Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Re‐entrant projections modulate visual cortex in affective perception: Evidence from Granger causality analysis

Re‐entrant modulation of visual cortex has been suggested as a critical process for enhancing perception of emotionally arousing visual stimuli. This study explores how the time information inherent in large‐scale electrocortical measures can be used to examine the functional relationships among the structures involved in emotional perception. Granger causality analysis was conducted on steady‐state visual evoked potentials elicited by emotionally arousing pictures flickering at a rate of 10 Hz. This procedure allows one to examine the direction of neural connections. Participants viewed pictures that varied in emotional content, depicting people in neutral contexts, erotica, or interpersonal attack scenes. Results demonstrated increased coupling between visual and cortical areas when viewing emotionally arousing content. Specifically, intraparietal to inferotemporal and precuneus to calcarine connections were stronger for emotionally arousing picture content. Thus, we provide evidence for re‐entrant signal flow during emotional perception, which originates from higher tiers and enters lower tiers of visual cortex. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Intramolecular triplex potential sequence within a gene down regulates its expression in vivo.

Polypurine/polypyrimidine sequences have been shown to adopt intramolecular triple helix structures under torsional stress and/or at low pH. Such sequences have been observed within the the regulatory as well as the coding regions of several genes and the involvement of triple helical structure adopted by these sequences in transcriptional control has been speculated. Taking advantage of codon degeneracy we have engineered a 38 bp long intramolecular triple helix potential polypurine/polypyrimidine sequence motif between the 37th and 50th codons of beta-galactosidase gene in the plasmid pBluescriptIISK+ to investigate whether in vivo E.coli RNA polymerase would transcribe sequence motifs adopting triple helix structure, when present within the coding region of the gene. E.coli JM109 cells transformed with this construct pSBT1, exhibited 80% inhibition of beta-galactosidase expression compared to another construct pSBmT12 made using less preferred codons for identical amino acid sequence, but lacking the polypurine/polypyrimidine sequence motif. Truncated beta-galactosidase transcripts were observed for pSBT1 but not for pSBmT12. Here we report that a putative triple helix potential sequence within a gene can down regulate its expression by partially blocking the transcription elongation in vivo.
Making sense of ‘mixture’: states and the classification of ‘mixed’ people

In many Western multi-ethnic societies, and increasingly in nonWestern societies, ‘super-diversity’ has emerged as a major demographic trend in various metropolitan centres (Vertovec 2007). Contemporary Britain is marked by both super-diversity in urban areas and ‘old’ racial and ethnic cleavages which reflect continuing social divides in many parts of the country. As a result, there is considerable flux in the meanings and significance of race and racial difference across a variety of contexts. Such growing diversity is due to continue, based upon continuing flows of migration, increased interracial and interethnic partnering, and the growth of ‘mixed’ individuals. While I focus on the case of Britain, much of this editorial, I would argue, will be of relevance to what many other multi-ethnic societies will encounter in the coming years. Notably, while only 2 per cent of marriages are ‘interethnic’ in Britain (Office for National Statistics 2005), such marriages are expected to grow rapidly. Black-white partnering is the most common in Britain the direct opposite of the US, where black/white partnering is least common. In a recent analysis of the Labour Force Survey, nearly half of black Caribbean men in a partnership were partnered (married or cohabiting) with someone of a different ethnic group (and about one third of black Caribbean women), while 39 per cent of Chinese women in partnerships had a partner from a different ethnic group (Platt 2009). There are now more children in Britain (under age 5) with one black and one white parent than children with two black parents (Owen 2007). Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 35 No. 4 April 2012 pp. 565 573
New Characterizations of Simple Points in 2D, 3D, and 4D Discrete Spaces

A point of a discrete object is called simple if it can be deleted from this object without altering topology. In this article, we present new characterizations of simple points which hold in dimensions 2, 3 and 4, and which lead to efficient algorithms for detecting such points. In order to prove these characterizations, we establish two confluence properties of the collapse operation which hold in the neighborhood of a point in spaces of low dimension. This work is settled in the framework of cubical complexes, which provides a sound topological basis for image analysis, and allows to retrieve the main notions and results of digital topology, in particular the notion of simple point.
Long-term effects of the demographic transition on family and kinship networks in Britain.

the first demographic transition started in many western industrialized societies around the latter part of the nineteenth century with steady mortality improvement. expectation of life at birth, about 40 years at the start of the transition, has now doubled (riley 2001). Fertility declined from a level of about five children to under two children per woman over the same period (Coale and watkins 1986; Chesnais 1993; dyson 2010). this decline was interrupted in many industrialized countries by the baby boom and associated marriage boom in the post–world war ii period, peaking in the early 1960s. the decline resumed to such an extent that some countries experienced ultra-low fertility, with total fertility rates below 1.3, together with very low rates of marriage (Billari and Kohler 2004; Frejka et al. 2008). widespread signs of stabilization or reversal from these historically unprecedented low fertility levels only started to appear in the early twenty-first century (Goldstein, Sobotka, and Jasilioniene 2009). these widespread fertility declines have led to population aging, initially resulting from reductions in fertility and more recently compounded by mortality improvement at older ages. while countries have shown some variations in the timing and magnitude, broadly similar trends are observed. trends in fertility and life expectancy for the country that is the subject of this chapter, england and wales (hereafter Britain), are shown in Figures 1a and 1b. this resumption of fertility decline in the second half of the twentieth century was associated with changes in partnership behavior in many countries that some consider to be a second demographic transition (van de Kaa 1987; lesthaeghe 1995), although this contention has been challenged , (e.g., Coleman 2005). these changes included substantial reductions in marriage and increases in marital breakdown. nonmarital cohabitation
A Dominant Mutation in the Pea PHYA Gene Confers Enhanced Responses to Light and Impairs the Light-Dependent Degradation of Phytochrome A1

Phytochrome A (phyA) is an important photoreceptor controlling many processes throughout the plant life cycle. It is unique within the phytochrome family for its ability to mediate photomorphogenic responses to continuous far-red light and for the strong photocontrol of its transcript level and protein stability. Here we describe a dominant mutant of garden pea (Pisum sativum) that displays dramatically enhanced responses to light, early photoperiod-independent flowering, and impaired photodestruction of phyA. The mutant carries a single base substitution in the PHYA gene that is genetically inseparable from the mutant phenotype. This substitution is predicted to direct the replacement of a conserved Ala in an N-terminal region of PHYA that is highly divergent between phyA and other phytochromes. This result identifies a region of the phyA photoreceptor molecule that may play an important role in its fate after photoconversion.
Passive direction-of-arrival and range estimation for near-field sources

An algorithm for simultaneously estimating the range and bearing of multiple near-field sources is presented. The method is based on the application of signal subspace ideas to the spatial Wigner-Ville distribution approach originally presented by B.R. Breed and T.E. Posch (Proc. ICASSP'84, p.41B.9.1, 1984). The principal advantages of using signal-subspace methods are that the range/direction-of-arrival estimates are obtained with improved precision and resolution, and without computation or search of a complicated spectral surface. Additionally, these methods allow a simple and more effective extension of the spatial Wigner-Ville approach to cases in which noise and/or multiple signals are present. Simulations have shown that the algorithm performs well for a wide variety of test cases, and comparisons with the Cramer-Rao bound indicate near-optimal direction-of-arrival estimates. <<ETX>>
Study of 27 aqueous humor cytokines in patients with type 2 diabetes with or without retinopathy

Purpose To compare the changes in the levels of 27 aqueous humor cytokines between nondiabetic controls and patients with type 2 diabetes and to ascertain the association of these cytokines with diabetic retinopathy (DR). Methods Undiluted aqueous humor samples were obtained from 102 nondiabetic patients (102 eyes) and 136 consecutive diabetic patients (136 eyes) who were divided into nine groups according to the Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study severity scale. The concentrations of 27 cytokines in the aqueous humor samples were measured using a multiplex bead immunoassay. Results Compared with the nondiabetic controls, the diabetic patients had significantly higher concentrations of interleukin-1β (IL-1β; p<0.001), IL-6 (p<0.001), IL-8 (p<0.001), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (p<0.001), interferon gamma-induced protein-10 (p<0.001), and vascular endothelial growth factor (p<0.001) in the aqueous humor. However, the IL-10 (p=0.002) and IL-12 (p=0.013) concentrations were significantly lower for the diabetic patients. There were no significant differences in the concentrations of other cytokines between the diabetic patients and the controls. The IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and interferon gamma-induced protein-10 levels in the aqueous humor increased as the severity of DR increased. The correlation was significant. However, the vascular endothelial growth factor concentration was not correlated with the severity of DR. In addition, the IL-10 and IL-12 levels in the aqueous humor decreased as the severity of DR increased, and this negative correlation was significant. Conclusions Various cytokines associated with inflammation and angiogenesis may contribute to the pathogenesis of DR, and chemokines may be more closely related to the development of this disease.
The contradictions of high‐stakes accountability ‘success’: a case study of focused leadership and performance agency

This article seeks to advance the discussion of the availability of contemporary notions of school leadership for school leaders working within high‐stakes accountability reform environment that produce discourses of urgency and legitimize practices of performance that implicitly favour centralized, neo‐Tayloristic managerial approaches. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in a school community largely populated by Latino and immigrant youth, I portray a school replete with discourses of urgency and practices of performance which emphasize control and tight coupling. I suggest that an anti‐pluralistic, assimilationist and subtractive stance towards the schools’ bilingual education programme implicitly gained credence and undercut the school community’s commitment to a culture and language as an asset orientation. In this context the school leadership and community felt constrained in their earnest commitment to democratic and pluralistic notions of school leadership. As such, this article provides a case on which to map and theorize how tightly coupled administration and control orientations of leadership flourish in a performance‐oriented context.
Should HIV/AIDS Be Securitized? The Ethical Dilemmas of Linking HIV/AIDS and Security

Should the global AIDS pandemic be framed as an international security issue? Drawing on securitization theory, this article argues that there is a complex normative dilemma at the heart of recent attempts to formulate the global response to HIV/AIDS in the language of international security. Although “securitizing” the AIDS pandemic could bolster international AIDS initiatives by raising awareness and resources, the language of security simultaneously pushes responses to the disease away from civil society toward military and intelligence organizations with the power to override the civil liberties of persons living with HIV/AIDS. The security framework, moreover, brings into play a “threat-defense” logic that could undermine international efforts to address the pandemic because it makes such efforts a function of narrow national interest rather than of altruism, because it allows states to prioritize AIDS funding for their elites and armed forces who play a crucial role in maintaining security, and because portraying the illness as an overwhelming “threat” works against ongoing efforts to normalize social perceptions regarding HIV/AIDS. These overlooked dangers give rise to a profound ethical dilemma as to whether or not the global AIDS pandemic should be portrayed as a security issue. The article concludes that securitization theory cannot resolve this complex dilemma, but that raising awareness of its presence does allow policy makers, activists, and scholars to begin drawing the links between HIV/AIDS and security in ways that at least minimize some of these dangers.
Montelukast improves regional air-trapping due to small airways obstruction in asthma

Quantitative image analysis of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) performed at residual volume, before and after methacholine, is a sensitive method of detecting small airways involvement in asthma and response to therapy targeted to the small airways. Since an oral anti-leukotriene reaches the small airways via the circulation, the present authors hypothesised that treatment with montelukast would lead to improved small airway patency. A double-blind crossover study compared the effect of montelukast versus placebo for 4 weeks in 16 mild-to-moderate steroid-naïve asthmatics. Small airways function was evaluated by HRCT at residual volume before and after methacholine to assess regional air-trapping and airways hyperresponsiveness, as well as by physiological studies of small airways. Montelukast treatment resulted in significantly less regional air-trapping on HRCT on the pre-methacholine images when compared with placebo, as well as improvement in total quality of life scores and symptom sub-scores. However, montelukast treatment had no effect on increases in regional air-trapping on HRCT in response to methacholine. No differences were noted in global measures of small airways physiology between placebo and montelukast. In conclusion, distal airways disease improves in asthmatic subjects treated with montelukast. This improvement can be detected with high-resolution computed tomography, but not with conventional physiological studies.
The effectiveness of academic dismissal policies in Dutch university education: an empirical investigation

This paper uses national data on 450 Dutch bachelor programs to measure the effect of the introduction of academic dismissal policies on study progress and first-year drop-out. Our results show that these policies increase first-year drop-out on average by 6–7%. They also have the effect of improving the study progress of first-year survivors by 5–9%, as measured by their 4-year completion rate. We conclude that academic dismissal policies can be an effective intervention to decrease the study duration of motivated and talented students. Academic dismissal policies thus do not reduce student dropout, but rather bring it forward in time. While these policies strengthen the selective function of the first year, they do little to put dismissed students on a more successful academic path. The referential function of academic dismissal policies therefore needs further strengthening.
Integrating Articulatory Information in Deep Learning-Based Text-to-Speech Synthesis

Articulatory information has been shown to be effective in improving the performance of hidden Markov model (HMM)based text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis. Recently, deep learningbased TTS has outperformed HMM-based approaches. However, articulatory information has rarely been integrated in deep learning-based TTS. This paper investigated the effectiveness of integrating articulatory movement data to deep learning-based TTS. The integration of articulatory information was achieved in two ways: (1) direct integration, where articulatory and acoustic features were the output of a deep neural network (DNN), and (2) direct integration plus forward-mapping, where the output articulatory features were mapped to acoustic features by an additional DNN; These forward-mapped acoustic features were then combined with the output acoustic features to produce the final acoustic features. Articulatory (tongue and lip) and acoustic data collected from male and female speakers were used in the experiment. Both objective measures and subjective judgment by human listeners showed the approaches integrated articulatory information outperformed the baseline approach (without using articulatory information) in terms of naturalness and speaker voice identity (voice similarity).
Race, Gender, and Critique: African-American Women, White Women, and Domestic Violence in the 1980s and 1990s

n this article, I focus on young adult working-class and poor AfricanAmerican women and white women. Both groups currently lead lives of pain, frustration, and passion, lives that are directly linked to historically rooted racism, patriarchy, the privileging of white skin, and the new economy, as well as the current dismantling of the urban public sector. Given historically distinct racial trajectories, I ask here, where do these women lodge social critique? Where do they locate the cause of and imagine the remedy for the troubles they endure? My analysis of "critique," or expressed site of problems, does not stem from data gathered in response to direct questions about critique per se. Rather, it is critique as woven throughout in-depth narrative responses that constitutes the site for analysis. As I will suggest below, it is easy to hear pain, alienation, and blame. While these broad parameters are common cross-race, women of different races place blame differently. As sociologists and social psychologists have long contended, where people locate critique--that is, where they place blame and responsibility for tough times bears serious consequence for how they conceptualize remedy, if they can imagine alternative possibilities for themselves and their children, and whether they can see themselves as potential activists engaged for social change.1 Elsewhere, Michelle Fine and I have explored where African-American and white men center critique and have focused on race-based differences among poor and working-class men (Weis and Fine 1996). Here I argue
Relative coastal vulnerability assessment of War in the Pacific National Historical Park (WAPA) to sea-level rise

4 Introduction 4 Data Ranking 5 War in the Pacific National Historical Park 5 Methodology 6 Geologic Variables 6 Physical Process Variables 7 Coastal Vulnerability Index 7 Results 8 Discussion 8 Conclusions 8 References 9 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 11 Coastal Vulnerability Assessment of War in the Pacific National Historical Park to Sea-Level Rise By Elizabeth A. Pendleton, E. Robert Thieler, S. and Jeffress Williams
On the sequelae of recurrent otitis media (ROM): a review and a proposed model

Abstract The literature on the effects of recurrent otitis media (ROM) on speech perception and production, language development and educational attainment is reviewed. Although these effects may be severe in some cases, they appear relatively moderate in the aggregate. Generally, the effects are most marked up to three years of age and are weaker thereafter. It appears that much of the earlier work on the effects of ROM was mainly concerned with establishing a statistical association between ROM and its apparent consequences. It is argued that such statistical links are not enough, because they do not present a causal model. Detail of the linguistic and cognitive steps by which ROM produces its effects is needed. A model for such a progression is presented, and considered in discussion of the published evidence. It is argued that the intermittent mild conductive hearing loss produced by ROM results in inconsistent perception of both phonemes and morpho-phonemes, which are thus weakly imprinted on neural .
Small Player Advantage in a New Game: Capturing Opportunity as Developing Countries from the New Globalism of Technology

As the world moves towards the twenty-first century, developing nations are confronted with a complex and challenging paradigmatic shift in the way that technological process is becoming embedded in the globalised economic framework of development. There is a perceptible shift taking place from economic power being derived from nationally owned production facilities to economic power being derived from the national location of high value-added activities. As developing countries are opening up, there is a greater incidence, than ever before, to transfer advanced technological processes and know-how to the developing partners as a part of the global networking strategies. As opposed to the earlier strategies, these new networking strategies seek to encourage establishment of locally based research, development and design facilities to meet both the local and inter- ndtional demand for increasingly sophisticated spectrum of products. Developing nations stand to capture and gain from these advantages provided their structures are equipped to bed these new knowledge capacities into their national technology strategies. There is a series of various factor advantages behind these new demands of economic competition. At the heart of capturing value-added advantage from the new economic and technological order lies the whole spectrum of reordering the S&T skill base including the educational system which seeks to develop more strategically informed inter- and multidisciplinary S&T programmes. Entirely different principles of science and technology policies are implied which focus on the development and flow of people embedding national SBcT advance into aligned social and organisational strategies.