Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strathprints Institutional Repository Rhythmic Auditory Cortex Activity at Multiple Timescales Shapes Stimulus–response Gain and Background Firing

(2015) Rhythmic auditory cortex activity at multiple timescales shapes stimulus–response gain and background firing. Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. The phase of low-frequency network activity in the auditory cortex captures changes in neural excitability, entrains to the temporal structure of natural sounds, and correlates with the perceptual performance in acoustic tasks. Although these observations suggest a causal link between network rhythms and perception, it remains unknown how precisely they affect the processes by which neural populations encode sounds. We addressed this question by analyzing neural responses in the auditory cortex of anesthetized rats using stimulus–response models. These models included a parametric dependence on the phase of local field potential rhythms in both stimulus-unrelated background activity and the stimulus–response transfer function. We found that phase-dependent models better reproduced the observed responses than static models, during both stimulation with a series of natural sounds and epochs of silence. This was attributable to two factors: (1) phase-dependent variations in background firing (most prominent for delta; 1– 4 Hz); and (2) modulations of response gain that rhythmically amplify and attenuate the responses at specific phases of the rhythm (prominent for frequencies between 2 and 12 Hz). These results provide a quantitative characterization of how slow auditory cortical rhythms shape sound encoding and suggest a differential contribution of network activity at different timescales. In addition, they highlight a putative mechanism that may implement the selective amplification of appropriately timed sound tokens relative to the phase of rhythmic auditory cortex activity.
Design and implementation of a high performance closed-loop MIMO communications with ultra low complexity handset

An efficient and practicable MIMO transceiver in which transmitter antenna selection is applied to geometric mean decomposition (GMD) which is combined with Tomlinson-Harashima Precoder (THP) in TDD system is implemented. The proposed work can save more than 60% computational complexity at the handset compared with that of the GMD scheme is comparable to the conventional linear transceiver schemes. From the simulation results, the proposed transceiver can achieve about 7 dB SNR improvement over the open-loop VBLAST counterparts under i.i. d. channel. Finally, a MIMO joint transceiver is implemented on a SoC platform which is realized to do the hardware/software (HW/SW) co-verification strategy to debug the proposed architecture. In this paper, which introduces the figure file to be the transmission media. Designer could verify the decoded results in various environment by liquid crystal display (LCD) panel.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Vpr Is a Positive Regulator of  Viral Transcription and Infectivity in Primary Human Macrophages

It is currently well established that HIV-1 Vpr augments viral replication in primary human macrophages. In its virion-associated form, Vpr has been suggested to aid efficient translocation of the proviral DNA into the cell nucleus. Although Vpr growth-arrests dividing T cells, the relevance of this biological activity in nondividing macrophages is unclear. Here we use Vpr-mutants to demonstrate that the molecular determinants involved in G2-arresting T cells are also involved in increasing viral transcription in macrophages, even though these cells are refractive to the diploid DNA status typical of G2 phase. Our results suggest that the two phenotypes, namely the nuclear localization and the G2-arrest activity of the protein, segregate functionally among the late and early functions of Vpr. The nuclear localization property of Vpr correlates with its ability to effectively target the proviral DNA to the cell nucleus early in the infection, whereas the G2-arrest phenotype correlates with its ability to activate viral transcription after establishment of an infection. These two functions may render Vpr's role essential and not accessory under infection conditions that closely mimic the in vivo situation, that is, primary cells being infected at low viral inputs.
GEMSCORE: A New Empirical Energy Function for Protein Folding

We have developed a new energy function, termed GEMSCORE, for the protein structure prediction, which is an emergent problem in the field of computational structural biology. The GEMSCORE combines knowledge-based and physics-based energy functions. Instead of hundreds and thousands parameters used in many physics-based energy functions, we optimized nine weights of energy terms in the GEMSCORE by using a generic evolutionary method. These nine energy terms are the electrostatic, the der Waals, the hydrogen-bonding potential, and six terms for solvation potentials. The GEMSCORE has been evaluated on six decoy sets, including 96 proteins with more 70,000 structures. The result indicates that our method is able to successfully identify 74 native proteins from these 96 proteins. Our GEMSCORE is fast and simple to discriminate between native and nonnative structures from thousands of protein structure candidates in these decoy sets. We believe that the GEMSCORE is robust and should be a useful energy function for the protein structure prediction.
Hierarchical Optimum-Shape Algorithms Using Embedded Bezier Parameterizations

Several multi-level shape optimization algorithms are proposed for the minimization of a functional constrained by a PDE state equation subject to a shape-dependent boundary condition. The prototype test problem is the optimization of an airfoil shape immersed in a two-dimensionnal flow (of Eulerian type in the simplest case) to reduce drag; the shape is then subject to certain geometrical constraints (specified endpoints, vertical tangent at leading edge, given area, etc). In general applications, the field, or distributed state, is computed by some standard PDE approximation method (e.g. of finite-volume type) over a mesh, one boundary of which is optimized in shape, via design parameters in number much less than the boundary gridpoints. The shape is thus formally represented, prior to mesh-discretization, by a parameterization here specifically chosen to be of Bézier type [9], based on control points whose abscissas are prescribed, and ordinates optimized according to some physical criterion (for implementation examples see [1] [3]). Here we construct an a priori hierarchy of embedded Bézier parameterizations via the classical degree-elevation process [9] as the support of a number of multi-level optimization algorithms, including one inspired from the Full Multi-Grid (FMG, [8]) concept, and referred to as the Full and Adaptive Multi-Level Optimum-Shape Algorithm (FAMOSA). Our construction yields rigorously-nested optimization search spaces. The framework allows us also to propose ways to employ reduced models, as well as to construct hybrid optimizers (combining gradient-based with evolutionary algorithms).
Real Time Fusion of Radioisotope Direction Estimation and Visual Object Tracking

Research into discovering prohibited nuclear material plays an integral role in providing security from terrorism. Although many diverse methods contribute to defense, there exists a capability gap in localizing moving sources. This thesis introduces a real time radioisotope tracking algorithm assisted by visual object tracking methods to fill the capability gap. The proposed algorithm can estimate carrier likelihood for objects in its field of view, and is designed to assist a pedestrian agent wearing a backpack detector. The complex, crowd-filled, urban environments where this algorithm must function combined with the size and weight limitations of a pedestrian system makes designing a functioning algorithm challenging. The contribution of this thesis is threefold. First, a generalized directional estimator is proposed. Second, two state-of-the-art visual object detection and visual object tracking methods are combined into a single tracking algorithm. Third, those outputs are fused to produce a real time radioisotope tracking algorithm. This algorithm is designed for use with the backpack detector built by the IDEAS for WIND research group. This setup takes advantage of recent advances in detector, camera, and computer technologies to meet the challenging physical limitations. The directional estimator operates via gradient boosting regression to predict radioisotope direction with a variance of 50 degrees when trained on a simple laboratory dataset. Under conditions similar to other state-of-the-art methods, the accuracy is comparable. YOLOv3 and SiamFC are chosen by evaluating advanced visual tracking methods in terms of speed and efficiency across multiple architectures, and in terms of accuracy on datasets like the Visual Object Tracking (VOT) Challenge and Common Objects in Context (COCO). The resultant tracking algorithm operates in real time. The outputs of direction estimation and visual tracking are fused using sequential Bayesian inference to predict carrier likelihood.
Secure Multicast Key Protocol for E-Mail System Using Factorial Number Structure

Electronic mail (e-mail) system are widely are used in Internet. A user usually needs to send an e-mail to a specific group of users via a secure delivery mechanism. In this paper, a new e-mail delivery mechanism using secure multicast key protocol with ID-based factorial number structure (ID-based FNS) is proposed in an encryption multicast system. In the e-mail delivery mechanism, the message of e-mail is required to encrypt first before sending out in order to safeguard the secrecy of the message on a public channel, such as wire-lined public switching communication links and wireless communication systems. Without loss generality, the public-key system is usually adopted in the multicast environment for the convenience at the easy key management need. As a manner of fact, the mechanism is having analyzed the space occupation, our scheme outperforms the existed methods in the way of magnitude order of reconstructing secure command key. Besides, the extraction of direct secure command key associated each intended receiver is fast operated to succeed the subsequent e-mail message recovery. Therefore, we provide a new and feasible solution for e-mail message encryption multicast in network system.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for an Adolescent Female Presenting With Misophonia: A Case Example

The case illustrates the effective assessment and treatment of misophonia in a 14-year-old adolescent female in which short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP) principles were utilized. Misophonia-related symptomology declined significantly during treatment, and partial gains were consolidated over time with the use of ongoing sporadic booster sessions to maintain reported improvements and to address the variable nature of the patient’s symptom expression. Significant tolerance of noise triggers occurred, both within and in between sessions, and the patient achieved concurrent behavioral changes and tolerated a marked reduction in relevant avoidance behaviors. Self-reported and observed psychological and physiological distress diminished when confronted with identified trigger noises, both during conducted in vivo exposures and, more broadly, in the patient’s home and school environments. The case serves as a contribution to the growing body of psychiatric literature recognizing misophonia as a distinct phenomenon, and offers anecdotal evidence regarding assessment treatment implications.
Task- and Response Related Dissociations between Neglect in Near and Far Space: A Morphometric Case Study

Introduction: Patients with unilateral neglect may show line bisection errors selectively in either near (within hand reaching) or far (beyond hand reaching) space which suggests that these two spatial areas are coded differently by the brain. This exploratory study investigated, whether any difference in performance between these spatial domains might be task-independent or modulated by the requirement for a motor response. Methods: A 31-year-old right brain damaged patient (MF) and a group of age matched healthy controls were assessed with two serial visual search tasks and a Landmark paradigm. Both types of task required either a directional (pointing) or non-directional (button press) motor response. Participants were assessed with both task types and response modes in near (57 cm) and far space (114 cm). Results: MF showed left neglect during visual search only in far space for the perceptual condition and in near space for the motor condition. MF showed no neglect in both versions of the Landmark task irrespective of spatial distance. A voxel-based morphometric assessment of MF's brain lesion showed marked damage in the right ventro-temporal cortex, superior temporal gyrus, insula, inferior frontal gyrus, angular gyrus and bilaterally in the posterior cingulate cortex. Conclusions: Our preliminary findings suggest that processing of far space during visual search is associated with ventral stream damage but only when space is coded through visual information. Neglect involving directional motor activity in near space seems to be associated with damage of structures sharing close connections with the dorsal stream.
Financial Reporting Incentives for Conservative Accounting: The Influence of Legal and Political Institutions

In this paper, we explore how reported accounting numbers are shaped by the institutional structure of the country in which firms are domiciled. We seek deeper understanding into the nature of financial reporting incentives created by an economy's institutional structure. We focus on financial reporting incentives related to accounting conservatism. To this end, we empirically analyze relations between key characteristics of economy-level institutions and one dimension of accounting conservatism, the asymmetric recognition of economic gains and losses into earnings. We also provide evidence on channels through which specific institutions manifest their influence on observed conservatism. Channels investigated include the use of accounting numbers in designing debt and compensation contracts, in supporting securities-related litigation, in motivating the behavior of public-sector regulators, and in mediating the relations between politicians and private sector business firms. We document that firms in countries with strong judicial systems reflect bad news in earnings faster than firms in countries with weak judicial systems. We show that higher judicial quality and higher usage of public bonds or more diffuse ownership structures leads to more conservatism. Also, strong public enforcement aspects of securities law (but not private enforcement) slows recognition of good news in earnings relative to firms in countries with weak public enforcement. Finally, firms in countries with common law legal origin combined with high risk of expropriation by the state and high state ownership of enterprises speed the recognition of good news and slow the recognition of bad news relative to firms in countries with less political involvement. This result is reversed in countries with civil law legal origin and high risk of expropriation and high state ownership of enterprises. Thus, firms appear to adjust their financial reporting in response to the nature of the State's involvement.
A Dependence Representation for Coverage Testing of Object-Oriented Programs

We propose a dependence-based representation for object-or- iented programs, named Call-based Object-Oriented System Dependence Graph (COSDG). Apart from structural features, COSDG captures im- portant object-oriented features such as class, inheritance, and polymor- phism. Novel features of COSDG include details of method visibility in a derived class, and dierent types of method call edges to distinguish be- tween various calling contexts—simple, inherited, and polymorphic. We also propose an algorithm for the construction of COSDG, and subse- quently explain its working with an example. COSDG has been devel- oped primarily to aid test coverage analysis. However, it can be used in a variety of other software engineering applications such as program slicing, software re-engineering, and debugging.
Foot pressure analysis of adults with flat and normal feet at different gait speeds on an ascending slope

[Purpose] This study was conducted to determine the difference in foot pressures between flat and normal feet at different gait speeds on an ascending slope. [Subjects] This study enrolled 30 adults with normal (n=15) and flat feet (n=15), with ages from 21 to 30 years old, who had no history of neurological disorders or gait problems. A treadmill was used for the analysis of kinematic features during gait, using a slope of 10%, and gait velocities of slow, normal, and fast. [Methods] A foot pressure analyzer was used to measure changes in foot pressure. [Results] Compared to the normal subjects, the foot pressure of the flatfoot subjects showed a significant increase in the 2–3rd metatarsal region with increasing gait speed, whereas there were significant decreases in the 1st toe and 1st metatarsal regions with increasing gait speed. [Conclusion] The body weight of adults with flatfoot was concentrated on the 2–3rd metatarsal region during the stance phase and increased with walking speed on the ascending slope due to weakening of function of the medial longitudinal arch.
A new unscented Kalman filter with higher order moment-matching

This paper is concerned with filtering nonlinear multivariate time series. A new approximate Bayesian algorithm is proposed which generates sample points and corresponding probability weights that match exactly the predicted values of average marginal skewness and average marginal kurtosis of the unobserved state variables, in addition to matching their mean and the covariance matrix. The performance of the algorithm is illustrated by an empirical example of yield curve modelling with real financial market data. Results show an improvement in accuracy in comparison with extended Kalman filter (EKF) and traditional unscented Kalman filter (UKF).
Considering Common Data Model for Indoor Location-aware Services

Indoor positioning system (IPS) identifies positions of various indoor objects, and is a key technology to achieve sophisticated Indoor Location-Aware Services (InLAS). In most conventional systems, InLAS and IPS are tightly coupled. That is, one system does not supposed to reuse indoor location data and program of another system. This makes individual systems complex and difficult to manage. To cope with the problem, we propose Data Model for Indoor Location (DM4InL), which prescribes a common data schema, independent of implementation of IPS or the usage of InLAS. The proposed DM4InL represents the location of every indoor object in a standard way, by using three kinds of models: location, building and object models. We also design the fundamental API, which implements typical queries to the indoor location data from external applications. The proposed method achieves loose-coupling of InLAS and IPS, which significantly improves the efficiency and reusability in the InLAS development.
Chromosomal Passports Provide New Insights into Diffusion of Emmer Wheat

Emmer wheat, Triticum dicoccon schrank (syn. T. dicoccum (schrank) schÜbl. ), is one of the earliest domesticated crops, harboring a wide range of genetic diversity and agronomically valuable traits. The crop, however, is currently largely neglected. We provide a wealth of karyotypic information from a comprehensive collection of emmer wheat and related taxa. In addition to C-banding polymorphisms, we identified 43 variants of chromosomal rearrangements in T. dicoccon; among them 26 (60.4%) were novel. The T7A:5B translocation was most abundant in Western Europe and the Mediterranean. The plant genetic resources investigated here might become important in the future for wheat improvement. Based on cluster analysis four major karyotypic groups were discriminated within the T. dicoccon genepool, each harboring characteristic C-banding patterns and translocation spectra: the balkan, asian, european and ethiopian groups. We postulate four major diffusion routes of the crop and discuss their migration out of the Fertile Crescent considering latest archaeobotanical findings.
Characteristics of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus newly treated with GLP-1 receptor agonists (CHADIG Study): a cross-sectional multicentre study in Spain

Objective Several glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (GLP-1Ra) have been made recently available in Spain for type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) treatment. There are no published data on the clinical and sociodemographic profile of patients initiating treatment with GLP-1Ra in Spain. Our objective was to understand these patients' characteristics in a real-world clinical practice setting. Design Cross-sectional observational study. Setting Spanish specialist outpatient clinics. Participants 403 adults with DM2 initiating GLP-1Ra treatment were included. Primary and secondary outcome measures Sociodemographic and DM2-related clinical data, including treatment at and after GLP-1Ra initiation and comorbidities, were collected. Results Evaluable patients (n=403; 50.9% female) were included (July 2013 to March 2014) at 24 centres by 53 specialists (47 endocrinology, 6 internal medicine), with the following profile (value±SD): age (58.3±10.4 years), diabetes duration (9.9±7 years), body mass index (BMI; 36.2±5.5) and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c; 8.4±1.4%); 14% had HbA1c≤7%. Previous antidiabetic treatment: 53.8% only oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs), 5.2% insulin and 40% insulin and OAD; of those receiving OAD, 35% single drug, 38.2% 2 drugs and 24% 3 drugs. Concomitant to GLP-1Ra, 55.3% were only on OAD, 36.2% on insulin and OAD, and 7.2% only on insulin. Of those receiving OAD, the GLP-1Ra was mainly associated with 1 drug (65%) or 2 drugs (31.8%). GLP-1Ra are frequently added to existing antidiabetic drugs, with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors being the OAD most frequently switched (45% receiving 1 before starting GLP-1Ra, only 2.7% receiving it concomitantly). Conclusions In Spain, GLP-1Ra therapy is usually started in combination with OADs or OADs and insulin. These drugs are used in relatively young patients often not reaching therapeutic goals with other treatment combinations, roughly a decade after diagnosis and with a relatively high BMI. The latter could be explained by Spanish regional payers limiting reimbursed prescription to patients with a minimum BMI threshold (>30 in most regions, >35 in some).