Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maladaptive spinal plasticity opposes spinal learning and recovery in spinal cord injury

Synaptic plasticity within the spinal cord has great potential to facilitate recovery of function after spinal cord injury (SCI). Spinal plasticity can be induced in an activity-dependent manner even without input from the brain after complete SCI. A mechanistic basis for these effects is provided by research demonstrating that spinal synapses have many of the same plasticity mechanisms that are known to underlie learning and memory in the brain. In addition, the lumbar spinal cord can sustain several forms of learning and memory, including limb-position training. However, not all spinal plasticity promotes recovery of function. Central sensitization of nociceptive (pain) pathways in the spinal cord may emerge in response to various noxious inputs, demonstrating that plasticity within the spinal cord may contribute to maladaptive pain states. In this review we discuss interactions between adaptive and maladaptive forms of activity-dependent plasticity in the spinal cord below the level of SCI. The literature demonstrates that activity-dependent plasticity within the spinal cord must be carefully tuned to promote adaptive spinal training. Prior work from our group has shown that stimulation that is delivered in a limb position-dependent manner or on a fixed interval can induce adaptive plasticity that promotes future spinal cord learning and reduces nociceptive hyper-reactivity. On the other hand, stimulation that is delivered in an unsynchronized fashion, such as randomized electrical stimulation or peripheral skin injuries, can generate maladaptive spinal plasticity that undermines future spinal cord learning, reduces recovery of locomotor function, and promotes nociceptive hyper-reactivity after SCI. We review these basic phenomena, how these findings relate to the broader spinal plasticity literature, discuss the cellular and molecular mechanisms, and finally discuss implications of these and other findings for improved rehabilitative therapies after SCI.
The Embryonic Transcriptome of the Red-Eared Slider Turtle (Trachemys scripta)

The bony shell of the turtle is an evolutionary novelty not found in any other group of animals, however, research into its formation has suggested that it has evolved through modification of conserved developmental mechanisms. Although these mechanisms have been extensively characterized in model organisms, the tools for characterizing them in non-model organisms such as turtles have been limited by a lack of genomic resources. We have used a next generation sequencing approach to generate and assemble a transcriptome from stage 14 and 17 Trachemys scripta embryos, stages during which important events in shell development are known to take place. The transcriptome consists of 231,876 sequences with an N50 of 1,166 bp. GO terms and EC codes were assigned to the 61,643 unique predicted proteins identified in the transcriptome sequences. All major GO categories and metabolic pathways are represented in the transcriptome. Transcriptome sequences were used to amplify several cDNA fragments designed for use as RNA in situ probes. One of these, BMP5, was hybridized to a T. scripta embryo and exhibits both conserved and novel expression patterns. The transcriptome sequences should be of broad use for understanding the evolution and development of the turtle shell and for annotating any future T. scripta genome sequences.
Candidate MDS Array Codes for Tolerating Three Disk Failures in RAID-7 Architectures

Current storage systems use RAID-5 and RAID-6 architectures to provide protection against one and two disk failures, respectively. However, as the size of storage system grows rapidly three concurrent disk failures are becoming more frequent. To cope up with three disk failure, we propose a new RAID level, i.e., RAID-7, for which three-column-erasure tolerating MDS array codes are needed. However, it is an open question as to which MDS array codes should be used for RAID-7. In this paper, we compare different array codes, which can be used in RAID-7 systems that require storage efficiency (the ratio of number of information symbols to encoding (or codeword) symbols) <= 0.5. The paper discusses three-column-erasure tolerating MDS array codes proposed in the literature namely, [5,2] 2 x 5 BP-XOR code, [6,3] 4 x 6 lowest-density array code, [6,3] 2 x 6 STAR code, [6,3] 4 x 6 generalized RDP code. The paper introduces a new three-column-erasure tolerating [6,3] 2 x 6 almost BP-XOR codes. We analyze annual failure rate, storage efficiency, worst case normalized encoding/update/repairing/read complexity, repair bandwidth, and number of buffers required for these codes. We also provide experimental results to understand the average case encoding and repairing complexity of BP-XOR, STAR, GRDP, and almost BP-XOR codes by implementing them in software. From our analysis and experimental results, we conclude that [6,3] 2 x 6 almost BP-XOR are best suited for RAID-7 systems with storage efficiency <= 0.5.
Reliable and Efficient Data Acquisition in Wireless Sensor Networks in the Presence of Transfaulty Nodes

A collection of spatially distributed sensor nodes in a wireless sensor network (WSN) work collaboratively to sense the physical phenomena around them and then send the sensed information to the sink node through single-hop or multihop paths. In this work, we propose a scheme, named ReDAST, for reliable and efficient data acquisition in a stationary WSN in the presence of transfaulty nodes. Due to the transfaulty behavior, a sensor node gets temporarily isolated from the network. Temporary node isolation leads to the formation of dynamic communication holes in the network, which form and disappear dynamically. Furthermore, they may increase or decrease in size dynamically as well. These effects result in loss of information in the radiation-affected area. To prevent information loss in WSN due to transfaulty behavior of sensor nodes, in the proposed scheme, we construct the network using sensor nodes having dual mode of communication-RF and acoustic. To get redundant coverage within a radiation affected area, all the sensor nodes in the area become activated and switch to the acoustic communication mode after detecting themselves to be affected by radiations. In-network data fusion is performed to get actual information from the redundant information received from the radiation-affected area. Simulation results exhibit that the proposed scheme, ReDAST, achieves better energy efficiency and reduced average end-to-end delay than sensor nodes having only acoustic mode of communication.
Virtual Hand Illusion Induced by Visuomotor Correlations

Background Our body schema gives the subjective impression of being highly stable. However, a number of easily-evoked illusions illustrate its remarkable malleability. In the rubber-hand illusion, illusory ownership of a rubber-hand is evoked by synchronous visual and tactile stimulation on a visible rubber arm and on the hidden real arm. Ownership is concurrent with a proprioceptive illusion of displacement of the arm position towards the fake arm. We have previously shown that this illusion of ownership plus the proprioceptive displacement also occurs towards a virtual 3D projection of an arm when the appropriate synchronous visuotactile stimulation is provided. Our objective here was to explore whether these illusions (ownership and proprioceptive displacement) can be induced by only synchronous visuomotor stimulation, in the absence of tactile stimulation. Methodology/Principal Findings To achieve this we used a data-glove that uses sensors transmitting the positions of fingers to a virtually projected hand in the synchronous but not in the asynchronous condition. The illusion of ownership was measured by means of questionnaires. Questions related to ownership gave significantly larger values for the synchronous than for the asynchronous condition. Proprioceptive displacement provided an objective measure of the illusion and had a median value of 3.5 cm difference between the synchronous and asynchronous conditions. In addition, the correlation between the feeling of ownership of the virtual arm and the size of the drift was significant. Conclusions/Significance We conclude that synchrony between visual and proprioceptive information along with motor activity is able to induce an illusion of ownership over a virtual arm. This has implications regarding the brain mechanisms underlying body ownership as well as the use of virtual bodies in therapies and rehabilitation.
Fibrin glue mixed with platelet‐rich fibrin as a scaffold seeded with dental bud cells for tooth regeneration

Odontogenesis is a complex process with a series of epithelial‐mesenchymal interactions and odontogenic molecular cascades. In tissue engineering of teeth from stem cells, platelet‐rich fibrin (PRF), which is rich in growth factors and cytokines, may improve regeneration. Accordingly, PRF was added into fibrin glue to enrich the microenvironment with growth factors. Unerupted second molar tooth buds were harvested from miniature swine and cultured in vitro for 3 weeks to obtain dental bud cells (DBCs). Whole blood was collected for the preparation of PRF and fibrin glue before surgery. DBCs were suspended in fibrin glue and then enclosed with PRF, and the DBC‐fibrin glue‐PRF composite was autografted back into the original alveolar sockets. Radiographic and histological examinations were used to identify the regenerated tooth structure 36 weeks after implantation. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect proteins specific to tooth regeneration. One pig developed a complete tooth with crown, root, pulp, enamel, dentin, odontoblast, cementum, blood vessels, and periodontal ligaments in indiscriminate shape. Another animal had an unerupted tooth that expressed cytokeratin 14, dentin matrix protein‐1, vascular endothelial growth factor, and osteopontin. This study demonstrated, using autogenic cell transplantation in a porcine model, that DBCs seeded into fibrin glue‐PRF could regenerate a complete tooth. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Memdock: an α-helical membrane protein docking algorithm

MOTIVATION A wide range of fundamental biological processes are mediated by membrane proteins. Despite their large number and importance, less than 1% of all 3D protein structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank are of membrane proteins. This is mainly due to the challenges of crystallizing such proteins or performing NMR spectroscopy analyses. All the more so, there is only a small number of membrane protein-protein complexes with known structure. Therefore, developing computational tools for docking membrane proteins is crucial. Numerous methods for docking globular proteins exist, however few have been developed especially for membrane proteins and designed to address docking within the lipid bilayer environment. RESULTS We present a novel algorithm, Memdock, for docking α-helical membrane proteins which takes into consideration the lipid bilayer environment for docking as well as for refining and ranking the docking candidates. We show that our algorithm improves both the docking accuracy and the candidates ranking compared to a standard protein-protein docking algorithm. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION http://bioinfo3d.cs. tau.ac. il/Memdock/ CONTACTS namih@tau.ac. il or wolfson@tau.ac. il SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The Classroom as Living Room and Laboratory: Appreciating the Work of Vivian Gussin Paley

Look to the bookshelves of those interested in the inner world of the classroom and chances are a copy of Sylvia Ashton-Warner's Teacher will be within arm's reach. Ashton-Warner's narrative, published in the early 1960s, remains a classic in today's burgeoning field of educational literature often referred to as "Teachers' Stories and Stories of Teachers. "1 In her autobiographical accounts of classroom life-of teaching and learning and the lives of the children-Ashton-Warner is often opinionated, at times controversial, but always passionate. It is this same sense of passion-an emotion often lost or left out of our show-and-tell discussions about education-that drives the writing and research work of Vivian Gussin Paley. Yet, for Paley, it is this sense of passion and urgency that continues to fuel her ongoing work with children to capture the "unheard or unfinished murmur, the misunderstood and mystifying context, the disembodied voices asking for clarification and comfort" (Paley 1986b, 123). Vivian Gussin Paley's career as an early childhood educator is both exemplary and inspirational. A kindergarten teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Paley has written seven books over a thirteenyear period that spans 1979 to the present. The evolution of her pioneering work with storytelling technique in the classroom is well documented through White Teacher (1979), Wally's Stories: Conversations in Kindergarten (1981), Boys and Girls: Superheroes in the Doll Corner (1984), Mollie Is Three: Growing Up in School (1986a), Bad Guys Don't Have Birthdays: Fantasy Play at Four (1988), The boy who would be a helicopter: the uses of storytelling in the classroom (1990), and You Can't Say You Can't Play (1992). In her writings and reflections on classroom life, Paley can be observed as devoted teacher, eager student, storyteller, meaning builder, collaborator, and "theory-maker. '"2 The purpose of this review article is to highlight and celebrate some of these threads that wind their way through Paley's
L'invention des Pygmées

S. Bahuchet — Inventing Pygmies. A verse by Homer is used to show how the word "pygmy"—handed down and validated since Aristotle—was used till the 19th century. During all epochs, efforts were made to explain who Aristotle's Pygmies were: monsters, monkeys or men —until, after big apes in the 18th century, the small men of Equatorial Africa would become our Pygmies.
Five-brane instantons vs. flux-induced gauging of isometries

In five-dimensional heterotic M-theory there is necessarily nonzero background flux, which leads to gauging of an isometry of the universal hypermultiplet moduli space. This isometry, however, is poised to be broken by M5-brane instanton effects. We show that, similarly to string theory, the background flux allows only brane instantons that preserve the above isometry. The zero-mode counting for the M5 instantons is related to the number of solutions of the Dirac equation on their worldvolume. We investigate that equation in the presence of generic background flux and also, in a particular case, with nonzero worldvolume flux.
Moderating role of Type-A personality on stress-outcome relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of Type A/Type B personality on job stress-work and non-work outcomes. While research on the etiology of this predisposition has become important in recent years, there seems to be a lack of agreement regarding its exact moderating effects on important work and non-work outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Data collected from US-based organizations were analyzed using moderated regression analyses. Findings – The results of the study reveal that Type A personality moderates the relationships between job stress and job satisfaction, job involvement and personal life satisfaction. Findings indicate that individuals with Type A personalities do not necessarily experience concomitant decreases in these outcome measures when organizational stress increases. Originality/value – Although there has been an increased interest on the significance of Type A/Type B personality in the area of human stress and cognition, there is no consensus in t.
Relationship of Substance Use and Associated Predictors of Violence in Early, Middle, and Late Adolescence

ABSTRACT This study examined relationships among selected predictors of violence, including victimization, low conflict management efficacy, hostile anger and drug use in 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade adolescents. The study was a secondary analysis of data from a population-based, cross-sectional survey of health behaviors among adolescents (N = 3922). For each cohort, it was hypothesized that victimization and low conflict management efficacy would predict low hostile anger control, which would predict gateway drug use, and the subsequent development of hard drug use and violence. Overall model fit and the magnitude of specific paths were expected to increase across grades. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), results indicated acceptable model fit for 8th-grade (CFI = .95), 10th-grade (CFI = .93) and 12th-grade (CFI = .94) cohorts. Results suggest that the influence of relational victimization and conflict management efficacy on hard drug use may be mediated through low hostile anger control and gateway drug use.
AS-CRED: Reputation Service for Trustworthy Inter-Domain Routing

Abstract : The current design of BGP implicitly assumes the existence of trust between ASes with respect to exchanging valid BGP updates. This assumption of complete trust is problematic given the frequent announcement of invalid - inaccurate or unnecessary - updates. This paper presents AS-CRED, a reputation service for ASes which quantifies the level of trust one can have with respect to its announcing valid updates. To compute the reputation, AS-CRED analyzes the past updates announced by each observable AS in the Internet, over a time-window, based on well-defined properties. It then classifies the resulting observations into multiple types of feedback. The feedback values are input into a mathematical function for computing AS reputation. The reputation is then used to track the instances of invalid updates announced in the Internet and trigger alerts. The contributions of the paper are: (1) a reputation service for ASes, characterizing their trustworthiness; (2) a set of well defined properties for analyzing AS behavior; (3) a simple reputation function and feedback mechanism; (4) a reputation portal which regularly publishes AS reputation; and (5) a reputation-based alert service which tracks potentially invalid updates in the Internet. Detailed analysis of AS-CRED demonstrates: (1) AS behavior is repetitive making reputation an effective trust metric, and (2) AS-CRED's alerts for invalid updates show an eight fold improvement over existing alert systems.
An attitude scale for measuring language attitudes at South African tertiary institutions

This article presents findings based on an exploratory factor analysis of the results of a mini-survey conducted at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The factor-analytic results are subjected to an item analysis, which allows for the construction of an attitude scale that can be usefully employed to measure the attitudes of L1 African-language students towards the use of African languages as Languages of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) at South African tertiary institutions. The article includes an overview of the context in which the research was conducted, deals briefly with the applicability of exploratory factor analysis for this form of research and then presents the necessary data; i.e.the results of the factor and item analyses as well as the final attitude scale. The procedures followed during the course of both the factor analysis and item analysis are given explicit treatment in the article, since it is hoped that a full exposition of the processes involved will encourage more extensive use of these methods among linguists working in relevant sub-disciplines in South Africa.
Using the Staff Sharing Scheme to support school staff in managing challenging behaviour more effectively

This paper explores how educational psychologists working in a training/consultative way can enable teachers to manage challenging pupil behaviour more effectively. It sets out a rationale which encourages schools to embrace a group based teacher peer-support system as part of regular school development. It then explores the usefulness of the Staff Sharing Scheme as an exemplar of such an approach from the perspective of school based participants. Through a case-study approach, the current findings suggest that group based peer-support programmes help teachers reflect on the causes of disruptive behaviour holistically and subsequently to problem solve in a more coherent manner. This leads to changes in teacher behaviour within the classroom. Issues of time and trust were identified as important obstacles to the potential development of such a scheme within the school.
Integrated personal recommender systems

Recommender Systems belong to a class of systems intended to assist individuals make evaluations about entities in meaningful ways. In this paper we discuss the issues in the design of integrated recommender systems and suggest a framework that takes the perspective of an individual functioning in multiple domains. This is particularly applicable today with the rapidly increasing diffusion of personalized, networked mobile devices. We present some preliminary design ideas in the form of a functional prototype.
Argumentation in Science Teacher Education: The simulated jury as a resource for teaching and learning

In this article, we focus on the contributions that a simulated jury-based activity might have for pre-service teachers, especially for their active participation and learning in teacher education. We observed a teacher educator using a series of simulated juries as teaching resources to help pre-service teachers develop their pedagogical knowledge and their argumentation abilities in a physics teacher methods course. For the purposes of this article, we have selected one simulated jury-based activity, comprising two opposed groups of pre-service teachers that presented aspects that hinder the teachers' development of professional knowledge (against group) and aspects that allow this development (favor group). After the groups’ presentations, a group of judges was formed to evaluate the discussion. We applied a multi-level method for discourse analysis and the results showed that (1) the simulated jury afforded the pre-service teachers to position themselves as active knowledge producers; (2) the teacher acted as ‘animator' of the pre-service teachers' actions, showing responsiveness to the emergence of circumstantial teaching and learning opportunities and (3) the simulated jury culminated in the judges’ identification of the pattern ‘concrete/obstacles–ideological/possibilities' in the groups’ responses, which was elaborated by the teacher for the whole class. Implications from this study include using simulated juries for teaching and learning and for the development of the pre-service teachers’ argumentative abilities. The potential of simulated juries to improve teaching and learning needs to be further explored in order to inform the uses and reflections of this resource in science education.