Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Persistent Lowering of Pressure by Transplanting Kidneys From Adult Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats Treated With Brief Antihypertensive Therapy

Kidney function is critical in determining the level of arterial pressure and in the pathogenesis of hypertension. Important evidence comes from studies in which the level of blood pressure is dictated by the donor when kidneys are transplanted between genetically hypertensive and normotensive rats. We have hypothesized that pharmacotherapy modifies specific properties of the kidney, particularly the vasculature, such that after kidney transplantation, there are persistent changes in the level of arterial pressure. Consistent with previous studies, a 2-week aggressive treatment of adult (15 weeks) spontaneously hypertensive rats with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (enalapril) combined with a low-salt diet induced a persistent change in the kidney and a decrease in arterial pressure (18%). These persistent changes in arterial pressure could be completely transferred to untreated adult spontaneously hypertensive rats by kidney transplantation (ie, pressure in untreated rats was decreased after transplantation of a kidney donated from a previously treated rat). Further, the importance of kidney-specific changes was demonstrated by finding that the treatment-induced lowering of arterial pressure was completely reversed by transferring an untreated kidney into a previously treated rat. The specific treatment-induced changes to the kidney included a decrease in structurally based renal vascular resistance that was similar to the persistent lowering of arterial pressure. These data provide evidence for a link between the treatment-induced changes in kidney vascular structure and the persistent lowering of arterial pressure. The findings also suggest that a key pharmacotherapeutic target in hypertension should be kidney-specific changes, such as renal vascular structure.
Neural correlates of enhanced working-memory performance in dissociative disorder: a functional MRI study

Background. Memory functioning has been highlighted as a central issue in pathological dissociation. In non-pathological dissociation, evidence for enhanced working memory has been found, together with greater task-load related activity. So far, no imaging studies have investigated working memory in dissociative patients. Method. To assess working memory in dissociative patients functional magnetic resonance imaging was used during performance of a parametric, verbal working-memory task in patients with a dissociative disorder (n=16) and healthy controls (n=16). Results. Imaging data showed that both groups activated brain regions typically involved in working memory, i.e. anterior, dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), and parietal cortex. Dissociative patients showed more activation in these areas, particularly in the left anterior PFC, dorsolateral PFC and parietal cortex. In line with these findings, patients made fewer errors with increasing task load compared to controls, despite the fact that they felt more anxious and less concentrated during task performance. Conclusions. These results extend findings in non-pathological high dissociative individuals, suggesting that trait dissociation is associated with enhanced working-memory capacities. This may distinguish dissociative patients from patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, who are generally characterized by impaired working memory.
Informatics Education based on Solving Attractive Tasks through a Contest

The paper discusses the issue of supporting informatics (computer science) education through competitions for lower and upper secondary school students (8 19 years old). Competitions play an important role for learners as a source of inspiration, innovation, and attraction. Running contests in informatics for school students for many years, we have noticed that the students consider the contest experience very engaging and exciting as well as a learning experience. A contest is an excellent instrument to involve students in problem solving activities. An overview of infrastructure and development of an informatics contest from international level to the national one (the Bebras contest on informatics and computer fluency, originated in Lithuania) is presented. The performance of Bebras contests in 23 countries during the last 10 years showed an unexpected and unusually high acceptance by school students and teachers. Many thousands of students participated and got a valuable input in addition to their regular informatics lectures at school. In the paper, the main attention is paid to the developed tasks and analysis of students’ task solving results in Lithuania.
Synthesis for LTL and LDL on Finite Traces

In this paper, we study synthesis from logical specifications over finite traces expressed in LTLf and its extension LDLf. Specifically, in this form of synthesis, propositions are partitioned in controllable and uncontrollable ones, and the synthesis task consists of setting the controllable propositions over time so that, in spite of how the value of the uncontrollable ones changes, the specification is fulfilled. Conditional planning in presence of declarative and procedural trajectory constraints is a special case of this form of synthesis. We characterize the problem computationally as 2EXPTIME-complete and present a sound and complete synthesis technique based on DFA (reachability) games.
HARMONIC MODELING FOR POLYPHONIC MUSIC RETRIEVAL A Dissertation Presented

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is incredible to me to realize that writing my doctoral dissertation is nearing an end. I arrived at graduate school not quite knowing what to expect from the entire research process. I am leaving with a profound understanding of how enjoyable that process is. As I began my transition into graduate work, I was supported by the generous assistance of many fellow students currently in the program whom I thank, especially Warren Greiff and Lisa Ballesteros. As my work progressed, so did my collaborations and discussions. Essential among these have been evaluation methodology discussions with Dawn Lawrie and probabilistic modeling discussions with Victor Lavrenko. In 1999 the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval at UMass received an NSF Digital Libraries Phase II grant to begin work on music information retrieval systems. Donald Byrd invited me to be a part of this project, which led to this dissertation. I am grateful to him for extending this opportunity as well as for our numerous discussions and constructive arguments related to both text and music information retrieval matters. He is in many ways directly responsible for many of the directions this work took. Furthermore, all figures in this work that depict music in conventional notation format were generated by his Nightingale program; however, I assume full responsibility for any errors in the application of that notation. The research team (OMRAS) formed in part by our grant included collaborators in the United Kingdom. From that team, Tim Crawford has been an invaluable support, co-formulating many of the ideas in this dissertation and helping fill the numerous gaps in my music education. In particular, the original idea for the harmonic description used as part of the harmonic modeling process was an idea that we both struck upon at the same time, but Tim was instrumental in fleshing out most of the important details. Matthew Dovey has also been a helpful sounding board and was instrumental in obtaining permission from Naxos to use portions of their audio collection as queries. provided aid not only in terms of audio transcription, but in helping identify the problems we were trying to solve. I thank my committee members for their many helpful comments, corrections, and suggestions, encouraging and pushing me to explore directions in which I otherwise might not have gone. Without the data from the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities, I would not have …
The Effect of Cigarette Smoking on Human Sperm Creatine Kinase Activity: As An ATP Buffering System in Sperm

Background: Spermatozoa are a group of cells that consume adenosine triphosphate (ATP) rapidly. Creatine kinase (CK), produced by creatine phosphate, is an energy reservoir for the rapid buffering and regeneration of ATP and can play an important role in sperm motility. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of cigarette smoking on human sperm CK activity in males who smoke. Materials and Methods: In this case - control study, we obtained semen samples from male smokers (n=64) and nonsmokers (n=83). Smokers were categorized as light, moderate, or heavy smokers according to the daily number of cigarettes smoked and the number of years they have smoked. Data were analyzed by the independent t test and Pearson’s analysis. Results: This investigation showed significantly lower sperm CK activity and movement in male smokers compared to nonsmokers. In addition, it was demonstrated that cigarette smoking had a dose-dependent effect on these parameters. There was a positive relation, although not significant, between sperm CK activity and its motility in male smokers. Conclusion: Smoking, by diminishing sperm CK activity, may potentially impair sperm energy homeostasis and have an association with damage to sperm motility. This effect can be an important mechanism that may cause infertility in male smokers. However, further research is necessary to elucidate the underlying mechanism of sperm motility damage caused by cigarette smoking.
Cytotoxicity of peritoneal dialysis fluid - is it related to glucose breakdown products?

In the winter of 1962-63 bee-keepers in England lost many colonies fed with commercial food candies. These food candies were composed of sucrose hydrolyzed by heat and acid instead of enzymes. It was later demonstrated that caged bees fed on the same type of commercial candy died within a few days. A higher percent of those bees fed on the darkest varieties of the candy died more quickly. It was concluded that the bees had died because of some unknown substance related to the heat induced decomposition of the glucose [1]. This report is only one of many, demonstrating toxicity due to break-down products of carbohydrates. Actually, one of the first reports, published in 1887 demonstrates that a bacterial medium exposed to sunlight kills bacterial spores as a consequence of changes in the carbohydrate fraction [2]. A later report, from 1935, demonstrates that after exposure to UV radiation several different carbohydrates prevent the growth of bacteria due to the formation of non-volatile and thermostable substances [3]. Among the carbohydrates investigated in this study were glucose and dextrin, two carbohydrates which are used as osmotic agents in fluids for peritoneal dialysis. The side-effects of carbohydrate degradation products have also been described for many mammalian cellular systems.
Resveratrol and Black Tea Polyphenol Combination Synergistically Suppress Mouse Skin Tumors Growth by Inhibition of Activated MAPKs and p53

Cancer chemoprevention by natural dietary agents has received considerable importance because of their cost-effectiveness and wide safety margin. However, single agent intervention has failed to bring the expected outcome in clinical trials; therefore, combinations of chemopreventive agents are gaining increasing popularity. The present study aims to evaluate the combinatorial chemopreventive effects of resveratrol and black tea polyphenol (BTP) in suppressing two-stage mouse skin carcinogenesis induced by DMBA and TPA. Resveratrol/BTP alone treatment decreased tumor incidence by ∼67% and ∼75%, while combination of both at low doses synergistically decreased tumor incidence even more significantly by ∼89% (p<0.01). This combination also significantly regressed tumor volume and number (p<0.01). Mechanistic studies revealed that this combinatorial inhibition was associated with decreased expression of phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase family proteins: extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1/2, p38 and increased in total p53 and phospho p53 (Ser 15) in skin tissue/tumor. Treatment with combinations of resveratrol and BTP also decreased expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in mouse skin tissues/tumors than their solitary treatments as determined by immunohistochemistry. In addition, histological and cell death analysis also confirmed that resveratrol and BTP treatment together inhibits cellular proliferation and markedly induces apoptosis. Taken together, our results for the first time lucidly illustrate that resveratrol and BTP in combination impart better suppressive activity than either of these agents alone and accentuate that development of novel combination therapies/chemoprevention using dietary agents will be more beneficial against cancer. This promising combination should be examined in therapeutic trials of skin and possibly other cancers.
Microstructural Abnormalities In Striatial And Medial-Temporal Tracts In Children With A History Of Early Severe Deprivation: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

MICROSTRUCTURAL ABNORMALITIES IN STRIATIAL AND MEDIALTEMPORAL TRACTS IN CHILDREN WITH A HISTORY OF EARLY SEVERE DEPRIVATION: A DIFFUSION TENSOR IMAGING STUDY by AMY L. VEENSTRA AUGUST 2013 Advisor: Dr. Marjorie Beeghly Major: Psychology (Clinical) Degree: Doctor of Philosophy The purpose of this study was to determine if early social deprivation led to different patterns of frontal and/or medial-temporal cortical connectivity in internationally adopted children and if these patterns of cortical connectivity were related to specific white matter tract or behavioral differences. Based on theories of brain development, it was expected that environmental factors would impact children’s tract based differences and behavioral differences. A sample of 30 internationally adopted children and 12 comparison children participated in functional and structural imaging and a neuropsychological evaluation. For internationally adopted children frontal-cortical connectivity showed patterns of diffuse and low connectivity, whereas medial-temporal cortical connectivity showed patterns of diffuse and “normal” connectivity. Patterns of cortical connectivity were related several specific tract based differences and rates of internalizing problems. Tract based differences were the best indictor of emotional, behavioral, and executive functioning, with differed for the right medial-temporal to anteriortemporal, left medial-temporal to frontal, and left striatal-frontal tracts. Cortical
Feature importance scores and lossless feature pruning using Banzhaf power indices

Understanding the influence of features in machine learning is crucial to interpreting models and selecting the best features for classification. In this work we propose the use of principles from coalitional game theory to reason about importance of features. In particular, we propose the use of the Banzhaf power index as a measure of influence of features on the outcome of a classifier. We show that features having Banzhaf power index of zero can be losslessly pruned without damage to classifier accuracy. Computing the power indices does not require having access to data samples. However, if samples are available, the indices can be empirically estimated. We compute Banzhaf power indices for a neural network classifier on real-life data, and compare the results with gradient-based feature saliency, and coefficients of a logistic regression model with $L_1$ regularization.
Speaker recognition with recurrent neural networks

We report on the application of recurrent neural nets in a open-set text-dependent speaker identiﬁcation task. The motivation for applying recurrent neural nets to this domain is to ﬁnd out if their ability to take short-term spectral features but yet respond to long-term temporal events is advantageous for speaker identiﬁcation. We use a feedforward net architecture adapted from that intro-duced by Robinson et.al. We introduce a fully-connected hidden layer between the input and state nodes and the output. We show that this hidden layer makes the learning of complex classiﬁcation tasks more efﬁcient. Training uses back propagation through time. There is one output unit per speaker, with the training targets corresponding to speaker identity. For 12 speakers (a mixture of male and female) we obtain a true acceptance rate 100% with a false acceptance rate 4%. For 16 speakers these ﬁgures are 94% and 7% respectively. We also investigate the sensitivity of identiﬁcation accuracy to environmental factors (signal level, change of microphone and band limitation), choice of acoustic vectors (FFT, LPC or Ceps-tral), distribution of speakers in the training database, inclusion of fundamental frequency. FFT features plus fundamental frequency give the best results. This performance is shown to compare favorably with studies reported on similar tasks with Hidden Markov Model technique.
Design and Control of a Bidirectional Resonant DC–DC Converter for Automotive Engine/Battery Hybrid Power Generators

In this paper, a bidirectional dc-dc converter is proposed for the automotive engine/battery hybrid power generators. The two-stage bidirectional converter employing a fixed-frequency series loaded resonant converter is designed to be capable of operating under zero-current-switching turn-on and turn-off regardless of voltage and load variation, and hence its magnetic components and EMI filters can be optimized. Also, a new autonomous and seamless bidirectional voltage control method that combines two individual controllers for low-voltage side control and high-voltage side control by introducing a variable current limiter is proposed to provide uninterrupted power to critical ac loads and reduce the size of the dc bus capacitor and the transition time. Experimental results from a 5-kW prototype are provided to validate the proposed concept.
Local governments under pressure: The commodification of stability maintenance

Sources :Xu Kai et Li Wei’ao, « La machine de maintien de la stabilite », Caijing, 6 juin 2011Zhong Weijun, « La logique ‘ zero incident’ des gouvernements locaux dans le maintien de la stabilite : un cadre d’analyse », Zhejiang shehui kexue – Zhejiang social sciences, 9 septembre 2011Gao Jun, « Le piege du maintien de la stabilite et le moyen de l’eviter », Lilun daokan – Journal of Socialist theory guide, 11 novembre 2011Xia Nan, « L’alienation du maintien de la stabilite », Caijing, 12 octobre 2011Zhang Qianfan, « Origine et depassement du systeme de petition aupres des autorites superieures », Tansuo yu zhengming – Exploration and free views, 10 mai 2012
Tor, a Phosphatidylinositol Kinase Homologue, Controls Autophagy in Yeast*

Autophagy is a bulk protein degradation process that is induced by starvation. The control mechanism for induction of autophagy is not well understood. We found that Tor, a phosphatidylinositol kinase homologue, is involved in the control of autophagy in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. When rapamycin, an inhibitor of Tor function, is added, autophagy is induced even in cells growing in nutrient-rich medium. A temperature-sensitivetor mutant also leads to induction of autophagy at a nonpermissive temperature. These results indicate that Tor negatively regulates the induction of autophagy. Tor is the first molecule that is identified as a pivotal player in the starvation-signaling pathway of autophagy. Furthermore, we found that a high concentration of cAMP is inhibitory for induction of autophagy. APG gene products are involved in autophagy induced by starvation. Autophagy was not induced in apg mutants in the presence of rapamycin, indicating that the site of action of Tor is upstream of those of Apg proteins. In nutrient-rich medium, Apg proteins are involved also in the transport of aminopeptidase I from the cytosol to the vacuole. Tor may act to switch Apg function between autophagy and transport of aminopeptidase I.
Coronary revascularisation for postischaemic heart failure: how myocardial viability affects survival

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of revascularisation of viable myocardium on survival in patients with postischaemic heart failure. METHODS 35 patients (mean (SD) age 58 (7) years) with severe heart failure (New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class ⩾ III), mean left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 24 (7)% (range 10–35%), and limited exercise capacity (peak oxygen consumption (VO 2) 15 (4) ml/kg/min) were studied. 21/35 patients had no angina. Myocardial viability was assessed with quantitative positron emission tomography and the glucose analogue18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) (viable segment = FDG uptake ⩾ 0.25 μmol/min/g) in all patients before coronary artery bypass grafting. Patients were divided into two groups: group 1, ⩾ 8 viable dysfunctional segments (mean 12 (2), range 8–15); and group 2, < 8 viable dysfunctional segments (mean 3.5 (3), range 0–7). The two groups were comparable for age, sex, NYHA class, LVEF, and peak VO 2. RESULTS Two patients died perioperatively and seven patients died during follow up (mean 33 (14) months). All deaths were from cardiac causes. Kaplan-Meyer survival analysis showed 86% survival for group 1 patients versus 57% for group 2 (p = 0.03). Analysis by Cox proportional hazard model revealed three independent factors for cardiac event free survival: presence of ⩾ 8 viable segments (p = 0.006); preoperative LVEF (p = 0.002); and patient age (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION Revascularisation for postischaemic heart failure can be associated with good survival, which is critically dependent upon the amount of viable myocardium.
Joint removal of additive and convolutional noise with model-based feature enhancement

In this paper we describe how we successfully extended the model-based feature enhancement (MBFE) algorithm to jointly remove additive and convolutional noise from corrupted speech. Although a model of the clean speech can incorporate prior knowledge into the feature enhancement process, this model no longer yields an accurate fit if a different microphone is used. To cure the resulting performance degradation, we merge a new iterative EM algorithm to estimate the channel, and the MBFE-algorithm to remove nonstationary additive noise. In the latter, the parameters of a shifted clean speech HMM and a noise HMM are first combined by a vector Taylor series approximation and then the state-conditional MMSE-estimates of the clean speech are calculated. Recognition experiments confirmed the superior performance on the Aurora4 recognition task. An average relative reduction in WER of 12% and 2.8% on the clean and multi condition training respectively, was obtained compared to the Advanced Front-End standard.
Proline-rich Sequence Recognition

Proline-rich sequences (PRS) and their recognition domains have emerged as transposable protein interaction modules during eukaryotic evolution. They are especially abundant in proteins associated with pre-mRNA splicing and likely assist in the formation of the spliceosome by binding to GYF and WW domains. Here we profile PRS-mediated interactions of the CD2BP2/52K GYF domain by a site-specific peptide inhibitor and stable isotope labeling/mass spectrometry analysis. Several PRS hubs with multiple proline-rich motifs exist that can recruit GYF and/or WW domains. Saturating the PRS sites by an isolated GYF domain inhibited splicing at the level of A complex formation. The interactions mediated by PRS are therefore important to the early phases of spliceosomal assembly.