Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Direct Interaction of Endogenous Kv Channels with Syntaxin Enhances Exocytosis by Neuroendocrine Cells

K+ efflux through voltage-gated K+ (Kv) channels can attenuate the release of neurotransmitters, neuropeptides and hormones by hyperpolarizing the membrane potential and attenuating Ca2+ influx. Notably, direct interaction between Kv2.1 channels overexpressed in PC12 cells and syntaxin has recently been shown to facilitate dense core vesicle (DCV)-mediated release. Here, we focus on endogenous Kv2.1 channels and show that disruption of their interaction with native syntaxin after ATP-dependent priming of the vesicles by Kv2.1 syntaxin–binding peptides inhibits Ca2+ -triggered exocytosis of DCVs from cracked PC12 cells in a specific and dose-dependent manner. The inhibition cannot simply be explained by the impairment of the interaction of syntaxin with its SNARE cognates. Thus, direct association between endogenous Kv2.1 and syntaxin enhances exocytosis and in combination with the Kv2.1 inhibitory effect to hyperpolarize the membrane potential, could contribute to the known activity dependence of DCV release in neuroendocrine cells and in dendrites where Kv2.1 commonly expresses and influences release.
Design and Implementation of DB-MAN(~: Does Database Migration Work Well in a Real Environment?

Due to the recent expansion of network bandwidth, the data propagation delay has become a significant factor which influences the system performance in place of the data transmission delay. Based on this fact, we have proposed a new technology to reduce the bad influence of propagation delay on the performance of distributed database system by relocating dynamically the database through networks, which we call database migration. Furthermore, we have proposed a database relocation method to choose the transaction processing method between the conventional database fixed method and the proposed database migration method by giving consideration to the transaction complexity. In this paper, we explain our distributed database system with database migration mechanism based on these proposals, and the implementation of the DBMANa system as a prototype system. The DB-MANa system reduces the database migration t ime by using a main memory database technique, which induces us to add a backup management mechanism for migratory databases. Moreover, we show some measurement results for the performance evaluation of the DB-MANc~ system. The results show that the implemented system works well in a practical environment.
Patterns of Data-Infused Business Model Innovation

Business models have been a concept widely discussed over the last 20 years. The increasing availability of data and the growing capability to exploit them with analytics has sparked a new set of discussions, though: it is claimed that data and analytics bring to bear entirely new "data-based" or "data-driven" business models. However, there is neither a common understanding of these business models nor of the ways existing business models are transformed into those. This paper aims to create a coherent framework and common understanding of the infusion of business models by data and analytics. Contrasting popular views, our conceptual analysis reveals that there are no data-driven business models per se, instead, the utilization of data and analytics opens a "continuum" of transformation options for business models. We identify five distinct patterns in which the use of data may alter the business model, illustrate them with representative case studies and evaluate the patterns analyzing a sample of 115 industry business models. This paper will contribute to the fundamental understanding of how the use of data and the application of analytics may trigger business model innovation. The identified patterns will provide guidance to practitioners on how to utilize (big) data and analytics, in particular to draw attention to those that still seem underutilized for innovation. The developed pattern concept will also open up a broad agenda for future research.
Convergence, Divergence or Middle of the Path: HRM Model for Oman

The role of human resource management function is at the crossroad, and on the one hand it is facing the crisis whereas there also exists an unprecedented opportunity to redefine and refocus the HRM function to leverage its credibility in organization. In Oman, HRM is in its infancy and there is a need to strengthen its discourse and learning. The present paper attempts to understand the dynamics of HRM in Oman and evaluates various HRM models which have evolved over a period of time. It is difficult to prescribe a HRM model without analyzing the regional and socio-contextual factors inherent in Oman and neither convergence nor pure divergence provides a solution to this end.
PARTICLE CREATION, RENORMALIZABILITY CONDITIONS AND THE MASS-ENERGY SPECTRUM IN GRAVITY THEORIES OF QUADRATIC LAGRANGIANS

Massive scalar particle production, due to the anisotropic evolution of a five-dimensional spacetime, is considered in the context of a quadratic Lagrangian theory of gravity. Those particles, corresponding to field modes with non-vanishing momentum component along the fifth dimension, are created mostly in the neighbourhood of a singular epoch where only their high-frequency behaviour is of considerable importance. At the 1-loop approximation level, general renormalizability conditions on the physical quantities relevant to particle production are derived and discussed. Exact solutions of the resulting Klein-Gordon field equation are obtained and the mass-energy spectrum, attributed to the scalar field due to the cosmological evolution, is being investigated further. Finally, analytic expressions regarding the number and the energy density of the created particles at late times, are also derived and discussed.
Using Performance Assessment in Secondary School Mathematics: An Empirical Study in a Singapore Classroom

This article reports an exploratory study on using performance assessment in mathematics instruction in a high-performing secondary school in Singapore. An intact mathematics class participated in the study, and received chapter-based performance tasks as intervention during regular mathematics lessons for about one and a half school years. The performance tasks used included authentic and/or open-ended tasks. The students’ academic achievements and attitudes in mathematics were compared with a comparison class that did not receive the intervention. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, mainly through questionnaire surveys, performance task tests, conventional school exams, and interviews with students and teachers. The results suggest that the students receiving the intervention performed significantly better than their counterparts in solving conventional exam problems, and in general they also showed more positive changes in attitudes towards mathematics and mathematics learning. The students from the experimental class also expressed positive views about the benefits of using performance tasks in promoting their ability in higher order thinking, though no statistically significant difference was detected between the two classes of students in solving unconventional tasks before and after intervention. Overall, the results appear to support teachers’ using contextualised problems in real life situations and open-ended investigations in students’ learning of mathematics
Land Allocation Effects of the Global Ethanol Surge: Predictions from the International FAPRI Model

We quantify the emergence of biofuel markets and its impact on world agriculture using the multimarket, multicommodity international FAPRI model. The model incorporates trade-offs between biofuel, feed, and food production and consumption and international feedback effects of the emergence through world prices and trade. We shock the model with exogenous changes in ethanol demand, first in the United States, then in Brazil and other countries, and compute shock multipliers for land allocation decisions for important crops and countries. The Brazilian ethanol expansion using sugarcane has fewer consequences on existing arable land allocation than the U.S. ethanol expansion does using corn feedstock. (JEL Q17, Q42)
INVERSE CONDUCTIVITY PROBLEM FOR INACCURATE MEASUREMENTS

In order to determine the conductivity of a body or of a region of the Earth using electrical prospecting, currents are injected on the surface, surface voltage responses are measured, and the data are inverted to a conductivity distribution. In the present paper a new approach to the inverse problem is considered for measurements containing noise in which data are optimally chosen using available a priori information at the time of the imaging. For inexact data the eigenvalues of the current-to-voltage boundary mapping show what part of the conductivity function can be confidently restored from the measurements. A special choice of measurements permits simple inversion algorithms reconstructing only this reliable part of the solution, hence reducing the dimension of the inverse problem. The inversion approach is illustrated in application to numerical modelling via a very fast approximate imaging solution.
CNN Feature boosted SeqSLAM for Real-Time Loop Closure Detection

Loop closure detection (LCD) is an indispensable part of simultaneous localization and mapping systems (SLAM); it enables robots to produce a consistent map by recognizing previously visited places. When robots operate over extended periods, robustness to viewpoint and condition changes as well as satisfactory real-time performance become essential requirements for a practical LCD system. This paper presents an approach to directly utilize the outputs at the intermediate layer of a pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) as image descriptors. The matching location is determined by matching the image sequences through a method called SeqCNNSLAM. The utility of SeqCNNSLAM is comprehensively evaluated in terms of viewpoint and condition invariance. Experiments show that SeqCNNSLAM outperforms state-of-the-art LCD systems, such as SeqSLAM and Change Removal, in most cases. To allow for the real-time performance of SeqCNNSLAM, an acceleration method, A-SeqCNNSLAM, is established. This method exploits the location relationship between the matching images of adjacent images to reduce the matching range of the current image. Results demonstrate that acceleration of 4-6 is achieved with minimal accuracy degradation, and the method's runtime satisfies the real-time demand. To extend the applicability of A-SeqCNNSLAM to new environments, a method called O-SeqCNNSLAM is established for the online adjustment of the parameters of A-SeqCNNSLAM.
Driving with hemianopia, I: Detection performance in a driving simulator.

PURPOSE This study was designed to examine the effect of homonymous hemianopia (HH) on detection of pedestrian figures in multiple realistic and hazardous situations within the controlled environment of a driving simulator. METHODS Twelve people with complete HH and without visual neglect or cognitive decline and 12 matched (age, sex, and years of driving experience) normally sighted (NV) drivers participated. They drove predetermined city and rural highway routes (total, 120 minutes) during which pedestrian figures appeared at random intervals along the roadway (R-Peds; n = 144) and at intersections (I-Peds; n = 10). Detection rates and response times were derived from participant horn presses. RESULTS Drivers with HH exhibited significantly (P < 0.001) lower R-Ped detection rates on the blind side than did NV drivers (range, 6%-100%). Detection of I-Peds on the blind side was also poor (8%-55%). Age and blind-side detection rates correlated negatively (Spearman r = -0.71, P = 0.009). Although blind-side response times of drivers with HH were significantly (P < 0.001) longer than those of NV drivers, most were within a commonly used 2.5-second guideline. CONCLUSIONS Most participants with HH had blind-side detection rates that seem incompatible with safe driving; however, the relationship of our simulator detection performance measures to on-road performance has yet to be established. In determining fitness to drive for people with HH, the results underscore the importance of individualized assessments including evaluations of blind-side hazard detection.
Fixation Strengths of Patellar Tendon-Bone Grafts

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction with bone patellar tendon bone can usually be secured with interference screws on the femur and tibia. Its strength depends on bone quality, size of the tunnel and screw, and direction of forces. Infrequently, patella alta, which results in a longer tendinous component of the graft construct, can result in a construct mismatch, leading to a large portion of the tibial bone plug extruding from the tibial tunnel, requiring graft fixation with a suture/screw and post technique. For treatment we prefer to use tying sutures over a post technique. However in the first few weeks after reconstruction, the weakest link in the reconstructed ligament system is the site of fixation. This study investigated initial graft fixation strengths of various methods of bone fixation. Fixation was performed using three suture methods with no. 5 Ethibond. An Instron material testing system was used and loading rates at 50mm/minutes until failure was performed. Statistically significant differences were noted for load to failure and elongation. Group 1 specimens' mean maximum load to failure was 439 N, whereas the load to failure for group 2 specimens' was 555 N. In our model, figure-of-eight sutures (group 2) was stronger than simple double suture technique (group 1). Our study has several important limitations. However, these results confirm the hypothesis that this technique avoids the potential pitfalls of interference screw fixation. We used tying sutures over a post with satisfactory clinical results.
Market Participation and Poverty - Smallholders on the Ugandan Maize Market

Food grain markets are special in the sense that farmers will, likely, be consumers of the crops they produce. This study examines smallholder market participation on the Ugandan maize market, and, furthermore, explores possible connections to rural poverty. A probit model of market participation is employed, and I work with data from a household survey conducted between 1999 and 2000. A number of variables, like literacy, hired labor, specialization, land holdings and access to storage facilities were correlated with a higher probability of market participation. Ownership of livestock was considerably more important to the poor farmers while there are also indications of asset thresholds regarding land and farming assets.
Using Modified Contour Features and SVM Based Classifier for the Recognition of Persian/Arabic Handwritten Numerals

In this paper, we propose a robust and efficient feature set based on modified contour chain code to achieve higher recognition accuracy of Persian/Arabic numerals. In classification part, we employ support vector machine (SVM) as classifier. Feature set consists of 196 dimensions, which are the chain-code direction frequencies in the contour pixels of input image. We evaluated our scheme on 80,000 handwritten samples of Persian numerals. Using 60,000 samples for training, we tested our scheme on other 20,000 samples and obtained 98.71% correct recognition rate. Further, we obtained 99.37% accuracy using five-fold cross validation technique on 80,000 dataset.
Food allergy in Alergológica-2005.

BACKGROUND Alergologica-2005 is a cross-sectional study carried out in Spain in 4991 new patients prospectively recruited in allergy clinics. OBJECTIVE To describe the characteristics of food allergic patients included in Alergologica-2005. RESULTS Food allergy was diagnosed in 369 subjects (7.4%, 95% CI, 6.7%-8.1%). The most common offending foods were fruits (33.3% of cases), nuts (26%), shellfish (22%), egg (16%), milk (13.9%) and fish (9.8%). Rosaceae fruits and crustaceans elicited 23.6% and 18.7% of the reactions, respectively. Milk and egg were the most common foods in patients < 5 years of age, whereas fruits and nuts were the most prevalent foods in patients over 5 years. The most frequent manifestations included skin reactions (65.3%), oral allergy syndrome (33.6%), digestive symptoms (24.7%) and anaphylaxis (17.9%). The clinical presentation differed among foods. Prick-tests were carried out more frequently than serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) determinations (95.9% vs. 65%). Oral challenges were performed in 13% of patients, and 72.3% of these were open. Food allergy was diagnosed on the basis of medical history and positive IgE in 60.2% of the patients, ranging from 13.7% for milk to 75% for cereals. The self perception of patients' quality of life was lower than that of the 75% of Spanish reference population. CONCLUSION Food allergy is diagnosed in 7.4% of the patients seen in allergy clinics across Spain, and has an important impact on the quality of life of patients. The foods involved in reactions change with age. The clinical presentation changes with the food, although the skin is the most frequently affected organ.
Measuring teamwork mental models to support training needs assessment, development, and evaluation: two empirical studies†

Summary The present paper reports data from two studies that utilized a card sorting approach to measuring mental model similarity in naturalistic training environments. Results from the first study indicated that higher ranking navy personnel held mental models of teamwork that were more similar to an empirically derived model of expert team performance than lower ranking personnel. Furthermore, comparisons of mental model similarity within groups of high and low ranking trainees and within groups of high and low experience trainees indicated greater similarity between those of higher rank and between those with greater experience. The second study tested the effects of a computer-based training (CBT) strategy that was designed to develop teamwork mental models that were more similar to the ‘expert model’ described in Study 1. Using the same card sorting approach, positive training effects were demonstrated on similarity to the expert model, similarity to other trainees, and consistency. Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Imbalance in ornithine metabolism in hepatomas of different growth rates as expressed in behavior of L-ornithine:2-oxoacid aminotransferase (ornithine transaminase, EC 2.6.1.13).

The ornithine transaminase (EC 2.6.1.13) concentration in normal liver and in the spectrum of hepatomas of different growth rates was determined by two independent methods, enzymatic assay of activity and immunotitration of enzyme amount. Kinetic studies showed that the enzyme preparations from liver and hepatoma were indistinguishable on the basis of their pH optima, kinetic properties for substrates, and intracellular distribution. The affinity of the liver enzyme to ornithine at pH 7.4 was Km = 4.0 mm and for 2-oxoglutarate it was Km = 0.4 mm; at pH 8 it was Km = 0.8 mm for ornithine and for 2-oxoglutarate it was Km = 1.8 mm. For the hepatic enzyme, an optimum pH of 8.0 was observed. In the hepatomas the affinity of the enzyme to the substrate and the pH optimum were similar to the values in the liver of control normal rats. Electrophoretic studies, using the acrylamide gel disc method, indicated that the purified ornithine transaminase from liver, from slowly growing hepatoma 44, and from rapidly growing hepatoma 7777 had the same mobility. Immunotitration showed that the enzymes in liver and hepatomas were immunologically identical. The concentration of ornithine transaminase in the rapidly growing hepatomas was markedly decreased, indicating a decline in the potential of such neoplasms to channel ornithine into the synthesis of glutamic γ-semialdehyde and l-glutamate. In the regenerating liver at 24 hr after partial hepatectomy, the enzyme activity was in the same range as that of the sham-operated controls. Since the regenerating liver proliferates at a rate comparable to that of the rapidly growing hepatomas, the markedly decreased activity observed in such tumors appeared to be specific to neoplastic cell growth. The results of these studies obtained by independent methods for measuring enzyme concentrations support an interpretation that the alteration in the biochemical pattern of tumor cells entails a reprogramming of the pattern of gene expression which is manifested, in part, in the decreased amount of ornithine transaminase in the rapidly growing hepatomas. The present studies, along with earlier ones in this laboratory, reveal the emergence of a metabolic imbalance in ornithine metabolism which is characterized in the rapidly growing hepatomas by a marked decrease in the activities of ornithine transaminase and ornithine carbamyl transferase in face of an increase in the activity of ornithine decarboxylase. Thus, in the full expression of neoplastic transformation among the three pathways of ornithine utilization, only the one channeling this amino acid into polyamine synthesis is retained and increased.
Spaces of smooth embeddings, disjunction and surgery

We describe progress in the theory of smooth embeddings over more than 50 years, starting with Whitney’s embedding theorem, continuing with the generalized Whitney tricks of Haefliger and Dax, early disjunction results for embeddings due to Hatcher and Quinn, the surgery methods for constructing embeddings due to Browder and Levine, respectively, moving on to a systematic theory of multiple disjunction which builds on all the foregoing, and concluding with a functor calculus approach which reformulates the main theorem on multiple disjunction as a convergence theorem. Convergence takes place when the codimension is at least 3, giving a decomposition of the space of embeddings under scrutiny into ‘homogeneous layers’ which admit an attractive combinatorial description. The divergent cases are not devoid of interest, since they suggest a view of low–dimensional topology as a ‘divergent’ analogue of high–dimensional topology.
PredUs: a web server for predicting protein interfaces using structural neighbors

We describe PredUs, an interactive web server for the prediction of protein–protein interfaces. Potential interfacial residues for a query protein are identified by ‘mapping’ contacts from known interfaces of the query protein’s structural neighbors to surface residues of the query. We calculate a score for each residue to be interfacial with a support vector machine. Results can be visualized in a molecular viewer and a number of interactive features allow users to tailor a prediction to a particular hypothesis. The PredUs server is available at: http://wiki.c2b2. columbia.edu/honiglab_public/index.php/Software:PredUs.
A Novel Breast Tissue Density Classification Methodology

It has been shown that the accuracy of mammographic abnormality detection methods is strongly dependent on the breast tissue characteristics, where a dense breast drastically reduces detection sensitivity. In addition, breast tissue density is widely accepted to be an important risk indicator for the development of breast cancer. Here, we describe the development of an automatic breast tissue classification methodology, which can be summarized in a number of distinct steps: 1) the segmentation of the breast area into fatty versus dense mammographic tissue; 2) the extraction of morphological and texture features from the segmented breast areas; and 3) the use of a Bayesian combination of a number of classifiers. The evaluation, based on a large number of cases from two different mammographic data sets, shows a strong correlation ( and 0.67 for the two data sets) between automatic and expert-based Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System mammographic density assessment.