Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GABAA Receptor-Mediated Tonic Inhibition in Thalamic Neurons

Tonic GABAA receptor-mediated inhibition is typically generated byδ subunit-containing extrasynaptic receptors. Because the δ subunit is highly expressed in the thalamus, we tested whether thalamocortical (TC) neurons of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) and ventrobasal complex exhibit tonic inhibition. Focal application of gabazine (GBZ) (50 μm) revealed the presence of a 20 pA tonic current in 75 and 63% of TC neurons from both nuclei, respectively. No tonic current was observed in GABAergic neurons of the nucleus reticularis thalami (NRT). Bath application of 1μm GABA increased tonic current amplitude to ∼70 pA in 100% of TC neurons, but it was still not observed in NRT neurons. In dLGN TC neurons, the tonic current was sensitive to low concentrations of the δ subunit-specific receptor agonists allotetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone (100 nm) and 4,5,6,7-tetrahydroisoxazolo[5,4-c]-pyridin-3-ol (THIP) (100 nm) but insensitive to the benzodiazepine flurazepam (5 μm). Bath application of low concentrations of GBZ (25–200 nm) preferentially blocked the tonic current, whereas phasic synaptic inhibition was primarily maintained. Under intracellular current-clamp conditions, the preferential block of the tonic current with GBZ led to a small depolarization and increase in input resistance. Using extracellular single-unit recordings, block of the tonic current caused the cessation of low-threshold burst firing and promoted tonic firing. Enhancement of the tonic current by THIP hyperpolarized TC neurons and promoted burst firing. Thus, tonic current in TC neurons generates an inhibitory tone. Its modulation contributes to the shift between different firing modes, promotes the transition between different behavioral states, and predisposes to absence seizures.
Microglia-Derived Cytokines/Chemokines Are Involved in the Enhancement of LPS-Induced Loss of Nigrostriatal Dopaminergic Neurons in DJ-1 Knockout Mice

Mutation of DJ-1 (PARK7) has been linked to the development of early-onset Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, the underlying molecular mechanism is still unclear. This study is aimed to compare the sensitivity of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge between DJ-1 knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice, and explore the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms. Our results found that the basal levels of interferon (IFN)-γ (the hub cytokine) and interferon-inducible T-cell alpha chemoattractant (I-TAC) (a downstream mediator) were elevated in the substantia nigra of DJ-1 KO mice and in microglia cells with DJ-1 deficiency, and the release of cytokine/chemokine was greatly enhanced following LPS administration in the DJ-1 deficient conditions. In addition, direct intranigral LPS challenge caused a greater loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and striatal dopamine content in DJ-1 KO mice than in WT mice. Furthermore, the sensitization of microglia cells to LPS challenge to release IFN-γ and I-TAC was via the enhancement of NF-κB signaling, which was antagonized by NF-κB inhibitors. LPS-induced increase in neuronal death in the neuron-glia co-culture was enhanced by DJ-1 deficiency in microglia, which was antagonized by the neutralizing antibodies against IFN-γ or I-TAC. These results indicate that DJ-1 deficiency sensitizes microglia cells to release IFN-γ and I-TAC and causes inflammatory damage to dopaminergic neurons. The interaction between the genetic defect (i.e. DJ-1) and inflammatory factors (e.g. LPS) may contribute to the development of PD.
EVIDENCE ON THE CARCINOGENICITY OF 5-CHLORO-O-TOLUIDINE AND ITS STRONG ACID SALTS

PREFACE The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65, California Health and Safety Code 25249.5 et seq.) requires that the Governor cause to be published a list of those chemicals " known to the state " to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. The Act specifies that " a chemical is known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.if in the opinion of the state's qualified experts the chemical has been clearly shown through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. " The lead agency for implementing Proposition 65 is the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment of the California Environmental Protection Agency. The " state's qualified experts " regarding findings of carcinogenicity are identified as the members of the Carcinogen Identification Committee of the OEHHA Science Advisory Board (22 CCR 12301). 5-Chloro-o-toluidine was discussed as a high priority candidate for Committee review during a public committee meeting held in Sacramento, California, on July 22, 1996 and at a public workshop held November 15, 1996. Public input was solicited on the priority of this chemical in two public comment periods, each of 60 days duration. Once the chemical was selected for Committee review, a public request for pertinent information was made. This draft document Evidence on the Carcinogenicity of 5-Chloro-o-Toluidine and Its Strong Acid Salts was developed to provide the Committee with relevant information for use in its deliberations, and reviews the available scientific evidence on the carcinogenic potential of 5-chloro-o­ toluidine and its strong acid salts. The meeting where the Committee is to discuss this evidence has been tentatively scheduled for September 25, 1997. 5-Chloro-o-toluidine (CAS number 95-79-4) and its hydrochloride salt are used in dye-stuff manufacture, as chemical intermediates in the synthesis of other dyes, and as dyes for cotton, silk, nylon and cellulose. Strong acid salts of 5-chloro-o-toluidine, including the hydrochloride, can be expected to exist in a dissociated state in solution and in vivo, and thus are considered toxicologically equivalent to the free or protonated amine forms. 5-Chloro-o­ toluidine has been shown to induce tumors at multiple sites in both sexes of the mouse when administered in the diet. A high incidence of hemangiosarcomas, a relatively uncommon tumor of the vasculature, was observed in both male and female mice. Significantly increased incidences of hepatocellular carcinomas and hepatocellular carcinomas and adenomas (combined) were also observed …
Integrating Acoustic Echo Cancellation In LPC-based Speech Coders

This paper presents a novel acoustic echo canceller (AEC) consisting of an adaptive FIR filter and a double-talk detector. By employing the widely used LPC-based speech coder for decorrelation, we develop a variable step-size decorrelation NLMS algorithm for the adaptive FIR filter and an echo-path mismatch detection algorithm for the double-talk detector. This new approach reduces the computational complexity from 0(N2) to O(N) for both algorithms of echo cancellation and double-talk detection. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms improve the performance of both echo cancellation and double-talk detection greatly compared to other algorithms
Le rôle de l'attitude mentale dans la compréhension du comportement de consommation proenvironnementale: l'optimisme du consommateur peut-il impulser l'adoption de comportements plus soutenables?

v Table des matières . vii Liste des tableaux . xi Liste des figures . xiii Remerciements . xvii Avant-propos . xix INTRODUCTION GÉNÉRALE . 1 CHAPITRE I : REVUE DE LITTÉRATURE . 9 I. Le concept de distance psychologique : fondements théoriques et application en recherche environnementale . 9 1. La distance psychologique . 9 2. La distance psychologique dans la compréhension du comportement écologique . 15 II. De l’attitude mentale au concept d’optimisme . 20 1. L’attitude mentale en psychologie positive . 20 2. L’optimisme : une approche personnologique de compréhension . 24 III. L’optimisme en contexte proenvironnental : pertinence théorique . 28 CHAPITRE II : CADRE CONCEPTUEL ET HYPOTHÈSES DE RECHERCHE . 33 I. Explication du modèle conceptuel . 37 1. Les déterminants de l’optimisme . 37 2. L’effet direct de l’optimisme . 39 3. L’effet indirect de l’optimisme . 41 4. L’effet modérateur du scepticisme et du risque écologique . 42 II. Positionnement épistemologique de la recherche . 48 III. Présentation des variables et hypothèses de recherche . 49 CHAPITRE III : MÉTHODOLOGIE . 85 I. Le volet technique de la recherche . 85 1. Choix du domaine d’étude . 85 2. Nature de l’étude . 87 3. La population d’étude . 89 4. La méthode d’échantillonnage . 92
A Novel Approach for Intelligent Route Finding through Cumulative Proximity Evaluation

Today, the increased traffic and complex modern road network have made finding a good route from one location to another a non-trivial task. Many search algorithms have been proposed to solve the problem, and the most well-known being Dijkstra's algorithm, Johnson's algorithm and A*. While these algorithms are effective for path finding, they are wasteful in terms of computation. In this paper, we present a study to examine both uninformed search and heuristic search based on some major cities and towns in Borneo Island. We propose a novel algorithm for intelligent route finding using better evaluation criteria and the notion of cumulative proximity score. We show that this proposed technique is able to reduce the time and space required in computation, and also produce better result in terms of a.ccuracy and shortness of path found.
A Kind of Active Fortify Method of Moving Object Detection

The new method of active fortify organizing a supervised area based on color and geometric feature is proposed in this paper. By the basis of color feature in the real supervised scene, in the first instance extracting several regions of interest (ROI) with noise, then matching with geometric shape by Fourier descriptors in the database, sequentially achieving automatic organizing a supervised area. Experimental results prove that this method has low operation cost, high efficiency, accuracy and strong anti-jamming, robustness.
On Reduction via Determinization of Speech-Recognition Lattices

We establish a framework for studying the behavior of automatic speech recognition (ASR) lattices (viewed as automata) undergoing determinization. Using this framework, we provide initial insights into what causes determinization to produce smaller (or bigger) lattices when used in the ASR application. Our results counter the prevailing wisdom that the graph topology underlying an automaton, not the weights on the arcs, governs deterministic expansion. We show that there are graphs that expand solely due to their weights when determinized; i.e., we demonstrate graphs that expand under some weightings yet contract under others. Furthermore, we give evidence that the automata that arise in ASR are either the kind that never expand or else the weight-dependent kind; i.e., we do not nd in ASR any instances of automata that always expand under determinization. Therefore, understanding what causes weight dependence becomes essential to providing tools to avoid deterministic expansion in ASR, and we provide some theoretical results that start to explain this behavior.
Block of single L-type Ca2+ channels in skeletal muscle fibers by aminoglycoside antibiotics

The activity of single L-type Ca2+ channels was recorded from cell- attached patches on acutely isolated skeletal muscle fibers from the mouse. The experiments were concerned with the mechanism by which aminoglycoside antibiotics inhibit ion flow through the channel. Aminoglycosides produced discrete fluctuations in the single-channel current when added to the external solution. The blocking kinetics could be described as a simple bimolecular reaction between an aminoglycoside molecule and the open channel. The blocking rate was found to be increased when either the membrane potential was made more negative or the concentration of external permeant ion was reduced. Both of these effects are consistent with a blocking site that is located within the channel pore. Other features of block, however, were incompatible with a simple pore blocking mechanism. Hyperpolarization enhanced the rate of unblocking, even though an aminoglycoside molecule must dissociate from its binding site in the channel toward the external solution against the membrane field. Raising the external permeant ion concentration also enhanced the rate of unblocking. This latter finding suggests that aminglycoside affinity is modified by repulsive interactions that arise when the pore is simultaneously occupied by a permeant ion and an aminoglycoside molecule.
Fault tolerant sliding modes control allocation with control surface priority weighting

This paper presents an on-line sliding mode control allocation scheme for fault tolerant control with the capability of prioritizing certain control surfaces over the others. This capability is achieved through the choice of the novel fixed priority weights tuned during the design process. During faults and even total failures, the effectiveness level of the actuators is used by the control allocation scheme to redistribute the control signals to the remaining actuators. The simulation results show the capability of the controller in nominal conditions, and its capability to directly handle faults and even total failures, with almost no degradation in performance, without reconfiguring the controller.
Residual Smoothing Techniques for Iterative Methods

An iterative method for solving a linear system $Ax = b$ produces iterates $\{ x_k \} $ with associated residual norms that, in general, need not decrease “smoothly” to zero. “Residual smoothing” techniques are considered that generate a second sequence $\{ y_k \} $ via a simple relation $y_k = (1 - \eta _k )y_{k - 1} + \eta _k x_k $. The authors first review and comment on a technique of this form introduced by Schonauer and Weiss that results in $\{ y_k \} $ with monotone decreasing residual norms; this is referred to as minimal residual smoothing Certain relationships between the residuals and residual norms of the biconjugate gradient (BCG) and quasi-minimal residual (QMR) methods are then noted, from which it follows that QMR can be obtained from BCG by a technique of this form; this technique is extended to generally applicable quasi-minimal residual smoothing. The practical performance of these techniques is illustrated in a number of numerical experiments.
What are Establishment Fixed Effects ?

Disclaimer: Any views expressed here are ours and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Abstract We use a largely untapped dataset, the BLS's Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, to examine the nature of establishment fixed effects. We exploit the unique features of these data to define establishment fixed effects in a way that allows us to estimate the effects for a large number of establishments. We then examine how these effects vary by observed characteristics of establishments. These establishment-specific effects are estimated as average effects. But if they are unequally distributed within establishments, then it would be hard to argue that they are true establishment fixed effects. Therefore, we also we examine the extent to which these establishment-specific differentials are equally distributed. We find the expected relationships between establishment fixed effects and observable characteristics of the establishment. However, we also find that establishments' wage policies tend to reduce inequality over what would be predicted by the mix of occupations employed by establishments.
Emotional arousal estimation while reading comics based on physiological signal analysis

Estimating emotions while reading enables new services such as comic recommendation. Most of existing emotion estimation systems employ bulky devices. Furthermore, few applications have been developed for analyzing the emotions while reading. The purpose of our research is to develop a method for estimating emotions while reading. As the target of reading, we select comics, which stimulate emotions often more than other types of documents. As we want our system to be easily usable, we selected sensors embedded in a wristband and an eye tracker. Emotions can be described by two dimensions called emotional valence and arousal. As a first step, we propose in this paper to estimate the emotional arousal. We analyze the electrodermal activity, blood volume pulse, heart rate, skin temperature and pupil diameter of a subject to estimate if the reader feels a high or low arousal while reading. Our experiment shows that for some participants, the arousal can be estimated accurately.
PowerSet: A Comprehensive Visualization of Set Intersections

When analyzing a large amount of data, analysts often define groups over data elements that share certain properties. Using these groups as the unit of analysis not only reduces the data volume, but also allows detecting various patterns in the data. This involves analyzing intersection relations between these groups, and how the element attributes vary between these intersections. This kind of set-based analysis has various applications in a variety of domains, due to the generic and powerful notion of sets. However, visualizing intersections relations is challenging because their number grows exponentially with the number of sets. We present a novel technique based on Treemaps to provide a comprehensive overview of non-empty intersections in a set system in a scalable way. It enables gaining insight about how elements are distributed across these intersections as well as performing fine-grained analysis to explore and compare their attributes both in overview and in detail. Interaction allows querying and filtering these elements based on their set memberships. We demonstrate how our technique supports various use cases in data exploration and analysis by providing insights into set-based data, beyond the limits of state-of-the-art techniques.
Adaptive resonant controller for grid-connected converters in distributed power generation systems

Due to its superior performance when regulating sinusoidal waveforms and the possibility to compensate for low order harmonics by means of harmonic compensator (HC), proportional resonant (PR) controller is a real alternative to the conventional proportional integral (PI) controller, when implemented in a grid connected system like distributed power generation systems (DPGS). Anyway, both PR and HC necessitate the resonant frequency value inside their internal model. Normally, the nominal value of the grid frequency and its multiples are used, but in the case when the grid frequency experiences fluctuations, the performance of both PR and HC is diminished. This paper discuss the possibility of improving the behavior of resonant controller and harmonic compensator in the case of grid frequency variations. The proposed solution makes use of the frequency information provided by the phase-locked loop (PLL) system already used in most of DPGS today. Experimental results are presented in order to validate the proposed solution and it shows to work very well.
An Integrated Full-Wave CMOS Rectifier With Built-In Back Telemetry for RFID and Implantable Biomedical Applications

This paper describes the design and implementation of an integrated full-wave standard CMOS rectifier with built-in passive back telemetry mechanism for radio frequency identification (RFID) and implantable biomedical device applications. The new rectifier eliminates the need for additional large switches for load modulation and provides more flexibility in choosing the most appropriate load shift keying (LSK) mechanism through shorting and/or opening the transponder coil for any certain application. The results are a more robust back telemetry link, improved read range, higher back telemetry data rate, reduced rectifier dropout voltage, and saving in chip area compared to the traditional topologies. A prototype version of the new rectifier is implemented in the AMI 0.5- mum n-well 3-metal 2-poly 5 V standard CMOS process, occupying ~ 0.25 mm2 of chip area. The prototype rectifier was powered through a wireless inductive link and proved to be fully functional in its three modes of operation: rectification, open coil (OC), and short coil (SC).
Multi-view and multi-objective semi-supervised learning for large vocabulary continuous speech recognition

Current hidden Markov acoustic modeling for large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) relies on the availability of abundant labeled transcriptions. Given that speech labeling is both expensive and time-consuming while there is a huge amount of unlabeled data easily available nowadays, semi-supervised learning (SSL) from both labeled and unlabeled data which aims to reduce the development cost for LVCSR becomes more important than ever. In this paper, we propose SSL for LVCSR by using the multiple views learned from different acoustic features and randomized decision trees. In addition, we develop the multi-objective learning of HMM-based acoustic models by optimizing a hybrid criterion which is established by the combination of the discriminative mutual information from labeled data and the entropy from unlabeled data. Experiments conducted on Broadcast News show the benefits of proposed methods.
Planar-bilayer activities of linear oligoester bolaamphiphiles

Voltage-clamp experiments of eight oligoester bolaamphiphiles in two subclasses are described. Syntheses of three new terephthalate-based compounds were achieved in three linear steps. Together with five previously described, related compounds, the ion transport activity was assessed by means of the voltage-clamp technique. All of the compounds show multiple types of conductance behavior in planar bilayers, a subset of which was exponentially voltage-dependent. The varied and irregular activities were summarized with the aid of a recently developed “activity-grid” method.
CCCJJGA: a new site of ribosomal frameshifting in ~~c~eric~i~ coli (Accuracy of translation; termination of translation; shifty stop; heterologous gene expression; transferrin)

SUMMARY To activate expression of a human transferrin(Tf)-encoding cDNA in Escherichia co/i by translational coupling, it was placed in an expression plasmid downstream from a S-terminal fragment from the replicase(R)-encoding gene of bacteriophage MS2. The resulting construct was found to produce, besides the desired Tf, a protein with the mobility of a fusion product (RTf) of the N-terminal R fragment and Tf. Analysis of available mutants showed that this fusion results from + 1 ribosomal frameshifting at the end of the R reading frame. This region contains the sequence, CCCUGA, suggesting that before termination occurs, tRNAP” may dislodge from the CCC codon and reassociate with the + 1 triplet CCU. By further site-directed mutagenesis, we demonstrate that both the CCC codon and the termination codon are indeed required for the observed 2-4% frameshifting. When either triplet is changed, the frequency of frameshifting drops to 0.3% or less. These results classify CCCUGA as a new ‘+ 1 shifty stop’.