Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local receptors as novel regulators for peripheral clock expression

Mammalian circadian control is determined by a central clock in the brain suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and synchronized peripheral clocks in other tissues. Increasing evidence suggests that SCN‐independent regulation of peripheral clocks also occurs. We examined how activation of excitatory receptors influences the clock protein PERIOD 2 (PER2) in a contractile organ, the urinary bladder. PERIOD2:: LUCIFERASE‐knock‐in mice were used to report realtime PER2 circadian dynamics in the bladder tissue. Rhythmic PER2 activities occurred in the bladder wall with a cycle of ~24 h and peak at ~12 h. Activation of the muscarinic and purinergic receptors by agonists shifted the peak to an earlier time (7.2±2.0 and 7.2±0.9 h, respectively). PER2 expression was also sensitive to mechanical stimulation. Aging significantly dampened PER2 expression and its response to the agonists. Finally, muscarinic agonist‐induced smooth muscle contraction also exhibited circadian rhythm. These data identified novel regulators, endogenous receptors, in determining local clock activity, in addition to mediating the central control. Furthermore, the local clock appears to reciprocally align receptor activity to circadian rhythm for muscle contraction. The interaction between receptors and peripheral clock represents an important mechanism for maintaining physiological functions and its dysregulation may contribute to age‐related organ disorders. —Wu, C. , Sui, G. , Archer, S. N. , Sassone‐Corsi, P., Aitken, K. , Bagli, D. , Chen, Y. , Local receptors as novel regulators for peripheral clock expression. FASEB J. 28, 4610–4616 (2014). www.fasebj. org
The expectation mismatch effect in accentedness perception of Asian and Caucasian non-native speakers of English

Abstract Previous research on speech perception has found an effect of ethnicity, such that the same audio clip may be rated more accented when presented with an Asian face (Rubin, Donald L. 1992. Nonlanguage factors affecting undergraduates’ judgments of nonnative English-speaking teaching assistants. Research in Higher Education 33(4). 511–531. doi: 10.1007/bf00973770). However, most previous work has concentrated on Asian non-native English speakers, and Caucasian speakers remain under-explored. In this study, listeners carried out an accentedness rating task using stimuli from first language Korean, German, and English speakers in 3 conditions: audio only, video only, and audiovisual. Korean speakers received similar accentedness ratings regardless of condition, but German speakers were rated significantly less accented in the video condition and more accented in the audiovisual condition than the audio one. This result is explained as an expectation mismatch effect, whereby, when the listeners saw a Caucasian speaker they did not expect to hear a foreign accent, but if they actually heard one it was made more salient by their expectation to the contrary.
DETECTION OF SIMULTANEOUS ANTIBODY SYNTHESIS IN PLASMA CELLS AND SPECIALIZED LYMPHOCYTES IN RABBIT LYMPH NODES

Antibody to horseradish peroxidase was localized by electron microscopic immunocytochemistry in cells of the popliteal lymph nodes of the rabbit after a single injection of antigen with complete Freund's adjuvant and after a second antigen administration. Synthesis of antibody, chiefly of 7S type, occurred simultaneously in two types of cells: large, clear, fixed, typical plasma cells, and small, dense, circulating cells which exhibit morphological characteristics of both small lymphocytes and plasma cells. We call the latter "lymphoplasmacytes" and propose that they arise from small lymphocytes. They secrete antibody by clasmatosis and continue to develop an elaborate endoplasmic reticulum after specific antibody synthesis ceases. In the presence of an additional antigenic stimulation, a second cycle of antibody synthesis may begin around the nucleus in the same cell, with antibody accumulating in the perinuclear space sometimes even before the previously synthesized antibody has been entirely secreted at the cell periphery. On this basis, we propose that the lymphoplasmacyte is a memory cell and that memory and antibody synthesis are two different activities of the same cell. The appearance of a small amount of 19S antibody may be correlated with the presence of a small number of antibody-containing, large lymphocytes.
Measurement characteristics of peak expiratory flow.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To evaluate features of the peak expiratory flow (PEF) test protocol, and to characterize patterns of reproducibility in multiple PEF measurements. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING University population. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred twenty-three healthy adults. INTERVENTIONS Participants recorded five PEF measurements in each of five sessions per day for 1 week. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Patterns of within-session variability were characterized using a reproducibility criterion based on a large percentage difference between best trials and evidence of a maneuver-induced bronchospasm (MIB) indicated by successive drops of PEF values in a session. Although the maximum PEF value in a session occurred on the fourth or fifth trial 32% of the time, the change in PEF values was small. Supervision was associated with small improvements in level and reproducibility. Using a cutoff of 5% for defining reproducibility, 15% of all sessions were not reproducible. When averaged over each subject, 9% of the cohort had a mean difference > 5%. Overall, MIB was unusual and observed in 8% of all test sessions; however, MIB was more common among asthmatics and subjects with wheeze, atopy, or allergies than subjects without. By contrast, poor reproducibility was more common among smokers and subjects with cough and phlegm. CONCLUSIONS These results illustrate that it may be unnecessary to supervise all sessions or collect more than three efforts. Results also suggest that reproducibility reflects smoking-related abnormalities, whereas MIB may reflect airways hyperresponsiveness.
Large-Scale Diagnostics of Tropical Cyclogenesis Potential Using Environment Variability Metrics and Logistic Regression Models

AbstractThe authors propose that inclusion of medium- to high-frequency variability information will provide improved metrics of tropical cyclogenesis (TCG) applicable to climate GCM diagnostics. Capabilities of the Community Atmosphere Model version 3.1 (CAM3.1) GCM are assessed for detecting both large-scale and localized conditions for TCG in the tropical North Atlantic by comparison with the 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA-40) and observed TCG occurrences. CAM3.1 seasonality of large-scale environmental factors conducive to TCG compares favorably with the ERA-40. It is determined that most of the TCG-related high-frequency temporal variability in the ERA-40 is explained by dynamic variability; each of the CAM3.1 ensemble members has lower variability in these dynamic fields. Seventeen environmental variables are evaluated as potential indicators of TCG activity based on daily anomalous variability with respect to a 15-day base period. Principal component analy.
Conditioned respiratory threat in the subdivisions of the human periaqueductal gray

The sensation of breathlessness is the most threatening symptom of respiratory disease. The different subdivisions of the midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) are intricately (and differentially) involved in integrating behavioural responses to threat in animals, while the PAG has previously only been considered as a single entity in human research. Here we investigate how these individual PAG columns are differently involved with respiratory threat. Eighteen healthy subjects were conditioned to associate shapes with certain or uncertain impending respiratory load, and scanned the following day during anticipation and application of inspiratory loading using 7 T functional MRI. We showed activity in the ventrolateral PAG (vlPAG) during anticipation of resistive loading, with activity in the lateral PAG (lPAG) during resistive loading, revealing spatially and temporally distinct functions within this structure. We propose that lPAG is involved with sensorimotor responses to breathlessness, while the vlPAG operates within the threat perception network for impending breathlessness. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.12047. 001
Gradual Decline in Malaria-Specific Memory T Cell Responses Leads to Failure to Maintain Long-Term Protective Immunity to Plasmodium chabaudi AS Despite Persistence of B Cell Memory and Circulating Antibody1

The mechanisms responsible for the generation and maintenance of immunological memory to Plasmodium are poorly understood and the reasons why protective immunity in humans is so difficult to achieve and rapidly lost remain a matter for debate. A possible explanation for the difficulty in building up an efficient immune response against this parasite is the massive T cell apoptosis resulting from exposure to high-dose parasite Ag. To determine the immunological mechanisms required for long-term protection against P. chabaudi malaria and the consequences of high and low acute phase parasite loads for acquisition of protective immunity, we performed a detailed analysis of T and B cell compartments over a period of 200 days following untreated and drug-treated infections in female C57BL/6 mice. By comparing several immunological parameters with the capacity to control a secondary parasite challenge, we concluded that loss of full protective immunity is not determined by acute phase parasite load nor by serum levels of specific IgG2a and IgG1 Abs, but appears to be a consequence of the progressive decline in memory T cell response to parasites, which occurs similarly in untreated and drug-treated mice with time after infection. Furthermore, by analyzing adoptive transfer experiments, we confirmed the major role of CD4+ T cells for guaranteeing long-term full protection against P. chabaudi malaria.
The Nature and Challenges of Indigenous Psychologies

The indigenous psychologies (IPs) stress the importance of research being grounded in the conditions and culture of the researcher's own society due to the dominance of Western culture in mainstream psychology. The nature and challenges of the IPs are discussed from the perspectives of science studies and anthropology of knowledge (the study of human understanding in its social context). The Element describes general social conditions for the development of science and the IPs globally, and their development and form in some specific countries. Next, some more specific issues relating to the IPs are discussed. These issues include the nature of the IPs, scientific standards, type of culture concept favored, views on the philosophy of science, understanding of mainstream psychology, generalization of findings, and the IPs' isolation and independence. Finally, conclusions are drawn, for example with respect to the future of the IPs.
Personality Development in Emerging Adulthood

In Chapter 1, the authors describe the general purposes of the book, and more specifically, its focus on Erik Erikson’s approach to personality development, using Erikson’s own life as a way of illustrating some of the issues of the transition to adulthood as framed in his own theory. Erikson’s theory is then reviewed, and its role in the development of identity research streams, both traditional and narrative in nature, is outlined. The idea of emerging adulthood as a framework for thinking about historical changes in the patterning of the transition from adolescence to adulthood is introduced, and some of its insights and controversies are discussed, as well as its relations to the Erikson stage model. Finally, the chapter covers the history of the Futures Study of young Canadians making the transition to adulthood, and explains the general features of the sample and its broad patterns of development across this period.
Noisy Sparse Recovery Based on Parameterized Quadratic Programming by Thresholding

Parameterized quadratic programming (Lasso) is a powerful tool for the recovery of sparse signals based on underdetermined observations contaminated by noise. In this paper, we study the problem of simultaneous sparsity pattern recovery and approximation recovery based on the Lasso. An extended Lasso method is proposed with the following main contributions: (1) we analyze the recovery accuracy of Lasso under the condition of guaranteeing the recovery of nonzero entries positions. Specifically, an upper bound of the tuning parameter h of Lasso is derived. If h exceeds this bound, the recovery error will increase with h; (2) an extended Lasso algorithm is developed by choosing the tuning parameter according to the bound and at the same time deriving a threshold to recover zero entries from the output of the Lasso. The simulation results validate that our method produces higher probability of sparsity pattern recovery and better approximation recovery compared to two state-of-the-art Lasso methods.
The Central Role of Group-Based Hatred as an Emotional Antecedent of Political Intolerance: Evidence from Israel

In recent years, political scientists have shifted the focus of explaining political phenomena from the purely cognitive perspective to an integrated emotion‐cognition one. Yet most studies which examine antecedents of political intolerance ignore the potential role played by "gut feelings" or group‐based negative emotions in endorsing those attitudes. Moreover, even the few studies that deal with emotions and intolerance concentrate exclusively on the role of groups of emotions (positive vs. negative, dispositional vs. surveillance) or on basic emotions (anger or fear) and ignore the potential influence of more complex discrete emotions like hatred on political intolerance. Hence, the main goal of this study was to create a deeper understanding regarding the role of discrete negative emotions in increasing political intolerance among different groups of individuals in different contexts. In order to do so, the relations between political intolerance and three group‐based negative emotions (hatred, anger, and fear) were tested by means of four large‐scale nationwide surveys. Within the surveys, various intolerance measurement methods were used in various contexts (wartime vs. no‐war/routine periods) and among individuals with different levels of political sophistication. Results, obtained via multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling, show that: (1) Group‐based hatred is the most important antecedent of political intolerance even when controlling for important intolerance inducers such as perceived threat. (2) Other group‐based negative emotions like anger or fear influence political intolerance wholly through the mediation of hatred or perceived threat. (3) The role of group‐based hatred in inducing political intolerance is more substantial in the face of heightened existential threat and among unsophisticated individuals than among sophisticated ones.
Educational affordances of an asynchronous online discussion forum for language learners

Information and communications technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for innovation in educational practice. Among all the educational technological tools, online discussion forums represent one of the most extensively adopted educational media in higher education. Yet a review of the literature indicates a lack of empirical studies investigating how learners utilize this tool to afford their language learning. This study aims to address this gap in the literature. Using thematic analysis, postings of 20 second language (L2) learners in a peer-moderated online discussion forum were analysed. Qualitative thematic analysis of the data revealed that the online discussion forum facilitated the co-construction of subject matter knowledge and enhanced learners’ critical understanding. The postings also showed that during the interactive, collaborative inquiry, students encouraged and helped each other emotionally and academically which helped foster group affiliation and learner autonomy. These findings suggest that the online discussion forum has many affordances which are conducive to effective learning. The paper concludes with pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research.
On state aggregation for scalable QoS routing

State (topology) aggregation is the notion of reducing nodal as well as link information to achieve scaling in a large network. In this paper, we compare the performance of three different aggregation schemes, namely, the simple-node scheme, the full-mesh scheme, and the star scheme, which represent a given group of nodes by a single logical node, a complete graph between border nodes, and a star-like graph connecting all of the border nodes, respectively. We obtain transient performance measures for multi-service networks using our Z-iteration method. We restrict the set of candidate paths to short length paths as this has been shown to be an effective way to enhance network performance. Our simulation results indicate that under a uniformly distributed workload, the scheme that has more detailed topology information performs much better, as common sense suggests. More interestingly, however, we found that as the workload becomes skewed, i.e., as it concentrates around few "hot-spot" nodes, the simple-node scheme, which is considered to be the most inaccurate aggregation scheme, appears to perform at least as well as the full-mesh scheme, which on the contrary provides the most detailed information. We attribute this result to the conflicting goals of network utilization efficiency and network load balancing, a conflict that arises when restricting the set of candidate paths.
From the SelectedWorks of Gin McCollum 2007 Spatial Symmetry Groups as Sensorimotor Guidelines

While some aspects of neuroanatomical organization are related to packing and access rather than to function, other aspects of anatomical/physiological organization are directly related to function. The mathematics of symmetry groups can be used to determine logical structure in projections and to relate it to function. This paper reviews two studies of the symmetry groups of vestibular projections that are related to the spatial functions of the vestibular complex, including gaze, posture, and movement. These logical structures have been determined by finding symmetry groups of two vestibular projections directly from physiological and anatomical data. Logical structures in vestibular projections are distinct from mapping properties such as the ability to maintain twoand three-dimensional coordinate systems; rather, they provide anatomical/physiological foundations for these mapping properties. The symmetry group of the direct projection from the semicircular canal primary afferents to neck motor neurons is that of the cube (O, the octahedral group), which can serve as a discrete skeleton for coordinate systems in three-dimensional space. The symmetry group of the canal projection from the secondary vestibular afferents to the inferior olive and thence to the cerebellar uvula-nodulus is that of the square (D8), which can support coordinates for the horizontal plane. While the mathematical relationship between these symmetry groups and functions of the vestibular complex are clear, these studies open a larger question: what is the causal logic by which neural centers and their intrinsic organization affect each other and behavior? The relationship of vestibular projection symmetry groups to spatial function make them ideal projections for investigating this causal logic. The symmetry group results are discussed in relationship to possible ways they communicate spatial structure to other neural centers and format spatial functions such as body movements. These two projection symmetry groups suggest that all vestibular projections may have symmetry groups significantly related to function, perhaps all to spatial
The lognormal handwriter: learning, performing, and declining

The generation of handwriting is a complex neuromotor skill requiring the interaction of many cognitive processes. It aims at producing a message to be imprinted as an ink trace left on a writing medium. The generated trajectory of the pen tip is made up of strokes superimposed over time. The Kinematic Theory of rapid human movements and its family of lognormal models provide analytical representations of these strokes, often considered as the basic unit of handwriting. This paradigm has not only been experimentally confirmed in numerous predictive and physiologically significant tests but it has also been shown to be the ideal mathematical description for the impulse response of a neuromuscular system. This latter demonstration suggests that the lognormality of the velocity patterns can be interpreted as reflecting the behavior of subjects who are in perfect control of their movements. To illustrate this interpretation, we present a short overview of the main concepts behind the Kinematic Theory and briefly describe how its models can be exploited, using various software tools, to investigate these ideal lognormal behaviors. We emphasize that the parameters extracted during various tasks can be used to analyze some underlying processes associated with their realization. To investigate the operational convergence hypothesis, we report on two original studies. First, we focus on the early steps of the motor learning process as seen as a converging behavior toward the production of more precise lognormal patterns as young children practicing handwriting start to become more fluent writers. Second, we illustrate how aging affects handwriting by pointing out the increasing departure from the ideal lognormal behavior as the control of the fine motricity begins to decline. Overall, the paper highlights this developmental process of merging toward a lognormal behavior with learning, mastering this behavior to succeed in performing a given task, and then gradually deviating from it with aging.
Influence of Klotho gene polymorphisms on vascular gene expression and its relationship to cardiovascular disease

Klotho protein has been associated with beneficial effects that contribute to the maintenance of cardiovascular health. Diverse studies suggest that alterations in the levels of this molecule may be associated with pathophysiological abnormalities that result in increased cardiovascular risk. The primary aim of this proof‐of‐concept study was to analyse the existence of a potential link between Klotho gene polymorphisms and the expression level of this gene in the vascular wall, and additionally with the incidence of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular risk factors. Our results indicate that the variant G‐395A, located in the promoter region, influences Klotho gene vascular expression and is associated with the incidence of diabetes. Similarly, the exonic variant KL‐VS was associated with the incidence of atherosclerotic vascular disease and coronary artery disease. Moreover, vascular expression levels of Klotho were related with the incidence of diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease. These findings, which need to be confirmed in larger studies, suggest a potential role of Klotho in the pathogenesis of vascular damage.