Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Finiteness and fluctuations in growing networks

We study the role of finiteness and fluctuations about average quantities for basic structural properties of growing networks. We first determine the exact degree distribution of finite networks by generating function approaches. The resulting distributions exhibit an unusual finite-size scaling behaviour and they are also sensitive to the initial conditions. We argue that fluctuations in the number of nodes of degree k become Gaussian for fixed degree as the size of the network diverges. We also characterize the fluctuations between different realizations of the network in terms of higher moments of the degree distribution.
Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 Promotes Axon Branching of Cortical Neurons by Influencing Morphology and Behavior of the Primary Growth Cone

Interstitial branching is an important mechanism for target innervation in the developing CNS. A previous study of cortical neuronsin vitro showed that the terminal growth cone pauses and enlarges in regions from which interstitial axon branches later develop (Szebenyi et al., 1998). In the present study, we investigated how target-derived signals affect the morphology and behaviors of growth cones leading to development of axon branches. We used bath and local application of a target-derived growth factor, FGF-2, on embryonic pyramidal neurons from the sensorimotor cortex and used time-lapse digital imaging to monitor effects of FGF-2 on axon branching. Observations of developing neurons over periods of several days showed that bath-applied FGF-2 significantly increased growth cone size and slowed growth cone advance, leading to a threefold increase in axon branching. FGF-2 also had acute effects on growth cone morphology, promoting rapid growth of filopodia within minutes. Application of FGF-2-coated beads promoted local axon branching in close proximity to the beads. Branching was more likely to occur when the FGF-2 bead was on or near the growth cone, suggesting that distal regions of the axon are more responsive to FGF-2 than other regions of the axon shaft. Together, these results show that interstitial axon branches can be induced locally through the action of a target-derived growth factor that preferentially exerts effects on the growth cone. We suggest that, in target regions, growth factors such as FGF-2 and other branching factors may induce formation of collateral axon branches by enhancing the pausing and enlargement of primary growth cones that determine future branch points.
Blockade of NMDA Receptors in Prelimbic Cortex Induces an Enduring Amnesia for Odor–Reward Associative Learning

The competitive antagonist 2-amino-5-phosphonoeptanoic acid (APV) was injected intracerebroventricularly to determine the involvement of NMDA receptors in different stages of memory consolidation. Subsequent experiments used local injections to determine possible sites of drug action. Rats were trained in a rapidly learned olfactory task to find palatable food in a hole in a sponge impregnated with the target odor in the presence of two other sponges with nonrewarded odors. APV injections were made intracerebroventricularly 5 min or 2 hr after the end of the training, and a retention test was given 48 hr later. The results showed that blockade of NMDA receptors immediately after training induces a profound and enduring amnesia with no effect when the treatment is delayed at 2 hr after training. To address the question of the effective sites of action of the intracerebroventricular treatment, APV injections into the hippocampus and into the prelimblic region of the frontal cortex (PLC) were made. Blockade of NMDA receptors into the PLC but not into the hippocampus impaired memory formation of the odor–reward association. The amnesia is not transient, because the retention tests were made 48 hr after training. These results underlie the role of NMDA receptors in the early stage of consolidation of a simple odor–reward associative memory and confirm the role of the PLC in the consolidation of long-term memory.
Ensembles of millions of microbots

This paper is submitted to Invited Session: New Trends in Modular Robotics. Abstract— Taking the inevitability of micron-scale manufacturing as a starting point, we present claytronics, a modular robotics system designed to scale to millions of cooperating, sub-millimeter scale units. The goal is for the system to act as a coherent mass and thereby mimic, with high-fidelity and in 3dimensional solid form, the look, feel, and motion of macro-scale objects. As an early test of our concepts, we describe a working prototype system that, while both large (44mm in diameter) and restricted to a planar geometry, is designed so that the hardware and software will eventually scale up in the number of units and down in unit size. This design imperative leads us to the ensemble axiom: that individual units should include only enough functionality to contribute to the desired functionality of the ensemble. Among the novel aspects of our design is that the individual units, which we call claytronic atoms, or catoms, contain no moving parts. Our current prototype uses magnetic force to move the catoms; achieving better than 44mm/s and due to the genderless, single-ended contacts requires no extra time for docking. The catoms are spherical in order to allow multiple lattice and amorphous arrangments of the catoms. Also novel is the software infrastructure, which provides mechanisms for creating and maintaining multiple hierarchies of distributed control and communication, as well as coordinated motion planning through the manipulation of voids in the lattice of units.
Loss of Sialic Acid Binding Domain Redirects Protein σ1 to Enhance M Cell-Directed Vaccination

Ovalbumin (OVA) genetically fused to protein sigma 1 (pσ1) results in tolerance to both OVA and pσ1. Pσ1 binds in a multi-step fashion, involving both protein- and carbohydrate-based receptors. To assess the relative pσ1 components responsible for inducing tolerance and the importance of its sialic binding domain (SABD) for immunization, modified OVA-pσ1, termed OVA-pσ1(short), was deleted of its SABD, but with its M cell targeting moiety intact, and was found to be immunostimulatory and enhanced CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation. When used to nasally immunize mice given with and without cholera toxin (CT) adjuvant, elevated SIgA and serum IgG responses were induced, and OVA-pσ1(s) was more efficient for immunization than native OVA+CT. The immune antibodies (Abs) were derived from elevated Ab-forming cells in the upper respiratory tissues and submaxillary glands and were supported by mixed Th cell responses. Thus, these studies show that pσ1(s) can be fused to vaccines to effectively elicit improved SIgA responses.
Chemotherapy Induced Deficits in Cognition and Affective Behavior

ii Dedication . viii Acknowledgments . vi Vita . viiiiii List of Tables . xi List of Figures . xii Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 Chapter 2: Methods . 86 Chapter 3: Chemotherapy-induced Changes in Affective Behavior . 97 Chapter 4: Chemotherapy-induced Cognitive Deficits . 132 Chapter 5: Conclusion . 147 References . 155
Features of Human Herpesvirus-6A and -6B Entry

Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) is a T lymphotropic herpesvirus belonging to the Betaherpesvirinae subfamily. HHV-6 was long classified into variants A and B (HHV-6A and HHV-6B); however, recently, HHV-6A and HHV-6B were reclassified as different species. The process of herpesvirus entry into target cells is complicated, and in the case of HHV-6A and HHV-6B, the detailed mechanism remains to be elucidated, although both viruses are known to enter cells via endocytosis. In this paper, (1) findings about the cellular receptor and its ligand for HHV-6A and HHV-6B are summarized, and (2) a schematic model of HHV-6A's replication cycle, including its entry, is presented. In addition, (3) reports showing the importance of lipids in both the HHV-6A envelope and target-cell membrane for viral entry are reviewed, and (4) glycoproteins involved in cell fusion are discussed.
Predictive Usefulness of Urinary Biomarkers for the Identification of Cyclosporine A-Induced Nephrotoxicity in a Rat Model

The main side effect of cyclosporine A (CsA), a widely used immunosuppressive drug, is nephrotoxicity. Early detection of CsA-induced acute nephrotoxicity is essential for stop or minimize kidney injury, and timely detection of chronic nephrotoxicity is critical for halting the drug and preventing irreversible kidney injury. This study aimed to identify urinary biomarkers for the detection of CsA-induced nephrotoxicity. We allocated salt-depleted rats to receive CsA or vehicle for 7, 14 or 21 days and evaluated renal function and hemodynamics, microalbuminuria, renal macrophage infiltration, tubulointerstitial fibrosis and renal tissue and urinary biomarkers for kidney injury. Kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), fibronectin, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), TGF-β, osteopontin, and podocin were assessed in urine. TNF-α, IL-6, fibronectin, osteopontin, TGF-β, collagen IV, alpha smooth muscle actin (α -SMA) and vimentin were assessed in renal tissue. CsA caused early functional renal dysfunction and microalbuminuria, followed by macrophage infiltration and late tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Urinary TNF-α, KIM-1 and fibronectin increased in the early phase, and urinary TGF-β and osteopontin increased in the late phase of CsA nephrotoxicity. Urinary biomarkers correlated consistently with renal tissue cytokine expression. In conclusion, early increases in urinary KIM-1, TNF-α, and fibronectin and elevated microalbuminuria indicate acute CsA nephrotoxicity. Late increases in urinary osteopontin and TGF-β indicate chronic CsA nephrotoxicity. These urinary kidney injury biomarkers correlated well with the renal tissue expression of injury markers and with the temporal development of CsA nephrotoxicity.
‘My Husband is My Key to Paradise.’ Attitudes of Muslims in Indonesia and Norway to Spousal Roles and Wife-Beating

ABSTRACT This article explores the influence of religious factors and values held by local societies, when Muslims develop their personal attitudes and perceived religious norms regarding spousal roles and wife-beating. It is based on qualitative interviews with 59 Muslims in Indonesia (N = 35) and Norway (N = 24). In addition, relevant Indonesian and Norwegian Muslim literature and web pages are examined. According to most Indonesian respondents, Islamic norms prescribe male leadership and allow the husband to beat a disobedient wife. This was regarded as crucial for the wife’s destiny after death. According to most Norwegian respondents, Islamic norms promote gender equality and oppose wife-beating. The sharp contrast between the perceived religious norms of Indonesian and Norwegian respondents may be caused by dissimilar cultural values in the two countries – values that influenced personal attitudes and thus the horizon of understanding where religion and authoritative text were interpreted. The reasoning of the respondents also sheds light on the importance of specific sacred texts when religious norms were developed individually. From a psychological point of view, the implementation of the egalitarian attitudes represented by numerous respondents may have positive effects for Muslim women living in patriarchal societies.
Emotion and Morality: Understanding the Role of Empathy and Other Specific Emotions in Moral Judgment and Moral Behaviour

Empathy is often considered to be an important emotion for morality. In fact, many resesearchers argue that morality is impossible without empathy (Howe, 2013). In this research project, I argue against the widely held view that empathy is important for morality. I examine autistic individuals and psychopaths, both known for having an impairment in empathy, in order to show that empathy is not important for morality.I argue that although autistic individuals are deficient in empathy, they display moral behaviour, thus empathy cannot be the core of morality. I argue that while psychopaths are said to lack empathy, they are not wholly devoid of empathy. If it is the case that psychopaths do not fully lack empathy, then there must be more to morality than empathy. I also show that empathy can cause partiality, and thus cannot be the core of morality. In support of a sentimentalist framework of morality, I determine the emotions important for morality by conducting a systematic review of the studies on emotion and morality. I examine and analyze studies conducted on both negative and positive emotions. I conclude that disgust, anger, distress sympathy, elevation, and mirth are important emotions for morality.
Estimating the Impact and Cost of the WHO 2010 Recommendations for Antiretroviral Therapy

In July 2010, WHO published new recommendations on providing antiretroviral therapy to adults and adolescents, including starting ART earlier, usually at a CD4 count of 350 or lower, specific regimens for first- and second-line therapies, and other recommendations. This paper estimates the potential impact and cost of the revised guidelines by first, calculating the number of people that would be in need of antiretroviral therapy (ART) with different eligibility criteria, and second, calculating the costs associated with the potential impact. Results indicate that switching the eligibility criterion from CD4 count <200 to <350 increases the need for ART in low- and middle-income countries (country-level) by 50% (range 34% to 70%). The costs of ART programs only to increase coverage to 80% by 2015 would be 44% more (range 29% to 63%) when switching the eligibility criterion to CD4 count <350. When testing and outreach costs are included, total costs increase by 62%, from US$26.3 billion under the previous eligibility criterion of treating those with CD4 <200 to US$42.5 billion using the revised eligibility criterion of treating those with CD4 <350.
Primordial fluctuations in a bulk inflaton model

An inflationary brane model driven by a bulk inflaton with exponential potential is proposed. We find a family of exact solutions that describe power-law inflation on the brane. These solutions enable us to derive exact solutions for metric perturbations analytically. By calculating scalar and tensor perturbations, we obtain a spectrum of primordial fluctuations at the end of the inflation. The amplitudes of scalar and tensor perturbations are enhanced in the same way if the energy scale of the inflation is sufficiently higher than the tension of the brane. Then the relative amplitude of scalar and tensor perturbations is not suppressed even for high-energy inflation. This is a distinguishable feature from the inflation model driven by inflaton on the brane where tensor perturbations are suppressed for high-energy inflation. We also point out that massive Kaluza-Klein modes are not negligible at high-frequencies on 3-space of our brane.
miR-9 and miR-140-5p Target FoxP2 and Are Regulated as a Function of the Social Context of Singing Behavior in Zebra Finches

Mutations in the FOXP2 gene cause speech and language impairments, accompanied by structural and functional abnormalities in brain regions underlying speech-related sensory-motor processing, including the striatum and cerebellum. The sequence and expression patterns of FOXP2 are highly conserved among higher vertebrates. In the zebra finch brain, FoxP2 is expressed in Area X, a striatal nucleus required for vocal learning, and reduced FoxP2 expression impairs dendritic development and vocal learning. The FoxP2 gene encodes a transcription factor that controls the expression of many downstream genes. However, how FOXP2 gene expression is regulated is not clearly understood. miRNAs regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally by targeting the 3′-untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNAs, leading to translational suppression or mRNA degradation. In this study, we identified miR-9 and miR-140-5p as potential regulators of the FoxP2 gene. We show that both miR-9 and miR-140-5p target specific sequences in the FoxP2 3′-UTR and downregulate FoxP2 protein and mRNA expression in vitro. We also show that the expression of miR-9 and miR-140-5p in Area X of the zebra finch brain is regulated during song development in juvenile zebra finches. We further show that in adult zebra finches the expression of miR-9 and miR-140-5p in Area X is regulated as a function of the social context of song behavior in males singing undirected songs. Our findings reveal a post-transcriptional mechanism that regulates FoxP2 expression and suggest that social vocal behavior can influence the basal ganglia circuit controlling vocal learning via a miRNA-FoxP2 gene regulatory network.
Quantifying the PR Interval Pattern During Dynamic Exercise and Recovery

We present a novel analysis tool for time delay estimation in electrocardiographic signal processing. This tool enhances PR interval estimation (index of the atrioventricular conduction time) by limiting the distortion effect of the T wave overlapping the P wave at high heart rates. Our approach consists of modeling the T wave, canceling its influence, and finally estimating the PR intervals during exercise and recovery with the proposed generalized Woody method. Different models of the T wave are presented and compared in a statistical summary that quantitatively justifies the improvements introduced by this study. Among the different models tested, we found that a piecewise linear function significantly reduces the T wave-induced bias in the estimation process. Combining this modeling with the proposed time delay estimation method leads to accurate PR interval estimation. Using this method on real ECGs recorded during exercise and its recovery, we found: 1) that the slopes of PR interval series in the early recovery phase are dependent on the subjects' training status (average of the slopes for sedentary men = 0.11 ms/s, and for athlete men = 0.28 ms/s), and 2) an hysteresis phenomenon exists in the relation PR/RR intervals when data from exercise and recovery are compared.
A Research on the Levels of Social Anxiety, Self-Esteem and Loneliness Among University Students: An Application at Northern Cyprus

Abstract This research aims to analyze whether the levels of loneliness, self-esteem and social anxiety vary according to their genders, study years, age groups, number of friends, the persons that the extra time is spent with and their residing place among the students of Northern Cyprus Near East University. UCLA Loneliness Inventory, Self-Esteem and Self-Assessment in Social Situations Inventory were used as data collection tools. It is concluded from the data gathered that loneliness level are high among older students, students with a few friends, fourth year students and students residing away from their families, On the other hand, self-esteem is high and anxiety levels are low among students living together with their families.
Reconstructing Polarisation Components from Unpolarised Images

In this paper, we develop a method for reconstruct- ing the polarisation components from unpolarised imagery. Our approach rests on a model of polarisation which accounts for reflection from rough surfaces illuminated at moderate and large angles of incidence. Departing from the microfacet structure of rough surfaces, we relate the maximal and minimal polarimetric intensities to the diffuse and specular components of an un-polarised image via the Fresnel reflection theory. This allows us to reconstruct the polarimetric components from a single unpolarised image. Thus, the model presented here provides a link between the microfacet structure and polarisation of light upon reflection from rough surfaces. We evaluate the accuracy of the reconstructed polarisation components and illustrate the utility of the method for the simulation of a polarising filter on real-world images.
Asset Allocation Dynamics and Pension Fund Performance

Using a data set on more than 300 U.K. pension funds' asset holdings, this article provides a systematic investigation of the performance of managed portfolios across multiple asset classes. We find evidence of slow mean reversion in the funds' portfolio weights toward a common, time-varying strategic asset allocation. We also find surprisingly little cross-sectional variation in the average ex post returns arising from the strategic-asset-allocation, market-timing, and security-selection decisions of the fund managers. Strategic asset allocation accounts for most of the time-series variation in portfolio returns, while market timing and asset selection appear to have been far less important. Copyright 1999 by University of Chicago Press.
Stochastic Properties of a Risk Metrics Estimator in the Portfolio Management under Alternative Distributions

Assuming elliptically contoured distribution for portfolio asset returns, we derive the exact marginal and joint densities of the global minimum variance portfolio variance, and weights estimators. We also construct a test for the hypothesis that the global minimum variance is less then or equal to a certain value. A stochastic representation and moments of its estimator is provided. We illustrate our results empirically by applying vector elliptical contoured matrix distributions in modelling daily stock returns data. JEL Classification: C16, C52, G11,G12,G15
Neurochemical mechanisms underlying responses to psychostimulants.

This study employed positron emission tomography (PET) to investigate biochemical and metabolic characteristics of the brain of individuals which could put them at risk for drug addiction. It takes advantage of the normal variability between individuals in response to psychoactive drugs to investigate relation between mental state, brain neurochemistry and metabolism and the behavioral response to drugs. We discuss its use to assess if there is an association between mental state and dompaminergic reactivity in response to the psychostimulant drug methylphenidate (MP). Changes in synaptic dopamine induced by MP were evaluated with PET and [11C]raclopride, a D{sub 2} receptor radioligand that is sensitive to endogenous dopamine. Methylpphenidate significantly decreased striatal [11C]raclopride binding. The study showed a correlation between the magnitude of the dopamine-induced changes by methylphenidate, and the mental state of the subjects. Subjects reporting high levels of anxiety and restlessness at baseline had larger changes in MP-induced dopamine changes than those that did not. Further investigations on the relation between an individual`s response to a drug and his/her mental state and personality as well as his neurochemical brain composition may enable to understand better differences in drug addiction vulnerability.