Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simultaneous measurement of intracellular calcium and electrical activity from patterned neural networks in culture

Multisite extracellular electrical activity and intracellular calcium were recorded simultaneously. Electrical signals were measured using microelectrode array substrates. A novel cell positioning technique was combined with a method for controlling neurite outgrowth, which allowed cell-electrode contacts to be established easily, thus facilitating the electrical recording. Intracellular calcium was measured optically using the indicator fluo-3. Under low-magnesium conditions, cultured rat cortical neurons showed periodic transients of fluo-3 fluorescence, which were synchronized with the periodic bursting observed electrically. The intervals between bursts could be determined by electrical stimulation through the substrate electrodes. The results suggest that functional synaptic connections are formed in the culture system. <<ETX>>
Bursting the Bubble from the Inside: Individual and environmental barriers to upward mobility among Mexican immigrants

Bursting the Bubble from the Inside: Individual and Environmental Barriers and Motivators to Upward Mobility Among Mexican Immigrants by Rachel Shell Shinnar Dr. Cheri A. Young, Examination Committee Chair Assistant Professor of Hotel Administration University of Nevada, Las Vegas The career progression of Hispanic employees has received limited attention in organizational and counseling psychology research and no studies examined the special circumstances relevant to Hispanic immigrants. Additional career-related research with Hispanic immigrants is therefore necessary, and has been called for by specialists in the field (Arbona, 1995; Brown, 2002; Lent & Worthington, 1999; Leong & Brown, 1995; Super, 1991). Studying career progression of this group would enhance our knowledge regarding the ways in which cultural values and the overall “immigrant” experiences influence their desire for and actual pursuit of upward mobility. My study examined the barriers and motivators to career progression among Hispanic immigrant workers in the Las Vegas hospitality industry. As this was an exploratory study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seventeen Mexican immigrant hotel employees. Findings identify two main groups of variables influencing career progression among Hispanic immigrants: Individual and environmental variables. Individual variables include human capital, self-concept, ethnic identity, cultural values and stress. Environmental variables include the local job market, the organizational culture and climate, and the characteristics of the job itself. This study proposes a model explaining career progression among Hispanic immigrants and offers some recommendations for human resources professional to increase upward mobility within this employee group.
Which Is More Important for Cross-Project Defect Prediction: Instance or Feature?

Software defect prediction plays an important role in software testing. We can build the prediction model based on historical data. However, for a new project, we cannot be able to build a good prediction model due to lack of historical data. Therefore, researchers have proposed the cross-project defect prediction (CPDP) methods to share the historical data among different projects. In practice, there may be the problems of instance distribution differences and feature redundancy in cross-project datasets. To investigate which is more important for CPDP, instance or feature, we take instance filter and feature selection as examples to show their efficiency for CPDP. Our experiments are conducted on NASA and PROMISE datasets, and the results indicate that feature selection performs better than instance filter in improving the performance of CPDP. We can conclude that feature could be more important than instance for CPDP.
Orientation Tracking for Outdoor Augmented Reality Registration

Our work stems from a program focused on developing tracking technologies for wide-area augmented realities in unprepared outdoor environments. Other participants in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) funded Geospatial Registration of Information for Dismounted Soldiers (Grids) program included University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Raytheon. We describe a hybrid orientation tracking system combining inertial sensors and computer vision. We exploit the complementary nature of these two sensing technologies to compensate for their respective weaknesses. Our multiple-sensor fusion is novel in augmented reality tracking systems, and the results demonstrate its utility.
Efficiency of Ontology Mapping Approaches

(Semi-)automatic mapping — also called (semi-)automatic alignment — of ontologies is a core task to achieve interoperability when two agents or services use different ontologies. In the existing literature, the focus has so far been on improving the quality of mapping results. We here consider QOM, Quick Ontology Mapping, as a way to trade off between effectiveness (i.e. quality) and efficiency of the mapping generation algorithms. We show that QOM has lower run-time complexity than existing prominent approaches. Then, we show in experiements that this theoretical investigation translates into practical benefits. While QOM gives up some of the possibilities for producing high-quality results in favor of efficiency, our experiments show that this loss of quality is marginal.
Energy efficient GPS acquisition with Sparse-GPS

Following rising demands in positioning with GPS, low-cost receivers are becoming widely available; but their energy demands are still too high. For energy efficient GPS sensing in delay-tolerant applications, the possibility of offloading a few milliseconds of raw signal samples and leveraging the greater processing power of the cloud for obtaining a position fix is being actively investigated. In an attempt to reduce the energy cost of this data offloading operation, we propose Sparse-GPS: a new computing framework for GPS acquisition via sparse approximation. Within the framework, GPS signals can be efficiently compressed by random ensembles. The sparse acquisition information, pertaining to the visible satellites that are embedded within these limited measurements, can subsequently be recovered by our proposed representation dictionary. By extensive empirical evaluations, we demonstrate the acquisition quality and energy gains of Sparse-GPS. We show that it is twice as energy efficient than offloading uncompressed data, and has 5-10 times lower energy costs than standalone GPS; with a median positioning accuracy of 40 m.
EFFICIENCY IN EUROEPAN BANKS: WHAT EXPLAINS THE DIFFERENCES?(*)

In recent years, over a hundred studies have analysed the efficiency of financial institutions, mostly centering on costs. However, the few available studies that estimate profit frontier functions come up with efficiency levels that are much lower than cost efficiency levels, implying the existence of the most important inefficiencies on the revenue side. Also, few are the studies that run comparisons at an international level, and none of these deals with profit efficiency. This paper analyses, by means of alternative techniques, both cost and profit efficiency in a sample of 10 countries of the European Union for the period 1993-1996, again obtaining profit efficiency levels lower than cost efficiency levels. The paper also examines several possible sources of the differences in measured efficiency, including differences in size, specialisation, other bank characteristics, and market characteristics.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: in search of gold standards for assessing functional genetic screen quality

Variable screen quality, off‐target effects, and unclear false discovery rates often hamper large‐scale functional genomic screens in mammalian cells. Hart et al (2014) introduce gold standard reference sets of essential and non‐essential genes, aiming at standardizing the analysis of genome‐wide screens. This work provides a framework to compare both the quality and analysis methods of functional genetic screens.
Face Recognition with Single Training Sample Based on Local Feature Fusion

In the condition of single training sample, traditional methods get low recognition accuracy, or even can not be used. In view of this situation, this paper proposes a method to slove this problem. Firstly, face image is decomposed by image pyramids. Then, each layer image segmentation into sub images with th same size. After that, the feature of each sub image, which got with (W2DPC)2A, gets a weight through the adaptive method. Finally, Euclidean distance is used to classify face images. Experimental results on ORL and Yale show that the presented method can achieve a certain degree of recognition accuracy.
Reproductive tradeoffs and yolk steroids in female leopard geckos, Eublepharis macularius

Life history theory predicts tradeoffs among reproductive traits, but the physiological mechanisms underlying such tradeoffs remain unclear. Here we examine reproductive tradeoffs and their association with yolk steroids in an oviparous lizard. Female leopard geckos lay two eggs in a clutch, produce multiple clutches in a breeding season, and reproduce for several years. We detected a significant tradeoff between egg size and the number of clutches laid by females during their first two breeding seasons. Total reproductive effort was strongly condition‐dependent in the first season, but much less so in the second season. Although these and other tradeoffs were unmistakable, they were not associated with levels of androstenedione, oestradiol, or testosterone in egg yolk. Female condition and egg size, however, were inversely related to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels in egg yolk. Finally, steroid levels in egg yolk were not directly related to steroid levels in the maternal circulation when follicles were developing, indicating that steroid transfer to eggs is regulated. These findings suggest that maternal allocation of DHT could mitigate tradeoffs that lead to poor offspring quality (i.e. poor female condition) and small offspring size (i.e. small egg size).
To Zero or to Hold Control Inputs With Lossy Links?

This technical note studies the linear quadratic (LQ) performance of networked control systems where control packets are subject to loss. In particular we explore the two simplest compensation strategies commonly found in the literature: the zero-input strategy, in which the input to the plant is set to zero if a packet is dropped, and the hold-input strategy, in which the previous control input is used if packet is lost. We derive expressions for computing the optimal static gain for both strategies and we compare their performance on some numerical examples. Interestingly, none of the two can be claimed superior to the other, even for simple scalar systems, since there are scenarios where one strategy performs better then the other and scenarios where the converse occurs.
How to Cope With Digital Stress

There is considerable interest in ways to support adolescents in their digital lives, particularly related to the relational challenges they face. While researchers have explored coping with cyberbullying, the scope of relevant digital issues is considerably broader. Through the lens of online peer responses to personal accounts posted by adolescents, this study explores recommended strategies for coping with different experiences of socio-digital stress, including both hostility-oriented issues and digital challenges related to navigating close relationships. A content analysis of 628 comments posted in response to 180 stories of digital stress reveals five common recommendations: Get Help from others, Communicate Directly, Cut Ties with the person involved, Ignore the situation, and Utilize Digital Solutions. The most common recommendation for hostility-oriented issues is to Get Help, while Cut Ties is most common for issues that arise in close relationships. Variations in the pattern of recommendations proposed for different digital issues and for each type of recommendation are described. The findings point to both practical implications for supporting digital youth and next steps for research.
Compilation of LOTOS Abstract Data Types

Lotos data structures are described by sorts, which represent value domains, and operations, which are mathematical functions defined on these domains by algebraic equations. Value expressions are terms built from variables and operations. Sorts, operations, and equations are grouped in modules called types, which can be combined together using multiple inheritance, renaming, parametrization, and actualization.
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE IMPACT OF ACADEMIC PATENTING ON THE RATE , QUALITY , AND DIRECTION OF ( PUBLIC ) RESEARCH

We examine the influence of faculty patenting activity on the rate, quality, and content of public research outputs in a panel dataset spanning the careers of 3,862 academic life scientists. Using inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW) to account for the dynamics of self-selection into patenting, we find that patenting has a positive effect on the rate of publication of journal articles, but no effect on the quality of these publications. Using several measures of the "patentability" of the content of research papers, we also find that patenters may be shifting their research focus to questions of commercial interest. We conclude that the often-voiced concern that patenting in academe has a nefarious effect on public research output is, at least in its simplest form, misplaced. Pierre Azoulay Columbia University Graduate School of Business 3022 Broadway, Uris Hall 704 New York, NY 10027 and NBER pa2009@columbia.edu Waverly Ding University of California Haas School of Business 545 Student Services, #1900 Berkeley, CA 94720 wding@haas.berkeley. edu Toby Stuart Columbia. University Graduate School of Business 3022 Broadway, 710 Uris Hall New York, NY 10027 toby.stuart@columbia.edu
Vitamin D Deficiency and Leisure Time Activities in the Elderly: Are All Pastimes the Same?

Background Optimal vitamin D status is important for overall health and well-being, particularly in the elderly. Although vitamin D synthesis in the skin declines with age, exposure to sunlight still seems to help older-aged adults to achieve adequate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels. Elderly people would therefore benefit from outdoor leisure activities, but the effects of different types of pastime on serum 25OHD levels have yet to be thoroughly investigated. Aims To assess the association of different pastimes with 25OHD deficiency in elderly subjects. Methods A sample of 2,349 community-dwelling elderly individuals (1,389 females and 960 males) enrolled in the Progetto Veneto Anziani was analyzed. Brisk walking, cycling, gardening and fishing were classed as outdoor activities, and dancing and gym workouts as indoor pastimes. Any activities undertaken for at least 1 hour/week during the previous month were considered as being practiced regularly. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the association between different pastimes and 25OHD deficiency. Results Serum 25OHD levels were significantly higher in individuals who engaged in outdoor pastimes (+25% in women, +27.7% in men) compared to those who did not. In particular, subjects regularly practicing gardening or cycling had higher serum 25OHD levels than those who did not, whereas 25OHD levels differed little between subjects who did or did not undertake indoor activities. Among the outdoor pastimes considered, logistic regression analysis confirmed a lower likelihood of vitamin D deficiency (25OHD<50 nmol/L) for cyclists (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.37–0.69 in women; OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.29–0.87 in men) and gardeners (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.47–0.83 in women; OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.26–0.80), but not for brisk walkers. Conclusions Regular cycling and gardening reduce the likelihood of inadequate vitamin D status in Caucasian elderly people, irrespective of their age, BMI and comorbidities, and of the season of the year.
Occupational stereotypes: activation of male bias in a gender‐neutral world

The goal of the present study was to determine whether gender-neutral language, used to replace male-biased language, carries an implicit male bias. Participants read passages in which a target occupation was introduced using either male-biased or gender-neutral nouns. A target sentence followed defining the gender of the occupational character. In Experiment 1, participants read target sentences defining the character as a woman more slowly following passages that contained male-biased nouns and gender-neutral nouns. In Experiment 2, an additional sentence was added that defined the occupational character as a woman. This information eliminated the reading disruption in Experiment 1 demonstrating that gender-neutral language can moderate against activation of gender stereotypes when combined with an explicit mention that the occupational character is female.
Relationship Between HbA1c and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome in Stroke Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective To investigate the relationship between glycosylated hemoglobin A (HbA1c) and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in stroke patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods A retrospective chart review was performed of stroke patients from January 2012 to December 2013. We reviewed 331 patients and included 200 in the analysis. We divided them into CRPS and non-CRPS groups and compared them by age, gender, stroke lesion, cause of stroke, duration of T2DM, HbA1c (%), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, affected shoulder flexor muscle strength, Fugl-Meyer Assessment score, motricity index, Functional Independence Measure, Korean version of Modified Barthel Index, blood glucose level on admission day, duration from stroke onset to HbA1c check, and duration from stroke onset to three-phase bone scan for CRPS diagnosis. Thereafter, we classified the patients into five groups by HbA1c level (group 1, 5.0%–5.9%; group 2, 6.0%–6.9%; group 3, 7.0%–7.9%; group 4, 8.0%–8.9%; and group 5, 9.0%–9.9%) and we investigated the difference in CRPS prevalence between the two groups. Results Of the 200 patients, 108 were in the CRPS group and 92 were in the non-CRPS group. There were significant differences in HbA1c (p<0.05) between the two groups but no significant differences in any other factors. Across the five HbA1c groups, there were significant differences in CRPS prevalence (p<0.01); specifically, it increased as HbA1c increased. Conclusion This study suggests that higher HbA1c relates to higher CRPS prevalence and thus that uncontrolled blood glucose can affect CRPS occurrence in stroke patients with diabetes.
Semi-supervised and Unsupervised Methods for Categorizing Posts in Web Discussion Forums

Web discussion forums are used by millions of people worldwide to share information belonging to a variety of domains such as automotive vehicles, pets, sports, etc. They typically contain posts that fall into different categories such as problem, solution, feedback, spam, etc. Automatic identification of these categories can aid information retrieval that is tailored for specific user requirements. Previously, a number of supervised methods have attempted to solve this problem; however, these depend on the availability of abundant training data. A few existing unsupervised and semi-supervised approaches are either focused on identifying a single category or do not report category-specific performance. In contrast, this work proposes unsupervised and semi-supervised methods that require no or minimal training data to achieve this objective without compromising on performance. A fine-grained analysis is also carried out to discuss their limitations. The proposed methods are based on sequence models (specifically, Hidden Markov Models) that can model language for each category using word and part-of-speech probability distributions, and manually specified features. Empirical evaluations across domains demonstrate that the proposed methods are better suited for this task than existing ones.
Comparing Partition and Random Testing via Majorization and Schur Functions

The comparison of partition and random sampling methods for software testing has received considerable attention in the literature. A standard criterion for comparisons between random and partition testing based on their expected efficacy in program debugging is the probability of detecting at least one failure causing input in the program's domain. We investigate the relative effectiveness of partition testing versus random testing through the powerful mathematical technique of majorization, which was introduced by Hardy et al. (1952). The tools of majorization and the concepts of Schur (convex and concave) functions (1923) enable us to derive general conditions under which partition testing is superior to random testing and, consequently, to give further insights into the value of partition testing strategies.
Building a Knowledge base through Open Information Extraction techniques

The emergence of the Open-IE paradigm has given way to domain independent techniques for information extraction. Its capability of extraction new relations from text shows potential towards the task of building a knowledge base. However, its advantages also come with its disadvantages such as the lack of context expressed by the relations extracted by Open-IE systems. This research attempts to tackle the different problems associated with the incorporation of Open-IE towards the building of a knowledge base.
Cluster head selection algorithm for mobile wireless sensor networks

Cluster based routing protocols have significant impact on the energy dissipation and life time of wireless sensor networks (WSN). In this paper Basic Low Energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) protocol has been modified with our proposed LEACH-MAE(LEACH-Mobile Average Energy based) protocol to overcome its shortcomings to support mobility along with the new average energy based Cluster Head selection technique. Our simulation in NS2 shows that proposed algorithm improves network life time up to 25 % as well as helps to maintain the equal distribution of energy resource among the sensor nodes.
The Stress Kinase Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinase (Mkk)7 Is a Negative Regulator of Antigen Receptor and Growth Factor Receptor–Induced Proliferation in Hematopoietic Cells

The dual specificity kinases mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase (MKK)7 and MKK4 are the only molecules known to directly activate the stress kinases stress-activated protein kinases (SAPKs)/c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNKs) in response to environmental or mitogenic stimuli. To examine the physiological role of MKK7 in hematopoietic cells, we used a gene targeting strategy to mutate MKK7 in murine T and B cells and non-lymphoid mast cells. Loss of MKK7 in thymocytes and mature B cells results in hyperproliferation in response to growth factor and antigen receptor stimulation and increased thymic cellularity. Mutation of mkk7 in mast cells resulted in hyperproliferation in response to the cytokines interleukin (IL)-3 and stem cell factor (SCF). SAPK/JNK activation was completely abolished in the absence of MKK7, even though expression of MKK4 was strongly upregulated in mkk7 − /− mast cell lines, and phosphorylation of MKK4 occurred normally in response to multiple stress stimuli. Loss of MKK7 did not affect activation of extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 or p38 MAPK. mkk7 − /− mast cells display reduced expression of JunB and the cell cycle inhibitor p16INK4a and upregulation of cyclinD1. Reexpression of p16INK4a in mkk7 − /− mast cells abrogates the hyperproliferative response. Apoptotic responses to a variety of stimuli were not affected. Thus, MKK7 is an essential and specific regulator of stress-induced SAPK/JNK activation in mast cells and MKK7 negatively regulates growth factor and antigen receptor–driven proliferation in hematopoietic cells. These results indicate that the MKK7-regulated stress signaling pathway can function as negative regulator of cell growth in multiple hematopoietic lineages.