Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pharmacological Mechanisms of Cortical Enhancement Induced by the Repetitive Pairing of Visual/Cholinergic Stimulation

Repetitive visual training paired with electrical activation of cholinergic projections to the primary visual cortex (V1) induces long-term enhancement of cortical processing in response to the visual training stimulus. To better determine the receptor subtypes mediating this effect the selective pharmacological blockade of V1 nicotinic (nAChR), M1 and M2 muscarinic (mAChR) or GABAergic A (GABAAR) receptors was performed during the training session and visual evoked potentials (VEPs) were recorded before and after training. The training session consisted of the exposure of awake, adult rats to an orientation-specific 0.12 CPD grating paired with an electrical stimulation of the basal forebrain for a duration of 1 week for 10 minutes per day. Pharmacological agents were infused intracortically during this period. The post-training VEP amplitude was significantly increased compared to the pre-training values for the trained spatial frequency and to adjacent spatial frequencies up to 0.3 CPD, suggesting a long-term increase of V1 sensitivity. This increase was totally blocked by the nAChR antagonist as well as by an M2 mAChR subtype and GABAAR antagonist. Moreover, administration of the M2 mAChR antagonist also significantly decreased the amplitude of the control VEPs, suggesting a suppressive effect on cortical responsiveness. However, the M1 mAChR antagonist blocked the increase of the VEP amplitude only for the high spatial frequency (0.3 CPD), suggesting that M1 role was limited to the spread of the enhancement effect to a higher spatial frequency. More generally, all the drugs used did block the VEP increase at 0.3 CPD. Further, use of each of the aforementioned receptor antagonists blocked training-induced changes in gamma and beta band oscillations. These findings demonstrate that visual training coupled with cholinergic stimulation improved perceptual sensitivity by enhancing cortical responsiveness in V1. This enhancement is mainly mediated by nAChRs, M2 mAChRs and GABAARs. The M1 mAChR subtype appears to be involved in spreading the enhancement of V1 cortical responsiveness to adjacent neurons.
Polymorphisms in DNA repair genes and risk of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma in a pooled analysis of three studies

Genetic variations in DNA repair genes are thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis and development of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). To further explore this hypothesis, we genotyped 319 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 27 DNA repair gene regions in 1946 cases and 1808 controls pooled from three population‐based case‐control studies of NHL in the US and Australia. Relative risks of NHL and NHL subtypes in relation to SNP genotypes were assessed using logistic regression. Associations of gene regions and pathways with NHL or NHL subtypes were explored using the minP and tail‐strength statistics, respectively. Overall, genetic polymorphisms within the DNA repair pathway were associated with NHL (P = 0·005). Similar associations were seen with the double‐strand break repair (P = 0·02) and nucleotide excision repair (P = 0·04) pathways. Five SNPs (BLM rs441399, RAD50 rs2237060, FAM82A2 rs2304583, ERCC3 rs4150506, and XRCC4 rs13178127) were particularly noteworthy because their gene regions were significantly associated with NHL or NHL subtypes (minP ≤ 0·05), or because of high level of statistical significance (P ≤ 0·005) and consistent findings across the three studies. These results support the hypothesis that common genetic polymorphisms in human DNA repair genes may modify the risk of NHL.
Schwann Cells Are Removed from the Spinal Cord after Effecting Recovery from Paraplegia

Remyelination of the CNS is necessary to restore neural function in a number of demyelinating conditions. Schwann cells, the myelinating cells of the periphery, are candidates for this purpose because they have more robust regenerative properties than their central homologs, the oligodendrocytes. Although the ability of Schwann cells to remyelinate the CNS has been demonstrated, their capacity to enter the adult spinal cord in large numbers and effect functional recovery remains uncertain. We used cholera toxin B-subunit conjugated to saporin to demyelinate the rat lumbar spinal cord, remove macroglia, and produce paraplegia. After the removal of oligodendrocyte and astrocyte debris by invading macrophages, there was a spontaneous entry of Schwann cells into the spinal cord, along with axonal remyelination and concomitant functional recovery from paraplegia occurring within 75 d. The Schwann cells appeared to enter the dorsal funiculi via the dorsal root entry zone and the lateral funiculi via rootlets that had become adherent to the lateral spinal cord after the inflammation. In the following weeks, Schwann cell myelin surrounding central axons was progressively replaced by oligodendrocyte myelin without lapse in motor function. Our results show that endogenous Schwann cells can reverse a severe neurological deficit caused by CNS demyelination and enable later oligodendrocyte remyelination.
Effector‐dependent activity in the left dorsal premotor cortex in motor imagery

Although right‐ and left‐hand motor imagery (MI) typically results in lateralized cortical activation patterns in various areas, such an effect has never been observed in the left premotor cortex (PMC). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we tested whether the left PMC, which is supposed to be effector independent, i.e. it is activated irrespective of the hand used for MI, shows differential activation during right‐ and left‐hand MI of ecologically valid everyday actions. Results showed that the left dorsal PMC was activated more strongly during right‐ than left‐hand MI, and that the co‐varying quality of imagination could not explain the observed effects. We conclude that the left dorsal PMC incorporates effector‐dependent functionality and therefore is not fully generic for MI, as has been suggested before. Implications for clinical research are discussed.
Understanding the Impact of Information Representation on Willingness to Share Information

Since the release of the first activity tracker, there has been a steady increase in the number of sensors embedded in wearable devices and with it in the amount and diversity of information that can be derived from these sensors. This development leads to novel privacy threats for users. In a web survey with 248 participants, we explored whether users' willingness to share private data is dependent on how the data is requested by an application. Specifically, requests can be formulated as access to sensor data or as access to information derived from the sensor data (e.g., accelerometer vs. sleep quality). We show that non-expert users lack an understanding of how the two representation levels relate to each other. The results suggest that the willingness to share sensor data over derived information is governed by whether the derived information has positive or negative connotations (e.g., training intensity vs. life expectancy). Using the results of the survey, we derive implications for supporting users in protecting their private data collected via wearable sensors.
GABA exerts protective and regenerative effects on islet beta cells and reverses diabetes

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease characterized by insulitis and islet β-cell loss. Thus, an effective therapy may require β-cell restoration and immune suppression. Currently, there is no treatment that can achieve both goals efficiently. We report here that GABA exerts antidiabetic effects by acting on both the islet β-cells and immune system. Unlike in adult brain or islet α-cells in which GABA exerts hyperpolarizing effects, in islet β-cells, GABA produces membrane depolarization and Ca2+ influx, leading to the activation of PI3-K/Akt–dependent growth and survival pathways. This provides a potential mechanism underlying our in vivo findings that GABA therapy preserves β-cell mass and prevents the development of T1D. Remarkably, in severely diabetic mice, GABA restores β-cell mass and reverses the disease. Furthermore, GABA suppresses insulitis and systemic inflammatory cytokine production. The β-cell regenerative and immunoinhibitory effects of GABA provide insights into the role of GABA in regulating islet cell function and glucose homeostasis, which may find clinical application.
The militarization of policing in the information age

The concept of the militarization of policing has traditionally focused on the way in which military discourse and organizational models have shaped the public police. Generally overlooked in such accounts are the broader social implications of the military's commitment to developing and using high technology. Contemporary military technologies extend well beyond lethal artifacts to include a complex infrastructure ofmachines for visualization and computation. Such tools spread into wider society either through a trickle down process or a more directed model of dispersion where the state takes an active role in seeking civilian uses for such technologies. One consequence of the global political transformations in the past decade has been the active attempt by the U.S. government to institutionalize a closer military/policing technological establishment. The broad social remit of the police, combined with their commitment to an actuarial model of policing, have made them a valuable site in which to legitimate the dual use character or military technologies. Consequently, the police have been singled out as the potential beneficiary of a multitude of advanced technologies whose genesis can be traced directly to military requirements. Although these tools are often prohibitively expensive, we conclude by suggesting several reasons why is it likely that public funds will be found to develop and institutionalize these new military/policing technological initiatives
Continuation Join Points

In AspectJ-like languages, there are several diﬁerent kinds of advice declarations, which are speciﬂed by using advice modiﬂers such as before and after returning . This makes semantics of advice complicated and also makes advice dec-larations less reusable since advice modiﬂers are not parameterized unlike pointcuts. We propose a simpler join point model and an experimental AOP language called PitJ. The proposed join point model has only one kind of advice, but has ﬂner grained join points. Even though we uniﬂed diﬁer-ent kinds of advice into one, the resulted language is su–- ciently expressive to cover typical advice usages in AspectJ, and has improved advice reusability by allowing pointcuts, rather than advice modiﬂers, to specify when advice body runs. Along with the language design, this paper gives a formalization of the join point model in a continuation-passing style (CPS).
Time interval from cigarette smoke exposure to blood donation and markers of inflammation: should a smoking cut-off be designated?

Allogeneic blood transfusion leads to the infusion into the recipient of large amounts of antigens that may create conditions which are related to immune system modulation. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of smoking habit on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels in the plasma of blood donors. Blood samples from 170 consecutive blood donors was collected and analyzed for serum markers, while questionnaire data was collected. Serum cotinine levels were calculated for non-smokers, while serum cytokine IL-6 and VEGF concentrations were also calculated among 88 randomly selected subjects. Controlling for the donors age and gender, a strong tendency was found for smoking within 24 h of the blood donation to be associated with a higher VEGF concentration of the donated blood (β = 141.13, p = 0.06), while the donor age was independently related to VEGF levels (p = 0.001). Additionally the IL-6 levels in the transfused blood were independently associated with the donors age (p = 0.001) and gender (p = 0.002) but not with their smoking status. Further research is needed so as to assess the need of updating blood donation guide lines to regulate the time intervals between the time from the last cigarette and blood donation.
Correlating Human and Automatic Evaluation of a German Surface Realiser

We examine correlations between native speaker judgements on automatically generated German text against automatic evaluation metrics. We look at a number of metrics from the MT and Summarisation communities and find that for a relative ranking task, most automatic metrics perform equally well and have fairly strong correlations to the human judgements. In contrast, on a naturalness judgement task, the General Text Matcher (GTM) tool correlates best overall, although in general, correlation between the human judgements and the automatic metrics was quite weak.
The Smartphone as a Pacifier and its Consequences: Young adults' smartphone usage in moments of solitude and correlations to self-reflection

The smartphone plays a dominant role in everyday life. Among young adults, the average daily usage time is almost four hours. The present study [N=399] examines the specific psychological role of smartphone usage during alone time (e.g. in the subway, waiting, in bed). Particularly, we explore its role in coping with negative emotions in the sense of an "attachment object", providing comfort like a pacifier for infants. Results underlined the pacifying role of smartphone usage to cope with negative emotions in moments of alone time. Moreover, particular personality dispositions (e.g., high need to belong, high proneness to boredom) were associated with more extensive self-reported smartphone usage and mediated by the perception of the smartphone as an attachment object. Finally, smartphone usage was negatively correlated to self-insight, possibly substituting intense inner debates or self-realizations during alone time. Implications for HCI research and practice are discussed.
Resuscitation Regimens for Hemorrhagic Shock Must Contain Blood

Endothelial cell dysfunction occurs during hemorrhagic shock (HS) and persists despite adequate resuscitation (RES) that restores and maintains hemodynamics. We hypothesize that RES from HS with crystalloid solutions alone aggravate the endothelial cell dysfunction. To test this hypothesis, anesthetized nonheparinized rats were monitored for hemodynamics, and the terminal ileum was studied with intravital video microscopy. HS was 50% of mean arterial pressure (MAP) for 60 min. Four hemorrhaged groups (10 animals in each group) were randomized for RES: group I with shed blood returned + equal volume of normal saline (NS); group II with shed blood returned + 2× NS; group III with 2× NS only; and group IV with 4× NS only. Two hours post-RES, endothelial cell function was assessed with the endothelial-dependent agonist acetylcholine (ACh, 10−9–10−4 M). Maximum arteriolar diameter was elicited by the endothelial-independent agonist sodium nitroprusside (NTP, 10−4 M). HS caused a selective vasoconstriction associated with low blood flow in inflow A1 arterioles in all hemorrhaged groups. Post-RES vasoconstriction developed in A1 and premucosal arterioles (pA3 and dA3) in all hemorrhaged groups regardless of the RES regimen. However, A1 vasoconstriction and flow were significantly worst in the animals RES with NS alone (−43% and −75%, respectively) compared with those resuscitated with blood and NS (−27% and −57%). Impaired dilation response to ACh was noted in all hemorrhaged animals. However, a significant shift to the right of the dose-response curve (decreased sensitivity) was observed in the animals resuscitated with NS alone irrespective of the RES volume. These animals required at least two orders of magnitude greater ACh concentration to produce a 20% dilation response. For all vessel types, Group II had the best preservation of endothelial cell function. In conclusion, HS causes a selective vasoconstriction of A1 arterioles, which was not observed in A3 vessels. RES from HS results in progressive vasoconstriction in all intestinal arterioles irrespective of the RES regimen. Crystalloid RES after HS does not restore hemodynamics to baseline and is associated with a marked endothelial cell dysfunction. Blood-containing RES regimens preserve and maintain hemodynamics and are associated with the least microvascular dysfunction. Therefore, regimens for RES from HS must contain blood. Endothelial cell dysfunction is not the sole etiologic factor of post-RES microvascular impairment.
Review article: liver transplantation for the pulmonary disorders of portal hypertension

Liver transplantation is potentially a life‐saving therapeutic intervention for patients with portopulmonary hypertension and hepatopulmonary syndrome. However, due to limited data, listing criteria for patients with these conditions have not been clearly established. Indeed, this has led some to speculate that transplantation may not be appropriate in cases of moderate‐to‐severe portopulmonary hypertension and severe hepatopulmonary syndrome.
Airfoil Shape Optimization for Transonic Flows of Bethe-Zel'dovich-Thompson Fluids

High-performance airfoils for transonic flows of Bethe-Zel'dovich-Thompson fluids are constructed using a robust and efficient Euler flow solver coupled with a multi-objective genetic algorithm. Bethe-Zel'dovich- Thompson fluids are characterized by negative values of the fundamental derivative of gasdynamics for a range of temperatures and pressures in the vapor phase, which leads to nonclassical gasdynamic behaviors such as the disintegration of compression shocks. Using Bethe-Zel'dovich-Thompson gases as working fluids may result in low drag exerted on airfoils operating at high transonic speeds, due to a substantial increase in the airfoil critical Mach number. This advantage can be further improved by a proper design of the airfoil shape, also leading to the enlargement of the airfoil operation range within which Bethe-Zel'dovich-Thompson effects are significant. Such a result is of particular interest in view of the exploitation of Bethe-Zel'dovich-Thompson fluids for the development of high-efficiency turbomachinery.
Adaptations to migration in birds: behavioural strategies, morphology and scaling effects

The annual life cycle of many birds includes breeding, moult and migration. All these processes are time and energy consuming and the extent of investment in any one may compromise the others. The output from breeding is of course the ultimate goal for all birds, while the investment in moult and migration should be selected so that lifetime fitness is maximized. In particular, long-distance migrants breeding at high latitudes face severe time pressures, which is a probable reason why natural selection has evolved efficient behaviours, physiological and morphological adaptations allowing the maximum possible migration speed. Optimal migration theory commonly assumes time minimization as an overall strategy, but the minimization of energy cost and predation risk may also be involved. Based on these assumptions, it is possible to derive adaptive behaviours such as when and at which fuel load a stopover site should be abandoned. I review some core components of optimal migration theory together with some key predictions. A review of accumulated empirical tests of the departure rule indicates that time minimization is an important component of the overall migration strategy, and hence gives support to the assumption about time-selected migration. I also briefly discuss how the optimal policy may be implemented by the bird by applying a set of simple rules. The time constraints on migrants increase with increasing body size. Some consequences of this are discussed.
Changes in glucose homeostasis after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery for obesity at day three, two months, and one year after surgery: role of gut peptides.

CONTEXT Endocrine effects of gastric bypass (GBP) surgery for obesity on glucose homeostasis are not fully understood. MAIN OBJECTIVE The main objective of the study was to assess the changes in plasma glucose, insulin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), leptin, somatostatin, glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide, enteroglucagon, and glucagon early after GBP. METHOD Twelve obese subjects (body mass index 45.3 ± 1.9 kg/m(2)) were subjected to a liquid meal without lipids before and 3 d, 2 months, and 1 yr after GBP. Plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, leptin, and gut peptide hormones were assessed before and for 180 min after the meal. Satiety was measured with visual analog scales. The absorption rate of acetaminophen added to the liquid meal was measured. Insulin resistance was measured by the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance. RESULTS All subjects lost weight (body mass index 30.3 ± 1.8 kg/m(2) at 1 yr). Fasting glucose was significantly lower on d 3 (P < 0.05). There was a progressive decrease in the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance after 2 months postoperatively. Postprandially, there was a progressive rise of GLP-1 and enteroglucagon and a transient increase in pancreatic glucagon release over the study period. There was a leftward shift of the time course of plasma glucose and insulin. Somatostatin release was lower on d 3 (P < 0.05) but then unchanged. The absorption rate of acetaminophen was twice as fast after GBP compared with before surgery and did not change over time. Satiety scores increased markedly postoperatively. CONCLUSION Both enhanced insulin sensitivity and incretin hormones, such as GLP-1, contribute to the early control of glucose homeostasis. Progressively increasing postprandial levels of enteroglucagon (oxyntomodulin) and GLP-1 facilitate weight loss and enhance insulin effectiveness.
Dimension two condensates and the Polyakov loop above the deconfinement phase transition

We show that recent available lattice data for the renormalized Polyakov loop above the deconfinement phase transition exhibit unequivocal inverse power temperature corrections driven by a dimension 2 gluon condensate. This simple ansatz provides a good overall description of the data throughout the deconfinement phase until near the critical temperature with just two parameters. One of the parameters is consistent with perturbation theory while a second, non perturbative, parameter provides a numerical value of the condensate which is close to existing zero and finite temperature determinations.
ParAB Partition Dynamics in Firmicutes: Nucleoid Bound ParA Captures and Tethers ParB-Plasmid Complexes

In Firmicutes, small homodimeric ParA-like (δ2) and ParB-like (ω2) proteins, in concert with cis-acting plasmid-borne parS and the host chromosome, secure stable plasmid inheritance in a growing bacterial population. This study shows that (ω:YFP)2 binding to parS facilitates plasmid clustering in the cytosol. (δ:GFP)2 requires ATP binding but not hydrolysis to localize onto the cell’s nucleoid as a fluorescent cloud. The interaction of (δ:CFP)2 or δ2 bound to the nucleoid with (ω:YFP)2 foci facilitates plasmid capture, from a very broad distribution, towards the nucleoid and plasmid pairing. parS-bound ω2 promotes redistribution of (δ:GFP)2, leading to the dynamic release of (δ:GFP)2 from the nucleoid, in a process favored by ATP hydrolysis and protein-protein interaction. (δD60A:GFP)2, which binds but cannot hydrolyze ATP, also forms unstable complexes on the nucleoid. In the presence of ω2, (δD60A:GFP)2 accumulates foci or patched structures on the nucleoid. We propose that (δ:GFP)2 binding to different nucleoid regions and to ω2-parS might generate (δ:GFP)2 gradients that could direct plasmid movement. The iterative pairing and unpairing cycles may tether plasmids equidistantly on the nucleoid to ensure faithful plasmid segregation by a mechanism compatible with the diffusion-ratchet mechanism as proposed from in vitro reconstituted systems.