Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel computational model of mouse myocyte electrophysiology to assess the synergy between Na+ loading and CaMKII

Intracellular [Na+] ([Na+]i) is elevated in heart failure (HF) and causes arrhythmogenic cellular [Ca2+]i loading. In HF, hyperactivity of Ca2+–calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), a key mediator of electrical and mechanical dysfunction in myocytes, causes elevated [Na+]i. We developed a computational model of mouse ventricular myocyte electrophysiology including Ca2+ and CaMKII signalling and quantitatively confirmed evidence suggesting that not only does CaMKII cause elevated [Na+]i, but this additional [Na+]i also promotes further CaMKII activation by increasing [Ca2+]i. We found that a 3–4 mm gain in [Na+]i (similar to that reported in HF) perturbs Ca2+ and membrane potential homeostasis in part via CaMKII activation. This disrupted Ca2+ homeostasis is exacerbated by CaMKII overexpression, and strongly relies upon CaMKII–Na+–Ca2+–CaMKII feedback. CaMKII inhibition in HF may be beneficial, in part by inhibiting [Na+]i loading, and thereby normalizing Ca2+ and membrane potential dynamics without disrupting systolic function.
Identifying inmates at risk for disciplinary infractions: a comparison of two measures of psychopathy.

Poythress, Edens, and Lilienfeld (1998) recently reported a moderately strong correlation between Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and a newly developed self-report measure of psychopathy, the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) of Lilienfeld and Andrews (1996), in an ethnically diverse sample of 50 inmates from a youthful offender prison. The present study reports follow-up data regarding disciplinary infractions in this sample and examines the utility of the PCL-R and PPI for identifying those at risk for institutional misbehavior. Generally modest, but statistically significant, correlations were obtained between both measures and indices of aggressive institutional behavior. Multiple regression analyses revealed that both measures accounted for common variance in the criterion but that neither accounted for significant unique variance. Results are discussed in terms of the clinical utility of these measures in populations of young offenders.
Masters of Longevity: Lessons from Long-Lived Bivalves – A Mini-Review

The individual ages of bivalve molluscs can be inferred from the age rings laid down every year in the shell, especially in species inhabiting areas with seasonal variability in environmental factors such as food supply and temperature. Animals obtained from different environmental settings can therefore be used to investigate how specific environmental factors shape the process of ageing in this animal class. Some bivalves have extraordinary long life spans. Species like the ocean quahog Arctica islandica and the freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera live for over hundreds of years. Few studies so far have attempted to study the process of ageing, either specifically in long-lived bivalves or generally in very long-lived species. This review summarizes the current knowledge of cellular ageing in bivalves with a focus on the antioxidant system, as well as tissue repair and metabolic capacities of extremely long-lived species. We discuss the applicability of these animals as models for different ageing theories. We recommend a focus of future research on the molecular mechanisms potentially involved in supporting longevity in these species, including evolutionary old cellular mechanisms such as autophagy and apoptosis, as well as diverse cellular repair pathways.
Chondroitinase and Growth Factors Enhance Activation and Oligodendrocyte Differentiation of Endogenous Neural Precursor Cells after Spinal Cord Injury

The adult spinal cord harbours a population of multipotent neural precursor cells (NPCs) with the ability to replace oligodendrocytes. However, despite this capacity, proliferation and endogenous remyelination is severely limited after spinal cord injury (SCI). In the post-traumatic microenvironment following SCI, endogenous spinal NPCs mainly differentiate into astrocytes which could contribute to astrogliosis that exacerbate the outcomes of SCI. These findings emphasize a key role for the post-SCI niche in modulating the behaviour of spinal NPCs after SCI. We recently reported that chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans (CSPGs) in the glial scar restrict the outcomes of NPC transplantation in SCI by reducing the survival, migration and integration of engrafted NPCs within the injured spinal cord. These inhibitory effects were attenuated by administration of chondroitinase (ChABC) prior to NPC transplantation. Here, in a rat model of compressive SCI, we show that perturbing CSPGs by ChABC in combination with sustained infusion of growth factors (EGF, bFGF and PDGF-AA) optimize the activation and oligodendroglial differentiation of spinal NPCs after injury. Four days following SCI, we intrathecally delivered ChABC and/or GFs for seven days. We performed BrdU incorporation to label proliferating cells during the treatment period after SCI. This strategy increased the proliferation of spinal NPCs, reduced the generation of new astrocytes and promoted their differentiation along an oligodendroglial lineage, a prerequisite for remyelination. Furthermore, ChABC and GF treatments enhanced the response of non-neural cells by increasing the generation of new vascular endothelial cells and decreasing the number of proliferating macrophages/microglia after SCI. In conclusions, our data strongly suggest that optimization of the behaviour of endogenous spinal NPCs after SCI is critical not only to promote endogenous oligodendrocyte replacement, but also to reverse the otherwise detrimental effects of their activation into astrocytes which could negatively influence the repair process after SCI.
Comparison of neuronal and hemodynamic measures of the brain response to visual stimulation: An optical imaging study

The noninvasive mapping of hemodynamic brain activity has led to significant advances in neuroimaging. This approach is based in part on the assumption that hemodynamic changes are proportional to (and therefore constitute a linear measure of) neuronal activity. We report a study investigating the quantitative relationship between neuronal and hemodynamic measures. This study exploited the fact that optical imaging methods can simultaneously provide noninvasive measures of neuronal and hemodynamic activity from the same region of the brain. We manipulated visual stimulation frequency and measured responses from the medial occipital area of 8 young adults. The results were consistent with a model postulating a linear relationship between the neuronal activity integrated over time and the amplitude of the hemodynamic response. The hemodynamic response colocalized with the neuronal response. These data support the use of quantitative neuroimaging methods to infer the intensity and localization of neuronal activity in occipital areas. Hum. Brain Mapping 13:13–25, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Primary sequence and molecular model of the variable region of a mouse monoclonal anti‐Der p 1 antibody showing a similar epitope specificity as human IgE

Der p 1, a major mite allergen, elicits IgE antibody responses in 80% of patients suffering from dust mite allergy. Given the potent IgE eliciting properties of Der p 1, there is considerable interest in studying the molecular architecture of the variable (Fv) region of IgE antibodies specific for this allergen.
Empowering Academics the Viskerian Way

Abstract Academics and/or scholars increasingly feel that their academic voice (combined or individual) has been squelched by the demands of performativity in its various guises, and resultantly, that they have been caught up in a process of steady disempowerment. Rather, it should be their right to be free to use their positions in the pursuit of scholarship as their conscience and their expert knowledge of their subject dictate. Academics should be free to question for themselves the boundaries of their limitations, and not have these imposed on them by the state or government bureaucracy. In order to help empower academics to regain their academic voice and identity, this article transposes six of the philosophical ideas of Belgian philosopher Rudi Visker to the world of academia. It explores the possibilities of using these ideas as instruments for the promotion and maintenance of academic freedom.
Analysing the energy consumption behaviour of WiFi networks

The continuous increase in the energy production cost, together with environmental sustainability issues, is leading research communities, governments and industries to focus their efforts on a reduction of the global CO2 footprint. Information and communication technologies, which represent the nervous system of the globalized economy and society, account for a significant percentage of the overall global energy consumption. While a number of solutions have been proposed to build new, energy-aware and ‘green’ communication infrastructures, little attention has been devoted to measuring the actual impact through real-world measurements. In this paper, we focus on wireless access networks, and aim at experimentally investigating the fundamental relationship between traffic and power consumption for a typical wireless LAN based on the IEEE 802.11g standard. The insight obtained through the measurements can be used to develop reliable and realistic energy consumption models, on top of which novel energy aware protocols and algorithms can be designed and developed.
Political Identity, Public Memory and Urban Space: A Case Study of Parcul Carol I , Bucharest from 1906 to the Present

Abstract This article analyses the inter-relationship between political identity, public memory and urban space in South-east Europe through a case study of Parcul Carol I (Carol I Park) in Bucharest, Romania from 1906 to the present. The article analyses how the urban cultural landscape has been reshaped to support the political ambitions of three successive regimes—Romania as a kingdom and liberal constitutional monarchy (1881–1938); state-socialist Romania (1947–1989); and the post-socialist Romanian state from 1989. The article highlights complex continuity from the state-socialist period under post-socialism, rather than destruction of the landscape of state-socialism, combined with the return of pre-socialist landscape elements. The article argues for the need for studies of the fate of state-socialist urban landscapes under post-socialism which consider the complexities introduced by the persistence of landscape elements from the pre-socialist and state-socialist periods and their combination with pre-socialist and post-socialist landscapes to produce hybrid memory-scapes and spaces of the nation.
Distributed algebraic connectivity estimation for adaptive event-triggered consensus

In several multi agent control problems, the convergence properties and speed of the system depend on the algebraic connectivity of the graph. We discuss a particular event-triggered consensus scenario, and show that the availability of an estimate of the algebraic connectivity could be used for adapting the behavior of the average consensus algorithm. We present a novel distributed algorithm for estimating the algebraic connectivity, that relies on the distributed computation of the powers of matrices. We provide proofs of convergence, convergence rate, and upper and lower bounds at each iteration of the estimated algebraic connectivity.
Dynamic Right-Sizing: TCP Flow-Control Adaptation

Grid and networking researchers continue the practice of manually optimizing TCP buffer sizes to keep the network pipe full [10, 7], and thus achieve acceptable performance over the widearea network, whether for bulk-data transfer or in support of computational grids [4], data grids [1, 8, 3], or access grids [2]. Not only is this process cumbersome, but the result of tuning window sizes for a particular pair of hosts is sub-par performance for connections with larger delay-bandwidth products and the misappropriation of scarse resources to connections with smaller delay-bandwidth products [9]. Consequently, we propose an operating system technique called Dynamic Right-Sizing that eliminates the need for this manual process. Compared to previous work on this problem, our solution is more efficient and both more transparent and widely-usable to applications. The Web100 project has released a modified FTP client that uses user-space code to send a burst of pings to estimate the latency and bandwidth at the beginning of a connection and adjust the windows accordingly [6]. This approach requires that this measurement code be deployed in each application. Further, it uses a measurement period before data is sent and creates extra network traffic that is not controlled by a congestion avoidance mechanism. Thus, it can only be used sparingly, such as at the beginning of a connection. In contrast, our implementation automatically benefits not just FTP, but every application on a host. Earlier work in [9] presents kernel modifications for ‘autotuning’ a sender’s flow-control window based on the congestion window and then using fair-share algorithms to manage competition between connections for buffers. In this scheme, the receiver’s window advertisements are superfluous. This solution does not adequaquately solve the problem for applications such as archival storage where the bottleneck in a connection is the receiving application instead of the network. In this context, the receiver still needs flow control or else unbounded amounts of receiver buffer space can be consumed by data that has been received and acknowledged by the operating system, but is waiting for the receiving application. This could in turn require the receiver to resort to dropping packets and unnecessary triggering of the sender’s congestion avoidance mechanisms, thus wasting bandwidth and reducing throughput. Our
Values, priorities and responses: comparing English headteachers' and Hong Kong principals' perceptions of their work

This article investigates the perceptions of English headteachers and Hong Kong principals on the kinds of pressures that they believed affected the way they did their job, and in particular the degree to which they felt their governments were affecting their leadership role. The research utilised semi-structured interviews to generate written ‘portraits’ of these individuals, which were then examined to answer questions about current pressures. The findings suggested that (1) there was considerable variation in the manner these individuals responded to key issues; (2) all individuals prioritised local concerns, and particularly with consideration to the children in their care; (3) there was a greater sense of embattlement from the English headteachers and a more critical approach to legislation, than from the Hong Kong principals, though with considerable individual variation in the degree of overt resistance shown; (4) whilst current educational reforms in Hong Kong seemed to favour the development of creativity more than those in England, there was within both national contexts evidence of the damaging effects of the pace and quantity of reforms.
Testing the Bases of Ethical Decision-Making: A Study of the New Zealand Auditing Profession

This paper reports on a survey of auditors in New Zealand which investigates the nature of the moral judgements they make on a series of problems with ethical dimensions. The framework adopted for this purpose is developed from earlier work which identifies a range of ethical principles which may be involved in business ethical decision-making. Auditors responded to a questionnaire which posed, firstly, several questions about the context of their ethical decision-making, and secondly, a series of vignettes elaborating problematical dilemmas which required the selection of one of four possible responses. Data was analysed to determine whether or not it confirmed previous findings in suggesting a predominant ethical orientation for auditors. The results were correlated with demographic variables in order to determine whether or not age, gender, position in firm and size of employee firm were significantly correlated to ethical response. The survey results, on the whole, confirmed the ethical orientation suggested by previous findings, but there were some unexpected results in three out of the ten vignettes examined. Although some correlations were found between the demographic variables and subject responses, the evidence of this survey does not strongly suggest a consistent significant correlation.
Competitiveness for the niche and mutual dependence of the germline and somatic stem cells in the Drosophila testis are regulated by the JAK/STAT signaling

In many tissues, two or more types of stem cells share a niche, and how the stem cells coordinate their self‐renewal and differentiation is poorly understood. In the Drosophila testis, germ line stem cells (GSCs) and somatic cyst progenitor cells (CPCs) contact each other and share a niche (the hub). The hub expresses a growth factor unpaired (Upd) that activates the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) pathway in GSCs to regulate the stem cell self‐renewal. Here, we demonstrate that the JAK/STAT signaling also regulates CPCs self‐renewal. We also show that a negative regulator, the suppressor of cytokine signaling 36E (SOCS36E), suppresses JAK/STAT signaling in somatic cells, preventing them from out‐competing the GSCs. Furthermore, through selectively manipulating the JAK/STAT signaling level in either CPCs or GSCs, we demonstrate that the somatic JAK/STAT signaling is essential for self‐renewal and maintenance of both CPCs and GSCs. These data suggest that a single JAK/STAT signal from the niche orchestrate the competitive and dependent co‐existence of GSCs and CPCs in the Drosophila testis niche. J. Cell. Physiol. 223: 500–510, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Convolution backprojection image reconstruction for spotlight mode synthetic aperture radar

Convolution backprojection (CBP) image reconstruction has been proposed as a means of producing high-resolution synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) images by processing data directly in the polar recording format which is the conventional recording format for spotlight mode SAR. The CBP algorithm filters each projection as it is recorded and then backprojects the ensemble of filtered projections to create the final image in a pixel-by-pixel format. CBP reconstruction produces high-quality images by handling the recorded data directly in polar format. The CBP algorithm requires only 1-D interpolation along the filtered projections to determine the precise values that must be contributed to the backprojection summation from each projection. The algorithm is thus able to produce higher quality images by eliminating the inaccuracies of 2-D interpolation, as well as using all the data recorded in the spectral domain annular sector more effectively. The computational complexity of the CBP algorithm is O(N (3)).
Prevalence of Pelvic Incontinence in Patients With Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients are at risk for developing pelvic (urinary and/or fecal) incontinence due to progressive weakness of pelvic floor muscles secondary to recurrent episodes of coughing and respiratory infections. Many patients do not bring these symptoms to the attention of their health care providers because of social embarrassment and lack of knowledge of available effective treatment. Several studies have identified the prevalence of incontinence in CF adults and adolescents. However, few studies identified the problem in children with CF. Our study aims are to identify the prevalence of pelvic incontinence in CF patients aged 6 to 21 years, to identify the correlation between incontinence and severity of lung disease, and to help develop treatment strategy in collaboration with physical therapy to address these issues.
Using Reflective Journals to Enhance Impoverished Practicum Placements: A case in teacher education in Ethiopia

This article investigates the value of writing reflective journals for student teachers during practicum placement. The author invited 10 pre‐service education degree teachers to write a weekly reflective journal throughout their four weeks practicum teaching. Each student teacher was given the opportunity to revisit the issues in his journals through a subsequent reflective dialogue. At the end of the practicum, the student teachers were asked to complete one additional reflective journal to provide their views about how useful and challenging they found the task of writing reflective journals on their teaching experiences. The author also kept observation notes to reflect on his own experiences of involving student teachers in reflective journal writing. It was concluded that the student teachers benefited immensely from their experiences of writing reflective journals for the purpose of reflecting on their practical experiences. They reported that the activity helped them improve their teaching experie.
Deviance and Deviants

This article examines the social-historical lineages of adolescent alcohol and other drug (AOD) use prevention programs. It shows how risk factor research evolved from assumptions of deviance regarding the mentally ill and examines patterns in prevention research that have inhibited advancement in the field. These patterns take shape as a general assumption of the target population as deviant, over- or misinterpretation of research results, and evidence that researchers and program managers or administrators shift or initiate programs with no causative basis. For the field to move ahead, researchers, program specialists, and policymakers must reconsider these patterns in light of protective factor and harm reduction approaches.
Efficient source adaptivity in independent component analysis

A basic element in most independent component analysis (ICA) algorithms is the choice of a model for the score functions of the unknown sources. While this is usually based on approximations, for large data sets it is possible to achieve "source adaptivity" by directly estimating from the data the "true" score functions of the sources. We describe an efficient scheme for achieving this by extending the fast density estimation method of Silverman (1982). We show with a real and a synthetic experiment that our method can provide more accurate solutions than state-of-the-art methods when optimization is carried out in the vicinity of the global minimum of the contrast function.
Recurrent Trichosporon asahii glossitis: a case report.

AIM This case report aims at describing an infection of the tongue as a manifestation of a Trichosporon asahii infection, its association with bronchial asthma and steroid administration, and to present a review of the literature pertaining to its antifungal susceptibility profile. BACKGROUND Trichosporon asahii has been reported to be associated with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, ranging from superficial infection to severe disseminated diseases, particularly in immunocompromised patients. CASE REPORT A 36-year-old male asthmatic patient with recurrent glossitis presented with a chief complaint of burning sensation and two red areas on the dorsum of the tongue of three months duration. The glossitis was associated with Trichosporon asahii, which had a reduced susceptibility to some azole antifungal agents. SUMMARY Trichosporon asahii is an emerging fungal pathogen which may cause a wide range of clinical manifestations. More reports on its various clinical presentations in the oral environment need to be made available in the literature. To date there is a paucity of data on its prevalence, pathogenesis, and antifungal resistance mechanism.