Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Properties of acid‐induced currents in mouse dorsal root ganglia neurons

Acid‐sensing ion channels (ASICs) are cation channels that are activated by protons (H+). They are expressed in neurons throughout the nervous system and may play important roles in several neurologic disorders including inflammation, cerebral ischemia, seizures, neurodegeneration, anxiety, depression, and migraine. ASICs generally produce transient currents that desensitize in response to a decrease in extracellular pH. Under certain conditions, the inactivation of ASICs can be incomplete and allow them to produce sustained currents. Here, we characterize the properties of both transient and sustained acid‐induced currents in cultured mouse dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons. At pH levels between 7.3 and 7.1 they include “window currents” through ASICs. With stronger acid signals sustained currents are maintained in the absence of extracellular Na+ or the presence of the ASIC blockers amiloride and Psalmotoxin‐1(PcTx1). These sustained responses may have several different origins in these cells, including acid‐induced stimulation of inward Cl− currents, block of outward K+ currents, and augmentation of inward H+ currents, properties that distinguish these novel sustained currents from the well‐characterized transient currents.
Education policy reform and the return to schooling from instrumental variables

Title Education policy reform and the return to schooling from instrumental variables Authors(s) Denny, Kevin; Harmon, Colm Publication date 2000-04-07 Series IFS Working Papers; W00/07 Publisher Institute for Fiscal Studies Link to online version http://dx.doi. org/10.1920/wp.ifs. 2000.0007 Item record/more information http://hdl.handle. net/10197/653 Publisher's version (DOI) 10.1920/wp.ifs. 2000.0007
Imaging evolution of acute lacunar infarction

Background: In acute lacunar infarction, MRI may overestimate eventual infarct size and the imaging evolution of acute lesions is not fully understood. Our objective was to examine eventual infarct size, the incidence of cavity formation, and factors associated with cavitation in patients presenting with acute lacunar infarction. Methods: Patients with acute diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) infarcts ≤25 mm in diameter, in the distribution of a penetrating artery, who had a follow-up MRI or CT at least 1 month or longer from stroke onset were retrospectively included. We measured baseline lesion size on DWI and T2/fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and follow-up lesion size on T2/FLAIR and CT. Follow-up MRI and CT images were assessed for cavity formation. Predictors for cavitation were assessed in a multivariate model. Results: We identified 75 patients with lacunar infarction and follow-up CT or MRI, done 20.2 ± 16.6 and 21.2 ± 17.4 months after stroke, respectively. Mean baseline DWI size was 13.5 ± 5.7 and T2/FLAIR size was 13.1 ± 5.3 mm. Follow-up T2/FLAIR lesion size was 8.2 ± 3.4 mm and smaller than baseline DWI and T2/FLAIR (p = <0.001). Follow-up whole lesion size on CT scan was 7.1 ± 4.1 and smaller than baseline DWI and T2/FLAIR (p = 0.001). Cavitation occurred in 23/38 (61%) MRI and 50/70 (70%) CT scans. We identified periventricular white matter lesions as a predictor of cavity formation by MRI and CT. Conclusion: Acute DWI significantly overestimates final infarct size. A third of lacunar infarcts do not develop a cavity.
Relationship between isometric endurance of back extensor muscles and selected anthropometric indices among some Nigerian undergraduates.

BACKGROUND Muscular endurance of the back extensors is less frequently assessed than muscular strength, although the endurance capabilities of these muscles may be as important as the strength in the prevention and treatment of low-back pain. OBJECTIVES The study aimed to establish reference values, pattern of back extensor endurance and the relationship between isometric endurance of back extensor muscles and selected anthropometric indices, in apparently healthy young Nigerian adults. METHOD A total of 300 young adults (150 males and 150 females) aged 17-30 years, participated in this Cross sectional study. The modified Biering-Sorensen test of Static Muscular Endurance (BSME) was used to assess isometric endurance of back extensor muscles. A height meter, bathroom weighing scale and flexible tape were used to collect data for the anthropometric indices-Body Mass Index (BMI), Height (H), Weight (W), Waist Circumference (WC), Hip Circumference (HC), Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR), Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR). Data obtained was Summarised using descriptive statistics of frequency, percentages, percentile, range, mean and standard deviation, and while the Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to ascertain relationship. Alpha level was set at 0.05. RESULTS Mean Endurance Time (ET) for all the participants was 97.56 ± 43.96 secs. ET was inversely related to anthropometric indices- BMI, Height, Weight, WC,HC, WHR, WHtR. Males had higher maximum ET than females (288 secs and 254 secs). Gender differences was found in the anthropometric indices- BMI, WHR, WC, Weight and Height. Majority of the participants had medium endurance performance with the back endurance pattern in the ratio 1:2:1. CONCLUSION The mean isometric back extensor endurance of apparently healthy young Nigerian adults was found to be lower than normal Biering-Sorensen holding times.
Current survival measures reliably reflect modern sequential treatment in CML: Correlation with prognostic stratifications

Using the data of 723 chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients in the chronic phase, we analyzed the prognostic value of the Sokal, Euro, and EUTOS scores as well as the level of BCR‐ABL1 and the achievement of complete cytogenetic response (CCgR) at 3 months of imatinib therapy in relation to the so‐called current survival measures: the current cumulative incidence (CCI) reflecting the probability of being alive and in CCgR after starting imatinib therapy; the current leukemia‐free survival (CLFS) reflecting the probability of being alive and in CCgR after achieving the first CCgR; and the overall survival. The greatest difference between the CCI curves at 5 years after initiating imatinib therapy was observed for the BCR‐ABL1 transcripts at 3 months. The 5‐year CCI was 94.3% in patients with BCR‐ABL1 transcripts ≤ 10% and 57.1% in patients with BCR‐ABL1 transcripts > 10% (P = 0.005). Therefore, the examination of BCR‐ABL1 transcripts at 3 months may help in early identification of patients who are likely to perform poorly with imatinib. On the other hand, CLFS was not significantly affected by the considered stratifications. In conclusion, our results indicate that once the CCgR is achieved, the prognosis is good irrespective of the starting prognostic risks. Am. J. Hematol. 88:790–797, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Assimilating the ICE‐6G_C Reconstruction of the Latest Quaternary Ice Age Cycle Into Numerical Simulations of the Laurentide and Fennoscandian Ice Sheets

We analyze the effects of nudging 100 kyr numerical simulations of the Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets toward the glacial isostatic adjustment‐based (GIA‐based) ICE‐6G_C reconstruction of the most recent ice age cycle. Starting with the ice physics approximations of the PISM ice sheet model and the SeaRISE simulation protocols, we incorporate nudging at characteristic time scales, τf, through anomalous mass balance terms in the ice mass conservation equation. As should be expected, these mass balances exhibit physically unrealistic details arising from pure GIA‐based reconstruction geometry when nudging is very strong (τf=20 years for North America), while weakly nudged (τf=1,000 years) solutions deviate from ICE‐6G_C sufficiently to degrade its observational fit quality. For reasonable intermediate time scales (τf=100 years and 200 years), we perturbatively analyze nudged ice dynamics as a superposition of “leading‐order smoothing” that diffuses ICE‐6G_C in a physically and observationally consistent manner and “higher‐order” deviations arising, for instance, from biases in the time dependence of surface climate boundary conditions. Based upon the relative deviations between respective nudged simulations in which these biases follow surface temperature from ice cores and eustatic sea level from marine sediment cores, we compute “ice core climate adjustments” that suggest how local paleoclimate observations may be applied to the systematic refinement of ICE‐6G_C. Our results are consistent with a growing body of evidence suggesting that the geographical origins of Meltwater Pulse 1B (MWP1b) may lie primarily in North America as opposed to Antarctica (as reconstructed in ICE‐6G_C).
Dendritic cells: Understanding immunogenicity

The impetus for the discovery of dendritic cells in 1972 was to understand immunogenicity, the capacity of an antigenic substance to provoke immunity. During experiments to characterize "accessory" cells that enhanced immunity, we spotted unusual stellate cells in mouse spleen. They had a distinct capacity to form and retract processes or dendrites and were named dendritic cells (DC). DC proved to be different from other cell types and to be peculiarly immunogenic when loaded with antigens. When Langerhans cells were studied, immunogenicity was found to involve two steps: antigen presentation by immature DC and maturation to elicit immunity. Antigen‐bearing DC were also immunogenic in vivo and were therefore termed "nature's adjuvants". Several labs then learned to generate large numbers of DC from progenitors, which accelerated DC research. Tolerogenicity via DC, including the control of foxp3+ suppressor T cells, was recently discovered. Two areas of current research that I find intriguing are to identify mechanisms for antigen uptake and processing, and for the control of different types of immunity and tolerance. These subjects should be studied in vivo with clinically relevant antigens, so that the activities of DC can be better integrated into the prevention and treatment of disease in patients.
Resident CAPS on dense-core vesicles docks and primes vesicles for fusion

The exocytosis of dense-core vesicles requires a priming step during which SNARE protein complexes assemble. CAPS, which assembles SNARE complexes and is required for vesicle priming, was imaged during events of single-vesicle fusion by TIRF microscopy. CAPS was found to be a resident on vesicles, with residence required for docking and fusion.
1 Introduction to Dual Decomposition for Inference

Many inference problems with discrete variables result in a difficult com-binatorial optimization problem. In recent years, the technique of dual decomposition , also called Lagrangian relaxation, has proven to be a powerful means of solving these inference problems by decomposing them into simpler components that are repeatedly solved independently and combined into a global solution. In this chapter, we introduce the general technique of dual decomposition through its application to the problem of finding the most likely (MAP) assignment in Markov random fields. We discuss both subgradient and block coordinate descent approaches to solving the dual problem. The resulting message-passing algorithms are similar to max-product, but can be shown to solve a linear programming relaxation of the MAP problem. We show how many of the MAP algorithms are related to each other, and also quantify when the MAP solution can and cannot be decoded directly from the dual solution. 1.1 Introduction Many problems in engineering and the sciences require solutions to challenging combinatorial optimization problems. These include traditional problems such as scheduling, planning, fault diagnosis, or searching for molecular conformations. In addition, a wealth of combinatorial problems arise directly from probabilistic modeling (graphical models). Graphical models (see Koller and Friedman, 2009, for a textbook introduction) have been widely adopted in areas such as computational biology, machine vision, and natural language processing, and are increasingly being used as a framework for expressing combinatorial problems. Consider, for example, a protein side-chain placement problem where the goal is to find the minimum energy conformation of amino acid side-chains along a fixed carbon backbone. The orientations of the side-chains are represented by discretized angles called rotamers. The combinatorial difficulty arises here from the fact that rotamer choices for nearby amino acids are energetically coupled. For globular proteins, for example, such couplings may be present for most pairs of side-chain orientations. This problem is couched in probabilistic modeling terms by associating molecular conformations with the setting of discrete random variables corresponding to the rotamer angles. The interactions between such random variables come from the energetic couplings between nearby amino acids. Finding the minimum energy conformation is then equivalently solved by finding the most probable assignment of states to the variables. We will consider here combinatorial problems that are expressed in terms of structured probability models (graphical models). A graphical model is defined over a set of discrete variables x = {x j } j∈V. Local …
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: SHORT AND LONG TERM IMPACT ON DIVIDEND POLICY

In this study, we analyze the influence of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) transactions on the dividend policies of companies listed on the Brazilian B3 stock exchange in the short and long term, from 2005 to 2020. We collected financial data in the Economática® and Thomson Reuters® databases. The research sample consists of 124 non-financial companies which were acquirers in the mergers. We carried out the analyzes using multiple regressions, with unbalanced panel data using the Generalized Method of Moments and estimation of the Hausman-Taylor model. The results showed that M&A can positively influence income (dividend yield) and the amount distributed to investors (dividends paid) one year after the occurrence of the mergers. We also identified the relevance of sector similarity between the merged companies and the experience of the bidding companies in previous M&A transactions when analyzing long-term results. The findings highlight the need for companies to reorganize themselves after undergoing M&A transactions until they can once again remunerate their shareholders through dividend distribution. This study contributes to the literature by discussing the creation of value for shareholders regarding the influence of M&A on dividend policy, highlighting the relevance of analyzes in the short and long term. For the capital market, this research demonstrates the importance of companies in balancing decisions aimed at business growth while still serving their shareholders through dividend distribution.
Threat or boost? Social comparison affects older people's performance differently depending on task domain.

OBJECTIVES In this research, we investigate whether social comparison with younger people can result in either a stereotype-based threat or boost in older people's performance. METHODS Study 1 used nationally representative data to establish domains of performance in which older people are either stereotypically disadvantaged or advantaged relative to younger people. Study 2 was an experiment to test how a potentially threatening versus control versus enhancing comparison with younger people would affect performance in negatively and positively stereotyped task domains. RESULTS As predicted, compared with the control condition, stereotype threat caused performance decrements in both task domains. This effect was partially mediated by anxiety. Moreover, the enhancing social comparison boosted performance, but only on a crossword task, a task on which older people's abilities are favorably stereotyped. DISCUSSION The research demonstrates that a threatening comparison can result in underperformance by older people both in negatively and positively self-stereotyped task domains. It also demonstrates that social comparison with younger people can enhance older people's performance in a positively stereotyped task domain. The implications for creating circumstances likely to enable older people to achieve their full potential are discussed.
Career aspirations of ﬂexpatriates. A qualitative study

This paper analyses the career aspirations of Austrian ﬂexpatriates and expatriates. Conceptually, the article applies a framework using career anchors and internal career orientations. Empirically, we build on a variant of content analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews with 40 Austrian internationally mobile employees working in Eastern and Western European countries. The results show the existence of both traditional and new career aspirations. Most important to our sample are aspirations revolving around Management and Hierarchy, Internationalism and Entrepreneurial Creativity; for ﬂexpatriates we ﬁnd speciﬁcs regarding Freedom, Getting High and a new aspiration referred to as Celebrity; for expatriates particularities concern Balance, Pure Challenge and Skills and Knowledge. Generalizability of our ﬁndings is limited due to the interpretative nature of the study, the sample structure, and cross-sectional design. © 2017 INDEG/PROJECTOS-Inst. para o Desenvolvimento da Gest˜ao Empresarial/Projectos. Published by Elsevier Espa˜na, S.L. U. All rights reserved.
Structural health monitoring and Earthquake Early Warning: preliminary studies for application in eastern Sicily

In this work, the reduction of seismic hazard in eastern Sicily is addressed by both studying the fundamental resonant frequency of strategic buildings through low cost geophysical investigation techniques, and exploring a practical approach to earthquake early warning (EEW) system. The fundamental period and the corresponding amplification of some selected strategic buildings has been estimated using ambient vibration and earthquake data. We analyzed the basic dynamic parameters of buildings chosen as target, by using continuous vibration measurements at different floors. The dynamic behavior of structures was evaluated considering both small strains induced by ambient vibrations and larger excitation levels due to the earthquakes occurrence. A practical approach to earthquake early warning in the investigated area was dealt with by using empirical relationships between parameters measured on the initial portion of seismic recordings and related to the earthquake magnitude and peak ground motion. In particular, we performed the first preliminary tests by using empirical relationships calibrated for the considered area and taking into account the geometry of the existing permanent seismic network deployed in the eastern Sicily. The estimated relationships have been used to provide onsite warning around a given seismic station and evaluate the potential damaging effects. The joint of EEW system and geophysical investigation shown in this work may be deemed a useful guide for the future implementation of the in real time seismic monitoring in the region.
Radiological and clinical comparison of kinematically versus mechanically aligned total knee arthroplasty

Aims The aim of this study was to compare the post‐operative radiographic and clinical outcomes between kinematically and mechanically aligned total knee arthroplasties (TKAs). Patients and Methods A total of 60 TKAs (30 kinematically and 30 mechanically aligned) were performed in 60 patients with varus osteoarthritis of the knee using a navigation system. The angles of orientation of the joint line in relation to the floor, the conventional and true mechanical axis (tMA) (the line from the centre of the hip to the lowest point of the calcaneus) were compared, one year post‐operatively, on single‐leg and double‐leg standing long leg radiographs between the groups. The range of movement and 2011 Knee Society Scores were also compared between the groups at that time. Results The angles of orientation of the joint line in the kinematic group changed from slight varus on double‐leg standing to slight valgus with single‐leg standing. The mechanical axes in the kinematic group passed through a neutral position of the knee in the true condition when the calcaneus was considered. The post‐operative angles of flexion and functional activity scores were significantly better in the kinematic than in the mechanical group (p < 0.003 and 0.03, respectively). Conclusion A kinematically aligned TKA results in a joint line which has a more parallel orientation in relation to the floor during single‐ and double‐leg standing, and more neutral weight‐bearing in tMA than a mechanically aligned TKA.
Isolating gait-related movement artifacts in electroencephalography during human walking

Objective. High-density electroencephelography (EEG) can provide an insight into human brain function during real-world activities with walking. Some recent studies have used EEG to characterize brain activity during walking, but the relative contributions of movement artifact and electrocortical activity have been difficult to quantify. We aimed to characterize movement artifact recorded by EEG electrodes at a range of walking speeds and to test the efficacy of artifact removal methods. We also quantified the similarity between movement artifact recorded by EEG electrodes and a head-mounted accelerometer. Approach. We used a novel experimental method to isolate and record movement artifact with EEG electrodes during walking. We blocked electrophysiological signals using a nonconductive layer (silicone swim cap) and simulated an electrically conductive scalp on top of the swim cap using a wig coated with conductive gel. We recorded motion artifact EEG data from nine young human subjects walking on a treadmill at speeds from 0.4 to 1.6 m s−1. We then tested artifact removal methods including moving average and wavelet-based techniques. Main results. Movement artifact recorded with EEG electrodes varied considerably, across speed, subject, and electrode location. The movement artifact measured with EEG electrodes did not correlate well with head acceleration. All of the tested artifact removal methods attenuated low-frequency noise but did not completely remove movement artifact. The spectral power fluctuations in the movement artifact data resembled data from some previously published studies of EEG during walking. Significance. Our results suggest that EEG data recorded during walking likely contains substantial movement artifact that: cannot be explained by head accelerations; varies across speed, subject, and channel; and cannot be removed using traditional signal processing methods. Future studies should focus on more sophisticated methods for removal of EEG movement artifact to advance the field.