Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bioprocess systems engineering: transferring traditional process engineering principles to industrial biotechnology

The complexity of the regulatory network and the interactions that occur in the intracellular environment of microorganisms highlight the importance in developing tractable mechanistic models of cellular functions and systematic approaches for modelling biological systems. To this end, the existing process systems engineering approaches can serve as a vehicle for understanding, integrating and designing biological systems and processes. Here, we review the application of a holistic approach for the development of mathematical models of biological systems, from the initial conception of the model to its final application in model-based control and optimisation. We also discuss the use of mechanistic models that account for gene regulation, in an attempt to advance the empirical expressions traditionally used to describe micro-organism growth kinetics, and we highlight current and future challenges in mathematical biology. The modelling research framework discussed herein could prove beneficial for the design of optimal bioprocesses, employing rational and feasible approaches towards the efficient production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Key role for enkephalinergic tone in cortico–striatal–thalamic function

Whereas the role of dopaminergic tone in the cortico‐striatal‐thalamic system is well‐established, the role of endogenous opioids in the function of this system is less understood. We show that Borna disease virus infection of adult rats results in an increase in preproenkephalin transcripts in the striatum of Borna‐infected rats, a region important for forming coordinated sequential motor actions and in developing programmes of thought and motivation. Stereotypic behaviours and dyskinesias, the clinical hallmarks of infection in adult Lewis rats (BD rats), are accompanied by a disrupted pattern of immediate early gene c‐fos activation in the motor thalamus, with significance for the breakdown in coordinated sequential motor actions. We also find increased preproenkephalin in infected cultured neuroblastoma and rat foetal glial cells. The expression pattern of enkephalin mRNA in vivo and in vitro suggest that increased enkephalin function is one of the neuropharmacological means by which Borna disease virus causes motor disease of animals and possibly cognitive and affective disease in man, and further suggest that enkephalins play a critical role in the maintenance of a balanced tone of activity in the cortico‐basal ganglia‐thalamo‐cortical loops.
Quality assessment of observational studies in psychiatry: an example from perinatal psychiatric research

In perinatal psychiatry, randomized controlled trials are often not feasible on ethical grounds. Many studies are observational in nature, while others employ large databases not designed primarily for research purposes. Quality assessment of the resulting research is complicated by a lack of standardized tools specifically for this purpose. The aim of this paper is to describe the Systematic Assessment of Quality in Observational Research (SAQOR), a quality assessment tool our team devised for a series of systematic reviews and meta‐analyses of evidence‐based literature regarding risks and benefits of antidepressant medication during pregnancy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Managing the Use of Cellular Phones in a Small College Learning Resource Centre

Summary Seventy-five per cent of young people in Britain own a cell phone. In a survey of sixth form college (small college) Learning Resource Centres (LRCs), cell phone usage occurred regularly and was occasionally a serious problem. LRC Managers need to decide whether to ban cell phone usage or not. Disruptive behaviour in libraries is defined as any behaviour that disturbs other users. Using this criterion, cell phone use should be banned in the LRC. Policies on cell phone use need to be clearly displayed and enforced tactfully and consistently. College management support will increase the effectiveness of any ban.
Reasons for the Relatively Lower Entrepreneurial Activity Levels of Rural Women in Spain

This study examines the impact that selected institutional factors have upon the entrepreneurial activity of women and men in rural areas. To do so, the results of the Adult Population Survey from the Spanish Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for the year 2004 have been used in a rare events logit regression model where rurality and sex have been introduced as interaction terms in order to identify any statistically significant distinctions of the impact of the selected independent variables upon rural women's entrepreneurial activity. The results indicate that compared to rural men, Spanish rural women tend to be less involved in entrepreneurial activities and are less optimistic about their abilities as entrepreneurs, although the fear of failure is not a significant impediment of their involvement in entrepreneurship.
Instructional Experiences with Modeling and Analysis using the i* Framework

First year professional Master’s students at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto are taught how to analyze problem domains using i* modeling in the final segment of the introductory course on “Systems Analysis and Process Innovation”. Over the past several years, the course instructors and teaching assistants have had the opportunity to observe and interact with the course students on the learning and use of the i* framework for modeling and analysis which makes it possible to make general observations regarding student experiences with the i* framework in an instructional setting. These observations are broad ranging and cover areas such as pedagogical design, conceptual understanding and proficiency with the i* framework, domain modeling and analysis, and tools for i* modeling.
Phospholipase D activation in human natural killer cells through the Kp43 and CD16 surface antigens takes place by different mechanisms. Involvement of the phospholipase D pathway in tumor necrosis factor alpha synthesis

We have recently described a novel glycoprotein, Kp43, expressed on the surface of human natural killer (NK) cells that appears to regulate their functional activity. In this report, signaling mechanisms through the Kp43 surface antigen have been studied. Incubation of interleukin 2 (IL-2)-treated NK cells with anti-Kp43 monoclonal antibody F(ab')2 fragments resulted in the time- and dose-dependent stimulation of NK cell phospholipase D. Phospholipase D activation through the Kp43 surface antigen was found to take place in the absence of polyphosphoinositide turnover and appeared not to depend on the presence of Ca2+ in the extracellular medium. On the other hand, signaling mechanisms through the CD16 receptor (FcR-III) on NK cells were comparatively studied. Stimulation of IL-2-treated NK cells with anti-CD16 monoclonal antibody F(ab')2 fragment also resulted in time- and dose-dependent activation of phospholipase D. However, CD16- triggered phospholipase D activation took place concomitant to phospholipase C-mediated polyphosphoinositide breakdown and showed a strong dependence on extracellular Ca2+. These results provide, to our knowledge, the first evidence for the presence of activatable phospholipase D in NK cells, as well as the first indication that distinct receptor-modulated pathways exist for activation of phospholipase D within the same cell type. On the other hand, phosphatidic acid, the physiologic product of phospholipase D action on phospholipids, was found to mimic the effect of anti-Kp43 monoclonal antibody regarding tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) biosynthesis and secretion by NK cells. Addition of phosphatidic acid vesicles to IL- 2-treated NK cell cultures stimulated a TNF-alpha production that was abolished when the cells were previously treated with actinomycin D. Other phospholipids, including lysophosphatidic acid, were ineffective. However, phosphatidic acid-induced TNF-alpha production was strongly inhibited by the presence of propranolol, an inhibitor of phosphatidic acid phosphohydrolase. Moreover, in cells responding to phorbol myristate acetate, a compound that triggers activation of phospholipase D, TNF-alpha synthesis was also inhibited by propranolol. Thus, these data suggest a second messenger role for phosphatidic acid-derived diradylglycerol in the induction of TNF-alpha gene expression.
The effect of metastereotyping on judgements of higher-status outgroups when reciprocity and social image improvement motives collide

Two experiments examined the effect of metastereotype valence on high and low identifiers' judgments of an outgroup. As high identifiers are strongly emotionally invested in the ingroup, we expected that such group members would feel angry when they activate negative metastereotypes which would correspondingly lead to less favourable evaluation of the outgroup. We further expected this pattern to be particularly visible when high identifiers could communicate their dissatisfaction to an outgroup (but not an ingroup) audience presumably to persuade the outgroup to reevaluate their attitudes toward the ingroup. We did not expect low identifiers to reflect the valence of metastereotypes in their outgroup attitudes and judgments, given their weak emotional ties with the ingroup and because such members are likely to feel that metastereotypes do not apply to them personally. Results from two experiments (Study 1, N = 78; Study 2, N = 80) supported these predictions and are discussed in light of the implications of metastereotyping for intergroup relations.
Distributed network monitoring and multicommodity flows: a primal-dual approach

A canonical distributed optimization problem is solving a Covering/Packing Linear Program in a distributed environment with fast convergence and low communication and space overheads. In this paper, we consider the following covering and packing problems, which are the dual of each other: • Passive Commodity Monitoring: minimize the total cost of monitoring devices used to measure the network traffic on all paths. • Maximum Throughput Multicommodity flow: maximize the total value of the flow with bounded edge capacities. We present the first known distributed algorithms for both of these problems that converge to (1+ε)-approximate solutions in poly-logarithmic time with communication and space overheads that depend on the maximal path length but are almost independent of the size of the entire network. Previous distributed solutions achieving similar approximations required convergence time, communication, or space overheads that depend polynomially on the size of the entire network. The sequential simulation of our algorithm is more efficient than the fastest known approximation algorithms for multicommodity flows, e.g., Garg-Könemann [14], when the maximal path length is small.
Familial vulnerability to ADHD affects activity in the cerebellum in addition to the prefrontal systems.

OBJECTIVE Familial vulnerability to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been shown to be related to atypical prefrontal activity during cognitive control tasks. However, ADHD is associated with deficits in the cerebellum as well as deficits in frontostriatal circuitry and associated cognitive control. In this study, we investigated whether cerebellar systems are sensitive to familial risk for ADHD in addition to frontostriatal circuitry. METHOD We used an event-related, rapid mixed-trial functional magnetic resonance imaging design. The paradigm was a variation on a go/no-go task, with expected (go) and unexpected (no-go) events at expected and unexpected times. A total of 36 male children and adolescents completed the study, including 12 sibling pairs discordant for ADHD and 12 matched controls. RESULTS Children and adolescents with ADHD were less accurate on unexpected events than control subjects. Performance by unaffected siblings was intermediate, between that of children and adolescents with ADHD and controls. Functional neuroimaging results showed dissociation between activation in the cerebellum and anterior cingulate cortex: Activity in the anterior cingulate cortex was decreased for subjects with ADHD and their unaffected siblings compared with controls for manipulations of stimulus type (no-go trials), but not timing. In contrast, cerebellar activity was decreased for subjects with ADHD and their unaffected siblings for manipulations of timing, but not stimulus type. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that activity in both the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum is sensitive to familial vulnerability to ADHD. Unaffected siblings of individuals with ADHD show deficits similar to affected probands in prefrontal areas for unexpected events and in cerebellum for events atunexpected times.
Acute and chronic effects of anteromedial globus pallidus stimulation in Parkinson’s disease

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of acute and chronic stimulation in the anteromedial part of the globus pallidus internus (GPi) on the symptoms of patients with Parkinson’s disease. METHODS Six patients with severe Parkinson’s disease (Hoehn and Yahr stage 4–5 in “off” drug condition) with motor fluctuations and levodopa induced dyskinesia (LID) were operated on. Chronic electrodes were implanted in the anteromedial GPi bilaterally in five patients and unilaterally in one patient. The effect of stimulation via the four contacts for each electrode (n=11) was assessed postoperatively on the contralateral parkinsonian signs in the off condition and on the contralateral and ipsilateral LID in the “on” condition. The core assessement program for intracerebral transplantation protocol was performed before surgery and then 1, 3, and 6 months after surgery in on and off conditions and in on and off stimulation conditions. RESULTS Stimulation performed postoperatively showed a significant improvement (p<0.05) by 47% (contralateral rigidity) and 32% (contralateral bradykinesia) when stimulation was applied through the distal contact. Levodopa induced dyskinesias were improved by 95% (contralateral LID) and by 66% (ipsilateral LID) when stimulation was applied through the distal contact. Six months after the surgery, GPi stimulation in the off condition led to a mean improvement in the motor score of UPDRS by 36%. The mean daily duration in the off state decreased by 52% (p<0.05). The mean duration of LIDs decreased by 68% (p<0.05) and their severity by 53% (p<0.05). CONCLUSION Chronic stimulation in the anteromedial GPi shows that this is a safe and effective treatment for advanced Parkinson’s disease with benefit sustained for at least 6 months.
Fuzzy Sliding-Mode Control Using Adaptive Tuning Technique

This study mainly deals with the key problem of chattering phenomena on the conventional sliding-mode control (SMC) and investigates an adaptive fuzzy sliding-mode control (AFSMC) system for an indirect field-oriented induction motor (IM) drive to track periodic commands. First, an indirect field-orientation method for an IM drive is introduced briefly. Moreover, a fuzzy logic inference mechanism is utilized for implementing a fuzzy hitting control law to remove completely the chattering phenomena on the conventional SMC. In addition, to confront the uncertainties existed in practical applications, an adaptive algorithm, which is derived in the sense of Lyapunov stability theorem, is utilized to adjust the fuzzy parameter for further assuring robust and optimal control performance. The indirect field-oriented IM drive with the AFSMC scheme possesses the salient advantages of simple control framework, free from chattering, stable tracking control performance, and robust to uncertainties. Furthermore, numerical simulation and experimental results due to periodic sinusoidal commands are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, and its advantages are indicated in comparison with the conventional SMC system and the SMC system with a boundary layer
Democratising the Learning Process: The Use of Twitter in the Teaching of Politics and International Relations

Twitter has become an established feature of the contemporary landscape. It has been used by, among others, politicians, political parties, governments, international organisations, charities, think-tanks and individuals from academics to celebrities. Twitter has also been subject to a great deal of debate and analysis. This includes its impact on the relationship between government and citizens, a point that came to the fore in the 2011 Arab Spring when Twitter provided an important communication vehicle for popular uprising. However, less has been written on the use and impact of Twitter as a method to support learning and teaching. This article examines the use of Twitter as a way of promoting student engagement, arguing that it offers the opportunity to democratise student learning.
Signal Analysis and Waveform Reconstruction of Shock Waves Generated by Underwater Electrical Wire Explosions with Piezoelectric Pressure Probes

Underwater shock waves (SWs) generated by underwater electrical wire explosions (UEWEs) have been widely studied and applied. Precise measurement of this kind of SWs is important, but very difficult to accomplish due to their high peak pressure, steep rising edge and very short pulse width (on the order of tens of μs). This paper aims to analyze the signals obtained by two kinds of commercial piezoelectric pressure probes, and reconstruct the correct pressure waveform from the distorted one measured by the pressure probes. It is found that both PCB138 and Müller-plate probes can be used to measure the relative SW pressure value because of their good uniformities and linearities, but none of them can obtain precise SW waveforms. In order to approach to the real SW signal better, we propose a new multi-exponential pressure waveform model, which has considered the faster pressure decay at the early stage and the slower pressure decay in longer times. Based on this model and the energy conservation law, the pressure waveform obtained by the PCB138 probe has been reconstructed, and the reconstruction accuracy has been verified by the signals obtained by the Müller-plate probe. Reconstruction results show that the measured SW peak pressures are smaller than the real signal. The waveform reconstruction method is both reasonable and reliable.
Relevance effect: Exploiting Bayesian networks to improve supervised learning

Deductive logic and its variants enjoy the common property of monotonicity. For tasks such as inductive reasoning and belief revision, this was eventually deemed a serious flaw, prompting attempts to construct non-monotonic versions of logic. With the introduction of the idea of probabilistic reasoning to AI, particularly with the advent of Bayesian networks (BNs), the aforementioned monotonicity was no longer an issue: Probability is inherently non-monotonic. In this work, we introduce the notion of relevance effect which bears on exploiting BNs to generate realizations of relevant variables to be used for potentially improving the performance of a learning model on a supervised classification task. We explore the potential of using the relevance effect in the context of Deep Belief Networks (DBNs) with a focus on relational domains. We show that although the idea is at odds with the non-monotonicity of probabilistic reasoning, we attain an improvement in learning performance in different simulations on both synthetic and real-world scenarios. The observation that adopting this notion has improved the performance of a powerful model like DBNs hints to its potential to be practiced so as to enhance the performance of supervised learning methods in general. We furthermore highlight the connections as well as the implications of our work to the psychology literature.
Representing Sets of Instances for Visual Recognition

In computer vision, a complex entity such as an image or video is often represented as a set of instance vectors, which are extracted from different parts of that entity. Thus, it is essential to design a representation to encode information in a set of instances robustly. Existing methods such as FV and VLAD are designed based on a generative perspective, and their performances fluctuate when difference types of instance vectors are used (i.e., they are not robust). The proposed D3 method effectively compares two sets as two distributions, and proposes a directional total variation distance (DTVD) to measure their dissimilarity. Furthermore, a robust classifier-based method is proposed to estimate DTVD robustly, and to efficiently represent these sets. D3 is evaluated in action and image recognition tasks. It achieves excellent robustness, accuracy and speed.
Grammatical gender in adult L2 acquisition: Relations between lexical and syntactic variability

In order to identify the causes of inflectional variability in adult second-language (L2) acquisition, this study investigates lexical and syntactic aspects of gender processing in real-time L2 production and comprehension. Twenty advanced to near-native adult first language (L1) English speakers of L2 German and 20 native controls were tested in a study comprising two experiments. In elicited production, we probe accuracy in lexical gender assignment. In a visual-world eye tracking task, we test the predictive processing of syntactic gender agreement between determiners and nouns. The findings show clear contingencies (1) between overall accuracy in lexical gender assignment in production and target predictive processing of syntactic gender agreement in comprehension and (2) between the speed of lexical access and predictive syntactic gender agreement. These findings support lexical and computational accounts of L2 inflectional variability and argue against models positing representational deficits in morphosyntax in late L2 acquisition and processing.
Visual Object Agnosia without Alexia or Prosopagnosia: Arguments for Separate Knowledge Stores

We review the points raised by Farah (this issue) in her discussion of the paper by Rumiati, Humphreys, Riddoch, and Bateman (1994), in which a case study was presented of a patient, Mr W. , with visual object agnosia without either prosopagnosia or alexia. We reiterate the argument that Mr W. had impaired stored knowledge about the visual characteristics of objects, and that this was more severe than his deficit at a semantic level. In addition, we summarize supporting evidence from another patient (Humphreys & Rumiati, submitted), who showed the same pattern of breakdown as Mr W. We suggest that stored visual knowledge can be specific to the form of stimulus (words, objects, and faces), that these different forms of knowledge may be represented in distinct neural areas, and that agnosia can result after damage to stimulus-specific sites of knowledge representation.
PACT: A New Trust Prediction Method for Multi-agents Recommender Systems

In multi-agents recommender systems, agents interact with each other to provide an efficient recommendation to the end user. Trust is, therefore, important to make these interactions useful. In an open, heterogeneous and dynamic multi-agent environment, it is difficult for agents to assess and establish trusting relationships for cooperation. Thus, modeling and evaluating trust relationships between agents for a better recommendation, is a major challenge. In this paper, we propose a new approach that allows predicting trust relationships between agents. This approach is based on a sound mathematical basis, namely the Fuzzy Formal Concepts Analysis and the Theory of Belief Functions. To validate the efficiency of our work, we carried out a series of experiments using the Advogato dataset.