Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shift in Induction Mechanisms Underlies an Age-dependent Increase in Dhpg-induced Synaptic Depression at Ca3–ca1 Synapses Hippocampal Slice Preparation and Electrophysiology

Kumar A, Foster TC. Shift in induction mechanisms underlies an age-dependent increase in DHPG-induced synaptic depression at CA3–CA1 synapses. forms of log-term synaptic plasticity have been identified and the mechanisms for induction and expression of synaptic modifications change over development and maturation. The present study examines age-related changes in the induction of group I metabotropic receptor selective agonist (R,S)-3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (DHPG) induced long-term synaptic depression (DHPG-LTD) at CA3–CA1 synapses. The results demonstrate that the magnitude of DHPG-LTD is enhanced in male aged Fischer 344 rats compared with young adults. The role of mGluR1 in the induction of DHPG-LTD was increased with advanced age and, in contrast to young adults, induction involved a significant contribution of NMDA receptors and L-type Ca 2ϩ channels. Moreover, the protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor sodium orthovanadate significantly attenuated DHPG-LTD only in young adults. The expression of DHPG-LTD in aged animals was dependent on protein synthesis and the enhanced expression was associated with an increase in paired-pulse facilitation. The results provide evidence that DHPG-LTD is one of the few forms of synaptic plasticity that increases with advanced age and suggest that DHPG-LTD may contribute to age-related changes in hippocampal function. There is mounting support for developmental and matura-tional regulation of synaptic plasticity, including the induction of long-term synaptic depression (LTD). In the hippocampal CA1 region, several mechanisms for induction of LTD have been characterized in young animals. One form can be induced by low-frequency synaptic activity, which depends on the activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Various other forms of LTD have been identified that do not require NMDA-receptor activation. In these cases, induction depends on activation of other Ca 2ϩ sources, voltage-gated L-type Ca 2ϩ channels The ability to induce mGluR-dependent LTD declines during development (Kemp et al. 2000; Nosyreva and Huber 2005; Overstreet et al. 1997). In contrast, advanced age is associated with an increased susceptibility to LTD induced by pattern synaptic activity (Foster and Kumar 2007; Hsu et al. Vouimba et al. 2000). It is unclear what role mGluR signaling plays in the induction of LTD in aged animals. Relatively few studies have investigated alterations in the characteristics of group I mGluR signaling during aging and the results from a handful of studies on hippocampal mGluR signaling during senescence are mixed. Binding to group I mGluRs has been reported to decrease in region CA1 of aged mice (Magnusson 1998). Conversely, another report examining specific mGluR subtypes …
Effect of Coupling Between Multiple Transmitters or Multiple Receivers on Wireless Power Transfer

The operation of wireless power transfer systems with multiple transmitters (TXs) or receivers (RXs) is investigated. With multiple TXs or RXs in a limited space, couplings occur between TXs or between RXs. The frequency conditions for maximum efficiency and power transfer under such couplings are proposed. Effective resonant frequency of the TXs or the RXs is changed due to such couplings, and driving and/or resonant frequencies should therefore be adjusted accordingly. The amount and type of the required adjustments are provided. The efficiencies in these conditions are discussed. These concepts are supported by experiments with couplings between TXs or between RXs. Using the proposed frequency adjustments, 51-65-W power is transferred with 45%-57% efficiency, even with very low coupling coefficients of 0.025-0.063 from TX to RX. This improvement is significant compared to the unadjusted cases where less than 4 W is transferred with only 5%-33% efficiency.
Association between KCNJ6 (GIRK2) Gene Polymorphisms and Postoperative Analgesic Requirements after Major Abdominal Surgery

Opioids are commonly used as effective analgesics for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. However, considerable individual differences have been widely observed in sensitivity to opioid analgesics. We focused on a G-protein-activated inwardly rectifying potassium (GIRK) channel subunit, GIRK2, that is an important molecule in opioid transmission. In our initial polymorphism search, a total of nine single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified in the whole exon, 5′-flanking, and exon-intron boundary regions of the KCNJ6 gene encoding GIRK2. Among them, G-1250A and A1032G were selected as representative SNPs for further association studies. In an association study of 129 subjects who underwent major open abdominal surgery, the A/A genotype in the A1032G SNP and -1250G/1032A haplotype were significantly associated with increased postoperative analgesic requirements compared with other genotypes and haplotypes. The total dose (mean±SEM) of rescue analgesics converted to equivalent oral morphine doses was 20.45±9.27 mg, 10.84±2.24 mg, and 13.07±2.39 mg for the A/A, A/G, and G/G genotypes in the A1032G SNP, respectively. Additionally, KCNJ6 gene expression levels in the 1032A/A subjects were significantly decreased compared with the 1032A/G and 1032G/G subjects in a real-time quantitative PCR analysis using human brain tissues, suggesting that the 1032A/A subjects required more analgesics because of lower KCNJ6 gene expression levels and consequently insufficient analgesic effects. The results indicate that the A1032G SNP and G-1250A/A1032G haplotype could serve as markers that predict increased analgesic requirements. Our findings will provide valuable information for achieving satisfactory pain control and open new avenues for personalized pain treatment.
Anaemia in systemic lupus erythematosus: aetiological profile and the role of erythropoietin

OBJECTIVE To study the prevalence of different causes of anaemia in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and their associations with immunological and clinical parameters and to evaluate the contribution of erythropoietin (Epo) and anti-erythropoietin (anti-Epo) autoantibodies to the development of SLE anaemia. METHODS 132 SLE patients with anaemia (defined as haemoglobin of 12 g/dl or less for women and 13.5 g/dl or less for men) from among a total of 345 consecutive SLE patients were prospectively enrolled into the study. Standard haematological and immunological tests were performed and serum Epo and anti-Epo antibodies were assayed. RESULTS The identified causes were anaemia of chronic disease (ACD) n=49 (37.1%), iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) n=47 (35.6%), autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AHA) n=19 (14.4%) and other causes n=17 (12.9%). There was significant heterogeneity in the severity of anaemia between the four groups (p<0.01) with AHA cases being on average more severe. The proportion of patients with anticardiolipin antibodies, low complement levels and anti-dsDNA differed significantly among the four groups; these markers were particularly common in patients with AHA, and uncommon in patients with IDA. Twenty one of 100 tested patients had anti-Epo antibodies. Such antibodies were seen practically only in patients with ACD (odds ratio 3.1, p=0.041) and in patients with high lupus activity (ECLAM) scores (odds ratio 1.27 per point, p=0.055). Epo response was inadequate in 42.4% and 41.2% of patients with ACD and AHA, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Anaemia in SLE usually takes the form of ACD and IDA, however autoimmune haemolysis is not uncommon. SLE patients with different causes of anaemia differ in regard to several immunological parameters. Epo response is blunted in anaemic SLE patients, particularly those with ACD and AHA.
Fabrication of spindt-type double-gated field-emitters using photoresist lift-off layer

A new fabrication method of Spindt-type field emitters will be presented. In our method, double-layered photoresist is used as a lift-off layer for making an emitter tip. The selection of the emitter material is a key for this process. We selected Ni as the emitter material. We also apply volcano-structured double-gate for the Ni Spindt-type FEA.
Effect of Recognition Errors on Text Clustering

This paper presents clustering experiments performed over noisy texts (i.e. texts that have been extracted through an automatic process like character or speech recognition). The effect of recognition errors is investigated by comparing clustering results performed over both clean (manually typed data) and noisy (automatic speech transcriptions) versions of the same speech recording corpus.
Hmm-Based and Svm-Based Recognition of the Speech of Talkers With Spastic Dysarthria

This paper studies the speech of three talkers with spastic dysarthria caused by cerebral palsy. All three subjects share the symptom of low intelligibility, but causes differ. First, all subjects tend to reduce or delete word-initial consonants; one subject deletes all consonants. Second, one subject exhibits a painstaking stutter. Two algorithms were used to develop automatic isolated digit recognition systems for these subjects. HMM-based recognition was successful for two subjects, but failed for the subject who deletes all consonants. Conversely, digit recognition experiments assuming a fixed word length (using SVMs) were successful for two subjects, but failed for the subject with the stutter
Research on fault feature extraction for analog circuits

In order to realize the accurate positioning and recognition effectively of the analog circuit, the feature extraction of fault information is an extremely important port. This arrival based on the experimental circuit which is designed as a failure mode to pick-up the fault sample set. We have chosen two methods, one is the combination of wavelet transform and principal component analysis, the other is the factorial analysis for the fault data's feature extraction, and we also use the extreme learning machine to train and diagnose the data, to compare the performance of these two methods through the accuracy of the diagnosis. The results of the experiment shows that the data which we get from the experimental circuit, after dealing with these two methods can quickly get the fault location.
Extensive and specific responses of a eukaryote to bacterial quorum-sensing signals

Many bacteria use N-acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) signals to coordinate the behavior of individual cells in a local population. The successful infection of eukaryotic hosts by bacteria seems to depend particularly on such AHL-mediated “quorum-sensing” regulation. We have used proteome analysis to show that a eukaryotic host, the model legume Medicago truncatula, is able to detect nanomolar to micromolar concentrations of bacterial AHLs from both symbiotic (Sinorhizobium meliloti) and pathogenic (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria, and that it responds in a global manner by significant changes in the accumulation of over 150 proteins, 99 of which have been identified by peptide mass fingerprinting. The accumulation of specific proteins and isoforms depended on AHL structure, concentration, and time of exposure. AHLs were also found to induce tissue-specific activation of β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter fusions to an auxin-responsive and three chalcone synthase promoters, consistent with AHL-induced changes in the accumulation of auxin-responsive and flavonoid synthesis proteins. In addition, exposure to AHLs was found to induce changes in the secretion of compounds by the plants that mimic quorum-sensing signals and thus have the potential to disrupt quorum sensing in associated bacteria. Our results indicate that eukaryotes have an extensive range of functional responses to AHLs that may play important roles in the beneficial or pathogenic outcomes of eukaryote–prokaryote interactions.
Storage Requirement Forecasting Analysis Model for Storage Area Networks

Information management is an important area to concentrate for the business continuity of an organization. Organization should have a plan to store, retrieve and maintain its valuable information to meet the business demands. Storage Area Network (SAN) is a high performance network available to meet the enterprise storage solution. Since, SAN uses Fibre Channel (FC) as a transporting medium, it is considered to be fast, reliable and an optimum solution to handle the explosive growth of digital contents due to internet, application and use of modern gadgets. Various storage models are available for enterprise storage and choosing the relevant storage as per the business requirement needs careful analysis of the present and future storage consumption inside the organization. The SAN implementation in an organization involves many individual component analyses including storage requirement/capacity planning to handle the business information’s effectively and for the future. This research paper discusses a part of SAN implementation process, information generation, handling and information growth so that the SAN can be designed to meet the requirements. The aim of this paper is to analyze capacity of SAN as per the data generation and forecasting the data growth. The results were obtained for next five years in an organization using linear forecasting model to implement SAN as the enterprise storage solution.
On the Application of the Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis to Face Recognition across Expression

Facial expression is one of the main issues of face recognition in uncontrolled environments. In this paper, we apply the probabilistic linear discriminant analysis (PLDA) method to recognize faces across expressions. Several PLDA approaches are tested and cross-evaluated on the Cohn-Kanade and JAFFE databases. With less samples per gallery subject, high recognition rates comparable to previous works have been achieved indicating the robustness of the approaches. Among the approaches, the mixture of PLDAs has demonstrated better performances. The experimental results also indicate that facial regions around the cheeks, eyes, and eyebrows are more discriminative than regions around the mouth, jaw, chin, and nose.
OpenTED Browser: Insights into European Public Spendings

We present the OpenTED browser, a Web application allowing to interactively browse public spending data related to public procurements in the European Union. The application relies on Open Data recently published by the European Commission and the Publications Office of the European Union, from which we imported a curated dataset of 4.2 million contract award notices spanning the period 2006-2015. The application is designed to easily filter notices and visualise relationships between public contracting authorities and private contractors. The simple design allows for example to quickly find information about who the biggest suppliers of local governments are, and the nature of the contracted goods and services. We believe the tool, which we make Open Source, is a valuable source of information for journalists, NGOs, analysts and citizens for getting information on public procurement data, from large scale trends to local municipal developments.
First Blood Went to Arsenal : A Study of Metaphor in English Football Commentary

The aim of this study was to look at English media football commentary and find out what metaphors are used and what purpose they serve. To this end, match reports of two Premier League matches in eight different English newspapers have been used. The metaphors found therein have been analysed and compared to current theories of metaphor forms and function. In these match reports both structural, ontological and orientational metaphors exist. They are drawn from a wide variety of source domains, although the domains of physical fight, military conflict and animal behaviour are particularly prominent. The function of metaphor in this context seems primarily to be to interpret facts in a way that make them palatable to the reader.
The ITS-2 of the nuclear rDNA as a molecular marker for populations, species, and phylogenetic relationships in Triatominae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), vectors of Chagas disease.

The nucleotide sequences of the rDNA second internal transcribed spacer (ITS-2) of 31 populations of 12 and 3 species of the two main Triatominae tribes Triatomini and Rhodniini, including the most important Chagas disease vectors, were obtained. Sequence comparisons and parsimony, distance, and maximum-likelihood analyses indicate that ITS-2 is a useful marker for resolving supraspecific, specific, subspecific, and even sometimes population-level relationships in Triatominae. Results were markedly different between species of Triatomini and Rhodniini, suggesting polyphyly. Phylogenetic trees support an old divergence between South American and North-Central American Triatomini and query the validity of some genera (Dipetalogaster, Psammolestes). The very low sequence variation between species of the phyllosoma complex suggests that subspecific ranking would be more appropriate. Triatoma dimidiata proves to be a clearly differentiated species, with several populations evidencing a clinal variation along a north-south axis and a population from Yucatan showing differences consistent with specific status.
Acoustic Features and Auditory Impressions of Death Growl and Screaming Voice

In the contemporary music scene, the death growl and screaming voice are often used in the extreme metal, and have been one of the indispensable singing styles. In this study, we made an attempt to clarify the acoustic feature of the death growl and screaming voice. We chose jitter, shimmer and HNR as the acoustic features, and found that the death growl and screaming voice have much larger jitter and shimmer, lower HNR compared with the normal voice. Next, we investigated the relationship between subjective impression and acoustic feature, and found that the screaming voice has an optimum jitter.
Vehicle detection and tracking using Mean Shift segmentation on semi-dense disparity maps

This paper describes an original joint obstacle detection and tracking method based on a Mean Shift algorithm and semi-dense disparity maps. The semi-dense disparity maps are computed with a local 1D fuzzy scanline stereo matching approach. Each map is associated to a confidence map that is used to remove bad matches. The Mean Shift algorithm is applied to simultaneously extract each vehicle and track the 3D points belonging to the same vehicle along the sequence. We show that several vehicles can be efficiently detected and that a semi-dense disparity map is sufficient to reach an accurate segmentation even when occlusions occur. This paper presents some results on real image sequences acquired in the context of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems.
Q-learning based control algorithm for HTTP adaptive streaming

We present a control algorithm based on Q-Learning for an HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) Client in order to optimize the Quality of Experience (QoE) of the user. First, we propose a model with a suitable number of variables in an attempt to find a reasonable tradeoff between the complexity of the model and its capacity to capture appropriately the dynamics of the system. Second, we define a novel reward function that takes into consideration factors related to the user's QoE. Results will show, that our Q-learning algorithm is able to learn and efficiently control the selection of the segment qualities. In addition, we will show that our proposed approach outperforms another Q-learning approach.
Cdx1 and Cdx2 Function as Tumor Suppressors

Background: Cdx function is essential for intestinal homeostasis and may impact tumorigenesis. Results: Cdx loss increases tumor incidence and alters tumor phenotype in an APC mutant background. Conclusion: Cdx transcription factors impact intestinal tumorigenesis. Significance: Cdx members modulate both the frequency and phenotype of intestinal tumors through previously unrecognized mechanisms. In humans, colorectal cancer is often initiated through APC loss of function, which leads to crypt hyperplasia and polyposis driven by unrestricted canonical Wnt signaling. Such polyps typically arise in the colorectal region and are at risk of transforming to invasive adenocarcinomas. Although colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, the processes impacting initiation, transformation, and invasion are incompletely understood. Murine APCMin/+ mutants are often used to model colorectal cancers; however, they develop nonmetastatic tumors confined largely to the small intestine and are thus not entirely representative of the human disease. APCMin/+ alleles can collaborate with mutations impacting other pathways to recapitulate some aspects of human colorectal cancer. To this end, we assessed APCMin/+-induced polyposis following somatic loss of the homeodomain transcription factor Cdx2, alone or with a Cdx1 null allele, in the adult gastrointestinal tract. APCMin/+-Cdx2 mutants recapitulated several aspects of human colorectal cancer, including an invasive phenotype. Notably, the concomitant loss of Cdx1 led to a significant increase in the incidence of tumors in the distal colon, relative to APCMin/+-Cdx2 offspring, demonstrating a previously unrecognized role for this transcription factor in colorectal tumorigenesis. These findings underscore previously unrecognized roles for Cdx members in intestinal tumorigenesis.
Novel Approaches to Investigate One-Carbon Metabolism and Related B-Vitamins in Blood Pressure

Hypertension, a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, is the world’s leading cause of preventable, premature death. A common polymorphism (677C→T) in the gene encoding the folate metabolizing enzyme methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is associated with increased blood pressure, and there is accumulating evidence demonstrating that this phenotype can be modulated, specifically in individuals with the MTHFR 677TT genotype, by the B-vitamin riboflavin, an essential co-factor for MTHFR. The underlying mechanism that links this polymorphism, and the related gene-nutrient interaction, with hypertension is currently unknown. Previous research has shown that 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, the product of the reaction catalysed by MTHFR, appears to be a positive allosteric modulator of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and may thus increase the production of nitric oxide, a potent vasodilator. Blood pressure follows a circadian pattern, peaking shortly after wakening and falling during the night, a phenomenon known as ‘dipping’. Any deviation from this pattern, which can only be identified using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), has been associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. This review will consider the evidence linking this polymorphism and novel gene-nutrient interaction with hypertension and the potential mechanisms that might be involved. The role of ABPM in B-vitamin research and in nutrition research generally will also be reviewed.
Christian Dreger Reinhold Kosfeld Do Regional Price Levels Converge ?

We investigate price index convergence on the base of regional data for 439 German districts. Prices refer to the overall consumer price index as well as to the index without housing prices. To increase the efficiency of the testing framework, a panel unit root analysis is performed, where cross section dependencies are taken into account. The tests indicate a lack of regional price convergence. While the idiosyncratic component of price differentials is mostly stationary, their common component is driven by a unit root. The results are very similar for the overall price index and the index without housing prices, and for the Western and Eastern part of the German economy. Obviously the elimination of housing prices is not sufficient to obtain a price index where tradable products dominate. One rationale of our findings is the persistent west-east divide in consumer prices. A second argument is related to the persistence of the price gradient between urban and rural regions.