Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization and changes in neurotrophin receptor p75‐expressing motor neurons in SOD1G93AG1H mice

Mice with high numbers of the Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase‐1 G93A transgene (SOD1G93AG1H) have become the most commonly used animal model to study amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This study investigated changes in size, numbers, and cell stress/death markers of motor neuron numbers in G1H mice that re‐express the common p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR). SOD1G93AG1H mice and age‐matched C57BL/6J controls at 60, 80, 100, 120 days and end stage/140 days were analyzed for p75NTR, choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3), and cleaved caspase‐3. In addition, motor neuron counts and soma sizes were recorded. Motor neurons re‐expressing p75NTR in SOD1G93AG1H mice were first observed at 80 days, and this continued to 140 days, peaking at 100–120 days at ∼5%. The soma area of motor neurons re‐expressing p75NTR was always 600–800 µm2, suggesting that these are alpha motor neurons, which was confirmed after examination of somas post injection of a retrogradely transported antibody to p75NTR in 110‐day‐old SOD1G93AG1H mice. In motor neurons not re‐expressing p75NTR, the frequency of small soma 200–400 µm2 motor neurons increased, whereas the larger 600–900 µm2 motor neurons decreased with progression, indicating that large motor neurons were dying off and shrinking in the process. There was minimal coexpression of p75NTR with ATF3, a marker for cell stress, but 85% coexpressed the apoptotic marker cleaved caspase‐3. These findings indicate that in SOD1G93AG1H mice, p75NTR re‐expression is detectable from 80 days in a small population of large motor neurons that represent 5% of the total motor neurons. Furthermore, p75NTR re‐expression occurs in larger alpha motor neurons that express cleaved caspsase‐3 and are destined to die. J. Comp. Neurol. 523:1664–1682, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Demographie et fonctionnement des populations du ver de terre hyperiodrilus africanus (eudrilidae) dans une savane protegee du feu en moyenne cote d'ivoire

Hyperiodrilus africanus est un ver de terre tres repandu en afrique de l'ouest (benin, togo, nigeria, cote d'ivoire) et en afrique centrale (congo, republique democratique du congo). La distribution regionale et l'adaptation aux milieux perturbes (agro-ecosystemes) font de ce ver, une espece potentiellement utilisable dans les experimentations de maintien ou d'amelioration de la fertilite des sols dans les systemes de cultures a faibles intrants. Il apparait alors necessaire d'etudier la biologie et l'ecologie de cette espece. Dans une parcelle de savane mis en defend de la reserve de lamto (cote d'ivoire) ou l'espece est apparue dans les annees 1980, des etudes de laboratoire et de terrain ont ete menees dans le but de comprendre le fonctionnement de ses populations. H. Africanus est un epi-endoge polyhumique de taille moyenne dont l'activite et les fluctuations d'abondance des individus sont calquees sur le rythme saisonnier : une phase de croissance en saison humide suivie d'une phase de decroissance et de quiescence (strategie efficace de survie) en periode seche. La duree de vie maximale d'un individu est estimee en moyenne a 8 mois. Grace a sa forte capacite d'expansion (importante fecondite : 30 cocons adulte - 1 an - 1 ; taux net de reproduction : 2. 24 individus ; temps de generation : 3 mois ; parthenogenese), h. Africanus est devenu en l'espace de deux decennies une espece clee du peuplement de vers de terre de la savane protegee du feu. La grande saison seche est le principal facteur qui regule l'effectif des populations. En milieu naturel, les populations sont a l'equilibre car leur taux de croissance est voisin de 1. Le devenir d'une population depend de la survie des immatures et adultes. Le phenomene d'extinction peut survenir a long terme a la suite d'une variabilite de l'environnement. Grace a son effet decompactant sur le sol, h. Africanus represente avec m. Anomala (fonction compactante), les principaux groupes fonctionnels a structure spatiale opposee.
In vitro susceptibility test of Cladosporium cladosporioides isolates from Argentinian tomato crops against commercial fungicides

Tomato cultivation is an important agricultural activity in northeast of Argentina, and disease control is indispensable for its production. The purpose of the current study was to identify two fungi isolated from tomato plants cultivated in greenhouses, with symptoms of leaf mould disease and a strain of the genus Cladosporium from a culture collection, and evaluate their in vitro susceptibility to four commercial fungicides. Macro and microscopic examination, molecular characterisation and sequence analysis were applied for identification. Broth dilution and spread plate methods were used to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal fungicide concentration (MFC). The active ingredients of the products were azoxystrobin+difenoconazole, trifloxystrobin+tebuconazole, chlorothalonil and metalaxyl-M+mancozeb. The results were processed using the Kruskal-Wallis method. The isolates were identified as Cladosporium cladosporioidesa-c; consequently, lesions found on tomato plants did not corrspond to Cladosporium fulvum. There was a significant statistical difference between the obtained values. Qualitatively, the three strains had a similar behaviour for chlorothalonil (MIC values: 0.25 - 0.5 μg/ml, MFC values: 4 μg/ml). In all cases, tests with metalaxyl-M+mancozeb yielded higher values than those achieved for chlorothalonil (MIC values: 8 μg/ml, MFC values: 8- 32 μg/ml). trobilurin-formulated fungicides were less effective against C. cladosporioidesa-b (MIC values: 16-256 μg/ml, MFC values: >64 μg/ml). C. cladosporioidesc was the most sensitive isolate. The information about the presence of a non-frequent fungus and its fungicide susceptibility, would be useful for establishing control strategies and enhance production.
LiquidListener: Supporting Ubiquitous Liquid Volume Sensing via Singing Sounds

This work proposes LiquidListener, a novel liquid volume sensing method for containers. Specifically, it enables the ubiquitous measurement of liquid volume not available in existing work due to ${i}$ ) dependencies on dedicated sensing hardware (e.g., capacity sensors) and containers (e.g., transparent containers) and ii) a high training intensity. A key enabler of LiquidListener is listening to singing sounds. When a user taps a container using solid objects, such as pens and teaspoons, the container vibrates freely and produces a singing sound. As the container is filled with more liquid, the pitch of the sound decreases. Based on this relationship, we develop acoustic-based liquid volume sensing algorithms that support the precise measurement of liquid volume while using only a smartphone and requiring minimal user effort for calibration. The extensive experiments demonstrate that LiquidListener can support high accuracy with an average error ratio of 2.3% in sensing the liquid volume in various containers. In addition, the experimental results indicate that it can still maintain a similar level of accuracy in diverse and dynamically changing environments, even without additional calibration.
Client-system collaboration for legal corpus selection in an online production environment

The continued growth of very large data environments such as Westlaw and Dialog, in addition to the World Wide Web, increases the importance of effective and efficient database selection and searching. Current research focuses largely on completely autonomous and automatic selection, searching, and results merging in distributed environments. This fully automatic approach has significant deficiencies, including reliance upon thresholds below which databases with relevant documents are not searched (compromised recall). It also merges result sets, often from disparate data sources that users may have discarded before their source selection task proceeded (diluted precision). We examine the impact that early user interaction can have on the process of database selection. After analyzing thousands of real user queries, we show that precision can be significantly increased when queries are categorized by the users themselves, then interpreted and treated accurately by the system. Such query categorization strategies may eliminate limitations of fully automated query processing approaches. Our system harnesses the WIN search engine, a sibling to INQUERY, run against one or more authority sources when search is required. We compare our approach to one that does not recognize or utilize distinct features associated with user queries. We show that by avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach that restricts the role users can play in information discovery, database selection effectiveness can be appreciably improved.
EXAMINING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN WOMEN ’ S EMPOWERMENT AND CHILDREN ’ S WELL-BEING : RESULTS FROM NORTHERN GHANA

The association of women’s empowerment in agriculture and children’s well-being was examined for a sample of children under the age of 60 months in Northern Ghana using a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model. Although not all empowerment variables have been shown to have association with children’s health well-being, results indicated that empowering women can have better long term health benefits for their children. INTRODUCTION It is well recognized in the literature that children’s well-being is linked to human capital development and long-term labor productivity (e.g. Alderman, Hoddinott, and Kinsey, 2006; Behrman, 1996; Pollitt, 1990; and Grantham-McGregor et al., 1999). For instance healthy and well educated children are fundamental to talent development and earning potential of individual citizens and the society as a whole. Research also shows that there is strong relationship between children’s health and development and their mother’s health status and care giving activities (Ramakrishnan, 2002; Huffman et al. 1998; WHO, 2013; Smith et al., 2003). Women are often the primary caregivers for their children. They can influence their children’s health directly through intrahousehold resource allocation and childcare practices, and indirectly through their own health and nutritional status (Smith et al., 2003). Educated women have increased household decision making that may contribute towards better children health (Caldwell, 1989). Women’s bargaining power has also been shown to have a positive correlation with a household’s resource allocation pattern in favor of children. (E.g. Quisumbing and Maluccio, 1999; Quismbing and Brière, 2000; Glick and Sahn, 1998; Lunderberg et al., 1997). Engle (1993) and Begin et al. (1999) both show that mother’s financial autonomy positively affects children’s nutritional status. These observations may have led to the assumption that women tend to internalize their children’s interests better than men (Basu, 2006). Therefore, the empowerment of women and its effect on children’s well-being and on long-term human capital development is of great interest to development practitioners, donor agencies and policy makers in developing countries.
Preconditioning and arrhythmias.

A brief episode of myocardial ischemia confers endogenous cardioprotection during a subsequent prolonged period of ischemia. This phenomenon, known as preconditioning,1 offers one of the most powerful mechanisms for reducing the speed and extent of myocardial cell damage resulting from an acute or sustained ischemic insult. This protection has been shown to occur in a wide variety of animal species, including man, and exists in two forms, namely an early or classic preconditioning1 and delayed or second window of protection.2 The “gold standard” used in these animal studies for assessing a preconditioning effect has been measurement of the extent of limitation of infarct size.3 Studies in humans therefore necessarily rely on a less direct approach.4 For example, clinical observation has shown that the occurrence of episodes of angina shortly before a myocardial infarction reduces mortality and morbidity.4,5⇓ In the setting of percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography, it has been shown that measures of ischemia, such as angina and ST elevation, in the ECG occurring during the period when the coronary artery is occluded by the inflated balloon are less during a second balloon inflation compared with the first.6–8⇓⇓ These studies are not always easy to interpret, however, because of confounding variables such as uncertainties about the recruitment of collaterals in response to the preconditioning ischemia, the adequacy of the very short See p 3091 duration of ischemia sometimes used during the preconditioning phase, and the use of the amount of ST segment shift in the ECG as a quantitative measure of ischemia.4 One study largely overcomes the uncertainties with regard to collateral flow in patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography and demonstrates an antiarrhythmic effect of preconditioning.9 Possibly the most direct evidence for the occurrence of preconditioning in humans …
Quality of Care for Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease in the Primary Care Setting: A Retrospective Cohort Study From Ontario, Canada

Background: Patients with chronic kidney disease may not be receiving recommended primary renal care. Objective: To use recently established primary care quality indicators for chronic kidney disease to determine the proportion of patients receiving recommended renal care. Design: Retrospective cohort study using administrative data with linked laboratory information. Setting: The study was conducted in Ontario, Canada, from 2006 to 2012. Patients: Patients over 40 years with chronic kidney disease or abnormal kidney function in primary care were included. Measurements: In total, 11 quality indicators were assessed for chronic kidney disease identified through a Delphi panel in areas of screening, monitoring, drug prescribing, and laboratory monitoring after initiating an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). Methods: We calculated the proportion and cumulative incidence at the end of follow-up of patients meeting each indicator and stratified results by age, sex, cohort entry, and chronic kidney disease stage. Results: Less than half of patients received follow-up tests after an initial abnormal kidney function result. Most patients with chronic kidney disease received regular monitoring of serum creatinine (91%), but urine albumin-to-creatinine monitoring was lower (70%). A total of 84% of patients age 66 and older did not receive a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug prescription of at least 2-week duration. Three quarters of patients age 66 and older were on an ACE inhibitor or ARB, and 96% did not receive an ACE inhibitor and ARB concurrently. Among patients 66 to 80 years of age with chronic kidney disease, 65% were on a statin. One quarter of patients age 66 and older who initiated an ACE inhibitor or ARB had their serum creatinine and potassium monitored within 7 to 30 days. Limitations: This study was limited to people in Ontario with linked laboratory information. Conclusions: There was generally strong performance across many of the quality of care indicators. Areas where more attention may be needed are laboratory testing to confirm initial abnormal kidney function test results and monitoring serum creatinine and potassium after initiating a new ACE inhibitor or ARB.
An interdisciplinary methodology to design integrated and innovative MAR systems in arid and semi-arid regions. Two case studies in Algeria and in Tunisia

1 Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Cagliari, Via Trentino 51-09127 Cagliari, Italy, acarletti@uniss.it 2 Desertification Research Centre (NRD), University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39-07100 Sassari, Italy 3 Grup de Mineralogia Aplicada i Geoquímica de Fluids, Dpt. Mineralogia, Petrologia i Geologia Aplicada, Fac. Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Martí Franquès s/n-08028 Barcelona, Spain 4 Institutes des Région AridesIRA, Route du Djorf Km 22.5-Médenine, Tunisie
Speed sensorless flux and position control of induction machines based on pulse injection and multiple saliency extraction

Similar to other sensorless control methods based on signal injection, the resulting signal of the transient voltage excitation is influenced, for example, by the slotting saliency, the anisotropy saliency, as well as by the saturation based saliency and its load and flux dependencies. A separation algorithm to extract the slotting saliency and saturation saliency from the resulting signal is presented. It includes an artificial neural network (ANN) to identify, compensate disturbing influences and interactions of the saliencies. The slotting saliency component is used for calculating the rotor position in combination with the current model (rotor-equation). The saturation saliency component is first corrected using an ANN to get the estimated reference flux angle and then combined with a stabilized voltage model (stator-equation) for flux position calculation. This allows a calculation of the flux- and rotor position especially around zero fundamental frequency. The approach given in this paper attempts to combine both methods to provide an excellent performance of the sensorless control scheme in the whole frequency range. The transient signal is used to stabilize the voltage model what results in smooth output with the advantage that the dynamic performance is not reduced. At low frequencies it is assisted by the current model which provides additional stability.
Complement Inhibitor C4b-Binding Protein Interacts Directly with Small Glycoproteins of the Extracellular Matrix1

Components derived from cartilage have been suggested to maintain the inflammation in joints in arthritis. Small leucine-rich repeat proteins (SLRPs) are structural components of cartilage important in organizing the meshwork of extracellular matrix components. It has recently been shown that the SLRP fibromodulin interacts with complement initiator C1q, leading to complement activation. The complement response is limited since fibromodulin also interacts with the complement inhibitor factor H. We have now found that osteoadherin, chondroadherin, fibromodulin, and proline arginine-rich end leucine-rich repeat protein bind to the complement inhibitor C4b-binding protein (C4BP). Using direct binding assays with C4BP fragments and C4BP mutants lacking individual domains in combination with electron microscopy, we have demonstrated that mainly the central core of C4BP mediated binding to SLRPs. Binding of SLRPs to C4BP did not affect its ability to inhibit complement. Osteoadherin, fibromodulin, and chondroadherin, which bind C1q and activate complement, were found to cause significantly higher C9 deposition in C4BP-depleted serum compared with Igs, indicating that the level of complement activation initiated by SLRPs is regulated by simultaneous binding to C4BP. A similar dual binding of C1q and complement inhibitors was observed previously for other endogenous ligands (amyloid, prions, C-reactive protein, and apoptotic cells) but not for exogenous activators (bacteria-bound Igs). These interactions can be significant during inflammatory joint diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, where cartilage is degraded, and cartilage components are released into synovial fluid, where they can interact with factors of the complement system.
Superpixel-Guided Adaptive Image Smoothing

In edge-preserving image smoothing, edge blurriness and structural edge attenuation have been common problems. L0 smoothing successfully solves these two problems by adopting L0 norm of gradients. However, a weak structural edge diminishing problem still exists because L0 penalty first removes small nonzero gradients. In order to address this problem, we propose superpixel-guided adaptive image smoothing by introducing an adaptive parameter into L0 smoothing framework. The adaptive smoothing parameter is efficiently computed in a cascade manner. In the first stage, we allocate smoothing parameters to the pixels consisting of details. More importantly, we then exploit similarities between a pixel and its surrounding superpixels for assigning smoothing parameters to the rest pixels. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method efficiently preserves structural edges regardless of their scales compared to previous methods.
The sampling lens: making sense of saturated visualisations

Information visualisation systems frequently have to deal with large amounts of data and this often leads to saturated areas in the display with considerable overplotting. This paper introduces the Sampling Lens, a novel tool that utilises random sampling to reduce the clutter within a moveable region, thus allowing the user to uncover any potentially interesting patterns and trends in the data while still being able to view the sample in context. We demonstrate the versatility of the tool by adding sampling lenses to scatter and parallel co-ordinate visualisations. We also consider some implementation issues and present initial user evaluation results.
Semantic Clustering and Transfer Learning in Social Media Texts Authorship Attribution

This paper is the fourth part of a research series that focuses on determining the authorship of Russian-language texts by analyzing short social media comments, including those from mass media and communities associated with destructive content. Semantic text clustering was used to analyze content and employed a transfer learning technique based on a pre-trained model to identify sensitive topics. Authorship attribution is implemented as a classical classification task with a closed set of authors and a more challenging open-set task. In the latter case, multiple experiments were conducted, incorporating the identification of destructive content with known authors and artificially generated texts. For open attribution, a method combining One-Class SVM and fastText was proposed. Results demonstrate high accuracy (92% or higher) for cases with 2 and 5 authors, regardless of comment length and the additional task of identifying authors of destructive text. Mixed-data experiments involving 10 or more authors yielded results comparable to or more accurate (84% or higher) than previous studies.
Spam or ham?: characterizing and detecting fraudulent "not spam" reports in web mail systems

Web mail providers rely on users to "vote" to quickly and col-laboratively identify spam messages. Unfortunately, spammers have begun to use bots to control large collections of compromised Web mail accounts not just to send spam, but also to vote "not spam" on incoming spam emails in an attempt to thwart collaborative filtering. We call this practice a vote gaming attack. This attack confuses spam filters, since it causes spam messages to be mislabeled as legitimate; thus, spammer IP addresses can continue sending spam for longer. In this paper, we introduce the vote gaming attack and study the extent of these attacks in practice, using four months of email voting data from a large Web mail provider. We develop a model for vote gaming attacks, explain why existing detection mechanisms cannot detect them, and develop a new, scalable clustering-based detection method that identifies compromised accounts that engage in vote-gaming attacks. Our method detected 1.1 million potentially compromised accounts with only a 0.17% false positive rate, which is nearly 10 times more effective than existing clustering methods used to detect bots that send spam from compromised Web mail accounts.