Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Head direction cells recorded in the anterior thalamic nuclei of freely moving rats

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are critically involved in the maintenance of long-term potentiation (LTP) (Reymann and Matthies, 1989; Behnisch et al., 1991; Izumi et al., 1991; Bashir et al., 1993). In order to assess further the physiological role of MGluRs in LTP, we injected freely moving rats with the recently available, competitive mGluR antagonist (R,S)-alpha-methyl-4-carboxyphenylglycine (MCPG) intraventricularly and recorded extracellularly the population spike (PS) as well as the field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) of the granule cells of the dentate gyrus in response to stimulation of fibers of the perforant path. MCPG was administered in two concentrations (A = 20 mM/5 microliters; B = 200 mM/5 microliters) either 30 min prior to or 5 min after LTP induction. Sodium chloride infusion served as a control. Normal synaptic transmission was not altered by MCPG. However, the mGluR antagonist inhibited LTP in a concentration-dependent manner. Concentration A did not influence the potentiation shortly after the tetanus. In the PS, short-term potentiation (STP), which is decremental in its time course, occurred normally, but in contrast to controls the potentiation declined back to baseline values after 2–3 hr. This dose also reduced the posttetanic increase in the slope function of the fEPSP, and led to a time course of potentiation similar to that for the PS. Concentration B completely abolished the tetanus-induced potentiation. This block was similar to that obtained for the NMDA antagonist 2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoate (AP5). Both MCPG concentrations had no influence on the time course of preestablished LTP. These effects seem to be due to the action of the (+)-isomer of MCPG, since intracerebroventricular application of the (- )-isomer was without effect on the duration and magnitude of LTP. In addition, we were interested in the mGluR subtypes involved in the blocking mechanism of MCPG. 1S,3R-aminocyclopentane-1,3-dicarboxic acid (ACPD)-activated PPI hydrolysis in hippocampal slices was competitively inhibited by MCPG at a concentration of 1 mM or higher. In contrast, this concentration of MCPG did not affect the reduction of forskolin- stimulated cAMP formation by ACPD. These results corroborate recent findings that mGluRs are required for the induction of LTP in CA1 and CA3 in vitro (Bashir et al., 1993; Sergueeva et al., 1993) and in vivo (Riedel and Reymann, 1993). The process of STP is found to be independent of mGluR activation. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Doctors' communication of trust, care, and respect in breast cancer: qualitative study

Abstract Objective To determine how patients with breast cancer want their doctors to communicate with them. Design Qualitative study. Setting Breast unit and patients' homes. Participants 39 women with breast cancer. Main outcome measure Patients' reports of doctors' characteristics or behaviour that they valued or deprecated. Results Patients were not primarily concerned with doctors' communication skills. Instead they emphasised doctors' enduring characteristics. Specifically, they valued doctors whom they believed were technically expert, had formed individual relationships with them, and respected them. They therefore valued forms of communication that are currently not emphasised in training and research and did not intrinsically value others that are currently thought important, including provision of information and choice. Conclusions Women with breast cancer seek to regard their doctors as attachment figures who will care for them. They seek communication that does not compromise this view and that enhances confidence that they are cared for. Testing and elaborating our analysis will help to focus communication research and teaching on what patients need rather than on what professionals think they need.
Reducing the negative effects of inconsistencies in networked games

Networking is a key component of digital games, with many featuring multiplayer modes and online components. The time required to transmit data over a network can lead to usability problems such as inconsistency between players' views of a virtual world, and race conditions when resolving players' actions. Implementing a good consistency maintenance scheme is therefore critical to gameplay. Sadly, problems with consistency remain a regular occurrence in multiplayer games, causing player game states to diverge. There is little guidance available on how these inconsistencies impact player experience, nor on how best to repair them when they arise. We investigate the effectiveness of different strategies for repairing inconsistencies, and show that the three most important factors affecting the detection of corrections are the player's locus of attention, the smoothness of the correction and the duration of the correction.
Downward Nominal-Wage Rigidity: Micro Evidence from Tobit Models

This paper uses Tobit models and data for union contracts to examine the extent of downward nominal-wage rigidity in Canada. To be consistent with important stylized facts, the models allow the variance of the notional wage-change distribution to be time-varying and test for menu-cost effects. The empirical results confirm the importance of using a general specification with a time-changing variance and menu-cost effects. The variance of the notional distribution fell as inflation trended downward over the sample period, and there is evidence that menu-cost effects cause some contracts to have wage freezes rather than small wage increases. Each of these features reduces the estimated effect of rigidity on wage growth. The estimated net effect of downward rigidity and menu costs in the 1990s is approximately 0.4 percentage points for the average wage change in the first year of contracts, and less than 0.1 percentage point for the average annual change over the lifetime of contracts. On balance, the evidence suggests that the long-run trade-off between inflation and the unemployment rate is close to vertical at inflation rates of 2 per cent or more if productivity growth is near the average in recent decades.
Estimating the aggregate agricultural supply response: a survey of techniques and results for developing countries

For many low-income countries, the impact of structural reforms on economic growth and poverty alleviation crucially depends on the response of aggregate agricultural supply to changing incentives. Despite its policy relevance, the size of this parameter is still largely unknown. This paper discusses the different approaches which may be employed to quantify the agricultural supply response. It turns out that none of these approaches is likely to deliver unbiased estimates. While in cross-country regressions the problem of unobserved country characteristics cannot be fully eliminated, time-series estimations tend to suffer from the Lucas critique. Any comprehensive empirical analysis should thus rely on more than one technique in order to check the robustness of results.
Expression of apoptosis-related proteins in Barrett's metaplasia-dysplasia-carcinoma sequence: a switch to a more resistant phenotype.

Barrett's esophagus, or columnar-lined esophagus (CLE), is a premalignant disorder in which the stratified squamous epithelium is replaced by metaplastic epithelium. To gain more insight into the process of carcinogenesis in CLE, we studied several factors involved in the apoptotic pathway in biopsies with gastric metaplasia (GM), intestinal metaplasia (IM), dysplasia, and/or adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemistry was performed for Fas, Bcl-2, Bax, Bcl-xl, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2). Fas staining was positive in the epithelium of all biopsies from patients with CLE but negative in normal gastric mucosa. Fas staining was positive in all tumor cells of the 8 cases containing adenocarcinoma. Bcl-2 was positive in lamina propria immune cells of all specimens. Bax staining was positive in the epithelium of all biopsies, including tumor cells. Bcl-xl was positive in dysplasia and tumor cells, but negative in 8 of 17 biopsies containing IM. iNOS was positive in 20 of 21 biopsies with IM and in 4 of 8 dysplasia biopsies. COX-2 was positive in 7 of 8 adenocarcinomas. We conclude that the apoptotic balance in the transformation from IM to adenocarcinoma switches to an antiapoptotic phenotype because of increased Bcl-xl expression and decreased Bax expression. Fas can be used as a marker for the differentiation of gastric mucosa and metaplasia in the esophagus. iNOS is highly positive in CLE-associated intestinal metaplasia. COX-2 is negative in nonmalignant CLE. Therefore, pharmacologic inhibition of COX-2 activity is unlikely to be effective in the preventing CLE-associated adenocarcinoma. There was no clear correlation between iNOS expression and activation of proapoptotic and antiapoptotic genes.
Design and Simulation of a 4 GHz Folded-Cascode CMOS LC Quadrature VCO for RF Image-Reject Transceivers

This paper describes a novel low phase-noise CMOS folded-cascode QVCO (quadrature voltage controlled oscillator) design using the TSMC 0. 18μm 5M1P CMOS process technology. The startup behavior of the proposed QVCO indicate that, the QVCO is free of bi-modal oscillation ( frequency ambiguity). The VCO operated at 4GHz with a tuning range of 3.7 to 4.2 GHz. The QVCO consumed around 4mA from a 1.8V supply. Phase noise simulations indicate a phase noise of –160dBc/Hz at an offset of 600KHz form the carrier (@4GHz) which is favorable compared to recent QVCO designs. Key-words: Quadrature VCO, phase noise, CMOS, folded cascode, negative resistance.
Money Supply Behavior in ‘BRICS’ Economies : - A Time Series Analysis on Money Supply Endogeneity and Exogeneity

This thesis investigated money supply behaviors in the ‘BRICS’ group from 1982 to 2012. It empirically analyzed causality relationships between related monetary indicators by using quarterly data and time series econometric methods. In four countries: Brazil, China, Russia (the period of 2004-2012) and South Africa (1982-1993), this study found money supply endogeneity evidence (bank loans cause the money supply, or there is bidirectional between these two). Other countries, India and the 1982-2003 period of Russia, money supply was found to be exogenous, i.e. money supply cause bank loans. Nonetheless, traditional Monetarian view still holds across the five economies in the short run. The findings reflected discretionary monetary policies targeting monetary aggregates in the short term, despite a neutral role of most central banks in the long run.
Impact of Farnesylation Inhibitors on Survival in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome

Background— Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome is an ultrarare segmental premature aging disease resulting in early death from heart attack or stroke. There is no approved treatment, but starting in 2007, several recent single-arm clinical trials administered inhibitors of protein farnesylation aimed at reducing toxicity of the disease-producing protein progerin. No study assessed whether treatments influence patient survival. The key elements necessary for this analysis are a robust natural history of survival and comparison with a sufficiently large patient population that has been treated for a sufficient time period with disease-targeting medications. Methods and Results— We generated Kaplan–Meier survival analyses for the largest untreated Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome cohort to date. Mean survival was 14.6 years. Comparing survival for treated versus age- and sex-matched untreated cohorts, hazard ratio was 0.13 (95% confidence interval, 0.04–0.37; P<0.001) with median follow-up of 5.3 years from time of treatment initiation. There were 21 of 43 deaths in untreated versus 5 of 43 deaths among treated subjects. Treatment increased mean survival by 1.6 years. Conclusions— This study provides a robust untreated disease survival profile that can be used for comparisons now and in the future to assess changes in survival with treatments for Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. The current comparisons estimating increased survival with protein farnesylation inhibitors provide the first evidence of treatments influencing survival for this fatal disease. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique Indentifiers: NCT00425607, NCT00879034, and NCT00916747.
Implantable microcoils for intracortical magnetic stimulation

Magnetic stimulation from cortically implantable microcoils can activate neuronal circuits with high selectivity and reliability. Neural prostheses that stimulate the neocortex have the potential to treat a wide range of neurological disorders. However, the efficacy of electrode-based implants remains limited, with persistent challenges that include an inability to create precise patterns of neural activity as well as difficulties in maintaining response consistency over time. These problems arise from fundamental limitations of electrodes as well as their susceptibility to implantation and have proven difficult to overcome. Magnetic stimulation can address many of these limitations, but coils small enough to be implanted into the cortex were not thought strong enough to activate neurons. We describe a new microcoil design and demonstrate its effectiveness for both activating cortical neurons and driving behavioral responses. The stimulation of cortical pyramidal neurons in brain slices in vitro was reliable and could be confined to spatially narrow regions (<60 μm). The spatially asymmetric fields arising from the coil helped to avoid the simultaneous activation of passing axons. In vivo implantation was safe and resulted in consistent and predictable behavioral responses. The high permeability of magnetic fields to biological substances may yield another important advantage because it suggests that encapsulation and other adverse effects of implantation will not diminish coil performance over time, as happens to electrodes. These findings suggest that a coil-based implant might be a useful alternative to existing electrode-based devices. The enhanced selectivity of microcoil-based magnetic stimulation will be especially useful for visual prostheses as well as for many brain-computer interface applications that require precise activation of the cortex.
Extension of axiomatic framework for resource allocation strategies for varying number of users in a wireless system

Collective choice functions and an axiomatic framework will be utilized to show that, if a wireless operator wants it's resource allocation strategy to satisfy the axioms emulating the properties of efficiency, robustness and stability to varying number of users, then it can only opt for the max-min balancing solution or more specifically the egalitarian solution. For this purpose, feasible utility sets will be characterized as level sets of general interference functions and general stability constraints will be introduced. Solution outcomes will be characterized for comprehensive, compact sets.
Quick and Simple Evaluation of Sudomotor Function for Screening of Diabetic Neuropathy

Objective. The aim of this study was to compare SUDOSCAN, a new device to evaluate sweat function (reflecting peripheral small C-fiber status), with conventional measures of peripheral and cardiac neuropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods. 265 diabetic patients were tested for symptoms and clinical signs of neuropathy using Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI), vibration perception threshold (VPT) using biothesiometer, and cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) using Ewing's protocol. Sudomotor function was investigated with SUDOSCAN through measurement of electrochemical skin conductance (ESC) of hands and feet. Lower ESC is suggestive of sudomotor dysfunction. Results. Lower ESC at feet was significantly associated both with increasing symptoms (MNSI A) and increasing score on physical abnormalities (MNSI B). Lower ESC at feet was also significantly associated with increasing VPT by biothesiometry (P < 0.01), and with higher number of abnormal CAN results (P < 0.05). ESC was associated with postural fall in blood pressure (sympathetic abnormality) (P < 0.05), but not with heart rate variability (HRV) tests (parasympathetic abnormalities). Conclusions. Sudomotor dysfunction testing may be a simple test to alert physicians to peripheral nerve and cardiac sympathetic dysfunction. Ease of performance could make it useful in a busy diabetic clinic. Further studies with hard clinical outcomes are indicated.
Breaking the Eighth: Sixteenths on the New York Stock Exchange

On June 24, 1997, the New York Stock Exchange ended a two-hundred-year history of stocks priced in eighths. As part of a conversion to decimal pricing, the minimum price increment was halved to a sixteenth. Eighths were thought to have constrained against narrower bid-ask spreads and potentially lower trading costs. Indeed, in the first fifteen minutes of trading, average bid-ask spreads narrowed and trading costs declined dramatically. Trading cost savings were widespread for almost all trade sizes and across a large majority of stocks. Average savings were 1.25 cents per share, totaling $1.8 billion per year. As trading costs declined, the market flourished with record trading volume. There is no evidence that sixteenths caused higher market volatility. Remaining debate against smaller tick sizes should now be settled. The evidence is clear that trading costs are lowest with minimal interference from the pricing increment. On the NYSE, hundreds of actively traded stocks are still constrained against narrower spreads and lower trading costs by the 1/16 increment. In the upcoming decision on the decimal pricing increment, nickel pricing would be a small improvement; penny pricing would maximize improvement.
Regulation of μ and δ opioid receptor functions: involvement of cyclin-dependent kinase 5

Phosphorylation of δ opioid receptors (DOP receptors) by cyclin‐dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) was shown to regulate the trafficking of this receptor. Therefore, we aimed to determine the role of CDK5 in regulating DOP receptors in rats treated with morphine or with complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). As μ (MOP) and DOP receptors are known to be co‐regulated, we also sought to determine if CDK5‐mediated regulation of DOP receptors also affects MOP receptor functions.
Predicting Dropout Student: An Application of Data Mining Methods in an Online Education Program

Abstract This study examined the prediction of dropouts through data mining approaches in an online program. The subject of the study was selected from a total of 189 students who registered to the online Information Technologies Certificate Program in 2007-2009. The data was collected through online questionnaires (Demographic Survey, Online Technologies Self-Efficacy Scale, Readiness for Online Learning Questionnaire, Locus of Control Scale, and Prior Knowledge Questionnaire). The collected data included 10 variables, which were gender, age, educational level, previous online experience, occupation, self efficacy, readiness, prior knowledge, locus of control, and the dropout status as the class label (dropout/not). In order to classify dropout students, four data mining approaches were applied based on k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN), Decision Tree (DT), Naive Bayes (NB) and Neural Network (NN). These methods were trained and tested using 10-fold cross validation. The detection sensitivities of 3-NN, DT, NN and NB classifiers were 87%, 79.7%, 76.8% and 73.9% respectively. Also, using Genetic Algorithm (GA) based feature selection method, online technologies self-efficacy, online learning readiness, and previous online experience were found as the most important factors in predicting the dropouts.
Risk Premia in Structured Credit Derivatives

During the past couple of years much research effort has been devoted to explaining the spread of corporate bonds over Treasuries. On the other hand, relatively little is known about the spread components of structured credit products. This paper shows that such securities compensate investors for expected losses due to defaults, pure jump-to-default risk, correlation risk, as well as the risk of firm-specific and market-wide adverse changes in credit conditions. We provide a framework that allows a decomposition of ”structured” credit spreads, and we apply this decomposition to CDX index tranches.
Reconciliation of measurements of hygroscopic growth and critical supersaturation of aerosol particles in central Germany

Abstract. Aerosol physical, chemical and hygroscopic properties were measured in a range of airmasses during COPS (Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study) ground-based in June and July of 2007 at the Hornisgrinde mountain site in the Black Forest, Southwest Germany. Non-refractory aerosol composition was measured with an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer, simultaneous to hygroscopic growth factors at 86% relative humidity and CCN activity measurements for particles of dry ( Variability in the measurements of hygroscopic growth factor and critical supersaturation for particles of similar sizes indicates significant compositional impact on particle water affinity. Critical supersaturation prediction using a single parameter hygroscopicity approximation derived from measured HTDMA mean growth factors deviate, beyond measurement uncertainties, from critical supersaturations derived from CCN measurements. These led to differences averaging around 35% in the number of CCN (NCCN) for the most reliable measurements depending on averaging methodology, often very much larger for individual time periods. This indicates aspects of water uptake behaviour unresolved in this experiment by the single parameter representation which, depending on its origin, may have important consequences on its generalised use.
How an organization's ethical climate contributes to customer satisfaction and financial performance

Purpose – Researchers in the field of business ethics have posited that an organization's ethical climate can benefit for employees as well as organizations. However, most of the prior research has been conducted at the level of the individual, not organization. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine how an organization's ethical climate has a positive influence on two its performance indicators – customer satisfaction and financial performance – with a perspective of organizational innovation. Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected from 29 subsidiaries of a conglomerate in South Korea. Hypotheses were tested using the partial least squares (PLS). Findings – The result showed that an organization's ethical climate was positively related to customer satisfaction as well as financial performance, and this relationship was mediated by perceived organizational innovation. Additionally, the positive influence of an ethical climate on employees’ perceived organizational innovation was medi.