Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spectral Analysis of EEG in Familial Alzheimer's Disease with E280A Presenilin-1 Mutation Gene

To evaluate the hypothesis that quantitative EEG (qEEG) analysis is susceptible to detect early functional changes in familial Alzheimer's disease (AD) preclinical stages. Three groups of subjects were selected from five extended families with hereditary AD: a Probable AD group (18 subjects), an asymptomatic carrier (ACr) group (21 subjects), with the mutation but without any clinical symptoms of dementia, and a normal group of 18 healthy subjects. In order to reveal significant differences in the spectral parameter, the Mahalanobis distance (D 2) was calculated between groups. To evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of this statistic D 2, the ROC models were used. The ROC curve was summarized by accuracy index and standard deviation. The D 2 using the parameters of the energy in the fast frequency bands shows accurate discrimination between normal and ACr groups (area ROC = 0.89) and between AD probable and ACr groups (area ROC = 0.91). This is more significant in temporal regions. Theses parameters could be affected before the onset of the disease, even when cognitive disturbance is not clinically evident. Spectral EEG parameter could be firstly used to evaluate subjects with E280A Presenilin-1 mutation without impairment in cognitive function.
Type 1 diabetes susceptibility determined by HLA alleles and CTLA-4 and insulin genes polymorphisms in Brazilians.

INTRODUCTION Type 1A diabetes mellitus (T1ADM) is a multifactorial disease in which genetic and environmental aspects are important to its development. The association of genetic variations with disease has been demonstrated in several studies; however, the role of some gene loci has not yet been fully elucidated. OBJECTIVE To compare the frequency of HLA alleles and polymorphism in CTLA-4 and insulin genes in Brazilians with T1ADM and individuals without the disease, as well as to identify genetic markers that are able to discriminate between diabetic and non-diabetic individuals. METHODS The presence of HLA DQB1, DQA1 and DRB1 alleles, as well as the -2221 MspI polymorphism in the insulin gene and 49 A/G in the CTLA-4 gene were identified by the 'Time-resolved fluorometer' technique after hybridization with probes labeled with Eu (III) / Sm (III) and Tb (III). RESULTS The DQB1 *0302 and DQA1 *03 alleles were identified as predisposed to T1ADM, and the DQB1 *0301 allele presented a protective effect against the disease.The DQA1 label proved to be able to differentiate between 71.13% of the diabetic and non-diabetic individuals.This value increased to 82.47% when the DQB1 label was added. No significant difference in the frequency of polymorphisms in the insulin and CTLA-4 genes was observed between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS The genetic markers that best characterized and discriminated diabetic and non-diabetic individuals were the HLA DQA1 and DQB1.alleles.
A Genetically Encoded FRET Lactate Sensor and Its Use To Detect the Warburg Effect in Single Cancer Cells

Lactate is shuttled between and inside cells, playing metabolic and signaling roles in healthy tissues. Lactate is also a harbinger of altered metabolism and participates in the pathogenesis of inflammation, hypoxia/ischemia, neurodegeneration and cancer. Many tumor cells show high rates of lactate production in the presence of oxygen, a phenomenon known as the Warburg effect, which has diagnostic and possibly therapeutic implications. In this article we introduce Laconic, a genetically-encoded Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)-based lactate sensor designed on the bacterial transcription factor LldR. Laconic quantified lactate from 1 µM to 10 mM and was not affected by glucose, pyruvate, acetate, betahydroxybutyrate, glutamate, citrate, α-ketoglutarate, succinate, malate or oxalacetate at concentrations found in mammalian cytosol. Expressed in astrocytes, HEK cells and T98G glioma cells, the sensor allowed dynamic estimation of lactate levels in single cells. Used in combination with a blocker of the monocarboxylate transporter MCT, the sensor was capable of discriminating whether a cell is a net lactate producer or a net lactate consumer. Application of the MCT-block protocol showed that the basal rate of lactate production is 3–5 fold higher in T98G glioma cells than in normal astrocytes. In contrast, the rate of lactate accumulation in response to mitochondrial inhibition with sodium azide was 10 times lower in glioma than in astrocytes, consistent with defective tumor metabolism. A ratio between the rate of lactate production and the rate of azide-induced lactate accumulation, which can be estimated reversibly and in single cells, was identified as a highly sensitive parameter of the Warburg effect, with values of 4.1 ± 0.5 for T98G glioma cells and 0.07 ± 0.007 for astrocytes. In summary, this article describes a genetically-encoded sensor for lactate and its use to measure lactate concentration, lactate flux, and the Warburg effect in single mammalian cells.
Flocking in Dynamical Networks Using Fuzzy Logic

In this study, flocking motion control algorithm of multi-agent network with dynamical topology is studied using fuzzy logic. Cooperative control algorithm is proposed for a group of autonomous agents to achieve flocking formations following a virtual agent. The control law consists of three terms. The first term is a gradient-based one designed using fuzzy logic; The second and third ones are for velocity consensus and tracking purposes, respectively. The virtual agent is introduced to represent a group objective for tracking or motion planning pur- poses. Smooth graph Laplacian and Smooth attractive/repulsive potential designed using fuzzy logic are used to overcome the difficulties in stability analysis. The theoretical result is presented to indicate the achievement of flocking motion (cohesiveness, collision avoidance and velocity matching). Finally, simulation example is given to validate the theoretical analysis.
Holding intruders accountable on the Internet

This paper addresses the problem of tracing intruders who obscure their identity by logging through a chain of multiple machines. After discussing previous approaches to this problem, we introduce thumbprints which are short summaries of the content of a connection. These can be compared to determine whether two connections contain the same text and are therefore likely to be part of the same connection chain. We enumerate the properties a thumbprint needs to have to work in practice, and then define a class of local thumbprints which have the desired properties. A methodology from multivariate statistics called principal component analysis is used to infer the best choice of thumbprinting parameters from data. Currently our thumbprints require 24 bytes per minute per connection. We develop an algorithm to compare these thumbprints which allows for the possibility that data may leak from one time-interval to the next. We present experimental data showing that our scheme works on a local area network. <<ETX>>
Job demands and resources scale for physical education teachers: Is it valid in Turkish culture?

The aim of the study was to adapt job demands and resources scale for Physical Education (PE) teachers into Turkish language. Two hundered and nineteen PE teachers participated in this study. In the scope of validity analyses of the scale, different techniques were used and expert opinion was obtained for the language content validity, while exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed for construct validity. Results of EFA showed that two main factors explained 34.91% of variance. CFA results revealed that the indices examined in terms of construct were at a good level with regards to data fit. In reliability analyses, internal consistency coefficient was calculated as 0.74 for the whole, 0.81 for job demands and 0.74 for job resources from the main factors. Results reveal that job demands-resources scale for PE teachers is reliable and valid for Turkish population. Keywords: Physical education teacher, job demands, job resources, validity, reliability.
Issues related to the presence of Japanese loanwords of English origin on vocabulary size tests

This paper outlines a small-scale study investigating whether the presence of Japanese loanwords of English origin in a vocabulary size test results in higher test scores for Japanese students. A vocabulary test featuring 20 loanwords and 20 non-loanwords from different frequency levels was administered to 111 students of English in a private university in Japan. Aggregate test scores and a paired samples t-test suggest that students are more likely to answer questions correctly when test items focus on vocabulary used as loanwords in Japanese. The results of a Rasch analysis also suggest that item difficulty is dictated by both word frequency and status as a loanword. The results have positive implications for language teachers in that loanwords can be viewed as a useful pedagogical tool.
Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce Challenges of Marketing E-banking Services in a Developing Country: the Case of Ghana

Narteh also consults for a number of public and private sector organizations in Ghana. Abstract Even though there is a plethora of studies investigating the challenges of adopting e-banking services, a search through the literature indicates that prior studies have investigated either user adoption challenges or the bank implementation challenges. This study integrated both perspectives to provide a broader conceptual framework for investigating challenges banks face in marketing e-banking services in developing country such as Ghana. The results from the mixed method study indicated that institutional–based challenges as well as user-based challenges affect the marketing of e-banking products in Ghana. The strategic implications of the findings for marketing e-banking services are discussed to guide managers to implement e-banking services in Ghana.
Separable adaptive interpolation filter for video coding

Motion-compensated prediction using fractional-pel motion vectors followed by transform coding of the resulting prediction error is used in hybrid video coding. In the case of fractional-pel motion, pixels at fractional-pel positions have to be determined by interpolation. For this purpose, fixed interpolation filters are applied in H.264/AVC. By using fixed interpolation filters, time varying effects such as aliasing, quantization errors, errors from inaccurate motion estimation, camera noise, etc cannot be considered accurately. Thus, the coding efficiency of the motion compensated prediction is limited. The concept of adaptive interpolation filtering addresses these effects resulting in an increased coding efficiency. Since a non-separable adaptive filter is used in prior art, it is associated with a significantly increased computational expense at encoder and decoder. In order to reduce the computational expense, a separable adaptive interpolation filtering is proposed in this paper that achieves the same coding efficiency than the non-separable adaptive filter. With this separable interpolation filter, the computational expense of the filtering is reduced by 24% in case of 4times4 motion-compensated blocks, 36% in case of 8times8 motion-compensated blocks, and 42% in case of 16times16 motion-compensated blocks compared to a non-separable filter, whereas the computational expense is measured by the number of calculation operations.
Digital image processing of optical density wave propagation in Dictyostelium discoideum and analysis of the effects of caffeine and ammonia

Waves of chemotactic movement during the early phase of aggregation in Dictyostelium discoideum were analyzed by digital image processing in a manner that immediately shows the following parameters: wave propagation velocity, period length, wave amplitude und wave shape. We have characterized the aggregation of AX-2 and the streamer F mutant NP 377 in terms of these parameters and investigated the influence of caffeine and ammonia. It was found that during normal aggregation oscillation frequency increases while at the same time wave propagation velocity decreases. Caffeine, a known inhibitor of cyclic AMP relay, reduces oscillation frequency and wave propagation velocity in a dose-dependent manner but most notably leads to the appearance of bimodal (harmonic) oscillations. These bimodal waves are also found in streamer F mutants without caffeine during early aggregation. The effect of caffeine is interpreted as an increase in the average chemotactic deadaptation time due to elevated cyclic GMP levels after a cyclic AMP stimulus. This increased deadaptation time results in some cells responding to every chemotactic signal, while others respond only to every second signal, leading to mixed population behavior and hence biphasic optical density waves. Ammonia has no significant influence on oscillation frequency and wave propagation velocity but shows a clear increase in the amplitude of the optical density waves. This may indicate a more vigorous chemotactic response by individual cells or a better synchronization of the responding cell populations due to shortened chemotactic deadaptation times.
The Economics and Econometrics of Innovation Overview

During the past few decades, the interest of economists in the sources of long run economic growth has led an increasing number to focus their attention on the role of innovation in creating that growth. Although some researchers have always been interested in this topic, in the last few years many others have recognized the central role played by innovation in almost all spheres of economic activity. Taking a somewhat U.S.-centric perspective, one can probably date the origins of the mainstream development of this research agenda from Solow’s (1957) «discovery» of the importance of the «residual» in aggregate productivity growth and Nelson’s (1959) and Arrow’s (1962) influential papers on the economics of knowledge creation.
SOCIAL NETWORK DATA ANALYTICS SOCIAL NETWORK DATA ANALYTICS

The advent of online social networks has been one of the most exciting e ve ts in this decade. Many popular online social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebookhave become increasingly popular. In addition, a number of multimedia networks such as Flickr have also seen an increasing level of popularity in recent years. Many such social networks are extremely rich in conten t, and they typically contain a tremendous amount of c ntentandlinkagedata which can be leveraged for analysis. The linkage data is essentially the graph structure of th social network and the communications between entities; whereas the conte nt data contains the text, images and other multimedia data in the network. The richness of this network provides unprecedented opportunities for data an lytics in the context of social networks. This book provides a data-centric viewof onlinesocial networks; a topic which has been missing from much of the literature. This chapter provides an overview of the key topics in this field, and th eir coverage in this book.
Bursicon Functions within the Drosophila CNS to Modulate Wing Expansion Behavior, Hormone Secretion, and Cell Death

Hormones are often responsible for synchronizing somatic physiological changes with changes in behavior. Ecdysis (i.e., the shedding of the exoskeleton) in insects has served as a useful model for elucidating the molecular and cellular mechanisms of this synchronization, and has provided numerous insights into the hormonal coordination of body and behavior. An example in which the mechanisms have remained enigmatic is the neurohormone bursicon, which, after the final molt, coordinates the plasticization and tanning of the initially folded wings with behaviors that drive wing expansion. The somatic effects of the hormone are governed by bursicon that is released into the blood from neurons in the abdominal ganglion (the BAG), which die after wing expansion. How bursicon induces the behavioral programs required for wing expansion, however, has remained unknown. Here we show by targeted suppression of excitability that a pair of bursicon-immunoreactive neurons distinct from the BAG and located within the subesophageal ganglion in Drosophila (the BSEG) is involved in controlling wing expansion behaviors. Unlike the BAG, the BSEG arborize widely in the nervous system, including within the abdominal neuromeres, suggesting that, in addition to governing behavior, they also may modulate the BAG. Indeed, we show that animals lacking bursicon receptor function have deficits both in the humoral release of bursicon and in posteclosion apoptosis of the BAG. Our results reveal novel neuromodulatory functions for bursicon and support the hypothesis that the BSEG are essential for orchestrating both the behavioral and somatic processes underlying wing expansion.
Real Ashtekar variables for Lorentzian signature space-times.

I suggest in this letter a new strategy to attack the problem of the reality conditions in the Ashtekar approach to classical and quantum general relativity. By writing a modified Hamiltonian constraint in the usual $SO(3)$ Yang-Mills phase space I show that it is possible to describe space-times with Lorentzian signature without the introduction of complex variables. All the features of the Ashtekar formalism related to the geometrical nature of the new variables are retained; in particular, it is still possible, in principle, to use the loop variables approach in the passage to the quantum theory. The key issue in the new formulation is how to deal with the more complicated Hamiltonian constraint that must be used in order to avoid the introduction of complex fields.
Kidney Diseases Associated With Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)

AbstractExpanded clinical experience with patients taking antiangiogenic compounds has come with increasing recognition of the renal adverse effects. Because renal histology is rarely sought in those patients, the renal consequences are underestimated. Antiangiogenic-treated-cancer patients, who had a renal biopsy for renal adverse effects from 2006 to 2013, were included in the current study. Clinical features and renal histologic findings were reviewed. Our cohort was 100 patients (58 women) with biopsy-proven kidney disease using anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy with a mean age of 59.8 years (range, 20–85 yr). Patients were referred for proteinuria, hypertension, and/or renal insufficiency. Kidney biopsy was performed 6.87 ± 7.18 months after the beginning of treatment. Seventy-three patients experienced renal thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) and 27 patients had variable glomerulopathies, mainly minimal change disease and/or collapsing-like focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (MCN/cFSGS). MCN/cFSGS-like lesions developed mainly with tyrosine-kinase inhibitors, whereas TMA complicated anti-VEGF ligand. Thirty-one percent of TMA patients had proteinuria up to 1 g/24 h. Half of TMA cases are exclusively renal localized. Pathologic TMA features are intraglomerular exclusively. MCN/cFSGS glomeruli displayed a high abundance of KI-67, but synaptopodin was not detected. Conversely, TMA glomeruli exhibited a normal abundance of synaptopodin-like control, whereas KI-67 was absent. Median follow-up was 12 months (range, 1–80 mo). Fifty-four patients died due to cancer progression. Hypertension and proteinuria resolved following drug discontinuation and antihypertensive agents. No patient developed severe renal failure requiring dialysis. Drug continuation or reintroduction resulted in a more severe recurrence of TMA in 3 out of 4 patients requiring maintenance of anti-VEGF agents despite renal TMA. In conclusion, TMA and MCN/cFSGS are the most frequent forms of renal involvement under anti-VEGF therapy. Careful risk-benefit assessment for individual patients should take into account risk factors related to the host and the tumor.
Pharmacological actions of the peptide hormone amylin in the long-term regulation of food intake, food preference, and body weight.

The ability of amylin to reduce acute food intake in rodents is well established. Longer-term administration in rats (up to 24 days) shows a concomitant reduction in body weight, suggesting energy intake plays a significant role in mediating amylin-induced weight loss. The current set of experiments further explores the long-term effects of amylin (4-11 wk) on food preference, energy expenditure, and body weight and composition. Furthermore, we describe the acute effect of amylin on locomotor activity and kaolin consumption to test for possible nonhomeostatic mechanisms that could affect food intake. Four-week subcutaneous amylin infusion of high-fat fed rats (3-300 microg.kg(-1). day(-1)) dose dependently reduced food intake and body weight gain (ED(50) for body weight gain = 16.5 microg.kg(-1). day(-1)). The effect of amylin on body weight gain was durable for up to 11 wks and was associated with a specific loss of fat mass and increased metabolic rate. The body weight of rats withdrawn from amylin (100 microg.kg(-1). day(-1)) after 4 wks of infusion returned to control levels 2 wks after treatment cessation, but did not rebound above control levels. When self-selecting calories from a low- or high-fat diet during 11 wks of infusion, amylin-treated rats (300 microg.kg(-1). day(-1)) consistently chose a larger percentage of calories from the low-fat diet vs. controls. Amylin acutely had no effect on locomotor activity or kaolin consumption at doses that decreased food intake. These results demonstrate pharmacological actions of amylin in long-term body weight regulation in part through appetitive-related mechanisms and possibly via changes in food preference and energy expenditure.
Evolving agents

The paradigm of agent based computing is becoming increasingly popular both in distributed artificial intelligence and as a general software engineering technique. The difficulty with agent based computing is that success depends not just on the correctness of any one agent, but on the emergent behaviour arising from the interaction of a society of agents. As a consequence, the problem of programming agents is non trivial and poorly understood. In this paper we show that genetic programming can be used to automatically program agents which communicate and interact to solve problems. The programs evolved simultaneously define when and what to communicate, and how to use the communicated information to solve the given problem.
Evaluation of Bacteroides markers for the detection of human faecal pollution

Aims: This paper reports on the results of a study aimed at evaluating the specificity and sensitivity of human‐specific HF183 and HF134 Bacteroides markers in various host groups and their utility to detect human faecal pollution in storm water samples collected from nonsewered catchments in Southeast Queensland, Australia.