Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Synaptic Role of Neuronal Calcium Sensor 1 in Dentate Gyrus Plasticity, Curiosity and Spatial Memory

Only 200 years ago, virtually nothing was known about the biological workings of the mind. Today, there is a deep (though far from complete) understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the encoding of memory, arguably the most fundamental aspect of a cognitive being. In this thesis, I describe experiments that help complete this understanding and identify the very first molecules underlying curiosity.By using an inducible rtTA2-M2 double transgenic system to selectively overexpress the calcium sensor Ncs1 in the adult murine dentate gyrus, I created an animal with facilitated long-term potentiation, enhanced rapid acquisition of spatial memory and greater curiosity. These phenotypes are reversed by direct infusion of a small membrane-permeant interfering peptide designed to block complex formation between NCS-1 and Dopamine type-2 receptors (D2 receptors). Pharmacological antagonism of D2 receptors also attenuates plasticity in wild-type mice and direct antagonism of D2 receptors in the dentate of cannulized wild-type mice prevents spatial memory formation. Conversely, application of a dominant negative NCS-1 peptide reduces synaptic transmission in the dentate gyrus and impairs spatial fear learning.Far less understood than the mechanisms governing learning and memory, are the mechanisms used by the brain to generate curiosity. Strikingly, Ncs1 overexpressing mice also demonstrate increased exploratory behaviours in a variety of novel, non-fearful environments. But they do not explore novel fearful environments any more than their littermate controls. I argue that the specificity of this phenotype represents an effect on curiosity, thereby identifying NCS-1 and D2 receptors as the first known regulators of this primordial mental state. I propose that the generation of curiosity is a fundamental feature of the nervous system and is upstream of learning and cognition. As such, molecular cascades involved in curiosity likely also play roles in mental illnesses. To investigate this theory, I generated an NCS-1 point mutant mouse line. NCS-1P144S/P144S mice show endophenotypes of schizophrenia and depression, supporting the link between curiosity and mental illness. I integrate my findings with the current literature and propose a means to investigate the role of NCS-1 in humans with mental illnesses.
The effects of employee empowerment on employee job satisfaction: A study on hotels in Turkey

Purpose – The main objective of this study is to determine the impact of employee empowerment on job satisfaction. To serve this purpose, empowerment is taken into consideration as two dimensions – i.e. behavioral and psychological – and the effect of employee empowerment on the level of job satisfaction was examined by taking these two dimensions into consideration as a whole and separately.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was employed in order to collect data on job satisfaction as well as behavioral and psychological empowerment. The data collected were analyzed through correlation and regression analyses. The study covered 1,854 participants employed at five‐star hotels in Turkey.Findings – The findings suggest that the most positive aspects related to job satisfaction are relations with the colleagues and physical conditions, while the most negative aspect is the wage issue, i.e. unfair payment. Furthermore, correlation and regression analyses indicate that psychological and behavioral e.
Gotta Hatch 'em All!: Robot-Supported Cooperation in Interactive Playgrounds

In this paper, we present ongoing research combining two technologies to support children's cooperative interaction: interactive playgrounds and robots. We propose that interactive playgrounds are vehicles for playful cooperation when robots are integrated into the system as cooperative co-players. We developed the Hatch 'em all game, wherein children are encouraged to hatch eggs cooperatively with a robot, and tested the effect of the robot's cooperative behavior on the children. We found that when the robot played cooperatively, children cooperated and helped the robot more than when the robot played selfishly. Our findings suggest that the social affordances of the playground, together with the social interactions between the children and the robot, enabled instances of team cooperation and prosocial behavior. Our work contributes to the CSCW community by opening a novel avenue for supporting children's cooperation, which could serve as a future testbed to investigate the role of robots in cooperative interaction
Enhancing ZF-DPC Performance with Receiver Processing

Multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems are known to achieve superior data rates compared to single user (SU-MIMO) systems in the downlink. The achievable rates of MU-MIMO systems are dependent on the precoder design at the transmitter. Dirty paper coding (DPC) is a well known non-linear algorithm to achieve MIMO broadcast channel (BC) capacity. Zero forcing DPC (ZF-DPC) is a sub-optimal way to achieve DPC by triagularizing the channel. In a recent work, it was shown that ZF-DPC with receiver beamforming can provide further improvements. In this paper, we propose an enhancement of ZF-DPC with receiver processing by utilizing the MAC/BC duality. The proposed algorithm is iterative in nature which provides a useful trade-off between complexity and desired performance. Simulation results show that the proposed ZF-DPC algorithm achieves considerable improvement over conventional ZF-DPC and is within 1% of MIMO BC capacity.
On the Use of SIFT Features for Face Authentication

Several pattern recognition and classification techniques have been applied to the biometrics domain. Among them, an interesting technique is the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), originally devised for object recognition. Even if SIFT features have emerged as a very powerful image descriptors, their employment in face analysis context has never been systematically investigated. This paper investigates the application of the SIFT approach in the context of face authentication. In order to determine the real potential and applicability of the method, different matching schemes are proposed and tested using the BANCA database and protocol, showing promising results.
Skin effect and interaction of short laser pulses with dense plasmas.

In this paper we discuss interaction of intense, subpicosecond laser pulses with plasmas. We propose a self-consistent analytical model of the anomalous and normal skin effects in plasmas with steplike density profile. The heat transport is described by classical Spitzer conductivity with new boundary conditions accounting for laser absorption in the thin skin layer. We obtain self-similar solutions for the heat-conduction problem, and the scaling laws for important plasma parameters are also discussed. Our predictions are consistent with the recent experimental results.
Content-Based Video Quality Prediction Using Random Neural Networks for Video Streaming over LTE Networks

Quality of experience (QoE) varies dramatically according to the video content. The most common video quality prediction models are based on the application and network layers. However, little research has been done to predict video quality on the basis of video content over fourth-generation (4G) wireless networks. The aim of this study is to classify video content according to the impact of video content on video quality in streaming H.264 video over long-term evolution (LTE) networks, using 'cluster analysis'. This classification is used to develop novel content-based prediction models using random neural networks (RNNs) for video applications. The content based prediction models are then trained with a gradient descent (GD) training algorithm for the four distinct content types and tested using an untrained dataset. Our content-based prediction models are used to establish the relationship between network, application, and LTE related layers to video quality for all video content types. The proposed video prediction model performed well in terms of the root mean squared error (RMSE) and Pearson correlation coefficient an about 12% increase compared to fuzzy logic and adaptive neural fuzzy models. Our simulation results demonstrated that the proposed scheme provides good predictive accuracy (~ 93%) between the measured and predicted values. This work can potentially help in developing accurate and effective reference-free video prediction models and admission quality of service (QoS) control mechanisms for video streaming over LTE networks.
A depth-first branch-and-bound algorithm for geocoding historic itinerary tables

The work in this paper is motivated from two different perspectives: First, gazetteers as an important data source for Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR) applications often lack historic place name information. More focused historic gazetteers are a far cry from being complete and often specialize only on certain geographic regions or time periods. Second, research on historic route descriptions---so called itineraries---is an important task in many research disciplines such as geography, linguistics, history, religion, or even medicine. This research on historic itineraries is characterized by manual, time-consuming work with only minimalistic IT support through gazetteers and map services. We address both perspectives and present a depth-first branch-and-bound (DFBnB) algorithm for deducing historic place names and thus the stops of ancient travel routes from itinerary tables. Multiple phonetic and character-based string distances are evaluated when resolving parts of an itinerary first published in 1563.
Interpreting Oxygenation-Based Neuroimaging Signals: The Importance and the Challenge of Understanding Brain Oxygen Metabolism

Functional magnetic resonance imaging is widely used to map patterns of brain activation based on blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal changes associated with changes in neural activity. However, because oxygenation changes depend on the relative changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2), a quantitative interpretation of BOLD signals, and also other functional neuroimaging signals related to blood or tissue oxygenation, is fundamentally limited until we better understand brain oxygen metabolism and how it is related to blood flow. However, the positive side of the complexity of oxygenation signals is that when combined with dynamic CBF measurements they potentially provide the best tool currently available for investigating the dynamics of CMRO2. This review focuses on the problem of interpreting oxygenation-based signals, the challenges involved in measuring CMRO2 in general, and what is needed to put oxygenation-based estimates of CMRO2 on a firm foundation. The importance of developing a solid theoretical framework is emphasized, both as an essential tool for analyzing oxygenation-based multimodal measurements, and also potentially as a way to better understand the physiological phenomena themselves. The existing data, integrated within a simple theoretical framework of O2 transport, suggests the hypothesis that an important functional role of the mismatch of CBF and CMRO2 changes with neural activation is to prevent a fall of tissue pO2. Future directions for better understanding brain oxygen metabolism are discussed.
Successful Treatment of Recalcitrant Palmoplantar Pustular Psoriasis with Sequential Use of Infliximab and Adalimumab

2nd and 3rd infusions ( fig. 1 e and f). However, treatment with infliximab was discontinued due to an infusion-related reaction with polyarthalgia, myalgia and fever after the 3rd infusion. Although acitretin (30 mg daily) was reintroduced, some painful pustular skin lesions, erythema, fissuring and scaling started reappearing on her feet approximately 8 weeks after the 3rd infusion with infliximab. After obtaining her informed consent, treatment with the fully human anti-TNF antibody adalimumab (40 mg subcutaneous injection biweekly) was initiated. Due to partial response after 4 weeks, the dosage was increased to weekly subcutaneous injection of 40 mg adalimumab, which subsequently led to further amelioration ( fig. 1 g and h). Therapy with adalimumab (40 mg weekly) was well tolerated except for a weight gain of 5 kg within the last 3 months, which the patient attributed to therapy. In order to investigate cellular alterations and expression of TNFduring initial treatment with infliximab, punch biopsy specimens (5 mm) were obtained from lesional skin before beginning therapy and from skin adjacent to the first biopsy at week 2 (1 day after the 2nd infusion). Biopsy specimens were routinely processed for histology (HE staining) as well as for immunohistochemistry using the ABC-AP method as described previously [14] . The following primary antibodies were used: CD3 (clone: PS1, Novocastra, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK), CD4 (clone: 1F6, Novocastra), CD8 (clone: C8/144B, Dako Cytomation, Glostrup, Denmark), neutrophil elastase (clone: NP57, Dako Cytomation), CD1a (clone: O10, Dako Cytomation), CD68 (clone: PG-M1, Dako Cytomation) and HLA-DR (clone: CR3/43, Dako Cytomation). Immunofluorescence staining was performed with anti-TNF antibodies (clone: 28401, R&D Systems, Minneapolis, Minn., USA) as described previously [15] . Representative HE and immunohistochemical staining samples before therapy and at week 2 are shown in figure 2 a–p. In correlation with the patient’s clinical improvement, a significant decrease in different leukocyte populations including T cells (CD4+ T helper cells and CD8+ T cytotoxic cells), neutrophils, CD1a dendritic cells and CD68 macrophages was found at week 2 ( fig. 2 ). Initially, skin lesions also showed a marked expression of the activation marker HLA-DR+ particularly in the dermal infiltrate, which also decreased but still remained evident at week 2. Furthermore, strong immunofluorescence for TNFwas observed particularly in the cellular infiltrate of the skin lesion obtained before therapy ( fig. 3 a). In correlation with the reduction of the proinflammatory infiltrate, a significant decrease in TNFimmunofluorescence was observed at week 2 ( fig. 3 b).
Genetic Separation of the Inosinic Acid Cyclohydrolase-Transformylase Complex of Salmonella typhimurium

Genetic and enzymatic analyses were made with the purH mutants of Salmonella typhimurium. These mutants are purine auxotrophs which are deficient in the conversion of phosphoribosyl-aminoimidazolecarboxamide (AIC) to inosine-5′-monophosphate (IMP). Two steps are required for this process: phosphoribosyl-AIC transformylase (EC 2.1.2.3) and IMP cyclohydrolase (EC 3.5.4.10). Genetic analysis identified two complementation groups, I and II, and a third group of noncomplementing mutants (I–II). Mutations in gene I lead to complete loss of transformylase activity and no loss of cyclohydrolase activity if the mutation is of the missense type, but partial loss if it is of the chain-terminating type (nonsense or frameshift). Gene II mutants are all of the missense type and show normal transformylase activity but no cyclohydrolase activity. The noncomplementing mutants (I–II) are all of the chain-terminating type and are completely deficient in both activities. The results are explained and discussed in terms of subunit interactions of a stable enzyme complex.
Type-specific antigens of group A Neisseria meningitidis: lipopolysaccharide and heat-modifiable outer membrane proteins

The solid-phase radioimmunoassay inhibition method was used to analyze the noncapsular surface antigens of group A Neisseria meningitidis for type specificity. By use of antisera prepared against group A strains, three serologically distinct lipopolysaccharide antigens and five outer membrane protein antigens were identified among group A strains from a variety of geographical origins. Two of the lipopolysaccharide antigens were unique to group A strains while the third was similar to those on strains of other meningococcal serogroups. Fractionation of outer membrane proteins in the presence of 2% sodium deoxycholate followed by quantitative inhibition of the typing reactions with the subfractions revealed that the protein responsible for type specificity was not the principal outer membrane protein, but, most likely, the 31,000-dalton, heat-modifiable outer membrane protein. Thus, although group A strains may share a common principal outer membrane protein, typing is feasible using other surface antigens. In a survey of 82 group A strains, 93% were typable with respect to outer membrane proteins.
Emotional intelligence in everyday life : a scientific inquiry

Introduction. J.D. Mayer, J. Ciarrochi, Emotional Intelligence and Everyday Life: An Introduction. Fundamental Issues. J.D. Mayer, A Field Guide to Emotional Intelligence. J. Ciarrochi, A. Chan, P. Caputi, R. Roberts, Measuring Emotional Intelligence. J.P. Forgas, Affective Intelligence: The Role of Affect in Social Thinking and Behavior. Applications of Emotional Intelligence Research to Everyday Life. J.P. Forgas, Low Emotional Intelligence and Mental Illness. R. Bar-On, Emotional Intelligence and Self-Actualization. J. Fitness, Emotional Intelligence and Intimate Relationships. J. Flury, W. Ickes, Emotional Intelligence and Empathy. M.J. Elias, L. Hunter, J.S. Kress, Emotional Intelligence and Education. D.R. Caruso, C.J. Wolfe, Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace. P. Salovey, Applied Emotional Intelligence: Regulating Emotions to Become Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise. Integration and Conclusions. R.J. Sternberg, Measuring the Intelligence of an Idea: How Intelligent is the Idea of Emotional Intelligence?
Secondary school mathematics, gender, and MUFY math performance : a Sunway campus case study

The purpose of this study is to examine the Malaysian students? performance in Fundamental Mathematics A in the Monash University Foundation Year (MUFY) programme. This study compared Malaysian students? secondary school mathematics background and gender to their performance in MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A. The sample consisted of 125 Malaysian students who took the MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A in January, March, July and August of 2009. The data revealed that the grades of Mathematics at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) or Malaysian Certificate of Education level were significantly related to the grades of MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A. Furthermore, students with SPM Additional Mathematics performed better than their classmates who did not take the subject in MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A. Also, female students were found to perform better than male counterparts in MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A.
Assembling millions of short DNA sequences using SSAKE

Abstract Summary: Novel DNA sequencing technologies with the potential for up to three orders magnitude more sequence throughput than conventional Sanger sequencing are emerging. The instrument now available from Solexa Ltd, produces millions of short DNA sequences of 25 nt each. Due to ubiquitous repeats in large genomes and the inability of short sequences to uniquely and unambiguously characterize them, the short read length limits applicability for de novo sequencing. However, given the sequencing depth and the throughput of this instrument, stringent assembly of highly identical sequences can be achieved. We describe SSAKE, a tool for aggressively assembling millions of short nucleotide sequences by progressively searching through a prefix tree for the longest possible overlap between any two sequences. SSAKE is designed to help leverage the information from short sequence reads by stringently assembling them into contiguous sequences that can be used to characterize novel sequencing targets. Availability: Contact: rwarren@bcgsc.ca
Defining and measuring music teacher identity: a study of self-efficacy and commitment among music teachers

The two purposes of this study were to: (a) define music teacher identity and its underlying constructs based on a critical examination of the extant research, and (b) develop an instrument to measure selected constructs from among a sample of music teachers across years of teaching The Music Teacher Identity Scale (MTIS), a researcher-constructed data gathering instrument, was developed to measure two constructs of music teacher identity: Music Teacher Self-Efficacy and Music Teacher Commitment. Participants in the study were selected using a stratified sampling technique, based on music teaching level, and MENC Division membership, producing a total of 2,500 possible participants. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's coefficient alpha, item-total corrected correlation, and inter-item correlation were used to evaluate the degree of reliability of the survey instrument. A factor analysis was calculated to provide evidence of the construct validity for the measurement instrument. Factorial Analysis of Variance was used to find differences among the constructs of Music Teacher Efficacy and Music Teacher Commitment by year of teaching, gender, school location, teaching area, and by teaching level. The MTIS had an overall reliability of α = . 81, with the individual constructs of Music Teacher Self-Efficacy reliability of α = . 87, and Music Teacher Commitment of α = . 67. The two constructs were found to contribute 42.17 percent of the variance through the exploratory factor analysis. Statistically significant differences were found among all years of teaching experience for Music Teacher Self-Efficacy. Statistically significant differences were found between Music Teacher Self-Efficacy and Music Teacher Commitment at each experience level examined. Music Teacher Commitment was found to be a statistically significant different between men and women. A significant three way interaction effect was found in Music Teacher Commitment at the 6-10 years of teaching experience between Middle /Junior High School and High School, and again at the 31+ years of teaching experience between Middle /Junior High School and High School. Recommendations were suggested for future research regarding music teacher identity construction.
Análisis de las propiedades psicométricas de la versión española del cuestionario de clima en el deporte

The psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Sport Climate Questionnaire (S-SCQ) (SDT, Sport Climate Questionnaire, n.d.) were determined from a sample of 301 Spanish high-level competitive athletes (171 men and 130 women) from the Community of Valencia. The S-SCQ assesses athletes' perceptions of coach-provided autonomy support. The assumed uni-dimensional structure of both the long and short versions of the instrument was supported. Both versions also exhibited high reliability (internal consistency). Support for the convergent validity of the scale(s) was also obtained as the measure of coach autonomy support significantly related to the different types of motivation regulations (as assessed via the Sport Motivation Scale; Pelletier et al., 1995), in accordance with theoretical predictions.