Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mu opioid receptors and neuronal circuits of addiction : genetic approaches in mice

Mu opioid receptors mediate the strong analgesic and addictive properties of morphine and heroin;however mu receptor function at circuit levels is not well understood and has been poorly studied by genetic approaches. These receptors are widely expressed throughout the nervous system, essentially in GABAergic neurons. The first aim of my project was to genetically inactivate the mu receptor gene in GABAergic forebrain neurons and study the behavioral consequences. Our study shows that these mu receptors are not implicated in morphine-induced analgesia and physical dependence, but are essential for locomotor effects of heroin. Moreover, our data show that these receptors inhibit motivation to consume heroin and chocolate, revealing an entirely new role for this particular population of mu receptors (Manuscript 1: Mu opioid receptors in GABAergic forebrain neurons are necessary for heroin hyperlocomotion and reduce motivation for heroin and palatable food). Also, mu receptors expressed in forebrain GABAergic neurons are not responsible for the autistic syndrome described in total mu receptor knockout mice (Manuscript 2: Mu opioid receptors in GABAergic forebrain neurons are not involved in autistic-like symptoms). Finally, we developed a new transgenic model targeting the mu receptor gene in glutamatergic neurons, but receptor deletion was not detectable in conditional mice. We also initiated the creation of a transgenic Cre driver line to knockout genes of interest in the extended amygdala, and this tool will enable us to study mu receptor function within this microcircuit.
Banking and commerce: how does the United States compare to other countries?

Historically, U.S. banks have not been permitted to invest in nonfinancial firms. Restrictions on firms' investments in banks, however, are a recent phenomenon. A comparison of U.S. and foreign regulation of affiliations between banks and nonfinancial firms shows that foreign banking laws are much more liberal. Nonetheless, data on banks' investment in shares and participations shows that they represent only a small fraction of banks' assets.
Hippocampal Volumes in a Sample of Trauma Patients: A Possible Neuro- Protective Effect of Dissociation

Background: We sought to determine hippocampal volumes in a sample of inpatients in a Trauma Program specializing in posttraumatic stress disorder and dissociative disorders. Methods: We measured whole brain and left and right hippocampal volumes on MRI in a sample of 20 inpatients in a Trauma Program and 20 controls. Results: There were no differences between the two groups. Nineteen inpatients also completed a set of diagnostic and symptom measures; 16 met criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); the average score on the Dissociative Experiences Scale was (M = 45.4, SD = 20.1); and the average score on the secondary features of dissociative identity disorder section of the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule was (M = 9.1, SD = 4.9). Conclusion: We hypothesized that dissociation may have a neuro-protective effect, which accounts for the normal hippocampal volumes in the patients, despite their PTSD and trauma histories.
A point-of-care clinical trial comparing insulin administered using a sliding scale versus a weight-based regimen.

BACKGROUND Clinical trials are widely considered the gold standard in comparative effectiveness research (CER) but the high cost and complexity of traditional trials and concerns about generalizability to broad patient populations and general clinical practice limit their appeal. Unsuccessful implementation of CER results limits the value of even the highest quality trials. Planning for a trial comparing two standard strategies of insulin administration for hospitalized patients led us to develop a new method for a clinical trial designed to be embedded directly into the clinical care setting thereby lowering the cost, increasing the pragmatic nature of the overall trial, strengthening implementation, and creating an integrated environment of research-based care. PURPOSE We describe a novel randomized clinical trial that uses the informatics and statistics infrastructure of the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System (VA) to illustrate one key component (called the point-of-care clinical trial - POC-CT) of a 'learning healthcare system,' and settles a clinical question of interest to the VA. METHODS This study is an open-label, randomized trial comparing sliding scale regular insulin to a weight-based regimen for control of hyperglycemia, using the primary outcome length of stay, in non-ICU inpatients within the northeast region of the VA. All non-ICU patients who require in-hospital insulin therapy are eligible for the trial, and the VA's automated systems will be used to assess eligibility and present the possibility of randomization to the clinician at the point of care. Clinicians will indicate their approval for informed consent to be obtained by study staff. Adaptive randomization will assign up to 3000 patients, preferentially to the currently 'winning' strategy, and all care will proceed according to usual practices. Based on a Bayesian stopping rule, the study has acceptable frequentist operating characteristics (Type I error 6%, power 86%) against a 12% reduction of median length of stay from 5 to 4.4 days. The adaptive stopping rule promotes implementation of a successful treatment strategy. LIMITATIONS Despite clinical equipoise, individual healthcare providers may have strong treatment preferences that jeopardize the success and implementation of the trial design, leading to low rates of randomization. Unblinded treatment assignment may bias results. In addition, generalization of clinical results to other healthcare systems may be limited by differences in patient population. Generalizability of the POC-CT method depends on the level of informatics and statistics infrastructure available to a healthcare system. CONCLUSIONS The methods proposed will demonstrate outcome-based evaluation of control of hyperglycemia in hospitalized veterans. By institutionalizing a process of statistically sound and efficient learning, and by integrating that learning with automatic implementation of best practice, the participating VA Healthcare Systems will accelerate improvements in the effectiveness of care.
The Future of Wetlands Mitigation Banking

Concern over historic wetlands loss led to a national goal of no net loss (NNL) of wetlands acres and their environmental services. In support of the NNL goal, the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), under authority granted by Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, reviews permits to discharge fill material into wetlands. A permit review process called sequencing requires a permit applicant (permittee) to first demonstrate to a regulator that they have applied all practical means to avoid and minimize the filling in of wetlands areas as part of a development project. Then the NNL goal requires permittees to provide replacement wetlands—ecologically successful restoration of former or degraded wetlands or creation of new wetlands from uplands—to offset the adverse environmental effects of the permitted wetlands filling (see Shabman, Stephenson, & Shobe, 2002, for a discussion of offset programs in air and water pollution control programs). When the replacement requirement was first established, permittees were expected to provide replacement wetlands (or wetlands “credits”) that were similar to the types of wetlands filled (“in-kind”), and that were located on or adjacent to the area of the fill (“on-site”). However, over time, program evaluations consistently found that inferior wetlands restoration and creation practices often were employed by permittees who had little skill (or interest) in wetlands restoration. Even when state-of-the-art practices were applied, the on-site and in-kind requirement often prohibited long-term ecological success, especially for replacing lost habitat services (e.g., wetlands hydrology was compromised by surrounding development). Meanwhile, because limited agency resources for monitoring and enforcement had to be scattered among many small wetlands credit projects, the quality of the credits was not assured; in fact, some required credit projects were never undertaken. These problems motivated interest in new approaches—generally called “wetlands mitigation banking”—for securing ecologically viable credits. One approach to mitigation banking relies on third parties (neither the regulator nor the permittee) to produce wetlands credits that can be used as offsets. Third-party wetlands mitigation banking often has been cited as a successful application of market-like environmental policy. After reviewing the experience with wetlands mitigation banking, we will conclude with a comment on whether this regulatory innovation fits the definition of market-like environmental policy.
The gender pay gap in Russia during the transition, 1992‐96

This paper explores the link between rising wage dispersion in Russia over the transitional period and the gender pay gap. The work of Blau and Kahn (1996) emphasized a role for 'wage structure' in the determination of the gender pay gap, although some interpretational issues concerning their methodology have been raised recently by Suen (1997). The unadjusted gender pay gap between 1992 and 1996 exhibited some degree of stability, but the analysis presented identified increased wage dispersion as a modest agent for the widening of the gap in Russia. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimates for an equation pooling observations from both gender groups, registered no statistical difference in the mean ceteris paribus gender pay gap between the two years. To complement the mean regression approach, quantile regression procedures were also employed. Although the median regression provided evidence of a statistically significant temporal increase in the gender pay gap, this finding was not supported at other chosen quantiles of the wage distribution. This result was taken to highlight the possible sensitivity of the OLS procedure.
Communicating Parallel Processes

Tony Hoare’s 1978 paper introducing the programming language Communicating Sequential Processes is now a classic. CSP treated input and output as fundamental programming primitives, and included a simple form of parallel composition based on synchronized communication. This paper provides an excellent example of Tony’s clarity of vision and intuition. The notion of processes is easy to grasp intuitively, provides a natural abstraction of the way many parallel systems behave, and has an abundance of applications. Ideas from CSP have influenced the design of more recent programming languages such as occam and Ada. Investigations of the semantic foundations of CSP and its successors and derivatives have flourished, bringing forth a variety of mathematical models, each tailored to focus on a particular kind of program behavior. In this paper we re-examine the rationale for some of the original language design decisions, equipped with the benefit of hindsight and the accumulation of two decades of research into programming language semantics. We propose an “idealized” version of CSP whose syntax generalizes the original language along familiar lines but whose semantics is based on asynchronous communication and fair parallel execution, in direct contrast with the original language and its main successors. This language permits nested and recursive uses of parallelism, so it is more appropriate for us to refer to Communicating Parallel Processes. We outline a simple semantics for this language and compare its structure with the most prominent models of the synchronous language. Our semantic framework is equally well suited to modelling asynchronous processes, shared-variable programs, and Kahn-style dataflow networks, so that we achieve a unification of paradigms.
What Influences Believing Child Sexual Abuse Disclosures? The Roles of Depicted Memory Persistence, Participant Gender, Trauma History, and Sexism

This vignette study investigated factors that influence believing child sexual abuse disclosures. College student participants (N = 318) in a university human subject pool completed measures about their own trauma history and responded to questions about sexist attitudes. Participants then read vignettes in which an adult disclosed a history of child sexual abuse, rated disclosures for accuracy and believability, and judged the level of abusiveness. Continuous memories were believed more than recovered memories. Men believed abuse reports less than did women, and people who had not experienced trauma were less likely to believe trauma reports. Gender and personal history interacted such that trauma history did not impact women's judgments but did impact men's judgments. Men with a trauma history responded similarly to women with or without a trauma history. High sexism predicted lower judgments of an event being abusive. Hostile sexism was negatively correlated with believing abuse disclosures. Results are considered in light of myths about child sexual abuse.
Spousal Well-Being of Service Members With Traumatic Brain Injury: A Qualitative Study

Brain injury has become the signature wound of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF), based on estimates that 10% of all returning warriors may have sustained a brain injury secondary to blast exposures. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects the lives of survivors as well as their loved ones, and the consequences associated with TBI inform wellbeing for all involved. This research uses grounded theory to understand contributing factors of female spousal well-being, specifically the female partners of servicemen who have sustained mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (mMTBI) during combat in OIF/OEF. Through the use of sequential interviews and transcript analysis, the Combat Related Traumatic Brain Injury (CoRTs) Model of Spousal Well-Being emerged illustrating the dynamic relationships among supports, role engagement, the process of redefining self, perceptions of personal empowerment and subjective wellbeing. Four key conclusions were identified from these findings: a) mMTBI affects the life of the surviving service member as well as the life of his partner, b) the myriad consequences of combat-related mMTBI on the female spouse prompted these women to engage in a journey of redefining self, c) communities of influence became the centerpiece from which participants could move forward with their lives or remain in their current state, and d) successful engagement in roles of choice provided study participants experiences from which to establish their new self, fostered perceptions of empowerment, and informed well-being. The CoRTs Model of Well-Being and conclusions provide a framework for future programming
Blocking LU Decomposition for FPGAs

To efficiently perform large matrix LU decomposition on FPGAs with limited local memory, the original algorithm needs to be blocked. In this paper, we propose a block LU decomposition algorithm for FPGAs, which is applicable for matrices of arbitrary size. We introduce a high performance hardware design, which mainly consists of a linear array of processing elements (PEs), to implement our block LU decomposition algorithm. A total of 36 PEs can be integrated into a Xilinx Virtex-5 xc5vlx330 FPGA on our self-designed PCI-Express card, reaching a sustained performance of 8.50 GFLOPS at 133 MHz, which outperforms previous work.
E-business models for web based social networks in the Republic of Macedonia

Since their introduction, social media sites (SMSs) such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites in their daily practices. As of this writing, there are hundreds of SMSs, with various technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. Social media are gaining popularity and are increasingly used in regular operations of many companies, including start-ups, small, medium-sized, and large organizations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the different e-business models and organizational factors that impact the successful use of social media in companies in the Republic of Macedonia. This research will focus on the extent of impact that social media have on organizational capabilities and business performance. From the research it could be found that successful deployment of set of external and internal factors can lead to the improvement of business performance (financial and nonfinancial) of the companies. According to the results, the successful use of web-based social networks can improve (1) CRM integration, (2) open communication within a company and (3) ICT integration.
A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research

The paper motivates, presents, demonstrates in use, and evaluates a methodology for conducting design science (DS) research in information systems (IS). DS is of importance in a discipline oriented to the creation of successful artifacts. Several researchers have pioneered DS research in IS, yet over the past 15 years, little DS research has been done within the discipline. The lack of a methodology to serve as a commonly accepted framework for DS research and of a template for its presentation may have contributed to its slow adoption. The design science research methodology (DSRM) presented here incorporates principles, practices, and procedures required to carry out such research and meets three objectives: it is consistent with prior literature, it provides a nominal process model for doing DS research, and it provides a mental model for presenting and evaluating DS research in IS. The DS process includes six steps: problem identification and motivation, definition of the objectives for a solution, design and development, demonstration, evaluation, and communication. We demonstrate and evaluate the methodology by presenting four case studies in terms of the DSRM, including cases that present the design of a database to support health assessment methods, a software reuse measure, an Internet video telephony application, and an IS planning method. The designed methodology effectively satisfies the three objectives and has the potential to help aid the acceptance of DS research in the IS discipline.
A simple and accurate dosimetry protocol to estimate activity for hyperthyroidism treatment.

BACKGROUND Aim of the study was to evaluate accuracy of different dosimetry protocols in estimating the required 131I activity to treat hyperthyroid patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty consecutive patients were analysed: twenty-eight Graves' disease; twelve autonomous thyroid nodule (ATN). Maximum-uptake, effective half-time and residence-time were estimated from Radioiodine Uptake Test. Residence-time was estimated using a bi-compartmental model. For 131I activity calculation, algorithms laid down in European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) guidelines, ICRP 53 approach and a mono-exponential formula (ME), were compared with OLINDA/EXM results. RESULTS Based on EANM guidelines, activities to be administered were 3% higher in Graves' disease (p = 0.001) and 3% higher in ATN (p = 0.046). Calculated activities using ICRP 53 approach were significantly lower compared to OLINDA/EXM: 33% in Graves' disease; 17% in ATN. Activities recommended by ME, were significantly higher: in Graves' disease 20%; 42% in ATN. CONCLUSIONS Only EANM algorithm predict quite well, compared to OLINDA/EXM, the required activity to treat hyperthyroid patients.
A segmentation method for high resolution remote sensing image based on texture gradient

A segmentation method based on texture gradient is proposed for the high resolution remote sensing images which have rich texture information. First, Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform is used to extract texture features. Second, texture gradient is calculated, and then it is combined with the intensity gradient to get the final gradient. At last, the labeling watershed algorithm is used in segmentation with the final gradient. This method not only avoids the over segmentation problem, but also preserves the edge information. The experimental results over aerial image and Quickbird satellite image show that the proposed method is well-behaved and efficient on high resolution remote sensing images.
Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuation Abnormalities in Adolescents with Online Gaming Addiction

The majority of previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated both structural and task-related functional abnormalities in adolescents with online gaming addiction (OGA). However, few functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies focused on the regional intensity of spontaneous fluctuations in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) during the resting state and fewer studies investigated the relationship between the abnormal resting-state properties and the impaired cognitive control ability. In the present study, we employed the amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method to explore the local features of spontaneous brain activity in adolescents with OGA and healthy controls during resting-state. Eighteen adolescents with OGA and 18 age-, education- and gender-matched healthy volunteers participated in this study. Compared with healthy controls, adolescents with OGA showed a significant increase in ALFF values in the left medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the left precuneus, the left supplementary motor area (SMA), the right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) and the bilateral middle cingulate cortex (MCC). The abnormalities of these regions were also detected in previous addiction studies. More importantly, we found that ALFF values of the left medial OFC and left precuneus were positively correlated with the duration of OGA in adolescents with OGA. The ALFF values of the left medial OFC were also correlated with the color-word Stroop test performance. Our results suggested that the abnormal spontaneous neuronal activity of these regions may be implicated in the underlying pathophysiology of OGA.
Discovery of a Transient X-Ray Pulsar, AX J1841.0$-$0536, in the Scutum Arm Region with ASCA

We report on the discovery of a transient X-ray pulsar, AX J1841.0-0536, serendipitously found in the Scutum arm region with the ASCA in two separate observations. The X-ray flux is very faint at the beginning, but exhibits two flares in the second observation. The flare flux increases by a factor 10 within only about 1 hr. Coherent pulsations with a period of 4.7394 plus/minus 0.0008 s were detected in the brightest flare phase. The X-ray spectra in the quiescent and flare phases were fitted with an absorbed power-law model with a photon index about 1 plus a narrow Gaussian line at the center energy of 6.4 keV. The interstellar column density of about 3E22 /cm2 may indicate that AX J1841.0-0536 is located at a tangential point of the Scutum arm at about 10 kpc distance. The coherent pulsations, large flux variability and the spectral shape suggest that AX J1841.0-0536 is a Be/X-ray binary pulsar.