the initial state to the stable states. Second, the time constant of the unstable steady state can explain the fact that four-choice decision making requires a longer time than two-choice decision making. However, the quicker decision, given a stronger motion strength, cannot be explained by the time constant of the unstable steady state. Rather, the decision time can be attributed to the projection coefficient of the difference between the initial state and the unstable steady state on the eigenvector corresponding to the largest positive eigenvalue.
Isolation and Characterization of Functional Tripartite Group II Introns Using a Tn5-Based Genetic Screen

Background Group II introns are RNA enzymes that splice themselves from pre-mRNA transcripts. Most bacterial group II introns harbour an open reading frame (ORF), coding for a protein with reverse transcriptase, maturase and occasionally DNA binding and endonuclease activities. Some ORF-containing group II introns were shown to be mobile retroelements that invade new DNA target sites. From an evolutionary perspective, group II introns are hypothesized to be the ancestors of the spliceosome-dependent nuclear introns and the small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs – U1, U2, U4, U5 and U6) that are important functional elements of the spliceosome machinery. The ability of some group II introns fragmented in two or three pieces to assemble and undergo splicing in trans supports the theory that spliceosomal snRNAs evolved from portions of group II introns. Methodology/Principal Findings We used a transposon-based genetic screen to explore the ability of the Ll.LtrB group II intron from the Gram-positive bacterium Lactococcus lactis to be fragmented into three pieces in vivo. Trans-splicing tripartite variants of Ll.LtrB were selected using a highly efficient and sensitive trans-splicing/conjugation screen. We report that numerous fragmentation sites located throughout Ll.LtrB support tripartite trans-splicing, showing that this intron is remarkably tolerant to fragmentation. Conclusions/Significance This work unveils the great versatility of group II intron fragments to assemble and accurately trans-splice their flanking exons in vivo. The selected introns represent the first evidence of functional tripartite group II introns in bacteria and provide experimental support for the proposed evolutionary relationship between group II introns and snRNAs.
Joint Employer Status in Triangular Employment Relationships

The article examines the question of who should be considered the legal employer in triangular employment relationships. It is argued that outsourcing of employer responsibilities to temporary work agencies is illegitimate with regard to long-term employees and must be curtailed; further, that even in the case of short-term ('traditional') employment through agencies, there is reason to place some employer responsibilities with the user firm. The suggested solution supports regulations directed at preventing agency employment abuse, as currently exist in some European countries, but at the same time would place employer responsibilities with both agency and user firm, jointly and severally.
Insects Use Two Distinct Classes of Steps during Unrestrained Locomotion

Background Adaptive, context-dependent control of locomotion requires modulation of centrally generated rhythmic motor patterns through peripheral control loops and postural reflexes. Thus assuming that the modulation of rhythmic motor patterns accounts for much of the behavioural variability observed in legged locomotion, investigating behavioural variability is a key to the understanding of context-dependent control mechanisms in locomotion. To date, the variability of unrestrained locomotion is poorly understood, and virtually nothing is known about the features that characterise the natural statistics of legged locomotion. In this study, we quantify the natural variability of hexapedal walking and climbing in insects, drawing from a database of several thousand steps recorded over two hours of walking time. Results We show that the range of step length used by unrestrained climbing stick insects is large, showing that step length can be changed substantially for adaptive locomotion. Step length distributions were always bimodal, irrespective of leg type and walking condition, suggesting the presence of two distinct classes of steps: short and long steps. Probability density of step length was well-described by a gamma distribution for short steps, and a logistic distribution for long steps. Major coefficients of these distributions remained largely unaffected by walking conditions. Short and long steps differed concerning their spatial occurrence on the walking substrate, their timing within the step sequence, and their prevalent swing direction. Finally, ablation of structures that serve to improve foothold increased the ratio of short to long steps, indicating a corrective function of short steps. Conclusions Statistical and functional differences suggest that short and long steps are physiologically distinct classes of leg movements that likely reflect distinct control mechanisms at work.
The Prompt X-Ray Emission of GRB 011211: Possible Evidence of a Transient Absorption Feature

We report observation results of the prompt X- and gamma-ray emission from GRB 011211. This event was detected with the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor and one of the wide-field cameras aboard the BeppoSAX satellite. The optical counterpart of the gamma-ray burst was soon identified and its redshift determined (z = 2.140), while the X-ray afterglow emission was detected with the XMM-Newton satellite. Evidence of soft X-ray emission lines was reported by Reeves and colleagues but not confirmed by other authors. In investigating the spectral evolution of the prompt emission, we find the possible evidence of a transient absorption feature at 6.9 keV during the rise of the primary event. The significance of the feature is derived with nonparametric tests and numerical simulations, finding a chance probability that ranges from 3 × 10-3 down to 4 × 10-4. The feature shows a Gaussian profile and an equivalent width of 1.2 keV. We discuss our results and their possible interpretation.
Effect of Nurse Home Visits vs. Usual Care on Reducing Intimate Partner Violence in Young High-Risk Pregnant Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Expectant mothers and mothers of young children are especially vulnerable to intimate partner violence (IPV). The nurse-family partnership (NFP) is a home visitation program in the United States effective for the prevention of adverse child health outcomes. Evidence regarding the effect of nurse home visiting on IPV is inconsistent. This study aims to study the effect of VoorZorg, the Dutch NFP, on IPV. Methods A random sample of 460 eligible disadvantaged women <26 years, with no previous live births, was randomized. Women in the control group (C; n=223) received usual care; women in the intervention group (I; n=237) received usual care plus nurse home visits periodically during pregnancy and until the child’s second birthday. Results At 32 weeks of pregnancy, women in the intervention group self-reported significantly less IPV victimization than women in the control group in: level 2 psychological aggression (C: 56% vs. I: 39%), physical assault level 1 (C: 58% vs. I: 40%) and level 2 (C: 31% vs. I: 20%), and level 1 sexual coercion (C: 16% vs. I: 8%). Furthermore, women in the intervention group reported significantly less IPV perpetration in: level 2 psychological aggression (C: 60% vs. I: 46%), level 1 physical assault (C: 65% vs. I: 52%), and level 1 injury (C: 27% vs. I: 17%). At 24 months after birth, IPV victimization was significantly lower in the intervention group for level 1 physical assault (C: 44% vs. I: 26%), and IPV perpetration was significantly lower for level 1 sexual assault (C: 18% vs. I: 3%). Multilevel analyses showed a significant improvement in IPV victimization and perpetration among women in the intervention group at 24 months after birth. Conclusion VoorZorg, compared with the usual care, is effective in reducing IPV during pregnancy and in the two years after birth among young high-risk women. Trial Registration Dutch Trial Register NTR854 http://www.trialregister. nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp? TC=854
A Method for 2D Image Texture Synthesis Based on LBP

This paper presents a simple exemplar-based method for 2D image texture synthesis. The contribution of the proposed algorithm lies in the effective combination of MEBC (Minimum Error Boundary Cut) and LBP (Local Binary Patterns) feature. Given a texture sample, the corresponding LBP image is firstly generated, then block matching is carried out based on LBP image and the candidate block with MEBC boundary is pasted on the output image. Experimental results for a wide range of texture samples demonstrate that the performance of this LBP-based method is equal to or better than that of the original image quilting algorithm, especially for semi-structured and stochastic textures. Furthermore, the proposed method can obtain a particularly effective synthesized result even for the texture samples that image quilting fails. For regular texture synthesis, the calculation of MEBC can be further omitted and therefore the resulted simplified version of the proposed method can even achieve a good performance in a shorter time.
Profiles and paths : Effects of language impairment and bilingualism on children's linguistic and cognitive development

Research on children with language impairment (LI) and bilingual children is important for both clinical and theoretical reasons (Paradis, 2010). For example, identifying similarities and differences between the two child populations can support the clinical challenge of diagnosing LI in bilingual children, but can also inform us about the nature of LI. Additionally, such research can determine whether effects of bilingualism and LI accumulate and whether bilingualism aggravates or alleviates the symptoms of LI, strengthening our knowledge of children who are both dual language learners and diagnosed with LI. In the past few years, there has been a growing body of work that tackled these issues, focusing mostly on children’s language abilities. The current dissertation contributes to this body of work by investigating the effects of LI and bilingualism on children’s skills in both linguistic and cognitive domains, including studies that evaluated promising clinical tools, that made cross- and within-domain comparisons, and that took a developmental perspective. In doing so, we aimed to (1) support a reliable diagnosis of LI in bilingual contexts, (2) identify the risks and strengths of bilingual children with LI, and (3) provide insight into the origins of the partially overlapping language profiles of bilingual children and children with LI. The results of the studies in the present dissertation show that three recently developed instruments can contribute to a reliable diagnosis of LI in (monolingual and) bilingual learning contexts. Combining parental report on a child’s early language development with the child’s performance on a quasi-universal nonword repetition task and a narrative task testing macrostructure demonstrated excellent clinical accuracy, irrespective of the linguistic background of the child (or parents). In addition, our results indicate that vocabulary may be a particular risk area for bilingual children with LI, as the effects of bilingualism aggravated the effects of LI in this domain. In contrast, working memory was found to be a relative strength of bilingual children with LI, who performed better in this area than monolingual peers with LI when controlling for language ability. Finally, our findings suggest that the overlapping language profiles of children with LI and bilingual children may be explained by the weakened ability of children with LI to maintain attention to the stream of linguistic information, interfering with how well incoming language is processed. While reductions in input frequency cause language delays in bilingual children, the functional equivalent, i.e., incomplete processing of input, may impair the language proficiency of children with LI.
Brain waves-based index for workload estimation and mental effort engagement recognition

The advent of the communication systems and considering the complexity that some impose in their use, it is necessary to incorporate and equip these systems with a certain intelligence which takes into account the cognitive and mental capacities of the human operator. In this work, we address the issue of estimating the mental effort of an operator according to the cognitive tasks difficulty levels. Based on the Electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements, the proposed approach analyzes the user’s brain activity from different brain regions while performing cognitive tasks with several levels of difficulty. At a first time, we propose a variances comparison-based classifier (VCC) that makes use of the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the EEG signal. The aim of using such a classifier is to highlight the brain regions that enter into interaction according to the cognitive task difficulty. In a second time, we present and describe a new EEG-based index for the estimation of mental efforts. The designed index is based on information recorded from two EEG channels. Results from the VCC demonstrate that powers of the Theta [4-7 Hz] (θ) and Alpha [8-12 Hz] (α) oscillations decrease while increasing the cognitive task difficulty. These decreases are mainly located in parietal and temporal brain regions. Based on the Kappa coefficients, decisions of the introduced index are compared to those obtained from an existing index. This performance assessment method revealed strong agreements. Hence the efficiency of the introduced index.
Toward a software pipelining framework for many-core chips

Current trends in high performance computing have produced two distinct families of chips. The first one is called complex core, which consists of a few, very architecturally sophisticated cores. The other chip family consists of many simple cores, which lack the advanced features of the complex ones. The two ideological camps have their examples in the current market. The Intel Core Duo family and start-up efforts, like the Tilera 64 chip, are the vanguards for each camp. Currently, complex cores have an advantage over the simple ones due to the fact that most of the system software and applications are written for sequential machines. Moreover, several compiler techniques are stagnant due to its sequential focus point. The rise of complex and simple cores are disturbing the compiler research field and brought back problems which have been ignored for more than three decades. The major performance objectives for optimizing compilers have been, and still are, loops. Among the most known and researched loop scheduling techniques is software pipelining. Due to the rise of simple cores, many of the hardware features, which supported more advanced software pipelining techniques, have been sacrificed in the battle for more cores. Due to the comeback of the simple cores, we have to rely on the original software pipelining techniques, which were developed over two decades ago. The software pipelining framework described in this thesis does not rely on any special hardware support. It was implemented in PathScale’s EKOPath compiler for the SiCortex Multiprocessor architecture. The experimental results show
A Model of Alcohol Drinking under an Intermittent Access Schedule Using Group-Housed Mice

Here, we describe a new model of voluntary alcohol drinking by group-housed mice. The model employs sensor-equipped cages that track the behaviors of the individual animals via implanted radio chips. After the animals were allowed intermittent access to alcohol (three 24 h intervals every week) for 4 weeks, the proportions of licks directed toward bottles containing alcohol were 50.9% and 39.6% for the male and female mice, respectively. We used three approaches (i.e., quinine adulteration, a progressive ratio schedule and a schedule involving a risk of punishment) to test for symptoms of compulsive alcohol drinking. The addition of 0.01% quinine to the alcohol solution did not significantly affect intake, but 0.03% quinine induced a greater than 5-fold reduction in the number of licks on the alcohol bottles. When the animals were required to perform increasing numbers of instrumental responses to obtain access to the bottle with alcohol (i.e., a progressive ratio schedule), they frequently reached a maximum of 21 responses irrespective of the available reward. Although the mice rarely achieved higher response criteria, the number of attempts was ∼10 times greater in case of alcohol than water. We have developed an approach for mapping social interactions among animals that is based on analysis of the sequences of entries into the cage corners. This approach allowed us to identify the mice that followed other animals in non-random fashions. Approximately half of the mice displayed at least one interaction of this type. We have not yet found a clear correlation between imitative behavior and relative alcohol preference. In conclusion, the model we describe avoids the limitations associated with testing isolated animals and reliably leads to stable alcohol drinking. Therefore, this model may be well suited to screening for the effects of genetic mutations or pharmacological treatments on alcohol-induced behaviors.
Equal Opportunities for all Albanian Learners

Abstract Inclusive education guarantees the right of education for every child despite their physical and/or mental disabilities. In other words inclusion aims at placement of special education students in general classrooms giving learners equal possibilities of education within the differences in their abilities to learn. Unfortunately, the implementation of inclusive education in Albania is still facing lots of difficulties. Traditionally, Albanian children with disabilities are segregated into separate learning environments. However, during the last two decades attempts are made to integrate them in the mainstream education. Although we are far from a successful implementation of inclusive education we consider it as very important since it maximizes the learning experiences of both mainstream and disabled learners. In this paper, the factors related to the inclusion of learners with disabilities in the mainstream education are discussed. Drafting of an inclusive curriculum which is the same for all schools and all learners, whether they are in mainstream or special schools is considered as crucial. The paper raises the questions of changing the attitude of educators in regard to learners with disabilities, increasing their professional knowledge about the learning differences as well as highlighting the tools of how to address each of them so that equal possibility to gain knowledge within the limits of capability are given to all learners. The significance and relevant effects of these factors will be the basis of the conclusion of this paper.
Control of Hypertension and Risk of Stroke Recurrence

Background and Purpose— We investigated whether low blood pressure increases the risk of stroke recurrence. Methods— A cohort of 662 patients, obtaining care at the 8 acute care hospitals serving the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, was enrolled within 1 month of an initial stroke and was followed twice annually for up to 4 years. Cox proportional hazard models were developed to examine the relationship between risk of recurrent stroke and blood pressure, controlling for other significant risk factors. Our analyses investigated both lowest follow-up and average follow-up blood pressures as predictors of stroke recurrence. Results— There were 52 recurrent strokes among the 535 patients (mean age, 71 years; 51% men) with follow-up blood pressure. The risk ratio for stroke recurrence for diastolic blood pressure ≥80 mm Hg compared with <80 mm Hg was 2.4 (95% CI, 1.38 to 4.27) and for systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg compared with <140 mm Hg was also 2.4 (95% CI, 1.39 to 4.15). For isolated systolic blood pressure (>140/<90 mm Hg), the risk ratio was 2.2 (95% CI, 1.23 to 3.79) relative to <140/<90 mm Hg. Using the Cox model, we also showed that patients who had at least 1 measured diastolic blood pressure <80 mm Hg during follow-up had a reduced risk of stroke recurrence compared with those with diastolic blood pressures 80 to 90 mm Hg (0.4 versus 1.0; 95% CI, 0.21 to 0.88) even after controlling for the possible confounding factors of hypertension and atrial fibrillation on ECG. Myocardial infarction on ECG, history of transient ischemic attack, and diabetes mellitus were not significant predictors of increased risk of recurrent stroke. Conclusions— Our results imply that “lower is better” for blood pressure control as a goal in reducing stroke recurrence risk.
Reputation and Turnover

We consider a repeated duopoly game where each firm privately chooses its investment in quality, and realized quality is a noisy indicator of the firm's investment. We focus on dynamic reputation equilibria, whereby consumers "discipline" a firm by switching to its rival in the case that the realized quality of its product is too low. This type of equilibrium is characterized by consumers' tolerance level - the level of product quality below which consumers switch to the rival firm - and firms' investment in quality. Given consumers' tolerance level, we determine when a dynamic equilibrium that gives higher welfare than the static equilibrium exists. We also derive comparative statics properties, and characterize a set of investment levels and, hence, payoffs that our equilibria sustain.