Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Analysis of Naive Adaptive Brain-Machine Interfaces

The closed-loop operation of brain-machine interfaces (BMI) provides a context to discover foundational principles behind human-computer interaction, with emerging clinical applications to stroke, neuromuscular diseases, and trauma. In the canonical BMI, a user controls a prosthetic limb through neural signals that are recorded by electrodes and processed by a decoder into limb movements. In laboratory demonstrations with able-bodied test subjects, parameters of the decoder are commonly tuned using training data that include neural signals and corresponding overt arm movements. In the application of BMI to paralysis or amputation, arm movements are not feasible, and imagined movements create weaker, partially unrelated patterns of neural activity. BMI training must begin naive, without access to these prototypical methods for parameter initialization used in most laboratory BMI demonstrations. Naive adaptive BMI refer to a class of methods recently introduced to address this problem. We first identify the basic elements of existing approaches based on adaptive filtering and define a decoder, ReFIT-PPF to represent these existing approaches. We then present Joint RSE, a novel approach that logically extends prior approaches. Using recently developed human- and synthetic-subjects closed-loop BMI simulation platforms, we show that Joint RSE significantly outperforms ReFIT-PPF and nonadaptive (static) decoders. Control experiments demonstrate the critical role of jointly estimating neural parameters and user intent. In addition, we show that nonzero sensorimotor delay in the user significantly degrades ReFIT-PPF but not Joint RSE, owing to differences in the prior on intended velocity. Paradoxically, substantial differences in the nature of sensory feedback between these methods do not contribute to differences in performance between Joint RSE and ReFIT-PPF. Instead, BMI performance improvement is driven by machine learning, which outpaces rates of human learning in the human-subjects simulation platform. In this regime, nuances of error-related feedback to the human user are less relevant to rapid BMI mastery.
Metastable structures and size effects in small group dynamics

In his seminal works on group dynamics Bion defined a specific therapeutic setting allowing psychoanalytic observations on group phenomena. In describing the setting he proposed that the group was where his voice arrived. This physical limit was later made operative by assuming that the natural dimension of a therapeutic group is around 12 people. Bion introduced a theory of the group aspects of the mind in which proto-mental individual states spontaneously evolve into shared psychological states that are characterized by a series of features: (1) they emerge as a consequence of the natural tendency of (both conscious and unconscious) emotions to combine into structured group patterns; (2) they have a certain degree of stability in time; (3) they tend to alternate so that the dissolution of one is rapidly followed by the emergence of another; (4) they can be described in qualitative terms according to the nature of the emotional mix that dominates the state, in structural terms by a kind of typical “leadership” pattern, and in “cognitive” terms by a set of implicit expectations that are helpful in explaining the group behavior (i.e., the group behaves “as if” it was assuming that). Here we adopt a formal approach derived from Socio-physics in order to explore some of the structural and dynamic properties of this small group dynamics. We will described data from an analytic DS model simulating small group interactions of agents endowed with a very simplified emotional and cognitive dynamic in order to assess the following main points: (1) are metastable collective states allowed to emerge in the model and if so, under which conditions in the parameter space? (2) can these states be differentiated in structural terms? (3) to what extent are the emergent dynamic features of the systems dependent of the system size? We will finally discuss possible future applications of the quantitative descriptions of the interaction structure in the small group clinical setting.
Monotonicity-preserving uncertainty quantification

The need for accurate resolution of shock waves in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a major driver in the development of robust numerical methods for approximating discontinuities. The Local Extremum Diminishing (LED) robustness concept has, for example, been introduced into the Finite Volume Method (FVM) for preventing overshoots at discontinuities (Jameson 1993). However, LED schemes have the disadvantage that they reduce to first-order accuracy at physical local extrema in the solution (Jame-son 1995). Monotonicity-Preserving (MP) limiters have therefore been developed which do not affect the accuracy at smooth extrema (Balsara & Shu 2000). A straightforward approach to avoid the clipping of extrema is to turn off the convexity-preserving constraints in cells with a non-monotonic solution (Leonard et al. 1995). These cells can be identified by a change in the sign of the discrete derivatives over the volume, in combination with a tolerance for distinguishing physical extrema from spurious numerical oscillations. Because of the dependence on this threshold value, it can be difficult to differentiate between smooth and non-smooth extrema. Therefore, a second MP approach has been proposed which automatically enlarges the limiter intervals near physical ex-trema in such a way that the solution is continuously dependent on the data (Suresh & Huynh 1997). The robust approximation of discontinuities is also important in Uncertainty Quantifi-cation (UQ), since nonlinearities can result in strong amplification of input uncertainties during their propagation through a computational model. In that respect, the introduction of FVM robustness concepts into multi-element UQ methods seems promising, because their local tessellation of the probability space into multiple subdomains is comparable to spatial FVM discretizations in physical space. These multi-element methods (Babuška et al. Global UQ methods for approximating stochastic discontinuities are, for example, based on entropic variables (Poëtte et al. 2009) and iterative formulations (Poëtte & Lucor 2012). The LED concept has also been extended successfully to UQ in terms of the Local Ex-tremum Conserving (LEC) limiter for interpolation in the Simplex Stochastic Collocation (SSC) method (Witteveen & Iaccarino 2012a,b) to avoid overshoots in the approximation of discontinuous response surfaces. However, it has been observed that the LEC limiter leads to a linear first-order approximation at local extrema in the probability space as well. The MP concept is here introduced into UQ to achieve higher-order approximations of local minima and maxima in the SSC method, while at the same time improving robustness at discontinuities.
Book Review: On New Directions in Strategy-as-Practice Literature

Elden, Stuart (2005) ‘The Problem of Confession: The Productive Failure of Foucault’s History of Sexuality’, Journal for Cultural Research 9(1): 23–41. Foucault, Michel (1984) ‘On the Genealogy of Ethics: An Overview of Work in Progress’, in The Foucault Reader: An Introduction to Foucault’s Thought, Paul Rabinow (ed.). London: Penguin. Foucault, Michel (1989) ‘The Masked Philosopher’, in Foucault Live: Collected Interviews, 1961–1984, Sylvère Lotringer (ed.). New York, NY: Semiotext(e). Foucault, Michel (1992) The History of Sexuality Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure, trans. Robert Hurley. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Foucault, Michel [Maurice Flaubert] (1994) ‘Foucault Michel, 1926–’, in Gary Cutting (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Foucault. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Foucault, Michel (1996) ‘What is Critique? ’, in James Schmidt (ed.) What is Enlightenment? Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Foucault, Michel (1997) ‘What is Enlightenment? ’, in Ethics: Essential Works of Foucault 1954–1984 volume 1, Paul Rabino (ed.). London: Penguin. Foucault, Michel (2001) Fearless Speech, Joseph Pearson (ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e). Garsten, Christina and Grey, Christopher (1997) ‘How To Become Oneself: Discourses of Subjectivity in Post-Bureaucratic Organizations’, Organization 4(2): 211–28. O’Leary, Timothy (2002) Foucault and the Art of Ethics. London: Continuum. Townley, Barbara (1995) ‘“Know Thyself”: Self-awareness, Self-formation and Managing’, Organization 2(2): 271–89.
Media Review: Greene, J. C. (2007). Mixed Methods in Social Inquiry. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

She contends that the advantage of inquiries that incorporate such a way of thinking is that they produce a better understanding of the phenomena being studied than do single method studies. This accomplished scholar and excellent teacher takes us through our very complex journey in an erudite but smooth, clear, and interesting way. Our journey is greatly facilitated by the author’s use of the concept of the ‘‘mental model. ’’ This notion combines the nature of inquirers’ professional training, their philosophies and personal values, perspectives of their academic disciplines, contextual opportunities and constraints, and political factors. Although I have some doubts about her conception of this notion (see the discussion further on), it nevertheless provides a response to the often contentious question, ‘‘What is to be mixed? ’’ Quite early in this book, Greene tells us that the most useful mixed methods investigations will mix mental models and that the rest of the journey is developing an understanding of multiple ways this can be done and the consequences of doing it. In her discussion of how the concept of the mental model developed, Greene lays down an important ground rule. Preparing us for a review of the ‘‘great quantitative-qualitative debate’’ (p. 30) that raged from the 1960s to the 1980s (although I recall it still being quite hot in the 1990s), she notes that the issue was not about research technique but rather about paradigmatic issues (the ‘‘Paradigm Wars’’). Therefore, she suggests that the conflicting paradigms be referred to by their proper names (e.g., postpositivism or constructivism) and that the terms qualitative and quantitative be reserved for describing methods and techniques. Considering that reviews of research continue to show that many published studies purporting to use mixed methods actually mix only on the level of data type and/or data gathering and analysis methods, this is an excellent rule. In chapters 4 and 5, Greene deals with the issue of paradigm. She notes that Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003) listed the paradigmatic foundations for mixed methods research as one of the unresolved major issues in mixed methods research. It continues to be. It is in discussing the nature of paradigms where I found Greene’s presentation somewhat lacking. The author lists seven different ‘‘stances’’ taken by various social science scholars in Journal of Mixed Methods Research Volume 2 Number 2 April 2008 190-198 2008 Sage Publications http://jmmr.sagepub. com hosted at http://online.sagepub. com
A multiobjective evolutionary algorithm with enhanced reproduction operators for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

This paper addresses the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). The task is to assign customers to multiple vehicles and determine the visiting sequences of customers for the vehicles without violating the vehicle capacity constraint and customer service time window constraints. Two common objectives of VRPTW are to minimize the number of vehicles and the total traveling distance. Most of previous studies assumed that the number of vehicles is more important than the total distance. Hence, they solved the VRPTW by minimizing the number of vehicles first and then minimizing the total distance under the minimal number of vehicles. Recently, researchers started to solve the VRPTW without this assumption and tried to minimize both objectives simultaneously through searching for the Pareto optimal set of solutions. Following this perspective, we use a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm to solve the VRPTW. We propose enhanced crossover and mutation operators by incorporating the domain knowledge. Performance of the proposed algorithm is verified on a widely used benchmark problem set. Comparing with seven existing algorithms, our algorithm shows competitive performance and contributes many new best known Pareto optimal solutions.
Process evaluation of the Restore4stroke Self-Management intervention ‘Plan Ahead!’: a stroke-specific self-management intervention

Objective: To investigate whether the self-management intervention was implemented as intended. Additionally, we studied involvement in and satisfaction with the intervention among patients, their partners and therapists. Design: Mixed method, prospective study. Setting: Outpatient facilities of hospitals/rehabilitation centres. Participants: Stroke patients, their partners and therapists from the experimental arm of the Restore4Stroke Self-Management study. Intervention: ‘Plan Ahead! ’ is a 10-week self-management intervention for stroke patients and partners, consisting of seven two-hour group sessions. Proactive action planning, education and peer support are main elements of this intervention. Main measures: Session logs, questionnaires for therapists, patients and their partners, and focus groups. Data analysis: Qualitative data were analysed with thematic analysis supplemented by quasi-statistics. Quantitative data were reported as descriptive statistics. Results: The study sample consisted of 53 patients and 26 partners taking part in the intervention, and all therapists delivering the intervention (N = 19). At least three-quarters of the intervention sessions were attended by 33 patients and 24 partners. On a scale from 1 to 10, patients, partners and therapists rated the intervention with mean scores of 7.5 (SD1.6), 7.8 (SD.7) and 7.4 (SD.7), respectively. Peer support was the most frequently appreciated element for participants and therapists. The proactive action planning tool was adequately applied in 76 of the 96 sessions. Conclusion: Although the target audience was reached and both participants and therapists were satisfied with the intervention, the proactive action planning tool that distinguishes the current intervention from existing stroke-specific self-management interventions was only partly implemented according to protocol.
The McKenna Rule and U.K. World War I Finance

The United Kingdom employed the McKenna rule to conduct fiscal policy during World War I (WWI) and the interwar period. Named for Reginald McKenna, Chancellor of the Exchequer (1915? 16), the McKenna rule committed the United Kingdom to a path of debt retirement, which we show was forward-looking and smoothed in response to shocks to the real economy and tax rates. The McKenna rule was in the tradition of the ? English method? of war finance because the United Kingdom taxed capital to finance WWI. Higher rates of capital taxation also paid for debt retirement during and subsequent to WWI. The United Kingdom was motivated to implement the McKenna rule because of a desire to achieve a balance between fairness and equity. However, the McKenna rule adversely affected the real economy, according to a permanent income model. WWI and interwar U.K. data support the prediction that real activity is lower in response to higher past debt retirement rates.
EXAMINING THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN CONSTRUCTIVISM AND DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLES

Constructivism is a philosophy that supports student construction of knowledge. Since students uniquely construct their knowledge, instructional strategies that support constructivist philosophies naturally advocate student understanding. Instructional trends in the mathematics and statistics education communities support the active-learning orientation of constructivist philosophy. I posit that, while not the only philosophy of teaching and learning, constructivism is one of the best such philosophies. One question remains: "How do instructional strategies that support student knowledge construction address the needs of all students? " I first examine learning styles in general, then enumerate a collection of instructional strategies that support constructivism, and conclude with an analysis of how instructional strategies that support constructivism address the needs of the learning styles previously examined.
A hybrid approach to electrolaryngeal speech enhancement based on spectral subtraction and statistical voice conversion

We present a hybrid approach to improving naturalness of electrolaryngeal (EL) speech while minimizing degradation in intelligibility. An electrolarynx is a device that artificially generates excitation sounds to enable laryngectomees to produce EL speech. Although proficient laryngectomees can produce quite intelligible EL speech, it sounds very unnatural due to the mechanical excitation produced by the device. Moreover, the excitation sounds produced by the device often leak outside, adding noise to EL speech. To address these issues, previous work has proposed methods for EL speech enhancement through either noise reduction or voice conversion. The former usually causes no degradation in intelligibility but yields only small improvements in naturalness as the mechanical excitation sounds remain essentially unchanged. On the other hand, the latter method significantly improves naturalness of EL speech using spectral and excitation parameters of natural voices converted from acoustic parameters of EL speech, but it usually causes degradation in intelligibility owing to errors in conversion. We propose a hybrid method using the noise reduction method for enhancing spectral parameters and voice conversion method for predicting excitation parameters. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed method yields significant improvements in naturalness compared with EL speech while keeping intelligibility high enough. Index Terms: speaking-aid, electrolaryngeal speech, spectral subtraction, voice conversion, hybrid approach
Least-Squares Covariance Matrix Adjustment

We consider the problem of finding the smallest adjustment to a given symmetric $n \times n$ matrix, as measured by the Euclidean or Frobenius norm, so that it satisfies some given linear equalities and inequalities, and in addition is positive semidefinite. This least-squares covariance adjustment problem is a convex optimization problem, and can be efficiently solved using standard methods when the number of variables (i.e., entries in the matrix) is modest, say, under $1000$. Since the number of variables is $n(n+1)/2$, this corresponds to a limit around $n=45$. Malick [{\it SIAM J. Matrix Anal. \ Appl. ,} 26 (2005), pp. 272--284] studies a closely related problem and calls it the semidefinite least-squares problem. In this paper we formulate a dual problem that has no matrix inequality or matrix variables, and a number of (scalar) variables equal to the number of equality and inequality constraints in the original least-squares covariance adjustment problem. This dual problem allows us to solve far larger least-squares covariance adjustment problems than would be possible using standard methods. Assuming a modest number of constraints, problems with $n=1000$ are readily solved by the dual method. The dual method coincides with the dual method proposed by Malick when there are no inequality constraints and can be obtained as an extension of his dual method when there are inequality constraints. Using the dual problem, we show that in many cases the optimal solution is a low rank update of the original matrix. When the original matrix has structure, such as sparsity, this observation allows us to solve very large least-squares covariance adjustment problems.
Using electrophysiology to explore retinal function in autosomal dominant optic atrophy

Autosomal dominant optic atrophy (ADOA) is an inherited optic neuropathy due to mutation in the OPA1 gene. Patients present with bilateral optic nerve head pallor and loss of visual function. Patients also show a reduction in the P50:N95 ratio of the pattern electroretinogram (PERG) and thinning of the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) and macula. In a mouse model of ADOA, previously generated in this laboratory, the defect first manifested as a dendritic pruning of RGCs, which appeared to be ON-centre specific. Electrophysiological evidence in both humans and the mutant mice showed a reduction in the photopic negative component (PhNR) of the brief flash electroretinogram (ERG). The separation of the photopic ERG into ON- and OFF-pathway components using long-duration monochromatic (red) flash on a rod suppressing blue background, provided an opportunity to assess ON- and OFF-RGC function in ADOA, which had not been previously investigated in humans. This study therefore aimed to assess the effect of ADOA on the red-on blue PhNR-ON and PhNR-OFF components to determine whether the PhNR-ON was a selective marker for ADOA. In this thesis, a protocol was developed for recording long duration red-on-blue PhNRs from the macula (focal) and entire retina (full-field). A comparison of the retinotopic characteristics of the PhNRs (brief and long-duration) with the N95 of the PERG and the distribution of RGCs in the retina showed that the PhNR was capable of assessing RGC function. Retinal function was then probed in twelve participants with ADOA and sixteen controls using focal and full-field long duration ERG, full-field brief flash ERG and PERG. Retinal structure was also assessed using optical coherence tomography. In conclusion, this thesis found that the PhNR-ON and PhNR-OFF amplitudes were equally affected with no evidence of a preferential ON-pathway loss.
Interferon-y Inhibits DNA Synthesis and Insulin-Like Growth Factor41 Expression in Human Neuroblastoma Cells

Interferon-? (IFN-y) is known to be an antiproliferative, differentiating agent in many cell types, including neuroblastoma. In this study, we determined the effects of IFN-y on cellular growth and expression of insulin-like growth factor I1 (IGF-11) and IGF receptors in the human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y. Incubation of SH-SY5Y cells in IFN-y (20-100 U/ml) induced the formation of long neuritic processes. IFN-y treatment also induced decreases in [3H]TdR incorporation, as well as serum-dependent changes in cell number. Treatment with IFN-y reduced cell number 33% in the presence of serum but had no effect on cell number in the absence of serum. IGF-I1 mRNA content was 60% inhibited by IFN-y, and was not serum dependent. The concentration of immunoreactive IGF-I1 in SH-SYSY conditioned medium was also reduced in the presence of IFN-y, to less than half of control levels. In contrast, type I IGF receptor mRNA content was increased more than three-fold after treatment with IFN-y and serum. Co-incubation in IFN-y (20-100 U/ml) and IGF-I1 (3-10 nM) prevented the inhibitory effects of IFN-y on [3H]TdR incorporation in serum-free media. Our results suggest that IFN-y may inhibit DNA synthesis and cell growth by interfering with an IGF-II/type I IGF receptor autocrine growth or survival mechanism.