Mesoscopic modeling of hidden spiking neurons

Can we use spiking neural networks (SNN) as generative models of multi-neuronal recordings, while taking into account that most neurons are unobserved? Modeling the unobserved neurons with large pools of hidden spiking neurons leads to severely underconstrained problems that are hard to tackle with maximum likelihood estimation. In this work, we use coarse-graining and mean-field approximations to derive a bottom-up, neuronally-grounded latent variable model (neuLVM), where the activity of the unobserved neurons is reduced to a low-dimensional mesoscopic description. In contrast to previous latent variable models, neuLVM can be explicitly mapped to a recurrent, multi-population SNN, giving it a transparent biological interpretation. We show, on synthetic spike trains, that a few observed neurons are sufficient for neuLVM to perform efficient model inversion of large SNNs, in the sense that it can recover connectivity parameters, infer single-trial latent population activity, reproduce ongoing metastable dynamics, and generalize when subjected to perturbations mimicking optogenetic stimulation

Influence of food packaging color and foods type on consumer purchase intention: the mediating role of perceived fluency

Packaging color entices and influences consumer perceptions and significantly affects the identification of products. Marketers manipulate the exterior packaging to influence consumer expectations, experiences, and behaviors. Building upon psychological literature on colors and emotions, we explored the influence of food packaging color and food type on consumers’ purchase intentions. Study 1 explored the interaction effects between food packaging color (warm vs. cold) and food type (vice foods vs. virtue foods) on consumers’ purchase intentions. Study 2 examined whether perceived fluency mediates the interaction effect of food packaging color and food type on consumers’ purchase intentions. The results showed that for vice foods, characterized by tastiness but unhealthiness, the utilization of warm-colored food packaging enhances consumer purchase intent. In contrast, for virtue foods that are healthful but lack gustatory appeal, the use of cold food packaging colors will lead to higher consumer purchase intent. Perceived fluency mediates the interaction effect of food packaging color and food type on consumers’ purchase intentions. This study will assist marketers to exploring a range of possibilities for packing color, impacting both the physiological and cognitive dimensions of consumer behavior related to food products, and offering practical implications for market managers

IS BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR (BDNF) VAL66MET POLYMORPHISM ASSOCIATED WITH OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER? A META-ANALYSIS

Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) polymorphism plays an important role in neural survival and was proposed to be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Genetic association studies of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265) in OCD have produced inconsistent results. A meta-analysis of studies was conducted to compare the frequency of the BDNF Val66Met variant between cases with OCD and age-matched controls. Subjects and methods: Electronic databases were searched for eligible articles in English and ten studies on the association of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism with OCD were analysed. Results: A total of ten studies involving 2306 cases with OCD and 4968 healthy controls were included. Findings indicated that the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism was not associated with OCD. But there was a marginally significant effect of the BDNF Val66Met variant on OCD in different ethnicity. Conclusion: Findings from this meta-analytic investigation of published literature provide little support for the Val66Met variant of BDNF as a predictor of OCD. Future well-powered agnostic genome-wide association studies with more refined phenotype are needed to clarify genetic influences on OCD

Monitoring and Research on urban impervious surface rainfall runoff pollution

Urban impervious surface rainfall runoff pollution is an important part of non-point source pollution, and the pollutants accumulated on urban impervious surface in non rainy days are the main source of pollutants in rainfall runoff. Taking the first 10 rainfall events in 2015 as an example, the impervious surfaces such as the roof of teaching buildings, campus roads and adjacent main traffic roads within the university campus in southeast Beijing were selected as the research objects to conduct field sampling and Analysis on the natural rainfall and the rainfall runoff pollution. The results show that the first rainfall runoff pollution after winter is serious, and the water quality is inferior to class v. After that, the rainfall runoff pollution is reduced; the severity of water pollution is different at different sampling points; the closer to the building toilet exhaust outlet, the higher the ammonia nitrogen pollution concentration; the existence of pervious surface facilities can reduce the degree of runoff pollution. According to the analysis and research results, some suggestions for controlling and harnessing urban rainfall runoff pollution are put forward

Management Effects on the Vegetation of Rangeland in the Middle of Southern Slope of Tianshan Mountains

Rangeland degradation is a widespread problem and its restoration remains a major challenge. In recent years, many scientists have discussed the primary causes of over-grazing and approaches to restoration of China’s grasslands (e.g. Harris 2010; Wang and Han 2005; Lu et al. 2005). The major evidence of grassland degradation is lower plant productivity, reduced biodiversity and increase in poisonous weeds (Zhao et al. 2010), increased frequency of rodent and grasshopper infestations, and large scale dust storms (Lu et al. 2005). Restoration of these impacted ecosystems is an important and challenging task, especially in Xinjiang Province, China, where the natural grassland is rapidly degrading year by year (Yuan et al. 2011). Many strategies have been used to restore condition to these degrading grasslands, but since not all have proved successful, efforts are continuing to find methods that promote vigorous growth low soil disturbance and minimal vegetation destruction. In this study we investigated the response of grassland species and soils to strategic rest and shallow cultivation relative to current overgrazed grassland in the Tianshan Mountains of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China

Three-dimensional analysis of upper airway morphology in skeletal Class III patients with and without mandibular asymmetry

Objective: To compare the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the upper airway in skeletal Class III patients with and without mandibular asymmetry and to investigate the possible underlying correlations between the morphology of the upper airway and mandibular deviation. Materials and Methods: Cone-beam computed tomography images of 54 subjects with skeletal Class III malocclusion (ANB angle <= 0.4 degrees, Wits <= -5.5 degrees) were taken and 3D upper airway models were reconstructed using Dolphin 3D software. According to the distance (d) from symphysis menti to the sagittal plane, all subjects were divided into a symmetry group (d <= 2 mm) and an asymmetry group (d >= 4 mm). Based on the severity of mandibular deviation, the asymmetry group was divided into subgroup I (4 mm <= d <10 mm) and subgroup II (d >= 10 mm). Cross-sectional linear distances, areas, and volumetric variables of the upper airway were measured in the 3D airway model. Results: Width of the inferior limit of the glossopharynx (P3W), cross-sectional area of the anterior limit of the nasal airway (P5S), and height of the glossopharynx (GPH) in the asymmetry group were significantly larger than in the symmetry group. As for subjects with severe mandibular deviation in subgroup II (d >= 10 mm), volume of the glossopharynx (GPV), total volume of the pharynx (TPV), length of the inferior limit of the velopharynx (P2L), and ratio of length to width of the inferior limit of the velopharynx (P2L/P2W) showed significantly negative correlations with mandibular deviation (r > 0.7, P <.05). Conclusions: In Class III subjects with severe mandibular asymmetry, the pharyngeal airway showed a tendency toward constriction and presented a more elliptical shape as mandibular deviation became more severe (P <.01).SCI(E)ARTICLE4526-5338

ABrowse - a customizable next-generation genome browser framework

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With the rapid growth of genome sequencing projects, genome browser is becoming indispensable, not only as a visualization system but also as an interactive platform to support open data access and collaborative work. Thus a customizable genome browser framework with rich functions and flexible configuration is needed to facilitate various genome research projects.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on next-generation web technologies, we have developed a general-purpose genome browser framework ABrowse which provides interactive browsing experience, open data access and collaborative work support. By supporting Google-map-like smooth navigation, ABrowse offers end users highly interactive browsing experience. To facilitate further data analysis, multiple data access approaches are supported for external platforms to retrieve data from ABrowse. To promote collaborative work, an online user-space is provided for end users to create, store and share comments, annotations and landmarks. For data providers, ABrowse is highly customizable and configurable. The framework provides a set of utilities to import annotation data conveniently. To build ABrowse on existing annotation databases, data providers could specify SQL statements according to database schema. And customized pages for detailed information display of annotation entries could be easily plugged in. For developers, new drawing strategies could be integrated into ABrowse for new types of annotation data. In addition, standard web service is provided for data retrieval remotely, providing underlying machine-oriented programming interface for open data access.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>ABrowse framework is valuable for end users, data providers and developers by providing rich user functions and flexible customization approaches. The source code is published under GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 and is accessible at <url>http://www.abrowse.org/</url>. To demonstrate all the features of ABrowse, a live demo for <it>Arabidopsis thaliana </it>genome has been built at <url>http://arabidopsis.cbi.edu.cn/</url>.</p

Informative Data Mining for One-Shot Cross-Domain Semantic Segmentation

Contemporary domain adaptation offers a practical solution for achieving cross-domain transfer of semantic segmentation between labeled source data and unlabeled target data. These solutions have gained significant popularity; however, they require the model to be retrained when the test environment changes. This can result in unbearable costs in certain applications due to the time-consuming training process and concerns regarding data privacy. One-shot domain adaptation methods attempt to overcome these challenges by transferring the pre-trained source model to the target domain using only one target data. Despite this, the referring style transfer module still faces issues with computation cost and over-fitting problems. To address this problem, we propose a novel framework called Informative Data Mining (IDM) that enables efficient one-shot domain adaptation for semantic segmentation. Specifically, IDM provides an uncertainty-based selection criterion to identify the most informative samples, which facilitates quick adaptation and reduces redundant training. We then perform a model adaptation method using these selected samples, which includes patch-wise mixing and prototype-based information maximization to update the model. This approach effectively enhances adaptation and mitigates the overfitting problem. In general, we provide empirical evidence of the effectiveness and efficiency of IDM. Our approach outperforms existing methods and achieves a new state-of-the-art one-shot performance of 56.7\%/55.4\% on the GTA5/SYNTHIA to Cityscapes adaptation tasks, respectively. The code will be released at \url{https://github.com/yxiwang/IDM}.Comment: Accepted by ICCV 202