Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Observation of fractional revivals of a molecular wave packet.

The study and control of molecular dynamics through the use of femtosecond laser techniques require an understanding of various orders of molecular wave-packet phenomena such as revivals. We present the observation of fractional revivals in a vibrational wave packet: the B state of the Br2 molecule. Fractional revivals occur in anharmonic systems at characteristic times in the nonclassical regime when, due to dephasing between vibrational eigenstates, the wave packet partially localizes into sub-wave-packets. Half and quarter revivals were clearly observed, as well as indications of one-sixth revivals. @S1050-2947~96! 50707-9#
Beyond Preconditioning: Postconditioning as an Alternative Technique in the Prevention of Liver Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Liver ischemia/reperfusion injury may significantly compromise hepatic postoperative function. Various hepatoprotective methods have been improvised, aiming at attenuating IR injury. With ischemic preconditioning (IPC), the liver is conditioned with a brief ischemic period followed by reperfusion, prior to sustained ischemia. Ischemic postconditioning (IPostC), consisting of intermittent sequential interruptions of blood flow in the early phase of reperfusion, seems to be a more feasible alternative than IPC, since the onset of reperfusion is more predictable. Regarding the potential mechanisms involved, it has been postulated that the slow intermittent oxygenation through controlled reperfusion decreases the burst production of oxygen free radicals, increases antioxidant activity, suppresses neutrophil accumulation, and modulates the apoptotic cascade. Additionally, favorable effects on mitochondrial ultrastructure and function, and upregulation of the cytoprotective properties of nitric oxide, leading to preservation of sinusoidal structure and maintenance of blood flow through the hepatic circulation could also underlie the protection afforded by postconditioning. Clinical studies are required to show whether biochemical and histological improvements afforded by the reperfusion/reocclusion cycles of postconditioning during early reperfusion can be translated to a substantial clinical benefit in liver resection and transplantation settings or to highlight more aspects of its molecular mechanisms.
Selection of parasites with diminished drug susceptibility by amodiaquine-containing antimalarial regimens in Uganda.

BACKGROUND Amodiaquine (AQ) is paired with artesunate (AS) or sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) in recommended antimalarial regimens. It is unclear how readily AQ resistance will be selected with combination chemotherapy. METHODS We collected 61 Plasmodium falciparum samples from a cohort of Ugandan children randomized for treatment with AQ-SP, AS-AQ, or artemether-lumefantrine (AL) for uncomplicated malaria. In vitro susceptibility to monodesethylamodiaquine (MDAQ) was measured with a histidine-rich protein 2-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and potential resistance-mediating polymorphisms in pfmdr1 were evaluated. RESULTS Parasites collected from patients treated with AQ-SP or AS-AQ within the prior 12 weeks were less susceptible to MDAQ (n = 18; mean of the median inhibitory concentration [IC(50)], 62.9 nmol/L; range, 12.7-158.3 nmol/L) than were parasites from those not treated within 12 weeks (n = 43; mean IC(50), 37.5 nmol/L; range, 6.3-184.7 nmol/L; P=. 009) or only from those patients in the treatment arm that did not receive AQ (n = 12; mean IC(50), 28.8 nmol/L; range, 6.3-121.8 nmol/L; P = . 004). The proportion of strains with polymorphisms expected to mediate diminished response to AQ (pfmdr1 86Y and 1246Y) increased after AQ therapy, although differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Prior therapy selected for diminished response to MDAQ, which suggests that AQ-containing regimens may rapidly lose efficacy in Africa. The mechanism of diminished MDAQ response is not fully explained by known mutations in pfmdr1.
Control of muscle regeneration in the Xenopus tadpole tail by Pax7

The tail of the Xenopus tadpole will regenerate completely after transection. Much of the mass of the regenerate is composed of skeletal muscle, but there has been some uncertainty about the source of the new myofibres. Here, we show that the growing tail contains many muscle satellite cells. They are active in DNA replication, whereas the myonuclei are not. As in mammals, the satellite cells express pax7. We show that a domain-swapped construct, pax7EnR, can antagonize pax7 function. Transgenic tadpoles were prepared containing pax7EnR driven by a heat-inducible promoter. When induced, this reduces the proportion of satellite cells formed in the regenerate. A second amputation of the resulting tails yielded second regenerates containing notochord and spinal cord but little or no muscle. This shows that inhibition of pax7 action does not prevent differentiation of satellite cells to myofibres, but it does prevent their maintenance as a stem cell population.
Synergetic motor control paradigm for optimizing energy efficiency of multijoint reaching via tacit learning

A human motor system can improve its behavior toward optimal movement. The skeletal system has more degrees of freedom than the task dimensions, which incurs an ill-posed problem. The multijoint system involves complex interaction torques between joints. To produce optimal motion in terms of energy consumption, the so-called cost function based optimization has been commonly used in previous works.Even if it is a fact that an optimal motor pattern is employed phenomenologically, there is no evidence that shows the existence of a physiological process that is similar to such a mathematical optimization in our central nervous system.In this study, we aim to find a more primitive computational mechanism with a modular configuration to realize adaptability and optimality without prior knowledge of system dynamics.We propose a novel motor control paradigm based on tacit learning with task space feedback. The motor command accumulation during repetitive environmental interactions, play a major role in the learning process. It is applied to a vertical cyclic reaching which involves complex interaction torques.We evaluated whether the proposed paradigm can learn how to optimize solutions with a 3-joint, planar biomechanical model. The results demonstrate that the proposed method was valid for acquiring motor synergy and resulted in energy efficient solutions for different load conditions. The case in feedback control is largely affected by the interaction torques. In contrast, the trajectory is corrected over time with tacit learning toward optimal solutions.Energy efficient solutions were obtained by the emergence of motor synergy. During learning, the contribution from feedforward controller is augmented and the one from the feedback controller is significantly minimized down to 12% for no load at hand, 16% for a 0.5 kg load condition.The proposed paradigm could provide an optimization process in redundant system with dynamic-model-free and cost-function-free approach.
ICDAR 2009 Handwriting Recognition Competition

This paper describes the handwriting recognition competitionheld at ICDAR 2009. This competition is based onthe RIMES-database, with French written text documents.These document are classified in three different categories,complete text pages, words, and isolated characters. Thisyear 10 systems were submitted for the handwritten recognitioncompetition on snippets of French words. The systemswere evaluated in three subtask depending of the sizes ofthe used dictionary. A comparison between different classificationand recognition systems show interesting results. Ashort description of the participating groups, their systems,and the results achieved are presented.
The Impact of Stress and Inflammatory Processes on Cognitive Change in Late Adulthood

Stress and inflammation are two very common, but also very complex processes that may affect cognitive decline in late adulthood. This study examined how the self-report of psychological stress and inflammatory biomarkers levels may be related to differences in trajectories of cognitive performance in late adulthood. We found weak, non-significant association between psychological stress and inflammatory biomarkers levels. Analyses also suggested that the inflammatory pathway may be important to cognition in late adulthood, since dual change growth curve model results suggested that higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers (CRP and IL-6) were associated with decrements in some aspects of cognitive performance in late adulthood. Moreover, greater psychological stress was associated with decreases in some aspects of cognitive performance in late adulthood. Greater psychological stress and/or its timing was associated with significant differences in cognitive performance levels or change on a measure of spatial abilities (Block Design), perceptual speed abilities (Symbol Digit), verbal abilities (Synonyms), and episodic recognition memory (Thurstone Picture Memory). Although these findings suggested that both stress and inflammation affect cognitive decline in late adulthood, final analyses that incorporated both psychological stress and inflammatory biomarkers as predictors of cognitive decline in late adulthood suggested limited findings of mediation for a measure of episodic recognition memory (Thurstone Picture Memory).
Isolation and development of a reticuloendotheliosis virus-transformed lymphoblastoid cell line from chicken spleen cells

The establishment and characterization of a reticuloendotheliosis virus (strain T)-transformed lymphoblastoid cell line, designated TV-1, was reported. These cells, isolated from the spleen of a moribund chick infected with reticuloendotheliosis virus, were maintained in suspension culture for over 74 weeks at a stable generation time of 15 h. The cells were found to carry a female karyotype. Both TV-1 cells and cell-free TV-1 culture supernatant produced lesions and mortality patterns in chicks which were identical to those caused by reticuloendotheliosis virus (strain T) infection. Examination of TV-1 cells by electron microscope revealed the presence of C-type virions budding from the plasma membrane. Cytotoxicity assays and fluorescent antibody tests indicated the presence of B-cell determinants on the TV-1 cell surface membrane.
Slow mixing of Glauber dynamics for the hard‐core model on regular bipartite graphs

Let ∑ = (V,E) be a finite, d‐regular bipartite graph. For any λ > 0 let πλ be the probability measure on the independent sets of ∑ in which the set I is chosen with probability proportional to λ|I| (πλ is the hard‐core measure with activity λ on ∑). We study the Glauber dynamics, or single‐site update Markov chain, whose stationary distribution is πλ. We show that when λ is large enough (as a function of d and the expansion of subsets of single‐parity of V) then the convergence to stationarity is exponentially slow in |V(∑)|. In particular, if ∑ is the d‐dimensional hypercube {0,1}d we show that for values of λ tending to 0 as d grows, the convergence to stationarity is exponentially slow in the volume of the cube. The proof combines a conductance argument with combinatorial enumeration methods. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 2006
The developmental expression profile of PAX2 in the murine prostate

Nine transcription factors comprise the PAX gene family that regulate organogenesis. The urogenital system of PAX2 null male mice fails to develop properly. PAX2 is overexpressed in PC3 cells. Therefore, PAX2 is implicated in both prostate organogenesis and cancer. However, the expression pattern/profile of PAX2 in the prostate is unknown.
The Importance of Still Teaching the iGeneration: New Technologies and the Centrality of Pedagogy

In this essay, Philip and Garcia argue that visions of mobile devices in the classroom often draw on assumptions about the inherent interests youth have in these devices, the capability of these interests to transfer from out-of-school contexts to the classroom, and the capacity for these new technologies to equalize the educational playing field. These overly optimistic portrayals minimize the pivotal value of effective teaching and are implicitly or explicitly coupled with political agendas that attempt to increasingly control and regiment the work of teachers. Through discussing student interest and issues of educational technology in urban schools and highlighting the affordances and limitations of the texts, tools, and talk that teachers might facilitate with these devices, the authors offer a teacher-focused perspective that is sorely missing in the contemporary debates about using mobile technologies in schools.
Age-related changes in midbrain dopaminergic regulation of the human reward system

The dopamine system, which plays a crucial role in reward processing, is particularly vulnerable to aging. Significant losses over a normal lifespan have been reported for dopamine receptors and transporters, but very little is known about the neurofunctional consequences of this age-related dopaminergic decline. In animals, a substantial body of data indicates that dopamine activity in the midbrain is tightly associated with reward processing. In humans, although indirect evidence from pharmacological and clinical studies also supports such an association, there has been no direct demonstration of a link between midbrain dopamine and reward-related neural response. Moreover, there are no in vivo data for alterations in this relationship in older humans. Here, by using 6-[18F]FluoroDOPA (FDOPA) positron emission tomography (PET) and event-related 3T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the same subjects, we directly demonstrate a link between midbrain dopamine synthesis and reward-related prefrontal activity in humans, show that healthy aging induces functional alterations in the reward system, and identify an age-related change in the direction of the relationship (from a positive to a negative correlation) between midbrain dopamine synthesis and prefrontal activity. These results indicate an age-dependent dopaminergic tuning mechanism for cortical reward processing and provide system-level information about alteration of a key neural circuit in healthy aging. Taken together, our findings provide an important characterization of the interactions between midbrain dopamine function and the reward system in healthy young humans and older subjects, and identify the changes in this regulatory circuit that accompany aging.
Psychological flexibility and auditory hallucinations

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS . 4 LIST OF TABLES . 12 LIST OF FIGURES . 14 LISTOF APPENDICES . 15 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS . 16 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION . 17 1.1 FOUNDATIONAL ASSUMPTIONS FOR THIS THESIS . 17 1.1.1 A Dimensional Approach to Understanding Psychosis . 18 1.1.2 The Single Symptom Approach . 19 1.2 AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS . 20 1.2. 1 Prevalence & Phenomenology of auditory hallucinations. 21 1.2. 2 Summary . 23 1.3 COGNITIVE MODELS OF AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS . 23 1.3. 1 Appraisal-based models . 24 1.4 COPING AND EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES WITH AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS. 27 1.4.1 Coping with auditory hallucinations . 27 1.4.2 The relationships between broader coping and functioning for people with psychosis 31 1.4.3 Emotional regulation strategies and auditory hallucinations . 32 1.4.4 Emotion Regulation . 32 1.4.4.1 Suppression: the effects of inhibiting emotional expression and private experiences . 33 1.4.4.2 The role of suppression in psychosis: a formation and maintenance factor? 34 1.4.4.3 Empirical studies: Emotion regulation for people with psychosis . 35 1.4.4. 4 Empirical studies: Emotion regulation and auditory hallucinations . 36 1.4.4.5 Treatment outcomes using suppression-based and distraction interventions for hearing voices . 36 1.4.5 Summary of Coping and Emotional Regulation in Voice Hearers . 37 1.5 ACCEPTANCE AS A COPING METHOD . 39 1.6 RELATING TO VOICES: APPRAISALS OF POWER, INTENTION AND SOCIAL RANK . 40 1.6. 1 Social ranking and auditory hallucinations . 41 1.6. 2 Summary and Implications . 42
Starburst-driven Mass Loss from Dwarf Galaxies: Efficiency and Metal Ejection

We model the effects of repeated supernova (SN) explosions from starbursts in dwarf galaxies on the interstellar medium of these galaxies, taking into account the gravitational potential of their dominant dark matter halos. We explore SN rates from one every 30,000 yr to one every 3 Myr, equivalent to steady mechanical luminosities of L=0.1-10×1038 ergs s−1, occurring in dwarf galaxies with gas masses Mg=106-109 M☉. We address in detail, both analytically and numerically, the following three questions: 1. When do the SN ejecta blow out of the disk of the galaxy? 2. When blowout occurs, what fraction of the interstellar gas is blown away, escaping the potential of the galactic halo? 3. What happens to the metals ejected from the massive stars of the starburst? Are they retained or blown away?
A single amino acid serves as an affinity switch between the receptor and the binding protein of corticotropin-releasing factor: Implications for the design of agonists and antagonists

In view of the observation that corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) affects several brain functions through at least two subtypes of G protein-dependent receptors and a binding protein (CRFBP), we have developed synthetic strategies to provide enhanced binding specificity. Human/rat CRF (h/rCRF) and the CRF-like peptide sauvagine (Svg), differing in their affinities to CRFBP by two orders of magnitude, were used to identify the residues determining binding to CRFBP. By amino acid exchanges, it was found that Ala22 of h/rCRF was responsible for this peptide's high affinity to CRFBP, whereas Glu21 located in the equivalent position of Svg prevented high affinity binding to CRFBP. Accordingly, [Glu22]h/rCRF was not bound with high affinity to CRFBP in contrast to [Ala21]Svg, which exhibited such high affinity. Furthermore, the affinity of both peptides to either CRF receptor (CRFR) subtype was not reduced by these replacements, and their subtype preference was not changed. Thus, exchange of Ala and Glu and vice versa in positions 22 and 21 of h/rCRF and Svg, respectively, serves as a switch discriminating between CRFBP and CRFR. On the basis of this switch function, development of new specific CRF agonists and antagonists is expected to be facilitated. One application was the modification of the CRF antagonist astressin (Ast), whose employment in animal experiments is limited by its low solubility in cerebrospinal fluid. Introduction of Glu residues into Ast generated with [Glu11,16]Ast an acidic astressin, which efficiently antagonized in vivo the CRFR1-dependent reduction of locomotion induced by ovine CRF without detectable binding to CRFBP.
The power of primes: security of authentication based on a universal hash-function family

Abstract Message authentication codes (MACs) based on universal hash-function families are becoming increasingly popular due to their fast implementation. In this paper, we investigate a family of universal hash functions that has been appeared repeatedly in the literature and provide a detailed algebraic analysis for the security of authentication codes based on this universal hash family. In particular, the universal hash family under analysis, as appeared in the literature, uses operation in the finite field ℤ p . No previous work has studied the extension of such universal hash family when computations are performed modulo a non-prime integer n. In this work, we provide the first such analysis. We investigate the security of authentication when computations are performed over arbitrary finite integer rings ℤ n and derive an explicit relation between the prime factorization of n and the bound on the probability of successful forgery. More specifically, we show that the probability of successful forgery against authentication codes based on such a universal hash-function family is bounded by the reciprocal of the smallest prime factor of the modulus n.
The Ski Protein Family Is Required for MeCP2-mediated Transcriptional Repression*

DNA methylation is essential for development in the mouse and plays an important role in inactivation of the X chromosome and genomic imprinting. MeCP2 is the founder member of a family of methyl-CpG-binding proteins. MeCP2 directly binds to the co-repressor mSin3, which interacts with class I histone deacetylase, recruiting them to methyl-CpG regions to suppress transcription. Here, we report that MeCP2 directly binds to two co-repressors, c-Ski and N-CoR, in addition to mSin3A, and that the c-Ski, which is encoded by the c-ski proto-onocogene, is required for MeCP2-mediated transcriptional repression. The two regions of c-Ski, including the C-terminal coiled-coil region, interact with the transcriptional repression domain in the center of the MeCP2 molecule. The immunostaining signals for c-Ski and MeCP2 overlap in the nuclear heterochromatin region, suggesting the co-localization of the two proteins. The degree of transcriptional repression mediated by a Gal4-MeCP2 fusion protein was abrogated by overexpression of the putative dominant negative form of c-Ski. Furthermore, injection of antibodies against c-Ski and Sno almost completely abolished the transcriptional repression mediated by the Gal4-MeCP2 fusion protein. These results suggest that the ski gene family is involved in methyl CpG-mediated transcriptional repression.
ICTs and the possibilities for leapfrogging by developing countries

The last half of the twentieth century was marked by steady advance in the ubiquity of information and communication technologies (ICTs) throughout the industrialized world. The emergence of a significant “digital divide” between industrialized and developing countries is reproducing existing patterns of inequality with regard to these new technologies (Castells, 1996). During this same period, however, substantial achievements in the few countries which succeeded in narrowing the economic divide separating them from the industrialized world often involved the export-oriented production of ICTs (Kim, 1997; Hobday, 1995b; Amsden, 1989) or, less commonly, their effective use in improving productivity or creating new markets. The continuing rapid decline in the prices of these technologies and the accompaniment of these price reductions with a growing range of applications suggest that they offer further opportunities for economic growth. In particular, ICTs are unique in a number of ways compared with the leading industries of the past that were responsible for industrial growth and development, such as steel, chemicals, and machinery. In many applications, and in some types of production, the conditions of entry for using and, in some cases, for producing ICTs do not require massive investment in fixed plant capacity or infrastructure or in the accumulation of experience. Moreover, ICT applications often appear to be complementary to efforts to improve the quality, speed and flexibility of production, offering a compensating advantage against existing shortcomings in production capacities (Lal, 2000). Because virtually all of the components and many of the systems embodying these technologies are internationally available from highly competitive