Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
κ-Opioid Tolerance and Dependence in Cultures of Dopaminergic Midbrain Neurons

Repeated cocaine exposure upregulates κ opioids and their receptors in the mesocorticolimbic system; the ensuing κ-mediated dysphoria appears to contribute to addiction and withdrawal. As a potential rehabilitation strategy to reverse cocaine-induced κ sensitization, the present study used tritiated dopamine release assays to examine the induction of κ-opioid tolerance in cultured mesencephalic neurons. Administration of the κ agonist U69,593 inhibited tetrodotoxin-sensitive, spontaneous (EC50 = 1.5 nm), and potassium-stimulated (EC50 = 10 nm) release. These effects were blocked by pertussis toxin and by the κ antagonist nor-binaltorphimine. The 2 d agonist exposure (1 μm) caused a shift in the U69,593 dose–response curve that was greater in the potassium-stimulated paradigm (140-fold) than in the spontaneous release assay (sixfold). These results were attributable to the attenuation of κ-receptor signaling mechanisms and to dependence. In the stimulated release assay, attenuation of κ signaling caused by 4 hr of U69,593 exposure recovered with a half-life of 1.1 hr, whereas attenuation after 144 hr of exposure recovered slowly (t½ = 20 hr). In the spontaneous release assay, attenuation of κ-opioid signaling occurred slowly (t½ = 22 hr), and resensitization after a 144 hr exposure was rapid (t½ < 1 hr). κ-Opioid dependence was observed after 144 hr of U69,593 exposure. Thus multiple mechanisms of adaptation to κ-opioid exposure occur in mesocorticolimbic neurons. These data support the idea that the administration of κ opioids might facilitate drug rehabilitation.
Review Article: Establishing a set of mental health indicators for Europe

Aims: This review presents the background work for developing a set of mental health indicators as part of a comprehensive health monitoring system in the European Union. The review focuses on the appraisal of mental health at population level with special emphasis on assessments that could be useful for mental health promotion. Methods: A functional model of mental health is used to delineate variables important for a set of mental health indicators. Variables that are not possible to monitor at population level are not discussed here. Literature searches were conducted through the MEDLINE, PSYCHLIT, and SOCIOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS databases and available textbooks. Results: The review presents findings from research seeking associations between mental health and ill health and different individual, social, economic, ecological, and service-related characteristics. Specific domains as key starting points in establishing a set of mental health indicators are outlined according to the research findings. Conclusion: A set of mental health indicators can enhance the visibility of mental health issues in the European context. Ultimately the indicators could be used in estimating how the targets set for health policies are met, and whether there has been a measurable decrease in disability, suffering, and disease.
An integrated CMOS DC-DC converter for battery-operated systems

This paper presents an optimum design for a low-voltage, low-power DC-DC converter which has a controller and integrated CMOS switches using a small size inductor (1 /spl mu/H). Optimum design for the single chip DC/DC converter is achieved by analyzing the amount of conduction and switching losses. Through the loss analyses, it turns out that a constant frequency hard switching PWM converter with synchronous rectifier is most suitable among the several kinds of DC-DC converters for low voltage and low power applications.
Transferring Visual Category Models to New Domains

We propose a method to perform adaptive transfer of visual category knowledge from labeled datasets acquired in one image domain to other environments. We learn a representation which minimizes the effect of shifting between source and target domains using a novel metric learning approach. The key idea of our approach to domain adaptation is to learn a metric that compensates for the transformation of the object representation that occurred due to the domain shift. In addition to being one of the first studies of domain adaptation for object recognition, this work develops a general adaptation technique that could be applied to non-image data. Another contribution is a new image database for studying the effects of visual domain shift on object recognition. We demonstrate the ability of our adaptation method to improve performance of classifiers on new domains that have very little labeled data.
Exact simulation of Bessel diffusions

Abstract We consider the exact path sampling of the squared Bessel process and other continuous-time Markov processes, such as the Cox–Ingersoll–Ross model, constant elasticity of variance diffusion model, and confluent hypergeometric diffusions, which can all be obtained from a squared Bessel process by using a change of variable, time and scale transformation, and change of measure. All these diffusions are broadly used in mathematical finance for modeling asset prices, market indices, and interest rates. We show how the probability distributions of a squared Bessel bridge and a squared Bessel process with or without absorption at zero are reduced to randomized gamma distributions. Moreover, for absorbing stochastic processes, we develop a new bridge sampling technique based on conditioning on the first hitting time at the boundary of the state space. Such an approach allows us to simplify simulation schemes. New methods are illustrated with pricing path-dependent options.
The meaning of change through therapeutic enactment in psychodrama

The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of change through therapeutic enactment in psychodrama. Existential and hermeneutic phenomenology conducted from the perspective of a dialectic between storied narrative and thematic analysis was used to investigate the essential meaning of the experience. Eight co-researchers who had experienced significant change through therapeutic enactment in psychodrama were interviewed in depth. Transcripts from these interviews were transposed into narrative form in order to straighten the story of change through enactment in a before, during, and after sequence. These eight individual narratives were validated by the co-researchers. An independent reviewer checked each narrative against the original transcript, video tapes of the enactments, and comments of each co-researcher for trustworthiness. Each validated narrative provided a rich description of the lived experience of change through therapeutic enactment. In addition, fifty-nine (59) essential themes were formulated from the individual narratives: Fourteen (14) in the planning stage, twenty-four (24) in the enactive stage, and twenty-one (21) in the reflective, or integrative stage, of the enactment process. These themes were then woven into a common story representing the pattern and meaning of change through therapeutic enactment for this group of co-researchers. Finally, notations made during the transposing of the transcripts into personal narratives, formulation of the essential themes, and construction of the common story were used to develop a theoretical story of change through therapeutic enactment, as a final level of hermeneutic interpretation. This theoretical story was then presented in summary form as a thematic sequence of multi-modal change processes representing a model of change through therapeutic enactment.
Stable bone‐marrow‐derived cell line producing transforming avian acute leukemia virus OK 10

A stable bone‐marrow‐derived cell line, OK‐BM, producing transforming avian acute leukemia virus OK 10, was established. The cell line has been maintained in culture for over 4 years and 405 passages. The cells grow rapidly in suspension, have a low serum requirement, display a uniform morphology and perpetually release transforming OK 10 virus. No transforming helper virus was detected by interference assay. The cells have a chromosome complement of the chicken. Characterization of the cells indicates that they are of myeloid origin and have properties characteristic of proliferating transformed macrophages.
Intraoperative electrical stimulation of the stapedius reflex in children.

OBJECTIVE To describe the use of intraoperative electrical stimulation on the stapedius reflex in children. SETTING Hospital cochlear implantation center. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eighteen children under the age of 10 years, who have undergone cochlear implantation, have been examined during surgery with the electrically elicited stapedius reflex in the monopolar stimulation mode. RESULTS A stapedius reflex could visually be detected for all subjects. CONCLUSION The responses serve to test the implant, provide guidance in avoiding overstimulation of the child when the device is switched on, and estimate the optimal C-levels.
Effectiveness and Efficiency of Policies to Promote Alternative Fuel Vehicles

Alternative motor fuels have been advocated in the name of energy security, regional air quality, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and even economic savings. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT) sets a goal of replacing 30 percent of conventional fuel use with alternative fuels by 2010. Earlier analysis using a single-period equilibrium model demonstrated the feasibility of EPACT’s replacement goals. This earlier analysis, however, assumed mature markets with large-scale vehicle production and the widespread availability of alternative fuels at retail stations. These conditions are not currently attained. To better assess what may be necessary to achieve mature, large-scale alternative fuel and vehicle markets, the authors use the transitional alternative fuels and vehicles model and simulate market outcomes for the use and cost of alternative fuels and vehicles over the time period of 1996 to 2010, considering possible transitional barriers related to infrastructural needs and production scale. Prices and choices for fuels and vehicles are endogenous. The model accounts for dynamic linkages between investments and vehicle and fuel production capacity, tracks vehicle stock evolution, and represents the effects of increasing scale and expanding retail fuel availability on the effective costs to consumers. Various policy alternatives are evaluated, including fleet vehicle purchase mandates, fuel subsidies, and tax incentives for low-greenhouse-gas-emitting fuels.
Parallelism in a Main-Memory DBMS: The Performance of PRISMA/DB

his paper evaluates the performance of the parallel, main-memory DBMS, PRISMA/DB. First, an abstract architecture for parallel query execution is presented. A performance model for the execution of simple relational operations on this architecture is developed. The parameters in the model are set using experiments on PRISMA/DB and the performance of PRISMA/DB is analized in the context of the model. Several conclusions can be drawn from the model combined with the results of the performance experiments. Firstly, the performance of PRISMA/DB appears to be competitive with respect toother systems. Secondly, the developed model can explain the results from the performance experiments to a large extent. Also, it is concluded that observed linear speedup for small numbers of processors cannot always be extrapolated to larger numbers of processors. Finally, it is concluded that the optimal number of processors for the parallelexecution of an operation is smaller for a main- memory system than for a disk -based system. The results of this study can be used to design data fragmentation strategies for large parallel machines.
Spoofing attacks to i-vector based voice verification systems using statistical speech synthesis with additive noise and countermeasure

Even though improvements in the speaker verification (SV) technology with i-vectors increased their real-life deployment, their vulnerability to spoofing attacks is a major concern. Here, we investigated the effectiveness of spoofing attacks with statistical speech synthesis systems using limited amount of adaptation data and additive noise. Experiment results show that effective spoofing is possible using limited adaptation data. Moreover, the attacks get substantially more effective when noise is intentionally added to synthetic speech. Training the SV system with matched noise conditions does not alleviate the problem. We propose a synthetic speech detector (SSD) that uses session differences in i-vectors for counterspoofing. The proposed SSD had less than 0.5% total error rate in most cases for the matched noise conditions. For the mismatched noise conditions, missed detection rate further decreased but total error increased which indicates that some calibration is needed for mismatched noise conditions.
Challenges of leveraging mobile sensing devices in wireless healthcare

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are an emerging type of networks formed by a set of distributed sensor nodes that collaborate to monitor environmental and physical conditions. Mobile medical sensor devices are rapidly emerging as one promising way to monitor patient health and the quality of patient care while improving convenience to the patient and reducing the cost of care by allowing patients to spend more time out of the hospital. In the future, mobile sensors could keep track of everyday behaviors that are reflective of physical and physiological health states and predictive of future health problems. We expect that wearable, portable, and even embeddable sensors will overcome some of the challenges of existing approaches and enable long-term continuous medical monitoring for many purposes. Examples include: Outpatients with chronic medical conditions (such as diabetes); individuals seeking to change behavior (such as losing weight); physicians needing to quantify and detect behavioral aberrations for early diagnosis (such as depression); or athletes wishing to monitor their condition and performance. In this paper, we focus on adapting smartphones used by individuals for health monitoring and present a case study on the design and implementation of a context-aware wireless healthcare application that leverages the capabilities of phone sensor subsystem in tracking human health conditions. The application's detailed scenario and enhanced Android architecture for this solution is presented.
Micropower Mixed-Signal VLSI Independent Component Analysis for Gradient Flow Acoustic Source Separation

A parallel micropower mixed-signal VLSI implementation of independent component analysis (ICA) with reconfigurable outer-product learning rules is presented. With the gradient sensing of the acoustic field over a miniature microphone array as a pre-processing method, the proposed ICA implementation can separate and localize up to 3 sources in mild reverberant environment. The ICA processor is implemented in 0.5 μm CMOS technology and occupies 3 mm × 3 mm area. At 16 kHz sampling rate, ASIC consumes 195 μW power from a 3 V supply. The outer-product implementation of natural gradient and Herault-Jutten ICA update rules demonstrates comparable performance to benchmark FastICA algorithm in ideal conditions and more robust performance in noisy and reverberant environment. Experiments demonstrate perceptually clear separation and precise localization over wide range of separation angles of two speech sources presented through speakers positioned at 1.5 m from the array on a conference room table. The presented ASIC leads to an extreme small form factor and low power consumption microsystem for source separation and localization required in applications like intelligent hearing aids and wireless distributed acoustic sensor arrays.
Real-world applications in the communications industry - when do we resort to Differential Evolution?

This paper describes various real-world design applications from the communications & measurement industry that have been solved by Differential Evolution (DE). The commonalities of these applications are discussed, and the characteristics are identified that gave rise to a DE-based design. It is further laid out which requirements need to be fulfilled to make DE more widespread and which expectations towards DE-research exist in the communications & measurement industry.
Reduced left executive control network functional connectivity is associated with alcohol use disorders.

BACKGROUND Altered functional connectivity in critical networks has been associated with chronic alcohol abuse. In turn, changes in connectivity in executive control networks (ECNs) may undermine the ability to control alcohol consumption. It was hypothesized that network connectivity would be reduced in individuals with problematic alcohol use (ALC) compared with controls and that diminished network connectivity would be associated with greater failure to control drinking. METHODS Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was analyzed to identify 14 previously identified intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) using a priori regions of interest in cases ranging from binge drinkers to those with severe alcohol use disorder, as well as control subjects. Analyses tested for differences in network connectivity strength between 255 ALC cases and 87 age- and gender-matched controls. Further, structural equation analysis, using 383 ALC cases, tested whether functional connectivity strength mediated the relationship between years of regular drinking and alcohol problems. RESULTS The age- and gender-matched analysis showed that ALC had significantly lower network connectivity strength than controls in the left executive control (LECN), basal ganglia, and primary visual networks. For all ALC, LECN connectivity strength is negatively correlated with failed control and alcohol disorder severity. Edges connecting parietal regions with dorsolateral prefrontal, middle frontal, and temporal regions within the LECN drove these relationships. A positive association between years of drinking and severity of alcohol problems was mediated by reduced ECN connectivity. CONCLUSIONS This study reports relationships between network strength and problematic alcohol use, suggesting that chronic drinking negatively impacts brain connectivity, specifically in the LECN. Altered functional connectivity, related to chronic alcohol abuse, may contribute to the etiology of alcohol dependence and relapse.
Moderating effects of online shopping experience on customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions aFatemeh

E-commerce has been grown very rapidly, and this growth has continued through the Internet. Both consumers and companies are faced with a new situation with this rapid growth. In, fact, companies faced with more stringent requirements for survival due to severe competition. The opportunities for consumers to choose between products is further enhanced. By increasing the information technology development in marketing, the importance of virtual store as a marketing channel increases day by day. In this study, the introduction of e-commerce and its concepts were mentioned. The number of previous studies in this field were investigated and compared, and finally appropriate conceptual and comprehensive model will be introduced that can cover aspects of customer repurchase intention. Studied variables in this model are effort Expectancy, performance Expectancy, Trust, satisfaction and repurchase intention; and experience variable as moderator variables are examined in this model.
An approach to hybrid personalized recommender systems

Collaborating Filtering (CF) is a recommendation method that can make predictions about a given user's interest by collecting a large number of other user' appreciation. Some of the major problems encountered in the use of CF are the cold-start problem and the fact that personalized recommendations cannot be done. In turn, CF-based recommendations produces ranked results where the success rate can be improved. The method proposed in this research is a hybrid recommender system that utilizes Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) in order to overcome these shortcomings and improve the success rate of the recommender system. To show the usability of the proposed hybrid recommender method, we have used a music recommendation dataset and build music listening assistant that uses the implementation of the method. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated and results are reported. The results indicate that our proposed method is successful.
HSP70-binding protein HSPBP1 regulates chaperone expression at a posttranslational level and is essential for spermatogenesis

The cochaperone HSPBP1 controls chaperone expression at a posttranslational level by inhibiting the ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation of inducible HSP70 proteins. This ensures the survival of spermatocytes, which are—similar to tumor cells— dependent on high-level chaperone expression.
Engineered Antibodies with Increased Activity to Recruit Complement

This manuscript describes two sites in a human IgG1 that, when mutated individually or in combination, result in a dramatic increase in C1q binding and complement-dependent cytotoxicity activity. These two residues, K326 and E333, are located at the extreme ends of the C1q binding epicenter in the CH2 domain of a human IgG. A mutation to tryptophan at K326 debilitates Ab-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity activity. In addition, substitutions of the residues E333 with serine and of K326 with tryptophan in a human IgG2 confer biological activity in the complement-dependent cytotoxicity assay in which the wild-type IgG2 is inactive. This study reveals that the residues K326 and E333 play a significant role in the control of the biological activity of an IgG molecule and can rescue the activity of an inactive IgG isotype.
Synthesis of a Sulfonated Two-Dimensional Covalent Organic Framework as an Efficient Solid Acid Catalyst for Biobased Chemical Conversion.

Because of limited framework stability tolerance, de novo synthesis of sulfonated covalent organic frameworks (COFs) remains challenging and unexplored. Herein, a sulfonated two-dimensional crystalline COF, termed TFP-DABA, was synthesized directly from 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol and 2,5-diaminobenzenesulfonic acid through a previously reported Schiff base condensation reaction, followed by irreversible enol-to-keto tautomerization, which strengthened its structural stability. TFP-DABA is a highly efficient solid acid catalyst for fructose conversion with remarkable yields (97 % for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and 65 % for 2,5-diformylfuran), good chemoselectivity, and good recyclability. The present study sheds light on the de novo synthesis of sulfonated COFs as novel solid acid catalysts for biobased chemical conversion.
Aggregate AP throughputs for long file transfers in a WLAN controlled by inhomogeneous TCP connections

Performance analysis of TCP-controlled long file transfers in a WLAN in infrastructure mode is available in the literature with one of the main assumptions being equal window size for all TCP connections. In this paper, we extend the analysis to TCP-controlled long file uploads and downloads with different TCP windows. Our approach is based on the semi- Markov process considered in [1] and [2], but with arbitrary window sizes. We present simulation results to show the accuracy of the analytical model.