Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Linear and nonlinear processing in hair cells

SUMMARY Mechanosensory hair cells in the ear are exquisitely responsive to minute sensory inputs, nearly to the point of instability. Active mechanisms bias the transduction apparatus and subsequent electrical amplification away from saturation in either the negative or positive direction, to an operating point where the response to small signals is approximately linear. An active force generator coupled directly to the transducer enhances sensitivity and frequency selectivity, and counteracts energy loss to viscous drag. Active electrical amplification further enhances gain and frequency selectivity. In both cases, nonlinear properties may maintain the system close to instability, as evidenced by small spontaneous oscillations, while providing a compressive nonlinearity that increases the cell's operating range. Transmitter release also appears to be frequency selective and biased to operate most effectively near the resting potential. This brief overview will consider the resting stability of hair cells, and their responses to small perturbations that correspond to soft sounds or small accelerations.
Correction for “ Targeting the minor pocket of C 5 aR for the rational design of an oral allosteric inhibitor for inflammatory and neuropathic pain relief

PHARMACOLOGY Correction for “Targeting the minor pocket of C5aR for the rational design of an oral allosteric inhibitor for inflammatory and neuropathic pain relief,” by Alessio Moriconi, Thiago M. Cunha, Guilherme R. Souza, Alexandre H. Lopes, Fernando Q. Cunha, Victor L. Carneiro, Larissa G. Pinto, Laura Brandolini, Andrea Aramini, Cinzia Bizzarri, Gianluca Bianchini, Andrea R. Beccari, Marco Fanton, Agostino Bruno, Gabriele Costantino, Riccardo Bertini, Emanuela Galliera, Massimo Locati, Sérgio H. Ferreira, Mauro M. Teixeira, and Marcello Allegretti, which appeared in issue 47, November 25, 2014, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (111:16937–16942; first published November 10, 2014; 10.1073/ pnas.1417365111). The authors note that an additional affiliation should be listed for Emanuela Galliera. This author’s affiliations should appear as “Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, University of Milan, I-20133 Milan, Italy; and Istituto di Ricerca e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Galeazzi Orthopaedic Institute, I-20161 Milan, Italy. ” The corrected author and affiliation lines appear below. The online version has been corrected.
Host Cytosolic Phospholipase A2α Contributes to Group B Streptococcus Penetration of the Blood-Brain Barrier

ABSTRACT Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is the most common bacterium causing neonatal meningitis, and neonatal GBS meningitis continues to be an important cause of mortality and morbidity. Here we provide the first direct evidence that host cytosolic phospholipase A2α (cPLA2α) contributes to type III GBS invasion of human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC), which constitute the blood-brain barrier and penetration into the brain, the key step required for the development of GBS meningitis. This was shown by our demonstration that pharmacological inhibition and gene deletion of cPLA2α significantly decreased GBS invasion of the HBMEC monolayer and penetration into the brain. cPLA2α releases arachidonic acid from membrane phospholipids, and we showed that the contribution of cPLA2α to GBS invasion of HBMEC involved lipoxygenated metabolites of arachidonic acid, cysteinyl leukotrienes (LTs). In addition, type III GBS invasion of the HBMEC monolayer involves protein kinase Cα (PKCα), as shown by time-dependent PKCα activation in response to GBS as well as decreased GBS invasion in HBMEC expressing dominant-negative PKCα. PKCα activation in response to GBS, however, was abolished by inhibition of cPLA2α and cysteinyl LTs, suggesting that cPLA2α and cysteinyl LTs contribute to type III GBS invasion of the HBMEC monolayer via PKCα. These findings demonstrate that specific host factors involving cPLA2α and cysteinyl LTs contribute to type III GBS penetration of the blood-brain barrier and their contribution involves PKCα.
Safety and tolerance of the ReWalk™ exoskeleton suit for ambulation by people with complete spinal cord injury: A pilot study

Abstract Objectives The objective of the study was to evaluate the safety and tolerance of use of the ReWalk™ exoskeleton ambulation system in people with spinal cord injury. Measures of functional ambulation were also assessed and correlated to neurological spinal cord level, age, and duration since injury. Study design Case series observational study. Setting A national spinal cord injury centre. Methods Six volunteer participants were recruited from the follow-up outpatient clinic. Safety was assessed with regard to falls, status of the skin, status of the spine and joints, blood pressure, pulse, and electrocardiography (ECG). Pain and fatigue were graded by the participants using a visual analogue scale pre- and post-training. Participants completed a 10-statement questionnaire regarding safety, comfort, and secondary medical effects. After being able to walk 100 m, timed up and go, distance walked in 6 minutes and 10-m timed walk were measured. Results There were no adverse safety events. Use of the system was generally well tolerated, with no increase in pain and a moderate level of fatigue after use. Individuals with lower level of spinal cord injury performed walking more efficiently. Conclusion Volunteer participants were able to ambulate with the ReWalk™ for a distance of 100 m, with no adverse effects during the course of an average of 13–14 training sessions. The participants were generally positive regarding the use of the system.
Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: The Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales.

Development of research on intrafamily conflict and violence requires both conceptual clarity and measures of the concepts. The introduction to this paper therefore seeks to clarifj and distinguish the concepts of "conflict, " "conflict of interest, " "hostility, " and "violence. " The main part qf the paper describes the Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales. The CT Scales are designed to measure the use qf Reasoning, VerbalAggression, and Violence within the family. Information is presented on the following aspects of this instrument: theoretical rational, acceptability to respondents, scoring, factor structure, reliability, validity, and norms for a nationally representative sample of 2,143 couples.
Reliability-aware synthesis and fault test of fully programmable valve arrays (FPVAs)

Microfluidic biochips are miniaturized lab-on-a-chips for executing biochemical assays [1]. Several types of biochips have been introduced previously. Flow-based biochips have predesigned devices such as mixers and heaters [2]. Intermediate execution results are transported in flow channels to target devices or stored temporarily in storage units. The architecture of such a chip, however, should be designed carefully, because the failure of a single device may make the whole chip completely unusable. The second type of biochips, digital biochips, have a regular electrode array on different substrates [3, 4], on which droplets are moved from one electrode to another by electrowetting. Devices such as mixers can be constructed on such a chip dynamically by moving droplets along a circular paths or even a path of any form [5] to mix samples and reagents. This flexibility comes from the fact that electrodes are controlled individually, requiring a lot of effort in routing during chip design and accordingly in pin count reduction.
Early Predictors of Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder and School Difficulties in Low-Birthweight, Premature Children

This study investigated whether specific behaviors observed in 30 month-old lowbirthweight children are predictive of diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and school difficulties at age 8. Videotapes of 571 participants were coded using the Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Observational Rating Scale (ADHD-ORS). Logistic and discriminant analyses were conducted using the three scale factors. High scores on one factor, Inattentiveness, predicted physician diagnosis and/or school difficulties 51 2 years later. The Inattentiveness factor also discriminated a linear sequence of diagnostic groups, two of which were statistically significant. These findings suggest that certain behaviors can be identified before the age of 3 by trained observers and that this identification that make a future ADHD diagnosis and/or school difficulties more likely.
Early Schooling of Children at Risk

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a longitudinal early schooling process model of first- and second-year reading achievement, mathematics achievement, and socio-emotional maturity with 1539 low-income minority children. Data were collected from children and teachers over four time periods and included school readiness attributes, intervening kindergarten influences, and intervening first-year social-psychological influences. LISREL estimation of the model yielded an acceptable fit with the data. Major results indicated that cognitive readiness in kindergarten had pervasive indirect effects on first- and second-year outcomes, and that variables directly alterable by families and schools—prekindergarten experience, motivation, mobility, and parent involvement—significantly influenced either directly or indirectly early school outcomes. The influence of sex (in favor of girls), prior achievement, motivation, and school mobility increased over time. Despite some limitations, a major implication is that efforts to improve school success of children at risk are most likely to be successful if they are both timely and multifaceted and if mediating factors in kindergarten and first-grade are in place. Also, research on early schooling must take account of complex processes and effects and reconsider overlooked variables.
Grounded Theory Method in Management Research

The authors discuss the determination of quality in studies using grounded theory method (GTM). They concretely describe some misunderstandings associated with GTM and some malaises experienced with its orthodox application, drawing primarily on their own research experience and supporting their discussion with evidence from other researchers. They then confront their experience with current critical GTM literature and offer some observations of their own. The authors describe how the very strengths of GTM run the risk of being undermined—and thus the quality of such research impaired—by an overly orthodox application of its rigorous objectification procedures. Therefore, they offer some pragmatic remedial suggestions. The authors conclude by calling for the continuing use of GTM in some of its newer forms and by reflecting on the importance of the process surrounding the use of the method, particularly in doctoral research.
One drop at a time: research to advance the science of simulation.

David A. Cook, MD, MHPE The article by Weinger1 in this issue describes a useful framework for thinking about research in simulation. It emphasizes the need for purposeful and programmatic accumulation of information to guide our use of simulation. The analogy with a drug is apt, albeit inexact, given the variations in dose (instructional design and intensity), dosing (repetition), disease (learning objectives), and drug-host, drugdrug, and drug-environment interactions (learner, other learning, and larger context), we encounter in the development of simulation activities. However, although this framework outlines information required to advance our understanding of how to use simulation, it does not spell out the research designs that will be required to accomplish this lofty but laudable objective. In this editorial, I will discuss the types of research needed to accrue the information Weinger requests.
A manifold operator representation for adaptive design

Many natural organisms exhibit canalization: small genetic changes are accommodated by adaptation in other systems that interact with them. Engineered systems, however, are typically quite brittle, making design automation extremely difficult. We propose to address this problem with a generative representation of design based on manifold operators. The operator set we propose combines the intuitive simplicity of top-down rewrite rules with the flexibility and distortion tolerance of bottom-up GRN-based models. An embryogeny specified using this representation thus places constraints on a developing design, rather than specifying a fixed body plan, allowing canalization processes to modulate the design as it continues to develop. We demonstrate our ideas in the domain of electromechanical design and validate them with simulations at different levels of abstraction.
Working memory and learning disabilities

Abstract Working memory is defined as a cognitive system which is responsible for temporary storage and information processing. In the development of working memory, normal children by age 4 demonstrate function of diverse working memory components and by age 16, all levels of working memory performance are established. Deficiency in working memory impacts learning. This memory is important in learning disabilities such as reading disability, mathematics disability, and written expression disability as well. With regard to children’s difficulties with learning disabilities in working memory, research suggest some remedial strategies for improvement of working memory. This strategies include rehearsal, chunking, and meta-cognitive strategies.
Power-aware MPI task aggregation prediction for high-end computing systems

Emerging large-scale systems have many nodes with several processors per node and multiple cores per processor. These systems require effective task distribution between cores, processors and nodes to achieve high levels of performance and utilization. Current scheduling strategies distribute tasks between cores according to a count of av ailable cores, b ut ignore the execution time and energy implications of task aggregation (i.e., grouping multiple tasks within the same node or the same multicore processor). Task aggregation can save significant energy while sustaining or even improving performance. Howev er, choosing an effective task aggregation becomes more difficult as the core count and the options available for task placement increase. We present a framework to predict the performance effect of task aggregation in both computation and communication phases and its impact in terms of execution time and energy of MPI programs. Our results for the N PB 3.2 MPI benchmark suite show that our framework provides accurate predictions leading to substantial energy saving through aggregation (64.87% on average and up to 70.03 %) with tolerable performance loss (under 5%).
High Genetic Diversity and Low Differentiation of Michelia coriacea (Magnoliaceae), a Critically Endangered Endemic in Southeast Yunnan, China

Michelia coriacea, a critically endangered tree, has a restricted and fragmented distribution in Southeast Yunnan Province, China. The genetic diversity, genetic structure and gene flow in the three extant populations of this species were detected by 10 inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers and 11 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Examination of genetic diversity revealed that the species maintained a relatively high level of genetic diversity at the species level (percentage of polymorphic bands) PPB = 96.36% from ISSRs; PPL (percentage of polymorphic loci) = 95.56% from SSRs, despite several fragmental populations. Low levels of genetic differentiation among the populations of M. coriacea were detected by Nei’s Gst = 0.187 for ISSR and Wright’s Fst = 0.090 for SSR markers, which is further confirmed by Bayesian model-based STRUCTURE and PCoA analysis that could not reveal a clear separation between populations, although YKP was differentiated to other two populations by ISSR markers. Meanwhile, AMOVA analysis also indicated that 22.84% and 13.90% of genetic variation existed among populations for ISSRs and SSRs, respectively. The high level of genetic diversity, low genetic differentiation, and the population, structure imply that the fragmented habitat and the isolated population of M. coriacea may be due to recent over-exploitation. Conservation and management of M. coriacea should concentrate on maintaining the high level of genetic variability through both in and ex-situ conservation actions.
Construction of a PLC test bed for network and transport layer experiments

With the recent ratification of the IEEE 1901 power line communications (PLC) standard, PLC is at a tipping point and may become ubiquitous as a home networking technology. In an inter-networked home, PLC promises to provide an inexpensive, high throughput, and easy-to-install means of extending connectivity to areas of the home or small office that have poor wireless coverage. It is imperative that the network dynamics of PLC systems be fully understood in advance of any large-scale roll-out. We present this work as a first step in our development of a comprehensive PLC network test bed. It provides the details of our test bed together with some initial experiments and observations. In particular, we are able to confirm the basic operation of our test bed and highlight issues, such as the interaction of TCP and the PLC MAC, which require further investigation.
Psychopathology and coping in recently diagnosed HIV/AIDS patients--the role of gender.

We earnestly appeal to all people contemplating the use of HBO to ensure three things before entering any chamber: (i) ensure that HBO is, in fact, medically indicated and advisable for the particular illness or condition; (ii) ensure that the chamber is tested, licensed and approved by the Department of Labour and that such approval is up to date; and (iii) ensure that the chamber personnel and operators are fully trained and registered in medical HBO administration.
A robust eye-corner detection method for real-world data

Corner detection has motivated a great deal of research and is particularly important in a variety of tasks related to computer vision, acting as a basis for further stages. In particular, the detection of eye-corners in facial images is important in applications in biometric systems and assisted-driving systems. We empirically evaluated the state-of-the-art of eye-corner detection proposals and found that they achieve satisfactory results only when dealing with high-quality data. Hence, in this paper, we describe an eye-corner detection method that emphasizes robustness, i.e., its ability to deal with degraded data, and applicability to real-world conditions. Our experiments show that the proposed method outperforms others in both noise-free and degraded data (blurred and rotated images and images with significant variations in scale), which is a major achievement.
Real-time procedural textures

We describe a software system on the Pixel-Planes 5 graphics engine that displays user-defined antialiased procedural textures at rates of about 30 frames per second for use in realtime graphics applications. Our system allows a user to create textures that can modulate both diffuse and specular color, the sharpness of specular highlights, the amount of transparency and the surface normals of an object. We describe a texture editor that allows a user to interactively create and edit procedural textures. Antialiasing is essential for real-time textures, and in this paper we present some techniques for antialiasing procedural textures. Another direction we are exploring is the use of dynamic textures, which are functions of time or orientation. Examples of textures we have generated include a translucent fire texture that waves and flickers and an animated water texture that shows the use of both environment mapping and normal perturbation (bump mapping).
Unified Early Childhood Personnel Preparation Programs: Perceptions from the Field

Two complimentary data sets were collected to gain an understanding of unified early childhood (EC) and early childhood special education (ECSE) programs. The first data set, was obtained by interviewing 28 university faculty members who were key faculty administrating these unified programs. These data focused on the development and characteristics of unified EC and ECSE programs. The second data set was obtained from graduates from unified, dual, ECE, or ECSE Master programs. These data focused their perceptions regarding the knowledge base gained from their program of study. These data indicated that providing a unified vision of early childhood education is an on-going process. Respondents described many barriers and successes. All programs had course work from at least two different disciplines and collaboration among disciplines was prominent. Commitment and collaborative problem-solving were described as critical to on-going success. The data from program graduates provided some interesting trends that require further exploration and research. These data indicated that the trend towards unifying ECE and ECSE teacher preparation programs is to provide students with a broader set of competencies to address a diverse set of children and their families.
MicroRNA Clusters in the Adult Mouse Heart: Age-Associated Changes

The microRNAs and microRNA clusters have been implicated in normal cardiac development and also disease, including cardiac hypertrophy, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, and arrhythmias. Since a microRNA cluster has from two to dozens of microRNAs, the expression of a microRNA cluster could have a substantial impact on its target genes. In the present study, the configuration and distribution of microRNA clusters in the mouse genome were examined at various inter-microRNA distances. Three important microRNA clusters that are significantly impacted during adult cardiac aging, the miR-17-92, miR-106a-363, and miR-106b-25, were also examined in terms of their genomic location, RNA transcript character, sequence homology, and their relationship with the corresponding microRNA families. Multiple microRNAs derived from the three clusters potentially target various protein components of the cdc42-SRF signaling pathway, which regulates cytoskeleton dynamics associated with cardiac structure and function. The data indicate that aging impacted the expression of both guide and passenger strands of the microRNA clusters; nutrient stress also affected the expression of the three microRNA clusters. The miR-17-92, miR-106a-363, and miR-106b-25 clusters are likely to impact the Cdc42-SRF signaling pathway and thereby affect cardiac morphology and function during pathological conditions and the aging process.