Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Retweeting: An Act of Viral Users, Susceptible Users, or Viral Topics?

When a user retweets, there are three behavioral factors that cause the actions. They are the topic virality, user virality and user susceptibility. Topic virality captures the degree to which a topic attracts retweets by users. For each topic, user virality and susceptibility refer to the likelihood that a user attracts retweets and performs retweeting respectively. To model a set of observed retweet data as a result of these three topic specific factors, we first represent the retweets as a three-dimensional tensor of the tweet authors, their followers, and the tweets themselves. We then propose the V 2S model, a tensor factorization model, to simultaneously derive the three sets of behavioral factors. Our experiments on a real Twitter data set show that the V 2S model can effectively mine the behavioral factors of users and tweet topics during an election event. We also demonstrate that the V 2S model outperforms the other topic based models in
Optogenetic Manipulation of Cerebellar Purkinje Cell Activity In Vivo

Purkinje cells (PCs) are the sole output neurons of the cerebellar cortex. Although their anatomical connections and physiological response properties have been extensively studied, the causal role of their activity in behavioral, cognitive and autonomic functions is still unclear because PC activity cannot be selectively controlled. Here we developed a novel technique using optogenetics for selective and rapidly reversible manipulation of PC activity in vivo. We injected into rat cerebellar cortex lentiviruses expressing either the light-activated cationic channel channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) or light-driven chloride pump halorhodopsin (eNpHR) under the control of the PC-specific L7 promoter. Transgene expression was observed in most PCs (ChR2, 92.6%; eNpHR, 95.3%), as determined by immunohistochemical analysis. In vivo electrophysiological recordings showed that all light-responsive PCs in ChR2-transduced rats increased frequency of simple spike in response to blue laser illumination. Similarly, most light-responsive PCs (93.8%) in eNpHR-transduced rats decreased frequency of simple spike in response to orange laser illumination. We then applied these techniques to characterize the roles of rat cerebellar uvula, one of the cardiovascular regulatory regions in the cerebellum, in resting blood pressure (BP) regulation in anesthetized rats. ChR2-mediated photostimulation and eNpHR-mediated photoinhibition of the uvula had opposite effects on resting BP, inducing depressor and pressor responses, respectively. In contrast, manipulation of PC activity within the neighboring lobule VIII had no effect on BP. Blue and orange laser illumination onto PBS-injected lobule IX didn't affect BP, indicating the observed effects on BP were actually due to PC activation and inhibition. These results clearly demonstrate that the optogenetic method we developed here will provide a powerful way to elucidate a causal relationship between local PC activity and functions of the cerebellum.
Board Quality and the Cost of Debt Capital: The Case of Bank Loans

We analyze the relation between comprehensive measures of board quality and the cost as well as the non-price terms of bank loans. We show that firms that have higher quality boards with a greater advisory presence borrow at lower interest rates. This relation exists even after controlling for ownership structure, CEO compensation policy, and shareholder protection, as well as the size and financial characteristics of the borrower and of the loan. We also show evidence that board quality and other governance characteristics influence the likelihood that loans have covenant requirements, but the relations differ by covenant type. When we combine the direct and indirect costs of bank loans we find that firms with large, independent, experienced, and diverse boards and lower institutional ownership borrow more cheaply. Overall, the evidence indicates that board quality impacts the cost of bank debt.
Well-Structured Pushdown Systems, Part 1:Decidable Classes for Coverability

Pushdown systems (PDSs) model single-thread recursive pro- grams, and well-structured transition systems (WSTSs), such as vec- tor addition systems, are useful to represent non-recursive multi-thread programs. Combining these two ideas, our goal is to investigate well- structured pushdown systems (WSPDSs), pushdown systems with well- quasi-ordered control states and stack alphabet. This paper focuses on subclasses of WSPDSs, in which the coverabil- ity becomes decidable. We apply WSTS-like techniques on classical P- automata. APost -automata (resp.Pre -automata) construction is com- bined with Karp-Miller acceleration (resp. ideal representation) to char- acterize the set of successors (resp. predecessors) of given congurations. As examples, we show that the coverability is decidable for recursive vector addition system with states, multi-set pushdown systems, and a WSPDS with nite control states and well-quasi-ordered stack alphabet.
Making something out of nothing: neutral content modulates attention in generalized anxiety disorder

Background: Although an attentional bias for threat has been implicated in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), evidence supporting such a bias has been inconsistent. This study examines whether exposure to different emotional content modulates attention disengagement and impairs the perception of subsequently presented nonemotional targets in GAD. Methods: Patients with GAD (n = 30) and controls (n = 30) searched for a target embedded within a series of rapidly presented images. Critically, an erotic, fear, disgust, or neutral distracter image appeared 200 msec or 800 msec before the target. Results: Impaired target detection was observed among GAD patients relative to controls following only fear and neutral distractors. However, this effect did not significantly vary as a function of distractor stimulus duration before the target. Furthermore, group differences in target detection after fear distractors were no longer significant when controlling target detection after neutral distractors. Subsequent analysis also revealed that the impaired target detection among those with GAD relative to controls following neutral (but not fear) distractors was mediated by deficits in attentional control. Conclusions: The implications of these findings for further delineating the function of attentional biases in GAD are discussed. Depression and Anxiety, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Yoga as Remedial Therapy

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a group of symptoms manifesting as a functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorder in which patients experience abdominal pain, discomfort, and bloating that is often relieved with defecation. IBS is often associated with a host of secondary comorbidities such as anxiety, depression, headaches, and fatigue. In this review, we examined the basic principles of Pancha Kosha (five sheaths of human existence) concept from an Indian scripture Taittiriya Upanishad and the pathophysiology of a disease from the Yoga approach, Yoga Vasistha's Adhi (originated from mind) and Vyadhi (ailment/disease) concept. An analogy between the age old, the most profound concept of Adhi-Vyadhi, and modern scientific stress-induced dysregulation of brain-gut axis, as it relates to IBS that could pave way for impacting IBS, is emphasized. Based on these perspectives, a plausible Yoga module as a remedial therapy is provided to better manage the primary and secondary symptoms of IBS.
A Critical Role for Thioredoxin-Interacting Protein in Diabetes-Related Impairment of Angiogenesis

Impaired angiogenesis in ischemic tissue is a hallmark of diabetes. Thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) is an exquisitely glucose-sensitive gene that is overexpressed in diabetes. As TXNIP modulates the activity of the key angiogenic cytokine vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), we hypothesized that hyperglycemia-induced dysregulation of TXNIP may play a role in the pathogenesis of impaired angiogenesis in diabetes. In the current study, we report that high glucose–mediated overexpression of TXNIP induces a widespread impairment in endothelial cell (EC) function and survival by reducing VEGF production and sensitivity to VEGF action, findings that are rescued by silencing TXNIP with small interfering RNA. High glucose–induced EC dysfunction was recapitulated in normal glucose conditions by overexpressing either TXNIP or a TXNIP C247S mutant unable to bind thioredoxin, suggesting that TXNIP effects are largely independent of thioredoxin activity. In streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice, TXNIP knockdown to nondiabetic levels rescued diabetes-related impairment of angiogenesis, arteriogenesis, blood flow, and functional recovery in an ischemic hindlimb. These findings were associated with in vivo restoration of VEGF production to nondiabetic levels. These data implicate a critical role for TXNIP in diabetes-related impairment of ischemia-mediated angiogenesis and identify TXNIP as a potential therapeutic target for the vascular complications of diabetes.
An R-Type Ca2+ Current in Neurohypophysial Terminals Preferentially Regulates Oxytocin Secretion

Multiple types of voltage-dependent Ca2+channels are involved in the regulation of neurotransmitter release (Tsien et al., 1991; Dunlap et al., 1995). In the nerve terminals of the neurohypophysis, the roles of L-, N-, and P/Q-type Ca2+ channels in neuropeptide release have been identified previously (Wang et al., 1997a). Although the L- and N-type Ca2+ currents play equivalent roles in both vasopressin and oxytocin release, the P/Q-type Ca2+ current only regulates vasopressin release. An oxytocin-release and Ca2+ current component is resistant to the L-, N-, and P/Q-type Ca2+ channel blockers but is inhibited by Ni2+. A new polypeptide toxin, SNX-482, which is a specific α1E-type Ca2+ channel blocker (Newcomb et al., 1998), was used to characterize the biophysical properties of this resistant Ca2+ current component and its role in neuropeptide release. This resistant component was dose dependently inhibited by SNX-482, with an IC50 of 4.1 nm. Furthermore, SNX-482 did not affect the other Ca2+ current types in these CNS terminals. Like the N- and P/Q-type Ca2+ currents, this SNX-482-sensitive transient Ca2+ current is high-threshold activated and shows moderate steady-state inactivation. At the same concentrations, SNX-482 blocked the component of oxytocin, but not of vasopressin, release that was resistant to the other channel blockers, indicating a preferential role for this type of Ca2+ current in oxytocin release from neurohypophysial terminals. Our results suggest that an α1E or “R”-type Ca2+ channel exists in oxytocinergic nerve terminals and, thus, functions in controlling only oxytocin release from the rat neurohypophysis.
Learning null space projections

Many everyday human skills can be considered in terms of performing some task subject to a set of self-imposed or environmental constraints. In recent years, a number of new tools have become available in the learning and robotics community that allow data from constrained and/or redundant systems to be used to uncover underlying consistent behaviours that may be otherwise masked by the constraints. However, while a wide variety of work for generalisation of movements have been proposed, few have explicitly considered learning the constraints of the motion and ways to cope with unknown environment. In this paper, we propose a method to learn the constraints such that some previously learnt behaviours can be adapted to new environment in an appropriate way. In particular, we consider learning the null space projection matrix of a kinematically constrained system, and see how previously learnt policies can be adapted to novel constraints.
The Usefulness of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme in the Differential Diagnosis of Crohn's Disease and Intestinal Tuberculosis

Background Since the pathologic findings of Crohn's disease (CD) and intestinal tuberculosis (IT) overlap to a large degree, the development of other biomarkers will be of great help for making the differential diagnosis of these 2 diseases. The aim of the present study is to examine the clinical efficacy of using the tissue angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) assay in making the differential diagnosis between CD and IT. Methods Tissue specimens were obtained from 36 patients who were diagnosed with CD or IT by the colonoscopic biopsy, as well as by the clinical findings. The expression of tissue ACE was detected by immunohistochemical staining. The optimal cut-off value of the immunoreactive scoring (IRS) system we used to differentiate CD from IT was determined by analysis of the ROC curve and AUROC. Results Granuloma was present in 15 of 19 patients with CD (78.9%) and in 15 of 17 patients with IT (88.2%). ACE was present in the cytoplasm of the epithelioid cells in the granulomas from 13 of 15 patients with CD and in 14 of 15 patients with IT. The IRS scores of ACE were greater in the patients with CD than that of the patients with IT (8.07±4.38 vs. 4.13±2.47, respectively, p=0.006). In differentiating CD from IT, the AUROC curve for the IRS of ACE was 0.767 with a sensitivity of 66.7%, a specificity of 93.3% and the cut-off point was 7.5. Conclusions The results of our study suggest that the assessment of the tissue ACE expression can be helpful for making the differential diagnosis between CD and IT.
Dummy fill aware buffer insertion during routing

This paper studies the impacts of dummy fill for chemical mechanical polishing (CMP)-induced capacitance variation on buffer insertion during routing. Compared with existing methods, our algorithm is more feasible by performing buffer insertion not in post-process but during routing. Our contributions are threefold. First, we introduce a fast dummy fill estimation algorithm based on [4], which is better than traditional linear programming (LP) algorithm and suitable for early estimation. Second, based on some reasonable assumptions, we present an optimum virtual dummy fill method to estimate dummy position and the effects on the interconnect capacitance. Third, further analysis shows that the influences on the intermediate layer are more than that on the global layer, and as the required metal layer density increases the influences become more serious. Experiments gave the similar results and verified the necessity of early dummy fill estimation. Our dummy fill aware buffer insertion during early routing is promising and necessary.
Overview of Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Systemic Cancer Treatment, Aging, Pregnancy, and Radiation Hormesis

Background: The unavoidable links between the benefits of conventional systemic treatment of cancer and the side effects such as lymphopenia. Objective: To analyze this phenomenon in view of the newly discovered trophic function of circulating hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and their lymphocyte descendants. Method: We used population statistics and recent current research involving natural aging and preliminary aging with cancer, its cytotoxic therapy, eclampsia at pregnancy, and radiation hormesis. Results: In contrast to immune-defense interpretations of these health conditions, the trophic influence of HSC and morphogenic lymphocytes on natural tissue renewal and regeneration after sublethal injuries eliminates the majority of covered inconsistencies, which are inherent to the dominating idea of cellular immunity. Conclusion: Our examination led to the feeding influence of lymphopoiesis on tumor progression, an indirect mechanism of tumor growth control by systemic therapy via either destruction of trophic cells, or by competitive distraction from malignant tissue via reparation of sublethal injuries in normal tissues. Analyses also involved similarities of the mechanisms of systemic chemotherapy and total body/half body radiotherapy in low doses, as well as the futility of the theoretical opposition of the radiation hormesis phenomenon to the linear non-threshold model, dominant in radiobiology.
On the perceptions and acceptance of artificially intelligent robotics and the psychology of the future elderly

ABSTRACT The demographic shift marks the beginning of a social transformation with far reaching implications, and differences in aging processes across individuals render one-size fits-all policies ineffective. An area of increasing importance is assistive technology, including physical and Social Assistance Robots (SARs) for elderly support. In order to increase the effectiveness of such technologies, their design, functionality, and acceptance by target users must be evaluated. This paper presents a study that examines SAR technology acceptance among the future elderly (aged 20–60) in a German-speaking population (N=188). In doing this, we investigated the relationships between personality, resilience, technology experience, expectations for technology, fulfilment of expectations for technology, and technology acceptance. The study found significant correlations between age, gender, education, personality, resilience, experience, expectations, and technology acceptance and its subdimensions. Of the personality dimensions, agreeableness and neuroticism were found most relevant. Small effects were found between resilience and acceptance, and highly significant ones between technology acceptance, technology experience, expectations for SARs, and fulfilment of expectations for SARs. In keeping with previous research, the findings suggest that personality plays a significant role in the acceptance of SAR technologies. This study may be one of the first that considers and evaluates resilience as a factor in technology acceptance.
Nanoscale thermal transport

Rapid progress in the synthesis and processing of materials with structure on nanometer length scales has created a demand for greater scientific understanding of thermal transport in nanoscale devices, individual nanostructures, and nanostructured materials. This review emphasizes developments in experiment, theory, and computation that have occurred in the past ten years and summarizes the present status of the field. Interfaces between materials become increasingly important on small length scales. The thermal conductance of many solid–solid interfaces have been studied experimentally but the range of observed interface properties is much smaller than predicted by simple theory. Classical molecular dynamics simulations are emerging as a powerful tool for calculations of thermal conductance and phonon scattering, and may provide for a lively interplay of experiment and theory in the near term. Fundamental issues remain concerning the correct definitions of temperature in nonequilibrium nanoscale systems. Modern Si microelectronics are now firmly in the nanoscale regime—experiments have demonstrated that the close proximity of interfaces and the extremely small volume of heat dissipation strongly modifies thermal transport, thereby aggravating problems of thermal management. Microelectronic devices are too large to yield to atomic-level simulation in the foreseeable future and, therefore, calculations of thermal transport must rely on solutions of the Boltzmann transport equation; microscopic phonon scattering rates needed for predictive models are, even for Si, poorly known. Low-dimensional nanostructures, such as carbon nanotubes, are predicted to have novel transport properties; the first quantitative experiments of the thermal conductivity of nanotubes have recently been achieved using microfabricated measurement systems. Nanoscale porosity decreases the permittivity of amorphous dielectrics but porosity also strongly decreases the thermal conductivity. The promise of improved thermoelectric materials and problems of thermal management of optoelectronic devices have stimulated extensive studies of semiconductor superlattices; agreement between experiment and theory is generally poor. Advances in measurement methods, e.g., the 3ω method, time-domain thermoreflectance, sources of coherent phonons, microfabricated test structures, and the scanning thermal microscope, are enabling new capabilities for nanoscale thermal metrology.
On some Open Issues in Load Sharing in SCTP

Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is an emerging transport protocol for IP networks, which can be successfully adopted to transport both signaling messages and multimedia data. Moreover, SCTP provides reliability to communications, by means of multihomed hosts (i.e. host equipped with multiple IP addresses) and failover mechanism. A proper use of these two features enables an increase of the effective throughput during communications, realizing an end-to-end load sharing, which enables endpoint applications to split source data to transmit over all available paths. In this paper, we summarize some problems arising in order to achieve this goal. These problems are tied both to protocol implementation and to the availability of general techniques to infer path characteristics, such as the location of the points of congestion, which affect system fairness and load sharing efficiency.
‘Falling through the cracks’: recognising sitting disabilities

Abstract This article attempts to ‘give voice’ to those with sitting disabilities, in order to raise awareness and enable constructive dialogue amongst stakeholders. These voices were collected through interviews and conversational email correspondence, with participants recruited via support websites and hailing from across Europe, Australia and North America. Numerous themes emerged in our participants’ accounts and were largely framed around an inability to fit the deeply-rooted prevailing norms of a sitting society. Necessary shifts in relationships, an inability to travel, difficulties with retaining employment and feelings of distrust and inauthenticity in relation to official knowledges all emerged as a result of this. After an account of the participants’ stories, we offer a preliminary analysis via Nancy Fraser’s understanding of social justice, where these experiences can be understood through the categories of recognition and distribution. In doing so, we develop some recommendations for change.
Chronic Pain: Physiological Foundations, Psychological Effects, Common Treatments, and New Directions

Acute pain is categorized by a length of 3 to 6 months, is directly related to soft tissue damage, and gradually resolves as the injured tissues heal. Chronic pain is defined as any pain lasting longer than 12 weeks. Over 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, and the health care costs and productivity losses approach $635 billion annually (Institute of Medicine Committee on Advancing Pain Research and Education, 2011). The lack of clear quality standards for ethical/legal use of opiates, the presence of individuals abusing the system, and the lack of updated, and involved public policy make finding a doctor willing to treat chronic pain quite difficult. During a personal struggle with chronic pain, I participated in a 10-week program consisting of education about chronic pain and common treatments, yoga and other strengthening and movement-oriented exercises, and recent research on chronic pain and corresponding treatments. I learned about many new, alternative ways to fix my body, reduce my pain, and help me live a better life. The purpose of this project is to bring awareness to the prevalence of chronic pain, the truth about current treatments, and education about alternative treatments.