Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nitric oxide promotes intracellular calcium release from mitochondria in striatal neurons

Overproduction of nitric oxide by NMDA receptor stimulation is implicated in calcium deregulation and neurodegeneration of striatal neurons. We investigated the involvement of nitric oxide (NO) in inducing intracellular calcium release and in modifying calcium transients evoked by NMDA. NO application (4–10 fM) reversibly and repeatedly increased the intracellular calcium concentration [Ca2+]i in Fura‐2‐or fluo‐3‐loaded cultured mouse striatal neurons. NO‐induced [Ca2+]i responses persisted in the absence of extracellular calcium, indicating that Ca2+ was released from intracellular stores. The source of calcium was distinct from [Ca2+]i‐activated (ruthenium red and ryanodine sensitive) or IP3‐activated (thapsigargin‐sensitive) Ca2+ stores and was not dependent on cGMP production because a cell permeant analog, 8‐bromo‐cGMP, did not increase basal [Ca2+]i. Glucose removal potentiated the NO‐induced release of [Ca2+]i. In contrast, pretreatment with either the mitochondrial uncoupler carbonyl cyanide m‐chlorophenylhydrazone or cyclosporin A, a blocker of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, prevented the [Ca2+]i increase after NO. The rise in [Ca2+]i during NO exposure was preceded by a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential that was partly reversible during washout. Repeated applications of NMDA induced irreversible [Ca2+]i responses in a subpopulation of striatal cells that were greatly reduced by the NOS inhibitor NW‐nitro‐L‐arginine. Calcium transients were prolonged by conjoint application of NMDA and NO. We conclude that NMDA‐evoked [Ca2+]i transients are modulated by endogenous NO production, which leads to release of calcium from the mitochondrial pool. An NO‐activated mitochondrial permeability transition pore may lead to cell death after overstimulation of NMDA receptors. —Horn, T. F. W. , Wolf, G. , Duffy, S. , Weiss, S. , Keilhoff, G. , MacVicar, B. A. Nitric oxide promotes intracellular calcium release from mitochondria in striatal neurons. FASEB J. 16, 1611–1622 (2002)
Pruning Techniques in Search and Planning ( Research

Search algorithms often suffer from exploring areas which eventually are not part of the shortest path from the start to a goal. Usually it is the purpose of the heuristic function to guide the search algorithm such that it will ignore as much as possible of these areas. We consider other, non-heuristic methods that can be used to prune the search space to make search even faster. We present two algorithms: one for search in graphs that fit in memory, and in which we will need to perform many searches, and another, which improves the search time of planning problems that contain symmetries.
Title: Screen Twice, Cut Once: Assessing the Predictive Validity of Teacher Selection Tools

Evidence suggests that teacher hiring in public schools is ad hoc and often fails to result in good selection among applicants. Some districts use structured selection instruments in the hiring process, but we know little about the efficacy of such tools. In this paper, we evaluate the ability of applicant selection tools used by the Spokane Public Schools to predict three outcomes: measures of teachers’ value-added contributions to student learning, teacher absence behavior, and attrition rates. We observe all applicants to the district and are therefore able to estimate sample selection-corrected models, using random tally errors in selection instruments and differences in the quality of competition across job postings. These two factors influence the probability of being hired by Spokane Public Schools but are unrelated to measures of teacher performance. We find that the screening instruments predict teacher value added in student achievement and teacher attrition but not teacher absences. A onestandard-deviation increase in screening scores is associated with an increase of between 0.03 and 0.07 standard deviations in student achievement and a decrease in teacher attrition of 2.5 percentage points.
Revision of Star-Formation Measures

Abstract Rotation plays a major role in the evolution of massive stars. A revised grid of stellar evolutionary tracks accounting for rotation has recently been released by the Geneva group and implemented into the Starburst99 evolutionary synthesis code. Massive stars are predicted to be hotter and more luminous than previously thought, and the spectral energy distributions of young populations mirror this trend. The hydrogen ionizing continuum in particular increases by a factor of up to 3 in the presence of rotating massive stars. The effects of rotation generally increase towards shorter wavelengths and with decreasing metallicity. Revised relations between star-formation rates and monochromatic luminosities for the new stellar models are presented.
Estimation of Distribution Algorithms for Knapsack Problem

Estimation of distribution algorithms ( EDAs ) is a new kind of evolution algorithm. In EDAs , through the statistics of the information of selected individuals in current group, the probability of the individual distribution in next generation is given and the next generation of group is formed by random sampling. A wide range of mathematical model of the knapsack problem are proposed. In this paper, the EDAs is applied to solve the knapsack problem. The influence of several strategies, such as numbers of population and better population selection proportions are analyzed. Simulation results show that the EDAs is reliable and effective for solving the knapsack problem. The Maltab code is given also. It can easily be modified for any combinatorial problem for which we have no good specialized algorithm.
Exploring exploratory search: a user study with linked semantic data

The maturation of semantic technologies and the growing popularity of the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud make it possible to expose linked semantic data sets to end users in order to empower a range of analytical tasks taking advantage of knowledge integration and semantic linking. Linked semantic data appears to offer a great potential for exploratory search, which is open-ended, multi-faceted, and iterative in nature. However, there is limited insight into how browsing through linked semantic data sets can support exploratory search. This paper presents a user study with a uni-focal semantic browsing interface for exploratory search through several data sets linked via domain ontologies. The study, which is qualitative and exploratory in nature and uses music as an illustrative domain, examines (i) obstacles and challenges related to user exploratory search in LOD and (ii) the serendipitous learning effect and the role semantics plays in that. The approach and lessons learnt can benefit future human factor studies to evaluate interactive exploration of linked semantic data, as well as technology developers to become aware of issues that have to be addressed in to facilitate exploratory search with LOD.
Priority based bandwidth allocation scheme for WIMAX systems

IEEE 802.16 based wireless access scheme (commonly known as WiMAX) is considered as one of the most promising wireless broadband access schemes for communication networks in metropolitan areas today. One of the most challenging tasks in the access scheme is the need to support quality of service (QoS). The paper proposes a priority based bandwidth allocation mechanism in WiMAX networks which is compliant with the standards.
Infra: SLO Aware Elastic Auto-scaling in the Cloud for Cost Reduction

Enterprises often host applications and services on clusters of virtual machine instances provided by cloud service providers, like Amazon, Rackspace, Microsoft, etc. Users pay a cloud usage cost on the basis of the hourly usage [1] of virtual machine instances composing the cluster. A cluster composition refers to the number of virtual machine instances of each type (from a predefined list of types) comprising a cluster. We present Infra, a cloud provisioning framework that can predict an (ϵ, δ)-minimum cluster composition required to run a given application workload on a cloud under an SLO (i.e., Service Level Objective) deadline. This paper does not present a new approximation algorithm, instead we provide a tool that applies existing machine learning techniques to predict an (ϵ, δ)-minimum cluster composition. An (ϵ, δ)-minimum cluster composition specifies a cluster composition whose cost approximates that of the minimum cluster composition (i.e., the cluster composition that incurs the minimum cloud usage cost that must be incurred in executing a given application under an SLO deadline); the approximation bounds the error to a predefined threshold ϵ with a degree of confidence 100 * (1 - δ)%. The degree of confidence 100 * (1 - δ)% specifies that the probability of failure in achieving the error threshold ϵ for the above approximation is at most δ. For ϵ = 0.1 and δ = 0.02, we experimentally demonstrate that an (ϵ, δ)-minimum cluster composition predicted by Infra successfully approximates the minimum cluster composition, i.e., the accuracy of prediction of minimum cluster composition ranges from 93.1% to 97.99% (the error is bound by the error threshold of 0.1) with a 98% degree of confidence, since 100* (1 - δ) = 98%. Auto scaling refers to the process of automatically adding cloud instances to a cluster to adapt to an increase in application workload (increased request rate), and deleting instances from a cluster when there is a decrease in workload (reduced request rate). However, state-of-the-art auto scaling techniques have the following disadvantages: A) they require explicit policy definition for changing the cluster configuration and therefore lack the ability to automatically adapt a cluster with respect to changing workload, B) they do not compute the appropriate size of resources required, and therefore do not result in an “optimal” cluster composition. Infra provides an auto scaler that automatically adapts a cloud infrastructure to changing application workload, scaling the cluster up/down based on predictions from the Infra provisioning tool.
Development of swimming behaviour in the larva of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis

SUMMARY The aim of this study was to characterize the swimming behaviour of C. intestinalis larvae during the first 6 h after hatching by measuring tail muscle field potentials. This recording method allowed a quantitative description of the responses of the larva under light and dark conditions. Three different larval movements were distinguished by their specific frequencies: tail flicks, `spontaneous' swimming, and shadow response, or dark induced activity, with respective mean frequencies of about 10, 22 and 32 Hz. The shadow response develops at about 1.5 h post hatching (h.p.h.). The frequency of muscle potentials associated with this behaviour became higher than those of spontaneous swimming activity, shifting from 20 to 30 Hz, but only from about 2 h.p.h. onwards. Swimming rate was influenced positively for about 25 s after the beginning of the shadow response. Comparison of swimming activity at three different larval ages (0-2, 2-4 and 4-6 h.p.h.) showed that Ciona larvae swim for longer periods and more frequently during the first hours after hatching. Our results provide a starting point for future studies that aim to characterize the nervous control of ascidian locomotion, in wild-type or mutant larvae.
When Do Natural Language Metaphors Influence Reasoning? A Follow-Up Study to Thibodeau and Boroditsky (2013)

In this article, we offer a critical view of Thibodeau and Boroditsky who report an effect of metaphorical framing on readers' preference for political measures after exposure to a short text on the increase of crime in a fictitious town: when crime was metaphorically presented as a beast, readers became more enforcement-oriented than when crime was metaphorically framed as a virus. We argue that the design of the study has left room for alternative explanations. We report four experiments comprising a follow-up study, remedying several shortcomings in the original design while collecting more encompassing sets of data. Our experiments include three additions to the original studies: (1) a non-metaphorical control condition, which is contrasted to the two metaphorical framing conditions used by Thibodeau and Boroditsky, (2) text versions that do not have the other, potentially supporting metaphors of the original stimulus texts, (3) a pre-exposure measure of political preference (Experiments 1–2). We do not find a metaphorical framing effect but instead show that there is another process at play across the board which presumably has to do with simple exposure to textual information. Reading about crime increases people's preference for enforcement irrespective of metaphorical frame or metaphorical support of the frame. These findings suggest the existence of boundary conditions under which metaphors can have differential effects on reasoning. Thus, our four experiments provide converging evidence raising questions about when metaphors do and do not influence reasoning.
A semi-supervised clustering algorithm that integrates heterogeneous dissimilarities and data sources

Clustering algorithms depend strongly on the dissimilarity considered to evaluate the sample proximities. In real applications, several dissimilarities are available that may come from different object representations or data sources. Each dissimilarity provides usually complementary information about the problem. Therefore, they should be integrated in order to reflect accurately the object proximities.
Bioactive Compounds of Blueberries: Post-Harvest Factors Influencing the Nutritional Value of Products

Blueberries, besides having commonly-recognized taste properties, are also a valuable source of health-promoting bioactive compounds. For several decades, blueberries have gained in popularity all over the world, and recent years have seen not only an increase in fresh consumption, but also in the importance of blueberries for the processing industry. Blueberry processing mostly consists of freezing and juicing. Recently, more attention has been drawn to dewatering and drying, which are promising areas for developing novel blueberry products. Processing affects each biologically-active compound in a different way, and it is still unknown what changes those compounds undergo at the molecular level after the application of different processing technologies. This work presents the most recent state of knowledge about the pre-treatment and processing methods applied to blueberries and their influence on the content of biologically-active compounds. The presentation of methods is preceded by a brief overview of the characteristics of the blueberry species, a description of the chemical composition of the fruit and a short note about the main growing areas, production volumes and the management of fruit crops.
Getting Off on the Right Foot: The Effects of Initial Email Messages on Negotiation Process and Outcome

This paper examines the role that initial exchanges play in determining subsequent process and outcome in email-based negotiations, an increasingly popular means of conducting domestic and international negotiations. The results of the study suggest considerable symmetry between parties in terms of the quantity (words) and quality of initial messages. However, informal greetings, introductions, and proposal surfacing in these early exchanges played little role in determining the likelihood of an agreement or an integrative (win-win) outcome. In contrast, the parties' stated intentions of pursuing a mutually beneficial outcome and their exaggeration of initial offers significantly related to the likelihood of reaching an agreement. The implications of these findings for practitioners and future research are discussed.
The Rise and Fall of a Policy Rule: Monetarism at the St. Louis Fed, 1968-1986

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis played an important and highly visible role in the development and advocacy of stabilization policy based on the targeting of monetary aggregates. Research conducted at the St. Louis Bank extended earlier monetarist analysis that had focused on the role of money in explaining economic activity in the long run. Their success in finding apparently robust, stable relationships in both long- and short-run data led monetarists to apply long-run propositions to short-run policy questions, effectively competing with alternative views of the time. When the short-run correlation between money and economic activity went astray in the early 1980s, however, the efficacy of the monetarist rule and appeals for targeting monetary aggregates to achieve economic stabilization quickly lost credibility. This article traces the evolution of monetary policy research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis as it moved from the identification of long-run relationships between money and economic activity toward short-run policy analysis. The authors show how monetarists were lulled into advocating a short-run stabilization policy and argue that this experience councils against overconfidence in our ability to identify infallible rules for conducting short-run stabilization policy in general.
Imputing Rent in Consumption Measures, with an Application to Consumption Poverty in Canada, 1997–2009 (Imputer le loyer dans les mesures de consommation: une application `a la pauvret´e de consummation au Canada, 1997−2009)

Measures of household consumption-­which may be used to investigate average consumption growth, mor consumption poverty and inequality-­must account for the rental flow from owned accommodation. We consider two econometric problems relating to the imputation of rental flows for owned accommodation that have been thus far ignored in the literature on consumption poverty and inequality. First, using a Heckman-type correction, we account for quality differences correlated with selection into owner-occupied versus rental tenure. Using this correction increases the estimate of average household consumption by about 4 per cent in comparison with uncorrected estimates. Second, we propose a new way to measure poverty (or inequality) that accounts for the measurement error induced by the rent imputation. In particular, we argue that the researcher should impute a consumption distribution, rather than a single consumption level, for each household. We apply our methods to the measurement of consumption poverty in Canada. We estimate the rate of consumption poverty for all people, and for children and the elderly, over the period 1997-2009, allowing for interprovincial and intertemporal variation in commodity prices. Using a better rent imputation strategy matters a lot: the over-time pattern in poverty rates is quite different with the selection- and measurement-­error corrected approach. We find that poverty declined dramatically over the study period, and that, although substantial progress was been made on overall poverty and child poverty, poverty among the elderly did not decrease very much.
Quality Improvement and Information Technology Infrastructure Costs in Software Product Development : A Longitudinal Analysis

Information technology (IT) infrastructure activities include shared computing services like computer operations, data management, and configuration management. These activities facilitate, but are not directly involved in, software product development. IT infrastructure costs represent a substantial portion of firms’ IT budgets. This highlights the importance of innovations that yield significant cost savings in infrastructure activities. Although increasing evidence indicates that quality improvement reduces costs in software product development, it is not known whether IT infrastructure activities also benefit from quality improvement. In this study, we examine the link between software process maturity, product quality and the costs of infrastructure activities. We evaluate monthly cost data collected in IT infrastructure activity centers over ten years of software product development in a major IT company. During this time, the company advanced several levels in process maturity as assessed by the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model. We find that IT infrastructure activities benefit substantially from quality improvement. The greatest marginal cost reductions are realized in activities that occur later in the software product life cycle. Organizational inertia influences the rapidity with which the infrastructure activity centers benefit from higher product quality. Finally, our findings suggest diminishing returns to quality improvement in infrastructure activities.
Investigating Aging-Related Changes in the Coordination of Agonist and Antagonist Muscles Using Fuzzy Entropy and Mutual Information

Aging alters muscular coordination patterns. This study aimed to investigate aging-related changes in the coordination of agonist and antagonist muscles from two aspects, the activities of individual muscles and the inter-muscular coupling. Eighteen young subjects and 10 elderly subjects were recruited to modulate the agonist muscle activity to track a target during voluntary isometric elbow flexion and extension. Normalized muscle activation and fuzzy entropy (FuzzyEn) were applied to depict the activities of biceps and triceps. Mutual information (MI) was utilized to measure the inter-muscular coupling between biceps and triceps. The agonist activation decreased and the antagonist activation increased significantly during elbow flexion and extension with aging. FuzzyEn values of agonist electromyogram (EMG) were similar between the two age groups. FuzzyEn values of antagonist EMG increased significantly with aging during elbow extension. MI decreased significantly with aging during elbow extension. These results indicated increased antagonist co-activation and decreased inter-muscular coupling with aging during elbow extension, which might result from the reduced reciprocal inhibition and the recruitment of additional cortical-spinal pathways connected to biceps. Based on FuzzyEn and MI, this study provided a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying the aging-related changes in the coordination of agonist and antagonist muscles.
Reorganization and in Vivo Dynamics of Microtubules during Arabidopsis Root Hair Development[w]

Root hairs emerge from epidermal root cells (trichoblasts) and differentiate by highly localized tip growth. Microtubules (MTs) are essential for establishing and maintaining the growth polarity of root hairs. The current knowledge about the configuration of the MT cytoskeleton during root hair development is largely based on experiments on fixed material, and reorganization and in vivo dynamics of MTs during root hair development is at present unclear. This in vivo study provides new insights into the mechanisms of MT (re)organization during root hair development in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Expression of a binding site of the MT-associated protein-4 tagged with green fluorescent protein enabled imaging of MT nucleation, growth, and shortening and revealed distinct MT configurations. Depending on the dynamics of the different MT populations during root hair development, either repeated two-dimensional (x, y, t) or repeated three-dimensional (x, y, z, t) scanning was performed. Furthermore, a new image evaluation tool was developed to reveal important data on MT instability. The data show how MTs reorient after apparent contact with other MTs and support a model for MT alignment based on repeated reorientation of dynamic MT growth.