Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Voltage clamp analysis of two inward current mechanisms in the egg cell membrane of a starfish

Ionic mechanisms of excitation were studied in the immature egg cell membrane of a starfish, Mediaster aequalis, by analyzing membrane currents during voltage clamp. The cell membrane shows two different inward current mechanisms. One is activated at a membrane potential of - 55 approximately -50 mV and the other at -7 approximately -6 mV. They are referred to as channels I and II, respectively. A similar difference is also found in the membrane potential of half inactivation. Currents of the two channels can, therefore, be separated by selective inactivation. The currents of both channels depend on Ca++ (Sr++ or Ba++) but only the current of channel I depends on Na+. The time-course of current differs significantly between the two channels when compared at the same membrane potential. The relationship between the membrane current and the concentration of the permeant ions is also different between the two channels. The result suggests that channel II is a more saturable system. The sensitivity of the current to blocking cations such as Co++ or Mg++ is substantially greater in channel II than in channel I. Currents of both channels depend on the external pH with an apparent pK of 5.6. They are insensitive to 3 muM tetrodotoxin (TTX) but are eliminated totally by 7.3 mM procaine. The properties of channel II are similar to those of the Ca channel found in various adult tissues. The properties of channel I differ, however, from those of either the typical Ca or Na channels. Although the current of the channel depends on the external Na the amplitude of the Na current decreases not only with the Na concentration but also with the Ca concentration. No selectivity is found among Li+, Na+, Rb+, and Cs+. The experimental result suggests that Na+ does not carry current but modifies the current carried by Ca in channel I.
Private Empirical Risk Minimization, Revisited

In this paper, we initiate a systematic investigation of differentially private algorithms for convex empirical risk minimization. Various instantiations of this problem have been studied before. We provide new algorithms and matching lower bounds for private ERM assuming only that each data point’s contribution to the loss function is Lipschitz bounded and that the domain of optimization is bounded. We provide a separate set of algorithms and matching lower bounds for the setting in which the loss functions are known to also be strongly convex. Our algorithms run in polynomial time, and in some cases even match the optimal nonprivate running time (as measured by oracle complexity). We give separate algorithms (and lower bounds) for ( , 0)and ( , δ)-differential privacy; perhaps surprisingly, the techniques used for designing optimal algorithms in the two cases are completely different. Our lower bounds apply even to very simple, smooth function families, such as linear and quadratic functions. This implies that algorithms from previous work can be used to obtain optimal error rates, under the additional assumption that the contributions of each data point to the loss function is smooth. We show that simple approaches to smoothing arbitrary loss functions (in order to apply previous techniques) do not yield optimal error rates. In particular, optimal algorithms were not previously known for problems such as training support vector machines and the high-dimensional median. ∗Computer Science and Engineering Department, The Pennsylvania State University. {bassily,asmith}@psu.edu †A.S. is on leave at, and partly supported by, Boston University’s Hariri Center for Computational Science. ‡Stanford University and Microsoft Research. b-abhrag@microsoft.com
Data generation using declarative constraints

We study the problem of generating synthetic databases having declaratively specified characteristics. This problem is motivated by database system and application testing, data masking, and benchmarking. While the data generation problem has been studied before, prior approaches are either non-declarative or have fundamental limitations relating to data characteristics that they can capture and efficiently support. We argue that a natural, expressive, and declarative mechanism for specifying data characteristics is through cardinality constraints; a cardinality constraint specifies that the output of a query over the generated database have a certain cardinality. While the data generation problem is intractable in general, we present efficient algorithms that can handle a large and useful class of constraints. We include a thorough empirical evaluation illustrating that our algorithms handle complex constraints, scale well as the number of constraints increase, and outperform applicable prior techniques.
An Examination of Cross‐cultural Differences in Attitudes Towards Risk: Testing Prospect Theory in the People’s Republic of China

A research stream known as prospect theory describes how decision biases lead to results that differ from those predicted by classical utility theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979). Prospect theory hypothesizes that individuals will experience potential losses more intensely than potential gains, and will be more risk‐seeking in loss situations, while more risk‐avoiding in gain situations. This study includes 948 participants from the PRC and 318 students from the USA. All of our attempts to replicate these findings in the Peoples’ Republic of China have revealed a different pattern. Chinese subjects consistently demonstrated risk‐seeking preferences, both in gain and loss situations.
‘We tend to stick together and mostly we stick to our own kind’: British Indian women and support networks at university

This paper will examine the support networks that are available to British Indian women studying at a ‘new’ (post-1992) university in the South-East of England, UK. It will examine the support that women draw upon whilst at university and discuss the ways in which these support networks enable women to develop strategies for success. Thirty-two in-depth interviews were carried out with British Indian women who were studying for a Social Sciences or Education Studies degree in one university. All of the interviews were tape-recorded and the data transcribed. The findings suggest that British Indian women are able to use their support networks to enable them to succeed in higher education. The article will draw upon the work of Putnam to argue that within their communities at university, women engage in their support networks from which they develop ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ social capital.
Endoscopic Therapy in Crohn's Disease: Principle, Preparation, and Technique

Abstract:Stricture and fistula are common complications of Crohn's disease. Endoscopic balloon dilation and needle-knife stricturotomy has become a valid treatment option for Crohn's disease–associated strictures. Endoscopic therapy is also increasingly used in Crohn's disease–associated fistula. Preprocedural preparations, including routine laboratory testing, imaging examination, anticoagulant management, bowel cleansing and proper sedation, are essential to ensure a successful and safe endoscopic therapy. Adverse events, such as perforation and excessive bleeding, may occur during endoscopic intervention. The endoscopist should be well trained, always be cautious, anticipate for possible procedure-associated complications, be prepared for damage control during endoscopy, and have surgical backup ready. In this review, we discuss the principle, preparation, techniques of endoscopic therapy, as well as the prevention and management of endoscopic procedure-associated complications. We propose that inflammatory bowel disease endoscopy may be a part of training for “super” gastroenterology fellows, i.e., those seeking a career in advanced endoscopy or in inflammatory bowel disease.
Inhibition in Multiclass Classification

The role of inhibition is investigated in a multiclass support vector machine formalism inspired by the brain structure of insects. The so-called mushroom bodies have a set of output neurons, or classification functions, that compete with each other to encode a particular input. Strongly active output neurons depress or inhibit the remaining outputs without knowing which is correct or incorrect. Accordingly, we propose to use a classification function that embodies unselective inhibition and train it in the large margin classifier framework. Inhibition leads to more robust classifiers in the sense that they perform better on larger areas of appropriate hyperparameters when assessed with leave-one-out strategies. We also show that the classifier with inhibition is a tight bound to probabilistic exponential models and is Bayes consistent for 3-class problems. These properties make this approach useful for data sets with a limited number of labeled examples. For larger data sets, there is no significant comparative advantage to other multiclass SVM approaches.
Empirical examination of a proposed refinement to DSM-IV posttraumatic stress disorder symptom criteria using the National Comorbidity Survey Replication data.

OBJECTIVE Recently, changes have been proposed to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to refine the diagnosis because of concerns about its construct validity. Specifically, Spitzer et al. suggested narrowing the PTSD definition of trauma, specifying a symptom onset time frame after the trauma, and removing symptoms that overlap with other anxiety and mood disorders. We examined whether removing these overlapping anxiety/mood disorder symptoms resulted in differences (compared to the original DSM-IV PTSD criteria) in PTSD prevalence rates, diagnostic caseness, comorbidity and mental health-related disability, structural validity, and internal consistency. METHOD Cross-sectional data were examined from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (N = 5692), a multistage area household probability sample of U.S. residents. PTSD diagnostic and symptom data and diagnostic data for other Axis I disorders were taken from the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. The study was conducted from February 2001 to December 2003. RESULTS After removing PTSD symptoms overlapping with those of other anxiety and mood disorders, we found that the lifetime PTSD prevalence dropped only from 6.81% to 6.42%. Nevertheless, a sizeable proportion of PTSD-diagnosed persons would consequently lose PTSD caseness. Little difference was found between the criteria sets in diagnostic comorbidity and disability, structural validity, and internal consistency. CONCLUSIONS These data provide evidence that PTSD's overlapping anxiety and mood disorder symptoms are not responsible for PTSD's prevalence, diagnostic comorbidity, and construct validity. Although the proposed symptom criteria revision would result in fewer symptoms by which to evaluate PTSD, it may not address questions raised about the diagnosis' construct validity.
Impact of Antidepressant Side Effects on Adolescent Quality of Life

Objective: This study examines the relative impact of antidepressant side effects on adolescents with a history of major depression. Methods: We used Q-sort methodology to capture the opinions of adolescents with a history of depression (n = 22), adults with a history of depression (n = 20), healthy adolescents (n = 20), and clinicians (n = 18) on the impact of 40 common antidepressant side effects. We asked subjects to force rank the side effects, judging each side effect on its relative impact on their daily lives. We also examined the impact of these side effects on health status and medication compliance. Primary analyses compared adolescents with depression with the other groups on their mean rankings for each of the 40 side effects. Secondary analyses included paired comparisons for ratings on health status and compliance. Results: Although all groups ranked syncope and vomiting among the worst 5 side effects, significant differences were found between the groups on other side effects, such as anxiety, sleepiness, and hair loss. Based on the side effect with the most negative impact, adolescents with depression judged their own compliance (mean = 22%) to be higher than predicted by clinicians (mean = 11%). There were no significant differences between the groups on the mean rating of health status. Conclusions: Adolescents with depression, adults with depression, healthy adolescents, and clinicians agreed on the negative impact of 2 side effects: vomiting and syncope. Q-sort methodology provides valuable insight into the similarities and differences in opinion regarding the potential impact of side effects in patient groups.
A powerful and efficient set test for genetic markers that handles confounders

Motivation: Approaches for testing sets of variants, such as a set of rare or common variants within a gene or pathway, for association with complex traits are important. In particular, set tests allow for aggregation of weak signal within a set, can capture interplay among variants and reduce the burden of multiple hypothesis testing. Until now, these approaches did not address confounding by family relatedness and population structure, a problem that is becoming more important as larger datasets are used to increase power. Results: We introduce a new approach for set tests that handles confounders. Our model is based on the linear mixed model and uses two random effects—one to capture the set association signal and one to capture confounders. We also introduce a computational speedup for two random-effects models that makes this approach feasible even for extremely large cohorts. Using this model with both the likelihood ratio test and score test, we find that the former yields more power while controlling type I error. Application of our approach to richly structured Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 data demonstrates that our method successfully corrects for population structure and family relatedness, whereas application of our method to a 15 000 individual Crohn’s disease case–control cohort demonstrates that it additionally recovers genes not recoverable by univariate analysis. Availability: A Python-based library implementing our approach is available at http://mscompbio.codeplex. com. Contact: jennl@microsoft.com or lippert@microsoft.com or heckerma@microsoft.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Physical and Decision-Making Demands of Australian Football Umpires During Competitive Matches

Abstract Elsworthy, N, Burke, D, Scott, BR, Stevens, CJ, and Dascombe, BJ. Physical and decision-making demands of Australian football umpires during competitive matches. J Strength Cond Res 28(12): 3502–3507, 2014—This study examined the physical and decision-making requirements of elite Australian football (AF) umpires during match play. Twenty-nine field umpires were assessed across 20 AF League matches. Physical demands were monitored using global positioning system devices to record the total distance covered and high-speed running (HSR; >14.4 km·h−1) demands across each quarter. Decision-making performance was assessed through video by 3 elite umpire coaches who reviewed free-kick accuracy during each match. These data were further analyzed according to the position (mid-zone or end-zone) of the umpire when each decision was made. The average distance covered was 10,563 ± 608 m, of which 1,952 ± 494 m was HSR. Significant reductions in distance covered were observed during the third (p = 0.006) and fourth (p = 0.001) quarters, compared with the first. An average of 44 ± 8 free kicks awarded per match with a decision accuracy of 84 ± 6%; however, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in these measures across a match. Significantly (p ⩽ 0.05) higher physical (HSR; relative distance) and decision-making requirements were observed within the mid-zone. The current data quantify the physical and decision-making demands of AF umpiring and demonstrated that despite a high physical workload, free-kick accuracy is maintained across a match. This suggests that decision making may not be directly compromised by the intermittent running demands of AF umpires. Positional rotations between the mid-zone and end-zone position allow for the demands to be shared among all field umpires during a match.
Development of Social Work Education in China in the Context of New Policy Initiatives: Issues and Challenges

Social work education in China has experienced a very rapid expansion in recent years. Top Chinese leaders have advocated strongly for social work and in 2006, the government launched a series of new social policy initiatives aimed at professionalizing social work. This has provided an opportunity for researchers and educators to think about the possible impact and future challenges confronting the civil affairs sector and social work educators. In this paper, the authors will provide an analysis of the recent development of social work education in China, and also highlight the major challenges that social work educators and the social services sectors will encounter in the context of the professionalization of social work.
Price differentiation in the kelly mechanism

Resource allocation [7, 4] and pricing [13, 1, 12] for network resources, e.g., bandwidth, have been studied extensively during the last decade. Among various proposed pricing and allocation mechanisms, the Kelly mechanism [7] stands out as a simple and scalable solution. Kelly et al [7, 6] first showed that it can be used as a congestion pricing mechanism to achieve proportional fairness. However, Johari and Tsisiklis [4] found that the resource allocation from the Kelly mechanism might induce an efficiency loss up to 25% of the social optimality. In this paper, we generalize the Kelly mechanism by designing a build-in price differentiation and show that the efficiency gap can be closed. In particular, we analyze the resource competition game under the generalized mechanism and show that any price differentiation induces a unique Nash equilibrium. We further reveal the relationship between the price differentiation and its resulting resource allocations and derive the optimal condition under which the social welfare reaches maximum. Our generalization extends the flexibility of the Kelly mechanism in two very different ways. First, it allows autonomous resource owners to use price differentiations so as to achieve individual objectives. Second, it provides a method for altruistic resource owners to make tradeoffs between user fairness (in terms of price differentiation) and system efficiency (in terms of social welfare).
Differential expression of serum/plasma proteins in various infectious diseases: Specific or nonspecific signatures

Apart from direct detection of the infecting organisms or biomarker of the pathogen itself, surrogate host markers are also useful for sensitive and early diagnosis of pathogenic infections. Early detection of pathogenic infections, discrimination among closely related diseases with overlapping clinical manifestations, and monitoring of disease progression can be achieved by analyzing blood biomarkers. Therefore, over the last decade large numbers of proteomics studies have been conducted to identify differentially expressed human serum/plasma proteins in different infectious diseases with the intent of discovering novel potential diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers. However, in‐depth review of the literature indicates that many reported biomarkers are altered in the same way in multiple infectious diseases, regardless of the type of infection. This might be a consequence of generic acute phase reactions, while the uniquely modulated candidates in different pathogenic infections could be indicators of some specific responses. In this review article, we will provide a comprehensive analysis of differentially expressed serum/plasma proteins in various infectious diseases and categorize the protein markers associated with generic or specific responses. The challenges associated with the discovery, validation, and translational phases of serum/plasma biomarker establishment are also discussed.
Testing a Model of Women's Personal Sense of Justice, Control, Well-Being, and Distress in the Context of Sexist Discrimination

Popular media convey notions that the United States is a postfeminist culture, where sexism is a thing of the past and gender equality prevails. Empirical data suggest otherwise. Further, links between group-based discrimination and psychological distress have been well documented (e.g., in bisexual and gay Latino men, African Americans, Asian Americans). Less understood are mediating factors explaining these links. We hypothesized a theory-based, integrated path model of women's distress and well-being as predicted by sexist events, highlighting intermediate effects of women's beliefs about justice and control in their lives. Specifically, we hypothesized that the more a woman experiences sexist events, the less fair and just her life seems; in turn, she feels less control of her life and reports heightened mental health concerns (depression, anxiety, less well-being). Cross-sectional data from 264 women indicated that sexist events had indirect effects on all three mental health variables, as mediated by just world beliefs and personal control, in sequence. However, direct (nonmediated) effects of sexist events on mental health remained. Both mean levels and patterns of links among variables were similar for African American and European American women. Regarding intervention, a key feminist goal is connecting personal distress with power and context. Women's health may be enhanced by increasing awareness of links found here, supporting development of attributions for distress extending beyond personal problems to societal conditions, skills to enhance feelings of personal control in other areas of their lives, and connections to the history of women's empowered social action.
The Role of Group Identity and Personality Domains as Indicators of Self-Reported Delinquency

We investigated the impact of personality factors and group identity factors on self-reported delinquency among high school students. Respondents were 420 Australian youth with a mean age of 15.22 r yrs. The sample comprised 224 males and 196 females. The strongest predictors of delinquency among both males and females were Eysenck's Psychoticism factor and an identity with so-called "rebels". In addition, Extraversion (males) and low self-reported academic achievement (females) were also found to be important factors. It was further concluded that Psychoticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness have little in common in their prediction of delinquency. The results are discussed with reference to previous research on the role of personality and group identity factors, and some suggestions for future research are also made.