Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Competition Through Technical Progress

This paper investigates the relationship between technical progress, competition, and the impact on consumer's surplus and welfare. A Hotelling model in symmetrical duopoly with full market coverage is introduced. Firms invest in order to improve the quality of their offer and thus consumers' willingness to pay. When the potential for technological advancement is great enough, particularly in the case of information technologies and telecommunication industry, firms are encouraged to invest. Social welfare benefit is greatest and most likely to occur where technological advancement is quick, even if it provides no profit to firms. Technological advancement stimulates investment, however, it also requires investment capabilities and therefore enough profits. Thus, different rates of technical progress are both a result of and a cause for different investment rates.
Ex vivo treatment with nitric oxide increases mesoangioblast therapeutic efficacy in muscular dystrophy

Muscular dystrophies are characterized by primary wasting of skeletal muscle for which no satisfactory therapy is available. Studies in animal models have shown that stem cell-based therapies may improve the outcome of the disease, and that mesoangioblasts are promising stem cells in this respect. The efficacy of mesoangioblasts in yielding extensive muscle repair is, however, still limited. We found that mesoangioblasts treated with nitric oxide (NO) donors and injected intra-arterially in α-sarcoglycan-null dystrophic mice have a significantly enhanced ability to migrate to dystrophic muscles, to resist their apoptogenic environment and engraft into them, yielding a significant recovery of α-sarcolgycan expression. In vitro NO-treated mesoangioblasts displayed an enhanced chemotactic response to myotubes, cytokines and growth factors generated by the dystrophic muscle. In addition, they displayed an increased ability to fuse with myotubes and differentiating myoblasts and to survive when exposed to cytotoxic stimuli similar to those present in the dystrophic muscle. All the effects of NO were cyclic GMP-dependent since they were mimicked by treatment with the membrane permeant cyclic-GMP analogue 8-bromo-cGMP and prevented by inhibiting guanylate cyclase. We conclude that NO donors exert multiple beneficial effects on mesoangioblasts that may be used to increase their efficacy in cell therapy of muscular dystrophies.
Use of Sodium Butyrate as an Alternative to Dietary Fiber: Effects on the Embryonic Development and Anti-Oxidative Capacity of Rats

In this study, we evaluated the effect of replacing dietary fiber with sodium butyrate on reproductive performance and antioxidant defense in a high fat diet during pregnancy by using a rat model. Eighty virgin female Sprague Dawley rats were fed one of four diets—(1) control diet (C group), (2) high fat + high fiber diet (HF group), (3) high-fat +5% sodium butyrate diet (SB group), and (4) HF diet + α-cyano-4-hydroxy cinnamic acid (CHC group)—intraperitoneally on days 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 of gestation. SB and dietary fiber had similar effects on improving fetal number and reducing the abortion rate; however, the anti-oxidant capacity of maternal serum, placenta, and fetus was superior in the HF group than in the SB group. In comparison, CHC injection decreased reproductive performance and antioxidant defense. Both dietary fiber (DF) and SB supplementation had a major but different effect on the expression of anti-oxidant related genes and nutrient transporters genes. In summary, our data indicate that SB and DF showed similar effect on reproductive performance, but SB cannot completely replace the DF towards with respect to redox regulation in high-fat diet; and SB might influence offspring metabolism and health differently to DF.
Brain Imaging Analysis Can Identify Participants under Regular Mental Training

Multivariate pattern recognition approaches have become a prominent tool in neuroimaging data analysis. These methods enable the classification of groups of participants (e.g. controls and patients) on the basis of subtly different patterns across the whole brain. This study demonstrates that these methods can be used, in combination with automated morphometric analysis of structural MRI, to determine with great accuracy whether a single subject has been engaged in regular mental training or not. The proposed approach allowed us to identify with 94.87% accuracy (p<0.001) if a given participant is a regular meditator (from a sample of 19 regular meditators and 20 non-meditators). Neuroimaging has been a relevant tool for diagnosing neurological and psychiatric impairments. This study may suggest a novel step forward: the emergence of a new field in brain imaging applications, in which participants could be identified based on their mental experience.
Entorhinal Stellate Cells Show Preferred Spike Phase-Locking to Theta Inputs That Is Enhanced by Correlations in Synaptic Activity

In active networks, excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs generate membrane voltage fluctuations that drive spike activity in a probabilistic manner. Despite this, some cells in vivo show a strong propensity to precisely lock to the local field potential and maintain a specific spike-phase relationship relative to other cells. In recordings from rat medial entorhinal cortical stellate cells, we measured spike phase-locking in response to sinusoidal “test” inputs in the presence of different forms of background membrane voltage fluctuations, generated via dynamic clamp. We find that stellate cells show strong and robust spike phase-locking to theta (4–12 Hz) inputs. This response occurs under a wide variety of background membrane voltage fluctuation conditions that include a substantial increase in overall membrane conductance. Furthermore, the IH current present in stellate cells is critical to the enhanced spike phase-locking response at theta. Finally, we show that correlations between inhibitory and excitatory conductance fluctuations, which can arise through feedback and feedforward inhibition, can substantially enhance the spike phase-locking response. The enhancement in locking is a result of a selective reduction in the size of low-frequency membrane voltage fluctuations due to cancellation of inhibitory and excitatory current fluctuations with correlations. Hence, our results demonstrate that stellate cells have a strong preference for spike phase-locking to theta band inputs and that the absolute magnitude of locking to theta can be modulated by the properties of background membrane voltage fluctuations.
Two Nucleotides Immediately Upstream of the Essential A6G3 Slippery Sequence Modulate the Pattern of G Insertions during Sendai Virus mRNA Editing

ABSTRACT Editing of paramyxovirus P gene mRNAs occurs cotranscriptionally and functions to fuse an alternate downstream open reading frame to the N-terminal half of the P protein. G residues are inserted into a short G run contained within a larger purine run (A n G n ) in this process, by a mechanism whereby the transcribing polymerase stutters (i.e., reads the same template cytosine more than once). Although Sendai virus (SeV) and bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 (bPIV3) are closely related, the G insertions in their P mRNAs are distributed differently. SeV predominantly inserts a single G residue within the G run of the sequence 5′ AACAAAAAAGGG, whereas bPIV3 inserts one to six G’s at roughly equal frequency within the sequence 5′ AUUAAAAAAGGGG(differences are underlined). We have examined how thecis-acting editing sequence determines the number of G’s inserted, both in a transfected cell system using minigenome analogues and by generating recombinant viruses. We found that the presence of four rather than three G’s in the purine run did not affect the distribution of G insertions. However, when the underlined AC of the SeV sequence was replaced by the UU found in bPIV3, the editing phenotype from both the minigenome and the recombinant virus resembled that found in natural bPIV3 infections (i.e., a significant fraction of the mRNAs contained two to six G insertions). The two nucleotides located just upstream of the polypurine tract are thus key determinants of the editing phenotype of these viruses. Moreover, the minimum number of A residues that will promote SeV editing phenotype is six but can be reduced to five when the upstream AC is replaced by UU. A model for how the upstream dinucleotide controls the insertion phenotype is presented.
Spoken Word Recognition of Code-Switched Words by Chinese–English Bilinguals ☆

Abstract Two experiments with Chinese–English bilinguals were conducted to examine the recognition of code-switched words in speech. In Experiment 1, listeners were asked to identify a code-switched word in a sentence on the basis of increasing fragments of the word. In Experiment 2, listeners repeated the code-switched word following a predesignated point upon hearing the sentence. Converging evidence from these experiments shows that the successful recognition of code-switched words depends on the interaction among phonological, structural, and contextual information in the recognition process. The results also indicate that Chinese–English bilinguals can recognize code-switched words with the same amount of information as required by monolingual English listeners. These results are interpreted in terms of parallel activation and interactive processes in spoken word recognition.
Circadian variations in plasma and erythrocyte glutamate concentrations in adult men consuming a diet with and without added monosodium glutamate.

This study evaluated the effect of monosodium glutamate (MSG) ingestion as a component of the diet on the 24-h variations in plasma and whole-blood glutamate (GLU) concentrations in healthy adult men. In the first arm of the study, subjects were given test meals without added MSG for 3 d. Protein and energy intakes of the subjects were 1.5 g and 40 kcal/(kg body weight.d), respectively. On d 3, blood samples were collected over the 24-h period. One week later, the same protocol was repeated, except that 100 mg/(kg body weight.d) MSG was added to the meals (15, 40 and 45 mg/kg body weight to breakfast, lunch and dinner, respectively). Both plasma and whole-blood samples were analyzed for free amino acids. Unlike large neutral amino acids, which experienced high peak plasma concentrations at 2100-2300 h, the circadian variations in plasma GLU concentrations were small, varying between 33 and 48 micromol/L on days in which no MSG was fed, and between 32 and 53 micromol/L on days in which MSG was added to the meals. In both trials, plasma GLU concentration increased (P < 0.01) after lunch and dinner, and decreased early in the morning (P < 0.05). Calculated erythrocyte GLU concentrations varied between 500 and 640 micromol/L, with or without MSG addition to the meals. The rather low plasma GLU concentrations over the 24-h period, despite high dietary intake of MSG, indicate that dietary MSG is metabolized very rapidly.
Selection, characterization and application of new RNA HIV gp 120 aptamers for facile delivery of Dicer substrate siRNAs into HIV infected cells

The envelope glycoprotein of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) consists of an exterior glycoprotein (gp120) and a trans-membrane domain (gp41) and has an important role in viral entry into cells. HIV-1 entry has been validated as a clinically relevant anti-viral strategy for drug discovery. In the present work, several 2′-F substituted RNA aptamers that bind to the HIV-1BaL gp120 protein with nanomole affinity were isolated from a RNA library by the SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment) procedure. From two of these aptamers we created a series of new dual inhibitory function anti-gp120 aptamer–siRNA chimeras. The aptamers and aptamer–siRNA chimeras specifically bind to and are internalized into cells expressing HIV gp160. The Dicer-substrate siRNA delivered by the aptamers is functionally processed by Dicer, resulting in specific inhibition of HIV-1 replication and infectivity in cultured CEM T-cells and primary blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Moreover, we have introduced a ‘sticky’ sequence onto a chemically synthesized aptamer which facilitates attachment of the Dicer substrate siRNAs for potential multiplexing. Our results provide a set of novel inhibitory agents for blocking HIV replication and further validate the use of aptamers for delivery of Dicer substrate siRNAs.
The Three-Terminal Interactive Lossy Source Coding Problem

In this paper, we explore the three-node multi-terminal lossy source coding problem, which seems to offer a formidable mathematical complexity. We derive an inner bound to the general rate-distortion region of this problem, which is a natural extension of the seminal work by Kaspi on the interactive two-terminal source coding problem. It is shown that this (rather involved) inner bound contains several rate-distortion regions of some relevant source coding settings. In this way, besides the non-trivial extension of the interactive two terminal problem, our results can be seen as a generalization and hence unification of several previous works in the field. By specializing the inner bound to particular cases, we obtain some novel rate-distortion regions for several multi-terminal lossy source coding problems.
The Falling of Momo: A Myo-Electric Controlled Game to Support Research in Prosthesis Training

Myoelectric control makes use of the electrical signals created by the body's muscles as an input to control a device, such as a prosthetic limb or powered orthosis. While myoelectric prostheses have been in use and under constant R&D for almost 50 years, they are not without problems. For myoelectric control to be effective the user has to learn how to activate and control muscles in isolation and in ways that are unintuitive but easily interpreted by the system. Learning how to control muscles in this way can be a frustrating and time consuming process. In this paper, we outline our work to develop a training game that aims to setup prosthesis wearers for success by mapping typical controls used for prostheses to game input. Furthermore, our game provides a wide range of options that allow the input controls and game difficulty to be scaled appropriately to the skill of the player. Above all, our game aims to be fun and, unlike previous myoelectric training games, it focuses on providing a fully featured casual game.
Spectroscopy of the near-nuclear regions of Cygnus A: estimating the mass of the supermassive black hole

We use a combination of high spatial resolution optical and near-infrared spectroscopic data to make a detailed study of the kinematics of the narrow-line region (NLR) gas in the near-nuclear regions of the powerful, FRIIradio galaxy Cygnus A (z = 0.0560), with the overall goal of placing limits on the mass of any supermassive black hole in the core. Our K-band infrared observations (0.75-arcsec seeing) - taken with NIRSPEC on the Keck II telescope - show a smooth rotation pattern across the nucleus in the Paa and H 2 emission lines along a slit position (PA180°) close to perpendicular to the radio axis, however, there is no evidence for such rotation along the radio axis (PA105°). Higher spatial resolution observations of the [O III] λ5007 emission line -- taken with STIS on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) - confirm the general rotation pattern of the gas in the direction perpendicular to the radio axis, and provide evidence for steep velocity gradients within a radius of 0.1 arcsec of the core - corresponding to the high surface brightness structure visible in high-resolution narrow-band images. The [O IH] line remains broad throughout the core region (FWHM ∼ 300-900 km s - 1 ), but the spatial distribution of [O III] provides no evidence for an unresolved inner narrow-line region (INLR). Assuming that the ionized gas is circularly rotating in a thin disc and that the large linewidths are due to activity-induced turbulence, the circular velocities measured from both the Keck and HST data lead to an estimate of the mass of the supermassive black hole of 2.5 ′ 0.7 x 10 9 M O . For the host galaxy properties of Cygnus A, this mass is consistent with the global correlations between black hole mass and host galaxy properties deduced for non-active galaxies. Therefore, despite the extreme power of its radio source and the quasar-like luminosity of its active galactic nucleus (AGN), the black hole in Cygnus A is not unusually massive considering the luminosity of its host galaxy. Indeed, the estimated mass of the black hole in Cygnus A is similar to that inferred for the supermassive black hole in the FRI radio galaxy M87, despite the fact that the AGN and radio jets of Cygnus A are two to three orders of magnitude more powerful. Overall, these results are consistent with the idea that the properties and powers of the AGN in radio galaxies are determined as much by the mass accretion rates as by the absolute masses of their supermassive black holes. As well as providing evidence for a supermassive black hole in the core of Cygnus A, our data also demonstrate that nuclear activity has an important effect on the kinematics of the circumnuclear gas on a subkiloparsec scale. Most notably, the velocity offsets measured in the two outer HST/STIS slit positions are consistent with the presence of an activity-induced outflow in the NW cone.
The semantic richness of abstract concepts

We contrasted the predictive power of three measures of semantic richness—number of features (NFs), contextual dispersion (CD), and a novel measure of number of semantic neighbors (NSN)—for a large set of concrete and abstract concepts on lexical decision and naming tasks. NSN (but not NF) facilitated processing for abstract concepts, while NF (but not NSN) facilitated processing for the most concrete concepts, consistent with claims that linguistic information is more relevant for abstract concepts in early processing. Additionally, converging evidence from two datasets suggests that when NSN and CD are controlled for, the features that most facilitate processing are those associated with a concept's physical characteristics and real-world contexts. These results suggest that rich linguistic contexts (many semantic neighbors) facilitate early activation of abstract concepts, whereas concrete concepts benefit more from rich physical contexts (many associated objects and locations).
Parents’ Experiences with Services and Treatment for Their Children Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy

ABSTRACT While there is a considerable body of knowledge investigating the efficacy of constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT), there is a need for information focusing on parents’ experiences when their children receive these services. This qualitative research study initially explored the experiences of four parents with children who are diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP) and who participated in CIMT using a group format. Additionally, the richness of the information shared by parents provided insights on other important issues related to family supports when raising a child and the availability of resources for children diagnosed with CP. Response analysis from in-depth interviews with parents resulted in three themes: (a) Everything in my family changed when my child was diagnosed with CP and the support I feel from my family makes all the difference in how I cope. (b) It was so hard to get the information and support that I needed for my child. (c) The group format enhanced CIMT for my child and provided social benefits as well. Findings from this study suggest there are benefits of using CIMT in group formats.
New method to obtain viscoelastic properties of bitumen blends from pure and reclaimed asphalt pavement binder constituents

The main issue with asphalt pavement recycling is the assessment of the influence of aged bitumen in reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) material on viscoelastic properties of a blended binder in the final mixture. Blending charts or empirical laws, such as the “log–log” rule, are currently used to estimate grading parameters for material characterisation. However, a true prediction method of linear viscoelastic properties is still missing. The presented study is part of a wider ongoing research effort in the framework of a Ph.D. thesis, in collaboration between University of Lyon/Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat (ENTPE), EIFFAGE Travaux Publics (ETP) and Beyond Petroleum. The paper focuses on the influence of the RAP-extracted binder content on viscoelastic properties of bitumen blends obtained from different asphalt binders. Three unaged bitumens were blended with a binder extracted from a well-known RAP material in different proportions (20%, 40% and 60%) for a total of 13 different bitumen blends. Complex modulus Dynamic Shear Rheometer tests were performed on binders at the ETP Research Center. Experimental results were modelled by using the 2S2P1D model, previously developed at ENTPE. A method to estimate viscoelastic properties of bitumen blends over the whole range of frequency and temperature is proposed.
Genome modification in human embryonic stem cells

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has emerged as the most promising method for generating patient‐specific human embryonic stem (ES) cells and adult stem cells (Takahashi et al., 2007, Cell 131:861–872; Wernig et al., 2007 , Nature 448:318–324; Park et al., 2008, Nature 451:141–146). So far, most studies of direct reprogramming have been done by using lentiviruses/retroviruses encoding the reprogramming factors. This represents a major limitation to therapeutic applications since viral integration in the host genome increases the risk of tumorigenicity, and low‐level residual expression of reprogramming factors may alter the differentiation potential of the human iPSCs (hiPSCs). As a result, more attention has been paid to developing new techniques to manipulate the human genome, with the goal of making safer hiPSCs that have fewer or no lesions or alterations in the genome. Additionally, the efficiency of reprogramming and of homologous recombination in gene therapy must be improved, if iPSC technology is to be a viable tool in regenerative medicine. Here, we summarize the recent developments in human genome manipulation for generating hiPSCs and advances in homologous recombination for gene targeting. J. Cell. Physiol. 222: 278–281, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.