Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Natural Spike Trains Trigger Short- and Long-Lasting Dynamics at Hippocampal Mossy Fiber Synapses in Rodents

Background Synapses exhibit strikingly different forms of plasticity over a wide range of time scales, from milliseconds to hours. Studies on synaptic plasticity typically use constant-frequency stimulation to activate synapses, whereas in vivo activity of neurons is irregular. Methodology/Principal Findings Using extracellular and whole-cell electrophysiological recordings, we have here studied the synaptic responses at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses in vitro to stimulus patterns obtained from in vivo recordings of place cell firing of dentate gyrus granule cells in behaving rodents. We find that synaptic strength is strongly modulated on short- and long-lasting time scales during the presentation of the natural stimulus trains. Conclusions/Significance We conclude that dynamic short- and long-term synaptic plasticity at the hippocampal mossy fiber synapse plays a prominent role in normal synaptic function.
Regulatory Impact Assessment: How political and organizational forces influence its diffusion in a developing country

Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) are being diffused progressively throughout the world following the recommendations of international organizations. Research has shown that the diffusion of RIA has not produced convergence in actual practices, particularly in developing countries, due to political forces at work in domestic contexts or the available organizational capacities. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has recently recommended that the Brazilian federal government adopt RIA. This article evaluates how contextual variables, specifically political and organizational ones, influence RIA adoption in Brazil. It is based on field research consisting of semi-structured interviews with the main stakeholders of the Brazilian regulatory framework. The research explored RIA concept familiarity among stakeholders, the bureaucratic context, the policy process, pivotal stakeholders' standpoints in adopting RIA, and available organizational capacities. Contrary to previous studies in developing countries, the research reveals that strong organizational capacities are not a sufficient factor for successful diffusion of RIA, because political variables can influence divergence among agencies in future RIA practices.
Lamotrigine, an antiepileptic drug, inhibits 5-HT3 receptor currents in NCB-20 neuroblastoma cells

Lamotrigine is an antiepileptic drug widely used to treat epileptic seizures. Using whole-cell voltage clamp recordings in combination with a fast drug application approach, we investigated the effects of lamotrigine on 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)3 receptors in NCB-20 neuroblastoma cells. Co-application of lamotrigine (1~300 µM) resulted in a concentration-dependent reduction in peak amplitude of currents induced by 3 µM of 5-HT for an IC50 value of 28.2±3.6 µM with a Hill coefficient of 1.2±0.1. These peak amplitude decreases were accompanied by the rise slope reduction. In addition, 5-HT3-mediated currents evoked by 1 mM dopamine, a partial 5-HT3 receptor agonist, were inhibited by lamotrigine co-application. The EC50 of 5-HT for 5-HT3 receptor currents were shifted to the right by co-application of lamotrigine without a significant change of maximal effect. Currents activated by 5-HT and lamotrigine co-application in the presence of 1 min pretreatment of lamotrigine were similar to those activated by 5-HT and lamotrigine co-application alone. Moreover, subsequent application of lamotrigine in the presence of 5-HT and 5-hydroxyindole, known to attenuate 5-HT3 receptor desensitization, inhibited 5-HT3 receptor currents in a concentration-dependent manner. The deactivation of 5-HT3 receptor was delayed by washing with an external solution containing lamotrigine. Lamotrigine accelerated the desensitization process of 5-HT3 receptors. There was no voltage-dependency in the inhibitory effects of lamotrigine on the 5-HT3 receptor currents. These results indicate that lamotrigine inhibits 5-HT3-activated currents in a competitive manner by binding to the open state of the channels and blocking channel activation or accelerating receptor desensitization.
Euro Area Market Reactions to the Monetary Developments Press Release

Using intra-day data, we assess the impact of the press release on euro area monetary data on the different segments of the euro area yield curve. For this purpose, we estimate a relation between the "news" or "surprise" in the released data for annual M3 growth and the move in the interest rates for a time-window surrounding the press release. We find that the publication of monetary data has a statistically significant impact on interest rates with maturities ranging from 1 to 10 years, with the largest effect on the 1-2 year segment. Turning to the short end of the yield curve, since mid-2001 rates with maturities up to 6 months do not react much to the monetary developments press release. Our results suggest that market participants may look through short-term movements of annual M3 growth and focus instead on the trend rate of monetary expansion over the medium term when gauging the policy relevant signals.
Training and Product Quality in Unionized Oligopolies

In this paper we analyze the private and public incentives towards skill acquisition when the skill level of workers determines the quality level of goods, and both labor and product markets are non competitive. We delve into the mechanisms that determine the equilibrium skill acquisition outcomes and show that both "pure" (training set by either firms or unions only) and "mixed" (training set by firms and unions) training scenarios may emerge at equilibrium. We show that firms have generally greater training incentives than unions, resulting in a higher product quality. In line with empirical evidence, we also find that the wage differential between high-skill workers and low-skill workers is lower when the training levels of the workforce are selected by unions than by firms. Finally, we analyze the optimal public training skill levels and demonstrate that both unions and firms under-invest in training in comparison with the social optimum. Yet, in this case the skill premium is the lowest.
Dynamic Multi-level Resolution for Handwritten Word Recognition

In this paper we present a new approach to connected off-line handwritten word recognition that is based on an iterative multi-level resolution approach. It is based on the proposition that segmentation must be simultaneously resolved at several levels of recognition, and cannot be isolated at any single level. We also contend that although several sources of information must be used to determine the final w ord recognition, a simple statistical accumulation of information is not sufficiently powerful. Our approach is to contrast widely differing measures to determine the final w ord candidate. A method for character targeting is proposed that avoids strict segmentation.
The Relationship between Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty in Emerging Market Economies

A standard Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedastic (q,v) model is employed to construct a measure of monthly inflation uncertainty in 12 emerging market economies, and the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty is examined using Granger-causality tests. The results suggest that higher inflation rates increased inflation uncertainty in all the economies, providing strong support for the Friedman hypothesis. The evidence on the effect of inflation uncertainty on average monthly inflation is more mixed, with increased inflation uncertainty leading to lower average inflation in Colombia, Israel, Mexico, and Turkey, consistent with the Holland hypothesis, but to higher average inflation in Hungary, Indonesia, and Korea, consistent with the hypothesis of Cukierman and Meltzer.
Micronucleated Erythrocytes in Peripheral Blood from Neonate Rats Exposed by Breastfeeding to Cyclophosphamide, Colchicine, or Cytosine-Arabinoside

Genotoxic exposure to chemical substances is common, and nursing mothers could transmit harmful substances or their metabolites to their offspring through breast milk. We explored the possibility of determining genotoxic effects in the erythrocytes of breastfeeding rat pups whose mothers received a genotoxic compound while nursing. Ten groups of female rats and five pups per dam were studied. The control group received sterile water, and the experimental groups received one of three different doses of cyclophosphamide, colchicine, or cytosine-arabinoside. Blood smears were prepared from samples taken from each dam and pup every 24 h for six days. There were increased numbers of micronucleated erythrocytes (MNEs) and micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MNPCEs) in the samples from pups in the experimental groups (P < 0.02) and increased MNPCE frequencies in the samples from the dams (P < 0.05). These results demonstrate the vertical transmission of the genotoxic effect of the compounds tested. In conclusion, assessing MNEs in breastfeeding neonate rats to assess DNA damage may be a useful approach for identifying genotoxic compounds and/or cytotoxic effects. This strategy could help in screening for therapeutic approaches that are genotoxic during the lactation stage and these assessments might also be helpful for developing preventive strategies to counteract harmful effects.
Transforming Agriculture through Pervasive Wireless Sensor Networks

A large-scale, outdoor pervasive computing system uses static and animal-borne nodes to measure the state of a complex system comprising climate, soil, pasture, and animals. Agriculture faces many challenges, such as climate change, water shortages, labor shortages due to an aging urbanized population, and increased societal concern about issues such as animal welfare, food safety, and environmental impact. Humanity depends on agriculture and water for survival, so optimal, profitable, and sustainable use of our land and water resources is critical.
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the brain in moving subjects: Application to in‐utero fetal and ex‐utero studies

We present a methodology to achieve 3D high‐resolution diffusion tensor image reconstruction of the brain in moving subjects. The source data is diffusion‐sensitized single‐shot echo‐planar images. After continuous scanning to acquire a repeated series of parallel slices with 15 diffusion directions, image registration is used to realign the images to correct for subject motion. Once aligned, the diffusion images are treated as irregularly‐sampled data where each voxel is associated with an appropriately rotated diffusion direction. This data is used to estimate the diffusion tensor on a regular grid. The method has been tested on data acquired at 1.5T from adults who deliberately moved and from eight fetuses imaged in utero. Maps of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were reliably produced in all cases and promising performance was achieved for fractional anisotropy maps. Results from normal fetal brains were found to be consistent with published data from premature infants of similar gestational age. Magn Reson Med, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Amalgamation of Regular Incidence-Polytopes

We discuss the following problem from the theory of regular incidence-polytopes. Given two regular d-incidence-polytopes 9X and ! 2 such that the facets of 0>2 °d the vertex-figures of 0\ are isomorphic to some regular (d l)-incidence-polytope 3C, is there a regular (d +1)incidence-polytope X with facets of type ^ and vertex-figures of type &•? Such amalgamations X of 0\ and 0*2 along 3iT exist (and then in fact very small ones) at least under the assumption that 0>, and 9*2 have the so-called degenerate amalgamation property with respect to 3if. We prove some results on preassigning the (d l)-dimensional medial section-complex 3if for self-dual (d + l)-dimensional regular incidence-polytopes X.
Where to turn my car?: comparison of a tactile display and a conventional car navigation system under high load condition

Tactile displays are an actively studied means to convey large amount of spatial information in the car. Their advantage compared to conventional car navigation systems is their ability to free the driver's visual and auditory senses. Previously the tactile displays were integrated into the seat of a car to present multiple direction information to the driver. However, in the commercial cars the seat is used to provide the vibro-tactile warning signals, so driver might not differentiate between navigation and warning information. Furthermore, the amount of information presented with tactile displays can cause significant cognitive workload, performance degradation and distraction to the driver. In this paper, we explore different methods of encoding multiple directions information with a tactile belt in the car. We compare the vibro-tactile presentation of spatial turn-by-turn information with a conventional car navigation system to measure cognitive workload, performance and distraction of the driver. We found that drivers showed better orientation performance on the tactile display than with the conventional car navigation system. At the same time there was no difference in cognitive workload, performance, and distraction. Thus, a tactile interface can be useful to present more information than simple left or right directions in high load driving conditions in which drivers are required to observe the traffic situation with their visual and auditory senses.
Profitability and Social Performance of Microfinance Institutions: Empirical Evidence of Relations between Different Types of Variables

Microfinance is often considered a "double bottom line" sector, which refers to organizations that take care of their financial side and their social responsibility, trying to give minimum coverage to both. An optimistic vision of microfinance programs as a new key for development considered that they had, in themselves, an important social value. This paper contributes to the study of the relations between variables linked to social and financial purposes of a wide database of Microfinance Institutions. The data reflect large differences between the entities, but no relation is found between the size, profitability and social performance of institutions.
ΔFosB Regulates Wheel Running

ΔFosB is a transcription factor that accumulates in a region-specific manner in the brain after chronic perturbations. For example, repeated administration of drugs of abuse increases levels of ΔFosB in the striatum. In the present study, we analyzed the effect of spontaneous wheel running, as a model for a natural rewarding behavior, on levels of ΔFosB in striatal regions. Moreover, mice that inducibly overexpress ΔFosBin specific subpopulations of striatal neurons were used to study the possible role of ΔFosB on running behavior. Lewis rats given ad libitum access to running wheels for 30 d covered what would correspond to ∼10 km/d and showed increased levels of ΔFosB in the nucleus accumbens compared with rats exposed to locked running wheels. Mice that overexpress ΔFosB selectively in striatal dynorphin-containing neurons increased their daily running compared with control littermates, whereas mice that overexpress ΔFosB predominantly in striatal enkephalin-containing neurons ran considerably less than controls. Data from the present study demonstrate that like drugs of abuse, voluntary running increases levels of ΔFosB in brain reward pathways. Furthermore, overexpression of ΔFosB in a distinct striatal output neuronal population increases running behavior. Because previous work has shown that ΔFosB overexpression within this same neuronal population increases the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse, results of the present study suggest that ΔFosB may play a key role in controlling both natural and drug-induced reward.
Role of English in internationalization of higher education: the case of the graduate school of engineering, Hokkaido University

Correspondence: Graduate School of Engineering, Room A4-58, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8628, Japan Abstract ─ Internationalization is increasingly becoming one of the most important issues in higher education. Adoption of an international language, i.e. English, has been rapidly increasing in universities around the world. When Hokkaido University was established in 1876, its fi rst curriculum was developed by an American professor and all classes were conducted in English. At present the university’s medium of instruction is Japanese and 90% of the international students, who account for 4% of the total student population, attend classes taught in Japanese. The remaining 10% of the international students enroll in the two graduate programs where the medium of instruction is English. Like most Japanese universities, the main reason why Hokkaido University introduced programs in English with the provision of scholarships was to attract excellent international students. At the Graduate School of Engineering, the use of English as a medium of instruction in its graduate program has played an important role in internationalization of the education itself.
Sustainable Food Supply Chains: The Role of Collaboration and Sustainable Relationships

The life cycle approach is widely used in the analysis of sustainability. Its application to supply chains is necessary since the product flows, from processing of raw materials to the final customer, are considered. The role of the organizational aspects, expressed in terms of relationships between the supply chain agents, is little considered in the life cycle analysis approach. The aim of this paper is to extend the scope of the food chain life cycle analysis by adding the organizational dimension to the environmental, economic and social ones. Within this context, Collaboration and Sustainable Relationships concepts have been explored based on a literature survey. A theoretical framework, describing their role in assessing the organizational dimension in the life cycle analysis of the food supply chains, is defined. A hypothesis on their joint influence on the supply chains performances is formulated.
The polarimetric 𝒢 distribution for SAR data analysis

Remote sensing data, and radar data in particular, have become an essential tool for environmental studies. Many airborne polarimetric sensors are currently operational, and many more will be available in the near future including spaceborne platforms. The signal‐to‐noise ratio of this kind of imagery is lower than that of optical information, thus requiring a careful statistical modelling. This modelling may lead to useful or useless techniques for image processing and analysis, according to the agreement between the data and their assumed properties. Several distributions have been used to describe synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. Many of these univariate laws arise by assuming the multiplicative model, such as Rayleigh, square root of gamma, exponential, gamma, and the class of 𝒦I distributions. The adequacy of these distributions depends on the detection (amplitude, intensity, complex, etc.), the number of looks, and the homogeneity of the data. In Frery et al. (1997), another class of univariate distributions, called 𝒢, was proposed to model extremely heterogeneous clutter, such as urban areas, as well as other types of clutter. This article extends the univariate 𝒢 family to the multivariate multi‐look polarimetric situation: the 𝒢p law. The new family has the classical polarimetric multi‐look 𝒦p distribution as a particular case, but another special case is shown to be more flexible and tractable, while having the same number of parameters and fully retaining their interpretability: the 𝒢 pO law. The main properties of this new multivariate distribution are shown. Some results of modelling polarimetric data using the 𝒢 pO distribution are presented for two airborne polarimetric systems and a variety of targets, showing its expressiveness beyond classical models. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Simplified FPGA Implementation Based on an Improved DES Algorithm

Recently, DES has been the most widely used symmetric block cipher for information security. But many powerful attacks, such as differential attack and linear attack had been proposed for cryptanalyzing DES. This paper gives an introduction and theoretical analysis of DES Algorithm and proposes a new design of encryption key and S-box to improve the algorithm performance. The hardware language VHDL is used to design and implement of an improved simplified DES algorithm with improved security. The design expands the encryption key length, can resist linear cryptanalysis and ensure that there is not "trapdoor" in the password system.
The Theory and Practice of A Formal Method: NewCoRe

A new discipline of Formal Methods promises to provide a solid theoretical foundation for software design. Most professionals involved in software design will agree that there is a need for such a foundation. The complexity of the software that controls even the most mundane aspects of our world can be overwhelming. A modern telephone switch, for instance, is controlled by several million lines of control software, that are developed and maintained by hundreds of skilled programmers. Any single change to the code could potentially cause havoc in large fragments of a nationwide telephone network. To prevent this, extremely high requirements must be placed on the quality of the software that goes into a system like this.
Nudges and Learning: Evidence from Informational Interventions for Low-Income Taxpayers

Can one-time informational interventions cause permanent changes in benefit take-up? In the context the Earned Income Tax Credit, we find evidence that reminding individuals of their eligibility has meaningful effects. Reminder notices have the largest effect among taxpayers without kids, persuading nearly 80 percent of taxpayers in the notice year to claim the credit. The effect of the notice quickly attenuates to roughly 22 percent only one year later. We find that this pattern holds across two experimental settings, one that tests the effect of being sent a notice and one that tests variations in the content of the notices.
Recent crustal movements along the Carmel Fault system, Israel

A long-standing dilemma in the geology of Israel is whether the Carmel Fault (CF) is currently active and to what extent does it contribute to the seismic hazard of the city of Haifa and the nearby petrochemical industrial area. In this study we use InSAR stacking and PSInSAR to measure the surface movements on both sides of the CF. Processing single interferograms showed low signal to noise ratio (SNR), and no consistent sense of apparent displacements. Stacking interferograms improved the SNR, but uncertainties still remained high, compared to the signal. PSInSAR analysis shows no evidence for differential surface movements between the two sides of the CF. Using elastic dislocation modeling we find that the lower detection limits on the NW-SE segments of the fault, are 1 mm/year for vertical movement and 4 mm/year for horizontal sinistral movement. Thus, we cannot exclude creep along the Carmel Fault at rates lower than these limits.