Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex Differences in Nicotinic Currents of Layer VI Neurons of Prefrontal Cortex During Development

There is a large sex difference in the prevalence of attention deficit disorder; yet, relatively little is known about sex differences in prefrontal attention circuitry. In male rats during development, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors excite corticothalamic neurons in layer VI, which play an important role in attention by gating the sensitivity of thalamic neurons to incoming stimuli. Here, we investigate sex differences in the developmental nicotinic excitation of these layer VI neurons. Using whole cell recording in prefrontal brain slices, we examined the inward currents elicited by nicotinic stimulation in rats and two strains of mice. We found a prominent sex difference in the currents during the first postnatal month when males had significantly greater nicotinic currents in layer VI neurons compared to females. Since the nicotinic currents in males and females were mediated by α4β2* nicotinic receptors, we examined potential sex differences in the distribution of the receptors using a line of knock-in mice in which all α4-containing nicotinic receptors are labeled with YFP. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed no sex difference in the pattern or proportion of YFP-positive neurons in layer VI. Further electrophysiological experiments tested the effects of sex steroids on nicotinic currents and found that progesterone is able to rapidly and significantly suppress nicotinic currents in layer VI neurons. This is the first illustration at a cellular level that prefrontal attention circuitry is differently excited by nicotinic stimulation in males and females during development. SECTION 2: SEX DIFFERENCES IN NICOTINIC EXCITATION 18 2.
Coda-Derived Source Parameters of Earthquakes and Their Scaling Relationships in the Korean Peninsula

We applied the coda-derived source spectrum method of Mayeda et al. (2003) to earthquakes in and around the Korean peninsula. After empirical calibra- tions, we derived source spectra of the earthquakes. From the coda-derived spectra, we estimated valuable source parameters such as the seismic moment, corner frequency, and radiated energy for small events with Mw <3:5. We derived simple linear relation- ships between the coda spectral amplitudes and local magnitudes reported from the Korea Meteorological Administration and Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. These relationships can be used to estimate stable local magnitudes for future earthquakes using a small number of stations. To investigate whether the earth- quakes occurring in this region obey self-similarity, we examined the scaling relation- ships between dynamic and static source parameters, such as the corner frequency, radiated energy, and scaled energy versus seismic moment. The scaling relationship between the corner frequency and seismic moment showed clear nonself-similarity with a scaling parameter of 0.54; this value is more or less consistent with previous results for different regions. Scaling relations of radiated energy and scaled energy versus the seismic moment also show size-dependent behavior that cannot be explained by self-similarity; this result implies that the rupture dynamics of small and large earthquakes are different in this region. Our observation provides further evidence supporting the nonself-similarity of earthquakes.
Weed seed bank emergence across the Corn Belt

Field experiments, conducted from 1991 to 1994, generated information on weed seedbank emergence for 22 site-years from Ohio to Colorado and Minnesota to Missouri. Early spring seedbank densities were estimated through direct extraction of viable seeds from soil cores. Emerged seedlings were recorded periodically, as were daily values for air and soil temperature, and precipitation. Percentages of weed seedbanks that emerged as seedlings were calculated from seedbank and seedling data for each species, and relationships between seedbank emergence and microclimatic variables were sought. Fifteen species were found in 3 or more site-years. Average emergence percentages (and coefficients of variation) of these species were as follows: giant foxtail, 31.2 (84%); velvetleaf, 28.2 (66); kochia, 25.7 (79); Pennsylvania smartweed, 25.1 (65); common purslane, 15.4 (135); common ragweed, 15.0 (110); green foxtail, 8.5 (72); wild proso millet, 6.6 (104); hairy nightshade, 5.2 (62); common sunflower, 5.0 (26); yellow foxtail, 3.4 (67); pigweed species, 3.3 (103); common lambsquarters, 2.7 (111); wild buckwheat, 2.5 (63), and prostrate knotweed, 0.6 (79). Variation among site-years, for some species, could be attributed to microclimate variables thought to induce secondary dormancy in spring. For example, total seasonal emergence percentage of giant foxtail was related positively to the 1st date at which average daily soil temperature at 5 to 10 cm soil depth reached 16 C. Thus, if soil warmed before mid April, secondary dormancy was induced and few seedlings emerged, whereas many seedlings emerged if soil remained cool until June.
Sectors or countries? Typologies and levels of analysis in comparative industrial relations

This article presents a critique of the ‘methodological nationalism’ of traditional comparative industrial relations. It investigates nine different sectors across the 27 EU member states on the basis of seven empirical indicators. It is found that industrial relations vary across sectors as deeply as they do across countries, and that a cluster analysis of sectoral industrial relations produces very different results from one at national aggregate level. The concept of ‘national model’ of industrial relations, implying coherence and homogeneity within countries, and geographical typologies of industrial relations ‘types’, are therefore put in question. The article concludes by pointing at the theoretical and methodological implications of a focus on the sector as an important level of analysis.
Angiotensin System Blocking Drugs − Renin

The two major classes of drugs that target the RAS are the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and the selective AT1 receptor blockers (ARBs). Although both of these drug classes target angiotensin II, the differences in their mechanisms of action have implications for their effects on other pathways and receptors that may have therapeutic implications. Both ACEIs and ARBs are effective antihypertensive agents that have been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular and renal events. Direct inhibition of renin –the most proximal aspect of the RAS –became clinically feasible from 2007 with the introduction of aliskiren. This latter drug has been shown to be efficacious for the management of hypertension. Combined therapy of direct renin-inhibitors with ACEIs or ARBs has been tested in some clinical situations as congestive HF and proteinuria with diverse results. This article tries to offer an updated review of current knowledge on the use of RAS blocking drugs in clinical settings.
Mimetic Marketing in Environmental Volunteering Organisations

The last decade has seen increased competition amongst voluntary organisations. This has resulted in a number of changes to the nonprofit sector, such as increased levels of scrutiny and accountability for business practices. Voluntary organisations compete not only for limited numbers of volunteers but also for limited grant funding made available at local, state and federal government levels. Increased competition has placed pressure on organisations to take a more commercial approach to the management of their organisations and to adopt what have been previously considered ‘for profit’ business practices such as marketing. This empirical study uses neo-institutional theory as the basis for investigating the marketing of nonprofit organisations, focusing on the ‘Bushcare’ program in NSW. It uses the neo-institutional concept of "mimetic isomorphism" to examine the extent to which competitive pressures are forcing nonprofit environmental volunteering organisations to copy each other and grow more homogenous in terms of their marketing strategies. The managerial implications are apparent when organisations are faced with the challenge of attracting new volunteers, since from an institutional perspective, the most commonly accepted practices are not necessarily the most efficient.
l 5 RESTORING OYSTER REEFS TORECOVER ECOSYSTEM ER \ / IffS

Overharvesting of wild oysters and environmental mismanagement in estuaries around the world have resulted in the loss of fisheries income and collapse of an ecologically important ecosystem engineer and its associated ecosystem goods and services. The decline of the eastern oyster, Crassostrea uirginica (Gmelin l79l), throughout the mid-Atlantic and southeastern U.S., has reduced landings to l-2To of the historic peaks approximately a century ago in many estuaries such as the Chesapeake Bay and eastern North Carolina (Frankenberg 1995, Heral et al. 1990, Newell 1988, Rothschild et al. 1994). Declines in the abundance of oysters are a consequence of degradation of oyster reefs via destructive harvesting practices as well as overfishing, oyster disease, sedimentation, and water quality degradation, which collectively have greatly reduced the quantity and quality of intact reef habitat (Frankenberg 1995, Rothschild et al. f 994). Although restoration efforts have proceeded for several decades in estuaries throughout the eastern U.S., these efforts have traditionally focused on reversing the trend of declining landings rather than rebuilding sustainable oyster reefs that create habitat and other ecosystem services (Peterson et al. 2003).
Equivalence of restricted Boltzmann machines and tensor network states

The restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) is one of the fundamental building blocks of deep learning. RBM finds wide applications in dimensional reduction, feature extraction, and recommender systems via modeling the probability distributions of a variety of input data including natural images, speech signals, and customer ratings, etc. We build a bridge between RBM and tensor network states (TNS) widely used in quantum many-body physics research. We devise efficient algorithms to translate an RBM into the commonly used TNS. Conversely, we give sufficient and necessary conditions to determine whether a TNS can be transformed into an RBM of given architectures. Revealing these general and constructive connections can cross-fertilize both deep learning and quantum many-body physics. Notably, by exploiting the entanglement entropy bound of TNS, we can rigorously quantify the expressive power of RBM on complex data sets. Insights into TNS and its entanglement capacity can guide the design of more powerful deep learning architectures. On the other hand, RBM can represent quantum many-body states with fewer parameters compared to TNS, which may allow more efficient classical simulations.
Generation of vorticity , helicity , and mean flows

Context. The forcing of interstellar turbulence, driven mainly by supernova (SN) explosions, is irrotational in nature, but the development of significant amounts of vorticity and helicity, accompanied by large-scale dynamo action, has been reported. Aims. Several earlier investigations examined vorticity production in simpler systems; here all the relevant processes can be considered simultaneously. We also investigate the mechanisms for the generation of net helicity and large-scale flow in the system. Methods. We use a three-dimensional, stratified, rotating and shearing local simulation domain of the size 1× 1× 2 kpc, forced with SN explosions occurring at a rate typical of the solar neighbourhood in the Milky Way. In addition to the nominal simulation run with realistic Milky Way parameters, we vary the rotation and shear rates, but keep the absolute value of their ratio fixed. Reversing the sign of shear vs. rotation allows us to separate the rotationand shear-generated contributions. Results. As in earlier studies, we find the generation of significant amounts of vorticity, the rotational flow comprising on average 65% of the total flow. The vorticity production can be related to the baroclinicity of the flow, especially in the regions of hot, dilute clustered supernova bubbles. In these regions, the vortex stretching acts as a sink of vorticity. In denser, compressed regions, the vortex stretching amplifies vorticity, but remains sub-dominant to baroclinicity. The net helicities produced by rotation and shear are of opposite signs for physically motivated rotation laws, with the solar neighbourhood parameters resulting in the near cancellation of the total net helicity. We also find the excitation of oscillatory mean flows, the strength and oscillation period of which depend on the Coriolis and shear parameters; we interpret these as signatures of the anisotropic-kinetic-α (AKA) effect. We use the method of moments to fit for the turbulent transport coefficients, and find αAKA values of the order 3–5 km s−1. Conclusions. Even in a weakly rotationally and shear-influenced system, small-scale anisotropies can lead to significant effects at large scales. Here we report on two consequences of such effects, namely on the generation of net helicity and on the emergence of large-scale flows by the AKA effect, the latter detected for the first time in a direct numerical simulation of a realistic astrophysical system.
A Comparison of Multiple-Strategy Methods: Effects on Fourth-Grade Students’ General and Content-Specific Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Development

Abstract In this study, we compared the effects of two experimental multiple-strategy approaches (content-area comprehension and vocabulary) to typical fourth-grade social studies instructional practices. An 18-week, cluster-randomized study was conducted to estimate effects measured by normative-referenced reading comprehension and vocabulary measures and researcher- and district-developed measures of social studies vocabulary and content. Forty-eight teachers and their respective 903 students from 15 schools were randomly assigned by school to one of three conditions: content vocabulary, content reading comprehension, or typical practice. Experimental teachers participated in 6 professional development sessions over 21 weeks. Structural equation modeling results indicated reliable differences favoring both experimental conditions over typical practice on the social studies content measure and substantively important effects on content and standardized vocabulary measures. Students in the vocabulary intervention also outperformed typical practice peers on the curriculum-based vocabulary assessment. Effects of the comprehension and vocabulary conditions were comparable except for the significant effect of vocabulary on the curriculum-based vocabulary measure. Effect sizes for teaching quality on the standardized comprehension measure ranged from d = . 26 to . 32; however, these effects were not statistically significant.
ffects of dichlorobenzene on acetylcholine receptors in uman neuroblastoma SH-SY 5 Y cells

para-Dichlorobenzene (DCB), a deodorant and an industrial chemical, is a highly volatile compound and is known to be an indoor air contaminant. Because of its widespread use and volatility, the toxicity of DCB presents a concern to industrial workers and public. Some toxic aspects of DCB have already been focused but its effects on neuronal signal transduction have been hitherto unknown. The effects of DCB on the cytosolic calcium homeostasis are investigated in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells in this study. DCB, above 200 M, was found to induce a rise in cytosolic calcium concentration that could not be counteracted by nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) and muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) antagonists but was partially inhibited by thapsigargin. To understand the actions of DCB on the acetylcholine recepalcium signaling uman neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells hapsigargin tors, we investigated its effects on the changes of cytosolic calcium concentration following nicotinic AChR stimulation with epibatidine and muscarinic AChR stimulation with methacholine in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. DCB inhibited the cytosolic calcium concentration rise induced by epibatidine and methacholine with respective IC50s of 34 and 294 M. The inhibitions of DCB were not the same as thapsigargin’s inhibition. In the electrophysiological observations, DCB blocked the influx currents induced by epibatidine. Our findings suggest that DCB interferes with the functional activities of AChR, including its coupling influx currents and cytosolic calcium elevations. b ( h h t T t a . Introduction para-Dichlorobenzene (DCB) has been widely used as a deodornt and a moth repellent, and as an intermediate for dyestuff, ungicides, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals. DCB is a ighly volatile compound, with a vapor pressure of 1 mmHg at 25 ◦C Hayes, 1982) and is an indoor air contaminant (Wallace et al., 1987, 988, 1989; Hartwell et al., 1992; Kostiainen, 1995). The major porion of DCB used finds its way into the atmosphere (IARC, 1982). ecause of its widespread use and volatility, the toxicity of DCB resents a concern to industrial workers and the public. DCB has een detected in adipose tissues (Morita and Ohi, 1975; Jan, 1983), Abbreviations: [Ca]c, cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration; DCB, paraichlorobenzene; EPI, epibatidine; AChR, acetylcholine receptor; nAChR, nicotinic cetylcholine receptor; mAChR, muscarinic acetylcholine receptor; VOCC, voltageperated Ca2+ channel; IP3, inositol triphosphate; CICR, Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel. : +886 2 28819471x6857; fax: +886 2 28831193. E-mail address: psliu@mail.scu. edu.tw (P.-S. Liu). d l o t i i s a m s
A Chalcolithic Error: Rebuttal to Amzallag 2009

In the October 2009 issue of the AJA, Amzallag published a hypothesis for the origins and spread of furnace-based metallurgy in the Old World ("From Metallurgy to Bronze Age Civilizations: The Synthetic Theory," AJA [2009] 497–519). Amzallag's paper is rife with misunderstandings of both an archaeological and a technical nature, leading to a skewed vision of early metallurgical development. In this rebuttal, we seek to correct some of the more egregious errors in his article and provide a counterargument for the origins of copper-based metallurgy in the Old World.
Practical Compositional Fairness: Understanding Fairness in Multi-Task ML Systems

Most literature in fairness has focused on improving fairness with respect to one single model or one single objective. However, real-world machine learning systems are usually composed of many different components. Unfortunately, recent research has shown that even if each component is ``fair,'' the overall system can still be ``unfair'' \cite{dwork2018fairness}. In this paper, we focus on how well fairness composes over multiple components in \emph{real systems}. We consider two recently proposed fairness metrics for rankings: exposure and pairwise ranking accuracy gap. We provide theory that demonstrates a set of conditions under which fairness of individual models does compose. We then present an analytical framework for both understanding whether a system's signals can achieve compositional fairness, and diagnosing which of these signals lowers the overall system's end-to-end fairness the most. Despite previously bleak theoretical results, on multiple data-sets---including a large-scale real-world recommender system---we find that the overall system's end-to-end fairness is largely achievable by improving fairness in individual components.
Energy production analysis of Common Reed – Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin.

Abstract Slovakia is acountry with limited natural resources, therefore its essential task is to search for new renewable sources of energy to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels. The results of research confirmed that the Common Reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ) has considerable potential of phytomass production and energy storage (calorific value reached 17,448 J g−1 d.w.). Biomass production of Common Reed under natural conditions of the lower Liptov region reached 12.702 tons of a dry mater per hectare with the calculated energy storage of 221.622 GJ ha−1. The average biogas production was 351.31 l kg−1 of a dry matter of which the methane (CH4) content represents 185.21 l kg−1 (52.72%). With regards to the values of combustion heat, a calorific value and the production of methane it can also be noted that in case of Common Reed it is more profitable to focus on direct combustion of biomass than the production of biogas and methane.
Enhanced Motor Imagery Classification using Riemannian Tangent Space Mapping

Background: Classification of electroencephalography (EEG) signals for motor imagery based brain computer interface (MI-BCI) is an exigent task and common spatial pattern (CSP) has been extensively explored for this purpose. In this work, we focused on developing a new framework for classification of EEG signals for MI-BCI. New Method: We propose a single band CSP framework for MI-BCI that utilizes the concept of tangent space mapping (TSM) in the manifold of covariance matrices. The proposed method is named CSP-TSM. Spatial filtering is performed on the bandpass filtered MI EEG signal. Riemannian tangent space is utilized for extracting features from the spatial filtered signal. The TSM features are then fused with the CSP variance based features and feature selection is performed using Lasso. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is then applied to the selected features and finally classification is done using support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Results: The proposed framework gives improved performance for MI EEG signal classification in comparison with several state-of-the-art-methods methods. Comparison with existing methods: Experiments conducted shows that the proposed framework reduces the overall classification error rate for MI-BCI by 3.16% and 5.10% (for BCI Competition III dataset IVa and BCI Competition IV Dataset I, respectively) compared to the conventional CSP method under the same experimental settings. Conclusion: The proposed CSP-TSM method outperforms all state-of-the-art methods and the computational complexity is less compared to that of TSM method. Our proposed CSP-TSM framework can be potentially used for developing improved MIBCI systems.
The Collective Wisdom of Beauty Contests

This note uses techniques developed for aggregate games to characterize the set of equilib- ria for a beauty contest or prediction game in which the experts’ preferences are quadratic, but with an otherwise unrestricted information structure for private signals and the state variable. We show that, on aggregate, the experts’ collective estimate of the unknown parameter to be estimated is unbiased for every equilibrium.
Nonlinear Aerodynamic Global Model Identification using Gram-schmidt Orthogonalization

This paper discusses a simple technique to identify global models for nonlinear aerodynamic force and moment coefficients of aircraft using multivariate orthogonal functions. Classical Gram-Schmidt procedure and Predicted Squared Error metric are used to generate the orthogonal functions. Global models for the F-16 aircraft are identified from a simplified subsonic (Mach < 0.6) wind tunnel database available in open literature. The identified models are compared with those found in literature for the same wind tunnel database and conclusions are drawn.