Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Progressive and Lasting Amplification of Accumbal Nicotine-Seeking Neural Signals

Although neuroadaptations in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) are thought to contribute to nicotine addiction, little is known about the chronic effects of nicotine on NAc neuronal activity. In the present experiment, rats were exposed to a 23 d period of nicotine self-administration (SA), a 30 d abstinence period, and a 7 d period of reexposure to SA. Chronic electrophysiological procedures were used to record the activity of individual NAc neurons on the 3rd and 23rd days of initial SA and on the 1st, 3rd, and 7th days of reexposure. Between-session comparisons showed that NAc neurons exhibit two patterns of plasticity under the present experimental conditions. First, phasic-increase firing patterns time-locked to the nicotine-reinforced lever press do not change during initial SA, but then show increases in prevalence and amplitude after abstinence, which persist during reexposure. Second, for neurons that show no phasic response time-locked to the nicotine-reinforced lever press, average baseline and SA firing rates decrease during initial SA, return to normal during abstinence, and decrease again during reexposure. As a combined consequence of the two types of neurophysiological plasticity, average firing rate of NAc neurons at the time of nicotine-directed behavior undergoes a progressive and persistent net amplification, across the successive stages of SA, abstinence, and reexposure. This net increase in NAc firing at the time of nicotine-directed behavior occurs in association with an increase in animals' motivation to seek nicotine. The adaptations that occur in nicotine-exposed animals do not occur in animals exposed to sucrose. The NAc neurophysiological plasticity potentially contributes to compulsive tobacco use.
Reactivating fear memory under propranolol resets pre-trauma levels of dendritic spines in basolateral amygdala but not dorsal hippocampus neurons

Fear memory enhances connectivity in cortical and limbic circuits but whether treatments disrupting fear reset connectivity to pre-trauma level is unknown. Here we report that C56BL/6J mice exposed to a tone-shock association in context A (conditioning), and briefly re-exposed to the same tone-shock association in context B (reactivation), exhibit strong freezing to the tone alone delivered 48 h later in context B (long term fear memory). This intense fear response is associated with a massive increase in dendritic spines and phospho-Erk (p-ERK) signaling in basolateral amygdala (BLA) but neurons. We then show that propranolol (a central/peripheral β-adrenergic receptor blocker) administered before, but not after, the reactivation trial attenuates long term fear memory assessed drug free 48 h later, and completely prevents the increase in spines and p-ERK signaling in BLA neurons. An increase in spines, but not of p-ERK, was also detected in the dorsal hippocampus (DH) of the conditioned mice. DH spines, however, were unaffected by propranolol suggesting their independence from the ERK/β-ARs cascade. We conclude that propranolol selectively blocks dendritic spines and p-ERK signaling enhancement in the BLA; its effect on fear memory is, however, less pronounced suggesting that the persistence of spines at other brain sites decreases the sensitivity of the fear memory trace to treatments selectively targeting β ARs in the BLA.
Mice Deficient in the Polysialyltransferase ST8SiaIV/PST-1 Allow Discrimination of the Roles of Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule Protein and Polysialic Acid in Neural Development and Synaptic Plasticity

Functional properties of the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) are strongly influenced by polysialylation. We used gene-targeting to generate mice lacking ST8SiaIV/PST-1, one of the polysialyltransferases responsible for addition of polysialic acid (PSA) to NCAM. Mice homozygous for the null mutation reveal normal development of gross anatomical features. In contrast to NCAM-deficient mice, olfactory precursor cells in the rostral migratory stream express PSA and follow their normal pathway. Furthermore, delamination of mossy fibers in the hippocampal CA3 region, as found in NCAM-deficient mice, does not occur in ST8SiaIV mutants. However, during postnatal development these animals show a decrease of PSA in most brain regions compared to wild-type animals. Loss of PSA in the presence of NCAM protein but in the absence of obvious histological changes allowed us to directly address the role of PSA in synaptic plasticity. Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapses, which express PSA in wild types, showed impaired long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) in adult mutants. This impairment was age-dependent, following the time course of developmental disappearance of PSA. Contrary to NCAM mutant mice, LTP in ST8SiaIV mutants was undisturbed at mossy fiber–CA3 synapses, which do not express PSA in wild-type mice. The results demonstrate an essential role for ST8SiaIV in synaptic plasticity in hippocampal CA1 synapses, whereas PSA produced by different polysialyltransferase or polysialyltransferases at early stages of differentiation regulates migration of neural precursor cells and correct lamination of mossy fibers. We suggest that NCAM but not PSA is likely to be important for LTP in the hippocampal CA3 region.
αV Integrin Induces Multicellular Radioresistance in Human Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma via Activating SAPK/JNK Pathway

Background Tumor cells acquire the capacity of resistance to chemotherapy or radiotherapy via cell–matrix and cell–cell crosstalk. Integrins are the most important cell adhesion molecules, in which αV integrin mainly mediating the tight contact between tumor cells. Methodology/Principal Findings To investigate the role of αV integrin in multi-cellular radioresistance (MCR) of human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), we performed immunohistochemistry and Western blotting to find that the expression of αV integrin in the tumor tissue of radioresistant patients is much higher than that in radiosensitive patients. In vitro, we cultured human NPC cell line CNE-2 cells as multi-cellular spheroids (MCSs) or as monolayer cells (MCs), and found that the expression of αV integrin in MCSs is significantly higher than that in MCs. MTT, flow cytometry and clonogenic suvival assays showed that MCSs are less sensitive to X-ray irradiation than MCs while blocking of αV integrin in MCSs dramatically reversed their radioresistance. Furthermore, as detected by Western blotting, MCSs displayed sustained activation of the stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK) pathway in presence of irradiation. Blocking of αV integrin in MCSs decreased the expression of phosphorylated JNK. Additionally, blocking of SAPK/JNK signaling pathway synergistically induced apoptosis of MCSs exposed to irradiation by increasing the expression of cleaved caspase-3. In vivo, we found that irradiation combined with αV integrin blocking treatment significantly enhanced the radiosensitivity of NPC xenografts. Conclusions Our results indicate a novel role of αV integrin in multi-cellular radioresistance of NPCs.
Urgent question detection based on the review points and sentiment words

To response to customers during business activities, it is required to quickly find out the important question articles that need to be responded to promptly. This paper offers a proposal of priority judgment method based on the sentiment words inside these question articles in cases of large amounts of questions to services or products. The proposed method uses LDA which is known as an "unsupervised learning technique" to extract question articles as the "question target", and then the question target part referred in questions, known as the "review points" are extracted by KeyGraph based on question targets. For those emotions of question articles' authors from extracted review points, evaluation expression dictionary is used to give "sentiment words" to question articles. For the composition of question targets and review points, question articles with more negative emotions are considered higher priority. The proposed method is applied to the question articles registered in the online support community to perform a priority judgment experiment of them. After comparing the ranking of priorities given by users with support center experience, it is proved that the proposed method could correctly judge articles with high priority and the sentiment words given to articles with medium priority are also effective. In addition, its accuracy has also been improved while comparing to previous studies.
The biology of nerve injury in leprosy.

The steps in the pathogenesis of nerve injury in leprosy are depicted in Figure 1. Localisation of M. leprae to nerve, Schwann cell infection & responses, as yet unknown mechanisms of injury, axonal atrophy, and finally demyelination. These steps, and the mechanisms responsible for them, occur quickly in the course of this disease (as noted, even the earliest diagnostic lesions have sensory abnormalities), but they are also chronic processes that may contribute to progressive nerve injury over a period of many years unless interrupted by treatment, and even after cure of the infection in some patients. A common feature throughout this pathogenesis is inflammation--within and around the nerve. Inflammation is not only defined by its chemical mediators such as cytokines and chemokines, but by one of the most basic phenomena of inflammation--edema. The extent to which edema might contribute to nerve injury in leprosy has not been reviewed because it has not been studied in nerves affected by leprosy, although clinically, surgeons who perform neurolysis are convinced that they are decompressing nerves sustaining injury due to increased (edematous? ) pressure. Inflammation in and around nerves is undoubtedly driven, in part, by the immunological responses in each of the portions of the immunologic spectrum of leprosy, but some inflammatory phenomena may be non-specific inflammation related to infection and foreign material (i.e., mycobacterial components). Few if any fixed associations can be made between the steps outlined in this conceptual framework of events; even the depicted sequence of these events is uncertain. Considerable additional data is needed to determine the connections between these processes and their underlying mechanisms. Additionally, although much emphasis is given to myelinated fibres (and demyelination) in studies of the biology of leprosy neuropathy, the small, sensory fibres in the skin are not myelinated. Additional studies of mechanisms of injury to these nerves is required. The results of all of these studies can be reasonably expected to identify new points for clinical intervention in--and possibly the prevention of--nerve injury in leprosy.
Gender inequality and HIV transmission: a global analysis

The HIV pandemic disproportionately impacts young women. Worldwide, young women aged 15–24 are infected with HIV at rates twice that of young men, and young women alone account for nearly a quarter of all new HIV infections. The incommensurate HIV incidence in young – often poor – women underscores how social and economic inequalities shape the HIV epidemic. Confluent social forces, including political and gender violence, poverty, racism, and sexism impede equal access to therapies and effective care, but most of all constrain the agency of women.
Hierarchical Coding of Binary Images

Quadtrees are a compact hierarchical method of representation of images. In this paper, we explore a number of hierarchical image representations as applied to binary images, of which quadtrees are a single exemplar. We discuss quadtrees, binary trees, and an adaptive hierarchical method. Extending these methods into the third dimension of time results in several other methods. All of these methods are discussed in terms of time complexity, worst case and average compression of random images, and compression results on binary images derived from natural scenes. The results indicate that quadtrees are the most effective for two-dimensional images, but the adaptive algorithms are more effective for dynamic image sequences.
Known/Chosen Key Attacks against Software Instruction Set Randomization

Instruction set randomization (ISR) has been proposed as a form of defense against binary code injection into an executing program. One proof-of-concept implementation is randomized instruction set emulator (RISE), based on the open-source Valgrind IA-32 to IA-32 binary translator. Although RISE is effective against attacks that are not RISE-aware, it is vulnerable to pure data and hybrid data-code attacks that target its data, as well to some classes of brute-force guessing. In order to enable the design of a production version, we describe implementation-specific and generic vulnerabilities that can be used to overcome RISE in its current form. We present and discuss attacks and solutions in three categories: known-key attacks that rely on the key being leaked and then used to pre-scramble the attacking code; chosen-key attacks that use implementation weaknesses to allow the attacker to define its own key, or otherwise affect key generation; and key-guessing ("brute-force") attacks, about which we explore the design of mini-malistic loaders which can be used to minimize the number of mask bytes required for a successful key-guessing attack. All the described attacks were tested in real-world scenarios
Clustering Ensemble on Reduced Search Spaces

Clustering ensemble has become a very popular technique in the past few years due to its potentialities for improving the clustering results. Roughly speaking it consists in the combination of different partitions of the same set of objects in order to obtain a consensus one. A common way of defining the consensus partition is as the solution of the median partition problem. This way, the consensus partition is defined as the solution of a complex optimization problem. In this paper, we study possible prunes of the search space for this optimization problem. Particularly, we introduce a new prune that allows a dramatic reduction of the search space. We also give a characterization of the dissimilarity measures that can be used to take advantage of this prune and we proof that the lattice metric fits in this family. We carry out an experimental study comparing, under different circumstances, the size of the original search space and the size after the proposed prune. Outstanding reductions are obtained, which can be very beneficial for the development of clustering ensemble algorithms.
A Greedy Common Subexpression Elimination Algorithm for Implementing FIR Filters

The complexity of finite impulse response (FIR) filters is dominated by the number of adders (subtractors) used to implement the coefficient multipliers. A greedy common subexpression elimination (CSE) algorithm with a look-ahead method based on the canonic signed digit (CSD) representation of filter coefficients for implementing low complexity FIR filters is proposed in this paper. Our look-ahead algorithm chooses the maximum number of frequently occurring common subexpressions and hence reduces the number of adders required to implement the filter. This adder reduction is achieved without any increase in critical path length. Design examples of FIR filters show that the proposed method offers an average adder reduction of about 20% over the best known CSE method.
Commutation relations of vertex operators related with the spin representation of Uq(Dn

A new scheme to study the XXZ spin chain in massive regime is introduced by Davies et al in [1]. In this scheme, which is called "quantum symmetry approach", the space of states is identified with some Uq(A\_ ) -module. Under this identification, the XXZ Hamiltonian can be constructed on this module as an operator which commutes with the action of Uq(A\ '). Furthermore, the row transfer matrix and creation (annihilation) operators can be constructed by using vertex operators. In a similar way to [1], the higher spin chain [2] and the models related to the vector representation ofUq(A^) [3], Uq(B^\ U q ( D ( n } ) [5] are studied. In this paper, we consider the model related with the spin representation of Uq(Dn ). In physics the model that we consider here is explained as follows. It is a one dimensional quantum spin chain model constructed from the spin representation of Uq(Dn )• The Hamiltonian acts on the space of the infinite tensor product
Integrating biological knowledge, novel imaging modalities, and modeling in breast cancer diagnosis

Despite tremendous advances in modern imaging technology, both early detection and accurate diagnosis of breast cancer are still unresolved challenges. Today, a variety of imaging modalities and image-guided biopsy procedures exist to identify and characterize morphology and function of suspicious breast tissue. However, a clinically feasible solution for breast imaging, which is both highly sensitive and specific with respect to breast cancer, is still missing. As a consequence, unnecessary biopsies are taken and tumours frequently go undetected until a stage where therapy is costly or unsuccessful. Currently, the exact diagnosis of suspicious breast tissue is ambiguous in many cases. To resolve this, computer aided diagnosis methods are developed which use knowledge extracted from large multimodal case databases. Clinical workstations must be developed to allow clinicians to use additional image modalities in an optimal way. Dedicated tools are required to guide clinicians in establishing a diagnosis, and should ultimately lead to more specific and accurate diagnostic decisions.
Design of a master-slave rehabilitation system using self-tuning fuzzy PI controller

Many robotic devices have been developed for stroke patients to recover their upper limb motor function. Among them, master-slave type rehabilitation systems provide surveillance of the therapist to the patient who is performing home-rehabilitation. In this study, we proposed a wearable and light exoskeleton device for upper limb rehabilitation and designed a master-slave rehabilitation system using the exoskeleton device as slave device and a haptic device (Phantom Premium) as master device. To convey therapist's experience to patients using this system, the slave device is driven to track the motion of the master device manipulated by the therapist. In order to improve the tracking efficacy of traditional PI control, a self-tuning fuzzy PI control was proposed. Results of simulation indicated the proposed control method is more effective than the traditional PI control, particularly in tracking accuracy and response speed.
Beyond Intentionality: On the Non-dual Contemplative Practices of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition ‘The Great Perfection’

Abstract The Buddhist vision of liberation is intimately related with an experiential state that transcends intentionality, temporality and causality, owing to its non-directed, unchanging and unconditioned nature. As such, this vision reveals a novel mode of non-dual awareness, which is not divided into perceiving subject and perceived objects. In order to directly recognise this mode, several Buddhist traditions utilised diverse contemplative instructions that were meant to dissolve the intending tendencies of consciousness. This paper discusses one of these traditions – ‘The Great Perfection’ (Tib. rDzogs pa chen po) – which affirms an inherent experiential state that is open, luminous and all-encompassing. For the sake of realising such a state, this tradition advocates a contemplative approach which emphasises relaxation, spaciousness and non-intending. Through its view and practices, ‘The Great Perfection’ introduces a vision of lived experience that goes beyond the structures of intentional consciousness and entails a reassessment of our basic assumptions about human awareness.
Measuring Empathy to Support Learning Design and Narrative Game: A Phenomenological Approach

This work is the first step of a research aimed at the creation of instruments for empathy measurement in the learning - teaching process. In this context, the present article contributes to investigation towards the phenomenological approach to empathy concept (spatial theory of empathy[1]) and to the relationship between empathy and learning. The paper documents the choices made in the design stage of a narrative game aimed at measuring the competence of empathy. Assessment of empathy is a necessary step in a wide investigation path that could be especially useful in the design of innovative and adaptive learning experiences with a view to an ATI approach.
Reversible Markov chains and optimality of symmetrized empirical estimators

distribution of two successive observations of a reversible Markov chain. Then the usual empirical estimator can be improved by symmetrizing. We show that the symmetrized estimator is efficient. We point out applications to discretely observed continuous-time processes. The proof is based on a result for general Markov chain models which can be used to characterize efficient estimators in any model defined by restrictions on the stationary distribution of a single or two successive observations.
Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: Compassionate Care

A final point about the missionaries is that, counter to common misperception, their concern for the communities they ministered to was not of an exclusively otherworldly nature. Indeed, Jayakumar sees the missionaries as in fact anticipating dalit theology in their concern for wholistic upliftment which included a strong commitment to social advancement. This commitment to bringing social empowerment and equality to the lowest elements of Tamil society – literally, its outcasts – was historically unprecedented in South India. This social dimension of the missionaries work involved, on one hand, an emphasis on resolving conflicts within the community, temperance, assertion of legal rights, and various forms of self-help in the contemporary Victorian mode. On the other hand – and here Jayakumar shatters another common stereotype – the missionaries encouraged a form of cultural development that by no means entailed transforming their flock into Europeans. On the contrary, European missionaries were instrumental in an efflorescence of literary production in the Tamil language and in the rescue and preservation of Tamil classics. Jayakumar may overstate the case when he implies that European missionaries were single-handedly responsible for saving the Tamil language from oblivion, but their very important role in the Tamil renaissance is a well-established – if often overlooked – historical fact. And this affirmation of the Tamil language and Dravidian history is part and parcel of the affirmative ethnic identity formation encouraged and enabled by European missionaries.
A Kalman filter based noise suppression algorithm using speech and noise models derived from spatial information

In this paper, a novel Kalman filter based noise suppression algorithm for hearing aids, using spatial information for estimating the required noise and speech models, is proposed. The main assumption of the scheme is that the target (usually the speech signal) is directly in front of the hearing aid user while the interference (usually the noise signal) comes from the back hemisphere. While in an earlier paper [1], a related approach based on instantaneous Wiener filters using a Weighted Overlap Add (WOLA) decomposition has been presented, this paper focuses on a time domain approach employing a time varying Kalman filter. Clearly, with the proper noise and speech models, one would expect a better performance of a time varying Kalman filter than of a WOLA Wiener filter. Hearing tests as well as objective performance measures show the excellent performance of the Kalman filter based noise suppression algorithm.