Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chronic imipramine treatment sensitizes 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors in the dorsal periaqueductal gray matter: evidence from the elevated T-maze test of anxiety

The dorsal periaqueductal gray matter (DPAG) has been implicated in the mediation of escape, a defensive behavior associated with panic disorder (PD). Chronic treatment with the antipanic agent imipramine enhances the inhibitory effect on escape evoked by DPAG electrical stimulation of intra-DPAG administration of the 5-HT1A receptor agonist (±)-8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT) and the preferential 5-HT2A receptor agonist (±)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine hydrochloride (DOI). In the present study we further explore the hypothesis that sensitization of 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors in the DPAG is involved in the antipanic effect of imipramine. To this end, Wistar rats, subchronically or chronically treated with imipramine, were intra-DPAG injected with 8-OH-DPAT (0.4 or 3.2 nmoles) or DOI (16 nmoles), and tested in the elevated T-maze. In addition to its possible relevance to panic disorder, this test also measures inhibitory avoidance, a behavior that has been associated with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The effects of these 5-HT agonists in the DPAG were also investigated in animals chronically injected with buspirone, a drug clinically effective in treating GAD, but not PD. The results showed that intra-DPAG administration of the highest dose of 8-OH-DPAT and of DOI inhibited escape, and this panicolytic-like effect was significantly higher in animals previously treated chronically, but not subchronically, with imipramine. 8-OH-DPAT (0.4 nmole), although not affecting escape in animals systemically treated with saline, had a panicolytic-like effect in those receiving long-term treatment with imipramine. Microinjection of 8-OH-DPAT (3.2 nmoles), but not of DOI, impaired inhibitory avoidance, and this anxiolytic effect did not differ between animals treated with saline or imipramine. Chronic buspirone did not change the effect of 8-OH-DPAT and DOI on inhibitory avoidance and escape. Therefore, chronic imipramine seems to sensitize both 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors in the DPAG, strengthening the view that these receptors are involved in the mode of action of antipanic drugs.
L4 Microkernels: The Lessons from 20 Years of Research and Deployment

The L4 microkernel has undergone 20 years of use and evolution. It has an active user and developer community, and there are commercial versions that are deployed on a large scale and in safety-critical systems. In this article we examine the lessons learnt in those 20 years about microkernel design and implementation. We revisit the L4 design articles and examine the evolution of design and implementation from the original L4 to the latest generation of L4 kernels. We specifically look at seL4, which has pushed the L4 model furthest and was the first OS kernel to undergo a complete formal verification of its implementation as well as a sound analysis of worst-case execution times. We demonstrate that while much has changed, the fundamental principles of minimality, generality, and high inter-process communication (IPC) performance remain the main drivers of design and implementation decisions.
Congenital Sensorineural Deafness in Dalmatian Dogs Associated with Quantitative Trait Loci

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed for 235 Dalmatian dogs using the canine Illumina high density bead chip to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with canine congenital sensorineural deafness (CCSD). Data analysis was performed for all Dalmatian dogs and in addition, separately for brown-eyed and blue-eyed dogs because of the significant influence of eye colour on CCSD in Dalmatian dogs. Mixed linear model analysis (MLM) revealed seven QTL with experiment-wide significant associations (-log10P>5.0) for CCSD in all Dalmatian dogs. Six QTL with experiment-wide significant associations for CCSD were found in brown-eyed Dalmatian dogs and in blue-eyed Dalmatian dogs, four experiment-wide significant QTL were detected. The experiment-wide CCSD-associated SNPs explained 82% of the phenotypic variance of CCSD. Five CCSD-loci on dog chromosomes (CFA) 6, 14, 27, 29 and 31 were in close vicinity of genes shown as causative for hearing loss in human and/or mouse.
Optimization of isolation and cultivation of bacterial endophytes through addition of plant extract to nutrient media

Many endophytes have beneficial effects on plants and can be exploited in biotechnological applications. Studies hypothesize that only 0.001–1% of all plant‐associated bacteria are cultivable. Moreover, even after successful isolations, many endophytic bacteria often show reduced regrowth capacity. This research aimed to optimize isolation processes and culturing these bacteria afterwards. We compared several minimal and complex media in a screening. Beside the media themselves, two gelling agents and adding plant extract to media were investigated to enhance the number and diversity of endophytes as well as the growth capacity when regrown after isolation.
Cooperative RNA Polymerase Molecules Behavior on a Stochastic Sequence-Dependent Model for Transcription Elongation

The transcription process is crucial to life and the enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP) is the major component of the transcription machinery. The development of single-molecule techniques, such as magnetic and optical tweezers, atomic-force microscopy and single-molecule fluorescence, increased our understanding of the transcription process and complements traditional biochemical studies. Based on these studies, theoretical models have been proposed to explain and predict the kinetics of the RNAP during the polymerization, highlighting the results achieved by models based on the thermodynamic stability of the transcription elongation complex. However, experiments showed that if more than one RNAP initiates from the same promoter, the transcription behavior slightly changes and new phenomenona are observed. We proposed and implemented a theoretical model that considers collisions between RNAPs and predicts their cooperative behavior during multi-round transcription generalizing the Bai et al. stochastic sequence-dependent model. In our approach, collisions between elongating enzymes modify their transcription rate values. We performed the simulations in Mathematica® and compared the results of the single and the multiple-molecule transcription with experimental results and other theoretical models. Our multi-round approach can recover several expected behaviors, showing that the transcription process for the studied sequences can be accelerated up to 48% when collisions are allowed: the dwell times on pause sites are reduced as well as the distance that the RNAPs backtracked from backtracking sites.
Overconfidence in IT Investment Decisions: Why Knowledge can be a Boon and Bane at the same Time

Despite their strategic relevance in organizations, information technology (IT) investments still result in alarmingly high failure rates. As IT investments are such a delicate high%risk/high%reward matter, it is crucia l for organizations to avoid flawed IT investment decision%making. Previous research in co nsumer and organizational decision%making shows that a decision’s accuracy is often influenced by decision% makers’ overconfidence and that the magnitude of overconfidence strongly depends on decision%makers’ certainty of their knowledge. Draw ing on these strands of research, our findings from a field survey (N=166) show that IT managers’ decisions in IT outsourcing are indeed affected by overconfidence. However, an in%depth investigation of three types of knowledge, namely experienced, objective and subjective knowledge, reveals that different types of knowledge can have contrasting effects on overconfidence and thus on the quality of IT outsourcing decisions. Knowledge can be a boon and bane at the same time. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Supplementary Materials for “ Statistical-Computational Phase Transitions in Planted Models : The High-Dimensional Setting ”

We provide the proofs for the theorems in the main paper. 1 Proofs for Planted Clustering In this section, Theorems 1–6 refer to the theorems in the main paper. Equations are numbered continuously from the main paper. We let n1 := rK and n2 := n − rK be the numbers of nonisolated and isolated nodes, respectively. 1.1 Proof of Theorem 1 The proof relies on information theoretical arguments and the Fano’s inequaliy [4]. We use D (Ber(p)‖Ber(q)) to denote the KL divergence between two Bernoulli distributions with mean p and q. We first state an upper bound on D (Ber(p)‖Ber(q)), which is used later in the proof: D (Ber(p)‖Ber(q)) = p log p q + (1− p) log 1− p 1− q (a) ≤ pp− q q + (1− p) − p 1− q = (p− q)2 q(1− q) , (16) where (a) follows from the inequality log x ≤ x− 1,∀x ≥ 0. Let P(Y ∗,A) be the joint distribution of Y ∗ and A when Y ∗ is sampled from Y uniformly at random and A is generated according to the planted clustering model. Because the supremum is lower bounded by the average, we have inf Ŷ sup Y ∗∈Y P [ Ŷ 6= Y ∗ ] ≥ inf Ŷ P(Y ∗,A) [ Ŷ 6= Y ∗ ] . (17) Let H(X) be the entropy of a random variable X and I(X;Z) the mutual information between X and Z. By Fano’s inequality, we have for any Ŷ , P(Y ∗,A)(Ŷ 6= Y ∗) ≥ 1− I(Y ∗;A) + 1 log |Y| . (18) Simple counting gives that |Y| = ( n n1 ) n1! r! (K! )r . Note that ( n n1 ) ≥ ( n n1 ) n1 and √ n(ne ) n ≤ n! ≤ e √ n(ne ) n. It follows that |Y| ≥ (n/n1) √ n1(n1/e) n1 e √ r(r/e)rerKr/2(K/e)n1 ≥ ( n K )n1 1 e(r √ K)r .
Age, alcohol and violent death: a postmortem study.

A detailed examination of the files of the medical examiner's office of Erie County, New York, for 1973-1983 inclusive was conducted with respect to cause of death, age of victim and presence of alcohol in the blood at time of death. In 48.6% of the traffic accidents the victim had been drinking compared with 38.9% miscellaneous accidents (e.g., drowning, falling), 45.2% homicides and 35.4% suicides. Among those aged 15-19, 42.7% of these violent deaths were alcohol related compared with 51.1% of those aged 20-24, 48.6% of those 25-34, 49.1% of those 35-44 and 47.2% of those 45-54. The data indicate that alcohol is involved to a considerable extent in all major categories of violent death for all age cohorts, especially for traffic accident victims aged 35 and under.
Monitoring of the Parasite Load in the Digestive Tract of Rhodnius prolixus by Combined qPCR Analysis and Imaging Techniques Provides New Insights into the Trypanosome Life Cycle

Background Here we report the monitoring of the digestive tract colonization of Rhodnius prolixus by Trypanosoma cruzi using an accurate determination of the parasite load by qPCR coupled with fluorescence and bioluminescence imaging (BLI). These complementary methods revealed critical steps necessary for the parasite population to colonize the insect gut and establish vector infection. Methodology/Principal Findings qPCR analysis of the parasite load in the insect gut showed several limitations due mainly to the presence of digestive-derived products that are thought to degrade DNA and inhibit further the PCR reaction. We developed a real-time PCR strategy targeting the T. cruzi repetitive satellite DNA sequence using as internal standard for normalization, an exogenous heterologous DNA spiked into insect samples extract, to precisely quantify the parasite load in each segment of the insect gut (anterior midgut, AM, posterior midgut, PM, and hindgut, H). Using combined fluorescence microscopy and BLI imaging as well as qPCR analysis, we showed that during their journey through the insect digestive tract, most of the parasites are lysed in the AM during the first 24 hours independently of the gut microbiota. During this short period, live parasites move through the PM to establish the onset of infection. At days 3–4 post-infection (p.i.), the parasite population begins to colonize the H to reach a climax at day 7 p.i. , which is maintained during the next two weeks. Remarkably, the fluctuation of the parasite number in H remains relatively stable over the two weeks after refeeding, while the populations residing in the AM and PM increases slightly and probably constitutes the reservoirs of dividing epimastigotes. Conclusions/Significance These data show that a tuned dynamic control of the population operates in the insect gut to maintain an equilibrium between non-dividing infective trypomastigote forms and dividing epimastigote forms of the parasite, which is crucial for vector competence.
Design of Application Specific Processors for the Cached FFT Algorithm

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a data transmission technique which is used in wired and wireless digital communication systems. In this technique, fast Fourier transformation (FFT) and inverse FFT (IFFT) are kernel processing blocks in an OFDM system, and are used for data (de)modulation. OFDM systems are increasingly required to be flexible to accommodate different standards and operation modes, in addition to being energy-efficient. A trade-off between these two conflicting requirements can be achieved by employing application-specific instruction-set processors (ASIPs). In this paper, two ASIP design concepts for the cached FFT algorithm (CFFT) are presented. A reduction in energy dissipation of up to 25% is achieved compared to an ASIP for the widely used Cooley-Tukey FFT algorithm, which was designed by using the same design methodology and technology. Further, a modified CFFT algorithm which enables a better cache utilization is presented. This modification reduces the energy dissipation by up to 10% compared to the original CFFT implementation
Critical Review of Path Integral Formulation

The path integral formulation in quantum mechanics corresponds to the first quantization since it is just to rewrite the quantum mechanical amplitude into many dimensional integrations over discretized coordinates $x_n$. However, the path integral expression cannot be connected to the dynamics of classical mechanics, even though, superficially, there is some similarity between them. Further, the field theory path integral in terms of many dimensional integrations over fields does not correspond to the field quantization. We clarify the essential difference between Feynman's original formulation of path integral in QED and the modern version of the path integral method prevailing in lattice field theory calculations, and show that the former can make a correct second quantization while the latter cannot quantize fields at all and its physical meaning is unknown.
Semantically Conditioned LSTM-based Natural Language Generation for Spoken Dialogue Systems

© 2015 Association for Computational Linguistics. Natural language generation (NLG) is a critical component of spoken dialogue and it has a significant impact both on usability and perceived quality. Most NLG systems in common use employ rules and heuristics and tend to generate rigid and stylised responses without the natural variation of human language. They are also not easily scaled to systems covering multiple domains and languages. This paper presents a statistical language generator based on a semantically controlled Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) structure. The LSTM generator can learn from unaligned data by jointly optimising sentence planning and surface realisation using a simple cross entropy training criterion, and language variation can be easily achieved by sampling from output candidates. With fewer heuristics, an objective evaluation in two differing test domains showed the proposed method improved performance compared to previous methods. Human judges scored the LSTM system higher on informativeness and naturalness and overall preferred it to the other systems.
Sparse MRF Appearance Models for Fast Anatomical Structure Localisation

Image segmentation methods like active shape models, active appearance models or snakes require an initialisation that guarantees a considerable overlap with the object to be segmented. In this paper we present an approach that localises anatomical structures in a global manner by means of Markov Random Fields (MRF). It does not need initialisation, but finds the most plausible match of the query structure in the image. It provides for precise, reliable and fast detection of the structure and can serve as initialisation for more detailed segmentation steps. Sparse MRF Appearance Models (SAMs) encode a priori information about the geometric configurations of interest points, local features at these points and local features along the edges of adjacent points. This information is used to formulate a Markov Random Field and the mapping of the modeled object (e.g. a sequence of vertebrae) to the query image interest points is performed by the MAX-SUM algorithm. The local image information is captured by novel symmetry-based interest points and local descriptors derived from Gradient Vector Flow. Experimental results are reported for two data-sets showing the applicability to complex medical data.
FP-outlier: Frequent pattern based outlier detection

An outlier in a dataset is an observation or a point that is considerably dissimilar to or inconsistent with the remainder of the data. Detection of such outliers is important for many applications and has recently attracted much attention in the data mining research community. In this paper, we present a new method to detect outliers by discovering frequent patterns (or frequent itemsets) from the data set. The outliers are defined as the data transactions that contain less frequent patterns in their itemsets. We define a measure called FPOF (Frequent Pattern Outlier Factor) to detect the outlier transactions and propose the FindFPOF algorithm to discover outliers. The experimental results have shown that our approach outperformed the existing methods on identifying interesting outliers.
Bulle-Effect and its implications for morphodynamics of river diversions

Bifurcations are one of the fundamental elements of a fluvial (river) system, and diversions are a special type of asymmetrical bifurcation where one of the channels after bifurcation continues along the original channel. Diversions can be found in nature, though many of them are built to divert water and sediment from the river for various purposes. Historically, diversions were built to divert water for irrigational and navigational purposes. Recently the importance of diversions has increased, as building diversions to divert sediment (and water) have been put forth as a method to rebuild deltas that have been losing land due to rapid rise in sea-level, subsidence etc. One of the prime examples is the plan under consideration by United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to rebuild the Mississippi river delta through diverting water and sediment from the lower Mississippi river. Design of aforementioned diversions would be immensely benefited by a better understanding of the sediment distribution at diversions, and the hydrodynamics that drive it. One of the first and most extensive experimental studies to understand the dynamics at a diversion was conducted by Bulle in 1926, at Karlsruhe, Germany. Bulle found that a disproportionate percentage of bedload went into the lateral-channel, compared to the percentage of water entering the lateral-channel. This non-linear distribution of near-bed sediment between the two channels at a diversion is known as the Bulle-Effect; and since the seminal work of Bulle, multiple experimental studies have corroborated the phenomenon. Despite the importance of this phenomenon, till date the exact mechanism behind the Bulle-Effect is not clear. This thesis first unravels the mechanism behind the phenomenon, and then explores how Bulle-Effect might impact the morphodynamics of a diversion. This thesis can be divided into two major parts: 1) First the mechanism behind the Bulle-Effect phenomenon is explored using high-resolution numerical simulation (Direct Numerical Simulations, Large Eddy Simulations) of flow and sediment transport for a configuration and at the scale similar to Bulle’s experiment. The simulations were conducted using the highly-scalable spectral-element based incompressible Navier-Stokes solver Nek5000, on which a Lagrangian point particle submodel was developed and implemented to model the transport of sediment. The simulations were computationally very expensive (∼ 240 million computational points), thus they
A Tactile Seat for Direction Coding in Car Driving: Field Evaluation

This in-traffic, field study examined the merit of using a car seat instrumented with tactile stimulation elements (tactors) to communicate directional information to a driver. A car seat fitted with an 8 times 8 matrix of tactors embedded in the seat pan was used to code eight different directions (the four cardinal and four oblique directions). With this seat mounted in a car, a field study was conducted under both smooth road and brick road vibratory conditions. The primary performance measures were directional accuracy and reaction time, measured under both alerted and simulated surprise conditions. Overall, the results show that the tactile chair seat provides a promising and robust method of providing directional information. The percentage of correct directional responses was very high (92 percent of all trials), and incorrect responses were typically just one location segment (45 degrees) off.
Stress-related suicide by dentists and other health care workers. Fact or folklore?

BACKGROUND The media repeatedly portrays dentists and other health professionals as being at risk of committing suicide. While this message often is accepted without question, there are little reliable data available that verifies this alleged risk. The relationship between professional stress and suicide, if any, has not been substantiated or quantified. TYPES OF STUDIES REVIEWED The author evaluated the contemporary literature on stress and suicide in health professionals in an effort to verify or refute the widely held belief that dentists and other health care professionals are at higher risk of committing stress-related suicide. The author also surveyed dental schools to determine what efforts were being made to provide students with stress-management skills. RESULTS The author found that there is little valid evidence that dentists are more prone to suicide than the general population, although some related data suggest that female dentists may be more vulnerable. Large-scale studies are needed before firmer conclusions can be reached. The author's survey shows that dental students generally receive some education on stress management, but many dental hygiene and graduate students do not. The author makes several recommendations for future research. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Although some dentists leave the profession by way of suicide or career change at a time when their careers should be the most rewarding, available data on stress and its impact on suicide incidence are inconclusive and flawed. The profession needs to identify the causes of stress-related suicides and provide assistance to those people who are affected by stress.