Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Expression of Cholesterol Hydroxylases in Alzheimer's Disease*

Cholesterol is eliminated from neurons by oxidization, which generates oxysterols. Cholesterol oxidation is mediated by the enzymes cholesterol 24-hydroxylase (CYP46A1) and cholesterol 27-hydroxylase (CYP27A1). Immunocytochemical studies show that CYP46A1 and CYP27A1 are expressed in neurons and some astrocytes in the normal brain, and CYP27A1 is present in oligodendrocytes. In Alzheimer's disease (AD), CYP46A1 shows prominent expression in astrocytes and around amyloid plaques, whereas CYP27A1 expression decreases in neurons and is not apparent around amyloid plaques but increases in oligodendrocytes. Although previous studies have examined the effects of synthetic oxysterols on the processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP), the actions of the naturally occurring oxysterols have yet to be examined. To understand the role of cholesterol oxidation in AD, we compared the effects of 24(S)- and 27-hydroxycholesterol on the processing of APP and analyzed the cell-specific expression patterns of the two cholesterol hydroxylases in the human brain. Both oxysterols inhibited production of Aβ in neurons, but 24(S)-hydroxycholesterol was ∼1000-fold more potent than 27-hydroxycholesterol. The IC50 of 24(S)-hydroxycholesterol for inhibiting Aβ secretion was ∼1 nm. Both oxysterols induced ABCA1 expression with IC50 values similar to that for inhibition of A β secretion, suggesting the involvement of liver X receptor. Oxysterols also inhibited protein kinase C activity and APP secretion following stimulation of protein kinase C. The selective expression of CYP46A1 around neuritic plaques and the potent inhibition of APP processing in neurons by 24(S)-hydroxycholesterol suggests that CYP46A1 affects the pathophysiology of AD and provides insight into how polymorphisms in the CYP46A1 gene might influence the pathophysiology of this prevalent disease.
Estimation of Regional Evapotranspiration through Remote Sensing

Abstract Models used for the remote estimation of evapotranspiration are evaluated using aircraft observations over two distinct vegetation regimes in southwestern Australia. Single-source models using an empirically determined excess resistance term performed better than a two-source model, which does not require such a parameterization. The mean absolute difference between measured and estimated values of the sensible heat flux is below 17 W m−2 in comparison with approximately 40 W m−2 for evapotranspiration. Estimates of evapotranspiration depend on the closure of the surface energy balance and incorporate all residual errors in this closure. All models performed better over the agricultural vegetation than over the native vegetation.
Scheduling operator attention for Multi-Robot Control

A wide class of multirobot control tasks involves operator interactions with individual robots. Where the robots' actions are independent, as for example in some foraging tasks, the operator can interact with robots sequentially in a round robin fashion. If the need for interaction can be detected by the robot through self-reflection, the robot could communicate its need for interaction to the operator. The resulting human-robot system would form a queuing system in which the operator is the server and the queue of robots requesting interaction, the jobs. As a queuing system, performance could be optimized using standard techniques, providing the operator's attention could be appropriately directed. An earlier study found that Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) performance was improved by communicating requests for interaction to the operator, however, a first-in-first-out (FIFO) aid showing a single request at a time led to poorer performance than one showing the entire (Open) queue. The current experiment compared Open-queue and FIFO conditions from the first experiment with a Priority-queue using a shortest job first (SJF) discipline known to maximize throughput. Performance in the Priority-queue condition was statistically indistinguishable from the best performance for all measures except those for missed victims where it was intermediate between FIFO (best) and Open-queue. Both of the other conditions produced poorest performance on some measures. The results suggest that operator attention can be effectively scheduled allowing the use of scheduling algorithms to improve the efficiency of HRI.
Feature extraction in laser welding processes

There is a rapidly growing demand for laser welding in a wide variety of manufacturing processes ranging from automobile production to precision mechanics. Up to now, the high dynamics of the process has made it impossible to construct a camera based real time quality and process control. Since new pixel parallel architectures are existing, which are now available in systems such as the ACE16k, Q-Eye, and SCAMP-3 (P. Dudek et al., 2006), one has become able to implement a real time laser welding processing. In this paper we will propose a feature extraction algorithm, running at a frame rate of 10 kHz, for a laser welding process. The performance of the algorithm has been studied in detail. In particular, it has been implemented on an Eye-RIS v.1. 1 system and has been applied to laser welding processes.
Privacy preserving evaluation of signal quality with application to ECG analysis

A problem often neglected in privacy-preserving protocols is the need to ensure that processed signals are of sufficient quality. This is a particularly pressing need in remote e-health services wherein measurements are performed by consumers, hence raising the need for solutions that assess the quality of the recorded signals to guarantee correct (medical) decisions. In this paper, we introduce the problem of assessing signal quality in the encrypted domain and propose a privacy-preserving protocol to solve it. We use the Signal-To-Noise Ratio (SNR) between the original signal and a filtered version of the signal itself as the quality measure. The proposed scheme relies on a hybrid multiparty computation protocol based on Homo-morphic Encryption and Yao's Garbled Circuits. A central point in the protocol is the application of the logarithm function to the linear SNR. We do so by introducing an efficient protocol for the computation of an integer version of the logarithm function that has linear complexity in the bitsize of the signal energy. We prove the validity of the proposed protocol, both in terms of accuracy and efficiency by applying it to the computation of the quality of ECG signals.
Aspect and tense attrition in Russian-German bilingual speakers

Purpose: The impact of second language (L2) on first language (L1), known as L2 transfer, has been suggested as a fundamental driving force of L1 attrition. The goal of this study was to test the differential attrition of verb aspect and tense in L1 (Russian) under the influence of L2 (German) grammatical properties. We also investigated whether the age of bilingualism onset and the amount of exposure to L1 modulate this L2 transfer effect. Methodology: We tested sentence processing in 30 adult Russian monolingual participants and 30 L1 attritors – Russian-German bilingual speakers – with early versus late bilingualism onset and with low versus high amounts of exposure to L1. Participants heard grammatically correct sentences, sentences with aspect violations and sentences with tense violations, and were asked to detect errors. Data and Analysis: The accuracy of participants’ responses was analysed using generalized linear mixed-effects modelling in R. Findings: The L2 transfer effect was found, but was strongly modulated by the amount of L1 exposure: only bilinguals with little exposure to L1 showed greater attrition of L1 aspect compared to L1 tense. Moreover, the age of bilingualism onset proved to be more critical than the L2 transfer effect: an earlier bilingualism onset resulted in greater attrition of both aspect and tense in L1. Originality: The study provided new evidence about the differential impact of the grammatical similarity between L1 and L2, the age of bilingualism onset and the amount of L1 exposure on aspect and tense processing in L1 attritors. Implications: Our findings suggest that greater L1 use after immigration helps bilingual speakers to be less susceptible to L2 transfer and prevents attrition of L1-specific grammatical categories. Also, a general decline in processing verbal morphology is more likely to occur in speakers with an early rather than a late onset of bilingualism.
Recording audio-visual emotional databases from actors : a closer look

Research on human emotional behavior, and the development of automatic emotion recognition and animation systems, rely heavily on appropriate audio-visual databases of expressive human speech, language, gestures and postures. The use of actors to record emotional databases has been a popular approach in the study of emotions. Recently, this method has been criticized since the emotional content expressed by the actors seems to differ from the emotions observed in real-life scenarios. However, a deeper look at the current settings used in the recording of the existing corpora reveals that a key problem may not be the use of actors itself, but the ad-hoc elicitation method used in the recording. This paper discusses the main limitations of the current settings used in collecting acted emotional databases, and suggests guidelines for the design of new corpora recorded from actors that may reduce the gap observed between the laboratory condition and real-life applications. As a case study, the paper discusses the interactive emotional dyadic motion capture database (IEMOCAP), recently recorded at the University of Southern California (USC), which inspired the suggested guidelines.
The Association Between the Uncoupling Protein-1 Gene A-3826G Polymorphism and High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in A General Japanese Population: A Consideration of the Obesity Status

Background Limited studies have shown inconsistent data about the association between the uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) gene A-3826G polymorphism and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. The present study investigated the association between the A-3826G polymorphism and low HDL-cholesterolemia in non-obese and obese subjects. Methods Anthropometric and biochemical factors, in addition to genotyping by an allele-specific DNA assay, were measured in 294 community-dwelling Japanese subjects (male/female: 127/167, mean age: 65 years). Obesity was defined as a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2, and low HDL-cholesterolemia was defined as < 1.04 mmol/L of HDL-cholesterol. Results The subjects with the G/G genotype (n = 27) showed a significantly higher prevalence of low HDL-cholesterolemia (37%) than those with the A/A + A/G genotype (13%) in the obese group (n = 102). There was a non-significant difference in the prevalence of low HDL-cholesterolemia between subjects with the G/G genotype (n = 45, 13%) and with the A/A + A/G genotype (15%) in the non-obese group (n = 192). A multivariate-adjusted logistic regression analysis of the presence of low HDL-cholesterolemia revealed that carrying the G/G genotype was an independent and significant factor positively associated with low HDL-cholesterolemia [odds ratio (OR): 6.85, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.65-28.49] in the obese group, while carrying the G/G genotype exhibited a non-significant but reduced OR, by one-half, for low HDL-cholesterolemia (OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.13-1.96) in the non-obese group. Conclusions The obesity status could have opposing impacts on the relationship between the G/G genotype and low HDL-cholesterolemia, providing insight into the need to consider the obesity levels when studying the association between the UCP-1 gene A-3826G polymorphism and HDL-cholesterol. Keywords Obesity; Body mass index; HDL-C; Atherosclerotic risk
Methods of Moments for Learning Stochastic Languages: Unified Presentation and Empirical Comparison

Probabilistic latent-variable models are a powerful tool for modelling structured data. However, traditional expectation-maximization methods of learning such models are both computationally expensive and prone to local-minima. In contrast to these traditional methods, recently developed learning algorithms based upon the method of moments are both computationally efficient and provide strong statistical guarantees. In this work we provide a unified presentation and empirical comparison of three general moment-based methods in the context of modelling stochastic languages. By rephrasing these methods upon a common theoretical ground, introducing novel theoretical results where necessary, we provide a clear comparison, making explicit the statistical assumptions upon which each method relies. With this theoretical grounding, we then provide an in-depth empirical analysis of the methods on both real and synthetic data with the goal of elucidating performance trends and highlighting important implementation details.
THE EFFECT OF ATTITUDES ON COMPUTER UTILIZATION : A NEW EVIDENCE FROM A DEVELOPING NATION

Attitudes of students toward computers are significant determinants of behavior that may influence computer utilization. This paper conducted a survey to study the relationship between attitudes and actual computer utilization of 238 students. The article also examined whether or not computer utilization are affected by some demographic (e.g., age) and other non-attitudinal variables. The findings indicate that the overall attitude has affected the actual utilization of computers. However, the parts of attitude scale that have a significant effect on utilization are computer liking and confidence. Anxiety and perceived usefulness were found to be insignificant determinant of computer utilization. In addition to attitude, other variables seem to have a strong influence on computer utilization, namely degree of computer experience, degree of access to computers, and number of computer-related courses.
Permutation branes and linear matrix factorisations

All the known rational boundary states for Gepner models can be regarded as permutation branes. On general grounds, one expects that topological branes in Gepner models can be encoded as matrix factorisations of the corresponding Landau-Ginzburg potentials. In this paper we identify the matrix factorisations associated to arbitrary B-type permutation branes.
How to distinguish inliers from outliers in visual odometry for high-speed automotive applications

In this paper, we present an outlier removal scheme for stereo-based visual odometry which is especially suited for improving high-speed pose change estimations in large-scale depth environments. First we investigate the variance of the reprojection error on the 3D position of a feature given a fixed error in pose change to conclude that a detection of outliers based on a fixed threshold on the reprojection error is inappropriate. Then we propose an optical flow dependent feature-adaptive scaling of the reprojection error to reach almost invariance to the 3D position of each feature. This feature-adaptive scaling is derived from an approximation showing the relation between longitudinal pose change of the camera, absolute value of the optical flow, and distance of the feature. Using this scaling, we develop an iterative alternating scheme to guide the separation of inliers from outliers. It optimizes the tradeoff between finding a good criterion to remove outliers based on a given pose change and improving the pose change hypothesis based on the current set of inliers. Including the new outlier removal scheme into a pure two-frame stereo-based visual odometry pipeline without applying bundle adjustment or SLAM-filtering we are currently ranked amongst the top camera-based algorithms and furthermore outperform camera and laser scanner methods in Kitti benchmark's high-speed scenarios.
Music and heart rate. Physiological effects from listening to music in different tempos

Music has the power to elicit physiological responses in humans. One assumes that fast music tempo elicit faster heart rate and respiration rate and slower music tempos elicit slower respiration and heart rate. This presumption that music could alter physiological responses was tested in this study by playing different tempos to the participants while measuring respiration and heart rate. Six different music tempos from 40 beats per minute to 200 beats per minute were presented as musical stimuli. Thirteen piano music pieces were composed at the Institute of Biology and Medical Psychology (IBMP) at the University of Bergen (UiB). The stimuli were recorded and presented in a pseudo-randomised order. White noise served as a control stimuli and was played between each stimulus. 36 participants listened to these novel music stimuli, while heart rate and respiration rate was measured. The current study found a quadratic relationship between heart rate and music tempo, and a linear relationship between respiration and music tempo. Music tempo increased heart rate up to 136 beats per minutes, after that heart rate dropped. While respiration linearly increased up to 200 beats per minute. The hypothesis was confirmed, as this study concluded with an alteration of physiological responses while listening to different music tempos. Keywords: Heart rate, respiration rate, music, white noise, physiological responses MUSIC AND HEART RATE ! 4
Relative Expression of Toll-Like Receptors 2 and 7 mRNA in Peripheral Blood of Patients With Hepatitis C

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important human pathogen affecting an estimated 120 – 170 million individuals in the world. Toll-Like receptors (TLRs) are pattern-recognition receptors that recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns, and stimulate immune responses. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the mRNA expression level of TLR2 and TLR7 in HCV-infected patients in comparison with normal controls. Patients and Methods: Nineteen consecutive patients with HCV infection and nineteen sex and age-matched healthy controls were studied in a case-controlled research. Results: Our results showed that the expressions of TLR7 in HCV infected samples were significantly increased in comparison those of the controls (P = 0.02), while the expression of TLR2 was similar between the case and the control group (P = 0.8). There were no associations between the expression levels of TLR2 and TLR7 with HCV viral load and HCV genotypes. Also, there was no association between viral load and genotypes of the virus. Conclusions: Our findings showed that HCV infection could lead to increased expression level of TLR7 mRNA in peripheral blood cells of HCV infected samples. The viral load and genotypes of HCV did not affect the mRNA expression levels of TLR2 and TLR7.
Bringing CLARITY to the human brain: visualization of Lewy pathology in three dimensions

CLARITY is a novel technique which enables three‐dimensional visualization of immunostained tissue for the study of circuitry and spatial interactions between cells and molecules in the brain. In this study, we aimed to compare methodological differences in the application of CLARITY between rodent and large human post mortem brain samples. In addition, we aimed to investigate if this technique could be used to visualize Lewy pathology in a post mortem Parkinson's brain.
Addressing Domain Evolution Challenges in Model-Driven Software Product-line Architectures

It is hard to develop and evolve software product-line architectures (PLAs) for large-scale distributed realtime and embedded (DRE) systems. Although certain challenges of PLAs can be addressed by combining model-driven development (MDD) techniques with component frameworks, domain evolution problems remain largely unresolved. In particular, extending or refactoring existing software product-lines to handle unanticipated requirements or better satisfy current requirements requires significant effort. This paper describes techniques for minimizing such impacts on MDD-based PLAs for DRE systems through a case study that shows how a layered architecture and model-to-model transformation tool support can reduce the effort of PLA evolution.
Limits to Globalization: Disruptive Geographies of Capitalist Development

at least plausible that other forces could be (more) responsible. For example, Schall focuses very little on the broader rise of neoliberal ideologies outside of Sweden, and I wonder if the availability of such ideologies, along with economic developments that are invoked in the service of such ideologies, might have more to do with political developments in Sweden than Schall’s account would suggest. Any study involving recent immigration in the western European context is at risk of being quickly outdated. Schall’s book ends just before the escalation of the European migrant crisis, in which Sweden has been one of the major refugee destinations. In the context of this development, Schall’s hesitant conclusion about the increasing importance of immigration and ethnicity in Swedish politics should probably be replaced by a more definitive one. The popularity of the far-right Sweden Democrats that Schall chronicles through 2014 has become even more startling in the last couple of years, according to polling data. If anything, however, this development just underlines the importance of Schall’s final conclusion that if Sweden’s social democracy is to survive, it must ‘‘speak back’’ to both neoliberalism and welfare chauvinism (p. 200). This is likely to be a difficult battle in the current political climate, in Sweden and elsewhere.
Doing Gender in the Foodie Kitchen

This article draws on interviews with “foodies”—people with a passion for eating and learning about food—to explore questions of gender and foodie culture. The analysis suggests that while this culture is by no means gender-neutral, foodies are enacting gender in ways that warrant closer inspection. This article puts forward new empirical findings about gender and food and employs the concept of “doing gender” to explore how masculinities and femininities are negotiated in foodie culture. Our focus on doing gender generates two insights into gender and food work. First, we find that doing gender has different implications for men and women within foodie culture. Alongside evidence that foodies are contesting particular gendered relations within the food world, we explore how broader gender inequities persist. Second, we contend that opportunities for doing gender in foodie culture cannot be considered apart from class privilege.
The Development of School-Based Professional Learning Inventory (SPLI) Part II

The purpose of this article is to report the development, validity and reliability of School-based professional learning inventory (SPLI) that has been used to evaluate secondary teachers` perception toward school-based professional learning. The first phase of the study has been carried out through Exploratory Factor Analysis by using data from 166 trained teachers from 19 secondary schools in Batang Padang District, Perak. The Exploratory Factor Analysis through orthogonal rotation varimax method has shown twelve SPLI factors from three main constructs have been developed. The Cronbach Alpha of the overall items is . 918. For the second phase of the study, the Confirmatory Factor Analysis has been carried out toward data of 372 trained teachers from 50 secondary schools in Malaysia. The purpose of this analysis is to support the factor structure developed from the first phase of the study. The Cronbach Alpha of the items is . 94, meanwhile for each factor developed ranged from . 70 to . 92. As the conclusion, the result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis has supported the ten factors developed from the first phase of the study.