Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Encoding of visual information by LGN bursts.

Encoding of visual information by LGN bursts. Thalamic relay cells respond to visual stimuli either in burst mode, as a result of activation of a low-threshold Ca2+ conductance, or in tonic mode, when this conductance is inactive. We investigated the role of these two response modes for the encoding of the time course of dynamic visual stimuli, based on extracellular recordings of 35 relay cells from the lateral geniculate nucleus of anesthetized cats. We presented a spatially optimized visual stimulus whose contrast fluctuated randomly in time with frequencies of up to 32 Hz. We estimated the visual information in the neural responses using a linear stimulus reconstruction method. Both burst and tonic spikes carried information about stimulus contrast, exceeding one bit per action potential for the highest variance stimuli. The "meaning" of an action potential, i.e., the optimal estimate of the stimulus at times preceding a spike, was similar for burst and tonic spikes. In within-trial comparisons, tonic spikes carried about twice as much information per action potential as bursts, but bursts as unitary events encoded about three times more information per event than tonic spikes. The coding efficiency of a neuron for a particular stimulus is defined as the fraction of the neural coding capacity that carries stimulus information. Based on a lower bound estimate of coding efficiency, bursts had approximately 1.5-fold higher efficiency than tonic spikes, or 3-fold if bursts were considered unitary events. Our main conclusion is that both bursts and tonic spikes encode stimulus information efficiently, which rules out the hypothesis that bursts are nonvisual responses.
Cost-effectiveness of cinacalcet hydrochloride for hemodialysis patients with severe secondary hyperparathyroidism in Japan.

BACKGROUND Cinacalcet effectively reduces elevated levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH) in patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT), even those with severe disease for whom parathyroidectomy can be the treatment of choice. The objective of this study was to estimate the cost-effectiveness of cinacalcet treatment in hemodialysis patients with severe SHPT in Japan. STUDY DESIGN Cost-effectiveness analysis. SETTING & POPULATION Patients with severe SHPT (intact PTH >500 pg/mL) who were receiving hemodialysis in Japan. MODEL, PERSPECTIVE, & TIMEFRAME A Markov model was constructed from the health care system perspective in Japan. Patients were followed up over their lifetime. Dialysis costs were not included in the base case. INTERVENTION Cinacalcet as an addition to conventional treatment compared to conventional treatment alone. In both arms, patients underwent parathyroidectomy if intact PTH level was >500 pg/mL for 6 months and they were eligible for surgery. OUTCOMES Costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). RESULTS ICERs for cinacalcet for those who were eligible for surgery and those who were not were $352,631/QALY gained and $21,613/QALY gained, respectively. Sensitivity and scenario analyses showed that results were fairly robust to variations in model parameters and assumptions. In the probabilistic sensitivity analysis, cinacalcet was cost-effective in only 0.9% of simulations for those eligible for surgery, but in more than 99.9% of simulations for those ineligible for surgery, if society would be willing to pay $50,000 per additional QALY. LIMITATIONS Data for the long-term effect of cinacalcet on patient-level outcomes are limited. The model predicted rates for clinical events using data for the surrogate biochemical end points. CONCLUSIONS The use of cinacalcet to treat severe SHPT is likely to be cost-effective for only those who cannot undergo parathyroid surgery for medical or personal reasons.
Design and Analysis of Enhanced Grouping DCF Scheme for the MAC Layer Enhancement of 802.11n with Ultra-high Data Rate

The 802.11 has emerged as the prominent wireless LAN technology as the mobile computing devices such as notebooks and PDA have replaced the desktop computers to be the main trend products. However, if the number of active stations is large, that is high-loading condition for the legacy DCF of 802.11, the capacity will be very low due to high collision costs. In this paper, <i>we</i> <i>introduce</i> <i>the</i> <i>TDMA</i> <i>concept</i> <i>to</i> <i>partition</i> <i>all</i> <i>numerous</i> <i>active</i> <i>stations</i> <i>into</i> <i>several</i> <i>groups</i> <i>to</i> <i>avoid</i> <i>all</i> <i>stations</i> <i>transmitting</i> <i>the</i> <i>frames</i> <i>simultaneously</i>. When Point Coordinator (PC, generally referring to AP) finds that the number of active stations (<i>M</i>) is large i.e. bigger than 8, it broadcasts number of groups (<i>N</i>), group head (<i>Nh</i>) bits and start grouping bit sequence (<i>k</i>) (such as 00000100 00000000 00000000) information in the TIM field of the beacon frame. Once all stations receive this instruction, the stations which last two LSB bits (because <i>k</i>=0, <i>N</i>=4) of the MAC address (IEEE EUI-48 or EUI-64) are 00 belonging to group 0 will transfer their frame first. On the contrary, all stations belonging to other groups will set their waiting time, that is, Network Allocation Vector (NAV) much more precisely. In this article, we also proposed a fast selection scheme to get the optimal start grouping bit sequence which aims to partition all the active stations into a few groups more uniformly to reduce the number of members in each group so that we can reduce the Contention window Minimum (<i>CWMiri</i>), that is, backoff's idle overhead.
The Characterization, Stability, and Reactivity of Synthetic Calcium Silicate Surfaces from First Principles

Calcium silicate compounds belong to a complicated class of silicates. Among their many industrial applications, calcium silicates are heavily used as a building material as they constitute the main ingredient in today’s cement clinker. We report here an extensive surface analysis of synthetic calcium silicate phases (tricalcium silicate, C3S, and dicalcium silicate, C2S) using first-principles computational methods. We calculate surface energies (γ) for all lower-index orientations and determine the most stable surfaces as well as the equilibrium Wulff structures. We analyze the variation of γ with surface coordination number and find an interesting and unexpected trend where loss of coordination of ionic Ca and O atoms can lower γ. The stability of surface orientations is examined as a function of oxygen partial pressure. Finally, we compute the energy required to remove Ca from different surfaces and find that it is inversely proportional to γ, supporting the energetic preference of extracting atoms fr.
Neural Graph Machines: Learning Neural Networks Using Graphs

Label propagation is a powerful and flexible semi-supervised learning technique on graphs. Neural network architectures, on the other hand, have proven track records in many supervised learning tasks. In this work, we propose a training objective for neural networks, Neural Graph Machines, for combining the power of neural networks and label propagation. The new objective allows the neural networks to harness both labeled and unlabeled data by: (a) allowing the network to train using labeled data as in the supervised setting, (b) biasing the network to learn similar hidden representations for neighboring nodes on a graph, in the same vein as label propagation. Such architectures with the proposed objective can be trained efficiently using stochastic gradient descent and scaled to large graphs. The proposed method is experimentally validated on a wide range of tasks (multi- label classification on social graphs, news categorization and semantic intent classification) using different architectures (NNs, CNNs, and LSTM RNNs).
Acute Mitochondrial Actions of Glitazones on the Liver: a Crucial Parameter for their Antidiabetic Properties

Background/aims: Glitazones are synthetic insulin-sensitizing drugs which act as agonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ). However, TZDs action does not exclude independent PPARγ-activation effects. Remarkably, direct mitochondrial action of these agents has not been fully studied yet. Methods: Oxygen consumption rates (JO2) were measured using a Clark-type oxygen electrode in intact hepatocytes and isolated liver mitochondria. Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was quantified by fluorescence assay. Moreover, activities of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I, II and III were spectrometrically determined. Results: Pioglitazone and rosiglitazone inhibited JO2 in liver cells and mitochondria. This inhibition affected the state 3 of respiration (in the presence of ADP) and the uncoupled state (after addition of dinitrophenol). Moreover, these agents dramatically reduced mitochondrial ROS production in all situations tested. We also demonstrated that both glitazones specifically inhibited the activities of complex I and complex III, by 50% and 35% respectively. Additionally, they do not modify neither the oxidative phosphorylation yield nor the permeability transition pore opening. Conclusions: Pioglitazone and rosiglitazone reduce both respiration intensity and ROS production, acutely and by a probable PPARγ-independent way, through inhibition of complex I and III activities. This new finding could positively contribute to their anti-diabetic properties.
Reversible cytoplasmic localization of the proteasome in quiescent yeast cells

The 26S proteasome is responsible for the controlled proteolysis of a vast number of proteins, including crucial cell cycle regulators. Accordingly, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 26S proteasome function is mandatory for cell cycle progression. In budding yeast, the 26S proteasome is assembled in the nucleus, where it is localized throughout the cell cycle. We report that upon cell entry into quiescence, proteasome subunits massively relocalize from the nucleus into motile cytoplasmic structures. We further demonstrate that these structures are proteasome cytoplasmic reservoirs that are rapidly mobilized upon exit from quiescence. Therefore, we have named these previously unknown structures proteasome storage granules (PSGs). Finally, we observe conserved formation and mobilization of these PSGs in the evolutionary distant yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. This conservation implies a broad significance for these proteasome reserves.
Comparison of cone beam computed tomography imaging with physical measures.

OBJECTIVES The goal of this study was to determine the accuracy of measuring linear distances between landmarks commonly used in orthodontic analysis on a human skull using two cone beam CT (CBCT) systems. METHODS Measurements of length were taken using volumetric data from two CBCT systems and were compared with physical measures using a calliper applied to one human adult skull. Landmarks were identified with chromium steel balls embedded at 32 cranial and 33 mandibular landmarks and the linear measures were taken with a digital calliper. The skull was then scanned with two different CBCT systems: the NewTom QR DVT 9000 (Aperio Inc, Sarasota, FL) and the Hitachi MercuRay (Hitachi Medico Technology, Tokyo, Japan). CT data including the landmark point data were threshold segmented using CyberMed's CB Works software (CB Works 1.0, CyberMed Inc., Seoul, Korea). The resulting segmentations were exported from CB Works as VRML (WRL) files to Amira software (Amira 3.1, Mercury Computer Systems GmbH, Berlin, Germany). RESULTS The error was small compared with the gold standard of the physical calliper measures for both the NewTom (0.07+/-0.41 mm) and CB MercuRay (0.00+/-0.22 mm) generated data. Absolute error to the gold standard was slightly positive, indicating minor compression relative to the calliper measurement. The error was slightly smaller in the CB MercuRay than in the NewTom, probably related to a broader greyscale range for describing beam attenuation in 12-bit vs 8-bit data. CONCLUSIONS The volumetric data rendered with both CBCT systems provided highly accurate data compared with the gold standard of physical measures directly from the skulls, with less than 1% relative error.
Alternative Therapies for the Prevention of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting

Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is a complication affecting between 20 and 40% of all surgery patients, with high-risk patients experiencing rates of up to 80%. Recent studies and publications have shed light on the uses of alternative treatment for PONV through their modulation of endogenous opioid neuropeptides and neurokinin ligands. In addition to reducing PONV, hypnosis was reported to be useful in attenuating postoperative pain and anxiety, and contributing to hemodynamic stability. Music therapy has been utilized to deepen the sedation level and decrease patient anxiety, antiemetic and analgesic requirements, hospital length of stay, and fatigue. Isopropyl alcohol and peppermint oil aromatherapy have both been used to reduce postoperative nausea. With correct training in traditional Chinese healing techniques, acupuncture (APu) at the P6 acupoint has also been shown to be useful in preventing early PONV, postdischarge nausea and vomiting, and alleviating of pain. Electro-acupuncture (EAPu), as with APu, provided analgesic and antiemetic effects through release and modulation of opioid neuropeptides. These non-pharmacological modalities of treatment contribute to an overall patient wellbeing, assisting in physical and emotional healing.
Metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and hyperuricemia

Purpose of reviewTo explore the causal relationship between metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and hyperuricemia. Recent findingsThe prevalence of hyperuricemia in male adults with metabolic syndrome was increased and a large difference in prevalence of metabolic syndrome also existed in those with hyperuricemia compared with normouricemia. Even in those with normouricemia, higher serum uric acid levels were associated with metabolic syndrome. Serum uric acid was an independent risk factor for incident diabetes, and evidence showed that the patients with both gout and type 2 diabetes exhibited a mutual inter-dependent effect on higher incidences. Furthermore, obese patients often demonstrated insulin resistance and adipose tissue macrophage with low-grade inflammation, which is suggested to be the major contributor. Although alcohol intake is considered a risk for developing hyperuricemia, moderate alcohol intake showed a lower risk for developing type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Hyperinsulinemia reduces renal excretion of uric acid on the proximal tubular of the kidney leading to hyperuricemia, which has deleterious effects on endothelial function and on nitric oxide bioavailability, thus causing hyperinsulinemia. SummaryWe found evidence to suggest that insulin resistance plays a potentially key role in the causal relationship between metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and hyperuricemia. Furthermore, it is likely that hyperuricemia and insulin resistance share a bidirectional causal effect.
A Multiwavelength Study of the Pulsar PSR B1929+10 and Its X-Ray Trail

We report on the emission properties of PSR B1929+10 and its putative trail from a multiwavelength study performed using optical, X-ray, and radio data. XMM-Newton observations confirm the existence of the diffuse emission with a trail morphology lying in a direction opposite to the transverse motion of the pulsar. The trail spectrum is nonthermal and produced by electron-synchrotron emission in the shock between the pulsar wind and the surrounding medium. Radio data from the Effelsberg 11 cm radio continuum survey show an elongated feature that roughly coincides with the X-ray trail. Three not fully resolved radio sources seen in the NVSS survey data at 1.4 GHz match with part of the elongated radio feature seen at 11 cm. The emission properties observed from PSR B1929+10 are in excellent agreement with a nonthermal, and thus magnetospheric-radiation-dominated, emission scenario. The pulsar's X-ray spectrum is best described by a single power-law model with a photon index of 2.72. A flux contribution from the thermal emission of heated polar caps of at most ~7% is inferred from a best-fitting composite Planckian and power-law spectral model. A pure thermal emission spectrum consisting of two Planckian spectra is regarded as unlikely. A broken power-law spectral model with Ebreak = 0.83 keV and the photon indexes α1 = 1.12 and α2 = 2.48 can describe the optical and X-ray data entirely in terms of a nonthermal magnetospheric origin. The X-ray pulse profile observed in the 0.2-10 keV band is found to be markedly different from the broad sinusoidal pulse profile seen in the low statistic Röntgensatellit (ROSAT) data. Fitting Gaussians to the X-ray light curve indicates the possible existence of three pulse components. A small narrow pulse, characterized by energies greater than 1 keV, is found to lead the radio main pulse by ~20°. The fraction of pulsed photons in the 0.2-10 keV band is 32% ± 4%. For the subbands 0.2-1.0 and 1.0-2.1 keV the pulsed fraction is 24% ± 5% and 44% ± 6%, respectively, indicating a mild energy dependence at a ~2 σ level. Simulations in the framework of an outer gap emission model are able to reproduce the observed X-ray pulse profile and its phase shift relative to the radio pulse.
A Protocol Family for Versatile Survivable Storage Infrastructures (CMU-PDL-03-103)

Survivable storage systems mask faults. A protocol family shifts the decision of which types of faults from implementation time to data-item creation time. If desired, each data-item can be protected from different types and numbers of faults. This paper describes and evaluates a family of storage access protocols that exploit data versioning to efficiently provide consistency for erasure-coded data. This protocol family supports a wide range of fault models with no changes to the client-server interface or server implementations. Its members also shift overheads to clients. Readers only pay these overheads when they actually observe concurrency or failures. Measurements of a prototype block-store show the efficiency and scalability of protocol family members. Acknowledgements: We thank the members and companies of the PDL Consortium (including EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Network Appliance, Oracle, Panasas, Seagate, Sun, and Veritas) for their interest, insights, feedback, and support. We thank IBM and Intel for hardware grants supporting our research efforts. This material is based on research sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory, under agreement number F49620-01-1-0433, and by DARPA/ITO’s OASIS program, under Air Force contract number F30602-99-2-0539-AFRL. Garth Goodson was supported by an IBM Fellowship.
Factor analysis of an instrument to measure the impact of disease on daily life.

OBJECTIVE to verify the structure of factors of an instrument to measure the Heart Valve Disease Impact on Daily Life (IDCV) when applied to coronary artery disease patients. METHOD the study included 153 coronary artery disease patients undergoing outpatient follow-up care. The IDCV structure of factors was initially assessed by means of confirmatory factor analysis and, subsequently, by exploratory factor analysis. The Varimax rotation method was used to estimate the main components of analysis, eigenvalues greater than one for extraction of factors, and factor loading greater than 0.40 for selection of items. Internal consistency was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. RESULTS confirmatory factor analysis did not confirm the original structure of factors of the IDCV. Exploratory factor analysis showed three dimensions, which together explained 78% of the measurement variance. CONCLUSION future studies with expansion of case selection are necessary to confirm the IDCV new structure of factors.
Sharing Content in Structured P2P Networks

The development of Web standards and technologies has brought new opportunities for large-scale integration of Web content: data sources (such as XML, HTML, or PDF files), distributed applications (accessed via Web Services), and semantic information. At the same time, peerto- peer (P2P) platforms are being developed, and increasingly used for data management at the network scale. We present KADOP, a model, architecture, and system for sharing content in P2P. By building on distributed hash tables technology, XML indexing and query optimization techniques, and on the paradigm of active documents, KADOP enables the publication, discovery, and efficient exploitation of Web content in P2P. Thanks to intensional information, KADOP (i) is capable of run-time dynamic Web service composition, and (i) is open to external resources such as databases or other P2P networks.
Conotoxins Targeting Neuronal Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel Subtypes: Potential Analgesics?

Voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSC) are the primary mediators of electrical signal amplification and propagation in excitable cells. VGSC subtypes are diverse, with different biophysical and pharmacological properties, and varied tissue distribution. Altered VGSC expression and/or increased VGSC activity in sensory neurons is characteristic of inflammatory and neuropathic pain states. Therefore, VGSC modulators could be used in prospective analgesic compounds. VGSCs have specific binding sites for four conotoxin families: μ-, μO-, δ- and ί-conotoxins. Various studies have identified that the binding site of these peptide toxins is restricted to well-defined areas or domains. To date, only the μ- and μO-family exhibit analgesic properties in animal pain models. This review will focus on conotoxins from the μ- and μO-families that act on neuronal VGSCs. Examples of how these conotoxins target various pharmacologically important neuronal ion channels, as well as potential problems with the development of drugs from conotoxins, will be discussed.
Characterization of alkali-treated kenaf fibre-reinforced recycled polypropylene composites

In this study, composites were produced using alkali-treated kenaf fibre and recycled polypropylene to improve the interfacial bonding between them. Maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene was used at a ratio of 1:10 to the fibre as a coupling agent. Blends are mixed together by means of a twin screw extruder and test specimens for mechanical testing were prepared through injection moulding machine. Fibre density, tensile property, elemental analysis, structural and morphological changes due to treatment was observed and their effects on the properties of the formulated composites were analyzed. Characterization of the composites was done by the tensile, flexural, impact and melt flow index tests. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry analysis were carried out to evaluate the thermal properties of the composites. Experiment showed that best tensile strength (TS) was found at 40% loading of fibre and alkali treatment of fibre enhanced the TS by 57%. Activation energies were calculated through Broido’s equation. It was also found that recycled polypropylene degrades at one stage, while composites degrade at two stages. Incorporating fibres decrease the activation energies of the composites but both coupling agent and treatment of fibres in that case enhance activation energies by 11 kJ mol−1 and 29 kJ mol−1, respectively, in the second stage. Field emission scanning electron microscope of the fractured surface showed that treatment of fibre improves the interfacial bonding between fibres and matrix. Density and water uptake of the composites were also studied in this study.
Modifications of mechanoelectric feedback induced by 2,3‐butanedione monoxime and Blebbistatin in Langendorff‐perfused rabbit hearts

Myocardial stretching is an arrhythmogenic factor. Optical techniques and mechanical uncouplers are used to study the mechanoelectric feedback. The aim of this study is to determine whether the mechanical uncouplers 2,3‐butanedione monoxime and Blebbistatin hinder or modify the electrophysiological effects of acute mechanical stretch.