Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histaminergic synaptic transmission in the cerebral ganglion of Aplysia.

Standard intracellular stimulating and recording techniques including voltage-clamp were used to analyze the synaptic responses mediated by two identifiable histamine-containing neurons (HCNs), designated C2 neurons, located in bilaterally symmetric clusters of the isolated cerebral ganglion of Aplysia california. Activation of each C2 induced unitary chemically mediated synaptic potentials in over 15 identified ipsilateral follower neurons. Several additional followers were connected to the HCNs by nonrectifying electrical synapses. Most of the follower neurons examined received only chemical synapses from the C2s. Some of the followers were reciprocally connected with each other through nonrectifying electrical synapses. A single C2 action potential can evoke six distinctive types of chemically mediated postsynaptic potentials (PSPs) in different follower neurons. Most of the PSPs have been shown to be multicomponent, i.e., they are comprised of various combinations of individual fast (less than or equal to 150 ms), slow (1-2 s), and very slow (greater than or equal to 4 s) depolarizing and hyperpolarizing components. The combination of these components produces PSPs of varying complexity, from simple monophasic responses such as the frequently observed slow excitatory PSPs and slow inhibitory PSPs to responses consisting of two to three components such as fast excitatory, slow inhibitory PSPs or fast inhibitory, slow excitatory PSPs. All of the multicomponent PSPs appear to be mediated through monosynaptic connections from the C2, as determined by various electrophysiological criteria. The slow and very slow synaptic components of the multicomponent PSPs were markedly potentiated in amplitude and duration after repetitive C2 activation. This property of the slow components permits the slower PSPs to exert a major influence on the excitability and integrative properties of the follower neurons.
Building image mosaics: an application of content-based image retrieval

An image mosaic is an image made up of many other images. In this paper we investigate the automatic generation of such image mosaics, using content-based image retrieval as the underlying framework. Our first contribution is to describe and evaluate a few parameters that control the quality of the mosaic image. Our second contribution is the proposal of an (automatic) measure to assess the quality of the resulting images. Several examples of mosaics built in the context of this research can be found at http://db.cs. ualberta.ca/mosaicture.
The assessment and management of violence in forensic populations

The identification and management of individuals with a perceived high risk of future violence is of great priority for mental health professionals and the criminal justice system. The overall aim of this thesis is to examine the validity of the assessment and treatment of violence in forensic populations with a specific focus on the contribution of dynamic risk factors in predicting recidivism. Chapter One presents a conceptual literature review which provides an overview of the development of violence risk assessment approaches, and examines the predictive validity of dynamic factors in predicting violent recidivism. The review demonstrates the ability of dynamic risk factors in predicting future community and institutional violence. Chapter Two provides a critique of the HCR-20 Risk Assessment Scheme and highlights that despite some apparent shortcomings of the HCR-20, the instrument remains the best known and best researched, empirically based guide to violence risk assessment. In Chapter Three a prospective research study examines the predictive validity of the HCR-20 Risk Assessment Scheme in a UK sample of patients under the care of a community forensic mental health service. The study aimed to examine the ability of the HCR-20 total scores and individual sub scale scores to predict future acts of violence. The study demonstrates that the historical factors of the HCR-20 are highly predictive of future re-offending within this population and also highlights the importance of the clinical scale in predicting future violent acts. This work adds to current knowledge and understanding of the risk assessment and management process in UK samples. A case study is presented in chapter Four which evaluates the impact of the ETS programme on the cognitive deficits identified in a violent adult male offender (client A) serving a sentence at HMP Birmingham. By Mariam Azam-Zanganeh
Pauses as an Indicator of Psycholinguistically Valid Multi-Word Expressions (MWEs)?

In this paper we investigate the role of the placement of pauses in automatically extracted multi-word expression (MWE) candidates from a learner corpus. The aim is to explore whether the analysis of pauses might be useful in the validation of these candidates as MWEs. The study is based on the assumption advanced in the area of psycholinguistics that MWEs are stored holistically in the mental lexicon and are therefore produced without pauses in naturally occurring discourse. Automatic MWE extraction methods are unable to capture the criterion of holistic storage and instead rely on statistics and raw frequency in the identification of MWE candidates. In this study we explore the possibility of a combination of the two approaches. We report on a study in which we analyse the placement of pauses in various instances of two very frequent automatically extracted MWE candidates from a learner corpus, i.e. the n-grams I don't know and I think I. Intuitively, they are judged differently in terms of holistic storage. Our study explores whether pause analysis can be used as an objective empirical criterion to support this intuition. A corpus of interview data of language learners of English forms the basis of this study.
Conversion of PrP to a Self-Perpetuating PrPSc-like Conformation in the Cytosol

A rare conformation of the prion protein, PrPSc, is found only in mammals with transmissible prion diseases and represents either the infectious agent itself or a major component of it. The mechanism for initiating PrPSc formation is unknown. We report that PrP retrogradely transported out of the endoplasmic reticulum produced both amorphous aggregates and a PrPSc-like conformation in the cytosol. The distribution between these forms correlated with the rate of appearance in the cytosol. Once conversion to the PrPSc-like conformation occurred, it was sustained. Thus, PrP has an inherent capacity to promote its own conformational conversion in mammalian cells. These observations might explain the origin of PrPSc.
Preclinical Development Combination of Pan-Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor and Autophagy Inhibitor Exerts Superior Ef fi cacy against Triple-Negative Human Breast Cancer Cells

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors (HDI) induce endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and apoptosis, while promoting autophagy, which promotes cancer cell survival when apoptosis is compromised. Here, we determined the in vitro and in vivo activity of the combination of the pan-HDI panobinostat and the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine against humanestrogen/progesterone receptor andHER2 (triple)-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. Treatment of MB-231 and SUM159PT cells with panobinostat disrupted the hsp90/histone deacetylase 6/HSF1/p97 complex, resulting in the upregulation of hsp. This was accompanied by the induction of enhanced autophagic flux as evidenced by increased expression of LC3B-II and the degradation of the autophagic substrate p62. Treatment with panobinostat also induced the accumulation and colocalization ofp62withLC3B-II in cytosolic foci as evidencedby immunofluorescent confocalmicroscopy. Inhibition of panobinostat-induced autophagic flux by chloroquine markedly induced the accumulation of polyubiquitylated proteins and p62, caused synergistic cell death of MB-231 and SUM159PT cells, and inhibited mammosphere formation inMB-231 cells, comparedwith treatmentwith each agent alone. Finally, inmousemammary fat pad xenografts of MB-231 cells, a tumor size–dependent induction of heat shock response, ER stress and autophagywere observed. Cotreatmentwith panobinostat and chloroquine resulted in reduced tumor burden and increased the survival ofMB-231 breast cancer xenografts. Collectively, ourfindings show that cotreatment with an autophagy inhibitor and pan-HDI, for example, chloroquine and panobinostat results in accumulation of toxic polyubiquitylated proteins, exerts superior inhibitory effects on TNBC cell growth, and increases the survival of TNBC xenografts. Mol Cancer Ther; 11(4); 973–83. 2012 AACR.
The effects of antihypertensive agents on endometrial thickness in asymptomatic, hypertensive, postmenopausal women

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate, by using transvaginal ultrasonography, the possible effects on endometrial thickness of antihypertensive agents in asymptomatic postmenopausal women. DesignA prospective study in an outpatient menopause clinic of a university hospital. We included 288 postmenopausal women in this study, and we compared three groups of postmenopausal women as follows: (1) normotensive postmenopausal women, (2) hypertensive women treated with an antihypertensive drug (&bgr;-blocker, non-&bgr;-blocker, or &bgr;-blocker plus non-&bgr;-blocker), and (3) untreated hypertensive women who had had hypertension for at least 1 year. Hypertensive women treated with a drug had been receiving treatment for 1 year. All women were interviewed and examined. Measurements of endometrial thickness were carried out by vaginal ultrasonography. ResultsSixty-two women (22%) were normotensive, and 226 (78%) of 288 women were hypertensive. Of the 226 women, 122 (54%) were receiving an antihypertensive drug. The mean (± SD) endometrial thicknesses in groups A, B, and C were 4.5 (± 1.3), 5.4 (± 1.5), and 6.4 (± 1.7) mm, respectively. Significant difference was obtained among the groups (P = 0.004). ConclusionsOur data indicate that the mean endometrial thickness is significantly greater in asymptomatic, hypertensive women receiving antihypertensive drugs than among untreated hypertensive and normotensive women.
English Transitivity Alternation in Second Language Acquisition: an Attentional Approach

This doctoral research investigates the acquisition of English transitivity alternation by adult Chinese EFL learners within an attentional framework. Specifically, the following research questions are addressed: i) whether instruction is effective and if yes, what instruction type is more effective in facilitating the acquisition of the target form, ii) whether the level of rule awareness as developed in different instruction types has differential effects on learning, and iii) whether aptitude correlates positively with the level of awareness and the extent of learning on the target form. These research questions are addressed in an experimental study for which 84 lowand 78 intermediateproficiency learners were recruited. Participants at both proficiency levels were randomly assigned to a control, explicit-inductive or explicitdeductive group. Both the picture-stimulated production and grammaticality judgment tasks were conducted to assess the learning outcome in a format of prepost-delayed tests. Learners‘ awareness of the target rule was categorized into three levels, namely the level of non-reporting, noticing and understanding, based on their responses to a post-exposure questionnaire. Meanwhile, learners‘ individual differences in aptitude were measured in two subtests on grammatical sensitivity and language analysis respectively. Analyses of the quantitative results revealed: i) form-focused instruction in both explicit groups proved to be more effective than the control group in acquiring English transitivity alternation; ii) the explicit-inductive and explicit-deductive instruction had differential learning effects for the intermediate learners, but not for the low-proficiency ones; iii) the results concerning the relationship between awareness and instruction type suggested that learners (both low and intermediate)
UHF tag antenna prototypes built using natural rubber substrates

this paper presents the use of natural rubber as a substrate in the design of UHF RFID tag antenna. Prototype meander dipole antenna was simulated using CST Microwave Studio to operate at 921 MHz, using natural rubber as the substrate and copper as the conductor. The overall dimension of the tag is 63 × 63 × 1.3 mm3. Experimental studies on the effects of NR properties are done to facilitate efforts of flexible antenna design in achieving desired system requirement. This paper focuses on the effect on the tag antenna return loss, radiation patterns and the read range. Our encouraging findings imply that rubber-based RFID tag antennas can be used in the industry with the added facility of enhancing the antenna characteristics simply by adjusting the properties of rubber.
How social the single market? CEPS Commentaries, 13 April 2010

The social dimension of the internal market has been a theme for debate ever since 1987, when Jacques Delors introduced it as a counterbalance to the emerging 'Europhoria' of European business about the EC-1992 single market programme. Although the complaints about the lack of a 'Social Europe' make it into the local and European press much more easily than a sober analysis of the actual meaning of the label and the factual progress made, this CEPS Commentary encourages the reader to step back for a moment and reflect on what 'the' social dimension of the single market does and does not mean and to assess where we stand today. Only then, it seems to me, is it possible to draw some inferences about the potential and scope of 'putting the social dimension upfront' in a new internal market initiative.
Calculation of the C3A Percentage in High Sulfur Clinker

The aim of this paper is to clarify the influence of the clinker SO3 on the amount of C3A. The calculation of the cement phases percentages is based on the research work, Calculation of the Compounds in Portland Cement, published by Bogue in 1929 . The usage of high sulphur fuels, industrial wastes, and tires changes completely the working condition of Bogue because the assumed phase compositions may change. The results prove that increasing the amount of SO3 in the low alkali clinker decreases the percentages of C3A due to the high incorporation of alumina in the clinker phases mainly C2S and C3S. The correlation is linear till the clinker SO3 reaches the 2%. Over that the influence of the clinker SO3 became undetectable. A new calculation method for the determination of the C3A in the high sulphur and low alkali clinker was proposed.
Low-Level detections of halogenated volatile organic compounds in groundwater: Use in vulnerability assessments

Concentrations of halogenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were determined by gas chromatography (GC) with an electron-capture detector (GC-ECD) and by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in 109 groundwater samples from five study areas in the United States. In each case, the untreated water sample was used for drinking-water purposes or was from a monitoring well in an area near a drinking-water source. The minimum detection levels (MDLs) for 25 VOCs that were identified in GC-ECD chromatograms, typically, were two to more than four orders of magnitude below the GC-MS MDLs. At least six halogenated VOCs were detected in all of the water samples analyzed by GC-ECD, although one or more VOCs were detected in only 43% of the water samples analyzed by GC-MS. In nearly all of the samples, VOC concentrations were very low and presented no known health risk. Most of the low-level VOC detections indicated post-1940s recharge, or mixtures of recharge that contained a fraction of post-1940s wate.
The data cyclotron query processing scheme

A grand challenge of distributed query processing is to devise a self-organizing architecture which exploits all hardware resources optimally to manage the database hot set, minimize query response time, and maximize throughput without single point global coordination. The Data Cyclotron architecture [Goncalves and Kersten 2010] addresses this challenge using turbulent data movement through a storage ring built from distributed main memory and capitalizing on the functionality offered by modern remote-DMA network facilities. Queries assigned to individual nodes interact with the storage ring by picking up data fragments, which are continuously flowing around, that is, the hot set. The storage ring is steered by the Level Of Interest (LOI) attached to each data fragment, which represents the cumulative query interest as it passes around the ring multiple times. A fragment with LOI below a given threshold, inversely proportional to the ring load, is pulled out to free up resources. This threshold is dynamically adjusted in a fully distributed manner based on ring characteristics and locally observed query behavior. It optimizes resource utilization by keeping the average data access latency low. The approach is illustrated using an extensive and validated simulation study. The results underpin the fragment hot set management robustness in turbulent workload scenarios. A fully functional prototype of the proposed architecture has been implemented using modest extensions to MonetDB and runs within a multirack cluster equipped with Infiniband. Extensive experimentation using both microbenchmarks and high-volume workloads based on TPC-H demonstrates its feasibility. The Data Cyclotron architecture and experiments open a new vista for modern distributed database architectures with a plethora of new research challenges.
Deconstructing the Pipeline: Evaluating School-to-Prison Pipeline Equal Protection Cases Through a Structural Racism Framework

This article posits that a wide range of U.S. education and criminal justice policies and practices -- such as zero tolerance regimes, academic sorting, and school district financing methods -- collectively result in students of color being disparately pushed out of school and into prison. Vast empirical and qualitative research indicates that this dynamic process, known as the "school-to-prison pipeline", wreaks havoc upon today's minority population. Both anti-pipeline legal scholarship and equal protection caselaw tend to examine school-to-prison pipeline issues through an isolated, or perhaps overly-restricted, lens which inhibits the development of a jurisprudence that allows the pipeline's systemic invidiousness to be meaningfully redressed. This article attempts to advance normative viewpoints and legal doctrine by deconstructing the pipeline through a structural racism framework.
Deep Optical Imaging of a Compact Group of Galaxies: Seyfert’s Sextet

To investigate the dynamical status of Seyfert's Sextet (SS), we have obtained a deep optical (VR+I) image of this group. Our image shows that a faint envelope, down to a surface brightness μoptical(AB) ≃ 27 mag arcsec-2, surrounds the member galaxies. This envelope is irregular in shape. It is likely that this shape is attributed either to recent-past or to ongoing galaxy interactions in SS. If the member galaxies have experienced a number of mutual interactions over a long timescale, the shape of the envelope should be rounder. Therefore, the irregularly shaped morphology suggests that SS is in an early phase of dynamical interaction among the member galaxies. It is interesting to note that the soft X-ray image obtained with ROSAT (Pildis, Bregman, &Evrard) is significantly similar in morphology. We discuss the possible future evolution of SS briefly.
A Simple Method of BER Calculation in DPSK/OFDM Systems over Fading Channels

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with differential phase shift keying (DPSK), it is possible to apply differential modulation either in the time or frequency domain depending on the condition of fading channels, such as the Doppler frequency shift and the delay spread. This paper proposes a simple calculation method, that is, an approximate closed-form equation of the bit error rate (BER) in DPSK/OFDM systems mentioned above over both time and frequency selective Rician fading channels. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated by the fact that the BER performances given by the derived equation coincide with those by Monte Carlo simulation.
Characterization of the slowly inactivating sodium current INa2 in canine cardiac single Purkinje cells

The aim of our experiments was to investigate by means of a whole cell patch‐clamp technique the characteristics of the slowly inactivating sodium current (INa2) found in the plateau range in canine cardiac Purkinje single cells. The INa2 was separated from the fast‐activating and ‐inactivating INa (labelled here INa1) by applying a two‐step protocol. The first step, from a holding potential (Vh) of −90 or −80 mV to −50 mV, led to the quick activation and inactivation of INa1. The second step consisted of depolarizations of increasing amplitude from −50 mV to less negative values, which led to the quick activation and slow inactivation of INa2. The INa2 was fitted with a double exponential function with time constants of tens and hundreds milliseconds, respectively. After the activation and inactivation of INa1 at −50 mV, the slope conductance was very small and did not change with time. Instead, during INa2, the slope conductance was larger and decreased as a function of time. Progressively longer conditioning steps at −50 mV resulted in a progressive decrease in amplitude of INa2 during the subsequent test steps. Gradually longer hyperpolarizing steps (increments of 100 ms up to 600 ms) from Vh−30 mV to −100 mV were followed on return to −30 mV by a progressively larger INa2, as were gradually more negative 500 ms steps from Vh−30 mV to −90 mV. At the end of a ramp to −20 mV, a sudden repolarization to approximately −35 mV fully deactivated INa2. The INa2 was markedly reduced by lignocaine (lidocaine) and by low extracellular [Na+], but it was little affected by low and high extracellular [Ca2+]. At negative potentials, the results indicate that there was little overlap between INa2 and the transient outward current, Ito, as well as the calcium current, ICa. In the absence of Ito and ICa (blocked by means of 4‐aminopyridine and nickel, respectively), INa2 reversed at 60 mV. In conclusion, INa2 is a sodium current that can be initiated after the inactivation of INa1 and has characteristics that are quite distinct from those of INa1. The results have a bearing on the mechanisms underlying the long plateau of Purkinje cell action potential and its modifications in different physiological and pathological conditions.
The IJCB 2014 PaSC video face and person recognition competition

The Point-and-Shoot Face Recognition Challenge (PaSC) is a performance evaluation challenge including 1401 videos of 265 people acquired with handheld cameras and depicting people engaged in activities with non-frontal head pose. This report summarizes the results from a competition using this challenge problem. In the Video-to-video Experiment a person in a query video is recognized by comparing the query video to a set of target videos. Both target and query videos are drawn from the same pool of 1401 videos. In the Still-to-video Experiment the person in a query video is to be recognized by comparing the query video to a larger target set consisting of still images. Algorithm performance is characterized by verification rate at a false accept rate of 0.01 and associated receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Participants were provided eye coordinates for video frames. Results were submitted by 4 institutions: (i) Advanced Digital Science Center, Singapore; (ii) CPqD, Brasil; (iii) Stevens Institute of Technology, USA; and (iv) University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Most competitors demonstrated video face recognition performance superior to the baseline provided with PaSC. The results represent the best performance to date on the handheld video portion of the PaSC.