Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accumulation of Zinc in Degenerating Hippocampal Neurons of ZnT3-Null Mice after Seizures: Evidence against Synaptic Vesicle Origin

In several brain injury models, zinc accumulates in degenerating neuronal somata. Suggesting that such zinc accumulation may play a causal role in neurodegeneration, zinc chelation attenuates neuronal death. Because histochemically reactive zinc is present in and released from synaptic vesicles of glutamatergic neurons in the forebrain, it was proposed that zinc translocation from presynaptic terminals to postsynaptic neurons may be the mechanism of toxic zinc accumulation. To test this hypothesis, kainate seizure-induced neuronal death was examined in zinc transporter 3 gene (ZnT3)-null mice, a strain that completely lacks histochemically reactive zinc in synaptic vesicles. Intraperitoneal injection of kainate induced seizures to a similar degree in wild type and ZnT3-null mice. Staining of hippocampal sections with a zinc-specific fluorescent dye, N-(6-methoxy-8-quinolyl)-p-carboxybenzoylsulfonamide, revealed that zinc accumulated in degenerating CA1 and CA3 neurons in both groups, indicating that zinc originated from sources other than synaptic vesicles. Injection of CaEDTA into the cerebral ventricle almost completely blocked zinc accumulation in ZnT3-null mice, suggesting that increases in extracellular zinc concentrations may be a critical event for zinc accumulation. Arguing against the possibility that zinc accumulation results from nonspecific breakdown of zinc-containing proteins, injection of kainate into the cerebellum did not induce zinc accumulation in degenerating granule neurons. Taken together, these results support the existing idea that zinc is released into extracellular space and then enters neurons to exert a cytotoxic effect. However, the origin of zinc is not likely to be synaptic vesicles, because zinc accumulation robustly occurs in ZnT3-null mice lacking synaptic vesicle zinc.
Festivals, Space and Sexuality: Gay Pride in Australia

Abstract This paper explores the emergence of gay pride festivals in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, in the wake of the emergence and consolidation of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as one of the pre-eminent international tourism festivals staged in Australia. We argue that to understand the crucial role gay pride festivals play in processes of social change surrounding sexuality Down-Under it is essential to take spatiality seriously. We offer an interpretation of the sexual politics of festival spaces which is committed to relational thinking, openness and recognition of differences and multiplicities. Our interpretation draws on a discourse analysis of lesbian and gay media reports documenting reactions to the establishment of ‘new’ gay pride festivals. Discourses of pride have been negotiated and adopted in quite different ways by each of the festivals examined. Alert to the necessity to take spatiality seriously, gay pride events are shown politically to be ambiguous spaces, which may be sites of ambivalence, or ritualized resistance, or alternatively they may be contested sites.
Collaborative learning of stochastic bandits over a social network

We consider a collaborative online learning paradigm, wherein a group of agents connected through a social network are engaged in playing a stochastic multi-armed bandit game. Each time an agent takes an action, the corresponding reward is instantaneously observed by the agent, as well as its neighbours in the social network. We perform a regret analysis of various policies in this collaborative learning setting. A key finding of this paper is that natural extensions of widely-studied single agent learning policies to the network setting need not perform well in terms of regret. In particular, we identify a class of non-altruistic and individually consistent policies, and argue by deriving regret lower bounds that they are liable to suffer a large regret in the networked setting. We also show that the learning performance can be substantially improved if the agents exploit the structure of the network, and develop a simple learning algorithm based on dominating sets of the network. Specifically, we first consider a star network, which is a common motif in hierarchical social networks, and show analytically that the hub agent can be used as an information sink to expedite learning and improve the overall regret. We also derive network-wide regret bounds for the algorithm applied to general networks. We conduct numerical experiments on a variety of networks to corroborate our analytical results.
Seizure detection with common spatial pattern and Support Vector Machines

This paper extends the use of the Common Spatial Pattern (CSP) algorithm for epileptic Electroencephalography (EEG) seizure detection. The CSP algorithm is applied on EEG signal derivative, which contains reinforced details of the signal. The main idea of the proposed approach is to apply a differentiator on the multi-channel EEG signal, and hence the signal is segmented into overlapping segments. Each segment is projected on a CSP projection matrix to extract the training and testing features. In selecting the training period, a leave-one-hour-out cross validation strategy is adopted. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is then trained with the training features to classify inter-ictal and ictal segments. Two variants of the CSP are presented and tested in this paper; the original CSP and the Diagonal Loading CSP.
Access of phonological and orthographic lexical forms : evidence from dissociations in reading and spelling

A. Caramazza, Access of Phonological and Orthographic Lexical Forms: Evidence from Dissociations in Reading and Spelling. J.R. Hanley, V. McDonnell, Are Reading and Spelling Phonologically Mediated? Evidence from a Patient with a Speech Production Impairment. G. Miceli, B. Benvegnu, R. Capasso, A. Carmazza, The Independence of Phonological and Orthoraphic Lexical Forms: Evidence from Aphasia. B. Rapp, L. Benzing, A. Caramazza, The Autonomy of Lexical Orthography. J.R. Shelton, M. Weinrich, Further Evidence of a Dissociation Between Output Phonological and Orthographic Lexicons: A Case Study. G.C. Van Orden, M.A. Jansen op de Haar, A.M.T. Bosman, Complex Dynamic Systems also Predict Dissociations, but They Do Not Reduce to Autonomous Components. M. Coltheart, V. Coltheart, Reading Comprehension is not Exclusively Reliant Upon Phonological Representation. A.Caramazza, How Many Levels of Processing Are There in Lexical Access?
ATCache: Reducing DRAM cache latency via a small SRAM tag cache

3D-stacking technology has enabled the option of embedding a large DRAM onto the processor. Prior works have proposed to use this as a DRAM cache. Because of its large size (a DRAM cache can be in the order of hundreds of megabytes), the total size of the tags associated with it can also be quite large (in the order of tens of megabytes). The large size of the tags has created a problem. Should we maintain the tags in the DRAM and pay the cost of a costly tag access in the critical path? Or should we maintain the tags in the faster SRAM by paying the area cost of a large SRAM for this purpose? Prior works have primarily chosen the former and proposed a variety of techniques for reducing the cost of a DRAM tag access. In this paper, we first establish (with the help of a study) that maintaining the tags in SRAM, because of its smaller access latency, leads to overall better performance. Motivated by this study, we ask if it is possible to maintain tags in SRAM without incurring high area overhead. Our key idea is simple. We propose to cache the tags in a small SRAM tag cache — we show that there is enough spatial and temporal locality amongst tag accesses to merit this idea. We propose the ATCache which is a small SRAM tag cache. Similar to a conventional cache, the ATCache caches recently accessed tags to exploit temporal locality; it exploits spatial locality by prefetching tags from nearby cache sets. In order to avoid the high miss latency and cache pollution caused by excessive prefetching, we use a simple technique to throttle the number of sets prefetched. Our proposed ATCache (which consumes 0.4% of overall tag size) can satisfy over 60% of DRAM cache tag accesses on average.
Hierarchical Decline of the Initiative and Performance of Complex Activities of Daily Living in Dementia

Objectives: While basic activities of daily living hierarchically decline in dementia, little is known about the decline of individual instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). The objective of this study was to assess initiative and performance deficits in IADLs in dementia. Methods: A total of 581 carers completed the revised Interview for Deterioration in Daily Living Activities in Dementia 2 to rate their relative’s everyday functioning. Results: Initiating and performing IADLs deteriorated hierarchically, while people with dementia were consistently most impaired in initiating using the computer and managing finances. Initiating preparing a cold or hot meal and managing finances were more impaired than their performance, whereas performing maintaining an active social life for example were more impaired than their initiative. Conclusion: Findings can help identify the severity of dementia by understanding deficits in initiative and performance. This study has implications for the development of targeted interventions depending on the stage of dementia.
Genotyping of the JC virus in urine samples of healthy Korean individuals

A human polyomavirus, JC virus (JCV) is ubiquitous in humans and infects children asymptomatically. It persists in renal tissue and is excreted progeny in urine. DNAs from urine samples of 100 healthy Korean individuals were screened for the presence of JCV by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Twenty of the samples were positive for JCV. JCV DNA was found in one individual (4%) in the 1–19‐year group, two individuals (9%) in the 20–39‐year group, ten individuals (38%) in the 40–59‐year group, seven individuals (28%) in the over 60‐year group. The prevalence of JC viral DNA was the highest in the 40–59‐year‐old Korean population. To investigate genotypes of JCV in Korea, the genotypes were determined by DNA sequence analysis of the regulatory region (333 bp) and the VT‐intergenic region (656 bp) of DNA from the 20 JCV isolates. We have identified three distinctive JCV strains in the regulatory region and ten distinctive JCV strains in the VT‐intergenic region of DNA from the 20 isolates. Based on restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and phylogenetic analysis of the VT‐intergenic region of JCV, two distinct subtypes, CY and type 2A (MY), were found to be prevalent in this Korean population. CY and type 2A of JCV were identified in 13 individuals (65%) and four individuals (20%), respectively. Interestingly, type 1, which was distributed mostly in Europe, was found in 3 (15%) isolates from healthy Korean individuals. J. Med. Virol. 72:281–289, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Constitutive water-conserving mechanisms are correlated with the terminal drought tolerance of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.]

Pearl millet, a key staple crop of the semi-arid tropics, is mostly grown in water-limited conditions, and improving its performance depends on how genotypes manage limited water resources. This study investigates whether the control of water loss under non-limiting water conditions is involved in the terminal drought tolerance of pearl millet. Two pairs of tolerant×sensitive pearl millet genotypes, PRLT 2/89-33–H77/833-2 and 863B-P2–ICMB 841-P3, and near-isogenic lines (NILs), introgressed with a terminal drought tolerance quantitative trait locus (QTL) from the donor parent PRLT 2/89-33 into H77/833-2 (NILs-QTL), were tested. Upon exposure to water deficit, transpiration began to decline at lower fractions of transpirable soil water (FTSW) in tolerant than in sensitive genotypes, and NILs-QTL followed the pattern of the tolerant parents. The transpiration rate (Tr, in g water loss cm−2 d−1) under well-watered conditions was lower in tolerant than in sensitive parental genotypes, and the Tr of NILs-QTL followed the pattern of the tolerant parents. In addition, Tr measured in detached leaves (g water loss cm−2 h−1) from field-grown plants of the parental lines showed lower Tr values in tolerant parents. Defoliation led to an increase in Tr that was higher in sensitive than in tolerant genotypes. The differences in Tr between genotypes was not related to the stomatal density. These results demonstrate that constitutive traits controlling leaf water loss under well-watered conditions correlate with the terminal drought tolerance of pearl millet. Such traits may lead to more water being available for grain filling under terminal drought.
Labeling with indocyanine green of serum protein from normal persons and patients with acute viral hepatitis.

Sera from normal persons and patients with acute viral hepatitis were mixed with indocyanine green (ICG), then fractionated on Sephadex G-200 columns. Alternate portions of the effluent were examined spectrophotometrically at 280 nm (for protein content) and at 800 nm (for ICG concentration). In most normal sera, three distinct ICG peaks were distinguished, the first and third corresponding exactly to the position of protein peaks, the second being most frequently shifted slightly toward heavier protein fractions. By graphic analysis, up to three additional masked peaks were usually detected in ICG curves. The individual fractions on ICG curves were numbered from I to VI, beginning with the fraction of greatest molecular weight. In the acute phase of viral hepatitis, the ICG curve was characteristically changed: fraction IV decreased significantly or even disappeared, and fraction I simultaneously increased. Fractions III and V also increased, but less. These changes in the ICG curves may result from interaction between serum proteins and liver cell proteins originating from damaged liver cells, an interaction leading to the formation of complexes of high molecular weight.
Using MBES backscatter strength measurements for assessing a shallow water soft sediment environment

Shallow water naval operations require detailed knowledge of the environmental characteristics. In this context, the BP'07 experiment was carried out in the Mediterranean Sea, south-east of Elba Island, in 2007. Measurements that were taken during this experiment employ a large set of sensors, thereby providing all information required to fully describe the environment.
A Comparison of Central Composite Design and Taguchi Method for Optimizing Fenton Process

In the present study, a comparison of central composite design (CCD) and Taguchi method was established for Fenton oxidation. [Dye]ini, Dye : Fe+2, H2O2 : Fe+2, and pH were identified control variables while COD and decolorization efficiency were selected responses. L 9 orthogonal array and face-centered CCD were used for the experimental design. Maximum 99% decolorization and 80% COD removal efficiency were obtained under optimum conditions. R squared values of 0.97 and 0.95 for CCD and Taguchi method, respectively, indicate that both models are statistically significant and are in well agreement with each other. Furthermore, Prob > F less than 0.0500 and ANOVA results indicate the good fitting of selected model with experimental results. Nevertheless, possibility of ranking of input variables in terms of percent contribution to the response value has made Taguchi method a suitable approach for scrutinizing the operating parameters. For present case, pH with percent contribution of 87.62% and 66.2% was ranked as the most contributing and significant factor. This finding of Taguchi method was also verified by 3D contour plots of CCD. Therefore, from this comparative study, it is concluded that Taguchi method with 9 experimental runs and simple interaction plots is a suitable alternative to CCD for several chemical engineering applications.
Using a flexibility constrained 3D statistical shape model for robust MRF-based segmentation

In this paper we propose a novel segmentation method that integrates prior shape knowledge obtained from a 3D statistical model into the Markov Random Field (MRF) segmentation framework to deal with severe artifacts, noise and shape deformations. The statistical model is learned using a Probabilistic Principal Component Analysis (PPCA), which allows us to reconstruct the optimal shape and to compute the remaining variance of the statistical model from partial information. The statistical model, with its remaining variance, can then be used to constrain the shape space, which is a more efficient shape update as compared to a regularization-based shape model reconstruction. The reconstructed shape is optimized over an edge weighted unsigned distance map calculated from the current segmentation, and is then used as a shape prior for the next iteration of the segmentation. We show the robustness to high-density imaging artifacts of the proposed method by providing a quantitative and qualitative evaluation to the challenging problem of 3D masseter muscles segmentation from CT datasets.
Effects of cyantraniliprole, a novel anthranilic diamide insecticide, against Asian citrus psyllid under laboratory and field conditions.

BACKGROUND The Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), is the most destructive pest of citrus in Florida. The development of insecticide resistance in several populations of D. citri has been documented. There is an urgent need to develop and integrate novel tools for the successful management of D. citri and also to prevent the development of insecticide resistance. RESULTS The effects of a relatively newer chemistry, cyantraniliprole, against D. citri were investigated. The contact toxicity of cyantraniliprole was 297-fold higher against D. citri than its primary parasitoid, Tamarixia radiata (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae). D. citri settled and fed less on cyantraniliprole-treated plants than controls at concentrations as low as 0.025 and 0.125 µg AI mL⁻¹ respectively. D. citri egg production, first-instar emergence and adult emergence were significantly reduced on plants treated with 0.25, 0.02 and 0.25 µg AI mL⁻¹ of cyantraniliprole, respectively, when compared with control plants. Under field conditions, foliar and drench treatments with cyantraniliprole (1436.08 g ha⁻¹) reduced numbers of D. citri adults and nymphs, as well as of a secondary pest, citrus leafminer, Phyllocnistis citrella (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae), more than a standard insecticide. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that cyantraniliprole should be a valuable new tool for rotation into D. citri management programs. For insecticide resistance management, cyantraniliprole may be particularly useful for rotation with neonicotinoids. In addition, cyantraniliprole was much less toxic to T. radiata than to D. citri and thus may have less impact on biological control than other currently used broad-spectrum insecticides, such as organophosphates and pyrethroids.
Optimization of thermoelectric efficiency in SnTe: the case for the light band.

p-Type PbTe is an outstanding high temperature thermoelectric material with zT of 2 at high temperatures due to its complex band structure which leads to high valley degeneracy. Lead-free SnTe has a similar electronic band structure, which suggests that it may also be a good thermoelectric material. However, stoichiometric SnTe is a strongly p-type semiconductor with a carrier concentration of about 1 × 10(20) cm(-3), which corresponds to a minimum Seebeck coefficient and zT. While in the case of p-PbTe (and n-type La3Te4) one would normally achieve higher zT by using high carrier density in order to populate the secondary band with higher valley degeneracy, SnTe behaves differently. It has a very light, upper valence band which is shown in this work to provide higher zT than doping towards the heavier second band. Therefore, decreasing the hole concentration to maximize the performance of the light band results in higher zT than doping into the high degeneracy heavy band. Here we tune the electrical transport properties of SnTe by decreasing the carrier concentration with iodine doping, and increasing the carrier concentration with Gd doping or by making the samples Te deficient. A peak zT value of 0.6 at 700 K was obtained for SnTe0.985I0. 015 which optimizes the light, upper valence band, which is about 50% higher than the other peak zT value of 0.4 for GdzSn1-zTe and SnTe1+y which utilize the high valley degeneracy secondary valence band.
BRAF Inhibition Increases Tumor Infiltration by T cells and Enhances the Antitumor Activity of Adoptive Immunotherapy in Mice

Purpose: Treatment of melanoma patients with selective BRAF inhibitors results in objective clinical responses in the majority of patients with BRAF-mutant tumors. However, resistance to these inhibitors develops within a few months. In this study, we test the hypothesis that BRAF inhibition in combination with adoptive T-cell transfer (ACT) will be more effective at inducing long-term clinical regressions of BRAF-mutant tumors. Experimental Design: BRAF-mutated human melanoma tumor cell lines transduced to express gp100 and H-2Db to allow recognition by gp100-specific pmel-1 T cells were used as xenograft models to assess melanocyte differentiation antigen–independent enhancement of immune responses by BRAF inhibitor PLX4720. Luciferase-expressing pmel-1 T cells were generated to monitor T-cell migration in vivo. The expression of VEGF was determined by ELISA, protein array, and immunohistochemistry. Importantly, VEGF expression after BRAF inhibition was tested in a set of patient samples. Results: We found that administration of PLX4720 significantly increased tumor infiltration of adoptively transferred T cells in vivo and enhanced the antitumor activity of ACT. This increased T-cell infiltration was primarily mediated by the ability of PLX4720 to inhibit melanoma tumor cell production of VEGF by reducing the binding of c-myc to the VEGF promoter. Furthermore, analysis of human melanoma patient tumor biopsies before and during BRAF inhibitor treatment showed downregulation of VEGF consistent with the preclinical murine model. Conclusion: These findings provide a strong rationale to evaluate the potential clinical application of combining BRAF inhibition with T-cell–based immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with melanoma. Clin Cancer Res; 19(2); 393–403. ©2012 AACR.
Current approach to radial nerve paralysis.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this article, the participant should be able to: 1. Identify all potential points of radial nerve compression and other likely causes of radial nerve injury. 2. Accurately diagnose both surgical and nonsurgical causes of radial nerve paralysis. 3. Define a safe and effective approach to the surgical release and reconstruction of the radial nerve. Radial nerve paralysis, which can result from a complex humerus fracture, direct nerve trauma, compressive neuropathies, neuritis, or (rarely) from malignant tumor formation, has been reported throughout the literature, with some controversy regarding its diagnosis and management. The appropriate management of any radial nerve palsy depends primarily on an accurate determination of its cause, severity, duration, and level of involvement. The radial nerve can be injured as proximally as the brachial plexus or as distally as the posterior interosseous or radial sensory nerve. This article reviews the etiology, prognosis, and various treatments available for radial nerve paralysis. It also provides a new classification system and treatment algorithm to assist in the management of patients with radial nerve palsies, and it offers a simple, five-step approach to radial nerve release in the forearm.