Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Freeze-fracture studies of frog neuromuscular junctions during intense release of neurotransmitter. I. Effects of black widow spider venom and Ca2+-free solutions on the structure of the active zone

Black widow spider venom (BWSV) was applied to frog nerve-muscle preparations bathed in Ca2+-containing, or Ca2+-free, solutions and the neuromuscular junctions were studied by the freeze-fracture technique. When BWSV was applied for short periods (10-15 min) in the presence of Ca2+, numerous dimples (P face) or protuberances (E face) appeared on the presynaptive membrane and approximately 86% were located immediately adjacent to the double rows of large intramembrane particles that line the active zones. When BWSV was applied for 1 h in the presence of Ca2+, the nerve terminals were depleted of vesicles, few dimples or protuberances were seen, and the active zones were almost completely disorganized. The P face of the presynaptic membrane still contained large intramembrane particles. When muscles were soaked for 2-3 h in Ca2+-free solutions, the active zones became disorganized, and isolated remnants of the double rows of particles were found scattered over the P face of the presynaptic membrane. When BWSV was applied to these preparations, dimples or protuberances occurred almost exclusively alongside disorganized active zones or alongside dispersed fragments of the active zones. The loss of synaptic vesicles from terminals treated with BWSV probably occurs because BWSV interferes with the endocytosis of vesicle membrane. Therefore, we assume that the dimples or protuberances seen on these terminals identify the sites of exocytosis, and we conclude that exocytosis can occur mostly in the immediate vicinity of the large intramembrane particles. Extracellular Ca2+ seems to be required to maintain the grouping of the large particles into double rows at the active zones, but is not required for these particles to specify the sites of exocytosis.
A Review of the Most Cited Literature on Knowledge Processes in Organizations

In the past four decades, much has between written about the processes by which organizations obtain, create, share, transform, apply, and retain knowledge. While in practice these various knowledge processes are tightly connected and embedded, they are studied in different and often disconnected branches of literature. To assess the state of affairs in these various branches this paper analyzes the 52 most cited studies on knowledge processes in organizations. By assessing these studies against today’s review criteria the paper aims to uncover flaws in our frame of reference that we may want to avoid in future studies. The conclusion of this analysis is that we should stop introducing new concepts and reifying them and rather start connecting them to one another and to the practice of knowledge processes in a wide variety of empirical settings.
Contemporary animal advocacy in Italy

In spite of the great tradition in social movement studies, Italy completely lacks any contribution regarding animal advocacy from the point of view of political sociology. This is despite the fact that, as in the rest of Western societies, interest in the wellbeing, rights and status of non-human animals is growing. This can be seen both among the general population and in the very varied organised forms of welfare and activism. In this article, we will investigate this internal differentiation, starting from an initial stratification in welfare, protectionism and anti-speciesism, and focusing in particular on the following two aspects: ethical values; and political ‘careers’ and multi-membership affiliations. The investigation was accomplished by means of 20 semi-structured interviews and an online questionnaire answered by 704 volunteers and activists. The tripartition hypothesised was confirmed, although with a few exceptions: more progressive values emerged among anti-speciesists, and conservative positions among protectionists and welfarists, but the overall spectrum is characterised by utilitarian perspectives. Similarly, previous experience in the specific field of animal advocacy is typical of the protectionist area, while anti-speciesists also come from other opposition movements. Italian summary Nonostante la notevole tradizione italiana di studi sui movimenti sociali, mancano contributi inerenti il cosiddetto movimento animalista dal punto di vista della sociologia politica. D’altra parte, come nel resto delle società occidentali, in Italia si registra un crescente interesse per il benessere, i diritti e lo status degli animali non umani. Questo fenomeno si può riscontrare sia tra la popolazione generale sia nelle svariate forme di attivismo emergenti. In questo articolo, studieremo questa differenziazione interna, partendo da una suddivisione iniziale in tre strati – cura, protezionismo e antispecismo – e concentrandoci in particolare su due aspetti: da una parte, valori etici; dall’altra, le ‘carriere’ politiche e le multi-appartenenze di attivisti e volontari. Per farlo utilizziamo 20 interviste semi-strutturate e un questionario online a cui hanno risposto 704 attivisti e volontari. La tripartizione ipotizzata è confermata, anche se con alcune eccezioni rispetto a specifiche dimensioni indagate: valori più progressisti sono emersi tra gli antispecisti e posizioni conservatrici tra protezionisti e membri dell’area della cura, mentre tutto lo spettro è caratterizzato da prospettive utilitaristiche. Allo stesso modo, le precedenti esperienze in campo animalista sono tipiche dell’area protezionista, mentre gli antispecisti provengono anche da altri movimenti antagonisti.
Moonlighting Politicians: A Survey and Research Agenda

Elected representatives in many countries are legally allowed to carry out (un)paid jobs in addition to their political mandate, often referred to as ‘moonlighting’. Despite the important selection and incentive effects such outside positions might engender, academic studies evaluating the prevalence, desirability and/or consequences of politicians' moonlighting have remained relatively scarce; often due to severe data restrictions. In recent years, however, more stringent disclosure rules have increased data availability, and large-sample analyses are becoming increasingly feasible. Besides surveying recent empirical contributions to this developing research field, this paper also outlines unresolved issues and thereby develops an agenda for future enquiry.
Mice deficient in involucrin, envoplakin, and periplakin have a defective epidermal barrier

The cornified envelope is assembled from transglutaminase cross-linked proteins and lipids in the outermost epidermal layers and is essential for skin barrier function. Involucrin, envoplakin, and periplakin form the protein scaffold on which the envelope assembles. To examine their combined function, we generated mice deficient in all three genes. The triple knockouts have delayed embryonic barrier formation and postnatal hyperkeratosis (abnormal accumulation of cornified cells) resulting from impaired desquamation. Cornified envelopes form but are ultrastructurally abnormal, with reduced lipid content and decreased mechanical integrity. Expression of proteases is reduced and the protease inhibitor, serpina1b, is highly upregulated, resulting in defective filaggrin processing and delayed degradation of desmoglein 1 and corneodesmosin. There is infiltration of CD4+ T cells and a reduction in resident γδ+ T cells, reminiscent of atopic dermatitis. Thus, combined loss of the cornified envelope proteins not only impairs the epidermal barrier, but also changes the composition of T cell subpopulations in the skin.
Computing the nearest correlation matrix—a problem from finance

Given a symmetric matrix what is the nearest correlation matrix, that is, the nearest symmetric positive semidefinite matrix with unit diagonal? This problem arises in the finance industry, where the correlations are between stocks. For distance measured in two weighted Frobenius norms we characterize the solution using convex analysis. We show how the modified alternating projections method can be used to compute the solution for the more commonly used of the weighted Frobenius norms. In the finance application the original matrix has many zero or negative eigenvalues; we show that for a certain class of weights the nearest correlation matrix has correspondingly many zero eigenvalues and that this fact can be exploited in the computation.
A Comprehensive Survey on Cross-modal Retrieval

In recent years, cross-modal retrieval has drawn much attention due to the rapid growth of multimodal data. It takes one type of data as the query to retrieve relevant data of another type. For example, a user can use a text to retrieve relevant pictures or videos. Since the query and its retrieved results can be of different modalities, how to measure the content similarity between different modalities of data remains a challenge. Various methods have been proposed to deal with such a problem. In this paper, we first review a number of representative methods for cross-modal retrieval and classify them into two main groups: 1) real-valued representation learning, and 2) binary representation learning. Real-valued representation learning methods aim to learn real-valued common representations for different modalities of data. To speed up the cross-modal retrieval, a number of binary representation learning methods are proposed to map different modalities of data into a common Hamming space. Then, we introduce several multimodal datasets in the community, and show the experimental results on two commonly used multimodal datasets. The comparison reveals the characteristic of different kinds of cross-modal retrieval methods, which is expected to benefit both practical applications and future research. Finally, we discuss open problems and future research directions.
The “Genomic Storm” Induced by Bacterial Endotoxin Is Calmed by a Nuclear Transport Modifier That Attenuates Localized and Systemic Inflammation

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a potent microbial virulence factor that can trigger production of proinflammatory mediators involved in the pathogenesis of localized and systemic inflammation. Importantly, the role of nuclear transport of stress responsive transcription factors in this LPS-generated “genomic storm” remains largely undefined. We developed a new nuclear transport modifier (NTM) peptide, cell-penetrating cSN50.1, which targets nuclear transport shuttles importin α5 and importin β1, to analyze its effect in LPS-induced localized (acute lung injury) and systemic (lethal endotoxic shock) murine inflammation models. We analyzed a human genome database to match 46 genes that encode cytokines, chemokines and their receptors with transcription factors whose nuclear transport is known to be modulated by NTM. We then tested the effect of cSN50.1 peptide on proinflammatory gene expression in murine bone marrow-derived macrophages stimulated with LPS. This NTM suppressed a proinflammatory transcriptome of 37 out of 84 genes analyzed, without altering expression of housekeeping genes or being cytotoxic. Consistent with gene expression analysis in primary macrophages, plasma levels of 23 out of 26 LPS-induced proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors were significantly attenuated in a murine model of LPS-induced systemic inflammation (lethal endotoxic shock) while the anti-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin 10, was enhanced. This anti-inflammatory reprogramming of the endotoxin-induced genomic response was accompanied by complete protection against lethal endotoxic shock with prophylactic NTM treatment, and 75% protection when NTM was first administered after LPS exposure. In a murine model of localized lung inflammation caused by direct airway exposure to LPS, expression of cytokines and chemokines in the bronchoalveolar space was suppressed with a concomitant reduction of neutrophil trafficking. Thus, calming the LPS-triggered “genomic storm” by modulating nuclear transport with cSN50.1 peptide attenuates the systemic inflammatory response associated with lethal shock as well as localized lung inflammation.
Strategy Evaluation When Using a Strategic Performance Measurement System: An Examination of Motivational and Cognitive Biases

Abstract The multiple performance measures in strategic performance measurement systems should be selected to represent a set of causally linked strategic drivers and outcomes. The pattern of results thus can provide information concerning the proper execution of the strategy (i.e., the performance evaluation role) and the strength of the cause-and-effect linkages assumed by the strategy (i.e., the strategy evaluation role). Unfortunately, managers’ tendency to re-evaluate the strategy when performance falls short of target is low in practice. Possible explanations include motivational and cognitive biases. We experimentally examine two decision aids, an attribution aid, and a decomposition aid, designed to help managers ease these challenges. Study 1 shows the decision aids, individually and in combination, increase managers’ tendency to re-examine a problematic strategy. Study 2 demonstrates the effectiveness of the two decision aids, when used together, under a different pattern of results and among a sample of more experienced managers.
Combining properties of cryptographic hash functions

A “strong” cryptographic hash function suitable for practical applications should simultaneously satisfy many security properties, like pseudo-randomness, collision resistance and unforgeability. This paper shows how to combine two hash function families each satisfying different security property into one hash function family, which satisfies both properties. In particular, given two hash function families H1 and H2, where H1 is pseudo-random and H2 is collision resistant, we construct a combiner which satisfies pseudo-randomness and collision resistance. We also present a combiner for collision resistance and everywhere preimage resistance. When designing a new hash function family for some particular application, we can use such combiners with existing primitives and thus combine a hash function family satisfying all needed properties.
Community Structure and Market Outcomes: A Repeated Games in Networks Approach

Consider a large market with asymmetric information, in which sellers choose whether to cooperate or deviate and ? cheat? their buyers, and buyers decide whether to re-purchase from di¤erent sellers. We model active trade relationships as links in a buyer-seller network and suggest a framework for studying repeated games in such networks. In our framework, buyers and sellers have rich yet incomplete knowledge of the network structure; allowing us to derive meaningful conditions that determine whether a network is consistent with trade and cooperation between every buyer and seller that are connected. We show that three network features reduce the minimal discount factor necessary for sustaining cooperation: moderate competition, sparseness, and segregation. We ? nd that the incentive constraints rule out networks that maximize the volume of trade and that the constrained trade maximizing networks are in between ? old world? segregated and sparse networks, and a ? global market?
Sperm cryopreservation for men with nonmalignant, systemic diseases: a descriptive study.

Cytotoxic drugs and immunosuppressive therapies are used to treat patients with nonmalignant, nontesticular systemic diseases. These therapies can permanently suppress spermatogenesis. Sperm cryopreservation before treatment theoretically could give these men the opportunity to achieve a pregnancy with a woman later in life when the couple decides to do so. However, it is not known whether pretreatment sperm quality in these men is good enough to be used for assisted reproductive techniques. The main objective of this study was to determine the usefulness of cryopreservation in this patient population by: 1) assessing their pretreatment semen quality (eg, count, motility, and motion kinetics) and comparing it with that of healthy donors before and after cryopreservation; 2) comparing patients' pretreatment semen characteristics with World Health Organization reference values for normal sperm; and 3) examining the differences in semen parameters among patient groups. Semen specimens were obtained from 25 healthy donors and from 23 patients with a variety of disorders (12 had autoimmune disorders, 4 had kidney disorders, 3 had diabetes, 2 had ulcerative colitis, and 2 had heart transplants). All patients, except those with diabetes, required immunosuppressive or cytotoxic therapy. Although the pretreatment quality of the semen of these patients was not as good as that of donors, semen samples were within the normal reference range of the World Health Organization. No statistically significant differences in sperm parameters were found within the 4 patient groups except for those with diabetes (n = 3), who showed poorer sperm counts (P < .04). However, no conclusive evidence can be reached due to the small sample size. Our results indicate that pretreatment semen quality in these patients is adequate for reproductive techniques. We believe that cryopreservation should be offered to patients of reproductive age with disease or treatment regimens that may cause infertility.
High performance pneumatics using Model Predictive Control

High force density, compact form factor and muscle like compliance properties makes pneumatics actuators quite desirable for robotic applications. However, the compressibility of the air not only throttles their bandwidth but also makes them harder to control. In this work, we leverage online trajectory optimization techniques to design high performance controllers for pneumatic actuators of ADROIT manipulation system [1]. These controllers use future predictions to act in anticipation. We show that the proposed controllers prepares the system ahead of time in order to achieve better performance and use less controls while doing so. Hardware results are presented on the pneumatic actuators of the ADROIT platform. Controller’s robustness is evaluated using hardware variants.
An extreme EXO: a type 2 QSO at z =1.87

Aims. We aim to understand the multi-wavelength properties of 2XMM J123204+215255, the source with the most extreme X-rayto-optical flux ratio amongst a sample of bright X-ray selected EXOs drawn from a cross-correlation of the 2XMMp catalogue with the SDSS-DR5 catalogue. Methods. We use 2XMMp X-ray data, SDSS-DR5, NOT and UKIRT optical/NIR photometric data and Subaru MOIRCS IR spectroscopy to study the properties of 2XMM J123204+215255. We created a model SED including an obscured QSO and the host galaxy component to constrain the optical/IR extinction and the relative contribution of the AGN and the galaxy to the total emission. Results. 2XMM J123204+215255 is a bright X-ray source with fX ≈ 10 −12 erg cm −2 s −1 (2–10 keV energy band) which has no detection down to a magnitude i � > 25.2. NIR imaging reveals a faint K-band counterpart and NIR spectroscopy shows a single broad (FWHM � 5300 km s −1 ) emission line, which is almost certainly Hα at z = 1.87. The X-ray spectrum shows evidence of significant absorption (NH > 10 23 cm −2 ), typical of type 2 AGN, but the broad Hα emission suggests a type 1 AGN classification. The very red optical/NIR colours (i � − K > 5.3) strongly suggest significant reddening however. We find that simple modelling can successfully reproduce the NIR continuum and strongly constrain the intrinsic nuclear optical/IR extinction to AV ≈ 4, which turns out to be much smaller than the expected from the X-ray absorption (assuming Galactic gas-to-dust ratio).
Why Do International Students Avoid Communicating with Americans?

We explore how the communication concerns of non-native English speakers (NNS) and Americans relate to their perceptions of each other and decisions to interact. NNS identified their concerns in communicating with Americans, the perceived causes of their concerns, and the strategies they would employ to address these concerns. Americans noted their perceptions of NNS’ (heavy and mild) accents and identified factors that influence their perceptions of NNS and decisions to communicate with NNS. Results revealed that the more NNS attribute their communication concerns to Americans’ bias, the more likely they would avoid interacting with Americans. Results also suggested that Americans show a more favorable attitude toward mild accent NNS. We discuss the implications these findings have for international education and future research.
Prometheus, the double-troubled – migrant transnational entrepreneurs and the loyalty trap

ABSTRACT Departing from the concept of Diaspora and practices of Ethnic Entrepreneurship (EE), much theoretical and empirical research on third-country Migrants’ Transnational Entrepreneurship (MTE) emphasises, on a microlevel, the importance of individuals’ social capital, dual habitus, ethno-cultural motivation, constrained self-efficacy and opportunity alertness. On a mesolevel much of the literature points out that both ethnic community (size and intensity) and group characteristics (survival strategies, networks, and social capital) are pivotal factors of the business development by third-country migrants in Europe. Circumstances around migrants’ dual loyalty seem to overrule diasporic altruism and benefits of dual habitus. Above all, our empirical data show that the intersection between EE, MTE and integration policies are experienced by actors as interdependent fields of discursive practices, creating a fourth field of practice that is characterised by its own dynamic and opportunity structure. Attempting to understand the discourses dominating this fourth field of social practice we include other theories beyond those traditionally applied when studying migrants' transnational entreprenourship.
JSFlow: tracking information flow in JavaScript and its APIs

JavaScript drives the evolution of the web into a powerful application platform. Increasingly, web applications combine services from different providers. The script inclusion mechanism routinely turns barebone web pages into full-fledged services built up from third-party code. Such code provides a range of facilities from helper utilities (such as jQuery) to readily available services (such as Google Analytics and Tynt). Script inclusion poses a challenge of ensuring that the integrated third-party code respects security and privacy. This paper presents JSFlow, a security-enhanced JavaScript interpreter for fine-grained tracking of information flow. We show how to resolve practical challenges for enforcing information-flow policies for the full JavaScript language, as well as tracking information in the presence of libraries, as provided by browser APIs. The interpreter is itself written in JavaScript, which enables deployment as a browser extension. Our experiments with the extension provide in-depth understanding of information manipulation by third-party scripts such as Google Analytics. We find that different sites intended to provide similar services effectuate rather different security policies for the user's sensitive information: some ensure it does not leave the browser, others share it with the originating server, while yet others freely propagate it to third parties.