Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hippocampal SPARC regulates depression‐related behavior

SPARC (secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine) is a matricellular protein highly expressed during development, reorganization and tissue repair. In the central nervous system, glial cells express SPARC during development and in neurogenic regions of the adult brain. Astrocytes control the glutamate receptor levels in the developing hippocampus through SPARC secretion. To further characterize the role of SPARC in the brain, we analyzed the hippocampal‐dependent adult behavior of SPARC KO mice. We found that SPARC KO mice show increased levels of anxiety‐related behaviors and reduced levels of depression‐related behaviors. The antidepressant‐like phenotype could be rescued by adenoviral vector‐mediated expression of SPARC in the adult hippocampus, but anxiety‐related behavior persisted in these mice. To identify the cellular mechanisms underlying these behavioral alterations, we analyzed neuronal activity and neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG). SPARC KO mice have increased levels of neuronal activity, evidenced as more neurons that express c‐Fos after a footshock. SPARC also affects cell proliferation in the subgranular zone of the DG, although it does not affect maturation and survival of new neurons. SPARC expression in the adult DG does not revert the proliferation phenotype in KO mice, but our results suggest a role of SPARC in limiting the survival of new neurons in the DG. This work suggests that SPARC could affect anxiety‐related behavior by modulating neuronal activity, and that depression‐related behavior is dependent upon the adult expression of SPARC, which affects adult brain function by mechanisms that need to be elucidated.
Ki67—Structure, function, and new antibodies

For nearly a decade the antibody Ki67 has been employed as an operational marker of cell proliferation despite a remarkable paucity of knowledge regarding the protein which is recognized by this antibody. The last year has brought new insights into this fascinating molecule and the generation of new antibodies. These new reagents may resolve one of the major problems of this reagent-the requirement for cryostat sectionssince at least one new antibody that recognizes Ki67 reacts with a fixation and wax-embedding resistant epitope. The murine monoclonal antibody Ki67 was generated when mice were immunized with nuclear extract from the L428 cell line' in the course of raising monoclonal antibodies to nuclear antigens specific to Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells. the Ki67 clone recognizes a labile epitope on a nuclear antigen which was expressed in cycling cells and absent from quiescent cells. A number of studies have shown that there is a very tight association between Ki67 immunoreactivity and the cell cycle, with expression appearing in mid to late G,, rising through S phase and G, to reach a maximum in mitosis2 After mitosis the antigen is rapidly degraded (or the epitope lost), with the half-life of the detectable antigen being an hour or less. ' Although the evidence that Ki67 expression correlates with cell proliferation is very strong, it may overestimate growth f r a ~ t i o n . ~ Verheijen et al.' have pointed to possible alterations of expression in nutritionally deprived cells, as evidenced by the inappropriate lack of expression of the antigen in all phases of the cell cycle in slow growing or nutritionally deprived cells in culture. Despite the poor understanding of the Ki67 antigen, the antibody has been very widely used in pathology, particularly in studies investigating the possible prognostic value of assessing cell proliferation in clinical rnateriaI. 'j The cell biological analysis of Ki67 antigen has been extensive and has included analysis of the spatial and temporal patterns of expression of the antigen in a variety of normal and neoplastic human
Low noise chopper instrumentation amplifier with feed-forward ripple suppression technique

A low noise chopper instrumentation amplifier (IA) with proposed feed-forward ripple suppression (FFRS) technique is presented in this paper. Employing a feed-forward path followed by a ripple suppression transfer function, the proposed technique eliminates the output chopping ripples significantly. In addition, ripple suppression is achieved without much current consumption overhead. The chopper IA is designed for high input impedance along with minimized noise floor essential for signal conditioning circuits of biopotential signals. Simulation results, using UMC 65 nm CMOS technology, reveals that the proposed FFRS technique achieves an input referred ripple equals to 0.28 μV corresponding to 68 dB of ripple suppression. Moreover, the DC input impedance of the chopper IA is 6 GΩ. The overall chopper IA achieves an input noise power spectral density (PSD) equals to 55 nV/√Hz and bandwidth equals to 1 kHz with supply voltage equals to 1.2 V.
“With a Smile Through Tears”: The Uprooted Career of the Man Behind Gerstmann Syndrome

Austrian neuroscientist Josef Gerstmann, well known for describing Gerstmann syndrome and for pioneering works on tactile agnosia, also co-described the familial prion disorder later known as Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease. In 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria (the “Anschluss”) and the three-time decorated war veteran Gerstmann was dismissed from his professorship in Vienna because of his “race. ” In 1942, he unknowingly had his doctorate stripped, only to have it returned in 1955. The Gerstmann properties were seized in Vienna, resulting in a bitter postwar reclamation battle. Gerstmann immigrated to the United States quickly after the annexation and had some success in exile but never again directed a hospital. He maintained a private practice throughout his exile and, in the 1940s, had some research and consulting positions in New York. More than 75 years after the Anschluss, many questions remain unanswered about Gerstmann’s forced exile and the impact of becoming a refugee on his life and career.
Symbol Timing Estimation in Multiband Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing based Ultrawide band System

Problem statement: The Multiband Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MB-OFDM) Based Ultra Wideband system (UWB) is highly susceptible to symbol timing error. Symbol timing estimation in MB-OFDM based UWB is difficult due to the presence of strongest path at delayed instant. Approach: Symbol timing estimation has two steps namely a coarse estimation and a fine estimation. In this study, a maximum likelihood framework for the fine timing estimation is proposed. It utilizes the delay embedded in the estimated Channel Impulse Response (CIR) obtained from the cross correlation of training sequence with the received sequence. Results: The performance of the proposed method is analyzed in terms of probability of correct timing detection. It is observed that the proposed technique has better probability of correct timing detection performance compared to the existing algorithm, in all the UWB channel models proposed by IEEE 802.15. 3a working group for UWB systems. Conclusion: A novel method to estimate fine symbol timing error for MB-OFDM based UWB system is proposed. This method will be suitable for MB-OFDM receivers for UWB positioning and UWB communication.
Effects of human mast cell tryptase and eosinophil granule proteins on the kinetics of blood clotting

Hypereosinophilic syndromes are often associated with thrombosis through unclear mechanisms, and mastocytosis has been associated with a variety of bleeding disorders. The present studies were aimed at defining the roles and interactions of eosinophil and mast cell constituents on the kinetics of blood clotting as measured by thromboelastograms. Eosinophil granule proteins and purified eosinophil peroxidase markedly reduced the anticoagulant properties of the mast cell tryptase/heparin complex. Moreover, eosinophil peroxidase by itself functioned as a powerful procoagulant and also inhibited the anticoagulant actions of heparin in a chromogenic assay for antithrombin III/factor Xa activity. The anticoagulant activity of the tryptase/heparin complex was attributable exclusively to the associated heparin and not to the intrinsic enzymatic activity of tryptase. Eosinophil granule proteins also strongly inhibited the enzymatic activity of tryptase in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, thus implicating a critical role for eosinophil peroxidase. We conclude that eosinophil granule proteins and eosinophil peroxidase both function as powerful procoagulants and also inhibit the anticoagulant and enzymatic activities of mast cell tryptase. The present results thus provide a mechanistic rationale for the well‐established link between certain eosinophilic inflammatory disorders and hypercoagulant states. They also suggest that eosinophils may play an important role in neutralizing the anticoagulant activity of mast cell tryptase/heparin in various diseases. Am. J. Hematol. 73:18–25, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Method for Concept Labeling Based on Mapping between Ontology and Thesaurus

— When designing information systems that deal with large amount of domain knowledge, system designers need to consider ambiguities of labeling termsin domain vocabulary for navigating users in the information space. The goal of this study is to develop a methodology for system designers to label navigation items, taking account of ambiguities stems from synonyms or polysemes of labeling terms. In this paper, we propose a method for concept labeling based on mappings between domain ontology andthesaurus, and report results of an empirical evaluation.
Construction of a Homologous Selectable Marker Gene for Lentinula edodes Transformation

We cloned a gene for the iron sulfur protein (Ip) subunit from an edible mushroom, Lentinula edodes, and introduced a point mutation that confers carboxin resistance into it. The mutant gene successfully transformed L. edodes with high efficiency (9 transformants/2.5 μg vector DNA). Restriction enzyme-mediated integration (REMI) increased the transformation efficiency by about two-fold.
Genetic research with photosynthetic bacteria.

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The Dental Anxiety Scale and Effects of Dental Fear on Salivary Cortisol

Only a few studies have investigated use of the Dental Anxiety Scale in dental fear-induced neuroendocrine changes. The present study examined 19 female patients, each at two timepoints across an educational and a treatment session within a periodontitis therapy. Subjective measures included a visual analogue scale, the STAI State scale, and the Dental Anxiety Scale. Salivary cortisol was measured in parallel across all four timepoints. Although patients were significantly more aroused and anxious prior to the treatment session, salivary cortisol remained unchanged. However, patients with high Dental Anxiety were significantly more aroused and anxious and showed significantly higher salivary cortisol during the educational session than those with low scores on Dental Anxiety. In conclusion, the Dental Anxiety Scale differentiated mean neuroendocrine change between patients scoring low and high for Dental Anxiety and its use as an accurate tool to identify patients with high dental anxiety should be further studied predictively.
Overdrinking, swallowing inhibition, and regional brain responses prior to swallowing

Significance Drinking represents a crucial behavior that subserves the survival of species by maintaining fluid balance within the body. The present study confirms in humans the presence of swallowing inhibition after excess liquid has been drunk, revealing a mechanism important for the regulation of fluid intake. The findings presented here support the view that swallowing inhibition is probably a “hard-wired” process that aids maintenance of fluid balance within the body, thereby avoiding the detrimental effects of overdrinking that can cause water intoxication and eventually death. In humans, drinking replenishes fluid loss and satiates the sensation of thirst that accompanies dehydration. Typically, the volume of water drunk in response to thirst matches the deficit. Exactly how this accurate metering is achieved is unknown; recent evidence implicates swallowing inhibition as a potential factor. Using fMRI, this study investigated whether swallowing inhibition is present after more water has been drunk than is necessary to restore fluid balance within the body. This proposal was tested using ratings of swallowing effort and measuring regional brain responses as participants prepared to swallow small volumes of liquid while they were thirsty and after they had overdrunk. Effort ratings provided unequivocal support for swallowing inhibition, with a threefold increase in effort after overdrinking, whereas addition of 8% (wt/vol) sucrose to water had minimal effect on effort before or after overdrinking. Regional brain responses when participants prepared to swallow showed increases in the motor cortex, prefrontal cortices, posterior parietal cortex, striatum, and thalamus after overdrinking, relative to thirst. Ratings of swallowing effort were correlated with activity in the right prefrontal cortex and pontine regions in the brainstem; no brain regions showed correlated activity with pleasantness ratings. These findings are all consistent with the presence of swallowing inhibition after excess water has been drunk. We conclude that swallowing inhibition is an important mechanism in the overall regulation of fluid intake in humans.
Selecting Oil Wells for Hydraulic Fracturing: A Comparison between Genetic-Fuzzy and Neuro Fuzzy Systems

Hydraulic fracturing is widely used to increase oil well production and to reduce formation damage. Reservoir studies and engineering analyses are carried out to select the wells for this kind of operation. As the reservoir parameters have some diffuse characteristics, Fuzzy Inference Systems (FIS) have been tested for these selection processes in the last few years. This paper compares the performance of a neuro fuzzy system and a genetic fuzzy system used for selecting wells for hydraulic fracturing, with knowledge acquired from an operational data base to set the SIF membership functions. The training data and the validation data used were the same for both systems. We concluded that, despite the genetic fuzzy system being a newer process, it obtained better results than the neuro fuzzy system. Another conclusion was that, as the genetic fuzzy system can work with constraints, the membership functions setting kept the consistency of variable linguistic values.
Origin, maturation, and astroglial transformation of secondary radial glial cells in the developing dentate gyrus

The dentate gyrus is a brain region where neurons are continuously born throughout life. In the adult, the role of its radial glia in neurogenesis has attracted much attention over the past years; however, little is known about the generation and differentiation of glial cells and their relationship to radial glia during the ontogenetic development of this brain structure. Here, we combine immunohistochemical phenotyping using antibodies against glial marker proteins with BrdU birthdating to characterize the development of the secondary radial glial scaffold in the dentate gyrus and its potential to differentiate into astrocytes. We demonstrate that the expression of brain lipid‐binding protein, GLAST, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) characterizes immature differentiating cells confined to an astrocytic fate in the early postnatal dentate gyrus. On the basis of our studies, we propose a model where immature astrocytes migrate radially through the granule cell layer to adopt their final positions in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus. Time‐lapse imaging of acute hippocampal slices from hGFAP‐eGFP transgenic mice provides direct evidence for such a migration mode of differentiating astroglial cells in the developing dentate gyrus. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
German dominance in the European Monetary System: a reprise using robust Wald tests

This study re-examines the German dominance hypothesis in the EMS. A VAR in levels approach is adopted and modified Wald tests, which are robust to cointegration properties of the variables, are used. The findings indicate that, although Germany played a measurable role, the extent of monetary cooperation in the system was greater than previously detected.
Precomputed Radiance Transfer for Dynamic Scenes Taking into Account Light Interreflection

Fast rendering of dynamic scenes taking into account global illumination is one of the most challenging tasks in computer graphics. This paper proposes a new precomputed radiance transfer (PRT) method for rendering dynamic scenes of rigid objects taking into account interreflections of light between surfaces with diffuse and glossy BRDFs. To compute the interreflections of light between rigid objects, we consider the objects as secondary light sources. We represent the intensity distributions on the surface of the objects with a linear combination of basis functions. We then calculate a component of the irradiance per basis function at each vertex of the object when illuminated by the secondary light source. We call this component of the irradiance, the basis irradiance. The irradiance is represented with a linear combination of the basis irradiances, which are computed efficiently at run-time by using a PRT technique. By using the basis irradiance, the calculation of multiple-bounce interreflected light is simplified and can be evaluated very quickly. We demonstrate the real-time rendering of dynamic scenes for low-frequency lighting and rendering for all-frequency lighting at interactive frame rates.
Occurrence of heavy metals and antibiotic resistance in bacteria from internal organs of American Bullfrog ( Rana catesbeiana ) raised in Malaysia

A total of 40 bacteria have been successfully isolated from internal organs of the American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) raised in Malaysia, namely, eight isolates of Aeromonas spp. , 21 of Edwardsiella spp. , six of Flavobacterium spp. and five of Vibrio spp. In terms of antibiotic susceptibility testing, each isolate was tested against 21 antibiotics, resulting in 482 (57.3%) cases of sensitivity and 61 (7.3%) cases of partial sensitivity. Meanwhile, 297 (35.4%) bacterial isolates were registered as resistant. The multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index of each bacterial species indicated that bacteria from raised bullfrogs have been exposed to tested antibiotics with results ranging from 0.27 to 0.39. Additionally, high percentages of heavy metal resistance among these isolates were observed, with values ranging from 85.0 to 100.0%. The current results provided us information on bacterial levels of locally farmed bullfrogs exposed to copper, cadmium, chromium as well as 21 types of antibiotics.
Modelling nuclear fuel behaviour and cladding viscoelastic response

In light water reactors the nuclear fuel is in the form of uranium dioxide pellets stacked inside a thin-walled tube made from Zirconium alloy. The fuel rods provide the first barriers to the release of radioactivity as the isotopes are contained within the fuel matrix and the cladding tubes. Fuel behaviour analysis investigates the state of the fuel at given boundary conditions and irradiation history. The scope of this thesis consists of two main themes. The first is the uncertainty and sensitivity in fuel behaviour modelling and the tools required for its propagation to the rest of the nuclear reactor calculation chain. The second is the analysis and modelling of cladding response to transient stresses. A nuclear reactor is a strongly coupled system. The neutronics depend on the fuel and coolant temperature, the fuel temperature on the neutronics and the heat flux to coolant and coolant thermal hydraulics on the amount of heat transferred from the fuel. Propagation of uncertainties through the nuclear reactor calculation chain is an international on-going effort, and the complex interactions in the fuel rods make them challenging to analyze. In this thesis uncertainty and sensitivity of fuel behaviour codes is investigated and the development of a fuel module suitable for propagation of the uncertainties is detailed. The creep response of a cladding tube to changing conditions is conventionally modelled using the strain hardening rule. The rule assumes accumulated strain to be invariant during changes in the conditions, and is relatively simple to utilize. However, the original experiments which are used to justify the use of the strain hardening rule show that it applies only to a restricted set of conditions. In this thesis a simple methodology for predicting fuel cladding macroscopic response to stresses and imposed strains is developed by taking anelastic behaviour into account. The model is shown to perform well in describing both creep and stress relaxation experiments. ISBN, ISSN, URN ISBN 978-951-38-8346-1 (Soft back ed.) ISBN 978-951-38-8347-8 (URL: http://www.vttresearch.com/impact/publications) ISSN-L 2242-119X ISSN 2242-119X (Print) ISSN 2242-1203 (Online) http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-38-8347-8 Date October 2015 Language English, Finnish abstract Pages 65 p. + app. 56 p.
Resonant Tunneling and Quantum Cascading for Optimum Room-Temperature Generation of THz Signals

We report on the results of a numerical study of quantum transport in ZnSe-based resonant-tunneling diodes (RTDs) and quantum cascade oscillators (QCOs) with fixed and unequal barrier heights. It is found that the negative differential resistance exists up to room temperature in the current–voltage characteristics of the RTD and QCO devices with unequal barrier heights. Further, we demonstrate that QCOs with unequal barrier heights have a better frequency and power performance characteristics compared with RTDs and are more beneficial for high-power terahertz generation at room temperature. For the best QCO device with 100 periods of quantum cascading, a maximum output power of ~7–9 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for the operating frequency range from 0.1 to ~6 THz at room temperature was achieved.
Studying on the hedging strategies of basket default swaps under stochastic recovery environment

We provide the hedging strategies of basket default swaps with respect to actively credit default swap index. Based upon the Laurent's model, the extended model in which recovery is not constant but stochastic recovery depending upon the number of defaults in the portfolio is derived. We also develop the calibration procedure of such recovery rate form onto market input. Under the stochastic recovery environment, we study the hedging strategies of basket default swaps, such as the first-to-default swap and n-th default swap. We provide some numerical experiments including computing of the hedging strategies of first-to-default contract and n-th default swap contract and comparing the hedging results of [0-3%] collateralized debt obligations (CDO) tranche and [12-20%] CDO tranche between Laurent's model and the extended model. The numerical results show that the hedging strategies of basket default swap contract are feasible and the influences of recovery rate on the hedging strategies are not neglected whatever the portfolio credit derivatives.