Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intrinsic signals from human cone photoreceptors.

PURPOSE To develop noninvasive means to relate structure to function in human eyes, the authors investigated intrinsic retinal signals at high resolution using an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope (AOSLO). METHODS The AOSLO was used in dual-wavelength mode to stimulate the retina with 658 nm visible light and simultaneously to image the retina with 840 nm infrared light. Modulation of each laser beam using acousto-optic modulators allowed the integration of complex, patterned stimuli into the projected raster, whose exact locations on the retina were recorded into the movie in real time. Stimulus luminance was 12,000 cd/m(2). Twenty- to 30-second movies were recorded, with stimulation occurring at 5 seconds. Intensity changes in the infrared image in response to the visible stimulus were monitored over time. RESULTS In five subjects, results showed a clear increase in infrared light scattering in the stimulated region with respect to its surroundings, reproduced in four subjects across multiple imaging sessions. Signal increase began immediately at the onset of the stimulus, reached a peak 2 to 3 seconds after stimulus onset, and decreased to baseline within 2 to 10 seconds. The magnitude of the increase over the stimulated area varied from 0% to 5% between subjects. CONCLUSIONS Results suggested that the signal originated in the cone photoreceptors, though not all cones contributed to the same extent. In individual cones, signal increases over 20% were measured. Excessive eye movements and dim images gave insufficient signal to noise. Eight subjects showed spurious results for these reasons and were eliminated from the study.
Software Components beyond Programming: From Routines to Services

Software engineering (SE) conference in 1968, Doug Mc Ilroy introduced the concept of software components during his keynote speech, "Mass-Produced Software Components. " That components hold such an esteemed place in SE history should come as no surprise: componentization is a fundamental engineering principle. Top-down approaches decompose large systems into smaller parts-components and bottom-up approaches compose smaller parts components into larger systems. Since 1968, components have played a role in both SE research and practice. For example, components have been an immanent part of software architecture from its early days.2 In 1998, the In ternational Conference on Software Engineering introduced component based software engineering (CBSE) as a specific area within SE at the first workshop on CBSE.
Synphony : A video telephony encoding system

In this paper we present a visual telephony system, Synphony , which uses a new coding method based on the re-synt hesis of visual speech at the receiver. This method allows the transmission of visual telephony scenes over a ver y low capacity channel (under 64Kbps). The coding method proposes a new paradigm for sequence coding in whic h t e objective is to re-synthesize smooth sequences cohe rent with the audio speech signal instead of minimizing the a v r ge distortion.
Postmodernism and scientific politics in contemporary Psychology: A critical review

The present work is a study on the influence of postmodernism in scientific politics of contemporary Psychology. The epistemological presuppositions adopted by Social Construcionism and its political-academic consequences are investigated. The elimination, by postmodern philosophy, of the distinction between discovery context and justification context emerges as the cause for the dissolution of the distinction between epistemological criteria and political criteria in theories and in hypothesis validations in the "sociological" field of Social Psychology. The consequent rejection of presuppositions of modern science necessarily brings about an interpretation of science as an activity without epistemological privileges, which is socially affirmed only through political and economical resources. The postmodern Social Psychology therefore, as consequence, abandoned the laboratory and research and chose the political organization, institutional domain, and propaganda as its field in order to achieve academic affirmation. Without objective criteria of relevance, the scientific production is evaluated by its volume, a criterion that became the sole academic productivity criterion, leading postmodern Psychology to what can be named its "Sherazad complex".
Promoting PHYSICAL ACTIVITY in Teen Girls: Insight From Focus Groups

PurposeTo describe adolescent girls' views about physical activity and explore strategies that nurses can use to promote physical activity. Study Design and MethodsA qualitative study using focus groups and interviews with 28 girls (12–18 years of age) recruited from schools and neighborhood health centers in a Midwest metropolitan area. An interview guide with 15 open-ended questions was used, and data were analyzed using content analysis. ResultsMost girls preferred the phrase “physical activity” over “exercise. ” The benefits most frequently mentioned included positive physical attributes, mental health benefits, and staying healthy. Three major themes were identified: autonomy (ask them what they like to do, and then provide choices), fun (being with friends, variation, and enjoyment), and body image (gaining weight, appearance, and self-confidence). Clinical ImplicationsNursing interventions to promote physical activity and other healthy lifestyle changes that may prevent obesity should include active listening and a focus on the goals of the teen. Nurses need to evaluate their teaching and counseling approach, because the teens emphasized two points: “Don't tell me what to do” and “Don't put me down. ”
Constructing a new approach to developing evidence-based practice with nurses and older people.

PURPOSE Providing evidence-based nursing care to older people is central to the international development agenda. This paper is a report on the first 5 years (2000-2005) of a participatory research project, the purpose of which was to collaborate with practitioners and older people to develop approaches to promote the attainment of evidence-based nursing care across Scotland. DESIGN Many theoretical influences shaped the design of this action research study including realistic evaluation, participatory social learning theory, and descriptions of communities of practice. Multiple methods of data collection were used during four action cycles. The inaugural community of practice comprised 30 nurses, a second group of 30 nurses joined midway, followed by a third group of 15 nurses, and finally, an older person-carer community of 21 members was established. FINDINGS Project outputs included the construction of an internet-based, practice-development college. A procedural model for developing and demonstrating care guidance drawn from a diversity of evidence and reflective of an agreed set of principles was piloted and endorsed by the national standard setting agency. A preliminary version of a promising approach to practice development, "the Caledonian Model," was delineated for future testing and refinement. CONCLUSION This work indicates the merits of using participatory research to find solutions to the challenge of promoting evidence-based practice. Evaluation data suggest that in combination, the approaches developed in this project empower nurses to work with older people to champion developments even in seemingly unfavorable conditions.
Functionalism and Propositional Attitudes

Functionalism is the thesis that one is in a given mental state just in case one is in a state that bears certain appropriate (causal) relations to other mental states, to sensory inputs, and to behavioral outputs. ' The empirical functionalist claims, in addition, that these functional relationships are to be determined by empirical investigation rather than by any kind of conceptual analysis.2 This brand of functionalism, currently much in favor, is, I argue, no more acceptable than its behavioral and physicalistic predecessors. I will not attempt to provide any one general knock-down argument. Rather, my strategy (section II) is to consider how inputs might plausibly be specified in such functional accounts, and in each case I argue that the resulting theory provides inadequate conditions for propositional attitudes. I will argue by way of counterexamples: counterexamples which are by no means novel in character but whose relevance for the philosophy of mind has been systematically underestimated. Section III is devoted to a discussion as to how and why they have been so perceived. Before entering into any argument I want to provide a very brief discussion of the position I am attacking (section I). I will be concerned only to highlight crucial elements in the account, and I will not attempt to dojustice to the many possible versions of empirical functionalism, nor to the virtues of these different accounts.
Model of single left rat lung transplantation. Relation between surgical experience and outcomes.

PURPOSE The model of unilateral orthotropic left rat lung transplantation is well known and established experimental procedure. The author's personal learning curve of mastery process of this microsurgical procedure is presented. MATERIAL AND METHODS During 18 months the author has performed 197 single left lung transplantations on the Thoracic Surgery Ward in University Hospital, Berne, Switzerland. There were 147 allogeneic and 50 isogeneic transplantations done. The allogeneic transplantations were carried out from Brown-Norway to Fischer F344 rats whereas isogeneic transplantations were done among Fischer F344 rats solely. Grafted lung was obtained from the intravenously anaesthetised, oxygen-ventilated donor. The implantation was carried out through left posterolateral thoracotomy on the gas anaesthetised, respirator ventilated recipient. The anastomoses of the vessels were done using the cuff technique, bronchi were sutured using continuous running over-and-over suture. Recipients were sacrificed on day 5 post-transplant. All recipients were divided into four consecutive groups. Warm ischaemia time and presence of perioperative pure technical complications were observed. RESULTS We observed time dependent decline of complications number of consecutive recipient groups, respectively 20, 5, 4, 1. The warm ischaemia time in minutes decreased from 35.6 +/- 5.4 in group I through 26.7 +/- 4.4 in group II, 24.8 +/- 2.3 in group III to 22.0 +/- 3.1 in group IV. CONCLUSIONS Continuous training of the procedure shortens the average warm ischaemia time and reduces the number of complications. This tedious microsurgical procedure is possible to master by the surgeon.
Learning latent semantic relations from clickthrough data for query suggestion

For a given query raised by a specific user, the Query Suggestion technique aims to recommend relevant queries which potentially suit the information needs of that user. Due to the complexity of the Web structure and the ambiguity of users' inputs, most of the suggestion algorithms suffer from the problem of poor recommendation accuracy. In this paper, aiming at providing semantically relevant queries for users, we develop a novel, effective and efficient two-level query suggestion model by mining clickthrough data, in the form of two bipartite graphs (user-query and query-URL bipartite graphs) extracted from the clickthrough data. Based on this, we first propose a joint matrix factorization method which utilizes two bipartite graphs to learn the low-rank query latent feature space, and then build a query similarity graph based on the features. After that, we design an online ranking algorithm to propagate similarities on the query similarity graph, and finally recommend latent semantically relevant queries to users. Experimental analysis on the clickthrough data of a commercial search engine shows the effectiveness and the efficiency of our method.
Style-shifting and intra-speaker variation in the vowel production of nonnative speakers of New Zealand English

When compared to native-speaker language ‘targets’, second language (L2) speakers are known to exhibit within-speaker variation in their L2 language performance according to the identity of their interlocutor (Beebe & Zuengler, 1983), the topic that is being discussed (Dolgova Jacobsen, 2008), or both (Rampton, 2011). However, previous studies have rarely applied the same methodology to different first language (L1) groups and have rarely used data from a range of speakers, so they have been unable to explore differences between speaker groups. This paper examines situational style-shifting in L2 speakers of New Zealand English in two groups of speakers, one with Korean as their L1 and the other with German as their L1. Participants were recorded in three different settings: discussing family, discussing work, and in an authentic service encounter. Male and female speakers showed similar patterns, and all were found to exhibit stylistic variation in their production of English vowels such that tokens were most nativelike in service encounters, followed by discussion of work and then family. This pattern was more robust for the Korean L1 speakers than for the German L1 speakers, which is explained by different social and linguistic histories of the two groups in New Zealand. This paper adds to our current understanding of sociolinguistic variation in L2 speakers by applying audience design (Bell, 1984) and identity construction (Eckert, 2000) accounts to L2 speakers’ production of vowels.
Improving User Perceived Page Load Times Using Gaze

We take a fresh look at Web page load performance from the point of view of user experience. Our user study shows that perceptual performance, defined as user-perceived page load time (uPLT) poorly correlates with traditional page load time (PLT) metrics. However, most page load optimizations are designed to improve the traditional PLT metrics, rendering their impact on user experience uncertain. Instead, we present WebGaze, a system that specifically optimizes for the uPLT metric. The key insight in WebGaze is that user attention and interest can be captured using a user’s eye gaze and can inturn be used to improve uPLT. We collect eye gaze data from 50 users across 45 Web pages and find that there is commonality in user attention across users. Specifically, users are drawn to certain regions on the page, that we call regions of high collective fixation. WebGaze prioritizes loading objects that exhibit a high degree of collective fixation to improve user-perceived latencies. We compare WebGaze with three alternate strategies, one of which is the state-of-the-art system that also uses prioritization to improve user experience. Our evaluation based on a user study shows that WebGaze improves median uPLT for 73% of the Web pages compared to all three alternate strategies.
Voltage-Driven Partial-RESET Multilevel Programming in Phase-Change Memories

In this paper, the feasibility of partial-RESET programming in phase-change memories is experimentally investigated by considering both the single-cell behavior and the effects of parameter spreads over a memory array. The aim of this paper is to highlight advantages and drawbacks of partial-RESET programming from the viewpoint of multilevel (ML) storage. Although high reproducibility of a partial-RESET programming curve of a single cell has been observed, the parameter spreads over the array imply the need for a program-and-verify (P&V) approach to achieve the necessary accuracy for ML storage. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of partial-RESET ML programming, 4 log-spaced levels within the available resistance window have been programmed by means of a staircase-up P&V algorithm.
A globally stable state feedback controller for flexible joint robots

The paper addresses the problem of controlling the joints of a flexible joint robot with a state feedback controller and proposes a gradual way of extending such a controller towards the complete decoupling of the robot dynamics. The global asymptotic stability for the state feedback controller with gravity compensation is proven, followed by some theoretical remarks on its passivity properties. By proper parameterization, the proposed controller structure can implement a position, a stiffness or a torque controller. Experimental results on the DLR lightweight robots validate the method.
Online video tracking using collaborative convolutional networks

Recently, convolutional neural network (CNN) models have achieved great success in many vision tasks. However, few attempts have been made to explore CNN for online model-free object tracking without time-consuming offline training. In this paper, we propose an online convolutional network (OC-N) for visual object tracking. To make the network less dependent on labeled data, K-means is employed to learn multistage filter banks for hierarchical feature learning. To preserve more spatial information for tracking, down-sampling and pooling operations are eliminated, which enables our system more sensitive to spatial variations. A regression model is adopted as the output layer of OCN to predict the position changes of the target. To deal with the stability-plasticity dilemma, two OCNs with different update rates are integrated to construct an ensemble framework. Experiments on challenging benchmark video sequences demonstrate that the proposed tracker outperforms several state-of-the-art methods.
Carbon-Flux Distribution within Streptomyces coelicolor Metabolism: A Comparison between the Actinorhodin-Producing Strain M145 and Its Non-Producing Derivative M1146

Metabolic Flux Analysis is now viewed as essential to elucidate the metabolic pattern of cells and to design appropriate genetic engineering strategies to improve strain performance and production processes. Here, we investigated carbon flux distribution in two Streptomyces coelicolor A3 (2) strains: the wild type M145 and its derivative mutant M1146, in which gene clusters encoding the four main antibiotic biosynthetic pathways were deleted. Metabolic Flux Analysis and 13C-labeling allowed us to reconstruct a flux map under steady-state conditions for both strains. The mutant strain M1146 showed a higher growth rate, a higher flux through the pentose phosphate pathway and a higher flux through the anaplerotic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase. In that strain, glucose uptake and the flux through the Krebs cycle were lower than in M145. The enhanced flux through the pentose phosphate pathway in M1146 is thought to generate NADPH enough to face higher needs for biomass biosynthesis and other processes. In both strains, the production of NADPH was higher than NADPH needs, suggesting a key role for nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase for redox homeostasis. ATP production is also likely to exceed metabolic ATP needs, indicating that ATP consumption for maintenance is substantial.Our results further suggest a possible competition between actinorhodin and triacylglycerol biosynthetic pathways for their common precursor, acetyl-CoA. These findings may be instrumental in developing new strategies exploiting S. coelicolor as a platform for the production of bio-based products of industrial interest.
The expression of secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) in the fallopian tube: SLPI protects the acrosome reaction of sperm from inhibitory effects of elastase.

BACKGROUND Secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) is a protein found in various fluids, including parotid secretions, cervical mucus, seminal plasma and ascites, and is a potent inhibitor of human leukocyte elastase activity. The objective of the study was 2-fold, to evaluate (i) the presence of SLPI in the Fallopian tube, and (ii) the effect of SLPI on the acrosome reaction of sperm. METHODS AND RESULTS Western blot analysis revealed that SLPI protein was detected as a 12 kDa band in the isthmus, ampulla and infundibulum of the Fallopian tube. Immunohistochemistry using an anti-SLPI polyclonal antibody revealed positive staining of epithelial cells in the Fallopian tube. RT-PCR demonstrated that SLPI transcripts were expressed in the Fallopian tube. To determine the function of SLPI in the Fallopian tube, the effects of SLPI and elastase on the sperm acrosome reaction were examined. SLPI prevented the reduction of the acrosome reaction by elastase in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSION The present findings suggest that SLPI in the Fallopian tube contributes to sperm-oocyte interaction.
Does Plant Origin Influence the Fitness Impact of Flower Damage? A Meta-Analysis

Herbivory has been long considered an important component of plant-animal interactions that influences the success of invasive species in novel habitats. One of the most important hypotheses linking herbivory and invasion processes is the enemy-release hypothesis, in which exotic plants are hypothesized to suffer less herbivory and fitness-costs in their novel ranges as they leave behind their enemies in the original range. Most evidence, however, comes from studies on leaf herbivory, and the importance of flower herbivory for the invasion process remains largely unknown. Here we present the results of a meta-analysis of the impact of flower herbivory on plant reproductive success, using as moderators the type of damage caused by floral herbivores and the residence status of the plant species. We found 51 papers that fulfilled our criteria. We also included 60 records from unpublished data of the laboratory, gathering a total of 143 case studies. The effects of florivory and nectar robbing were both negative on plant fitness. The methodology employed in studies of flower herbivory influenced substantially the outcome of flower damage. Experiments using natural herbivory imposed a higher fitness cost than simulated herbivory, such as clipping and petal removal, indicating that studies using artificial herbivory as surrogates of natural herbivory underestimate the real fitness impact of flower herbivory. Although the fitness cost of floral herbivory was high both in native and exotic plant species, floral herbivores had a three-fold stronger fitness impact on exotic than native plants, contravening a critical element of the enemy-release hypothesis. Our results suggest a critical but largely unrecognized role of floral herbivores in preventing the spread of introduced species into newly colonized areas.
Oscillations of Starless Cores

If the split, asymmetric molecular spectral line profiles that are seen in many starless cores are interpreted as indicative of global collapse or expansion of the core, then one possible implication is that most starless cores have short lifetimes, on the order of the collapse or sound crossing timescale. An alternative interpretation of the line profiles, as indicative of perturbations on an underlying equilibrium structure, leads to the opposite implication, that many cores have long lifetimes. While evidence suggests that some cores are collapsing on a free-fall timescale, we show that observations of some other starless cores can be reproduced by a model of nonradial oscillations about the equilibrium configuration of a pressure-bounded, thermally-supported sphere (Bonnor-Ebert sphere). We model the oscillations as linear perturbations following a standard analysis developed for stellar pulsations and compare the column densities and molecular spectral line profiles predicted from a particular model to observations of the Bok globule B68.
Schizophrenia Forum - Print News

4 November 2005. There is now overwhelming evidence that genetic inheritance plays a major role in susceptibility to schizophrenia. And though no schizophrenia genes have yet been confirmed, there are plenty of candidates. Multiple lines of evidence, for example, suggest that a region in the small arm of chromosome 22 (22q11.2) might confer susceptibility to the disease. Two recent Nature Neuroscience papers bolster that connection.