Social Comparison Affects Brain Responses to Fairness in Asset Division: An ERP Study with the Ultimatum Game

Previous studies have shown that social comparison influences individual’s fairness consideration and other-regarding behavior. However, it is not clear how social comparison affects the brain activity in evaluating fairness during asset distribution. In this study, participants, acting as recipients in the ultimatum game, were informed not only of offers to themselves but also of the average amount of offers in other allocator–recipient dyads. Behavioral results showed that the participants were more likely to reject division schemes when they were offered less than the other recipients, especially when the offers were highly unequal. Event-related brain potentials recorded from the participants showed that highly unequal offers elicited more negative-going medial frontal negativity than moderately unequal offers in an early time window (270–360 ms) and this effect was not significantly modulated by social comparison. In a later time window (450–650 ms), however, the late positive potential (LPP) was more positive for moderately unequal offers than for highly unequal offers when the other recipients were offered less than the participants, whereas this distinction disappeared when the other recipients were offered the same as or more than the participants. These findings suggest that the brain activity in evaluating fairness in asset division entails both an earlier (semi-) automatic process in which the brain responds to fairness at an abstract level and a later appraisal process in which factors related to social comparison and fairness norms come into play

Testing for homogeneity of gametic disequilibrium across strata

Copyright © 2007 Yin et al. Background: Assessing the non-random associations of alleles at different loci, or gametic disequilibrium, can provide clues about aspects of population histories and mating behavior and can be useful in locating disease genes. For gametic data which are available from several strata with different allele probabilities, it is necessary to verify that the strata are homogeneous in terms of gametic disequilibrium. Results: Using the likelihood score theory generalized to nuisance parameters we derive a score test for homogeneity of gametic disequilibrium across several independent populations. Simulation results demonstrate that the empirical type I error rates of our score homogeneity test perform satisfactorily in the sense that they are close to the pre-chosen 0.05 nominal level. The associated power and sample size formulae are derived. We illustrate our test with a data set from a study of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene. Conclusion: We propose a large-sample homogeneity test on gametic disequilibrium across several independent populations based on the likelihood score theory generalized to nuisance parameters. Our simulation results show that our test is more reliable than the traditional test based on the Fisher's test of homogeneity among correlation coefficients. © 2007 Yin et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Numbers 10431010 and 10701022), National 973 Key Project of China (2007CB311002), NCET-04-0310, EYTP, the Jilin Distinguished Young Scholars Program (Grant Number 20030113) and the Program Innovative Research Team (PCSIRT) in University (#IRT0519). The work of ML Tang was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administration (Project no. HKBU261007)

Federated Large Language Model: A Position Paper

Large scale language models (LLM) have received significant attention and found diverse applications across various domains, but their development encounters challenges in real-world scenarios. These challenges arise due to the scarcity of public domain data availability and the need to maintain privacy with respect to private domain data. To address these issues, federated learning (FL) has emerged as a promising technology that enables collaborative training of shared models while preserving decentralized data. We propose the concept of federated LLM, which comprises three key components, i.e., federated LLM pre-training, federated LLM fine-tuning, and federated LLM prompt engineering. For each component, we discuss its advantage over traditional LLM training methods and propose specific engineering strategies for implementation. Furthermore, we explore the novel challenges introduced by the integration of FL and LLM. We analyze existing solutions and identify potential obstacles faced by these solutions within the context of federated LLM.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Factors influencing integration of TB services in general hospitals in two regions of China: a qualitative study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the majority of China, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) at the county level provides both clinical and public health care for TB cases, with hospitals and other health facilities referring suspected TB cases to the CDC. In recent years, an integrated model has emerged, where the CDC remains the basic management unit for TB control, while a general hospital is designated to provide clinical care for TB patients. This study aims to explore the factors that influence the integration of TB services in general hospitals and generate knowledge to aid the scale-up of integration of TB services in China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study adopted a qualitative approach using interviews from sites in East and West China. Analysis was conducted using a thematic framework approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The more prosperous site in East China was more coordinated and thus had a better method of resource allocation and more patient-orientated service, compared with the poorer site in the West. The development of public health organizations appeared to influence how effectively integration occurred. An understanding from staff that hospitals had better capacity to treat TB patients than CDCs was a strong rationale for integration. However, the economic and political interests might act as a barrier to effective integration. Both sites shared the same challenges of attracting and retaining a skilled workforce for the TB services. The role of the health bureau was more directive in the Western site, while a more participatory and collaborative approach was adopted in the Eastern site.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The process of integration identifies similarities and differences between sites in more affluent East China and poorer West China. Integration of TB services in the hospitals needs to address the challenges of stakeholder motivations and resource allocation. Effective inter-organizational collaboration could help to improve the efficiency and quality of TB service. Key words: TB control, service delivery, integration, hospitals, China.</p

Activated Notch2 Signaling Inhibits Differentiation of Cerebellar Granule Neuron Precursors by Maintaining Proliferation

AbstractIn the developing cerebellar cortex, granule neuron precursors (GNPs) proliferate and commence differentiation in a superficial zone, the external granule layer (EGL). The molecular basis of the transition from proliferating precursors to immature differentiating neurons remains unknown. Notch signaling is an evolutionarily conserved pathway regulating the differentiation of precursor cells of many lineages. Notch2 is specifically expressed in proliferating GNPs in the EGL. Treatment of GNPs with soluble Notch ligand Jagged1, or overexpression of activated Notch2 or its downstream target HES1, maintains precursor proliferation. The addition of GNP mitogens Jagged1 or Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) upregulates the expression of HES1, suggesting a role for HES1 in maintaining precursor proliferation

Genetic Structure of Daphnia galeata Populations in Eastern China

This study presents the first examination of the genetic structure of Daphnia longispina complex populations in Eastern China. Only one species, D. galeata, was present across the eight investigated lakes; as identified by taxon assignment using allelic variation at 15 microsatellite loci. Three genetically differentiated D. galeata subgroups emerged independent of the type of statistical analysis applied. Thus, Bayesian clustering, discriminant analysis based on results from factorial correspondence analysis, and UPGMA clustering consistently showed that populations from two neighbouring lakes were genetically separated from a mixture of genotypes found in other lakes, which formed another two subgroups. Clonal diversity was high in all D. galeata populations, and most samples showed no deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, indicating that clonal selection had little effect on the genetic diversity. Overall, populations did not cluster by geographical origin. Further studies will show if the observed pattern can be explained by natural colonization processes or by recent anthropogenic impact on predominantly artificial lakes

Genetic diversity and population differentiation of the freshwater copepod Sinocalanus tenellus (Calanoida, Centropagidae) in China

Copepods, present in a wide range of water bodies, are an important component of freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity has been much studied in marine and freshwater ecosystems. However, no previous genetic data are available that allow an assessment of population-genetic diversity and differentiation of the copepod Sinocalanus tenellus from Chinese freshwaters. We analyzed DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene from eleven S. tenellus populations (individual lakes) from China, ten of which exhibited a high genetic diversity. Low to high population differentiation was detected among the populations. Interestingly, substantial genetic divergence was detected between WLS (Wuliangsu, in Inner Mongolia) and other locations, indicating the presence of two lineages of S. tenellus in East Asia. Moreover, we found that two distinct clades of S. tenellus were separated by the reference “S. sinensis” clade, suggesting they were parts of a complex of cryptic species of S. tenellus. This study will contribute to an understanding of the diversity and biogeography of copepods in freshwater ecosystem in China