Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postsynaptic Calcium Transients Evoked by Activation of Individual Hippocampal Mossy Fiber Synapses

Control of Ca2+ within dendritic spines is critical for excitatory synaptic function and plasticity, but little is known about Ca2+ dynamics at thorny excrescences, the complex spines on hippocampal CA3 pyramidal cells contacted by mossy fiber terminals of dentate granule cell axons. We have monitored subthreshold stimulus-dependent postsynaptic Ca2+transients in optically and ultrastructurally characterized complex spines and find that such spines can act as discrete units of Ca2+ response. In contrast to the more common “simple” spines, synaptically evoked Ca2+transients at complex spines have only a small NMDA receptor-dependent component and do not involve release of calcium from internal stores. Instead, they result mainly from AMPA receptor-gated Ca2+ influx through voltage-activated calcium channels on the spine; these channels provide graded amplification of the response of thorny excrescences to individual mossy fiber synaptic events.
Nature, Nurture, and Nature-by-Nurture - Killing the Dichotomy

The primary purpose of this book is to provide a broad snapshot of recent findings showing how the environment and genes influence behaviour. At face value, this should be uncontroversial but unfortunately, the history of genetics includes eugenic movements and Lysenkoism. As a result, discussions of how nature and nurture affect behaviour have been dogged by polemic disputes because ideological views about their contributions have tended to cloud what is really an empirical question. This is in some ways exemplified by the book Not in Our Genes (Lewontin et al. 1984), which begins with a political confession from the authors – we are committed socialists – and starts with a chapter on right-wing politics and determinism. For us, the evidence, and not political or any other beliefs, is what counts and any ‘belief’ approach puts the desire for the world to be a certain way ahead of the evidence that it is not so, ultimately committing a version of the naturalistic fallacy – if something is ‘natural’, it is morally correct, which is clearly rubbish (also see Chapter 10). Infanticide, cannibalism, forced copulation (rape), and killing other members of your species (murder) are rife in nature, but it would be difficult to convince anyone of intelligence that these acts are moral because they are natural. Furthermore, ‘politically’ motivated arguments against ‘reductionism’, reducing complex behaviours to single causes, are frequently concocted to protect against a biological determinism that must be fought at all costs. However, as we hope to explain, acknowledging that there are genes underlying behaviour, even genes of large effect, is imperative if that is what the data tell us. After all, it is no use playing music to cows if milk yield is totally determined by genes and unaffected by the environment, and as we outline below, in a polygenic world that includes inevitable environmental effects and all manner of interactions, prediction is tricky and determinism dubious because of the probabilistic and complex nature of the gene–behaviour link. But again, even if single genes were completely responsible for single behaviours, which they cannot be in the strictest sense (see below), let us not fall into a naturalistic fallacy. Rather than engage in further fruitless arguments about world-views, this book explores exciting new findings about behaviour and where we go from here. Before moving on to these new advances and the interesting questions that arise from them, we wish to make another – a final? – attempt to kill the nature versus nurture polarity
Family Satisfaction, Ethnic Identity, and Subjective Well-Being Among Urban Youth

This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact ecommons@luc.edu. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of the people who made this dissertation possible, starting with my professors in the Counseling Psychology Program at Loyola University Chicago: Dr. Elizabeth Vera who served as a wonderful mentor and educator throughout this intense process and who steered me in the direction of doing preventative work with urban youths; Dr. Christopher Rector who was a remarkable clinical supervisor and professor, who empowered me to grow and believe that each of us is an ongoing work in progress; Dr. Carolyn Mildner and Dr. Anita Thomas whose encouragement has made the difference in this long and demanding process. My friends in the Counseling Psychology Program and outside of the program have provided me with much needed encouragement and support during those times of procrastination and exhaustion. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their immense support, without them I would have not made it where I am today. Particularly, I want to thank my best friend and incomparable life mentor, my mother. Without her support and wise words, I would never have become who I am today. I feel very lucky to have someone as fearless and determined as my mother. viii ABSTRACT Youth is a period of discovery, exploration, and instability that occurs between middle childhood and late adolescence. In the United States, a diverse society, urban youth have to clarify not only their self concept, but also their ethnic identity, which becomes part of their self-concept. Unfortunately, most researchers have ignored early adolescence (i.e., ages 12-15) and have limited their research to either childhood or later adolescence. The purpose of this study is twofold. The first part of this study examined the relationship between family satisfaction and subjective well-being (SWB) among urban youth. The second part of the study examined ethnic identity as a moderator between family satisfaction and SWB. An archived dataset collected in 2007 was used. There were 158 participants enrolled in a public urban school in a large Midwestern city ranging in age from 11-15. Regression analyses were used to test the relationship between family satisfaction and SWB. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to detect …
Stigma and mental health in the Royal Navy: A mixed methods paper

Background: US research suggests that military personnel suffering from mental health problems are reluctant to seek help because of stigma. Aims: First, to identify the prevalence of mental health stigma beliefs in a UK military sample. Second, to investigate whether distressed personnel report more stigma than those who are not distressed. Method: A survey of 1599 naval personnel was undertaken as part of a larger trial prior to examining the effectiveness of a novel trauma support program. Results: The presence of internal stigma was substantial and significantly higher for distressed personnel. The prevalence of stigma about other people's mental health problems was low. Junior personnel reported being more uncomfortable in discussing emotional issues with their peer group than senior staff. Conclusions: Internal stigma remains a significant barrier to help seeking within the Royal Navy, especially for distressed personnel. This may be especially problematic for junior personnel who are known to be particularly vulnerable to developing mental health problems.
Power leader fault detection in nonlinear leader-follower networks

This paper presents a model for fault detection of a power leader in nonlinear leader-follower networks. The fault detection method is developed for the network model proposed by Wang and Slotine. Every follower is coupled with a nonlinear, neural net based observer for fault detection. Neural net tuning algorithms are derived and fault identifiers are developed using the Lyapunov approach. We consider fault detection of the power leader, and how such fault propagates through the network. We estimate the power leader fault detectability time based on the followers¿ observers. The paper studies properties of the fault dynamics i.e., the dynamics of a fault evolution process through a network of interconnected dynamic elements. The approach for leader-follower fault detection can also be used with any other type of nonlinear systems observer. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
Monotonic parallel and orthogonal routing for single-layer ball grid array packages

In this paper, we give the necessary and sufficient condition that all nets can be connected by monotonic routes when a net consists of a finger and a ball and fingers are on the two parallel boundaries of the ball grid array package, and propose a monotonic routing method based on this condition. Moreover, we give a necessary condition and a sufficient condition when fingers are on the two orthogonal boundaries, and propose a monotonic routing method based on the necessary condition
Identifying patterns in combat that are predictive of success in MOBA games

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games rely primarily on combat to determine the ultimate outcome of the game. Combat in these types of games is highly-dynamic and can be diﬃcult for novice players to learn. Typically, mastery of combat requires that players obtain expert knowledge through practice, which can be diﬃcult to concisely describe. In this paper, we present a data-driven approach for discovering patterns in combat tactics that are common among winning teams in MOBA games. We model combat as a sequence of graphs and extract patterns that predict successful outcomes not just of combat, but of the entire game. To identify those patterns, we attribute features to these graphs using well known graph metrics. These features allow us to describe, in meaningful terms, how diﬀerent combat tactics contribute to team success. We also present an evaluation of our methodology on the popular MOBA game, DotA 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2). Experiments show that extracted patterns achieve an 80% prediction accuracy when testing on new game logs.
Antibody-Hapten Recognition at the Surface of Functionalized Liposomes Studied by SPR: Steric Hindrance of Pegylated Phospholipids in Stealth Liposomes Prepared for Targeted Radionuclide Delivery

Targeted PEGylated liposomes could increase the amount of drugs or radionuclides delivered to tumor cells. They show favorable stability and pharmacokinetics, but steric hindrance of the PEG chains can block the binding of the targeting moiety. Here, specific interactions between an antihapten antibody (clone 734, specific for the DTPA-indium complex) and DTPA-indium-tagged liposomes were characterized by surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Non-PEGylated liposomes fused on CM5 chips whereas PEGylated liposomes did not. By contrast, both PEGylated and non-PEGylated liposomes attached to L1 chips without fusion. SPR binding kinetics showed that, in the absence of PEG, the antibody binds the hapten at the surface of lipid bilayers with the affinity of the soluble hapten. The incorporation of PEGylated lipids hinders antibody binding to extents depending on PEGylated lipid fraction and PEG molecular weight. SPR on immobilized liposomes thus appears as a useful technique to optimize formulations of liposomes for targeted therapy.
3 D Modeling with Silhouettes Citation

We present a new sketch-based modeling approach in which models are interactively designed by drawing their 2D silhouettes from different views. The core idea of our paper is to limit the input to 2D silhouettes, removing the need to explicitly create or position 3D elements. Arbitrarily complex models can be constructed by assembling them out of parts defined by their silhouettes, which can be combined using CSG operations. We introduce a new simplified algorithm to compute CSG solids that leverages special properties of silhouette cylinders to convert the 3D CSG problem into one that can be handled entirely with 2D operations, making implementation simpler and more robust. We evaluate our approach by modeling a random sampling of man-made objects taken from the words in WordNet, and show that all of the tested man-made objects can be modeled quickly and easily using our approach.
Location 3 : How Users Share and Respond to Location-Based Data on Social Networking Sites

In August 2010 Facebook launched Places, a locationbased service that allows users to check into points of interest and share their physical whereabouts with friends. The friends who see these events in their News Feed can then respond to these check-ins by liking or commenting on them. These data consisting of the places people go and how their friends react to them are a rich, novel dataset. In this paper we first analyze this dataset to understand the factors that influence where users check in, including previous check-ins, similarity to other places, where their friends check in, time of day, and demographics. We show how these factors can be used to build a predictive model of where users will check in next. Then we analyze how users respond to their friends’ check-ins and which factors contribute to users liking or commenting on them. We show how this can be used to improve the ranking of check-in stories, ensuring that users see only the most relevant updates from their friends and ensuring that businesses derive maximum value from check-ins at their establishments. Finally, we construct a model to predict friendship based on check-in count and show that co-checkins has a statistically significant effect on friendship.
Making public space : community groups and local participation in Stoke-on-Trent

This thesis is based on ethnographic research with two small community groups on housing estates in Stoke-on-Trent, UK. It explores how their work produces certain kinds of 'public space', understood as spaces that bring together local people and generate potential for new forms of interaction and collective action. This analysis is informed by theoretical writing around the nature of public space, as well as a context of government policy and programmes that seek to reconstitute the public in particular modes. The work of the groups is also understood as shaped by the dynamics of the neighbourhoods, which both open up and limit possibilities for such projects. The thesis argues for the importance of the 'everyday' spaces of the groups, made through informal modes of socialising, and activities such as play sessions with children, cooking and gardening. An emphasis on these 'ordinary' spaces and the practices which produce them, including shared practical activities, runs counter to a tendency in some academic writing to view public spaces as highly visible or symbolic spaces of struggle between different groups or interests. Instead the spaces focused on are made through low-key, incremental negotiations over time, and suggest ways in which smallscale, but nonetheless significant, connections between different groups might take place. The spaces are also made in ways that connect conventionally 'public' and 'private' or domestic spheres, and that are intertwined with the interventions of government. The thesis therefore provides insights into the nature of public space, collective action and democracy in such contexts.
Ryanodine‐sensitive intracellular Ca2+ channels are involved in the output from the SCN circadian clock

The suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) contain the major circadian clock responsible for generation of circadian rhythms in mammals. The time measured by the molecular circadian clock must eventually be translated into a neuronal firing rate pattern to transmit a meaningful signal to other tissues and organs in the animal. Previous observations suggest that circadian modulation of ryanodine receptors (RyR) is a key element of the output pathway from the molecular circadian clock. To directly test this hypothesis, we studied the effects of RyR activation and inhibition on real time expression of PERIOD2::LUCIFERASE, intracellular calcium levels and spontaneous firing frequency in mouse SCN neurons. Furthermore, we determined whether the RyR‐2 mRNA is expressed with a daily variation in SCN neurons. We provide evidence that pharmacological manipulation of RyR in mice SCN neurons alters the free [Ca2+]i in the cytoplasm and the spontaneous firing without affecting the molecular clock mechanism. Our data also show a daily variation in RyR‐2 mRNA from single mouse SCN neurons with highest levels during the day. Together, these results confirm the hypothesis that RyR‐2 is a key element of the circadian clock output from SCN neurons.
Proto-Brown Dwarf Disks as Products of Protostellar Disk Encounters

The formation of brown dwarfs (BDs) via encounters between protostars has been confirmed with high-resolution numerical simulations with a restricted treatment of the thermal conditions. The new results indicate that young BDs formed this way are disklike and often reside in multiple systems. The newly formed proto-BD disks are up to 18 AU in size and spin rapidly, making small-scale bipolar outflows, fragmentation, and the possible formation of planetary companions likely, as have recently been observed for BDs. The object masses range from 2 to 73 Jupiter masses, distributed in a manner consistent with the observed substellar initial mass function. The simulations usually form multiple BDs on eccentric orbits about a star. One such system was hierarchical, a BD binary in orbit around a star, which may explain recently observed hierarchical systems. One-third of the BDs were unbound after a few thousand years, and interactions among orbiting BDs may eject more or add to the number of binaries. Improvements over prior work include resolution down to a Jupiter mass, self-consistent models of the vertical structure of the initial disks, and careful attention to avoid artificial fragmentation.
How Large is the Exponential of a Banded Matrix

Let A be a banded matrix of bandwidth s 1. The exponential of A is usually dense. Yet, its elements decay very rapidly away from the diagonal and, in practical computation, can be set to zero away from some bandwidth r > s which depends on the required accuracy threshold. In this paper we investigate this phenomenon and present sharp, computable bounds on the rate of decay. 1 Sparsity and matrix exponents How large is a matrix exponential? And why should it matter in practical numerical calculations? On the face of it, the rst question is sheer nonsense. Let A 2 M n (R), the set of n n real matrices. By an assiduous choice of A, the entries of e A = 1 X m=0 1 m! A m can be made as large (or as small) as we wish them to be (Horn & Johnson 1985). In particular, even if A is sparse, e A is likely to be a dense matrix. Yet, it is the contention of the present paper that this is a simplistic point of view and that, provided that A is a banded matrix, e A is itself within an exceedingly small distance from a banded matrix. In Figure 1 we have performed the following exercise. 10 5 tridiagonal matrices (R) were chosen at random, with nonzero entries distributed uniformly in ? 1; 1]. The entries of the matrix E, plotted at the upper left corner of Figure 1, are the maximum across the relevant entries of e A k , k = 1; 2; : : : ; 10 5. (Throughout this paper, `plotting a matrix' means that, using the MATLAB function mesh, we display a matrix as a three-dimensional surface: this allows, at a glance, to take heed of the size of its elements.) It can be observed at once that the entries of E decay rapidly away from the diagonal. This is connrmed in the gure at the upper diagonal is evidently faster than exponential. Although E is formally dense, its entries are very small away from a narrow band along the diagonal. Further aarmation is provided by the bottom two gures, which display the vector fE 25+k;25? k : k = ? 24; : : :; 24g to an absolute (on the left) and base-10 logarithmic (on the right) scale. The reason for base-10 logarithms is that they demonstrate, at a single glance, …
A framework for achieving inter-application isolation in multiprogrammed, hard real-time environments

A framework for scheduling a number of different real-time applications on a single shared preemptable processor is proposed. This framework enforces complete isolation among the different applications, such that the behavior of each application is very similar to its behavior if it had been executing on a slower dedicated processor. A scheduling algorithm that implements this framework is presented and proved correct.
The Spectral Evolution of Transient Anomalous X-Ray Pulsar XTE J1810–197

We present a multiepoch spectral study of the transient anomalous X-ray pulsar XTE J1810-197 obtained with the X-Ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton). Four observations taken over the course of a year reveal strong spectral evolution as the source fades from outburst. The origin of this is traced to the individual decay rates of the pulsar's spectral components. A two-temperature fit at each epoch requires that the temperatures remain nearly constant at kT1 = 0.25 keV and kT2 = 0.67 keV, while the luminosities of these components decrease exponentially with τ1 = 900 and τ2 = 300 days, respectively. The integrated outburst energy is E1 = 1.3 × 1042d ergs and E2 = 3.9 × 1042d ergs for the two spectral components, respectively. One possible interpretation of the XMM-Newton observations is that the slowly decaying cooler component is the radiation from a deep heating event that affected a large fraction of the crust, while the hotter component is powered by external surface heating at the footpoints of twisted magnetic field lines by magnetospheric currents that are decaying more rapidly. The energy-dependent pulse profile of XTE J1810-197 is well modeled at all epochs by the sum of a broad pulse that dominates in the soft X-rays and a narrower one at higher energies. These profiles peak at the same phase, suggesting a concentric emission geometry on the neutron star surface. The spectral and pulse evolution together argue against the presence of a significant "power-law" contribution to the X-ray spectrum below 8 keV. The extrapolated flux is projected to return to the historic quiescent level, characterized by an even cooler blackbody spectrum, by the year 2007.
INFALL MODELS OF ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES : FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR A TOP-HEAVY INITIAL MASS FUNCTION

Chemical and photometric models of elliptical galaxies with infall of primordial gas, and subsequent ejection of processed material via galactic winds, are described. Ensuring that these models are consistent with the present-day colour-luminosity relation and the measured intracluster medium (ICM) abundances, we demonstrate that the initial mass function (IMF) must be significantly flatter (i.e., x<=0.80) than the canonical Salpeter slope (i.e., x=1.35). Such a ``top-heavy'' IMF is in agreement with the earlier conclusions based upon closed-box models for elliptical galaxy evolution. On the other hand, the top-heavy IMF, in conjunction with these semi-analytic infall models, predicts an ICM gas mass which exceeds that observed by up to a factor three, in contrast with the canonical closed-box models. Time and position-dependent IMF formalisms may prove to be a fruitful avenue for future research, but those presently available in the literature are shown to be inconsistent with several important observational constraints.
Confidence and Angel Investors: Does Gender Matter?

We investigate whether men and women angel investors have different levels of confidence based on participation in the angel capital market, rate of investments, and stage of investments. We find evidence consistent with women angels having lower levels of confidence compared to men, although we do not suggest that this difference is deleterious for women angel investor's wealth. However, women entrepreneurs, who disproportionately seek funding from women angels, may have more restricted access to early-stage capital than men.