Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regional Differences in the Decay Kinetics of GABAA Receptor-Mediated Miniature IPSCs in the Dorsal Horn of the Rat Spinal Cord Are Determined by Mitochondrial Transport of Cholesterol

We examined the possibility of a differential spatial control in the endogenous production of 3α5α-reduced steroids and its consequences on GABAA receptor-mediated miniature IPSCs (mIPSCs) in laminas II and III–IV of the rat spinal cord dorsal horn (DH). Early in postnatal development [younger than postnatal day 8 (P8)], mIPSCs displayed slow decay kinetics in laminas II and III–IV resulting from a continuous local production of 3α5α-reduced steroids. This was mediated by the tonic activity of the translocator protein of 18 kDa (TSPO), which controls neurosteroid synthesis by regulating the transport of cholesterol across the mitochondrial membrane system. TSPO activity disappeared in laminas III–IV after P8 and was functionally downregulated in lamina II after P15, resulting in a marked reduction of mIPSC duration in these laminas. TSPO-mediated synthesis of 3α5α-reduced steroids was spatially restricted, because, at P9–P15, when their production was maximal in lamina II, no sign of spillover to laminas III–IV was apparent. Interestingly, after P8, the enzymes necessary for the synthesis of 3α5α-reduced steroids remained functional in laminas III–IV and could produce such steroids from various precursors or after a single subcutaneous injection of progesterone. Moreover, induction of an acute peripheral inflammation by intraplantar injection of carrageenan, restored a maximal TSPO-mediated neurosteroidogenesis in laminas III–IV. Our results indicate that the decay kinetics of GABAA receptor-mediated mIPSCs in the DH of the spinal cord are primarily controlled by 3α5α-reduced steroids, which can be produced from circulating steroid precursors and/or in a spatially restricted manner by the modulation of the activity of TSPO.
Comparison of visual biofeedback system with a guiding waveform and abdomen-chest motion self-control system for respiratory motion management

Irregular breathing can influence the outcome of 4D computed tomography imaging and cause artifacts. Visual biofeedback systems associated with a patient-specific guiding waveform are known to reduce respiratory irregularities. In Japan, abdomen and chest motion self-control devices (Abches) (representing simpler visual coaching techniques without a guiding waveform) are used instead; however, no studies have compared these two systems to date. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of respiratory coaching in reducing respiratory irregularities by comparing two respiratory management systems. We collected data from 11 healthy volunteers. Bar and wave models were used as visual biofeedback systems. Abches consisted of a respiratory indicator indicating the end of each expiration and inspiration motion. Respiratory variations were quantified as root mean squared error (RMSE) of displacement and period of breathing cycles. All coaching techniques improved respiratory variation, compared with free-breathing. Displacement RMSEs were 1.43 ± 0.84, 1.22 ± 1.13, 1.21 ± 0.86 and 0.98 ± 0.47 mm for free-breathing, Abches, bar model and wave model, respectively. Period RMSEs were 0.48 ± 0.42, 0.33 ± 0.31, 0.23 ± 0.18 and 0.17 ± 0.05 s for free-breathing, Abches, bar model and wave model, respectively. The average reduction in displacement and period RMSE compared with the wave model were 27% and 47%, respectively. For variation in both displacement and period, wave model was superior to the other techniques. Our results showed that visual biofeedback combined with a wave model could potentially provide clinical benefits in respiratory management, although all techniques were able to reduce respiratory irregularities.
The Interaction of Lexical Semantics and Cohort Competition in Spoken Word Recognition: An fMRI Study

Spoken word recognition involves the activation of multiple word candidates on the basis of the initial speech input—the “cohort”—and selection among these competitors. Selection may be driven primarily by bottom–up acoustic–phonetic inputs or it may be modulated by other aspects of lexical representation, such as a word's meaning [Marslen-Wilson, W. D. Functional parallelism in spoken word-recognition. Cognition, 25, 71–102, 1987]. We examined these potential interactions in an fMRI study by presenting participants with words and pseudowords for lexical decision. In a factorial design, we manipulated (a) cohort competition (high/low competitive cohorts which vary the number of competing word candidates) and (b) the word's semantic properties (high/low imageability). A previous behavioral study [Tyler, L. K. , Voice, J. K. , & Moss, H. E. The interaction of meaning and sound in spoken word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 7, 320–326, 2000] showed that imageability facilitated word recognition but only for words in high competition cohorts. Here we found greater activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45, 47) and the right inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47) with increased cohort competition, an imageability effect in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus/angular gyrus (BA 39), and a significant interaction between imageability and cohort competition in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus/middle temporal gyrus (BA 21, 22). In words with high competition cohorts, high imageability words generated stronger activity than low imageability words, indicating a facilitatory role of imageability in a highly competitive cohort context. For words in low competition cohorts, there was no effect of imageability. These results support the behavioral data in showing that selection processes do not rely solely on bottom–up acoustic–phonetic cues but rather that the semantic properties of candidate words facilitate discrimination between competitors.
Windows Performance Monitoring and Data Reduction Using WatchTower

We describe and evaluate WatchTower, a system that simplifies the collection of Windows performance counter data for monitoring and usage profiling of Windows machines. WatchTower has overheads similar to those of Microsoft’sperfmon tool, but it is easily embedded into other software. Furthermore, we use standard statistical tools to reduce the sheer volume of performance data to a manageable subset that nonetheless usefully captures the behavior of the machine and its interactive user.
Proximal Femoral Morphology and the Relevance to Design of Anatomically Precontoured Plates: A Study of the Chinese Population

Adequately shaped femoral plate is critical for the fixation of fracture in the pertrochanteric regions. Lateral aspect of greater trochanter is an important region where the proximal femoral plate anchored. However, little is known regarding the morphology of greater trochanter. The objective of this study was to measure main dimensions of greater trochanter and other regions in the proximal end of the femur to provide an anatomical basis for the design of the proximal femoral plate. Anthropometric data on the proximal femur were performed utilizing three-dimensional computational modeling. Computed tomography images of healthy femurs in 53 women and 47 men were contributed to three-dimensional femur modeling. All data were compared between male and female femora. The results showed that mean values for male group were found to be greater in most of measured femoral dimensions. Oppositely, females demonstrated higher neck-shaft angle on anteroposterior view and femoral anteversion angle. The anthropometric data can be used for the anatomical shape design of femoral plates for osteosynthesis of fractures in the trochanteric regions. A distinct plate design may be necessary to accommodate differences between the genders.
The Plasminogen Activation System and the Regulation of Catecholaminergic Function

The local environment of neurosecretory cells contains the major components of the plasminogen activation system, including the plasminogen activators, tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) and urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA), as well as binding sites for t-PA, the receptor for u-PA (uPAR), and also the plasminogen activator inhibitor, PAI-1. Furthermore, these cells express specific binding sites for plasminogen, which is available in the circulation and in interstitial fluid. Colocalization of plasminogen and its activators on cell surfaces provides a mechanism for promoting local plasminogen activation. Plasmin is retained on the cell surface where it is protected from its inhibitor, α2-antiplasmin. In neurosecretory cells, localized plasmin activity provides a mechanism for extracellular processing of secreted hormones. Neurotransmitter release from catecholaminergic cells is negatively regulated by cleavage products formed by plasmin-mediated proteolysis. Recently, we have identified a major plasminogen receptor, Plg-RKT. We have found that Plg-RKT is highly expressed in chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla as well as in other catecholaminergic cells and tissues. Plg-RKT-dependent plasminogen activation plays a key role in regulating catecholaminergic neurosecretory cell function.
Impaired Endothelium‐Dependent Relaxation to Aggregating Platelets and Related Vasoactive: Substances in Porcine Coronary Arteries in Hypercholesterolemia and Atherosclerosis

Vasoconstrictor responses are augmented in porcine coronary arteries in hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis, leading to an occurrence of coronary vasospasm in the latter condition. The role of the endothelium in the vascular hyperreactivity in hypercholesterolemic and atherosclerotic coronary arteries was examined, particularly in response to aggregating platelets and related vasoactive substances. Male Yorkshire pigs underwent balloon endothelial denudation of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) and 2percent; high-cholesterol feeding for 10 weeks. Electron microscopic examination demonstrated a full lining of endothelial cells in the LAD and the left circumflex coronary artery (LCX). Endothelium-dependent responses were examined in vitro. In cholesterol-fed animals, endothelium-dependent relaxations to aggregating platelets, serotonin, ADP, bradykinin, thrombin, and the calcium ionophore A23187 were depressed in LAD (atherosclerosis), while the relaxations to aggregating platelets, serotonin and ADP were depressed in LCX (hypercholesterolemia). Serotonin-induced contractions were endotheliumdependentiy augmented in atherosclerotic LAD; the endothelium-dependent component of the contractions was inhibited by blockers of cyclooxygenase. Bioassay studies demonstrated a depressed release of endothelium-derived relaxing factors) from the atherosclerotic LAD in response to serotonin. These experiments indicate that the endothelium-dependent relaxations to aggregating platelets and related vasoactive substances are severely unpaired in atherosclerosis and moderately impaired in hypercholesterolemia. Since coronary atherosclerosis was induced by a combination of balloon endothelial injury (and regeneration) and high-cholesterol feeding in this study, the combined effects of those factors must account for the severely impaired responses in atherosclerosis. The depressed release of the endothelium-derived relaxing factoids) and the concomitant release of vasoconstrictor product(s) of cyclooxygenase appear to be responsible for the impaired relaxations.
Clonal deletion induced by either radioresistant thymic host cells or lymphohemopoietic donor cells at different stages of class I-restricted T cell ontogeny

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) products and self-antigens expressed in the thymus determine the repertoire of mature alpha/beta T cells. While positive selection of self-MHC-restricted T cells is directed by MHC molecules expressed by thymic epithelial cells, negative selection depends to a large extent on self-antigens presented by lymphohemopoietic cells. However, radioresistant components of the thymus also influence negative selection, but it remains controversial whether this is accomplished by clonal deletion, clonal anergy, or other mechanisms. In this study, T cell development in mice expressing a transgenic T cell receptor (TCR) specific for lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) plus H-2Db was analyzed in the presence or absence of the viral antigen. A novel approach to analyze the thymic tissue requirements for negative selection was possible by comparing thymocyte selection in H-2Db versus H-2Dbm13 mice, since the latter allowed positive selection but not LCMV-specific deletion of transgenic TCR-expressing thymocytes. In irradiation bone marrow chimeras expressing the restriction element for negative selection (H-2Db) on host tissue, we show that radioresistant recipient cells in the thymus deleted developing T cells at an early stage of differentiation. In contrast, chimeras expressing H-2Db on lymphohemopoietic donor cells showed clonal deletion at a later stage during ontogeny.
An Empirical Study on the Application of Lexical Chunk to College English Writing

In China, English, as an important tool for self-expression and mutual communication, is paid great attention to all over the country and College English has become a compulsory course at all colleges and universities. English writing is one of the most important language skills for college students. For a long time, English writing has been the throe throat for college students, which manifests in the aspects that students have poor vocabulary and employ much Chinglish expression in their essays, hindering them from expressing themselves clearly. Many linguists and teachers have been doing research on foreign language teaching, trying to find an effective way to improve the students’ foreign language acquisition especially foreign language writing. And thus the approach of employing the lexical chunks to teaching was put forward. The approach of teaching English writing by chunks offers a new way of solving the problems. Based on the previous research, the author thinks it necessary to probe into teaching English writing by lexical chunks so as to improve students’ writing ability. This study increases the input of English Lexical Chunk to College English writing and analyzes the effect of this method on students’ writing by conducting experimental research. According to the experiment analysis, it is concluded that increase of Lexical Chunk input can reduce the negative transfer of the native language, thus improving their writing in terms of wording collocation, sentence building, discourse cohesion and expression.
An Empirical Comparison of Seven Iterative and Evolutionary Function Optimization Heuristics

Abstract : This report is a repository of the results obtained from a large scale empirical comparison of seven iterative and evolution-based optimization heuristics. Twenty-seven static optimization problems, spanning six sets of problem classes which are commonly explored in genetic algorithm literature, are examined. The problem sets include job-shop scheduling, traveling, salesman, knapsack, binpacking, neural network weight optimization, and standard numerical optimization. The search spaces in these problems range from 2368 to 22040. The results indicate that using genetic algorithms for the optimization of static functions does not yield a benefit, in terms of the final answer obtained, over simpler optimization heuristics. Descriptions of the algorithms tested and the encodings of the problems are described in detail for reproducibility.
Rates of thermohaline recovery from freshwater pulses in modern, Last Glacial Maximum, and greenhouse warming climates

Recovery rates of the thermohaline circulation after a freshwater pulse in the North Atlantic vary considerably depending on the background climate, as demonstrated in the Community Climate System Model. The recovery is slowest in a Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate, fastest in a modern climate, and intermediate between the two in a greenhouse warming (4XCO2) climate. Previously proposed mechanisms to explain thermohaline circulation stability involving altered horizontal freshwater transport in the North Atlantic are consistent with relative recovery rates in the modern and 4XCO2 climates, but fail to explain the slow LGM recovery. Instead, sea ice expansion inhibits deep‐water formation after freshening in the LGM climate by reducing heat loss to the atmosphere and providing additional surface freshwater. In addition, anomalous vertical freshwater transport across ∼1 km depth after freshening is most effective at weakening the stratification in the modern case but is negligible in the LGM case.
Developing online multimodal verbal communication to enhance the writing process in an audio-graphic conferencing environment

Abstract Over the last decade, most studies in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) have highlighted how online synchronous learning environments implement a new literacy related to multimodal communication. The environment used in our experiment is based on a synchronous audio-graphic conferencing tool. This study concerns false beginners in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course, presenting a high degree of heterogeneity in their proficiency levels. A coding scheme was developed to translate the video data into user actions and speech acts that occurred in the various modalities of the system (aural, textchat, text editing, websites). The paper intends to shed further light on and increase our understanding of multimodal communication structures through learner participation and learning practices. On the basis of evidence from an ongoing research investigation into online CALL literacy, we identify how learners use different modalities to produce collectively a writing task, and how the multimodal learning interaction affects the learners' focus and engagement within the learning process. The adopted methodology combines a quantitative analysis of the learners' participation in a writing task with regard to the use of multimodal tools, and a qualitative analysis focusing on how the multimodal dimension of communication enhances language and learning strategies. By looking at the relationship between how the learning tasks are designed by tutors and how they are implemented by learners, that is to say taking into account the whole perception of multimodal communication for language learning purposes, we provide a framework for evaluating the potential of such an environment for language learning.
Discontinuation rates of SSRIs and tricyclic antidepressants: a meta-analysis and investigation of heterogeneity

Background Previous meta-analyses suggest that individuals treated with serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are less likely to discontinue treatment than those on tricyclic antidepressants. This metaanalysis investigates whether this is due to the frequent use in RCTs of older reference tricyclics (imipramine and amitriptyline), which may have worse side-effects than more recent compounds. Methods A meta-analysis of RCTs comparing tricyclic and heterocyclic antidepressants with SSRIs in the treatment of depression. Results The overall odds ratio of discontinuation on tricyclic/heterocyclic antidepressants compared with SSRIs was 0.86 (95% CI 0.78–0.94). The odds ratio for reference tricyclics was 0.82 95% CI 0.72–0.23), newer tricyclics 0.89 (95% CI 0.74–1.06), and heterocyclics 1.02 (95% CI 0.78–1.35). The pooled advantage of SSRIs over tricyclics was maintained whether the population studied consisted of younger adults or only the elderly. No differences in discontinuation rates were detected between the SSRIs. Conclusions The lower rate of discontinuation in patients on SSRIs may be due to the use of old tricyclics (which have worse side-effects) as reference compounds. The SSRIs do not show a statistically significant difference in discontinuation rates when compared with newer tricyclics or heterocyclics.
Advances in Targeting the Ras/Raf/MEK/Erk Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Cascade with MEK Inhibitors for Cancer Therapy

The identification of intracellular signaling cascades important for the growth and survival of cancer cells has led to the development of targeted cancer therapeutics aimed at blocking these signals. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway has a well-defined role in cancer biology and has been an important target in the development of targeted therapies. Recently, several small-molecule inhibitors of MAPK/extracellular signal–regulated kinase kinase (MEK), a key intermediary of MAPK signaling, have been developed and are currently being tested in clinical trials. Herein, we review the MAPK pathway, the development of small-molecule MEK inhibitors, and the results obtained to date with MEK inhibitors in human cancer trials.
Formalizing the Cloud through Enterprise Topology Graphs

Enterprises often have no integrated and comprehensive view of their enterprise topology describing their entire IT infrastructure, software, on-premise and off-premise services, processes, and their interrelations. Especially due to acquisitions, mergers, reorganizations, and outsourcing there is no clear 'big picture' of the enterprise topology. Through this lack, management of applications becomes harder and duplication of components and information systems increases. Furthermore, the lack of insight makes changes in the enterprise topology like consolidation, migration, or outsourcing more complex and error prone which leads to high operational cost. In this paper we propose Enterprise Topology Graphs (ETG) as formal model to describe an enterprise topology. Based on established graph theory ETG bring formalization and provability to the cloud. They enable the application of proven graph algorithms to solve enterprise topology research problems in general and cloud research problems in particular. For example, we present a search algorithm which locates segments in large and possibly distributed enterprise topologies using structural queries. To illustrate the power of the ETG approach we show how it can be applied for IT consolidation to reduce operational costs, increase flexibility by simplifying changes in the enterprise topology, and improve the environmental impact of the enterprise IT.
Holistic VoIP intrusion detection and prevention system

VoIP security is crucial for current and future networks and services. The rapid shift from a closed and confined telephony towards an all IP network supporting end to end VoIP services provides major challenges to the security plane. Faced with multiple attack vectors, new and comprehensive defensive security solutions for VoIP must emerge from the research community. This paper describes a multilayer intrusion detection and prevention system architecture for VoIP infrastructures. The key components of the approach are based on a VoIP-specific honeypot and on an application layer event correlation engine. While each component alone can detect only a subset of VoIP-specific attacks, the two of them together can provide an effective defense for the many class of attacks. We show in this paper, how different and complementary conceptual approaches can jointly provide an in depth defense for VoIP architectures.
Experiences with an architecture for intelligent, reactive agents

This paper briefly describes a robot architecture that has been under development for the last eight years. This architecture uses several levels of abstraction and description languages that are compatible between levels. The makeup of the architecture helps to coordinate planful activities with real-time behaviors for dealing with dynamic environments. In recent years, many architectures have been created with similar attributes. The two features that distinguish this architecture from most of those are: 1) a variety of useful software tools have been created to help implement this architecture on multiple real robots; and 2) this architecture, or parts of it have been implemented on over half a dozen very different robot systems using a variety of processors, operating systems, effectors and sensor suites.