Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dissociation in Effects of Lesions of the Nucleus Accumbens Core and Shell on Appetitive Pavlovian Approach Behavior and the Potentiation of Conditioned Reinforcement and Locomotor Activity byd-Amphetamine

Dopamine release within the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) has been associated with both the rewarding and locomotor-stimulant effects of abused drugs. The functions of the NAcc core and shell were investigated in mediating amphetamine-potentiated conditioned reinforcement and locomotion. Rats were initially trained to associate a neutral stimulus (Pavlovian CS) with food reinforcement (US). After excitotoxic lesions that selectively destroyed either the NAcc core or shell, animals underwent additional CS–US training sessions and then were tested for the acquisition of a new instrumental response that produced the CS acting as a conditioned reinforcer (CR). Animals were infused intra-NAcc with d-amphetamine (0, 1, 3, 10, or 20 μg) before each session. Shell lesions affected neither Pavlovian nor instrumental conditioning but completely abolished the potentiative effect of intra-NAcc amphetamine on responding with CR. Core-lesioned animals were impaired during the Pavlovian retraining sessions but showed no deficit in the acquisition of responding with CR. However, the selectivity in stimulant-induced potentiation of the CR lever was reduced, as intra-NAcc amphetamine infusions dose-dependently increased responding on both the CR lever and a nonreinforced (control) lever. Shell lesions produced hypoactivity and attenuated amphetamine-induced activity. In contrast, core lesions resulted in hyperactivity and enhanced the locomotor-stimulating effect of amphetamine. These results indicate a functional dissociation of subregions of the NAcc; the shell is a critical site for stimulant effects underlying the enhancement of responding with CR and locomotion after intra-NAcc injections of amphetamine, whereas the core is implicated in mechanisms underlying the expression of CS–US associations.
Efficient Rewriting Algorithms for Preference Queries

Preference queries are crucial for various applications (e.g. digital libraries) as they allow users to discover and order data of interest in a personalized way. In this paper, we define preferences as preorders over relational attributes and their respective domains. Then, we rely on appropriate linearizations to provide a natural semantics for the block sequence answering a preference query. Moreover, we introduce two novel rewriting algorithms (called LBA and TBA) which exploit the semantics of preference expressions for constructing progressively each block of the answer. We demonstrate experimentally the scalability and performance gains of our algorithms (up to 3 orders of magnitude) for variable database and result sizes, as well as for preference expressions of variable size and structure. To the best of our knowledge, LBA and TBA are the first algorithms for evaluating efficiently arbitrary preference queries over voluminous databases.
Relevance and Effort: An Analysis of Document Utility

In this paper, we study one important source of the mis-match between user data and relevance judgments, those due to the high degree of effort required by users to identify and consume the information in a document. Information retrieval relevance judges are trained to search for evidence of relevance when assessing documents. For complex documents, this can lead to judges' spending substantial time considering each document. However, in practice, search users are often much more impatient: if they do not see evidence of relevance quickly, they tend to give up. Relevance judgments sit at the core of test collection construction, and are assumed to model the utility of documents to real users. However, comparisons of judgments with signals of relevance obtained from real users, such as click counts and dwell time, have demonstrated a systematic mismatch. Our results demonstrate that the amount of effort required to find the relevant information in a document plays an important role in the utility of that document to a real user. This effort is ignored in the way relevance judgments are currently obtained, despite the expectation that judges inform us about real users. We propose that if the goal is to evaluate the likelihood of utility to the user, effort as well as relevance should be taken into consideration, and possibly characterized independently, when judgments are obtained.
Using a Modified Intervention Mapping Approach to Develop and Refine a Single-Session Motivational Intervention for Methamphetamine-Using Men Who Have Sex With Men

There is an ongoing need for the development and adaptation of behavioral interventions to address behaviors related to acquisition and transmission of infectious diseases and for preventing the onset of chronic diseases. This paper describes the application of an established systematic approach to the development of a behavioral intervention to reduce sexual risk behaviors for HIV among men who have sex with men and who use methamphetamine. The approach includes six steps: (1) a needs assessment; (2) preparing matrices of proximal program objectives; (3) selecting theory-based methods and practical strategies; (4) producing program components and materials; (5) planning for program adoption, implementation, and sustainability; and (6) planning for evaluation. The focus of this article is on the intervention development process; therefore the article does not describe steps 5 and 6. Overall the process worked well, although it had to be adapted to fit the sequence of events associated with a funded research project. This project demonstrates that systematic approaches to intervention development can be applied even in research projects where some of the steps occur during the proposal writing process rather than during the actual project. However, intervention developers must remain flexible and be prepared to adapt the process to the situation. This includes being ready to make choices regarding intervention efficacy versus feasibility and being willing to select the best intervention that is likely to be delivered with available resources rather than an ideal intervention that may not be practical.
Serologic typing of rickettsiae of the spotted fever group by microimmunofluorescence.

The micro-immunofluorescence (micro-IF) method was used to type rickettsiae belonging to the spotted fever or typhus groups according to their surface antigens. Seventy-two strains of rickettsiae from diverse sources, with varying histories of laboratory manipulation and immunologic characterization by other methods, were cross-tested against their mouse antisera. Fifteen serologic patterns (serotypes) were observed, 12 associated with spotted fever-group (SFG) rickettsiae and three with typhus group (TG) organisms. The reaction patterns of strains within each serotype were homogeneous. Nine of the SFG serotypes and the three TG serotypes were characteristic for rickettsiae that have been classified by other biologic procedures as to species (classified serotypes). The classified SFG serotypes included Rickettsia rickettsii (R-like), R. rickettsii (Hlp-like), R. sibirica, R. parkeri, R. conorii, R. rhipicephali, R. montana, R. australis, and R. akari. The three TG serotypes included R. prowazekii, R. typhi, and R. canada. Three SFG serotypes included rickettsiae that have not been identified as to species. Each consisted of two or more strains isolated in different years from widely-spaced localities in the United States and were considered to be distinct serotypes, which for the time being are unclassified. They included two strains of rickettsiae isolated from Dermacentor occidentalis ticks in California, three strains recovered from D. parumapertus ticks in southwestern United States, and three strains obtained from Ixodes pacificus ticks in Oregon. Each of three other strains had patterns of reaction that differed from those of all other rickettsiae. However, they were single representatives and evidence derived from this study is not sufficient to consider these as comprising additional serotypes. The results obtained by micro-IF are in general agreement with other procedures for antigenic differentiation of rickettsiae belonging to the SFG and TG. Therefore, an immunologic basis for serologic classification of these rickettsiae is likely. Micro-IF should prove to be particularly useful for determining taxonomic and epidemiologic relationships among SFG rickettsiae because of its simplicity and general applicability.
The NudA Protein in the Gastric Pathogen Helicobacter pylori Is an Ubiquitous and Constitutively Expressed Dinucleoside Polyphosphate Hydrolase* 210

The gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori harbors one Nudix hydrolase, NudA, that belongs to the nucleoside polyphosphate hydrolase subgroup. In this work, the enzymatic activity of purified recombinant NudA protein was analyzed on a number of nucleoside polyphosphates. This predicted 18.6-kDa protein preferably hydrolyzes diadenosine tetraphosphate, Ap4A at a k cat of 0.15 s−1 and a K m of 80 μm, resulting in an asymmetrical cleavage of the molecule into ATP and AMP. To study the biological role of this enzyme inH. pylori, an insertion mutant was constructed. There was a 2–7-fold decrease in survival of the mutant as compared with the wild type after hydrogen peroxide exposure but no difference in survival after heat shock or in spontaneous mutation frequency. Western blot analyses revealed that NudA is constitutively expressed in H. pylori at different growth stages and during stress, which would indicate that this protein has a housekeeping function. Given thatH. pylori is a diverse species and that all the H. pylori strains tested in this study harbor the nudAgene and show protein expression, we consider NudA to be an important enzyme in this bacterium.
IS THERE A PLACE FOR FEAR OF BLUSHING IN SOCIAL ANXIETY SPECTRUM?

Fear of blushing (FB) in front of other people is a frequent and potentially incapacitating problem, but is not yet described as a specific diagnosis in psychiatric classifications. This can be explained by a lack of comparative studies with other forms of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Our aim was thus to explore the specificity of FB in patients with SAD.
Evaluation of the antimicrobial effect of super-oxidized water (Sterilox®) and sodium hypochlorite against Enterococcus faecalis in a bovine root canal model

Ideally root canal irrigants should have, amongst other properties, antimicrobial action associated with a lack of toxicity against periapical tissues. Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) is a widely used root canal irrigant, however it has been shown to have a cytotoxic effect on vital tissue and therefore it is prudent to investigate alternative irrigants. Sterilox's Aquatine Alpha Electrolyte® belongs to the group of the super-oxidized waters; it consists of a mixture of oxidizing substances, and has been suggested to be used as root canal irrigant. Super-oxidized waters have been shown to provide efficient cleaning of root canal walls, and have been proposed to be used for the disinfection of medical equipment. Objective To compare the antimicrobial action against Enterococcus faecalis of NaOCl, Optident Sterilox Electrolyte Solution® and Sterilox's Aquatine Alpha Electrolyte® when used as irrigating solutions in a bovine root canal model. Methodology Root sections were prepared and inoculated with E. faecalis JH2-2. After 10 days of incubation the root canals were irrigated using one of three solutions (NaOCl, Optident Sterilox Electrolyte Solution® and Sterilox's Aquatine Alpha Electrolyte®) and subsequently sampled by grinding dentin using drills. The debris was placed in BHI broth and dilutions were plated onto fresh agar plates to quantify growth. Results Sodium hypochlorite was the only irrigant to eliminate all bacteria. When the dilutions were made, although NaOCl was still statistically superior, Sterilox's Aquatine Alpha Electrolyte® solution was superior to Optident Sterilox Electrolyte Solution®. Conclusion Under the conditions of this study Sterilox's Aquatine Alpha Electrolyte® appeared to have significantly more antimicrobial action compared to the Optident Sterilox Electrolyte Solution® alone, however NaOCl was the only solution able to consistently eradicate E. faecalis in the model.
HIDDEN MARKOV MODELS FOR ALCOHOLISM TREATMENT TRIAL DATA

In a clinical trial of a treatment for alcoholism, a common response vari able of interest is the number of alcoholic drinks consumed by each subject each day, or an ordinal version of this response, with levels corresponding to abstinence, light drinking and heavy drinking. In these trials, within-subject drinking patterns are often characterized by alternating periods of heavy drinking and abstinence. For this reason, many statistical models for time series that assume steady behavior over time and white noise errors do not fit alcohol data well. In this paper we propose to describe subjects' drinking behavior using Markov models and hidden Markov models (HMMs), which are better suited to describe processes that make sudden, rather than gradual, changes over time. We incorporate random effects into these models using a hierarchical Bayes structure to account for correlated responses within sub jects over time, and we estimate the effects of covariates, including a random ized treatment, on the outcome in a novel way. We illustrate the models by fitting them to a large data set from a clinical trial of the drug Naltrexone. The HMM, in particular, fits this data well and also contains unique features that allow for useful clinical interpretations of alcohol consumption behavior.
SCRIPTGARD: Preventing Script Injection Attacks in Legacy Web Applications with Automatic Sanitization

The primary defense against cross site scripting attacks in web applications is the use of sanitization, the practice of filtering untrusted inputs. We analyze sanitizer use in a shipping web application with over 400,00 lines of code, one of the largest applications studied to date. Our analysis reveals two novel problems: inconsistent sanitization and inconsistent multiple sanitization. We formally define these problems and propose SCRIPTGARD: a system for preventing such problems automatically matching the correct sanitizer with the correct browser context. While command injection techniques are the subject of intense prior research, none of the previous approaches consider both server and browser context, none of them achieve the same degree of precision, and many other mitigation techniques require major changes to server side code. Our approach, in contrast, can be incrementally retrofitted to legacy systems. We show how to provide an aid to testers during development. Finally we sketch how SCRIPTGARD can be used as a runtime mitigation technique.
Transformation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with nonhomologous DNA: illegitimate integration of transforming DNA into yeast chromosomes and in vivo ligation of transforming DNA to mitochondrial DNA sequences

When the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was transformed with DNA that shares no homology to the genome, three classes of transformants were obtained. In the most common class, the DNA was inserted as the result of a reaction that appears to require base pairing between the target sequence and the terminal few base pairs of the transforming DNA fragment. In the second class, no such homology was detected, and the transforming DNA was integrated next to a CTT or GTT in the target; it is likely that these integration events were mediated by topoisomerase I. The final class involved the in vivo ligation of transforming DNA with nucleus-localized linear fragments of mitochondrial DNA.
Characterization of Wolbachia Infections and Interspecific Crosses of Aedes (Stegomyia) polynesiensis and Ae. (Stegomyia) riversi (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract Prior studies have identified a complicated pattern of interspecific hybridization between members of the Aedes (Stegomyia) scutellaris (Walker) mosquito group, which includes medically important vectors of bancroftian filariasis and dengue. Here, we report that two members of the group, Aedes polynesiensis Marks and Aedes riversi Bohart & Ingram, are both infected with intracellular Wolbachia bacteria. Sequencing of the Wolbachia wsp gene demonstrates that the infections differ from each other and from Wolbachia infections previously reported in mosquitoes. Aedes polynesiensis is the first mosquito identified with a wMel Wolbachia type. Intraspecific crosses of infected and aposymbiotic lines generated via antibiotic treatment show that the Wolbachia infections in both species cause high levels of cytoplasmic incompatibility. Interspecific crosses show that the two species are reproductively isolated. However, repeating the interspecific crosses with aposymbiotic mosquito strains demonstrates that the Wolbachia infections play a role in preventing hybrid offspring. We discuss Wolbachia infections in relation to better defining the evolutionary relationships and causes of speciation within the group, understanding the basis for the observed east-to-west gradient in filarial refractoriness, and developing novel genetic control measures.
Self-Reported Disability: Association With Lower Extremity Performance and Other Determinants in Older Adults Attending Primary Care

Background Measurement of function usually involves the use of both performance-based and self-report instruments. However, the relationship between both types of measures is not yet completely understood, in particular for older adults attending primary care. Objective The main objective of the study was to investigate the association between the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) and the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) for older adults at primary care. A secondary objective was to determine the influence of sociodemographic and health-related variables on this relationship. Design This was a cross-sectional study. Methods A total of 504 participants aged 60 years and older from 18 different primary care centers underwent a one-session assessment including: sociodemographic variables, comorbidities, performance, self-reported disability, pain, depressive symptoms, and physical activity. Performance was assessed using the SPPB, and self-reported disability was assessed using the WHODAS 2.0. Results The correlation between WHODAS 2.0 and SPPB scores was strong (r=.65). Regression analysis showed that the SPPB total score explained 41.7% of the variance in WHODAS 2.0 scores (adjusted R2=41.6%). A second model including the SPPB subtests (balance, gait, and sit-to-stand), depressive symptoms, number of pain sites, pain intensity, and level of physical activity explained 61.7% of the variance in WHODAS 2.0 scores (adjusted R2=60.4%). No model improvement was found when considering the 6 WHODAS 2.0 individual domains. Limitations The cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow inferences on causal relationships. Conclusions This study's findings confirm that self-report and performance-based measures relate to different aspects of functioning. Further study is needed to determine if primary care interventions targeting lower extremity performance and depressive symptoms improve self-reported disability.
Application of Data Mining in e-Commerce

The web in recent years has been a big trend, which helped make it a source of information and essential in the various fields of research, in particular, the commercial area that represents the e-commerce electronic commerce. However, the competition in the e-commerce sites is very tight. This has pushed companies to conserve and retain customers rather than seeking to expand its market share by conquering politically. These requirements have introduced the extraction of knowledge from data in e-commerce sites, using data mining techniques. This article will be an introduction to the concept of data mining, a definition of economic concepts related to e-commerce, and the authors' approach to the application of data mining techniques in e-commerce.
Currency Crisis Forecasting with General Regression Neural Networks

The main purpose of this study is to devise a general regression neural network (GRNN)-based currency crisis forecasting model for Southeast Asian economies based upon the disastrous 1997–1998 currency crisis experience. For this some typical indicators of currency exchange rates volatility are first chosen, then these indicators are input into GRNN for training, and finally the trained GRNN is used for future crisis prediction. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed currency crisis forecasting approach, four typical Southeast Asian currencies, Indonesian rupiah, Philippine peso, Singapore dollar and Thai baht, are selected. Meantime we compare its performance with those of other forecasting methods to evaluate the forecasting ability of the proposed approach. Empirical results obtained reveal that the proposed currency crisis forecasting model has a surprisingly high degree of accuracy in judging the currency crisis level of each country in specified time period, implying that our proposed approach can be used as a feasible currency crisis early-warning system to predict currency crisis level for other countries around the world.
Applying Map-Reduce Paradigm for Parallel Closed Cube Computation

After many years of studies, efficient data cube computation remains an open field of research due to ever-growing amounts of data. One of the most efficient algorithms (quotient cubes) is based on the notion of cube cells closure, condensing groups of cells into equivalence classes, which allows to losslessly decrease amount of data to be stored. Recently developed parallel computation framework Map-Reduce lead to a new wave of interest to large-scale algorithms for data analysis (and to so called cloud-computing paradigm). This paper is devoted to applying such approaches to data and computation intensive task of OLAP-cube computation. We show that there are two scales of Map-Reduce applicability (for local multicore or multiprocessor server and multi-server clusters), present cube construction and query processing algorithms used at the both levels. Experimental results demonstrate that algorithms are scalable.
aWall: A Socio-Cognitive Tool for Agile Team Collaboration using Large Multi-Touch Wall Systems

Agile methods emphasize highly interactive and close collaboration within teams and among stakeholders. Due to still missing adequate digital tools, agile teams use mostly physical artefacts like wallboards and story cards. In this paper, we present aWall, an agile team collaboration tool for large multi-touch wall systems. aWall was designed based on empirical user research using new interaction and visualization concepts to support and foster the highly collaborative and communicative agile work style. The application is based on web technology and can be used in both co-located and distributed setting. The implemented prototypes were validated with end-users in a user workshop.