Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Targeting of β-Arrestin2 to the Centrosome and Primary Cilium: Role in Cell Proliferation Control

Background The primary cilium is a sensory organelle generated from the centrosome in quiescent cells and found at the surface of most cell types, from where it controls important physiological processes. Specific sets of membrane proteins involved in sensing the extracellular milieu are concentrated within cilia, including G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Most GPCRs are regulated by β-arrestins, βarr1 and βarr2, which control both their signalling and endocytosis, suggesting that βarrs may also function at primary cilium. Methodology/Principal Findings In cycling cells, βarr2 was observed at the centrosome, at the proximal region of the centrioles, in a microtubule independent manner. However, βarr2 did not appear to be involved in classical centrosome-associated functions. In quiescent cells, both in vitro and in vivo, βarr2 was found at the basal body and axoneme of primary cilia. Interestingly, βarr2 was found to interact and colocalize with 14-3-3 proteins and Kif3A, two proteins known to be involved in ciliogenesis and intraciliary transport. In addition, as suggested for other centrosome or cilia-associated proteins, βarrs appear to control cell cycle progression. Indeed, cells lacking βarr2 were unable to properly respond to serum starvation and formed less primary cilia in these conditions. Conclusions/Significance Our results show that βarr2 is localized to the centrosome in cycling cells and to the primary cilium in quiescent cells, a feature shared with other proteins known to be involved in ciliogenesis or primary cilium function. Within cilia, βarr2 may participate in the signaling of cilia-associated GPCRs and, therefore, in the sensory functions of this cell “antenna”.
Investigating the variables in a mock exam study session designed to improve student exam performance in an undergraduate behavior modification and therapy course

The purpose of the present study was to identify components of an optional mock exam review session (e.g. requiring students to write answers, providing students grading keys for questions) responsible for improvements in student performance on application-based short-essay exams in an undergraduate behavior modification course. Both withinsubject and across-groups comparisons were made across three studies within the larger investigation. The primary dependent variable across studies was student accuracy on exam questions. Additional measures of extra credit earned, class attendance, mock exam attendance, and entering GPA were also gathered and analyzed using correlation and multiple linear regression analysis. Students attending mock exam sessions scored higher on exams than students who did not. Students did not score higher when required to write answers versus when not required to write answers. Students also did not score higher when required to discuss a question versus when asked to listen to the GTA discuss a question. A package of components involving discussion, evaluation, and correction of a sample answer to a question produced superior performance over providing students with copies of study materials about a question. Student GPA entering the course, number of mock exams attended, and amount of extra credit earned were significantly predictive of final grade earned in the course, but attendance at lectures was not significantly predictive.
Efficacy of 5-day continuous lidocaine infusion for the treatment of refractory complex regional pain syndrome.

OBJECTIVE Chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a severe pain condition that usually results from an injury or surgical procedure. The pain in CRPS often spreads from the site of injury, and with time becomes refractory to conventional therapy. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of 5-day continuous intravenous lidocaine treatment in patients afflicted with CRPS. METHODS Intravenous lidocaine was administered in an escalating dose schedule to 49 severely affected CRPS patients in a monitored setting over 5 days. Evaluation of pain parameters and other signs and symptoms of CRPS were obtained during the infusion and at 1, 3, and 6 months following therapy. RESULTS The majority of patients demonstrated a significant decrease in pain parameters and other symptoms and signs of CRPS. The pain reduction lasted an average of 3 months. Lidocaine may be particularly effective for thermal and mechanical allodynia. Less clinically significant effects were documented on the motor aspects of the syndrome. DISCUSSION Intravenous lidocaine administration titrated to 5 mg/L demonstrated: 1) a significant decrease in mechanical and thermal allodynia for three months, 2) lessened associated inflammatory components of CRPS, and 3) only minimal side effects and no severe complications.
AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE FACTORS AFFECTING USAGE OF ONLINE BANKING A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING APPROACH

Online banking in Bangladesh is a relatively recent phenomenon. The objective of this study is to figure out the impact of three influencing factors, namely, core services, security and trust, and awareness of service on the usage of online banking by the consumers. For this purpose, a sample size of 112 respondents living in the urban part of the capital city and using internet banking is considered. Structural equation modeling is employed to test the hypotheses developed for this study. The model suggests that while there is a high statistical significance of the effects of security and trust and awareness of service on the usage of online banking, the effect of core services is insignificant. The implications for the managers of the service providers and a few suggestions for future research are put forward in this regard.
Non-state authority and global governance

Abstract Non-state actors are increasingly assuming an active part in the design and construction of the institutional framework of global governance. The introduction of the concept of private authority in the literature has provided us with an insightful analytical tool for a deeper understanding of the role of private actors in the context of global governance. However, in order to achieve this objective the concept of private authority needs to be defined accurately and applied consistently in the examination of non-state governance schemes. This article aims to delineate the concept of private authority in the context of global governance first, by outlining the main characteristics of authority and identifying instances of inconsistent and loose application of these characteristics in the private authority literature and secondly, by offering a starting point for an analytically consistent typology of non-state authority. Following this analysis, a more thoroughly defined and analytically consistent concept of transnational in authority is presented. This new conceptualisation locates non-state in authority in the amalgamation of public authority and private power in the context of complex transnational governance structures, and can hopefully helps us gain a deeper understanding of the increasing institutionalisation and legitimation of transnational non-state governance.
Identity in Descriptions of Others Across Ethnic Groups in South Africa

We examined the structure of identity implied in descriptions of others in four South African ethnic groups (Black, Coloured, Indian, and White). We tested the validity of an identity model with attributes, relational orientation, situational aspects, ideology, and valence as constituent dimensions of other-identity, and social distance as a moderator of constituent dimensions. Data were collected from 1,160 participants who provided descriptions of individuals they knew (parents, friends, grandparents, neighbors, and teachers) in semistructured interviews. Results confirmed that relational orientation provides a better conceptual framework of other-identity than individualism–collectivism: Personal orientation (individualism) and collective membership orientation (collectivism) are situated at the endpoints of the relational orientation dimension, with implicit and explicit relational orientation placed in between. We found that ethnic differences are most salient in implicit and explicit relational orientation categories in White and Black South Africans, respectively. We found that the identity of distal individuals was described in less abstract and more norm-regulated terms than the identity of proximal individuals. We concluded that all dimensions of the model are relevant for other-identity.
Family of origin, personality, and self-reported delinquency

Abstract This study examined the joint effects of perceptions of family functioning, venturesomeness, anger, and Eysenckian psychoticism (P) on adolescent violence and vandalism/theft. Respondents were 282 Australian 14-year-olds (146 females; 136 males). Results indicated that adolescents' perceptions of family as well as their venturesomeness and anger were differentially related to violence and vandalism/theft for both males and females. In addition, P tended to act as a mediator or indirect channel for family perceptions, as well as having additive effects with venturesomeness on delinquency. Other effects were also noted. The results are discussed with reference to previous findings which have linked family process and personality to delinquency.
Social Bonding, Early School Leaving, and Delinquency

In this paper we investigate how successful social bonding theory is at predicting juveniledelinquency and school dropout behaviour. We adopt a simple dynamic approach whichassumes that past involvement in risky behaviour reduces individual restraints forfuture participation in risky behaviour. We use a ten years education panel followingDutch adolescents who participated in a survey in their first year of high school in 1999.This information was matched to annual information on police arrests based on registrydata. Our results show that school performance (as measured by test scores) is the keysocial bond element preventing young people from engaging in risk behaviour. We alsofind that involvement in past risky behaviour increases the likelihood of future misstepsand that the protective influence of school performance is mitigated.
Resolving word boundaries in spoken French: Native and non-native strategies

ABSTRACT The segmentation strategies used by native and non-native listeners of French were examined in two phoneme-monitoring experiments which required the subjects to detect the presence of word-initial /t/ in potential liaison phrases (e.g., excellent tableau/excellent acteur) and in non-liaison phrases (e.g., vrai tableau/vrai acteur). The essentially faultless performance of the natives suggested that the optimal segmentation routine in such phrases is primarily based on the identification of the critical word and, to a lesser extent, on the contextual information, which was more efficiently used to check the outcome of word recognition. In contrast, non-natives tended to rely on guessing strategies, not based on contextual information (contrary to the widely held language teaching recommendation), but on an incomplete acoustic–phonetic/lexical analysis of the signal.
The course of cognitive growth.

I SHALL take the view in what follows that the development of human intellectual functioning from infancy to such perfection as it may reach is shaped by a series of technological advances in the use of mind. Growth depends upon the mastery of techniques and cannot be understood without reference to such mastery. These techniques are not, in the main, inventions of the individuals who are "growing up"; they are, rather, skills transmitted with varying efficiency and success by the culture—language being a prime example. Cognitive growth, then, is in a major way from the outside in as well as from the inside out. Two matters will concern us. The first has to do with the techniques or technologies that aid growing human beings to represent in a manageable way the recurrent features of the complex environments in which they live. It is fruitful, I think, to distinguish three systems of processing information by which human beings construct models of their world: through action, through imagery, and through language. A second concern is with integration, the means whereby acts are organized into higher-order ensembles, making possible the use of larger and larger units of information for the solution of particular problems. Let me first elucidate these two theoretical matters, and then turn to an examination of the research upon which they are based, much of it from the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard.
Three-Dimensional Model-Based Object Recognition and Segmentation in Cluttered Scenes

Viewpoint independent recognition of free-form objects and their segmentation in the presence of clutter and occlusions is a challenging task. We present a novel 3D model-based algorithm which performs this task automatically and efficiently. A 3D model of an object is automatically constructed offline from its multiple unordered range images (views). These views are converted into multidimensional table representations (which we refer to as tensors). Correspondences are automatically established between these views by simultaneously matching the tensors of a view with those of the remaining views using a hash table-based voting scheme. This results in a graph of relative transformations used to register the views before they are integrated into a seamless 3D model. These models and their tensor representations constitute the model library. During online recognition, a tensor from the scene is simultaneously matched with those in the library by casting votes. Similarity measures are calculated for the model tensors which receive the most votes. The model with the highest similarity is transformed to the scene and, if it aligns accurately with an object in the scene, that object is declared as recognized and is segmented. This process is repeated until the scene is completely segmented. Experiments were performed on real and synthetic data comprised of 55 models and 610 scenes and an overall recognition rate of 95 percent was achieved. Comparison with the spin images revealed that our algorithm is superior in terms of recognition rate and efficiency
Ca2+ sparks activate K+ and Cl− channels, resulting in spontaneous transient currents in guinea‐pig tracheal myocytes

1 Local changes in cytosolic [Ca2+] were imaged with a wide‐field, high‐speed, digital imaging system while membrane currents were simultaneously recorded using whole‐cell, perforated patch recording in freshly dissociated guinea‐pig tracheal myocytes. 2 Depending on membrane potential, Ca2+ sparks triggered ‘spontaneous’ transient inward currents (STICs), ‘spontaneous’ transient outward currents (STOCs) and biphasic currents in which the outward phase always preceded the inward (STOICs). The outward currents resulted from the opening of large‐conductance Ca2+‐activated K+ (BK) channels and the inward currents from Ca2+‐activated Cl− (ClCa) channels. 3 A single Ca2+ spark elicited both phases of a STOIC, and sparks originating from the same site triggered STOCs, STICs and STOICs, depending on membrane potential. 4 STOCs had a shorter time to peak (TTP) than Ca2+ sparks and a much shorter half‐time of decay. In contrast, STICs had a somewhat longer TTP than sparks but the same half‐time of decay. Thus, the STIC, not the STOC, more closely reflected the time course of cytosolic Ca2+ elevation during a Ca2+ spark. 5 These findings suggest that ClCa channels and BK channels may be organized spatially in quite different ways in relation to points of Ca2+ release from intracellular Ca2+ stores. The results also suggest that Ca2+ sparks may have functions in smooth muscle not previously suggested, such as a stabilizing effect on membrane potential and hence on the contractile state of the cell, or as activators of voltage‐gated Ca2+ channels due to depolarization mediated by STICs.
Memory-centric VDF graph transformations for practical FPGA implementation

Realising memory intensive applications such as image and video processing on FPGA requires creation of complex, multi-level memory hierarchies to achieve real-time performance; however commerical High Level Synthesis tools are unable to automatically derive such structures and hence are unable to meet the demanding bandwidth and capacity constraints of these applications. Current approaches to solving this problem can only derive either single-level memory structures or very deep, highly inefficient hierarchies, leading in either case to one or more of high implementation cost and low performance. This paper presents an enhancement to an existing MC-HLS synthesis approach which solves this problem; it exploits and eliminates data duplication at multiple levels levels of the generated hierarchy, leading to a reduction in the number of levels and ultimately higher performance, lower cost implementations. When applied to synthesis of C-based Motion Estimation, Matrix Multiplication and Sobel Edge Detection applications, this enables reductions in Block RAM and Look Up Table (LUT) cost of up to 25%, whilst simultaneously increasing throughput.
Immune Modulation Using Mistletoe (Viscum album L.) Extracts Iscador

Summary One repeatedly finds that mistletoe (Viscum album L.) extracts show immune-modulating effects. This is also true in many cases in the experimental setting. Many of the experimental trials cannot, however, be transferred to the clinical situation - or only in a limited way. The aim of this work was to pursue the question of the extent to which the function of immune-competent cells can be influenced by mistletoe extracts. To do this, 3 clinical studies were carried out. Results from the first two studies will be presented here. In a prospective observational study with defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, the impact of two different doses of Iscador® M (Malus) or Iscador® Qu (Quercus) on the function and number of T-lymphocytes from tumor patients was studied. The immunological tests took place monthly during the first six months. Thirty-one patients were included in the slow dose group and 36 patients in the group with swift dose escalation. It was postulated that too swift increase in dosage would lead to stronger local reactions and impairment of the stimulation capacity of T-cells taken ex vivo and incubated for 72 h. The evaluation showed that patients with stronger local reactions at the injection site have an impairment of mitogen-induced stimulation capacity of T-cells. However, patients with stronger local reaction showed a significant decrease of HLA-DR+ T cells as compared to patients with moderate or without any local reactions. In a GCP-conform, controlled bicentric phase II study the aim was to investigate the efficacy of a perioperative intravenous mistletoe extract application on the modulation of operation-induced immune suppression. For this purpose 105 patients with breast cancer were recruited. At the treatment centre the patients received an infusion of 1 mg Iscador M Spezial prior to the start of an operation, in addition to normal medication, while this was not practised at the control centre. The primary trial objective was the oxidative burst in granulocytes taken from patients ex vivo prior to surgery, and 1 and 3 days after. In order to take account of possible differences in the two groups, propensity scores were used as the basis for a matched pair analysis. It became clear that inhibition of the granulocyte function in the treatment group was significantly less marked (p < 0.001; Wilcoxon). Mistletoe extract-related adverse reactions were not observed. Thus this special form of application could minimise the immune suppression triggered by anaesthesia and operation stress.
Modeling and Detecting False Data Injection Attacks against Railway Traction Power Systems

Modern urban railways extensively use computerized sensing and control technologies to achieve safe, reliable, and well-timed operations. However, the use of these technologies may provide a convenient leverage to cyber-attackers who have bypassed the air gaps and aim at causing safety incidents and service disruptions. In this article, we study False Data Injection (FDI) attacks against railway Traction Power Systems (TPSes). Specifically, we analyze two types of FDI attacks on the train-borne voltage, current, and position sensor measurements—which we call efficiency attack and safety attack—that (i) maximize the system’s total power consumption and (ii) mislead trains’ local voltages to exceed given safety-critical thresholds, respectively. To counteract, we develop a Global Attack Detection (GAD) system that serializes a bad data detector and a novel secondary attack detector designed based on unique TPS characteristics. With intact position data of trains, our detection system can effectively detect FDI attacks on trains’ voltage and current measurements even if the attacker has full and accurate knowledge of the TPS, attack detection, and real-time system state. In particular, the GAD system features an adaptive mechanism that ensures low false-positive and negative rates in detecting the attacks under noisy system measurements. Extensive simulations driven by realistic running profiles of trains verify that a TPS setup is vulnerable to FDI attacks, but these attacks can be detected effectively by the proposed GAD while ensuring a low false-positive rate.
Recommendations pertaining to the use of influenza vaccines and influenza antiviral drugs: Influenza 2015.

Prevention of influenza is the most effective management strategy. Influenza vaccine is administered each year before the influenza season. Here we provide recommendations for the use of influenza vaccines in anticipation of the 2015 Southern Hemisphere influenza season. For a review of the 2014 influenza season, please refer to the website of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service, www.nicd. ac.za.
Wearable Physiological Sensors Reflect Mental Stress State in Office-Like Situations

Timely mental stress detection can help to prevent stress-related health problems. The aim of this study was to identify those physiological signals and features suitable for detecting mental stress in office-like situations. Electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration, skin conductance and surface electromyogram (sEMG) of the upper trapezius muscle were measured with a wearable system during three distinctive stress tests. The protocol contained stress tests that were designed to represent office-like situations. Generalized Estimating Equations were used to classify the data into rest and stress conditions. We reached an average classification rate of 74.5%. This approach may be used for continuous stress measurement in daily office life to detect mental stress at an early stage.