Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of glial‐derived matrix molecules, especially chondroitin sulfates, on neurite growth and survival of cultured mouse embryonic motoneurons

Mechanisms controlling neuronal survival and regeneration play an important role during development, after birth, and under lesion conditions. Isolated embryonic mouse motoneurons have been a useful tool for studying such basic mechanisms. These cultured motoneurons depend on extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules, which are potent mediators of survival and axonal growth and guidance in the CNS and in vitro, exhibiting either attractive or repellent guidance cues. Additionally, ECM proteoglycans and glycoproteins are components of the glial scar acting as a growth barrier for regenerating axons. Compared with CNS axon outgrowth, less is known about the cues that guide motoneurons toward their peripheral targets. Because we are interested in the effects of glial‐derived chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs), we have worked out a model system for investigating the influences of glial‐derived matrix molecules on motoneuron outgrowth and survival. We used cultured embryonic mouse motoneurons to investigate axon growth effects of matrix molecules produced by the glial‐derived cell lines A7, Neu7, and Oli‐neu primary astrocytes as wellas the immortalized Schwann cell line IMS32. The results indicate that molecules of the ECM, especially chondroitin sulfates, play an important role as axon growth‐promoting cues. We could demonstrate a modifying effect of the matrix components on motoneuron survival and caspase3‐induced apoptosis. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Several dissipativity and passivity implications in the linear discrete-time setting

Some important features and implications of dissipativity and passivity properties in the discrete-time setting are collected in this paper. These properties are mainly referred to as the stability analysis (feedback stability systems and study of the zero dynamics), the relative degree, the feedback passivity property, and the preservation of passivity under feedback and parallel interconnections. Frequency-domain characteristics are exploited to show some of these properties. The main contribution is the proposal of necessary and sufficient conditions in order to render a multiple-input multiple-output linear discrete-time invariant system passive by means of a static-state feedback and using the properties of the relative degree and zero dynamics of the system. A discrete-time model for the DC-to-DC buck converter is used as an example to illustrate the passivation scheme proposed. In addition, dissipativity frequency-domain properties are related to some feedback stability criteria.
Affective Factors That Influence Chemistry Achievement (Attitude and Self Efficacy) and The Power Of These Factors To Predict Chemistry Achievement-I

In this research, our aim was to determine students’ level of attitude and self efficacy towards chemistry and to put forth effects of these variables on chemistry achievement for consideration (in other words, to determine how the chemistry achievement were predicted by these variables). In this point of view the research was conducted with 1000 students studying at the 1 st , 2 nd and the 3 rd grade of 10 high schools which are located in the city center of Mersin. Addressed to research problems, data was analyzed via descriptive, correlation, linear and multiple regression statistical analyses. As a result it is determined that 2 nd graders group of high schools has maximum attitude scores and the attitude towards chemistry course, on its own, is a significant predictor of chemistry achievement. it is also determined that 2 nd graders group of high schools has maximum self efficacy scores and the self efficacy towards chemistry course, on its own, is a significant predictor of chemistry achievement.
Pituitary‐Adrenal Response to Acute and Repeated Mild Restraint, Forced Swim and Change in Environment Stress in Arginine Vasopressin Receptor 1b Knockout Mice

Arginine vasopressin and corticotrophin‐releasing hormone synthesised and released from the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus are the prime mediators of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis response to stress. These neurohormones act synergistically to stimulate adrenocorticotophin (ACTH) secretion from the anterior pituitary, culminating in an increase in circulating glucocorticoids. Arginine vasopressin mediates this action at the arginine vasopressin 1b receptor (Avpr1b) located on pituitary corticotrophs. Arginine vasopressin is regarded as a minor ACTH secretagogue in rodents but evidence suggests that it has a role in mediating the neuroendocrine response to some acute and chronic stressors. To investigate the role of the Avpr1b in the HPA axis response to an acute and chronic (repeated) stress, we measured the plasma ACTH and corticosterone concentrations in three stress paradigms in both Avpr1b knockout and wild‐type mice. Single acute exposure to restraint, forced swim and change in environment stressors elevated both plasma ACTH and corticosterone concentrations in wild‐type animals. Conversely, the ACTH response to the acute stressors was significantly attenuated in Avpr1b knockout mice compared to their wild‐type counterparts. Plasma corticosterone concentrations were reduced in Avpr1b knockout mice in response to change in environment but not to mild restraint or forced swim stress. Irrespective of genotype, there was no difference in the plasma ACTH or corticosterone concentrations in response to acute and repeated stressors. The data show that a functional Avpr1b is required for an intact pituitary ACTH response to the acute and chronic stressors used in this study. Furthermore, the normal corticosterone response to repeated exposure to change in environment stress also requires the Avpr1b to drive HPA axis responsiveness.
Low back pain risk factors associated with persistence, recurrence and delayed presentation.

BACKGROUND There is little knowledge in the literature on the role of time-related variables for the prognosis of acute and subacute low back pain (LBP). OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to estimate the relationship between time-related LBP characteristics and prognostic factors for acute/subacute LBP. METHODS We performed a prospective inception cohort study of 315 patients attending a health practitioner for acute/subacute LBP or recurrent LBP. One-tailed correlations were conducted between patient characteristics and time-related variables. RESULTS The pattern of correlation between risk factors for and resources against persistent LBP differed between three time-related variables. 'Subacute LBP' and 'delayed presentation' were positively associated with psychological factors. Both indicators were negatively correlated with resources against development of persistent LBP. Moreover, 'delayed presentation' was related positively with occupational stressors. In contrast, 'recurrent LBP' was only related to more impaired health-related factors. CONCLUSIONS Patients with current LBP waiting longer until seeking help in primary care have a more disadvantageous profile of occupational and psychological risk factors and lower resource levels. A similar but less pronounced pattern occurred in those with subacute LBP compared to those with acute LBP. Consideration of time characteristics of LBP may help to better understand LBP.
Media motives and self-disclosure in blogs: a comparison of Chinese and American culture

OF THE THESIS Media Motives and Self-Disclosure in Blogs: A Comparison of Chinese and American Culture by Susu Yang Master of Arts in Communication San Diego State University, 2010 Based on previous research on Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), this study applied the research paradigm of uses and gratifications to study media motives and self-disclosure behaviors to a very new computer application: weblog. Self-administered surveys were conducted in both United States and China to compare cultural variations on blogging motives and different aspects of self-disclosure: the amount of, depth, honest, positive-negative dimension, and intention. Sample of 283 American college students and 141 Chinese college students were included in the survey. Data from this study indicated that blogs were used in both countries as functional alternatives to face-to-face communication in gratifying information and entertaining motives, however, Chinese students had more “professional” usages of blogs than American students. Meanwhile, blogs appeared to have its own unique function the other communications cannot provide or are not good at providing, as to gratify the self-expression motive for people from both countries. When it comes to self-disclosure, results from this study revealed that Chinese students engaged in more amount of, more honest and deeper self-disclosure than their American counterparts, a tendency different from what has been found in interpersonal communication.
VFP: A Virtual Switch Platform for Host SDN in the Public Cloud

Many modern scalable cloud networking architectures rely on host networking for implementing VM network policy - e.g. tunneling for virtual networks, NAT for load balancing, stateful ACLs, QoS, and more. We present the Virtual Filtering Platform (VFP) - a programmable virtual switch that powers Microsoft Azure, a large public cloud, and provides this policy. We define several major goals for a programmable virtual switch based on our operational experiences, including support for multiple independent network controllers, policy based on connections rather than only on packets, efficient caching and classification algorithms for performance, and efficient offload of flow policy to programmable NICs, and demonstrate how VFP achieves these goals. VFP has been deployed on <1M hosts running IaaS and PaaS workloads for over 4 years. We present the design of VFP and its API, its flow language and compiler used for flow processing, performance results, and experiences deploying and using VFP in Azure over several years.
The Perspectives of Biomethane to Contribute to Increase the Natural Gas Supply in the State of São Paulo

The Intended Nationally Determined Contribution from Brazil presented in COP 21, ratified in 2016 by the Brazilian Congress, establishes goals regarding reduction of carbon emissions and increasing the share of biofuels by 2030. In this scenario, biogas and biomethane are suitable renewable fuels to meet such goals. Thus, the Bioenergy Research Group of the Institute of Energy and Environment at the University of São Paulo (GBIO/IEE/USP) developed "Project 27 The biomethane contribution prospects to increase the supply of NG in São Paulo" within the Research Center for Gas Innovation (RCGI/FAPESP/SHELL/USP). Project 27’s objective is to map the production of biogas and biomethane in the state of São Paulo, where the most promising biogas potential in Brazil resides. In view of the above, this article aims to present the results obtained for biogas and biomethane potentials so far, to compare it to other estimates and to study the incentives for these biofuels in São Paulo. The results obtained diverge from other studies' estimates for biogas and biomethane in the state of São Paulo. Nonetheless, they show that the biogas and biomethane potential is São Paulo is largely underused. However, the state already has a number of policies and regulations aiming towards introducing biogas and biomethane to the energy matrix.
Tumor-Suppressor Role of Notch3 in Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Revealed by Genetic and Pharmacological Induction

Notch1-3 are transmembrane receptors that appear to be absent in medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). Previous research has shown that induction of Notch1 has a tumor-suppressor effect in MTC cell lines, but little is known about the biologic consequences of Notch3 activation for the progression of the disease. We elucidate the role of Notch3 in MTC by genetic (doxycycline-inducible Notch3 intracellular domain) and pharmacologic [AB3, novel histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor] approaches. We find that overexpression of Notch3 leads to the dose-dependent reduction of neuroendocrine tumor markers. In addition, Notch3 activity is required to suppress MTC cell proliferation, and the extent of growth repression depends on the amount of Notch3 protein expressed. Moreover, activation of Notch3 induces apoptosis. The translational significance of this finding is highlighted by our observation that MTC tumors lack active Notch3 protein and reinstitution of this isoform could be a therapeutic strategy to treat patients with MTC. We demonstrate, for the first time, that overexpression of Notch3 in MTC cells can alter malignant neuroendocrine phenotype in both in vitro and in vivo models. In addition, our study provides a strong rationale for using Notch3 as a therapeutic target to provide novel pharmacologic treatment options for MTC. Mol Cancer Ther; 14(2); 499–512. ©2014 AACR.
Convex hull for visual tracking with EMD

Developing an effective target appearance model is a challenging task due to the influence of factors such as partial occlusion, illumination variations, fast motion, etc. Existing appearance models usually utilize the tracking results from previous frames as target templates upon which the target appearance model is built by linear combinations of the templates. With such kind of representation, visual tracking is not robust when drastic appearance variations occur. We propose a simple but effective tracking algorithm with a novel appearance model in a particle filter framework. A target candidate is represented by the convex combination of a set of target templates. Additionally, the distance between a target candidate and the templates is measured using the EMD. Experimental results on challenging video sequences against state-of-the-art algorithms demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed tracking algorithm.
Multidecadal Geomorphic Evolution of a Profoundly Disturbed Gravel Bed River System—A Complex, Nonlinear Response and Its Impact on Sediment Delivery

A 2.5‐km3 debris avalanche during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens buried upper North Fork Toutle River valley and reset the fluvial landscape. Since then, a new drainage network has evolved. Cross‐sectional surveys repeated over nearly 40 years at 16 locations along a 20‐km reach of river valley document channel evolution. We analyze spatial and temporal changes in channel morphology using two new metrics: (1) a shape index that defines the degree of U‐shaped or V‐shaped valley geometry and (2) an alluvial phase space diagram that relates bed degradation or aggradation to increases or decreases in cross‐sectional area. Unlike a simple, linear response model previously proposed, our analysis reveals channel development has been distinctly nonlinear and nonsequential. Rather than following a sequential trajectory of (1) channel initiation and incision, (2) aggradation and widening, and (3) episodic scour and fill with little change in bed elevation, long‐term channel evolution has been more complex with vertical and lateral adjustments intertwined throughout. Our analysis reveals channel evolution has followed a complex trajectory that has migrated nonsequentially through several phase space domains including degradation and aggradation with widening and narrowing, bed‐level fluctuations with little change in cross‐section area, and changes in cross‐sectional area with little change of bed elevation. Persistent channel widening and reworking of the channel bed are responsible for maintaining elevated sediment delivery from this basin. Elevated sediment delivery is likely to persist until valley floor widths greatly exceed that of the channel migration zone, and/or channel slopes and valley walls stabilize.
Building and Maintaining Relationships in the Digital Age: Using Social Penetration Theory to Explore Communication through Social Networking Sites

The purpose of this research is to extend Social Penetration Theory (SPT) beyond faceto-face (FtF) relational development by taking into account the unique nature of online interpersonal interactions and self-disclosure practices. More specifically, by applying SPT to social networking sites (SNSs) for relational development and maintenance, this research seeks to test the major assumptions of the theory regarding relational development and self-disclosure. Three studies were conducted to assess SPT in relation to communication online. The first study, discussed in Chapter Three, used a combination of survey and quantitative content analysis of Facebook profiles (N = 103) to look at the depth and breadth of communication across the various stages of relationships maintained online. The second and third studies, discussed in Chapter Four, considered how variables related to communication online (audience awareness, information seeking, and privacy concerns) affected relational maintenance and dissolution. The second study utilized focus groups (N = 26) to generate reasons for why users of SNSs would end relationships online (e.g., oversharing, conflict). The third and final study used this list to survey participants (N = 312) about their own social network of choice (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram). Participants were asked to consider how the reasons generated in the second study related to their own decisions to “unfriend” or “hide” specific members of their social network, reporting on up to 10 members for each participant for a total of 3,062 cases. Participants also discussed their own information seeking and audience awareness as it related to SNS use. Altogether, these three studies highlight important variables needed to consider relational maintenance and development in a multimodal world, supporting the primary claim of SPT that in weighing the costs and rewards of self-disclosure, relational closeness is the best predictor of satisfaction.
Marginalized Students’ Uneasy Learning: Korean Immigrant Students’ Experiences of Learning Social Studies

This study explores how recent Korean immigrant students experience learning social studies and how their unique social, cultural, and educational backgrounds as new immigrants shape their experiences in American schools. Based on survey and in-depth interviews with 43 Korean immigrant students in two urban and three suburban/rural areas, this mixed methods study examines Korean immigrant youths’ perceptions about the nature of history and social studies as well as their experiences of learning social studies in their everyday classroom contexts. Our data analysis demonstrates that Korean immigrant students face varying difficulties in constructing meaning in US history and engaging themselves in social studies learning, which results in a negative learning experience and subsequent disinterest in social studies. Researchers identified three major challenges that Korean immigrant youths experience in their social studies classrooms: (1) Lack of English proficiency, background knowledge, and American patriotism, (2) White, American-centered perspectives and marginalization of their country of origin, and (3) Teachers’ lack of care and disengaging pedagogies. The findings of this study provide implications for creating more meaningful and culturally relevant social studies learning for immigrant students.
Civil Society, Networks, and Relationship Management: Beyond the Organization–Public Dyad

Given the importance of relationships to civil society, many scholars have positioned strategic communication as essential to the civil society process. Using social network analysis, this study extends relationship management theory into the civil society arena and offers implications on how network approaches to examining relationships may help to move the theory forward. Using data gathered from a network of Peruvian civil society organizations, the article theoretically and methodologically links relationship management theory with social network perspectives, and the results of the study are discussed in terms of their contributions to extending relationship management theory and civil society research. Critiques of social network analysis and implications for its use in strategic communication research and theory development are also explored.
Abnormal Returns of Stock Dividend: Evidence from China's Securities Market

This paper builds the portfolios and composite index of the cash dividend and stock dividend company, then studies the influences of the two kinds of dividend policies on returns. The empirical results show the two abnormal returns have significant difference: the investment portfolio of stock dividend policy is superior to the cash, moreover, the longer the holding periods, the more obvious the advantages. Therefore, stock dividend company is more valuable than the cash on investment.
Emotions are a personal thing: Towards speaker-adaptive emotion recognition

In this paper, we present novel work on speech-based adaptive emotion recognition through addition of speaker-specific information. We propose a two-stage approach of first determining the speaker and then using this information during the emotion recognition process. The proposed technique has been evaluated using five emotional speech databases of different languages using both artificial neural network-based speaker identifier and the ground truth. The addition of speaker-specific information improves the emotion recognition accuracy by up to +10.2%. Moreover, emotion recognition performance scores for all applied databases are improved.
Detection of circulating cytokeratin-positive cells in the blood of breast cancer patients using immunomagnetic enrichment and digital microscopy.

PURPOSE To examine the feasibility for identifying and enumerating cytokeratin positive (CK+) cells in the peripheral blood of breast cancer patients. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Blood specimens from 34 normal donors (negative controls), 15 samples to which carcinoma cells were added (positive controls), and 84 breast cancer patients [27 node-negative (N-), 29 node-positive (N+), and 28 metastatic] were studied. RBCs were lysed with ammonium chloride and the resulting cell suspension incubated with anti-EpCAM-conjugated immunomagnetic beads for carcinoma cell enrichment. Immunomagnetically selected cells were placed on slides; stained for CKs 8, 18, and 19; and evaluated with an automated digital microscopy system that rapidly scanned the slide and collected images of cells meeting predefined staining and cytomorphological criteria. A montage of the CK+ cells was reviewed to confirm tumor cell morphology. RESULTS Eighteen specimens (9 normal, 2 N-, 4 N+, and 3 metastatic) were excluded because of poor cytomorphology or staining artifact. All 15 of the positive controls [95% confidence interval (CI), 78-100%] and none of the 25 negative controls (95% CI, 0-14%) demonstrated CK+ cells. Twenty-one of the 75 (28%; 95% CI, 18-40%) samples from breast cancer patients demonstrated CK+ cells including 76% of patients with metastatic disease (95% CI, 55-91%), 8% with N+ disease (95% CI, 1-26%), and none of those with N- disease (95% CI, 0-14). The mean number of CK+ cells detected in the 21 CK+ patients was 18.4 (range, 1-120). CONCLUSIONS Breast carcinoma cells can be detected in the blood from a significant fraction of metastatic breast cancer patients using immunomagnetic cell enrichment and digital microscopy. The incidence of CK+ cells was low in those with resected N+ disease (at most 26%) and those with resected N- breast cancer (at most 14%). This technique could be used in large prospective studies of patients with breast cancer to learn whether the detection of rare carcinoma cells is a useful predictive or prognostic factor.