Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Presynaptic calcium is increased during normal synaptic transmission and paired-pulse facilitation, but not in long-term potentiation in area CA1 of hippocampus

We examined the relationship between presynaptic calcium levels and postsynaptic potentials during normal synaptic transmission, paired- pulse facilitation (PPF), and long-term potentiation (LTP) in CA3-CA1 synapses of hippocampus. By selectively loading the presynaptic terminals with the calcium indicator fura-2, we simultaneously recorded a presynaptic calcium (Ca) transient and the corresponding field EPSP evoked by a single stimulus given to the Schaffer collateral- commissural pathway in guinea pig hippocampal slices. A volume average presynaptic Ca influx was obtained by taking the first time derivative of the Ca transient. Our data indicate that the synaptic transmission represented by the initial slope of the field EPSP is approximately proportional to the fourth power of the presynaptic Ca influx, the volume average Ca current. Our results in combination with similar findings at the squid giant synapse (Augustine et al., 1985b; Augustine and Charlton, 1986) suggest that the relationship between Ca influx and transmitter release is well conserved from the molluscan to the mammalian nervous system. A transient increase of the residual Ca level ([Ca]res) is generally thought to be the mechanism underlying PPF (Katz and Miledi, 1968; Charlton et al., 1982); however, the relationship between PPF and the presynaptic [Ca]res had not been examined before. Our results demonstrate that PPF is approximately linearly related to the [Ca]res. This finding further supports the residual Ca hypothesis for PPF. Accumulated evidence from other groups suggests that the presynaptic site contributes to the maintenance of LTP in CA3-CA1 synapses (Bekkers and Stevens, 1990; Malinow and Tsien, 1990); however, our data show that neither an increase of the Ca transient nor a sustained increase of the [Ca]res occurs in the presynaptic terminals during maintenance of LTP. This suggests that the presynaptic mechanism underlying LTP must be downstream to Ca influx.
Finite state machine-based optimization of data parallel regular domain problems applied in low-level image processing

A popular approach to providing nonexperts in parallel computing with an easy-to-use programming model is to design a software library consisting of a set of preparallelized routines, and hide the intricacies of parallelization behind the library's API. However, for regular domain problems (such as simple matrix manipulations or low-level image processing applications-in which all elements in a regular subset of a dense data field are accessed in turn) speedup obtained with many such library-based parallelization tools is often suboptimal. This is because interoperation optimization (or: time-optimization of communication steps across library calls) is generally not incorporated in the library implementations. We present a simple, efficient, finite state machine-based approach for communication minimization of library-based data parallel regular domain problems. In the approach, referred to as lazy parallelization, a sequential program is parallelized automatically at runtime by inserting communication primitives and memory management operations whenever necessary. Apart from being simple and cheap, lazy parallelization guarantees to generate legal, correct, and efficient parallel programs at all times. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated by analyzing the performance characteristics of two typical regular domain problems obtained from the field of low-level image processing. Experimental results show significant performance improvements over nonoptimized parallel applications. Moreover, obtained communication behavior is found to be optimal with respect to the abstraction level of message passing programs.
Priority assignment in real-time active databases 1

Active databases and real-time databases have been important areas of research in the recent past. It has been recognized that many benefits can be gained by integrating real-time and active database technologies. However, not much work has been done in the area of transaction processing in real-time active databases. This paper deals with an important aspect of transaction processing in real-time active databases, namely the problem of assigning priorities to transactions. In these systems, time-constrained transactions trigger other transactions during their execution. We present three policies for assigning priorities to parent, immediate and deferred transactions executing on a multiprocessor system and then evaluate the policies through simulation. The policies use different amounts of semantic information about transactions to assign the priorities. The simulator has been validated against the results of earlier published studies. We conducted experiments in three settings: a task setting, a main memory database setting and a disk-resident database setting. Our results demonstrate that dynamically changing the priorities of transactions, depending on their behavior (triggering rules), yields a substantial improvement in the number of triggering transactions that meet their deadline in all three settings.
Tuberculin testing, BCG and tuberculosis today

More studies reporting international time trends will put us in a better position to explain the changing prevalence of asthma Without ever fully understanding the reasons for the global increase in the prevalence of asthma during the later part of the 20th century, we are now faced with the challenge of explaining an apparent decrease in prevalence. A challenge indeed! During the 1980s and early 1990s several repeat cross sectional studies, conducted in widely varying regions of the world, reported an increase in the prevalence of symptoms of asthma, diagnosed asthma, and medication use for asthma.1,2 Although most studies relied on self-reported symptoms and diagnoses—and hence could be subject to reporting bias—at least one3 observed substantial changes in airway hyperresponsiveness, lending credence to the view that this was not simply related to changes in disease classification and labelling. Parallel increases in hospitalisation rates4 and mortality rates5 also were consistent with a true rising tide of asthma. This trend led to major national and international initiatives to control the disease.6–9 …
Clinical presentations, biochemical phenotypes, and genotype-phenotype correlations in patients with succinate dehydrogenase subunit B-associated pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas.

CONTEXT Mutations of the gene encoding succinate dehydrogenase subunit B (SDHB) predispose to malignant paraganglioma (PGL). Recognition of the SDHB phenotype in apparently sporadic PGL directs appropriate treatment and family screening. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to assess mutation-specific clinical and biochemical characteristics of SDHB-related PGL. DESIGN The study design was retrospective descriptive. PATIENTS PATIENTS included 29 patients (16 males) with SDHB-related abdominal or thoracic PGL. INTERVENTION There was no intervention. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Clinical presentations, plasma and urine concentrations of catecholamines and O-methylated metabolites, and genotype-phenotype correlations were measured. RESULTS Mean +/- sd age at diagnosis was 33.7 +/- 15.7 yr. Tumor-related pain was among the presenting symptoms in 54% of patients and was the sole symptom in 14%. Seventy-six percent had hypertension, and 90% lacked a family history of PGL. All primary tumors but one originated from extraadrenal locations. Mean +/- sd tumor size was 7.8 +/- 3.7 cm. In this referral-based study, 28% presented with metastatic disease and all but one eventually developed metastases after 2.7 +/- 4.1 yr. Ten percent had additional head and neck PGLs. The biochemical phenotype was consistent with hypersecretion of both norepinephrine and dopamine in 46%, norepinephrine only in 41%, and dopamine only in 3%. Ten percent had normal catecholamine (metabolite) levels, consistent with biochemically silent PGL. No obvious genotype-phenotype correlations were identified. CONCLUSIONS SDHB-related PGL often presents as apparently sporadic PGL with symptoms related to tumor mass effect rather than to catecholamine excess. The predominant biochemical phenotype consists of hypersecretion of norepinephrine and/or dopamine, whereas 10% of tumors are biochemically silent. The clinical expression of these tumors cannot be predicted by the genotype.
Exposure setup to test effects of wireless communications systems on the CNS.

This paper presents an exposure setup designed for in vivo studies of possible effects on the central nervous system due to the electromagnetic exposure from handheld mobile communications equipment. The setup consists of a carousel on which 10 rats, each restrained in a radially positioned tube, are exposed to the electromagnetic field emanating from a dipole antenna at the center. The rats are positioned with their snouts at a distance of 35 mm from the dipole antenna. The tubes restrain the movement of the animals to such an extent as to allow for well defined exposure conditions, yet without totally immobilizing them. Numerical and experimental dosimetric analysis of the setup was conducted using rats weighing 250-300 g at a frequency of 900 MHz. A detailed rat phantom derived from MRI scans was developed for the numerical assessment with a commercially available code based on the finite integration technique. The results were validated by measurements of the temperature rise in selected points of a rat cadaver. The dosimetric analysis shows that the setup is eminently suitable for central nervous system studies. It enables well defined field strengths to be induced in the brain tissue, whereby the variations in the specific absorption rate averaged over the brain tissue caused by movement and varying animal sizes was shown to be less than +/-16%. The specific absorption rate distribution in the brain is nonhomogeneous but comparable to that induced in the brain of a human using a handheld wireless phone. The efficiency of the exposure is about 0.20+/-0.05 mW g(-1) for the brain average value per 100 mA feedpoint current. The whole-body average specific absorption rate is considerably lower, i.e., about half of that of the brain averaged value. In addition, the setup has been proven to be practical in use, and the stress levels caused by restraining the animals in this setup are deemed by neurologists and veterinary scientists to be very low.
A variability-aware module system

Module systems enable a divide and conquer strategy to software development. To implement compile-time variability in software product lines, modules can be composed in different combinations. However, this way, variability dictates a dominant decomposition. As an alternative, we introduce a variability-aware module system that supports compile-time variability inside a module and its interface. So, each module can be considered a product line that can be type checked in isolation. Variability can crosscut multiple modules. The module system breaks with the antimodular tradition of a global variability model in product-line development and provides a path toward software ecosystems and product lines of product lines developed in an open fashion. We discuss the design and implementation of such a module system on a core calculus and provide an implementation for C as part of the TypeChef project. Our implementation supports variability inside modules from #ifdef preprocessor directives and variable linking at the composition level. With our implementation, we type check all configurations of all modules of the open source product line Busybox with 811~compile-time options, perform linker check of all configurations, and report found type and linker errors -- without resorting to a brute-force strategy.
A Novel Key Redistribution Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Key management has long been a challenging problem in wireless distributed sensor networks (DSNs) due to their high security requirements and strict resource constraints. A randomized key pre-distribution scheme has been introduced to serve as a practical solution and many improvements are subsequently proposed. These schemes mainly focus on key allocations based on pre-deployment estimates of post-deployment information items, such as location data and attack probabilities. Unfortunately, such information items may be unavailable or may change over time. Based on adaptability to post-deployment contexts, we propose a key redistribution scheme that exploits neighboring keys from connected neighbors to reach unconnected nodes. We show that our scheme can be integrated into most existing key pre- distribution schemes to further improve their performance. We demonstrate our proposed scheme's salient features, such as high connectivity, high resilience, and efficient memory usage, by both analytical and simulation results.
Temporal Trends and Climatic Factors Associated with Bacterial Enteric Diseases in Vietnam, 1991–2001

Objective In Vietnam, shigellosis/dysentery, typhoid fever, and cholera are important enteric diseases. To better understand their epidemiology, we determined temporal trends, seasonal patterns, and climatic factors associated with high risk periods in eight regions across Vietnam. Methods We quantified monthly cases and incidence rates (IR) for each region from national surveillance data (1991–2001). High- and low-disease periods were defined from the highest and lowest IRs (1 SD above and below the mean) and from outbreaks from positive outliers (4 SDs higher in 1 month or 2 SDs higher in ≥ 2 consecutive months). We used general linear models to compare precipitation, temperature, and humidity between high- and low-risk periods. Results Shigellosis/dysentery was widespread and increased 2.5 times during the study period, with the highest average IRs found between June and August (2.1/100,000–26.2/100,000). Typhoid fever was endemic in the Mekong River Delta and emerged in the Northwest in the mid-1990s, with peaks between April and August (0.38–8.6). Cholera was mostly epidemic along the central coast between May and November (0.07–2.7), and then decreased dramatically nationwide from 1997 onward. Significant climate differences were found only between high- and low-disease periods. We were able to define 4 shigellosis/dysentery, 14 typhoid fever, and 8 cholera outbreaks, with minimal geotemporal overlap and no significant climatic associations. Conclusions In Vietnam, bacterial enteric diseases have distinct temporal trends and seasonal patterns. Climate plays a role in defining high- and low-disease periods, but it does not appear to be an important factor influencing outbreaks.
Analysis of gene amplification and overexpression in human esophageal‐carcinoma cell lines

Gene amplification/overexpression was analyzed in 23 cell lines derived from human esophageal squamous‐cell‐carcinoma tissues by Southern and Northern hybridizations to c‐myc, c‐erbB, hst‐1 and cyclin‐DI probes. Amplification of the c‐myc gene was observed in 5 cell lines derived from well‐differentiated carcinomas and all of them were accompanied by co‐amplification of other examined oncogenes. The c‐erbB gene was amplified in 3 cell lines. Co‐amplification of hst‐1 and cyclin DI, both of which are located in chromosome 11q13, was found in 9 cell lines. Without exception their amplification was simultaneous and the magnitudes were similar. Their amplification, but not their overexpression, was significantly correlated with poor prognosis in patients from whom the cell lines were established. While hst‐1‐gene expression was not detected, at least 1 of the genes analyzed was overexpressed in 20 cell lines vs. its expression in normal esophageal mucosal tissues. However, gene amplification was not necessarily accompanied by overexpression of the corresponding genes. Expression of the cyclin DI gene, which has been assumed to be a target gene for 11q13 amplification, was not detected in one particular cell line with amplification of 11q13.
Antigenicity of L1210 leukemic sublines induced by drugs.

Summary Thirty sublines of leukemia L1210 partially or completely drug resistant, originating after prolonged treatment in vivo with different anticancer agents, were found to have developed greater antigenicity than the original drug-sensitive line. The studies demonstrated increased survival time for mice given injections of the resistant sublines, as compared with the parent sensitive leukemia, and an increased response to treatment with 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea. The increases in survival time in untreated and treated mice inoculated with the drug-resistant sublines were reversed when mice were previously immunosuppressed. Animals immunized with inactivated cells from two of these resistant sublines were markedly protected against a challenge of viable leukemic cells from the same subline used for immunization. For mice immunized with inactivated sensitive cells, protection was considerably less extensive. Specific cytotoxic antibodies were demonstrated in sera of mice immunized with cells of a resistant subline. Cytotoxicity could not be demonstrated with antisera to sensitive L1210. The data support the hypothesis that new antigen(s) have been produced in drug-resistant variants of leukemia L1210.
Causality from Cz to C3/C4 or between C3 and C4 revealed by granger causality and new causality during motor imagery

Interaction between different brain regions has received wide attention recently. Granger causality (GC) is one of the most popular methods to explore causality relationship between different brain regions. In 2011, Hu et. al [1] pointed out shortcomings and/or limitations of GC by using a large of number of illustrative examples and showed that GC is only a causality definition in the sense of Granger and does not reflect real causality at all, and meanwhile proposed a new causality (NC) which is shown to be more reasonable and understandable than GC by those examples. Motor imagery (MI) is an important mental process in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology and has received growing attention for a long time. However, there is few work about causality flow so far during MI based on scalp EEG. In this paper, we use scalp EEG to study causality flow during MI. The scalp EEGs are from 9 subjects in BCI competition IV held in 2008 [2] and provided by Graz University of Technology. We are interested in three regions: Cz (the centre of cerebral cortex), C3 (the left of cerebral cortex) and C4 (the right of cerebral cortex) which are considered to be optimal locations for recognizing MI states in literature. We apply GC and NC to scalp EEG and find that i) there is strong directional connectivity from Cz to C3/C4 during left hand and right hand MI based on GC and NC. ii) During left hand MI, there is directional connectivity from C4 to C3 based on GC and NC. iii) During right hand MI, there is strong directional connectivity from C3 to C4 which is much clearly revealed by NC method than by GC method. iv) Our results suggest that NC method in time and frequency domains is demonstrated to be much better to reveal causal influence between different brain regions than GC method. Thus, we deeply believe that NC method will shed new light on causality analysis in economics and neuroscience.
Correlation between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in a general population in Iran*

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate epidemiological relationship between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and sleep apnea syndrome in a sample of Persian population. METHODS: As a part of a population-based cross-sectional study, 3900 randomly selected individuals aged 15 years or older were invited to take part in the survey; 3770 individuals (96.6%) agreed to fill out the respiratory and sleep questionnaire. Those subjects suspected to have either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and/or obstructive sleep apnea underwent spirometry and polysomnography test if indicated. Spirometric measurements were performed on 420 invited responders. Polysomnography measurements were performed on 25 of the responders. RESULTS: Prevalence rates for sleep apnea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and current asthma were 4.98%, 5.7% and 3.1%, respectively. Logistic regression showed independent associations between sleep apnea and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There was no significant independent association between sleep apnea symptoms and current asthma and wheeze ever. CONCLUSIONS: These observations indicated relationship between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea. These observations indicated the necessity of further studies to explain the possible common pathogenic mechanisms involved in two disease entities.
Human sperm liver receptor homolog‐1 (LRH‐1) acts as a downstream target of the estrogen signaling pathway

In the last decade, the study of human sperm anatomy, at molecular level, has revealed the presence of several nuclear protein receptors. In this work, we examined the expression profile and the ultrastructural localization of liver receptor homolog‐1 (LRH‐1) in human spermatozoa. We evidenced the presence of the receptor by Western blotting and real time‐RT‐PCR. Furthermore, we used immunogold electron microscopy to investigate the sperm anatomical regions containing LRH‐1. The receptor was mainly located in the sperm head, whereas its expression was reduced in the neck and across the tail. Interestingly, we observed the presence of LRH‐1 in different stages of testicular germ cell development by immunohistochemistry. In somatic cells, it has been suggested that the LRH‐1 pathway is tightly linked with estrogen signaling and the important role of estradiol has been widely studied in sperm cells. To assess the significance of LRH‐1 in male gametes and to deepen understanding of the role of estrogens in these cells, we investigated important sperm features such as motility, survival and capacitation. Spermatozoa were treated with 10 nm estradiol and the inhibition of LRH‐1 reversed the estradiol stimulatory action. From our data, we discovered that human spermatozoa can be considered a new site of expression for LRH‐1, evidencing its role in sperm motility, survival and cholesterol efflux. Furthermore, we may presume that in spermatozoa the LRH‐1 effects are closely integrated with the estrogen signaling, supporting LRH‐1 as a downstream effector of the estradiol pathway on some sperm functions.
Application of a Nitric Oxide Sensor in Biomedicine

In the present study, we describe the biochemical properties and effects of nitric oxide (NO) in intact and dysfunctional arterial and venous endothelium. Application of the NO electrochemical sensor in vivo and in vitro in erythrocytes of healthy subjects and patients with vascular disease are reviewed. The electrochemical NO sensor device applied to human umbilical venous endothelial cells (HUVECs) and the description of others NO types of sensors are also mentioned.