Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Guinea Pig Hippocampal Slice Model of Organophosphate-Induced Seizure Activity

Extracellular recording techniques have been used in the guinea pig hippocampal slice preparation to investigate the electrophysiological actions of the organophosphate (OP) anticholinesterase soman. When applied at a concentration of 100 nM, soman induced epileptiform activity in the CA1 region in approximately 75% of slices. This effect was mimicked by the anticholinesterases paraoxon (1 and 3 μM), physostigmine (30 μM), and neostigmine (30 μM), thus providing indirect evidence that the epileptiform response was mediated by elevated acetylcholine levels. Soman-induced bursting was inhibited by the muscarinic receptor antagonists atropine (concentrations tested, 0.1-10 μM), telenzepine (0.03-3 μM), AF-DX116 [11-(2-[(diethylamino)methyl]-1-piperidinyl acetyl)-5,11-dihydro-6H-pyrido 92.b-b) (1,4)-benzodiazepin-6-one] (0.3-300 μM), and biperiden (0.1-10 μM) and by the benzodiazepine anticonvulsants diazepam (3-30 μM) and midazolam (3-30 μM), but it was not inhibited by the nicotinic antagonists mecamylamine (30 μM) and methyllycaconitine (300 nM). In contrast to soman-induced epileptiform activity, bursting induced by the K+ channel blocker 4-aminopyridine (30 μM), the adenosine A1 receptor antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (30 nM) or perfusion with low Mg2+ buffer was insensitive to atropine (10 μM). The ability of muscarinic antagonists and benzodiazepines to inhibit soman-induced epileptiform activity is in accordance with the in vivo pharmacology of soman-induced seizures and suggests that the guinea pig hippocampal slice preparation may provide a useful tool for the evaluation of novel anticonvulsant therapies for the treatment of seizures related to OP poisoning.
Concurrent Visualization of Relationships between Words and Topics in Topic Models

Analysis tools based on topic models are often used as a means to explore large amounts of unstructured data. Users often reason about the correctness of a model using relationships between words within the topics or topics within the model. We compute this useful contextual information as term co-occurrence and topic covariance and overlay it on top of standard topic model output via an intuitive interactive visualization. This is a work in progress with the end goal to combine the visual representation with interactions and online learning, so the users can directly explore (a) why a model may not align with their intuition and (b) modify the model as needed.
Long-latency Control Dependence : Does it Really Matter ?

Branch Prediction is an important factor in achieving high performance in modern microprocessors. Branch predictors are used to keep pipeline filled with instructions before the outcome of the branch condition is known. On the other hand, branch misprediction halts fetching of useful instructions. The situation becomes worse when we take into account the cache pollution a branch misprediction causes. Branches that depend on a long-latency loads take much longer time to resolve. As a result, mispredicting such branch fills up the pipe with a lot of useless instructions. Finally, when the branch resolves the entire start-up latency comes in the critical path. Several recent studies have speculated that such branches are critical for performance. In this paper, we put this debate to rest by showing that these branches are very small in number and do not affect performance.
A systems biology network model for genetic association studies of nicotine addiction and treatment

Objective Interpreting genome-scale genetic association data, particularly for complex diseases and phenotypes, requires extensive use of prior knowledge across a broad range of potential biological and environmental influences, spanning many scientific subdisciplines. We suggest that known or hypothesized disease risk factors, and causal mechanisms, can be represented using an ontology, a computational specification of a set of concepts and the relations between them. Methods We have integrated the expertise of multiple investigators in nicotine pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, nicotine dependence, and clinical smoking cessation outcomes, and represented this knowledge in an ontology-based network model. Our model spans multiple scales, from molecules, genes and cellular pathways, to complex behavioral phenotypes and even environmental factors. To leverage previous and ongoing work in the field of ontology development, we adopt, expand upon and relate elements from existing ontologies whenever possible. Results We discuss several applications of our ontology: to support interdisciplinary research by graphically representing a complex scientific theory, to facilitate meta-analysis across different studies, to highlight potential interactions, and to support statistical analysis and causal modeling. We demonstrate that our ontology can focus hypothesis testing on areas supported by current theory. Conclusion We describe how an ontology-based computational representation can be applied to disease risk factors and mechanisms, enabling the use of prior knowledge in large-scale genetic association studies in general. In specific, we have developed an initial Smoking Behavior Risk Ontology to support studies related to the pharmacogenetics of nicotine addiction and treatment.
SOCS3 Genetic Polymorphism Is Associated With Clinical Features and Prognosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Receiving Hepatectomy

AbstractPrevious studies showed that suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) protein is associated with incidence and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, the association between the genetic polymorphism of SOCS3 gene and HCC remains unknown.A total of 254 HCC patients and 354 healthy controls were enrolled. All HCC patients underwent partial hepatectomy as initial treatment and were followed. Three SOCS3 gene polymorphisms, namely, rs4969170 A>G, rs8064821 C>T, and rs12953258 C>A were determined.Our data show that the rs4969170 A>G polymorphism dramatically affects the susceptibility to HCC in our cohorts. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the rs4969170 GG is a risk factor for HCC after the adjustment with confounding factors. The rs4969170A>G polymorphism is also associated with the clinical features of HCC patients and predicts the postoperative relapse-free survival and overall survival. The rs4969170GG genotype carrier had a worse prognosis than the rs4969170AG and rs4969170AA carrier.Our findings suggest that the rs4969170A>G polymorphism of SOCS3 gene may be used as a prognostic predictor for HCC patients who underwent surgical treatment.
Performance analysis of scale-free communities in ad hoc networks

The underlying user's social network plays the most significant part in the distribution of the end-to-end traffic in the ad hoc network. In this paper we propose a new model for a user social network based on the scale-free phenomenon and small-world clustering effect that can be found in the real social networks. The proposed model is then used for creation of new traffic and physical movement models in order to investigate the performances of the ad hoc network. The results point out that the expected network performances can be much higher than the ones evaluated using simple random movement and traffic generators.
Gauge Theories with Flavors

We study the phase structures of N = 1 supersymmetric USp(2Nc) gauge theory with Nf flavors in the fundamental representation as we deform the N = 2 supersymmetric QCD by adding the superpotential for adjoint chiral scalar field. These phases are characterized by Chebyshev branch or Special branch for USp(2Ni) factor and baryonic or non-baryonic r branch for U(Ni) factor. We determine the most general factorization curves for various breaking patterns, for example, the two different breaking patterns of quartic superpotential: USp(2Nc) → USp(2N0)×U(N1) and USp(2Nc) → USp(2Nc). We observe all kinds of smooth transitions for quartic superpotential, like USp(2Nc) ↔ USp(2M0) × U(M1), USp(2N0) × U(N1) ↔ USp(2M0) × U(M1) and USp(2N0) × U(N1) ↔ USp(2M0) × U(M1) ↔ USp(2L0) × U(L1). We develop also the general multiplication map and addition map which are used for the study of phase structures. We discuss also the matrix model curve and a generalized Konishi anomaly equation. Finally we discuss the intriguing role of USp(0) in the phase structure and the possible connection with the observation made recently in hep-th/0304271 (Aganagic, Intriligator, Vafa and Warner) and in hep-th/0307063 (Cachazo).
Selective Changes in Thin Spine Density and Morphology in Monkey Prefrontal Cortex Correlate with Aging-Related Cognitive Impairment

Age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) occurs in many mammalian species, including humans. In contrast to Alzheimer's disease (AD), in which circuit disruption occurs through neuron death, AAMI is due to circuit and synapse disruption in the absence of significant neuron loss and thus may be more amenable to prevention or treatment. We have investigated the effects of aging on pyramidal neurons and synapse density in layer III of area 46 in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of young and aged, male and female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) that were tested for cognitive status through the delayed non-matching-to-sample (DNMS) and delayed response tasks. Cognitive tests revealed an age-related decrement in both acquisition and performance on DNMS. Our morphometric analyses revealed both an age-related loss of spines (33%, p < 0.05) on pyramidal cells and decreased density of axospinous synapses (32%, p < 0.01) in layer III of area 46. In addition, there was an age-related shift in the distribution of spine types reflecting a selective vulnerability of small, thin spines, thought to be particularly plastic and linked to learning. While both synapse density and the overall spine size average of an animal were predictive of number of trials required for acquisition of DNMS (i.e., learning the task), the strongest correlate of behavior was found to be the head volume of thin spines, with no correlation between behavior and mushroom spine size or density. No synaptic index correlated with memory performance once the task was learned.
Total, Free, and Added Sugar Consumption and Adherence to Guidelines: The Dutch National Food Consumption Survey 2007–2010

A high sugar intake is a subject of scientific debate due to the suggested health implications and recent free sugar recommendations by the WHO. The objective was to complete a food composition table for added and free sugars, to estimate the intake of total sugars, free sugars, and added sugars, adherence to sugar guidelines and overall diet quality in Dutch children and adults. In all, 3817 men and women (7–69 years) from the Dutch National Food Consumption Survey 2007–2010 were studied. Added and free sugar content of products was assigned by food composition tables and using labelling and product information. Diet was assessed with two 24-h recalls. Diet quality was studied in adults with the Dutch Healthy Diet-index. Total sugar intake was 22% Total Energy (%TE), free sugars intake 14 %TE, and added sugar intake 12 %TE. Sugar consumption was higher in children than adults. Main food sources of sugars were sweets and candy, non-alcoholic beverages, dairy, and cake and cookies. Prevalence free sugar intake <10 %TE was 5% in boys and girls (7–18 years), 29% in women, and 33% in men. Overall diet quality was similar comparing adults adherent and non-adherent to the sugar guidelines, although adherent adults had a higher intake of dietary fiber and vegetables. Adherence to the WHO free sugar guidelines of <5 %TE and <10 %TE was generally low in the Netherlands, particularly in children. Adherence to the added and free sugar guidelines was not strongly associated with higher diet quality in adults.
Automatic Syntactic MT Evaluation with Expected Dependency Pair Match

Previous work on dependency-based machine translation evaluation has shown that an LFGbased F-measure of labeled partial dependencies over an n-best list has improved correlation with human judgments of fluency and adequacy as compared to BLEU and TER. Inspired by SPARSEVAL, we demonstrate that a statistical syntactic parser based on PCFGs may be used in place of the LFG dependencies, and we explore variations on other aspects of the dependency-matching method. We find that including n > 1 parses helps, especially if one incorporates probabilistic weights from the parser. Additionally, we find that matching simple words (along with partial-dependencies) further improves correlations with human judgments. From these results, we design a new scoring metric “Expected Dependency Pair Match” (EDPM), and demonstrate that ∆EDPM is superior to ∆BLEU and ∆TER as a per-document and per-sentence predictor of ∆HTER.
Total Antioxidant Capacity of Some Commercial Fruit Juices: Electrochemical and Spectrophotometrical Approaches

The aim of this paper was to assess the total antioxidant capacity of some commercial fruit juices (namely citrus), spectrophotometrically and by the biamperometric method, using the redox couple DPPH· (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl)/DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazine). Trolox® was chosen as a standard antioxidant. In the case of the spectrophometric method, the absorbance decrease of the DPPH· solution was followed. For the biamperometric method, the influence of some parameters like the potential diference, ΔE, DPPH· concentration, and Trolox® concentration was investigated. The calibration graph obtained for Trolox® presents linearity between 5 and 30 µM, (y = 0.059 x + 0.0564, where y represents the value of current intensity, expressed as μA and x the value of Trolox® concentration, expressed as μM; r2 = 0.9944). The R.S. D. value for the biamperometric method was 1.29% (n = 10, c = 15 μM Trolox®). In the case of the spectrophotometric method, the calibration graph obtained for Trolox® presents linearity between 0.01 and 0.125 mM (y = -9.5789 x+1.4533, where y represents the value of absorbance and x, the value of Trolox® concentration, expressed as mM; r2 = 0.9963). The R.S. D. value for the spectrophotometric method was 2.05%. Both methods were applied to total antioxidant activity determination in real samples (natural juices and soft drinks) and the results were in good agreement.
Extracranial carotid stenosis after radiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a Malaysian study

Background and objectives: Radiation treatment in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is known to be associated with increased prevalence of carotid stenosis. The objectives of the study was to determine the prevalence of radiation-induced extracranial carotid stenosis, plaque, carotid intima thickness (CIMT) in NPC patients; to explore whether the stenosis is due to direct effect of radiation rather than general tendency to atherosclerosis. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the University Malaya Medical Centre from July 2011 to February 2012. The study subjects consisted of 47 NPC patients who were treated with radiation, and 47 healthy control. The patients and control had carotid duplex ultrasound and transcranial Doppler (TCD). Results: The mean age of the patients was 55.1 years, the time lapse from radiation was 76.7 ± 95.3 months. Internal carotid artery (ICA) and common carotid artery (CCA) stenosis of ≥50% was seen in 17.0% of patients vs 2.1 % of controls (p = 0.031), with 61.7% of patients and 19.1% of controls having plaque in ICA and CCA (p=0.004). CIMT was increased in 70.2% of patients and 44.7% of controls (p =0.022). Both the patient group and control had similar rate of intracranial stenosis of 12.8% in TCD. Conclusion: Extracranial internal carotid artery is the most common site of stenosis following radiotherapy in NPC. This suggests that local trauma from irradiation is the most important factor in predisposition to atherosclerosis following radiation therapy.
Imaging Salt Dome Flank and Dipping Sediments Using Time Reversed Acoustics

In this paper we define the theory and basic principles to move (redatum) the surface shots from a walk away VSP to be as if they had been located in the borehole. We will refer to this theory using several of the terms used in the literature including Time Reverse Acoustics (TRA), Seismic Interferometry (SI) and Virtual Source (VS) technology. Regardless of the name, the theory is built upon reciprocity and the time symmetry of the wave equation. We apply these TRA principles, together with prestack depth migration, to produce images of a modeled salt dome flank. We create a set of synthetic traces representing a multi-level, walk away VSP for a model composed of a simplified Gulf of Mexico vertical velocity gradient and an embedded overhanging salt dome. The sediment reflectors in the model dip up towards the salt dome flank. The energy from the surface shots is bent into turning rays by the linear v(z) gradient which illuminate the steeply dipping sediments and overhanging salt edges. The illuminating energy is reflected and scattered from these surfaces and then captured by the downhole VSP receivers. To simplify the processing of these data, we move (redatum) the surface shots into the borehole using our TRA or seismic interferometry principles. This removes from the seismic traces the entire, potentially complicated, path from the surface shot location to the borehole without having to perform any velocity analyses or moveout corrections. Each of these new (redatummed) traces mimics the output of a down-hole source and down-hole receiver pair. We apply prestack depth migration to these new traces to produce the final image of the beds and the salt dome flank which agree very well with the original model structure.
First results from the ATCA 18 GHz pilot survey

ABSTRACT As a pilot study for the ﬁrst all–sky radio survey at short wavelengths, we have ob-served 1216deg 2 of the southern sky at 18GHz (16mm) using a novel wide–band(3.4GHz bandwidth) analogue correlator on one baseline of the Australia TelescopeCompact Array (ATCA). We scanned a region of sky between declination −71 ◦ and−59 ◦ with an rms noise level of 15mJy. Follow–up radio imaging of candidate sourcesabove a 4σ detection limit of 60mJy resulted in 221 conﬁrmed detections, for whichwe have measured accurate positions and ﬂux densities. For extragalactic sources, thesurvey is roughly 70% complete at a ﬂux density of 126mJy and 95% complete above300mJy. Almosthalfthe detected sourceslie within a few degreesofthe Galacticplane,but there are 123 sources with |b| > 5 ◦ which can be assumed to be extragalactic. Thediﬀerential source counts for extragalactic sources in the range 0.1Jy ≤ S 18GHz ≤ 3Jyare well ﬁtted by a relation of the form n(S) = 57(S/Jy) − 2. ±0 Jy −1 sr 1 , in goodagreement with the 15GHz counts published by Taylor et al. (2001) and Waldramet al. (2003). Over 70% of the extragalactic sources have a ﬂat radio spectrum(α
Translating knowledge to practice: optimizing the use of guidelines

Guidelines support health care decision-making but continue to be underused, therefore more research is needed on how they can be better developed and implemented. The same is true of mental health care, for which there is recent growing interest in improving care delivery and associated outcomes by optimizing the use of mental health care guidelines. This editorial describes the key concepts from accumulated research on guideline implementation to suggest a number of avenues for research on implementation of mental health care guidelines.
Oral Glucose Tolerance Test Minimal Model Indexes of β-Cell Function and Insulin Sensitivity

The simultaneous assessment of quantitative indexes of insulin secretion and action in a single individual is important when quantifying their relative role in the evolution of glucose tolerance in different physiopathological states. Available methods quantify these indexes in relatively nonphysiological conditions, e.g., during glucose clamps or intravenous glucose tolerance tests. Here, we present a method based on a physiological test applicable to large-scale genetic and epidemiologic studies—the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Plasma C-peptide, insulin, and glucose data from a frequently sampled OGTT with 22 samples throughout 300 min (FSOGTT 300-22 ) were analyzed in 11 subjects with various degrees of glucose tolerance. In each individual, two indexes of pancreatic sensitivity to glucose (Φ s [10 9 min -1 ] and Φ d [10 9 ]) and the insulin sensitivity index ( S I ) (10 5 dl/kg per min per pmol/l) were estimated by using the minimal model of C-peptide secretion and kinetics originally proposed for intravenous graded glucose infusion and the minimal model approach recently proposed for meal/OGTTs. The indexes obtained from FSOGTT 300-22 were used as a reference for internal validation of OGTT protocols with reduced sampling schedules. Our results show that 11 samples in a 300-min period (OGTT 300-11 ) is the test of choice because the indexes it provides (Φ s = 36 ± 3 [means ± SE]; Φ d = 710 ± 111; S I = 10.2 ± 2.4) show excellent correlation and are not statistically different from those of FSOGTT 300-22 (Φ s = 33 ± 3; Φ d = 715 ± 120; S I = 10.1 ± 2.3). In conclusion, OGTT 300-11 , interpreted with C-peptide and glucose minimal models, provides a quantitative description of β-cell function and insulin sensitivity in a single individual while preserving the important clinical classification of glucose tolerance provided by the standard 120-min OGTT.
Engineering and Analysis of Fixed Priority Schedulers

Scheduling theory holds great promise as a means to a priori validate timing correctness of real-time applications. However, there currently exists a wide gap between scheduling theory and its implementation in operating system kernels running on specific hardware platforms. The implementation of any particular scheduling algorithm introduces overhead and blocking components which must be accounted for in the timing correctness validation process. This paper presents a methodology for incorporating the costs of scheduler implementation within the context of fixed priority scheduling algorithms. Both event-driven and timer-driven scheduling implementations are analyzed. We show that for the timer-driven scheduling implementations the selection of the timer interrupt rate can dramatically affect the schedulability of a task set, and we present a method for determining the optimal timer rate. We analyzed both randomly generated and two well-defined task sets and found that their schedulability can be significantly degraded by the implementation costs. Task sets that have ideal breakdown utilization over 90% may not even be schedulable when the implementation costs are considered. This work provides a first step toward bridging the gap between real-time scheduling theory and implementation realities. This gap must be bridged for any meaningful validation of timing correctness properties of real-time applications. >
Spotted tongue recognition via cascade filtering

This paper introduces a method for spotted tongue recognition via cascade filtering. The original image is preprocessed and filtered through four characteristics of spot, respectively in position, color, gray and shape. Then, every spotted region is marked with circle using above filter and is used to judge whether a tongue is spotted according to the number of detected spot regions. Experimental results in datasets collected by tongue acquisition system demonstrated that this method has a good performance in identifying both spotted tongue and non-spotted tongue.