Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Synaptic Mechanism for Retinal Adaptation to Luminance and Contrast

The gain of signaling in primary sensory circuits is matched to the stimulus intensity by the process of adaptation. Retinal neural circuits adapt to visual scene statistics, including the mean (background adaptation) and the temporal variance (contrast adaptation) of the light stimulus. The intrinsic properties of retinal bipolar cells and synapses contribute to background and contrast adaptation, but it is unclear whether both forms of adaptation depend on the same cellular mechanisms. Studies of bipolar cell synapses identified synaptic mechanisms of gain control, but the relevance of these mechanisms to visual processing is uncertain because of the historical focus on fast, phasic transmission rather than the tonic transmission evoked by ambient light. Here, we studied use-dependent regulation of bipolar cell synaptic transmission evoked by small, ongoing modulations of membrane potential (VM) in the physiological range. We made paired whole-cell recordings from rod bipolar (RB) and AII amacrine cells in a mouse retinal slice preparation. Quasi-white noise voltage commands modulated RB VM and evoked EPSCs in the AII. We mimicked changes in background luminance or contrast, respectively, by depolarizing the VM or increasing its variance. A linear systems analysis of synaptic transmission showed that increasing either the mean or the variance of the presynaptic VM reduced gain. Further electrophysiological and computational analyses demonstrated that adaptation to mean potential resulted from both Ca channel inactivation and vesicle depletion, whereas adaptation to variance resulted from vesicle depletion alone. Thus, background and contrast adaptation apparently depend in part on a common synaptic mechanism.
NFAT5 Regulates HIV-1 in Primary Monocytes via a Highly Conserved Long Terminal Repeat Site

To replicate, HIV-1 capitalizes on endogenous cellular activation pathways resulting in recruitment of key host transcription factors to its viral enhancer. RNA interference has been a powerful tool for blocking key checkpoints in HIV-1 entry into cells. Here we apply RNA interference to HIV-1 transcription in primary macrophages, a major reservoir of the virus, and specifically target the transcription factor NFAT5 (nuclear factor of activated T cells 5), which is the most evolutionarily divergent NFAT protein. By molecularly cloning and sequencing isolates from multiple viral subtypes, and performing DNase I footprinting, electrophoretic mobility shift, and promoter mutagenesis transfection assays, we demonstrate that NFAT5 functionally interacts with a specific enhancer binding site conserved in HIV-1, HIV-2, and multiple simian immunodeficiency viruses. Using small interfering RNA to ablate expression of endogenous NFAT5 protein, we show that the replication of three major HIV-1 viral subtypes (B, C, and E) is dependent upon NFAT5 in human primary differentiated macrophages. Our results define a novel host factor–viral enhancer interaction that reveals a new regulatory role for NFAT5 and defines a functional DNA motif conserved across HIV-1 subtypes and representative simian immunodeficiency viruses. Inhibition of the NFAT5–LTR interaction may thus present a novel therapeutic target to suppress HIV-1 replication and progression of AIDS.
Talk to the Virtual Hands: Self-Animated Avatars Improve Communication in Head-Mounted Display Virtual Environments

Background When we talk to one another face-to-face, body gestures accompany our speech. Motion tracking technology enables us to include body gestures in avatar-mediated communication, by mapping one's movements onto one's own 3D avatar in real time, so the avatar is self-animated. We conducted two experiments to investigate (a) whether head-mounted display virtual reality is useful for researching the influence of body gestures in communication; and (b) whether body gestures are used to help in communicating the meaning of a word. Participants worked in pairs and played a communication game, where one person had to describe the meanings of words to the other. Principal Findings In experiment 1, participants used significantly more hand gestures and successfully described significantly more words when nonverbal communication was available to both participants (i.e. both describing and guessing avatars were self-animated, compared with both avatars in a static neutral pose). Participants ‘passed’ (gave up describing) significantly more words when they were talking to a static avatar (no nonverbal feedback available). In experiment 2, participants' performance was significantly worse when they were talking to an avatar with a prerecorded listening animation, compared with an avatar animated by their partners' real movements. In both experiments participants used significantly more hand gestures when they played the game in the real world. Conclusions Taken together, the studies show how (a) virtual reality can be used to systematically study the influence of body gestures; (b) it is important that nonverbal communication is bidirectional (real nonverbal feedback in addition to nonverbal communication from the describing participant); and (c) there are differences in the amount of body gestures that participants use with and without the head-mounted display, and we discuss possible explanations for this and ideas for future investigation.
A Research Model for Measuring the Level of E-commerce in SMEs

From the point of view of SMEs, this article puts forward the measurement model of the SMEs e-commerce development level, which is of strong operability and valuable significance. A research model is postulated that contains eight potential independent variables and hypotheses under three broad categories - technological, organizational and environmental characteristics. Research finds out that there are significant differences among e - commerce adoption levels of SMEs in china. Finally carries out empirical analysis of 156 firms’ e-commerce development level on the basis of the measurement method.
The Influence of Family Violence and Attitudes Toward Help-Seeking on Adolescents' Intent to Seek Help for Intimate Partner Aggression

Adolescents’ exposure to interparental violence and adolescents’ perceptions of parents’ attitudes towards help-seeking were investigated to determine whether these two factors have an influence on adolescents’ intent to seek help for their own dating violence. Participants were 234 high school and undergraduate females ranging in age from 16 to 19 years old. Participants completed questionnaires assessing their level of exposure to violence between their parents as well as perceptions of how parents feel about seeking help for problems. Adolescents’ own attitudes about help seeking, experiences of child abuse, perceived stigma regarding help-seeking, and severity of dating violence were also measured. Positive help-seeking attitudes predicted greater intent to seek help among university females whereas exposure to interparental violence predicted greater intent among high school females. Findings from this study will add to the understanding of barriers to seeking help for dating violence in adolescence, and may inform the development of intervention programs.
Lesion classification using skin patterning

Background/aims: The observation that skin line patterning tends to be disrupted by malignant but not non‐malignant skin lesions suggests that this could be used as an aid to lesion differentiation. Since recognised differentiating features can be obtained from the simply‐captured white light optical image, the possibility of using such images for skin pattern disruption detection is worth exploring.
Filling the Gaps Between Tools and Users: A Tool Comparator, Using Protein-Protein Interactions as an Example

Recently, several text mining programs have reached a near-practical level of performance. Some systems are already being used by biologists and database curators. However, it has also been recognized that current Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Text Mining (TM) technology is not easy to deploy, since research groups tend to develop systems that cater specifically to their own requirements. One of the major reasons for the difficulty of deployment of NLP/TM technology is that re-usability and interoperability of software tools are typically not considered during development. While some effort has been invested in making interoperable NLP/TM toolkits, the developers of end-to-end systems still often struggle to reuse NLP/TM tools, and often opt to develop similar programs from scratch instead. This is particularly the case in BioNLP, since the requirements of biologists are so diverse that NLP tools have to be adapted and re-organized in a much more extensive manner than was originally expected. Although generic frameworks like UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture) provide promising ways to solve this problem, the solution that they provide is only partial. In order for truly interoperable toolkits to become a reality, we also need sharable type systems and a developer-friendly environment for software integration that includes functionality for systematic comparisons of available tools, a simple I/O interface, and visualization tools. In this paper, we describe such an environment that was developed based on UIMA, and we show its feasibility through our experience in developing a protein-protein interaction (PPI) extraction system.
Where there is a Will, is there a Way? Effects of Lay Theories of Self-Control on Setting and Keeping Resolutions

We demonstrate the effect of consumers’ lay theories of self-control on goal-directed behavior as evidenced by New Year’s and other resolutions. Across three studies, we find that individuals who believe that self-control is a malleable but inherently limited (vs. unlimited) resource tend to set fewer resolutions. Using respondents’ own idiographic resolutions, this result is shown to hold in general as well as in consumption-specific domains regardless of whether lay theories are measured or manipulated. The effect is reversed if respondents contrast beliefs regarding their own levels of self-control with their lay theories. The final field experiment shows that “limited self-control theorists” are less likely to succeed at their resolutions if they have low (vs. high) self-efficacy.
Context-Sensitive Data Structures Supporting Software Development in Ad Hoc Mobile Settings

Context-aware computing, an emerging paradigm in which applications sense and adapt their behavior to changes in their operational environment, is key to developing dependable software for use in the often unpredictable settings of ad hoc networks. However, designing an application which gathers, maintains, and adapts to context can be a difficult undertaking, even for a seasoned programmer. Our goal is to simplify the programming task by hiding such issues from the programmer, allowing one to quickly and reliably produce a context-aware application for use in ad hoc networks. With this goal in mind, we introduce a novel abstraction called context-sensitive data structures (CSDS). The programmer interacts with the CSDS through a familiar programming interface, without direct knowledge of the context gathering and maintenance tasks that occur behind the scenes. In this paper, we define a model of context-sensitive data structures and present protocols which enable the programmer to construct and maintain a CSDS as a distributed structure over a mobile ad hoc network in a state of flux.
Molecular Cloning of a cDNA Encoding Cytochrome c of Stellaria Zongipes ( Caryophyllaceae )-and the Evolutionary Implications

A cDNA clone encoding cytochrome c of Stellaria longipes was isolated and characterized. The nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequences were highly similar to those from other plant, fungal, and animal species. No significant polymorphism was observed among different genotypes (ecotypes) . The S. longipes genome contained a low copy number of nucleotide sequences of cytochrome c. The gene expression of cytochrome c exhibited a certain degree of tissue specificity, with more transcripts in leaf than in stem. A phylogenetic analysis of the cytochrome c amino acid sequences revealed an unusual aspect of plant cytochrome c evolution.
Evaluation of Hearing and Outer Hair Cell Function of Cochlea in Patients With Psoriatic Arthritis

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate hearing and outer cells function in patients with psoriatic arthritis. Our investigation was a prospective case control study. Methods A total of 31 psoriatic arthritis patients (62 ears) and 31 healthy control subjects (62 ears) were enrolled in the study. We investigated hearing changes of patients and controls via pure tone audiometry, speech discrimination scores, tympanometry, acoustic reflex, and transient product otoacoustic emission. Results The mean age of psoriatic arthritis patients was 36.1±8.5 years (range, 14 to 62 years). The average age of the control group was 37.9±8.1 years (range, 16 to 62 years). There were statistically significant differences between pure tone audiometry in all frequencies and right and left emission at the 4.0 and 1.0 in psoriatic arthritis patients versus controls (P<0.05). This difference was evident, especially at high frequencies. There was no statistically significant difference between the ages and genders of the patient and control groups (P>0.05). Both audiological and otoacoustic emissions were not significantly different between right and left ear (P>0.05). Conclusion Based on the audiological and otoacoustic findings; it is likely that the cochlear outer hair cells become subtly damaged in psoriatic arthritis patients, consequently leading to changes in hearing thresholds. These data suggest that it is important to screen psoriatic arthritis patients for hearing changes with otoacoustic emissions and audiologic tests regularly.
Asymptotic Equivalence of Regularization Methods in Thresholded Parameter Space

High-dimensional data analysis has motivated a spectrum of regularization methods for variable selection and sparse modeling, with two popular methods being convex and concave ones. A long debate has taken place on whether one class dominates the other, an important question both in theory and to practitioners. In this article, we characterize the asymptotic equivalence of regularization methods, with general penalty functions, in a thresholded parameter space under the generalized linear model setting, where the dimensionality can grow exponentially with the sample size. To assess their performance, we establish the oracle inequalities—as in Bickel, Ritov, and Tsybakov (2009)—of the global minimizer for these methods under various prediction and variable selection losses. These results reveal an interesting phase transition phenomenon. For polynomially growing dimensionality, the L 1-regularization method of Lasso and concave methods are asymptotically equivalent, having the same convergence rates in the oracle inequalities. For exponentially growing dimensionality, concave methods are asymptotically equivalent but have faster convergence rates than the Lasso. We also establish a stronger property of the oracle risk inequalities of the regularization methods, as well as the sampling properties of computable solutions. Our new theoretical results are illustrated and justified by simulation and real data examples.
Carbonylation as a Key Reaction in Anaerobic Acetone Activation by Desulfococcus biacutus

ABSTRACT Acetone is activated by aerobic and nitrate-reducing bacteria via an ATP-dependent carboxylation reaction to form acetoacetate as the first reaction product. In the activation of acetone by sulfate-reducing bacteria, acetoacetate has not been found to be an intermediate. Here, we present evidence of a carbonylation reaction as the initial step in the activation of acetone by the strictly anaerobic sulfate reducer Desulfococcus biacutus. In cell suspension experiments, CO was found to be a far better cosubstrate for acetone activation than CO2. The hypothetical reaction product, acetoacetaldehyde, is extremely reactive and could not be identified as a free intermediate. However, acetoacetaldehyde dinitrophenylhydrazone was detected by mass spectrometry in cell extract experiments as a reaction product of acetone, CO, and dinitrophenylhydrazine. In a similar assay, 2-amino-4-methylpyrimidine was formed as the product of a reaction between acetoacetaldehyde and guanidine. The reaction depended on ATP as a cosubstrate. Moreover, the specific activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase (coenzyme A [CoA] acylating) tested with the putative physiological substrate was found to be 153 ± 36 mU mg−1 protein, and its activity was specifically induced in extracts of acetone-grown cells. Moreover, acetoacetyl-CoA was detected (by mass spectrometry) after the carbonylation reaction as the subsequent intermediate after acetoacetaldehyde was formed. These results together provide evidence that acetoacetaldehyde is an intermediate in the activation of acetone by sulfate-reducing bacteria.
Object localization strategy for a mobile robot using RFID

One of the challenging issues in robotics is to give robots the ability to navigate itself in unknown environment without human help. In this thesis, we explored and evaluated object localization method for a mobile robot using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. The workplace included objects with RFID tags, a mobile robot with dual antenna RFID reader and obstacles: chairs, tables and a human. Using RFID reader, we were able to have the mobile robot communicate with the RFID tag to navigate the tagged object.This research employed the following methods for navigating a mobile robot and locating objects. First, a mobile robot was implemented as Braitenberg vehicle. It used the received signal strength of the RFID tag to compute instantaneously and produce movement of the wheel and generate suitable motion in order to navigate the object. Second, a mobile robot with directional antenna that collects data about relative direction of the interested RFID tag in its local coordinate system and computes tag positions by taking several measurements for different positions of the robot.Our experiment results showed that proposed RFID system can locate an object and can track the movement of a target object in real time. To verify effectiveness of the system we performed several experiments in the workplace.
Effects of Medical Insurance on the Health Status and Life Satisfaction of the Elderly

Background: Population aging has become increasingly serious in China. The demand for medical insurance of the elderly is increasing, and their health status and life satisfaction are becoming significant issues. This study investigates the effects of medical insurance on the health status and life satisfaction of the elderly. Methods: The national baseline survey data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey in 2013 were adopted. The Ordered Probit Model was established. The effects of the medical insurance for urban employees, medical insurance for urban residents, and new rural cooperative medical insurance on the health status and life satisfaction of the elderly were investigated. Results: Medical insurance could facilitate the improvement of the health status and life satisfaction of the elderly. Accordingly, the health status and life satisfaction of the elderly who have medical insurance for urban residents improved significantly. The regression coefficients were 0.348 and 0.307. The corresponding regression coefficients of the medical insurance for urban employees were 0.189 and 0.236. The regression coefficients of the new rural cooperative medical insurance were 0.170 and 0.188. Conclusion: Medical insurance can significantly improve the health status and life satisfaction of the elderly. This development is of immense significance for the formulation of equal medical security.
Effect of white mineral trioxide aggregate compared with biomimetic carbonated apatite on dentine bridge formation and inflammatory response in a dental pulp model.

AIM To evaluate the effects of apatite precipitation on the biocompatibility and hard tissue induction properties of white mineral trioxide aggregate (WMTA) in a dental pulp model. METHODOLOGY Pulp exposures were created on the axial walls of 32 sound canine teeth of eight dogs. Four additional sound teeth served as controls. The pulps were capped either with WMTA or apatite derivatives [biomimetic carbonated apatite (BCAp)] in the interaction of WMTA with a synthetic tissue fluid and restored with zinc oxide-eugenol cement. After 7 and 70 days, the animals were killed, and the histological specimens taken from the teeth were stained with haematoxylin and eosin for histomorphological evaluation. The Brown and Brenn technique was employed to stain bacteria. The data were subjected to nonparametric Kruskall-Wallis analysis and Mann-Whitney U_tests. RESULTS Biomimetic carbonated apatite did not induce hard tissue bridge formation. WMTA performed significantly better than BCAp in this respect at both periods (P < 0.05). BCAp was associated with a significantly greater inflammatory response as compared with WMTA after 7 days (P < 0.05). Both materials were associated with similar reactions after 70 days (P >0.05). CONCLUSIONS White mineral trioxide aggregate induced hard tissue formation via a mechanism other than that postulated via apatite formation.
Use Pronunciation by Analogy for text to speech system in Persian language

The interest in text to speech synthesis increased in the world . text to speech have been developed for many popular languages such as English, Spanish and French and many researches and developments have been applied to those languages. Persian on the other hand, has been given little attention compared to other languages of similar importance and the research in Persian is still in its infancy. Persian language possess many difficulty and exceptions that increase complexity of text to speech systems. For example: short vowels is absent in written text or existence of homograph words. in this paper we propose a new method for persian text to phonetic that base on pronunciations by analogy in words, semantic relations and grammatical rules for finding
Using Adapted Software Architecture Development Methods in a SOA Context

This paper presents a proposal for adapting the Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI) architectural development methods (QAW, ADD, ATAM and V&B)to the context of small software development teams.The paper presents the motivations for creating the adapted methods and the adaptation proposal of the different methods, including examples of the templates that support them. The adapted methods are evaluated by observing 2 student teams perform the architectural design of an application based in a variant of the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Finally, the paper provides guidelines for integrating the adapted methods to the TSPi, specifically explaining where they fit with respect to requirements development and high-level design phases.