Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impaired hippocampal spinogenesis and neurogenesis and altered affective behavior in mice lacking heat shock factor 1

Aberrant transcriptional regulation in the brain is thought to be one of the key components of the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. Heat shock factors (HSFs) modulate cellular homeostasis through the control of gene expression. However, the roles of HSFs in brain function have yet to be elucidated fully. In the present study, we attempted to clarify the role of HSF1-mediated gene regulation in neuronal and behavioral development using HSF1-deficient (HSF1−/−) mice. We found granule neurons of aberrant morphology and impaired neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of HSF1−/− mice. In addition, HSF1−/− mice showed aberrant affective behavior, including reduced anxiety and sociability but increased depression-like behavior and aggression. Furthermore, HSF1 deficiency enhanced behavioral vulnerability to repeated exposure to restraint stress. Importantly, rescuing the HSF1 deficiency in the neonatal but not the adult hippocampus reversed the aberrant anxiety and depression-like behaviors. These results indicate a crucial role for hippocampal HSF1 in neuronal and behavioral development. Analysis of the molecular mechanisms revealed that HSF1 directly modulates the expression of polysialyltransferase genes, which then modulate polysialic acid–neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM) levels in the hippocampus. Enzymatic removal of PSA from the neonatal hippocampus resulted in aberrant behavior during adulthood, similar to that observed in HSF1−/− mice. Thus, these results suggest that one role of HSF1 is to control hippocampal PSA-NCAM levels through the transcriptional regulation of polysialyltransferases, a process that might be involved in neuronal and behavioral development in mice.
Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study of Renal Failure in Patients Treated with Colistin versus Polymyxin B

ABSTRACT Nephrotoxicity is the main adverse effect of colistin and polymyxin B (PMB). It is not clear whether these two antibiotics are associated with different nephrotoxicity rates. We compared the incidences of renal failure (RF) in patients treated with colistimethate sodium (CMS) or PMB for ≥48 h. A multicenter prospective cohort study was performed that included patients aged ≥18 years. The primary outcome was renal failure (RF) according to Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss, and End-stage renal disease (RIFLE) criteria. Multivariate analysis with a Cox regression model was performed. A total of 491 patients were included: 81 in the CMS group and 410 in the PMB group. The mean daily doses in milligrams per kilogram of body weight were 4.2 ± 1.3 and 2.4 ± 0.73 of colistin base activity and PMB, respectively. The overall incidence of RF was 16.9% (83 patients): 38.3% and 12.7% in the CMS and PMB groups, respectively (P < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, CMS therapy was an independent risk factor for RF (hazard ratio, 3.35; 95% confidence interval, 2.05 to 5.48; P < 0.001) along with intensive care unit admission, higher weight, older age, and bloodstream and intraabdominal infections. CMS was also independently associated with a higher risk of RF in various subgroup analyses. The incidence of RF was higher in the CMS group regardless of the patient baseline creatinine clearance. The development of RF during therapy was not associated with 30-day mortality in multivariate analysis. CMS was associated with significantly higher rates of RF than those of PMB. Further studies are required to confirm our findings in other patient populations.
Semiotics and the Social History of Art

HE THEORETICAL PARAMETERS of much of the social history of art currently being written in the Anglo-American world have largely been defined by the work of T. J. Clark. In two important books, Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution and The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and his Followers, Clark provides both a theory and a practice for an art history that transcends its traditional preoccupations with style on the one hand and iconography on the other. ' Clark's books not only served to bring out the political implications of the work of Courbet and Manet within the historical horizons in which they were produced, but they suggested that the paintings of these artists may have served an active role in the creation of social and political attitudes. There are, however, aspects of Clark's theory that betray a continuing adherence to some of the metaphysical values that have characterized both formalist and iconographic histories of art, values that compromise our capacity to fully historicize our understanding of the work of art. I should like here to question these values in order to propose a semiotic theory of representation as the basis for a social history of art. It is clear from both his theory and his criticism that Clark subscribes to a notion of immanent aesthetic value, one which serves to distinguish works of art from the rest of the cultural artifacts belonging to the culture of which they are a part. He shares this attitude with a long history of Marxist culture criticism, one which can be traced back to the Frankfurt School as well as in the AngloAmerican tradition constituted by Terry Eagleton and Fredric Jameson. Clark, however, inherits this most directly from the French Althusserian literary critic Pierre Macherey.2 In the opening chapter of the Courbet book, entitled "On the Social History of Art," Clark
Welfare, agency and “ICT for Development”

This paper deconstructs the term ldquodevelopmentrdquo in ldquoICT for Developmentrdquo - does it imply welfare or agency? Using a framework of individual capability expansion and social choice theory, we illustrate how these two approaches may conflict, and present a simple model to explore how sometimes the Provider's intention in providing an ICT artifact and the User's ultimate usage differ. We analyze our case studies of Our Voices and Hole in the Office against this and find that the User is likely to gain a tangible, immediate return on using agency-enhancing applications (particularly involving entertainment content), while the impact of welfare-enhancing applications is harder to achieve, given the complex contextual determinants of converting information on ldquopotentialrdquo welfare outcomes to ldquoactualrdquo welfare gains. We recommend further research on the welfare-agency tension, and on assessing paternalism in ldquoICT for developmentrdquo interventions.
The Concurrent Resolution in Congress

Much has been said and written in recent years concerning executive usurpation of congressional powers. Little attention seems to have been given to encroachment by Congress on the President's right to give or withhold his approval of “every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment). ”
Statistical Machine Translation with Word- and Sentence-Aligned Parallel Corpora

The parameters of statistical translation models are typically estimated from sentence-aligned parallel corpora. We show that significant improvements in the alignment and translation quality of such models can be achieved by additionally including word-aligned data during training. Incorporating word-level alignments into the parameter estimation of the IBM models reduces alignment error rate and increases the Bleu score when compared to training the same models only on sentence-aligned data. On the Verbmobil data set, we attain a 38% reduction in the alignment error rate and a higher Bleu score with half as many training examples. We discuss how varying the ratio of word-aligned to sentence-aligned data affects the expected performance gain.
Predicting protein folding rate change upon point mutation using residue‐level coevolutionary information

Change in folding kinetics of globular proteins upon point mutation is crucial to a wide spectrum of biological research, such as protein misfolding, toxicity, and aggregations. Here we seek to address whether residue‐level coevolutionary information of globular proteins can be informative to folding rate changes upon point mutations. Generating residue‐level coevolutionary networks of globular proteins, we analyze three parameters: relative coevolution order (rCEO), network density (ND), and characteristic path length (CPL). A point mutation is considered to be equivalent to a node deletion of this network and respective percentage changes in rCEO, ND, CPL are found linearly correlated (0.84, 0.73, and −0.61, respectively) with experimental folding rate changes. The three parameters predict the folding rate change upon a point mutation with 0.031, 0.045, and 0.059 standard errors, respectively. Proteins 2016; 84:3–8. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Verbindung von Theorie und Praxis bei der Begleitung von Praxisphasen in der Lehrerbildung

Die Begleitung von Praxisphasen in der Lehrerbildung mit deutlichem Bezug zur Verbindung von Theorie und Praxis verlangt, dass Masnahmen von Hochschule und Praxisfeld aufeinander abgestimmt werden. Gemeinsame Anstrengungen sind notwendig auf struktureller, kommunikativer und auf der Ebene der Lernprozesse. Dabei erhofft man sich eine engere Verknupfung zwischen Theorie und Praxis. Am Beispiel der Kompetenzentwicklung zur Inneren Differenzierung untersucht die Studie Effekte koordinativer Masnahmen bei der Begleitung von Praxisphasen (a) auf inhaltliche Relationen zwischen Lehre und Praxis sowie (b) auf die eingeschatzten Kompetenzen zu Beginn, wahrend und am Ende des Lernprozesses. Die qualitativen Gesprachsdaten stammen von 25 Studierenden im funften Semester ihrer sechssemestrigen Ausbildung zur Grundschullehrkraft. In die quantitative Analyse gingen Daten von 34 Studierenden ein. Gesprachsanalysen zeigten, dass die Themen, die im Kurs an der Hochschule erarbeitet worden waren, auch die Unterrichtsbesprechungen pragten. Ferner schatzten die Studierenden ihr Konnen, jedoch nicht die Wichtigkeit der fraglichen Kompetenzen im Verlauf des Lernprozesses zunehmend hoher ein. Ihre subjektiven Einschatzungen zu Beginn und am Ende des Lernprozesses korrelierten im Weiteren statistisch signifikant mit der Fremdbeurteilung einer abschliesenden schriftlichen Reflexionsarbeit. (DIPF/Orig.) Supervision of practical periods in teacher education with clear reference to the linkage between theory and practice means that actions between the university and practice are being coordinated. Common efforts are needed at the structural, the communicative and at the level of the learning processes. One strives for an improved linkage between theory and practice. Using the development of the skill of inner differentiation as an example, the study examined effects of coordinative activities in mentoring on (a) substantive relations between theory and practice, and (b) on the assessed skills at the beginning, during and at the end of the learning process. The qualitative interview data was collected from 25 students in the fifth (of six) semesters of their training as a primary school teacher. In the quantitative analysis data from 34 students were used. Conversation analysis showed that the topics, which have been developed during the course at the university, did coin the discussions in the lesson meetings. Furthermore, during the course of the learning process the students estimated their skills increasingly higher, but the importance of the skills in question remained constant. The subjective assessments at the beginning and at the end of the learning process correlated statistically significantly with the external assessment of a final written reflection paper. (DIPF/Orig.)
No-Reference JPEG Image Quality Assessment Based on Support Vector Regression Neural Network

In this paper,a support vector regression neural network (SVR-NN) approach is presented to assessment the visual quality of JPEG-coded images without reference image.The key features of human visual system (HVS) such as edge amplitude and length, background activity and luminance are extracted from sample images as input vectors. SVR-NN was used to search and approximate the functional relationship between HVS and mean opinion score (MOS). Then,the measuring of visual quality of JPEG-coded images was realized. Experimental results prove that it is easy to initialize the network structure and set parameters of SVR-NN. And the better generalization performance owned by SVR-NN can add the new features of the sample automatically.Compared with other image quality metrics, the experimental results of the proposed metric exhibit much higher correlation with perception character of HVS. And the role of HVS feature in image quality index is fully reflected.
Influence of tibial shock feedback training on impact loading and running economy.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine whether real-time feedback (RTF) training would reduce impact loading variables previously linked with tibial stress fracture risk and whether these adaptations would influence running economy. METHODS Twenty-two male runners were randomly assigned to RTF (n = 12) and control (n = 10) groups. The RTF group received feedback based on their peak tibial axial accelerations (PTA) during six 20-min treadmill runs for 3 wk, whereas the control group adhered to the same training but without feedback. Unilateral three-dimensional kinematic and kinetic analysis and running economy measurements were conducted before, after, and at 1 month posttraining. RESULTS The RTF group had significant reductions (P < 0.01) in PTA and average and instantaneous vertical force loading rates after training as compared with no changes in the control group. These modifications in impact loads were only maintained in PTA 1 month after the training. A significant increase (P = 0.0033) in ankle plantarflexion at initial contact and a significant change (P = 0.030) in foot strike pattern from a rearfoot to midfoot strike pattern and a significant decrease (P = 0.008) in heel vertical velocity at initial contact appeared to be the primary mechanical strategies adopted by runners to reduce impact loading after RTF training. Despite these gait adaptations, running economy was unaffected. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggest that gait retraining using RTF is an effective means of eliciting reductions in impact loading without negatively affecting running economy. However, with loading rate reductions not being maintained 1 month posttraining, further research is required to determine how these reductions in impact severity can be retained long term.
Cardiac Dysfunction After Left Permanent Cerebral Focal Ischemia: The Brain and Heart Connection

Background and Purpose— Stroke can lead to cerebrogenic cardiac arrhythmias. We sought to investigate the effect of ischemic stroke on cardiac function in a mouse model of permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAO). Methods— Twenty-four hours after the induction of focal ischemia, cardiac function was measured in mice by endovascular catheterization of the heart. Immediately after hemodynamic measurements, mice were euthanized and brains were excised and sectioned to measure infarct volume and the severity of insular cortex injury. Myocardial damage was evaluated by hematoxylin-eosin staining. Serum and heart levels of norepinephrine (NE) were also determined. Results— Cardiac dysfunction occurred in 9 out of 14 mice that underwent left pMCAO. In these 9 mice, the severity of left insular cortex lesion was greater than the mice with normal heart function. The serum and heart levels of NE were significantly higher in left pMCAO mice with heart dysfunction. Liner regression analysis indicates significant inverse correlation between the severity of left insular cortex damage and heart dysfunction. Mice that underwent right pMCAO did not exhibit cardiac dysfunction. Conclusions— This study shows that left focal cerebral ischemia can produce cardiac dysfunction, which is associated with the extent of left insular cortex damage. Furthermore, mice exhibiting cardiac dysfunction had elevated levels of NE in the serum and heart.
Expression profiling on chronically rejected transplant kidneys.

BACKGROUND Chronic transplant nephropathy remains a poorly defined inflammatory process that limits the survival rate of most renal transplants. We analyzed the gene profile of chronically rejected kidney transplants to identify candidate genes that characterize chronic transplant nephropathy. METHODS To distinguish genes present in normal renal tissue or specific for end-stage renal failure, we compared the gene profiles of 13 chronically rejected kidney transplants with 16 normal kidneys and 12 end-stage polycystic kidneys using a 7K human cDNA microarray. After elimination of genes with signals close to background, 2190 genes were available for statistical analysis. RESULTS More than 20% of the examined genes were significantly regulated when compared with the expression level of normal renal tissue (P<0.0003). Hierarchic clustering based on 571 genes differentiated normal and transplant tissue, and transplant and polycystic kidney tissue. Most of these genes encoded proteins involved in cellular metabolism, transport, signaling, transcriptional activation, adhesion, and the immune response. Notably, comprehensive gene profiling of chronically rejected kidneys revealed two distinct subsets of chronically rejected transplants. Neither clinical data nor histology could explain this genetic heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS Microarray analysis of rejected kidneys may help to define different entities of transplant nephropathy, reflecting the multifactorial cause of chronic rejection.
Resilient Machines Through Continuous Self-Modeling

Animals sustain the ability to operate after injury by creating qualitatively different compensatory behaviors. Although such robustness would be desirable in engineered systems, most machines fail in the face of unexpected damage. We describe a robot that can recover from such change autonomously, through continuous self-modeling. A four-legged machine uses actuation-sensation relationships to indirectly infer its own structure, and it then uses this self-model to generate forward locomotion. When a leg part is removed, it adapts the self-models, leading to the generation of alternative gaits. This concept may help develop more robust machines and shed light on self-modeling in animals.
On perfectly secure communication over arbitrary networks

We study the interplay of network connectivity and perfectly secure message transmission under the corrupting influence of generalized Byzantine adversaries. It is known that in the threshold adversary model, where the Byzantine adversary can corrupt upto any t among the n players (nodes), perfectly secure communication among any pair of players is possible if and only if the underlying synchronous network is (2t + 1)-connected. Strictly generalizing these results to the non-threshold setting, we show that perfectly secure communication among any pair of players is possible if and only if the union of no two sets in the adversary structure is a vertex cutset of the synchronous network. The computation and communication complexities of the transmission protocol are polynomial in the size of the network and the maximal basis of the adversary structure.
Low-Voltage Topologies for 40-Gb/s Circuits in Nanoscale CMOS

This paper presents low-voltage circuit topologies for 40-Gb/s communications in 90-nm and 65-nm CMOS. A retiming flip-flop implemented in two different 90-nm CMOS technologies employs a MOS-CML Master-Slave latch topology with only two vertically stacked transistors. Operation at 40 Gb/s is achieved by a combination of low and high-VT MOSFETs in the latch. Full-rate retiming with jitter reduction is demonstrated up to 40 Gb/s. Low-power broadband amplifiers based on resistor-inductor transimpedance feedback are realized in 90-nm and 65-nm CMOS to investigate the portability of high-speed building blocks between technology nodes. Experiments show that the transimpedance amplifier based on the CMOS inverter can reach 40-Gb/s operation with a record power consumption of 0.15 mW/Gb/s. A comparison between CMOS technologies underlines the importance of General Purpose rather than Low Power processes for high-speed digital design.
OPTIMISATION OF STEEL PRODUCTION INCORPORATING ECONOMIC FACTORS

Abstract Over the last four years efforts have been devoted towards the development and validation of mechanical test result models relating to a range of alloy steels. Several neural-network based models have been developed, two of which are related to the mechanical test results of Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS), Reduction of Area (ROA), Elongation, etc. The ultimate aim of developing these models is to pave the way to process optimisation through better predictions of mechanical properties. In this research we propose to exploit such neural network models in order to determine the optimal alloy composition and heat treatment temperatures required, given certain predefined mechanical properties such as the UTS by including certain economic factors relating to the price of composites and the energy necessary for tempering. Genetic Algorithms, with their power of searching a relatively large space without requiring the gradient of a function, are used for this purpose. The results obtained are very encouraging in that steels with adequate properties and optimised costs are obtained.
Implementation of a National Measles Elimination Program in Iran: Phylogenetic Analysis of Measles Virus Strains Isolated during 2010–2012 Outbreaks

Measles virus (MV) causes small and large outbreaks in Iran. Molecular assays allow identifying and the sources of measles imported from neighboring countries. We carried out a phylogenetic analysis of measles virus circulating in Iran over the period 2010–2012. Specimens from suspected cases of measles were collected from different regions of Iran. Virus isolation was performed on urine and throat swabs. Partial nucleoprotein gene segments of MV were amplified by RT-PCR. PCR products of 173 samples were sequenced and analyzed. The median age of confirmed cases was 2 years. Among all confirmed cases, 32% had unknown vaccination status, 20% had been vaccinated, and 48% had not been vaccinated. Genotypes B3 and D8 (for the first time), H1 and D4 were detected mainly in unvaccinated toddlers and young children. Genotype B3 became predominant in 2012 and was closely related to African strains. H1 strains were also found in small and large outbreaks during 2012 but were not identical to Iranian H1-2009 strains. A majority of the Iranian D4 strains during 2010–2012 outbreaks were linked to the D4 strain identified in the Pakistan in 2007. We identified a single case in 2010 belonging to D8 genotype with 99.7% identity to Indian isolates. Although the vaccination program is currently good enough to prevent nationwide epidemics and successfully decreased measles incidence in Iran, the fraction of protected individuals in the population was not high enough to prevent continuous introduction of cases from abroad. Due to increasing number of susceptible individuals in some areas, sustained transmission of the newly introduced viral genotype remains possible.
Dynamical Breaking of Supersymmetry

We should be taking advantage of recent gains in our nonperturbative understanding of supersymmetric gauge theories to find the “standard” model of of dynamical supersymmetry breaking, and possibly of flavor as well. As an illustration of the possibilities for understanding the flavor hierarchy, I describe a realistic, renormalizable, supersymmetric model with a compositeness scale of ∼ 1−3 TeV for the top quark, the left handed bottom quark, and the up-type Higgs. The top-Higgs Yukawa coupling is a dynamically generated strong interaction effect, and is naturally large, while the other Yukawa couplings are suppressed.