Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dopamine Induces a PI3-Kinase-Independent Activation of Akt in Striatal Neurons: A New Route to cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein Phosphorylation

Akt is classically described as a prosurvival serine/threonine kinase activated in response to trophic factors. After activation by phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-kinase), it can translocate to the nucleus where it promotes specific genetic programs by catalyzing phosphorylation of transcription factors. We report here that both dopamine (DA) D1 (SKF38393) and D2 (quinpirole) agonist treatments rapidly increase, in primary striatal neurons in culture, phosphorylation levels of Akt on Thr308, a residue that is critically involved in its kinase activity. These treatments also activate the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway in the same population of striatal neurons. Induction of active, phospho-Thr308 Akt by dopamine D1 and D2 agonists is insensitive to wortmannin and thus PI3-kinase independent, in contrast to growth factor-induced Akt activity. D1- and D2-induced phospho-Thr308 Akt is decreased by the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitor, U0126, as well as by overexpression of a dominant-negative version of MEK, thus implicating the Ras/ERK signaling cascade in this process. Furthermore, overexpression of a mutant form of Akt that cannot be activated impaired cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation induced by SKF38393 and quinpirole treatments. Activation of Akt on Thr308 was also found in vivo in striatal neurons after acute administration of cocaine, a psychostimulant that strongly increases DA transmission. Thus, multiple intracellular pathways can transduce signals from dopamine receptors to CREB in striatal neurons, one of these being Akt. We propose that this signaling pathway plays a pivotal role in DA-induced regulation of gene expression and long-term neuronal adaptation in the striatum.
Document Refinement Based on Semantic Query Expansion

The word mismatch problem of various expressions of the same concept between known document resources and user query is one of the main factors that hurt the retrieval performance. This paper proposes a document refinement (DR) approach by expansion and replacement based on semantic relations between words. Different from traditional query expansion technology, this DR approach clusters the information with the same concept, which is closer to human thinking habit of information seeking. Furthermore, an effective real-time DR strategy is given, which makes the DR approach feasible to applications. Experiments on standard testing set show that the DR approach make consistent 14% to 23.4% improvements after refinement, and get 16% improvements compared with the corresponding query expansion technologies.
Cellular Programming and Reprogramming: Sculpting Cell Fate for the Production of Dopamine Neurons for Cell Therapy

Pluripotent stem cells are regarded as a promising cell source to obtain human dopamine neurons in sufficient amounts and purity for cell replacement therapy. Importantly, the success of clinical applications depends on our ability to steer pluripotent stem cells towards the right neuronal identity. In Parkinson disease, the loss of dopamine neurons is more pronounced in the ventrolateral population that projects to the sensorimotor striatum. Because synapses are highly specific, only neurons with this precise identity will contribute, upon transplantation, to the synaptic reconstruction of the dorsal striatum. Thus, understanding the developmental cell program of the mesostriatal dopamine neurons is critical for the identification of the extrinsic signals and cell-intrinsic factors that instruct and, ultimately, determine cell identity. Here, we review how extrinsic signals and transcription factors act together during development to shape midbrain cell fates. Further, we discuss how these same factors can be applied in vitro to induce, select, and reprogram cells to the mesostriatal dopamine fate.
How to make European pensions adequate and sustainable? CEPS Special Report, 10 March 2009

This special report presents the results of the research project on Adequacy and Sustainability of Old-Age Income in the EU (AIM), a collaborative effort of 13 research institutes from across the EU, led by CEPS and financed by the 6th Framework Programme over a 3 and a half year period. The project succeeded in highlighting the differences among EU member states when it comes to saving for retirement. While in some countries the working age population is able to sustain their consumption on retirement, in others there is a significant saving gap. The project also provided new, detailed statistics on the socio-economic situation of the elderly in the EU, developed scenarios for the future and described the key concepts and analytical tools available to policy-makers.
A low cost DPA-resistant 8-bit AES core based on ring oscillators

This work presents a 8-bit low cost AES core with DPA resistance for resource-limited applications. Based on our approach by using ring oscillators, the protection with no throughput penalty can effectively keep the design from DPA attacks. Both of the elegant control mechanism and logic sharing are employed to further reduce power consumption and area overhead. After implemented in UMC 90 nm CMOS technology, our approach costing 3.32K gates with 6.9% overhead can achieve 178Mb/s throughput and 201uW power consumption, showing that this design is comparable with other unprotected low cost designs. Furthermore, the countermeasure circuit protects the key information from DPA attack after evaluated by 15000 traces.
The More The Merrier: Multiple Agencies and The Future of Administrative Law Scholarship

Multiple agencies are all the rage in administrative law. As Professors Jody Freeman and Jim Rossi note, the traditional focus in administrative law has been on investigating how individual agencies function, and how interactions with the White House, Congress, and the courts shape (for better or for worse) their decisionmaking. 1 In contrast, the newer scholarship looks at how multiple agencies interact. Some of that scholarship focuses on particular areas of law, calling on policymakers to consider using a combination of multiple agencies, rather than one single agency, to solve particular policy problems.2 Other scholarship is more cross-cutting, trying to identify larger patterns that run across substantive areas, describing how the existence of multiple agencies and their interactions might shape agency decisionmaking and what we might (or might not) want to do about it.3
An Empirical Study of the L2-Boost technique with Echo State Networks

A particular case of Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) was introduced at the beginning of the 2000s under the name of Echo State Networks (ESNs). The ESN model overcomes the limitations during the training of the RNNs while introducing no significant disadvantages. Although the model presents some well-identified drawbacks when the parameters are not well initialised. The performance of an ESN is highly dependent on its internal parameters and pattern of connectivity of the hidden-hidden weights Often, the tuning of the network parameters can be hard and can impact in the accuracy of the models. In this work, we investigate the performance of a specific boosting technique (called L2-Boost) with ESNs as single predictors. The L2-Boost technique has been shown to be an effective tool to combine "weak" predictors in regression problems. In this study, we use an ensemble of random initialized ESNs (without control their parameters) as "weak" predictors of the boosting procedure. We evaluate our approach on five well-know time-series benchmark problems. Additionally, we compare this technique with a baseline approach that consists of averaging the prediction of an ensemble of ESNs.
What are the institutional implications of co-production as a strategy for development?

This research investigates the institutional implications of co-production as a strategy for development. The study is located within international debates on global development targets beyond 2015 and how cities of the Global South meet the challenges of urbanisation and informality. With forecasts indicating the continuing growth of urban populations, there is an urgent need to consider how governments, working collaboratively with communities, meet the burgeoning demand for housing and basic services and create the institutions necessary for sustainable urban development. Co-production is examined empirically through an embedded case study with the Zimbabwe Homeless People? s Federation, its partner NGO Dialogue on Shelter Trust and the City of Harare Council. The research traces how co-productive relations have evolved between these stakeholders over the period 1997 to 2013. Co-production is considered as a mediating function that supports the creation of spaces for dialogue and problem-solving in complex urban environments. Drawing on sociological institutional theory, the thesis examines the implications of co-productive working on the discursive representation of people in poverty and the institutionalised practices of the state toward low income communities. The research finds that the organisational and deliberative processes associated with co-production are formative: contributing to the efficacy of low income communities and the state to address housing and basic service needs. The thesis reports firstly that community mobilisation has a significant role in bringing together the financial and human resources needed to contribute to co-production. More importantly mobilisation provides the social infrastructure needed to create agential communities. Secondly, where organised communities are involved in the governance of development projects, there is an enhanced capacity to problem solve, which galvanises state support for progressive policies. Thirdly, the research in Harare identified that processes and practices of co-production stimulate adaptation of institutional arrangements. These gain significance over time as they accumulate to affect discourse, epistemic practice and lead to small scale institutional change. The research confirms the potential significance of co-production for sustainable urban development. For communities, co-production serves to shift their subjectivity within existing institutional configurations; creating the potential to act outside of normatively defined roles. For the state, co-production creates an opportunity to establish spaces of deliberation that provide an infusion of resources and can bolster failing legitimacy. However, evidence from Harare also underlines that co-production is contextually defined and adaptive change is fragile in the face of stronger forces of politics and elite interests.
Why is life so exact

This is my attempt to answer Schr\"odinger's question: "What is Life? ". In living cell the local combination of atoms is reproduced with incredible accuracy. In the case of protein biosynthesis the notion of the physical aspect of the process can be qualitatively enriched by taking into account the symmetry of conformational oscillations. This is the key to understand the selectivity in biochemistry.
De-identification in natural language processing

Natural language processing (NLP) systems usually require a huge amount of textual data but the publication of such datasets is often hindered by privacy and data protection issues. Here, we discuss the questions of de-identification related to three NLP areas, namely, clinical NLP, NLP for social media and information extraction from resumes. We also illustrate how de-identification is related to named entity recognition and we argue that de-identification tools can be successfully built on named entity recognizers.
Strathcona example recommendation tool

Using the application programming interfaces (API) of large software systems requires developers to understand details about the interfaces that are often not explicitly defined. However, documentation about the API is often incomplete or out of date. Existing systems that make use of the API provide a form of implicit information on how to use that code. Manually searching through existing projects to find relevant source code is tedious and time consuming. We have created the Strathcona Example.Recommendation Tool to assist developers in finding relevant fragments of code, or examples, of an API's use. These examples can be used by developers to provide insight on how they are supposed to interact with the API.
Recognition of Limonene Volatile Using Interdigitated Electrode Molecular Imprinted Polymer Sensor

Limonene is a type of terpene hydrocarbons commonly produced by plants and known to possess a strong smell of oranges. Electronic nose (e-nose) is an artificial olfaction device that is able to replicate the human olfactory sense. By using Interdigitated Electrode (IDE) structure, an enose sensor for detecting Limonene volatile by using molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) was fabricated. The MIP membrane contained the methacrylic acid, which formed specific cavities originated by target molecule. The ingredients for MIP were then polymerized on the surface of IDE with PET as substrate which is low in cost. The sensing property was examined in gas phase for evaluate the sensor sensitivity and selectivity. The IDE MIP sensor is capable to detect Limonene contained gas. The sensor characteristics were strongly influenced by the composition ratio of crosslinker, functional monomer and template molecule. The remained molecule on MIP can be removed by immersing thus the sensor can be used repeatedly. By determining Limonene volatile released during pre-matured until matured period, one could use this as a data point to determine certain fruit maturity. Apart from monitoring fruit maturity, this sensor can also be use for those who have respiratory allergy towards Limonene where most reported cases of irritation have involved long-term industrial exposure to the pure compound, e.g. during degreasing or the preparation of paints.
Continuing Professional Development: rhetoric and practice in the NHS 1

This article explores the experience of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) by supervisory‐level clinical staff in the National Health Service. Four main themes are highlighted in the literature, namely the nature and experience of CPD, its relationship with human resource management practices and in particular in career development and planning. These themes are examined utilising sources of (triangulated) empirical data based on a 2500 sample survey conducted across five NHS Trusts. A key finding was that responsibility for learning and development was perceived as belonging to the individual rather than the organisation. Other findings concern a lack of resource‐based commitment by the organisation to CPD for clinical staff undertaking supervisory‐level roles and evidence of ‘credentialism’ with its emphasis on seeking certificated qualifications. The findings raise concerns about the potential for clinical staff to become disillusioned and to perceive a potential breach in their psychological contract because of problems in reconciling their own interests with those of their professional body, and that of their employer in relation to CPD.
The Segmentation of Skin Cancer Image Based on Genetic Neural Network

The segmentation of medical images is an important component of medical imaging technology, and the effect of which will impact the diagnosis and therapy directly. Taking the complexity and uncertainty of the medical images into consideration fully, we propose the genetic neural network to be used to segment the skin cancer images. Optimization of weights and thresholds in neural network based on genetic algorithm is executed to improve the convergence speed of the BP neural network. Compared with the standard BP neural network, the segmentation speed of the genetic neural network adopted in this paper is much higher. The skin cancer images segmented by this method have continuous edge and clear contour, which can be used in the quantitative analysis and identification of the skin cancer.
Ultrafast safety system to turn-off normally on SiC JFETs

The use of normally on Silicon Carbide (SiC) JFET devices poses the question of safety and reliability in Voltage Fed Inverter (VFI) applications. Indeed, when a JFET is not driven with a sufficient negative voltage, the JFET is conducting and the VFI may be short-circuited. Therefore, it is needed to generate a negative voltage to turn-off the JFET to protect the VFI in case of gate driver failure. The settling time of this negative voltage must be inferior to the power system constant time to reduce the rise time of the short-circuit current. In this paper, a solution to protect the JFET and the system is proposed. A circuit description of an innovative topology using a Forward-Flyback topology with Primary Side Sensing (PSS) technique and an Output Voltage Estimation based on the Time Constant Matching (OVETCM) is presented. Moreover, the converter protects the VFI for an input range from 3 V to 610 V and up to 150 °C. Experimental results are provided and validate the design of the safety system.
EMOTIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS: A NEUROCOMPUTATIONAL THEORY

This paper outlines a theory of how conscious emotional experience is produced by the brain as the result of many interacting brain areas coordinated in working memory. These brain areas integrate perceptions of bodily states of an organism with cognitive appraisals of its current situation. Emotions are neural processes that represent the overall cognitive and somatic state of the organism. Conscious experience arises when neural representations achieve high activation as part of working memory. This theory explains numerous phenomena concerning emotional consciousness, including differentiation, integration, intensity, valence, and change.
Uncertainty and Experimentation in Pharmaceutical Demand: Anti-Ulcer Drugs

Due to differences in the effectiveness and side effects of different drugs, uncertainty is an important component of prescription drug choice. This uncertainty can cause patients and doctors to experiment with different drugs until they find a good match. In this paper, we specify and estimate a dynamic model of pharmaceutical choice under uncertainty in which patients choose a drug in order to minimize the present discounted value of costs associated with treatment in the anti-ulcer drug market. We find strong evidence that this market is split into casual patients for whom uncertainty about drug quality doesn't matter, and serious patients for whom quality differentials between drugs matter, since a high quality drug can substantially lower the expected treatment length (and therefore the associated expected treatment costs). We consider the implications of these results for innovation in this drug market.
Emergence of global preferential attachment from local interaction

Global degree/strength-based preferential attachment is widely used as an evolution mechanism of networks. But it is hard to believe that any individual can get global information and shape the network architecture based on it. In this paper, it is found that the global preferential attachment emerges from the local interaction models, including the distance-dependent preferential attachment (DDPA) evolving model of weighted networks (Li et al 2006 New J. Phys. 8 72), the acquaintance network model (Davidsen et al 2002 Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 128701) and the connecting nearest-neighbor (CNN) model (Vázquez 2003 Phys. Rev. E 67 056104). For the DDPA model and the CNN model, the attachment rate depends linearly on the degree or vertex strength, whereas for the acquaintance network model, the dependence follows a sublinear power law. It implies that for the evolution of social networks, local contact could be more fundamental than the presumed global preferential attachment.
Composite Competitiveness Indicators With Endogenous Versus Predetermined Weights : An Application to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the ranking of countries based on the World Economic Forum's (WEF') competitiveness index is changed when the underlying primitive data dimensions of this composite index are aggregated using weights that are endogenously determined for each country, instead of aggregated using the WEF's fixed set of weights applied to all countries.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a method based on data envelopment analysis to determine weights for aggregating the underlying primitive data dimensions of any composite indicator. The approach determines endogenously the “best” weights a given observational unit (e.g. country) on the basis of its revealed performance on each primitive sub‐dimension underlying a composite index. The ranking of countries based on the values of a composite competitiveness index that uses the proposed endogenous weight method is then compared to the ranking based on the WEF's competitiveness index for the year 2006. The ranki.
A Framework for Mixed-Initiative Clustering

Mixed-initiative clustering is a machine learning task that integrates a machine’s clustering capability and a user’s guidance in order to obtain the user’s desired result. This task is different from traditional autonomous clustering tasks by introducing user criterion, a user’s understanding of data and purpose of sorting. We propose a framework for mixed-initiative clustering to solve problems such as how to model a user’s criterion and how to utilize the criterion to improve the clustering performance. Our approach consists of representing properties of the clustering model to a user and letting the user gives feedback on these properties. We also demonstrate the feasibility of this framework using an application called ”activity extraction from personal workstation contents. ” Our work includes building structured activity descriptions to represent a machine’s speculation and a new clustering algorithm, the SpeClustering model, that enables extended user feedback. Furthermore, we identified the SpeClustering model as an instantiation of mixed-initiative clustering.