Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Representation of Order Information in Auditory-Verbal Short-Term Memory

Here we investigate how order information is represented in auditory-verbal short-term memory (STM). We used fMRI and a serial recall task to dissociate neural activity patterns representing the phonological properties of the items stored in STM from the patterns representing their order. For this purpose, we analyzed fMRI activity patterns elicited by different item sets and different orderings of those items. These fMRI activity patterns were compared with the predictions made by positional and chaining models of serial order. The positional models encode associations between items and their positions in a sequence, whereas the chaining models encode associations between successive items and retain no position information. We show that a set of brain areas in the postero-dorsal stream of auditory processing store associations between items and order as predicted by a positional model. The chaining model of order representation generates a different pattern similarity prediction, which was shown to be inconsistent with the fMRI data. Our results thus favor a neural model of order representation that stores item codes, position codes, and the mapping between them. This study provides the first fMRI evidence for a specific model of order representation in the human brain.
Effects of 1-hydroxyethylidene-1, 1-bisphosphonate (HEBP) on the formation of dentin and the periodontal attachment apparatus in the mouse.

The effects of the bisphosphonate HEBP on dentin formation and the structural relationship between the dentin and the developing periodontal attachment apparatus have been studied in the continuously growing mouse incisor. It was observed that HEBP (in doses greater than or equal to 8 mg P/kg b.w/day) not only inhibited the deposition of mineral crystallites in newly formed dentin matrix, but also entirely prevented the formation of a layer of acellular root cementum. It was further noticed that the drug interfered with the deposition of 3H-serine-containing substances at the predentin-dentin border. This was not always accompanied by an inhibition of dentin mineralization, thereby suggesting that 3H-serine-containing proteins (presumably phosphoproteins) do not play a critical role in the deposition of mineral layers onto previously formed ones. The absence of a cementum layer did not prevent the developing periodontal ligament from establishing matrix-to-matrix connections with the root-analogue dentin. Collagen fibrils of the ligament intermingled with those of the mantle dentin, which in contrast to teeth not exposed to the drug were clearly visible and not masked by electron-dense matrix components. Finally, it was found that the drug had distinct effects on the formation of root-analogue and crown-analogue dentin. Whereas during the course of the experiment the odontoblasts along the crown-analogue aspect of the tooth continued to produce circumpulpal dentin matrix, those along the root-analogue aspect of the tooth did so only when the mantle dentin layer had been mineralized prior to HEBP administration. This phenomenon is interpreted as being indicative of fundamental differences between the formation of crown and root dentin.
Some observations on representations and representational specificity in speech perception and spoken word recognition

The conventional view of speech perception and spoken word recognition relies on discrete, abstract symbolic units. This conventional view faces several problems which led to the development of new approaches to representing speech. In particular, recent exemplar and episodic models can account for both the robustness of speech perception and the effects of indexical information on speech processing. Instead of only representing speech with conventional abstract symbolic representations, the evidence reviewed here suggests that highly detailed information is encoded and stored in memory as well.
Ageing and the neutrophil: no appetite for killing?

In the armoury of the immune system developed to combat the various micro‐organisms that could invade the host, the neutrophil forms the first line of defence against rapidly dividing bacteria and fungi. However, as humans age they become more susceptible to infection with these microbes and this has been ascribed to a decline in immune status, termed immune senescence. Here we summarize the literature specifically concerning the attenuation of neutrophil function with age and the possible mechanisms underlying their reduced response to infectious agents.
Opportunistic Round Robin with Extended Window for Time Correlated Channels

Opportunistic round robin (ORR) scheduling for the downlink of wireless channels has been introduced as a means to bound the users' inter-access time and at the same time exploit the variations in the channel. Unfortunately in the case of slowly fading channels there is not enough variation in the channel over small time intervals to exploit the multiuser diversity. In this paper we extend the ORR algorithm to trade off inter-access time with multiuser diversity gain. The proposed algorithm also allows an arbitrary resource allocation between the users.
Elevated CO2 enhances water relations and productivity and affects gas exchange in C3 and C4 grasses of the Colorado shortgrass steppe.

Six open‐top chambers were installed on the shortgrass steppe in north‐eastern Colorado, USA from late March until mid‐October in 1997 and 1998 to evaluate how this grassland will be affected by rising atmospheric CO2. Three chambers were maintained at current CO2 concentration (ambient treatment), three at twice ambient CO2, or approximately 720 μmol mol−1 (elevated treatment), and three nonchambered plots served as controls. Above‐ground phytomass was measured in summer and autumn during each growing season, soil water was monitored weekly, and leaf photosynthesis, conductance and water potential were measured periodically on important C3 and C4 grasses. Mid‐season and seasonal above‐ground productivity were enhanced from 26 to 47% at elevated CO2, with no differences in the relative responses of C3/C4 grasses or forbs. Annual above‐ground phytomass accrual was greater on plots which were defoliated once in mid‐summer compared to plots which were not defoliated during the growing season, but there was no interactive effect of defoliation and CO2 on growth. Leaf photosynthesis was often greater in Pascopyrum smithii (C3) and Bouteloua gracilis (C4) plants in the elevated chambers, due in large part to higher soil water contents and leaf water potentials. Persistent downward photosynthetic acclimation in P. smithii leaves prevented large photosynthetic enhancement for elevated CO2‐grown plants. Shoot N concentrations tended to be lower in grasses under elevated CO2, but only Stipa comata (C3) plants exhibited significant reductions in N under elevated compared to ambient CO2 chambers. Despite chamber warming of 2.6 °C and apparent drier chamber conditions compared to unchambered controls, above‐ground production in all chambers was always greater than in unchambered plots. Collectively, these results suggest increased productivity of the shortgrass steppe in future warmer, CO2 enriched environments.
Blattella asahinai (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae): A New Predator of Lepidopteran Eggs in South Texas Soybean

Abstract Large numbers of a cockroach that resembled the German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.), were observed during winter 2005–2006 in home turf settings in Weslaco, TX, 11 km from the U.S. border with northeastern Mexico. In June and July 2006, this cockroach was observed at night on the foliage of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. , in numbers often exceeding 50 per m row. Because of its similarity to B. germanica, but with the characteristic of flying frequently, we suspected that our observations might be of the Asian cockroach, Blattella asahinai Mizukubo. Using a combination of morphological characters, cuticular hydrocarbons, and sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase II gene, we definitively identified this cockroach as B. asahinai. B. asahinai was frequently observed feeding on sentinel eggs of Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) and Spodoptera exigua (Hübner). This cockroach was the dominant egg predator in soybean during 2006, making up 36.4% of all predators observed feeding on eggs. B. asahinai was only observed occupying the soybean canopy nocturnally, and it made up 53.7% of predators observed feeding at night. We speculate that B. asahinai may serve as an important beneficial insect in soybean and other crops.
Development of a new CARD‐FISH protocol for quantification of Legionella pneumophila and its application in two hospital cooling towers

Aims: Open cooling towers are frequent sources of infections with Legionella pneumophila. The gold standard for the detection of Leg. pneumophila is based on cultivation lasting up to 10 days and detecting only culturable cells. Alternative fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) protocols have been proposed, but they result in faint fluorescence signals and lack specificity because of cross‐hybridization with other Legionella species. Our aim was thus to develop a new FISH protocol for rapid and specific detection of Leg. pneumophila in water samples.
Central Bank Liquidity Provision and Collateral Quality

Should central banks lend against low quality collateral? We characterize efficient central bank collateral policy in a model where a bank borrows from the interbank market or the central bank. Collateral has favorable incentive effects but is costly to transfer to lenders who value the collateral less because of imperfect collateral quality. We show that a fall in the quantity or the quality of the bank’s collateral can increase interest rates in the economy even with a constant policy rate. A looser central bank collateral policy can reduce the spread, alleviate the credit crunch and increase output.
Sensitivity of Four Species of Bacteroides to Antibiotics

The genus here referred to as Bacteroides (also known as Fusiformis and by other names) consists of Gramnegative non-sporing anaerobic bacilli. These are inhabitants of the mouth and lower bowel, and may be found in infections of various parts of both alimentary and respiratory tracts, the uterus, and other organs; such infections are often mixed but sometimes pure, and of every degree of severity from the quiet local necrosis of Vincent's gingivitis up to septicaemia. There is perhaps no genus of common pathogenic bacteria which has been so little studied except by a few specially interested workers. Their isolation is difficult and their precise identification often much more so. Although they are almost invariably present in any foul-smelling material from the mouth, lung, or a lesion-such, for instance, as a gangrenous appendixin the lower alimentary tract, it is exceptional for any attempt to be made to identify them. It is hence not altogether surprising that information about their sensitivity to antibiotics should be fragmentary; few such tests have been made, but the value of some is also diminished by the use of an incomplete range of concentrations or by failure to identify the organisms. Beigelman and Rantz (1949) give an admirable picture of the nature of Bacteroides infections in their account of 47 cases, but they did not attempt species identification or use any concentration of penicillin exceeding 0.1 unit/ml. in testing sensitivity. Rantz (1951) also describes a case of bacterial endocarditis due to an unidentified strain that was resistant to 1 unit/ml. of penicillin, and inhibited by 10 and I /Ag. /ml. respectively of streptomycin and oxytetracycline: treatment with the latter for 66 days effected a cure. Bacteroides funduliformis (necrophorus) is the subject of six papers in which sensitivity to antibiotics is reported: the results are given in Table I. Bacteraides fragilis was tested under this name by only two authors: Marson and Meynell (1953) found a single strain from a patient with pylephlebitis to be inhibited by 20 units of penicillin per ml. , and 25, 5,
Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) Signaling Is Required for a Late-stage Fusion Process during Skeletal Myotube Maturation*[boxs]

Skeletal myogenesis is a well orchestrated cascade of events regulated by multiple signaling pathways, one of which is recently characterized by its sensitivity to the bacterial macrolide rapamycin. Previously we reported that the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) regulates the initiation of the differentiation program in mouse C2C12 myoblasts by controlling the expression of insulin-like growth factor-II in a kinase-independent manner. Here we provide experimental evidence suggesting that a different mode of mTOR signaling regulates skeletal myogenesis at a later stage. In the absence of endogenous mTOR function in C2C12 cells treated with rapamycin, a kinase-inactive mTOR fully supports myogenin expression, but causes a delay in contractile protein expression. Myoblasts fuse to form nascent myotubes in the absence of kinase-active mTOR, whereas the formation of mature myotubes by further fusion requires the catalytic activity of mTOR. Therefore, the two stages of myocyte fusion are molecularly separable at the level of mTOR signaling. In addition, our data suggest that a factor secreted into the culture medium is responsible for mediating the function of mTOR in regulating the late-stage fusion leading to mature myotubes. Furthermore, taking advantage of the unique features of cells stably expressing a mutant mTOR, we have performed cDNA microarray analysis to compare global gene expression profiles between mature and nascent myotubes, the results of which have implicated classes of genes and revealed candidate regulators in myotube maturation or functions of mature myotubes.
PTSD after Traumatic Injury: An Investigation of the Impact of Injury Severity and Peritraumatic Moderators

Presence of injury is often examined as a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, results have been mixed regarding the relationship between injury severity and PTSD symptoms (PTSS). The present study examined subjective and objective injury severity ratings in traumatic injury victims to determine if they differentially predict PTSS. Results demonstrated that subjective, not objective, injury severity predicted PTSS at six weeks and three months post-trauma. The moderating impact of peritraumatic factors was also examined. Peritraumatic dissociation moderated the impact of subjective injury severity on PTSS. Findings indicate that subjective injury severity should be incorporated into early screeners for PTSD risk.
[Clinical features of acute hepatitis A in recent two years].

BACKGROUND/AIMS The purpose of this study was to characterize the clinical features of acute hepatitis A in Seoul and Gyeonggi province during the recent 2 years. METHODS We reviewed the medical records of 222 patients who were diagnosed as acute hepatitis A between August 2005 and March 2007 at the Konkuk University Hospital and Korea University, Ansan Hospital. The clinical manifestation, serological tests, and image findings were analyzed. RESULTS Median age of the patients was 28.1 years and the age groups of highest incidence were the second and third decade. The frequent symptoms were anorexia (66.4%), fatigue (49.2%), fever (47.7%), and abdominal discomfort (42.5%). Fourteen cases (6.3%) showed renal insufficiency, and hemodialysis was performed in one. Cholestatic hepatitis in 2 cases, relapsing hepatitis in 4 cases and prolonged hepatitis in 13 cases were observed. However, there was no case of fulminant hepatitis or death. The underlying diseases including chronic hepatitis B, diabetes mellitus and thyroid disorder did not affect the disease severity of hepatitis A. IgM anti-HAV was not detected initially in 6.7% of the patients. Anti-HEV (IgM) was detected simultaneously in 3 of 150 patients. CONCLUSIONS The age of patients with acute hepatitis A has been increased in the recent years. Most patients recovered uneventfully. However, unusual patterns of severe hepatitis and renal insufficiency occurred in considerable number of cases. Follow-up serologic test for IgM anti-HAV is needed in seronegative cases with hepatitis A.
Moving Object Extraction Using Compressed Domain Features of H.264 INTRA Frames

A new efficient algorithm using the compressed domain features of H.264 INTRA frames is proposed for moving object extraction on huge video surveillance archives. To achieve searching efficiency, we propose to locate moving objects by scrutinizing only the INTRA frames in video surveillance archives in H.264 compressed domain with short GOP length. In the proposed structure, a modified codebook algorithm is designed to build the block-based background models from the INTRA coding features. Through the subtraction with the background codebook models, the foreground energy frame is filtered and normalized for detecting the existence of moving objects. To overcome the over-segmentation problem and enable the unsupervised searching, a new structure of hysteresis thresholding, where the thresholds are obtained automatically by an efficient algorithm, is adopted to extract foreground blocks. At the final step, the connected components labeling (CCL) and morphological filters are employed to obtain the list of moving objects. As shown in the experimental results, the proposed algorithm outperforms representative existing works.
Retention of small charged impurities during ultrafiltration

Ultrafiltration is used to remove small impurities from a variety of processing streams. However, the clearance of small charged impurities may be inadequate due to electrostatic exclusion by the charged ultrafiltration membranes, an effect that has been largely unappreciated. Ultrafiltration experiments were performed to evaluate the transmission of several model impurities with different electrical charge through ultrafiltration membranes having different surface charge characteristics. Highly charged impurities are strongly rejected by charged cellulose and polyethersulfone membranes even though these solutes are much smaller than the membrane pore size. These effects could be eliminated by using high ionic strength solutions to shield the electrostatic interactions. The sieving data are in good agreement with model calculations based on the partitioning of charged spheres into charged cylindrical pores. Guidelines are developed for estimating conditions needed to obtain effective removal of small charged impurities through charged ultrafiltration membranes. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Finding New Clock Components: Past and Future

The molecular mechanism of circadian clocks has been unraveled primarily by the use of phenotype-driven (forward) genetic analysis in a number of model systems. We are now in a position to consider what constitutes a clock component, whether we can establish criteria for clock components, and whether we have found most of the primary clock components. This perspective discusses clock genes and how genetics, molecular biology, and biochemistry have been used to find clock genes in the past and how they will be used in the future.
Cardiovascular events in users of sildenafil: results from first phase of prescription event monitoring in England

Sildenafil is used to treat erectile dysfunction, and prescription on the NHS is restricted. We are conducting a study of prescription event monitoring for sildenafil in England, the first phase of which investigates possible short term effects in a cohort of about 5000 users. In view of the interest in myocardial infarction as a possible short term side effect1 we report on an analysis of selected cardiovascular events reported in the first phase. Prescription event monitoring has been described elsewhere.2 Patients were identified from NHS prescriptions in England. Simple questionnaires were posted to the prescribing general practitioners about five months after the first prescription. These forms requested reporting of events after the drug had been prescribed. An “event” was any new diagnosis, any reason for referral to a consultant or admission to hospital, unexpected deterioration (or improvement) in a …
Reproductive factors and risk for breast cancer in iceland

A previous publication has shown that there has been a great increase in the incidence of breast cancer in Iceland. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the importance of known risk factors connected with the reproductive history of the women. In a prospective investigation of a cohort of 31,453 women we confirmed previous findings of the increased risk following higher age at first pregnancy and for nulliparous women. The age at first pregnancy and the proportion of nulliparous women have decreased with time in the Icelandic population so that these factors should have tended to decrease the risk, making the found increase still more important. The effect of parity is that the risk decreases with larger number of children and this effect is independent of the effect of age at first pregnancy. Lower age at menarche increases the breast cancer risk, but the contribution of that factor to the overall risk is negligible.
Modulation of Human Glutamate Transporter Activity by Phorbol Ester

Abstract: Termination of synaptic glutamate transmission depends on rapid removal of glutamate by neuronal and glial high‐affinity transporters. Molecular biological and pharmacological studies have demonstrated that at least five subtypes of Na+‐dependent mammalian glutamate transporters exist. Our study demonstrates that Y‐79 human retinoblastoma cells express a single Na+‐dependent glutamate uptake system with a Km of 1.7 ± 0.42 µM that is inhibited by dihydrokainate and dl‐threo‐β‐hydroxyaspartate (IC50 = 0.29 ± 0.17 µM and 2.0 ± 0.43 µM, respectively). The protein kinase C activator phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate caused a concentration‐dependent inhibition of glutamate uptake (IC50 = 0.56 ± 0.05 nM), but did not affect Na+‐dependent glycine uptake significantly. This inhibition of glutamate uptake resulted from a fivefold decrease in the transporter's affinity for glutamate, without significantly altering the Vmax. 4α‐Phorbol 12,13‐didecanoate, a phorbol ester that does not activate protein kinase C, did not alter glutamate uptake significantly. The phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate‐induced inhibition of glutamate uptake was reversed by preincubation with staurosporine. The biophysical and pharmacological profile of the human glutamate transporter expressed by the Y‐79 cell line indicates that it belongs to the dihydrokainate‐sensitive EAAT2/GLT‐1 subtype. This conclusion was confirmed by western blot analysis. Protein kinase C modulation of glutamate transporter activity may represent a mechanism to modulate extracellular glutamate and shape postsynaptic responses.
Effects of kinesiotaping on handgrip isometric strength in athletes

The Kinesio Taping (KT) is an elastic taping developed in the 70s by Kase, in Japan and it has become a popular resource in the sports world among training and rehabilitation professionals [1,2]. The KT was projected with the purpose of imitating the human skin qualities, with its main characteristic the elastic composition, which makes it different from the traditional adhesive tapes [3,4]. According to Kase, Wallis, Kase [5] it is possible to obtain some benefits from its application, as an improvement in blood and lymphatic circulation, reduction of pain and potentiation or inhibition of muscle contraction/strength [5].