Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corticospinal Modulations during Bimanual Movement with Different Relative Phases

The purpose of this study was to investigate corticospinal modulation of bimanual (BM) movement with different relative phases (RPs). The participants rhythmically abducted and adducted the right index finger (unimanual (UM) movement) or both index fingers (BM movement) with a cyclic duration of 1 s. The RP of BM movement, defined as the time difference between one hand movement and the other hand movement, was 0°, 90°, or 180°. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the right flexor dorsal interosseous muscle elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) were obtained during UM or BM movement. Corticospinal excitability in the first dorsal interosseous muscle during BM movement with 90° RP was higher than that during UM movement or BM movement with 0° or 180° RP. The correlation between muscle activity level and corticospinal excitability during BM movement with 90° RP was smaller than that during UM movement or BM movement with 0° or 180° RP. The higher corticospinal excitability during BM movement with 90° RP may be caused by the greater effort expended to execute a difficult task, the involvement of interhemispheric interaction, a motor binding process, or task acquisition. The lower dependency of corticospinal excitability on the muscle activity level during BM movement with 90° RP may reflect the minor corticospinal contribution to BM movement with an RP that is not in the attractor state.
The Pursuit of a Sustainable Coastal Fishery: Comparisons of the Oyster Fishery in Chesapeake Bay and Ariake Sea

A coastal fishery brings high productivity and economic profit while supporting cultural norms. However, it also causes environmental degradation and political conflicts, which sometimes collapse a fishery. With the current global shift from capture fisheries to aquaculture, appropriate management is required for social and environmental sustainability. To identify essential factors in coastal fishery management, I compared the oyster industries in Chesapeake Bay (USA) and in Ariake Sea (Japan) from political, environmental, and cultural perspectives, by field observations, interviews, and literature research. Despite their different historical backgrounds, the two regions have lost most of the oyster resource due mainly to 1) failure of environmental management, 2) environmental degradation and 3) resistance of the fishing communities to necessary changes in fishing methods and aquaculture. Based on these lessons, I propose that a coastal fishery management plan should include environmental management, development of government-initiated aquaculture, understanding cultural backgrounds, and cooperation among science, industry and politics as essential factors.
Graph rigidity reveals non-deformable collections of chromosome conformation constraints

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [CCF-1053918, EF-0849899, and IIS-0812111 to C.K]; the National Institutes of Health [1R21AI085376 to C.K. ]; and a Univeristy of Maryland Institute for Advanced Studies New Frontiers Award to C.K.
Learning Features for Tracking

We treat tracking as a matching problem of detected key-points between successive frames. The novelty of this paper is to learn classifier-based keypoint descriptions allowing to incorporate background information. Contrary to existing approaches, we are able to start tracking of the object from scratch requiring no off-line training phase before tracking. The tracker is initialized by a region of interest in the first frame. Afterwards an on-line boosting technique is used for learning descriptions of detected keypoints lying within the region of interest. New frames provide new samples for updating the classifiers which increases their stability. A simple mechanism incorporates temporal information for selecting stable features. In order to ensure correct updates a verification step based on estimating homographies using RANSAC is performed. The approach can be used for real-time applications since on-line updating and evaluating classifiers can be done efficiently.
Deprivation State Switches the Neurobiological Substrates Mediating Opiate Reward in the Ventral Tegmental Area

The population of mesolimbic dopaminergic neurons is believed to be a primary site at which opiates produce their rewarding effects. Using an unbiased, counterbalanced place conditioning paradigm, we reexamined the contribution made by these cells to the rewarding properties of morphine. Rats were conditioned such that distinct environments were paired with an intra-ventral tegmental area (VTA) microinfusion of either 500 ng per 0.5 μl per side morphine or 0.5 μl per side sterile saline. Furthermore, rats were conditioned either previously drug-naive or while in a motivational state of opiate dependence and withdrawal. We report that pretreatment with the broad-spectrum dopamine antagonist α-flupentixol blocked the acquisition of conditioned place preferences for environments paired with morphine microinjections directly into the VTA in opiate-dependent and withdrawn, but not in previously drug-naive, rats. Lesions of the tegmental pedunculopontine nucleus (TPP) produced exactly the opposite pattern of results. TPP lesions blocked the acquisition of conditioned place preferences for environments paired with VTA morphine microinjections in previously drug-naive, but not in opiate-dependent and withdrawn, rats. These data double-dissociate two independent reward substrates within the VTA itself and suggest that deprivation state selects which of these two substrates will be active. Furthermore, these findings are the first to demonstrate a nondopaminergic substrate for reward within the VTA itself.
The family silver, business efficiency and the City, 1970–1987

In 1985 the former Conservative Prime Minister of the UK, Harold MacMillan, caused some embarrassment by likening privatisation to a once wealthy family selling the family silver. Actually MacMillan was not opposed to privatisation but rather wanted to air a concern that the proceeds were being treated as government income and in danger of being frittered away on current consumption, rather than invested in new capital. That dimension of privatisation, the inflow of cash to reduce the public sector deficit, was a key element of the early years. But there is little doubt that the Conservative governments thereafter pursued privatisation to boost business efficiency. By the time of the big privatisations of British Telecom and British Gas in 1986/87, the role of competition, regulation and efficiency had become central. The City also appears in the title of this essay because of the role of merchant banks, underwriters and other financial institutions. The sale price of state assets was a central element in the economic and political debates of the 1980s and the City institutions had a leading part in determining what sort of deal the taxpayer received. These are some of the key issues in the recently published Official history of privatisation covering the years 1970–1987. The author is David Parker, the Research Professor in Privatisation and Regulation in the School of Management, Cranfield University. He is not a historian but an economist who has published well known books and articles examining the whole experience of privatisation in Britain and Europe (Crew & Parker, 2006; Parker, 1998). It is an impressive piece of work with sufficient detail and detachment to provide ammunition for both supporters and opponents of privatisation. The exposition is excellent, providing the reader, for example, with simple explanations of City jargon like stagging and underwriters’ clawback. Compared to the other Official Histories with which I am familiar, by Sir Norman Chester (1975) and Terry Gourvish (2006), this volume is equally devoted to providing a full record, has more economics (though readily intelligible), is slightly more academic and, especially when set against Chester’s book on the 1945–1951 nationalisations, there is less emphasis on the parliamentary process. A large number of past and present leading Conservative politicians were interviewed as well as many of the advisers but hardly any trade unionists or Labour Party politicians. Official histories are typically concerned with the formation and delivery of government policy but curiously I could not here find any terms of reference. The focus is clearly on the sale to the private sector of enterprises where the central Business History Vol. 52, No. 1, February 2010, 169–185
Designing information for families caring for people with dementia

Abstract A health communication project, to develop information to support families caring for people with dementia, is described. Close collaboration of designers with carers – ‘experts by experience’ – and clinicians and other professionals – ‘experts by training’ – was used. Carer consultation led to a printed (rather than digital) handbook. An iterative process of carer and clinician consultation and design shaped the material form of the handbook. Carers’ needs for different kinds of information were met by a modular approach and tailored module design. Evaluation following distribution of the handbook suggested it improved carers’ understanding of dementia significantly compared to the information from diverse sources supplied previously. It did not, however, influence people’s confidence in their ability to care, which appeared to be supported better through carer education courses. The specific contribution of information design and its potential for delivering return on investment are discussed.
Computer and Internet Use among Special Education Graduate Students.

In 1997, Maine's local telephone companies have been required to provide free Internet access to all public schools, which will help to eliminate cost as a prohibitive factor in bringing the Internet to schools. The inservice training and support, however, must be supplied by individual school districts. This study provides an overview of how the University of Southern Maine is helping to prepare both graduate students and teachers for educational technology use. Specifically, it investigates the extent to which graduate students enrolled in the University of Southern Maine's Special Education Department are using computers and the Internet in their classrooms. An original survey was used as the main instrument to measure the use of computers and the Internet; an original World Wide Web page with an electronic version of the survey attached to the site was also available. Research findings suggest that graduate students need to be better educated in the use of computers and the Internet. The fact that 72 of the respondents have Internet access in their schools but use it infrequently underscores the need for more training in this area; on the other hand, it is encouraging that all of the respondents use computers, since persons who use computers are less likely to be computer phobic or unwilling to learn new skills. The survey instrument, as well as seven figures showing results, are appended. (Contains 14 references.) (AEF) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** computer and internet use 1 Running Head: COMPUTER AND INTERNET USE Computer and Internet Use Among Special Education Graduate Students Kim Valentine Attwenger University of Southern Maine U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy.
A new production function with technological innovation factor and its application to the analysis of energy-saving effect in LSD

Energy and technology draw much attention these days. Against the background of low-carbon economy, the utilization of clean energy, or green energy seems irreplaceable. It’s been widely accepted that technological innovation increases energy efficiency. This paper attempts to create a new Cobb-Douglas production function and estimate the impact of technological innovation over energy saving regarding to clean energy and non-clean energy by adding technological innovation factor. We assume that technological innovation has constant growth rate. Based on the new function model, an empirical study of Leshan District (LSD) is presented and time serial data is used from 1995 ∼ 2009. The result of our study indicates that the performance of clean-energy-saving effect of technological innovation still has large room for improvement in LSD, which provides policy implication for decision makers.
Effect of Row Spacing on Yield and its Components of Some Faba Bean Varieties under Newly Reclaimed Sandy Soil Condition

Two field experiments were carried out at the Researches and Production Station of the National Research Centre (NRC) at Al Nubaria district, El-Behaira Governorate, Egypt during 2008/09 and 2009/10 winter seasons. Five faba bean varieties (Cairo -4, Cairo -5, Cairo -25, Nubaria -1 and Giza -843) were seeded at (20, 40 and 60 cm between rows) which were 42, 25, 16 plants/m in newly reclaimed sandy soils. Results 2 indicated that faba bean varieties varied significantly in all studied characters. Nubaria-1 and Cairo-25 varieties produced high seed and protein yields per feddan and significantly out yielded the other varieties. Increasing plant density significantly increased seed and protein yields per feddan as well as plant height, 100-seed weight and biological yield per feddan. On the other hand, increasing plant density decreased number of branches and number of pods per plant, pods and seed yields per plant, number of seeds per pod and harvest index. Results also indicated that the interaction between varieties and plant density had significant effect in all studied characters. Nubaria-1 variety produced the highest seed and protein yields per feddan when it seeded at 20 cm between rows and significantly out yielded the other all varieties. However, Cairo-25 and Nubaria-1 varieties produced high biological yield per feddan when they seeded at the highest plant density.
PAVING THE WAY FOR THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE

In this report the acceptance of EVs is studied using three different marketing strategies; an Internet-based multi-media marketing strategy, the M-EV99 program, showroom visits, and free trials. It is suggested that using an Internet-based strategy early on in the marketing process could be useful in making people aware of, and in stirring up an interest in, the electric alternative. (A) The report is available as a PDF file: http://www.vinnova. se/publ/pdf/vr-01-01.pdf.
The Bright Fluorescent Protein mNeonGreen Facilitates Protein Expression Analysis In Vivo

The Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) has been tremendously useful in investigating cell architecture, protein localization, and protein function. Recent developments in transgenesis and genome editing methods now enable working with fewer transgene copies and, consequently, with physiological expression levels. However, lower signal intensity might become a limiting factor. The recently developed mNeonGreen protein is a brighter alternative to GFP in vitro. The goal of the present study was to determine how mNeonGreen performs in vivo in Caenorhabditis elegans—a model used extensively for fluorescence imaging in intact animals. We started with a side-by-side comparison between cytoplasmic forms of mNeonGreen and GFP expressed in the intestine, and in different neurons, of adult animals. While both proteins had similar photostability, mNeonGreen was systematically 3–5 times brighter than GFP. mNeonGreen was also used successfully to trace endogenous proteins, and label specific subcellular compartments such as the nucleus or the plasma membrane. To further demonstrate the utility of mNeonGreen, we tested transcriptional reporters for nine genes with unknown expression patterns. While mNeonGreen and GFP reporters gave overall similar expression patterns, low expression tissues were detected only with mNeonGreen. As a whole, our work establishes mNeonGreen as a brighter alternative to GFP for in vivo imaging in a multicellular organism. Furthermore, the present research illustrates the utility of mNeonGreen to tag proteins, mark subcellular regions, and describe new expression patterns, particularly in tissues with low expression.
SELECTION CRITERIA FOR ISLAMIC HOME FINANCING IN MALAYSIA

Islamic home financing over the ten year period showed an increasing rate from RM6.8 billion to RM23.3 billion. It is crucial to understand what are the factors that will determine the satisfaction of both Muslims and non-Muslims customer towards Islamic home financing. Therefore, this study investigates the important factors that influence selection of Islamic home financing among working adults in Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed to the 160 employees in one financial institution. The sampling procedure adopted in this research was stratified random sampling. The questionnaire was designed in two sections, one consisting of demographic information and the second relating to the selection determinants of Islamic home financing. The result indicates that reputation, service quality, religious, media advertisement and social influence becomes the important factors that influence selection of Islamic home financing. Reputation is the best predictor as most of customers are confidents to select Islamic home financing because the Islamic bank has a good reputation and image. This research has been conducted in aggregate form. The study also refers to the employees in one financial institution. Future research could account for employees from other financial institution. The analyses presented in this research can be used by policymakers and managers as a guide to promote Islamic product and services. The study makes a contribution to the literature on Islamic banking in Malaysia. It is the first study to particularly investigate the home selection criteria in Malaysia. The findings achieved in this research will be of interest for practitioners and academics concerned with developments of the Malaysian Islamic banking industry.
Human endogenous retrovirus-K18 superantigen expression and human herpesvirus-6 and human herpesvirus-7 viral loads in chronic fatigue patients.

BACKGROUND Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a complex, heterogeneous disease characterized by debilitating fatigue that is not improved with bed rest and worsens after physical activity or mental exertion. Despite extensive research into a cause of CFS, no definitive etiology has been determined; however, a large percentage of CFS patients note an acute infectious event that triggers their fatigue. METHODS Blood and saliva were collected from 39 CFS cases and 9 healthy control subjects. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were tested for human endogenous retrovirus-K18 (HERV-K18) env transcripts using a TaqMan quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). In addition, viral copy number of human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) and human herpesvirus-7 (HHV-7) were measured in both saliva and PBMCs using TaqMan qPCRs. Transcript levels and viral copy number were compared to patient CFS symptom severity. RESULTS HERV-K18 env transcripts were not significantly different between healthy control subjects and CFS patients. Also, HERV-K18 env transcripts did not correlate with HHV-6 viral copy number or HHV-7 viral copy number in either PBMCs or saliva. HHV-6 viral copy number and HHV-7 viral copy number in both PBMCs and saliva were not significantly different between healthy control subjects and CFS patients. HERV-K18 env transcripts, HHV-6 viral copy number, and HHV-7 viral copy number did not correlate with CFS symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS We fail to demonstrate a difference in HERV-K18 env transcripts, HHV-6 viral copy number, and HHV-7 viral copy number between CFS patients and healthy controls. Our data do not support the hypothesis of reactivation of HHV-6 or HHV-7 in CFS.
Parametric or nonparametric? A parametricness index for model selection

In model selection literature, two classes of criteria perform well asymptotically in different situations: Bayesian information criterion (BIC) (as a representative) is consistent in selection when the true model is finite dimensional (parametric scenario); Akaike's information criterion (AIC) performs well in an asymptotic efficiency when the true model is infinite dimensional (nonparametric scenario). But there is little work that addresses if it is possible and how to detect the situation that a specific model selection problem is in. In this work, we differentiate the two scenarios theoretically under some conditions. We develop a measure, parametricness index (PI), to assess whether a model selected by a potentially consistent procedure can be practically treated as the true model, which also hints on AIC or BIC is better suited for the data for the goal of estimating the regression function. A consequence is that by switching between AIC and BIC based on the PI, the resulting regression estimator is simultaneously asymptotically efficient for both parametric and nonparametric scenarios. In addition, we systematically investigate the behaviors of PI in simulation and real data and show its usefulness.
Cell-based inhibitor screening identifies multiple protein kinases important for circadian clock oscillations

Molecular oscillation of the circadian clock is based on E-box-mediated transcriptional feedback loop formed with clock genes and their encoding products, clock proteins. The clock proteins are regulated by post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation. We investigated the effects of a series of kinase inhibitors on gene expression rhythms in Rat-1 fibroblasts. The period of the cellular circadian rhythm in culture was lengthened by treatment with SB203580 (p38 MAPK inhibitor), SP600125 (JNK inhibitor), IC261 (CKI inhibitor) and Roscovitine (CDK inhibitor). On the other hand, the period was shortened by SB216763 (GSK-3 inhibitor) or KN93 (CaMKII inhibitor) treatment. Application of 20 μM KN93 completely abolished the rhythmic gene expression. The activity of CaMKII exhibited circadian variation in a phase close to the E-box-mediated transcriptional rhythms. In vitro kinase assay revealed that CaMKII directly phosphorylates N-terminal and Ser/Pro-rich domains of CLOCK, an activator of E-box-mediated transcription. These results indicate a phosphorylation-dependent tuning of the period length by a regulatory network of multiple kinases and reveal an essential role of CaMKII in the cellular oscillation mechanism.