Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed amine modulation of graded chemical transmission in the pyloric network of the lobster stomatogastric ganglion.

1. In the pyloric network of the lobster stomatogastric ganglion, graded synapses organize the network output. The amines dopamine (DA), serotonin, and octopamine each elicit a distinctive motor pattern from a quiescent pyloric network. We have examined the effects of these amines on the graded synaptic strengths between the six major types of neurons of this network to understand how amine modulation of synaptic strength contributes to the amine-induced motor patterns. Here we tested amine affects at 10 different graded chemical synapses of the pyloric network. We show that each amine has a statistically different spectrum of distributed effects across the network synapses. 2. Under our control conditions (isolated pairs of neurons, removal of modulatory input), most of the graded chemical synapses were weak and some synapses were nonfunctional. The output synapses of the ventricular dilator (VD) neuron were significantly stronger than the other synapses. 3. DA altered the synaptic strength of every graded chemical synapse. This amine strengthened the weak chemical output synapses of the anterior burster (AB), lateral pyloric (LP), and pyloric constrictor (PY) neurons and weakened (and in some cases abolished) the strong chemical output synapses of the VD neuron. The AB-->inferior cardiac neuron (IC) and PY-->IC graded chemical synapses were nonfunctional under our control conditions; DA activated these silent synapses. 4. Serotonin enhanced the AB's output chemical synapses but weakened all the other graded chemical synapses examined. Octopamine's effects were much weaker than those of the other two amines. It enhanced the AB-->LP synapse and the LP's output synapses and weakly strengthened the AB-->PY, VD-->LP, and VD-->PY synapses. 5. The amines alter the input resistance of many of the pyloric neurons, and this could contribute to the observed changes in synaptic strength by altering passive current flow between input and output sites in the cells. However, the input resistance changes were relatively small compared with the changes in synaptic strength and cannot alone account for the synaptic modulation. In some cases the sign of the input resistance change was inconsistent with the change in synaptic strength. Thus the amines appear to modify synaptic transmission directly in this system. 6. This study completes our description of amine effects on all the graded synapses of the pyloric network. We summarize our present and earlier work to show that modulators can reconfigure the entire synaptic organization of a neural network by acting at many distributed synaptic sites. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Inferior turbinectomy: Comparison of four techniques

Abstract As yet, there is no totally satisfactory means for treating hypertrophied turbinates and the proper management of turbinate dysfunction remains in question. In the present series, four of the widely practiced surgical procedures for the reduction of the size of the inferior turbinates were evaluated and compared. In all cases turbinectomy was performed as an isolated procedure. Eighty patients with chronic non-allergic rhinitis and hypertrophied inferior turbinates were selected, randomly divided into four groups, and followed up post-operatively for one year. Study of the results indicated that the beneficial effect of the operation is mainly mechanical by reduction of the resistance to nasal airflow. The post-operative improvement in smell acuity correlated positively with the increased patency of the nasal airway. None of the procedures had a deleterious effect on olfactory acuity. In contrast, the operation failed to enhance the mucociliary clearance rate or significantly decrease nasal drainage. Partial inferior turbinectomy and laser turbinectomy improved nasal breathing in 77 per cent of patients, and enhanced olfactory acuity in 78 per cent of patients who had pre-operative hyposmia. The results of turbinoplasty and cryoturbinectomy were less favourable. The surgical technique, advantages, and drawbacks of each of these procedures are discussed.
Mesostructured manganese oxide/gold nanoparticle composites for extensive air purification.

Strong public concern and increasingly strict legislations [1] have made it highly imperative to devise versatile materials that can efficiently eliminate a wide range of organic pollutants from indoor and outdoor emissions. These pollutants contribute to photochemical smog and ground-level ozone and have raised severe concern owing to probable short-and long-term adverse health effects. [2] Most air-purification systems are based on photocatalysts, adsorbents such as activated carbon, or ozone-promoted oxidation. [3] However, all the currently used materials have limited efficiency in removing several volatile organic compounds (VOCs) under ambient conditions. Herein, we report a novel mesoporous manganese oxide/nanogold catalyst for efficient elimination of VOCs. To the best of our knowledge, g -MnO 2 materials reported to date have surface areas of no higher than 130 m 2 g (cid:1) 1 . [4] In the present study, mesoporous g -MnO 2 with a very high surface area ( > 300 m 2 g (cid:1) 1 ) was obtained for the first time through a surfactant-assisted wet-chemistry route. Au nanoparticles were deposited on this oxide by a vacuum ultraviolet radiation (VUV)-assisted laser ablation (VALA) method to induce lattice defects [5,6] and strong metal–support interactions. [7] The material reveals an exceptionally good ability to remove VOCs (as well as NO x and SO 2 ) at ambient temperature, and this efficiency increases with increasing temperature. The high activity of these materials could be correlated to their redox properties and to the facile formation of radical species on their surface. We recently reported that high-surface-area mesoporous metal oxide materials are capable of eliminating VOCs at ambient temperature. [
Trajectory control of MEMS falling object fabricated by SU-8 multilayer structure

In this paper we propose a trajectory control method for a MEMS falling object as shown in Figure 1. The MEMS falling object is consisted of two units, an autorotation part and a non-rotation part. The autorotation part keeps its attitude stable with the gyro-effect of the autorotation phenomenon. The non-rotation part keeps a non-rotation state by using the air breaking boards. This non-rotation part controls its falling trajectory and the scattering region. By using large falling objects, aerodynamics of the falling object was characterized, e.g. falling speed, rotational speed, etc. Then the MEMS falling object was designed considering with this aerodynamics. The MEMS falling object was fabricated with a method of the SU-8 multi-layer structure. A MEMS autorotation part whose wing length is 6mm in diameter rotates at 4,800 rpm in the wind-tunnel successfully.
Strategic Adaptive Governance and Climate Change: Policymaking during Extreme Political Upheaval

Adaptive governance seeks to address complicated and difficult policy problems. Due to the extreme political upheaval wrought by the Trump administration’s dismantling of federal climate change programs, many state and local governments are considering new policy approaches. Yet by ignoring crucial aspects of politics and intergovernmental relations, the adaptive governance literature provides little guidance for such substantial issues. This paper introduces the concept of strategic adaptive governance, a framework for permitting policymakers to achieve the highest rate of compliance possible under existing conditions and constraints involving state and local policy, despite political upheaval. The strategic adaptive governance model embraces politics, accounts for the role of central authorities, and emphasizes the motivations, resources, and interdependencies of affected parties. We apply the model in an analysis of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), examining the extent to which it aligns with strategic adaptive governance, and evaluating the potential for the state to utilize the model. We find that AB 32 aligns moderately with strategic adaptive governance, and discuss how the model could help protect and enhance policy gains. More broadly, strategic adaptive governance provides a generic and universal framework for policymakers interested in tactical formulation of any regulatory policy.
Anteromedial Wedge Reduction Osteotomy for the Treatment of Femoral Head Deformities

Aspherical femoral head deformity has poor a prognosis which can lead to early arthritic changes in young adults. The intraartricular anteromedial wedge reduction osteotomy restores sphericity of the femoral head. We performed seven anteromedial wedge reduction osteotomies. Clinical indications were pain, limp and restriction of movement of the hip joint. The mean age at time of the surgery was 13.3 years. The aetiology of the femroal head deformity was Perthes disease in six patients and in one patient, multiple epiphyseal dysplasia. All seven hips were classified as Stulberg V before surgery. At a mean follow-up of 17.4 months the Harris hip score increased from a mean of 55.4 pre-operatively to a mean of 84.8 postoperatively. The final results were Stulberg IV in one hip, Stulberg III in four hips and Stulberg II in two hips postoperatively. The capital diaphyseal ratio dropped from average of 1.57 pre-operatively to 1.21 postoperatively. No signs of osteonecrosis were recorded. One patient suffered a subluxation of the femoral head. The anteromedial wedge reduction osteotomy has good short-term results in aspherical incongruent hips.
General differential space-time modulation

Relying on amicable orthogonal design, we develop for multiple-antenna systems a general differential space-time block code (GDSTBC), which imposes no restrictions on underlying signal constellation compared with the existing differential space-time designs. This generalization potentially allows the spectral efficiency to be increased by carrying information not only on phases but also on amplitudes. We then derive a noncoherent decoder (NCD) for flat Rayleigh fading channels. We will show that NCD may recover data symbols with full antenna diversity and linear complexity at high signal-to-noise ratio. Particularly, while three kinds of conventional signal constellations (QAM, PSK and APSK) are used in GDSTBC, we derive simplified versions of NCDs which can effectively reduce the implementation cost.
Impulsive State Feedback Control of Cheese Whey Fermentation for Single-Cell Protein Production

The work is the analysis of a mathematical model of cheese whey fermentation for single-cell protein production with impulsive state feedback control. Through the analysis, the sufficient conditions of existence and stability of positive order-1 periodic solution are obtained. It is shown that the system either tends to a stable state or has a periodic solution, which depends on the feedback state, the control parameter of the dilution rate, and the initial concentrate of microorganism and substrate. For some special cases, it is also shown that the system may exist in order-2 periodic solution. Furthermore, our findings are confirmed by means of numerical simulations.
An Empirical Evaluation of Techniques for Ranking Semantic Associations

Searching for associations between entities is needed in many domains like national security and bioinformatics. In recent years, it has been facilitated by the emergence of graph-structured semantic data on the Web, which offers structured semantic associations more explicit than those hiding in unstructured text for computers to discover. The increasing volume of semantic data often produces excessively many semantic associations, and requires ranking techniques to identify the more important ones for users. Despite the fruitful theoretical research on innovative ranking techniques, there is a lack of comprehensive empirical evaluation of these techniques. In this article, we carry out an extensive evaluation of eight techniques for ranking semantic associations, including two novel ones we propose. The practical effectiveness of these techniques is assessed based on 1,200 ground-truth rankings created by 30 human experts for real-life semantic associations and the explanations given by the experts. Our findings also suggest a number of directions in improving existing techniques and developing novel techniques for future work.
DNA-GAN: LEARNING DISENTANGLED REPRESEN-

Disentangling factors of variation has always been a challenging problem in representation learning. Existing algorithms suffer from many limitations, such as unpredictable disentangling factors, bad quality of generated images from encodings, lack of identity information, etc. In this paper, we proposed a supervised algorithm called DNA-GAN trying to disentangle different attributes of images. The latent representations of images are DNA-like, in which each individual piece represents an independent factor of variation. By annihilating the recessive piece and swapping a certain piece of two latent representations, we obtain another two different representations which could be decoded into images. In order to obtain realistic images and also disentangled representations, we introduced the discriminator for adversarial training. Experiments on Multi-PIE and CelebA datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our method and the advantage of overcoming limitations existing in other methods.
DCT and DWT based image compression in remote sensing images

With the improvement of synthetic aperture radar technology, larger areas are being imaged and the resolution of the images has increased. Larger images have to be transmitted and stored. Due to the limited storage and downlink capacity on the airplane or satellite, the volume of data must be reduced. This makes compression of SAR images with minimal loss of information important. This study aims to compare the best-known compression techniques, namely discrete cosine transform and discrete wavelet transform. It investigates RADARSAT and SPOT images of different regions of different characteristics. The regions investigated are sea areas, forest areas, and residential and industrial areas which define different patterns of urban land use. The studies showed that compression ratios changed according to the pixel classification. The second purpose of this study is to compare the two compression algorithms. The DWT based algorithm gave the minimum mean square error compared to the DCT based compression algorithm. The results changed according to the quantization process and the transform-coding algorithm.
Parallel absolute-relative feature based phonotactic language recognition

In current language recognition systems, the process of feature extraction from an utterance is usually independent of other utterances. In this paper, we present an approach that build an parallel “relative feature” using the features that have been produced, which is the measurement of the relationship of one utterance with others. The relative feature focuses on “where it is” instead of “what it is”, and is more related to the classiﬁ-cation than the traditional features. In this work, the method to build and properly use the parallel absolute-relative feature (PARF) language recognition system is also fully explained and developed. To evaluate the system, experiments were carried out on the 2009 National Institute of Standards and Technology language recognition evaluation (NIST LRE) database. The experimental results showed that the relative feature performs better than the absolute feature using a low dimension feature, especially for short test segment. The PARF system yielded 1.84%, 6.04%, 19.89% equal error rate (EER), which achieved a 15.20%, 20.63%, 16.77% relative improvements respectively for 30s, 10s, 3s compared to the baseline system.
High awareness of hepatitis C virus (HCV) but limited knowledge of HCV complications among HIV-positive and HIV-negative men who have sex with men

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has emerged as a sexually transmitted infection among HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM) in high-income countries. Little is reported about HCV awareness among MSM, although this is essential for developing targeted prevention strategies. We, therefore, studied HCV awareness and knowledge among HIV-positive and HIV-negative MSM from the Amsterdam Cohort Studies (ACS). During two visits, 1 year apart and starting in October 2007, MSM from the ACS answered questions regarding HCV awareness, knowledge of HCV transmission (7 items), complications (8 items) and sexual risk behaviour. We examined the percentage of HCV awareness and correctly answered knowledge items, and whether awareness and knowledge improved significantly over time. Using logistic regression, we studied whether HIV status and sexual risk behaviour were associated with awareness. Seventy percent (312/444) of HIV-negative and 80% (74/92) of HIV-positive MSM reported to have ever heard of HCV on the first visit. Overall, awareness increased with 9% between the first and second visit (p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis the association of group sex with HCV awareness was borderline significant (OR 1.49, 95% CI 0.97–2.30). Compared with knowledge of transmission routes, knowledge of complications appeared to be limited. In the ACS, awareness of HCV is high, particularly among those reporting group sex, an important risk factor for HCV transmission. The majority of participants had good knowledge of transmission routes, but limited knowledge of complications of chronic HCV infection. HCV prevention messages could be strengthened, therefore, by further addressing the complications of HCV infection.
Do Firms Mitigate or Magnify Capital Misallocation? Evidence from Plant-Level Data

Almost two thirds of the cross-plant dispersion in marginal revenue products of capital occurs across plants within the same firm rather than between firms. Even though firms allocate investment very differently across their plants, they do not equalize marginal revenue products across their plants. We reconcile these findings in a model of multi-plant firms, physical adjustment costs and credit constraints. Credit constrained multi-plant firms can utilize internal capital markets by concentrating internal funds on investment projects in only a few of their plants in a given period and rotating funds to another set of plants in the future. The resulting increase in within-firm dispersion of marginal revenue products of capital is hence not a symptom of misallocation within the firm, but rather actions taken by the firm to mitigate external credit constraints and adjustment costs of capital. Economies with multi-plant firms produce more aggregate output despite higher dispersion in marginal revenue products of capital compared to economies with single-plant firms. Because emerging economies are predominantly populated by single-plant firms, the gains from reducing their distortions to the level of developed are larger than previously thought.
A ZVS CMOS active diode rectifier with voltage-time-conversion delay-locked loop for wireless power transmission

An efficient CMOS active diode rectifier for wireless power transmission using zero-voltage switching (ZVS) technique to suppress reverse current is demonstrated by the proposed voltage-time conversion (VTC) delay-locked loop (DLL) circuit. The proposed VTC DLL achieves synchronization between the switching transistor and AC input without a replica delay circuit that is difficult to realize and vulnerable to the circuit operating conditions conventionally. The proposed circuit is implemented in a standard 0. 18μm CMOS process using I/O MOSFETs, which nearly corresponds to 0. 35μm technology. The maximum power conversion efficiency of 78% is obtained at 39mW output.
Distribution of Pathogens in Central Line–Associated Bloodstream Infections among Patients with and without Neutropenia following Chemotherapy Evidence for a Proposed Modification to the Current Surveillance Definition

Objective. Many bloodstream infections (BSIs) occurring in patients with febrile neutropenia following cytotoxic chemotherapy are due to translocation of intestinal microbiota. However, these infections meet the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definition of central line-associated BSIs (CLABSIs). We sought to determine the differences in the microbiology of NHSN-defined CLABSIs in patients with and without neutropenia and, using these data, to propose a modification of the CLABSI definition. Design. Retrospective review. Setting. Two large university hospitals over 18 months. Methods. All hospital-acquired BSIs occurring in patients with central venous catheters in place were classified using the NHSN CLABSI definition. Patients with postchemotherapy neutropenia (500 neutrophils/mm3 or lower) at the time of blood culture were considered neutropenic. Pathogens overrepresented in the neutropenic group were identified to inform development of a modified CLABSI definition. Results. Organisms that were more commonly observed in the neutropenic group compared with the nonneutropenic group included Escherichia coli (22.7% vs 2.5%; P < .001) but not other Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcus faecium (18.2% vs 6.1%; P = .002), and streptococci (18.2% vs 0%; P < .001). Application of a modified CLABSI definition (removing BSI with enterococci, streptococci, or E. coli) excluded 33 of 66 neutropenic CLABSIs and decreased the CLABSI rate in one study hospital with large transplant and oncology populations from 2.12 to 1.79 cases per 1,000 line-days. Conclusions. Common gastrointestinal organisms were more common in the neutropenia group, suggesting that many BSIs meeting the NHSN criteria for CLABSI in the setting of neutropenia may represent translocation of gut organisms. These findings support modification of the NHSN CLABSI definition.
Mammalian U6 small nuclear RNA undergoes 3' end modifications within the spliceosome

Mammalian U6 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) is heterogeneous with respect to the number of 3' terminal U residues. The major form terminates with five U residues and a 2',3' cyclic phosphate. Because of the presence in HeLa cell nuclear extracts of a terminal uridylyl transferase, a minor form of U6 snRNA is elongated, producing multiple species containing up to 12 U residues. In this study we have used glycerol gradients to demonstrate that these U6 snRNA forms are assembled into U6 ribonucleoprotein (RNP), U4/U6 snRNPs, and U4/U5/U6 tri-snRNP complexes. Furthermore, glycerol gradients combined with affinity selection of biotinylated pre-mRNAs led us to show that elongated forms of U6 snRNAs enter the spliceosome and that some of these become shortened with time to a single species having the same characteristics as the major form of U6 snRNA present in mammalian nuclear extracts. We propose that this elongation-shortening process is related to the function of U6 snRNA in mammalian pre-mRNA splicing.
Psychological Well-Being in Families with a Member Suffering from Schizophrenia

Levels of stress in carers of long-term schizophrenia sufferers attending a depot clinic were assessed. Nine out of 25 carers (36%) were identified as possible or definite cases on either the GHQ or the HAD. However, a substantial proportion of carers managed to cope with the difficulties without suffering psychologically.