Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Probing the Mechanism of Exocytosis at the Hair Cell Ribbon Synapse

Hearing relies on faithful synaptic transmission at the ribbon synapse of cochlear inner hair cells (IHCs). Postsynaptic recordings from this synapse in prehearing animals had delivered strong indications for synchronized release of several vesicles. The underlying mechanism, however, remains unclear. Here, we used presynaptic membrane capacitance measurements to test whether IHCs release vesicles in a statistically independent or dependent (coordinated) manner. Exocytic changes of membrane capacitance (ΔCm) were repeatedly stimulated in IHCs of prehearing and hearing mice by short depolarizations to preferentially recruit the readily releasable pool of synaptic vesicles. A compound Poisson model was devised to describe hair cell exocytosis and to test the analysis. From the trial-to-trial fluctuations of the ΔCm we were able to estimate the apparent size of the elementary fusion event (Capp) at the hair cell synapse to be 96–223 aF in immature and 55–149 aF in mature IHCs. We also approximated the single vesicle capacitance in IHCs by measurements of synaptic vesicle diameters in electron micrographs. The results (immature, 48 aF; mature, 45 aF) were lower than the respective Capp estimates. This indicates that coordinated exocytosis of synaptic vesicles occurs at both immature and mature hair cell synapses. Approximately 35% of the release events in mature IHCs and ∼50% in immature IHCs were predicted to involve coordinated fusion, when assuming a geometric distribution of elementary sizes. In summary, our presynaptic measurements indicate coordinated exocytosis but argue for a lesser degree of coordination than suggested by postsynaptic recordings.
A novel energy model for MANETs based on graphs with activation windows

Energy usage optimization is still an important issue and a critical design factor for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Only recently a few proposals appeared that consider energy-aware optimizations for routing protocols. In this paper we describe an analytical model for MANETs which is based on graphs with activation windows. The activation windows allow to model the on-off status of the network devices. Moreover, we propose an algorithm with pseudo-polynomial complexity, called STP algorithm (STPA), that based on the current position and state of the nodes determines the shortest time path between the source node and the destination node.
Older adults' detection of misspellings during reading.

OBJECTIVES Previous research has suggested that older adults' ability to detect a word as correctly or incorrectly spelled is intact, relative to younger adults. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the stability of misspelling detection processes across older adulthood when misspellings are presented in the context of reading. METHODS Participants included 180 older adults represented equally from three decades: young-old adults in their 60s, middle-old adults in their 70s, and old-old adults in their 80s. They read sentences about health-related topics one word at a time and pressed a key to detect misspellings. A repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted on misspelling detection accuracy as well as response times for correctly detected misspellings. RESULTS There was a consistent age-related decline in misspelling detection, where middle-old and old-old adults were less accurate and slower than young-old adults in detecting misspellings. DISCUSSION Requiring misspelling detection during reading increases the working memory demands that are necessary for successful comprehension. In resource-demanding contexts, the top-down verification process of confirming a word's orthographic features becomes more difficult with increasing age.
Plasmodium falciparum Reticulocyte Binding-Like Homologue Protein 2 (PfRH2) Is a Key Adhesive Molecule Involved in Erythrocyte Invasion

Erythrocyte invasion by Plasmodium merozoites is a complex, multistep process that is mediated by a number of parasite ligand-erythrocyte receptor interactions. One such family of parasite ligands includes the P. falciparum reticulocyte binding homologue (PfRH) proteins that are homologous with the P. vivax reticulocyte binding proteins and have been shown to play a role in erythrocyte invasion. There are five functional PfRH proteins of which only PfRH2a/2b have not yet been demonstrated to bind erythrocytes. In this study, we demonstrated that native PfRH2a/2b is processed near the N-terminus yielding fragments of 220 kDa and 80 kDa that exhibit differential erythrocyte binding specificities. The erythrocyte binding specificity of the 220 kDa processed fragment of native PfRH2a/2b was sialic acid-independent, trypsin resistant and chymotrypsin sensitive. This specific binding phenotype is consistent with previous studies that disrupted the PfRH2a/2b genes and demonstrated that PfRH2b is involved in a sialic acid independent, trypsin resistant, chymotrypsin sensitive invasion pathway. Interestingly, we found that the smaller 80 kDa PfRH2a/2b fragment is processed from the larger 220 kDa fragment and binds erythrocytes in a sialic acid dependent, trypsin resistant and chymotrypsin sensitive manner. Thus, the two processed fragments of PfRH2a/2b differed with respect to their dependence on sialic acids for erythrocyte binding. Further, we mapped the erythrocyte binding domain of PfRH2a/2b to a conserved 40 kDa N-terminal region (rPfRH240) in the ectodomain that is common to both PfRH2a and PfRH2b. We demonstrated that recombinant rPfRH240 bound human erythrocytes with the same specificity as the native 220 kDa processed protein. Moreover, antibodies generated against rPfRH240 blocked erythrocyte invasion by P. falciparum through a sialic acid independent pathway. PfRH2a/2b thus plays a key role in erythrocyte invasion and its conserved receptor-binding domain deserves attention as a promising candidate for inclusion in a blood-stage malaria vaccine.
Household Choice of Drinking–Water Source in the Philippines

This paper analyses household choice of drinking water source for 769 rural households in the Metro Cebu Area, Philippines. In particular, the effects of input prices, tastes and household size on the choice probabilities are analyzed. For the empirical analysis, a discrete choice approach consistent with utility maximization is employed. The findings indicate that the time cost is an important determinant of household choice of drinking water source and, surprisingly, that tastes, proxied by income, has ambiguous effects on household choice. The present study is contrasted to an earlier study in which inconsistency with utility maximization cannot be ruled out
Higher Education and Social Class : Issues of Exclusion and Inclusion

1. Social Class and Higher Education 2. Higher Education and Social Access: to the Robbins Report 3. Access to Higher Education: Inclusion for the Masses? 4. Participation and Potential Participation in UK Higher Education 5. The 'Value' of Higher Education 6. Information, Advice and Cultural Discourses of Higher Education 7. Entry Routes to Higher Education: Pathways, Qualifications and Social Class 8. Financial Barriers to Participation 9. Identities, Inequalities and Higher Education 10. Widening Participation in HE: Implications for Policy and Practice
Mining Semantic Location History for Collaborative POI Recommendation in Online Social Networks

Location-based social networks (LBSNs) have recently attracted millions of mobile users to explore attractive locations and share their visited experiences. As the increasing use of the online social networks, people demand personalized service to recommend places of interests (POIs) based on their personal preferences. Among POIs recommendation approaches, collaborative filtering that predicts POIs of the user based on the geospatial location and users' opinions is suite for LBSNs. Despite this, it is still a challenge to infer the similarity between users because of the unique characteristics of spatial items in LBSN. In this paper, we propose an effective POI recommendation method for LBSNs based on collaborative filtering. Our method focuses on mining interest similarity of users based on their check-in activities in LBSN. Since the geospatial locations cannot capture user's interests, we perform to mine semantic features of user's check-in history based on semantic location descriptions to discover the user's interests. We finally perform recommending nearby places to a particular user by fusing opinions from similar users according to the user's current location. Experimental results with two real-world datasets collected from Foursquare show that our proposed method can achieve satisfying precision and recall of recommended places.
Hough transform for interior orientation in digital photogrammetry

It is known that Hough transform is insensitive to noise and the desired results can be acquired even in the damaged image. Because of its applicability to the image with variations such as rotations or scale changes, Hough transform has been widely used to detect the outlines of arbitrary-oriented and arbitrary-scaled objects such as straight lines or circles. In this paper, we utilized Hough transform combined with the local dynamic thresholding method to accurately locate the center location of fiducial marks. Using detected fidual marks and calibration data, it was possible to determine the calibration coefficients to do interior orientation.
Mit. Libraries -utwci {on Working Paper Alfred P. Sloan School of Management Mode Locking and Entrainment of Endogenous Econonnic Cycles Mode Locking and Entrainment of Endogenous Economic Cycles Mode Lockins: and Entrainment of O Endogenous Economic Cycles

We explore t he robustness of aggregation in Sterman's model of the economic long wave. The original model aggregates all capital producing firms into a single sector and generates a large amplitude self-sustained oscillation with a period of roughly 50 years. We disaggregate the model into two coupled industries, one representing production of plant and long-lived infrastructure and the other short-lived equipment and machinery. While holding the aggregate equilibrium characteristics of the model constant, we investigate how mode-locking occurs as a function of the difference in capital lifetimes and the strength of the coupling between the sectors. Disaggregation allows new modes of behavior to arise: In addition to mode-locking we observe cascades of period-doubling bifurcations, chaos, intermittency. and quasi-periodic behavior. Despite the introduction of these additional modes, the basic behavior of the model is robust to the aggregation assumption. We consider the likely effects ot finer disaggregation, the introduction of additional coupling mechanisms such as prices. and other avenues for the exploration of aggregation in system dynamics models. 'Institute of Theoretical Statistics, Copenhagen Business School. 1925 Frederiksberg C, stch^p2 cbs dk -Physics Department, Technical University of Denmark. 2800 Lyngby, cekAhaos fldth dk "Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, . MA 02142. jsterman ^ mit.edu
Open-source software in an occupational health application: the case of Heales Medical Ltd

In this paper, we provide a case study of a small company, Heales Medical Ltd., that has chosen to use opensource software to develop an online integrated patient management system. We use this case study to examine some preconceptions of open-source technology in the light our experiences of open source in the Heales project. We identify costs and cost savings as being the primary business considerations, and identify software purchase and licensing as key advantages for open-source. We then look at development issues including software evaluation, implementation and programming, and identify these as more costly for open-source, in terms of time and effort expended. We also look at issues to do with open source licensing, which our initial investigations suggest is confusing and requires further analysis. Overall, the ability to modify the source code is regarded as a key benefit of open-source software, but in a business environment like Heales, this is of little importance.
Visualizing time-series on spirals

In this paper, we present a new approach for the visualization of time-series data based on spirals. Different to classical bar charts and line graphs, the spiral is suited to visualize large data sets and supports much better the identification of periodic structures in the data. Moreover, it supports both the visualization of nominal and quantitative data based on a similar visualization metaphor. The extension of the spiral visualization to 3D gives access to concepts for zooming and focusing and linking in the data set. As such, spirals complement other visualization techniques for time series and specifically enhance the identication of periodic patterns.
A new weighted centroid localization algorithm based on RSSI

An Anchor_optimized modified weighted centroid localization algorithm based on RSSI was proposed. Firstly, the algorithm optimize the anchor nodes according to the distance from the unknown node to the anchor nodes, and then it select the nearest four anchors to localize, the reciprocal of the sum of measured distance was be taken as the weigh. Finally the weights were modified so as to further improving the precision. Simulation results show that the algorithm accuracy has been significantly improved than the centroid algorithm and weighted centroid algorithm.
Spectral ageing: a new age perspective

We present an up-to-date critique of the physical basis for the spectral ageing method. We find that the number of cases where this method may be meaningfully applied to deduce the ages of classical double radio sources is small indeed. This critique is much more than merely a re-expression of anxieties about the calibration of spectral ageing (which have been articulated by others in the past).
Packing and unpacking knowledge

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse how a patent is an intangible asset and how it creates value.Design/methodology/approach – Through analysis of a set of cases, the paper analyses how a patent becomes related to a series of other elements. This approach investigates the details of how a patent becomes useful. Theoretically, the paper suggests that a patent only creates value from being entangled in a web of resources in action, contrasting this with patents on hold where they are described as entities but not as resources.Findings – The paper shows that patens a valuable not by themselves (on hold) but by being linked to a series of other resources and purposes (in actions). To understand the value of the patent is to understand its relationships to other mechanism in production, marketing and finance.Research limitations/implications – The paper sets out an approach to study the value of patents which looks at the network around the patent. This is a limitation inasmuch as it is difficult.
Party democratization and the salience of party leaders (Featured theme: On structural developments, Koizumi reforms, and the collapse of LDP rule)

Traditionally, LDP leaders rose to prominence through their proficiency in backroom dealings. Top contenders offered cabinet or party portfolio to different faction bosses, and whoever could forge a stable intra-party coalition became the LDP President (Sato and Matsuzaki 1986; Kohno 1997). While public support has always mattered to some degree, insofar as unpopular leaders have shorter lifespans, it has rarely been cited as the primary criterion for selecting the party leader. The electoral success of Koizumi Jun’ichiro as LDP President epitomizes a new model of political leadership that is built on public popularity, not factional brokering. Koizumi came to power promising administrative reforms and neoliberal economic policies that appealed to moderates but went against the interests of the party’s core constituency groups. Indeed, Koizumi vowed to destroy the LDP before he let conservative interests derail his goals. The conflicts between Koizumi and the party establishment came to a head in 2005, when Koizumi ousted LDP legislators who had voted against his signature postal privatization bill, dissolved the Diet, and nominated new candidates to run against his former co-partisans. The 2005 How has the democratization of Japanese political parties affected their public popularity and policy preferences? We focus on a major transformation in the 1990s: the introduction of electoral primaries, instead of a pure legislative vote, to select the party leader. We find two significant effects. First, leader primaries increase the short-term popularity of the party, in large part because those elections attract more media attention. Second, primaries have begun to accentuate intra-LDP divisions between rural vs. urban interests. Leader contenders generally differ in their geographical support bases, and while rural contenders have been more successful thus far, party membership is growing faster in urban areas. Both findings suggest that internal democratization has both immediate and long-term effects on the sources of party popularity.
Adjusting Medicare capitation payments using prior hospitalization data

The diagnostic cost group approach to a reimbursement model for health maintenance organizations is presented. Diagnostic information about previous hospitalizations is used to create empirically determined risk groups, using only diagnoses involving little or no discretion in the decision to hospitalize. Diagnostic cost group and other models (including Medicare's current formula and other prior-use models) are tested for their ability to predict future costs, using R2 values and new measures of predictive performance. The diagnostic cost group models perform relatively well with respect to a range of criteria, including administrative feasibility, resistance to provider manipulation, and statistical accuracy.
Modifying representations through joint attention Society of Mind – Final Project

In section 22.4 of the Society of Mind [9], Prof. Minsky discusses how a teacher can “lead a child to build large, complicated processes from smaller ones by laying out sequences of steps. ” I am interested in such sequences of steps. In particular, I am interested in how we can communicate new representations to each other, rather than simply communicating facts. One dictionary definition of communication is “a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior”(Merriam-Webster). I will look at instances of communication where the emphasis is on building that common system. For simplicity, in this paper I will consider the case of a single teacher and a single student, interacting in a series of tutorials through which the teacher endeavors to give the student new representations for some domain of interest. We can consider two general possibilities :-
Alternative Spring Break Jamaica! Service Learning and Civic Engagement in a Developing Country

This article features the work of an interdisciplinary faculty collaborative project that involved 35 university students who participated in a week long spring break service learning trip to the island of Jamaica. Details regarding the planning process are highlighted. A section is included on the experiences of students, student outcomes, and faculty assessment of how outcomes were met. Finally, a section on lessons learned for university faculty who are interested in developing similar experiential learning experiences for students is provided for future planning efforts.
Existential positive types and preservation under homomorphisms

We prove the finite homomorphism preservation theorem: a first-order formula is preserved under homomorphisms on finite structures iff it is equivalent in the finite to an existential positive formula. We also strengthen the classical homomorphism preservation theorem by showing that a formula is preserved under homomorphisms on all structures iff it is equivalent to an existential positive formula of the same quantifier rank. Our method involves analysis of existential positive types and a new notion of existential positive saturation.
COMPETITIVE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DISTRIBUTEDCOMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS WITH HECTILING

Resource management for scientiic applications in distributed computing environments is a complex problem. Over time, various techniques to manage resources at either coarse or ne levels of granularity in a network of workstations (NOW) have been proposed. A technique which has proven to be highly eeective at the ner level of granularity is Fractiling. It is a dynamic scheduling scheme, which after being integrated into a scientiic application, could be easily combined with any of the various coarse-grained techniques to optimize resource management. Recently, Fractiling has been combined with Hector, a coarse-grained strategy that has proven to be eecient in NOW. This resulting combination , Hectiling, provides the beneets of both. In this paper, experimental results of using Hectiling to execute a compu-tationally intensive scientiic application are presented. The combination of Fractiling with other coarse-grained strategies , such as Condor, MIST, etc., is also possible. While this technique has been implemented in NOW environments, it could be expanded to the worldwide interconnected network. This will open the possibilities of eeciently using the worldwide interconnected network resources for scientiic applications.
The Research of Motion Planning for Humanoid Robots

This paper presents research advances in motion planning for humanoid robots, which has been a focus of robotics research in recent years. The twelve-link model of humanoid robot is analyzed. Then the intelligent control techniques on path planning and gait planning have been introduced. The three algorithms of gait planning are fuzzy logic algorithm, neural network algorithm and genetic algorithm. The analysis and estimation aim to provide a typical overview on motion planning for humanoid robots.
Investigating von Kries‐like adaptation using local linear models

In this article we explore the conditions under which a von Kries-like model of color constancy is exact. This investigation is motivated by the fact that in practice the model has been shown to work well for a wide range of imaging devices despite the fact that previous analysis of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the model to work predicts that it should perform poorly for real lights and surfaces. We present a modified theory that reconciles this apparent contradiction and that is based on the observation that von Kries-like adaptation treats sensor responses independently of one another. Starting from this point we show how to recover, for a single sensor, set of surfaces, and reference illuminant, the set of von Kries illuminants: all lights for which von Kries-like adaptation is a perfect model of illumination change. To help us in this task we use a linear model of surface reflectance, but importantly, we use a local model, that is, a model derived by looking at reflectance only in the region to which the sensor of interest is sensitive. Adopting such a model and treating sensors independently of one another, we show that our new theory accurately predicts the good practical performance of a von Kries-like model. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 31, 90–101, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20186