Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Actions of Serotonin, Mediated by 5-HT1Band 5-HT2C Receptors, on GABA-Mediated Synaptic Input to Rat Substantia Nigra Pars Reticulata Neurons In Vitro

The ability of serotonin to modulate GABA-mediated synaptic input to substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) neurons was investigated with the use of whole-cell patch-clamp recording from slices of rat midbrain. Fast evoked GABAA receptor-mediated synaptic currents (IPSCs) were attenuated reversibly ∼60% by serotonin, which also caused an inward current with reversal potential of −25 mV. This inward current was blocked by the 5-HT2 receptor antagonist ritanserin, whereas the IPSC depression was blocked by the 5-HT1B receptor antagonist pindolol. The amplitude ratio of IPSC pairs (50 msec interpulse interval) was enhanced by serotonin (in ritanserin) and also by the GABAB receptor agonist baclofen (which also depressed the IPSC), consistent with a presynaptic site of action in both cases. In contrast, spontaneous tetrodotoxin-sensitive GABAA synaptic currents (sIPSCs) were increased in frequency by serotonin (an action that was sensitive to ritanserin, but not pindolol) but reduced in frequency by baclofen. SNr neurons therefore receive inhibitory synaptic input mediated by GABAA receptors from at least two distinct sources. One, probably originating from the striatum, may be depressed via presynaptic 5-HT1B and GABAB receptors. The second is likely to arise from axon collaterals of SNr neurons themselves and is facilitated by an increase in firing via postsynaptic, somatodendritic 5-HT2C receptor activation, but it is depressed by GABAB receptor activation. Thus, serotonin can both depolarize and disinhibit SNr neurons via 5-HT2C and 5-HT1B receptors, respectively, but excitation may be limited by GABA released from axon collaterals.
The axonemal axis and Ca2+-induced asymmetry of active microtubule sliding in sea urchin sperm tails

Structural studies of stationary principal bends and of definitive patterns of spontaneous microtubule sliding disruption permitted description of the bending axis in sea urchin sperm tail axonemes. Lytechinus pictus sperm were demembranated in a buffer containing Triton X-100 and EGTA. Subsequent resuspension in a reactivation buffer containing 0.4 mM CaCl2 and 1.0 mM MgATP2- resulted in quiescent, rather than motile, cells and each sperm tail axoneme took on an extreme, basal principal bend of 5.2 rad. Thereafter, such flagellar axonemes began to disrupt spontaneously into two subsets of microtubules by active sliding requiring ATP. Darkfield light microscopy demonstrated that subset "1" is composed of microtubules from the inside edge of the principal bend. Subset "2" is composed of microtubules from the outside edge of the principal bend and always scatters less light in darkfield than subset 1. Subset 2, which always slides in the proximal direction, relative to subset 1, results in a basal loop of microtubules, and the subset 2 loop is restricted to the bend plane during sliding disruption. Electron microscopy revealed that doublets 8, 9, 1, 2, 3 and the central pair comprise subset 1, and doublets 4, 5, the bridge, 6, and 7 comprise subset 2. The microtubules of isolated subset 2 are maintained in a circular arc in the absence of spoke-central pair interaction. Longitudinal sections show that the bending plane bisects the central pair. We therefore conclude that the bend plane passes through doublet 1 and the 5-6 bridge and that doublet 1 is at the inside edge of the principal bend. Experimental definition of the axis permits explicit discussion of the location of active axonemal components which result in Ca2+-induced stationary basal bends and explicit description of components responsible for alternating basal principal and reverse bends.
Understanding the benefits of gaze enhanced visual search

In certain applications such as radiology and imagery analysis, it is important to minimize errors. In this paper we evaluate a structured inspection method that uses eye tracking information as a feedback mechanism to the image inspector. Our two-phase method starts with a free viewing phase during which gaze data is collected. During the next phase, we either segment the image, mask previously seen areas of the image, or combine the two techniques, and repeat the search. We compare the different methods proposed for the second search phase by evaluating the inspection method using true positive and false negative rates, and subjective workload. Results show that gaze-blocked configurations reduced the subjective workload, and that gaze-blocking without segmentation showed the largest increase in true positive identifications and the largest decrease in false negative identifications of previously unseen objects.
Primary Surpluses and sustainable Debt Levels in Emerging Market Countries

This paper aims to put some constraints on the way primary surpluses are projected when making assessments of public debt sustainability. Projections should be tied either to the country's historical track record in generating surpluses-if the institutional and other factors accounting for this track record are expected to persist-or to some model that links primary surpluses to their fundamental determinants, either on the basis of constant institutions and policies or a credible reform program. History-based or model-based primary surplus projections provide a useful benchmark for judging the realism of fiscal forecasts underlying debt sustainability calculations. Together with information on future growth and interest rates, the primary surplus projections can be used to generate measures of overborrowing, and the magnitude of adjustment needed to return debt to a sustainable level.
Saccadic and Postsaccadic Disconjugacy in Zebrafish Larvae Suggests Independent Eye Movement Control

Spontaneous eye movements of zebrafish larvae in the dark consist of centrifugal saccades that move the eyes from a central to an eccentric position and postsaccadic centripetal drifts. In a previous study, we showed that the fitted single-exponential time constants of the postsaccadic drifts are longer in the temporal-to-nasal (T->N) direction than in the nasal-to-temporal (N->T) direction. In the present study, we further report that saccadic peak velocities are higher and saccadic amplitudes are larger in the N->T direction than in the T->N direction. We investigated the underlying mechanism of this ocular disconjugacy in the dark with a top-down approach. A mathematic ocular motor model, including an eye plant, a set of burst neurons and a velocity-to-position neural integrator (VPNI), was built to simulate the typical larval eye movements in the dark. The modeling parameters, such as VPNI time constants, neural impulse signals generated by the burst neurons and time constants of the eye plant, were iteratively adjusted to fit the average saccadic eye movement. These simulations suggest that four pools of burst neurons and four pools of VPNIs are needed to explain the disconjugate eye movements in our results. A premotor mechanism controls the synchronous timing of binocular saccades, but the pools of burst and integrator neurons in zebrafish larvae seem to be different (and maybe separate) for both eyes and horizontal directions, which leads to the observed ocular disconjugacies during saccades and postsaccadic drifts in the dark.
A Unified Algorithm for One-Cass Structured Matrix Factorization with Side Information

In many applications such as recommender systems and multi-label learning the task is to complete a partially observed binary matrix. Such PU learning (positive-unlabeled) problems can be solved by one-class matrix factorization (MF). In practice side information such as user or item features in recommender systems are often available besides the observed positive user-item connections. In this work we consider a generalization of one-class MF so that two types of side information are incorporated and a general convex loss function can be used. The resulting optimization problem is very challenging, but we derive an efficient and effective alternating minimization procedure. Experiments on large-scale multi-label learning and one-class recommender systems demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.
A method proposal of scene recognition for RGB-D cameras

The novel method proposed in this article is a content classification method. Using techniques like Content Based Image Retrieval and Bag Of Words, we classified several scenes captured by a Kinect camera. The method is simple, robust and provides high accuracy according to the tests. We tested the method using various classifiers such as SVMs, decision trees, KNN. The results demonstrate that the method is invariant to rotation, scale or illumination. Even if the objects change position in the scene, the classification is little influenced by that.
Modeling Genetic Regulatory Dynamics in Neural Development

We model genetic regulatory networks in the framework of continuous-time recurrent networks. The network parameters are determined from gene expression level time series data using genetic algorithms. We have applied the method to expression data from the development of rat central nervous system, where the active genes cluster into four groups, within which the temporal expression patterns are similar. The data permit us to identify approximately the interactions between these groups of genes. We find that generally a single time series is of limited value in determining the interactions in the network, but multiple time series collected in related tissues or under treatment with different drugs can fix their values much more precisely.
Three flavors of twisted invariants of knots

The Alexander polynomial of a knot has been generalized in three different ways to give twisted invariants. The resulting invariants are usually referred to as twisted Alexander polynomials, higher-order Alexander polynomials and $L^2$-Alexander invariants of knots. We quickly recall the definitions and we summarize and compare some of their properties. We also report on work by the authors on $L^2$-Alexander torsions and we conclude the paper with several conjectures on $L^2$-Alexander torsions.
The Watermark Selection Game

Watermarking refers to the nearly invisible embedding of a message (watermark) within a host data set such as text, audio, image, or video [1]. This embedding should be robust against possible degradations of the watermarked data, in the sense that it should be possible to reliably detect the presence of the watermark even in a degraded signal. Degradations include operations such as addition of noise, filtering, compression, and desynchronization attacks.
Fuzzy Adaptive Controller with Modulated Membership Function for a MIMO Uncertain Nonlinear System

An adaptive fuzzy controller for controlling a multi-input-multi-output uncertain nonlinear system is proposed in this paper. The controller design is observer based since not all the system states are measurable. The fuzzy adaptive controller with modulated membership function (FAC_MMF) modulates the fuzzy sets on both the consequent and antecedent parts by adjusting a few parameters. As searching for those parameters in modulated membership functions is done by micro-genetic algorithm, FAC_MMF becomes effective. Since all system experiences uncertainties, a robust controller and a supervisory scaling gain are implemented in a closed-loop nonlinear system to guarantee a stability condition established by Lyapunov function. Example of nonlinear systems controlled by the FAC_MMF is demonstrated to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Lifestyle factors and Alzheimer-type dementia : the link between exercise and cognitive change

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that results in cognitive and functional impairment. Current pharmacological treatments have limited effect on correcting cognitive deficits. However, there is a growing amount of literature to suggest that lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, may have a positive effect on cognitive function for people with AD. Through a series of four articles I have addressed methodological short-comings in the existing literature, and determined, through collection and analysis of data in a longitudinal cohort study, the impact of lifestyle factors on cognitive performance in AD. Article I systematically reviews previous physical activity intervention trials and their effects on cognition in an AD population. Physical activity interventions were found to have a moderately positive effect on global cognition. However, the review highlights the apparent heterogeneity between intervention trials as well as the lack of domain specific cognitive outcome measures. Article II focuses on the importance of sensitive measures of cognition in an AD population. Comparing people with AD and age-matched control volunteers, measures of prospective memory were shown to decline with age in the AD volunteers. Significantly, the cost of carrying a PM intention, a measure of working memory, did not exhibit an age related decline and did not differ compared to cognitively healthy controls. Article III explores whether habitual physical activity, is significantly associated with cognitive outcome on a composite measures of executive function. Habitual physical activity significantly accounted for variance (8%) on executive function even after controlling for covariates. Article IV investigates the contribution of habitual physical activity to executive function change in AD over a year. Habitual physical activity was found to be associated with executive function change. These articles contribute in the understanding of the association between habitual physical activity and cognitive function in an AD population.
On Formatting Transcriptions of Romanian Speech

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is the process of automatically transcribing a spoken audio message into text. Besides the fact that the transcription generated by an ASR system is not 100% correct, it is also characterized by low reading intelligibility, because it is not organized in paragraphs, it does not contain any punctuation marks, all text is lowercased, the numbers and dates are written with words instead of digits, etc. This paper reports on the recent advances made by the Speech and Dialogue research group in the field of ASR transcription formatting for the Romanian language. The complete rich speech transcription system developed by our research group is briefly discussed and the transcription post-processing framework, which is responsible for text formatting, is presented in detail. Concrete examples of transcription formatting are given and insightful details on the algorithms designed and used are provided. The impact of transcription formatting and future work is also discussed.
Deadlock Detection in Distributed Database

: In distributed database, data resides in various sites and many transactions can originate at any number of sites randomly. These transactions can execute concurrently. This concurrency leads to deadlock in which transactions may enter into an infinite waiting state so deadlock handling is an important criteria in distributed transaction processing. So, an efficient algorithm for detecting deadlock is to be devised. Various approaches are there for detecting deadlock in distributed database such as chandy & Mishra Algorithm [5], Sinha’s Algorithm [8], Obermack’s Algorithm [3]. All of which have been implemented and tested in distributed database where data is distributed among various sites and data is not replicated. As data replication improves availability, it is necessary to implement and test the performance of deadlock detection algorithm in a replicated environment.
Heart Transplantation in Pediatric Patients: Twelve-Year Experience of the Asan Medical Center

Heart transplantation is a standard treatment for end-stage heart disease. Pediatric heart transplantation, however, is not frequently performed due to the shortage of pediatric heart donors. This is the first report of pediatric heart transplantation in Korea. Our retrospective study included 37 patients younger than 18 yr of age who underwent heart transplantation at Asan Medical Center between August 1997 and April 2009. Preoperative diagnosis was either cardiomyopathy (n = 29, 78.3%) or congenital heart disease (n = 8, 22.7%). Mean follow up period was 56.9 ± 44.6 months. There were no early death, but 7 late deaths (7/37, 18.9%) due to rejection after 11, 15, 41 months (n = 3), infection after 5, 8, 10 months (n = 3), suspicious ventricular arrhythmia after 50 months (n = 1). There was no significant risk factor for survival. There were 25 rejections (25/37, 67.6%); less than grade II occurred in 17 patients (17/25, 68%) and more than grade II occurred in 8 patients (8/25, 32%). Actuarial 1, 5, and 10 yr survival was 88.6%, 76.8%, and 76.8%. Our midterm survival of pediatric heart transplantation showed excellent results. We hope this result could be an encouraging message to do more pediatric heart transplantation in Korean society.
A study of various load information exchange mechanisms for a distributed application using dynamic scheduling

We consider a distributed asynchronous system where processes can only communicate by message passing and need a coherent view of the load (e.g., workload, memory) of others to take dynamic decisions (scheduling). We present several mechanisms to obtain a distributed view of such information, based either on maintaining that view or demand-driven with a snapshot algorithm. We perform an experimental study in the context of a real application, an asynchronous parallel solver for large sparse systems of linear equations.
Eventual linear ranking functions

Program termination is a hot research topic in program analysis. The last few years have witnessed the development of termination analyzers for programming languages such as C and Java with remarkable precision and performance. These systems are largely based on techniques and tools coming from the field of declarative constraint programming. In this paper, we first recall an algorithm based on Farkas' Lemma for discovering linear ranking functions proving termination of a certain class of loops. Then we propose an extension of this method for showing the existence of eventual linear ranking functions, i.e., linear functions that become ranking functions after a finite unrolling of the loop. We show correctness and completeness of this algorithm.
Where is the community in geoparks? A systematic literature review and call for attention to the societal embedding of geoparks

Geoparks are territorial landscape protection and promotion organisations with aims of geoheritage conservation, geo‐education, and sustainable regional development using geotourism products. Building on an analytical literature review, using the Scopus database, this paper shows that geopark studies remain solidly positioned in the domain of the geosciences and have objectified, expert‐based interpretations of landscape. This situation has resulted in a research gap concerning the role of communities, and their landscape values, in geoparks. The paper makes three claims that form a starting point for advancing our knowledge of geoparks: (1) (geo)heritage cannot be decoupled from people's activities and interpretations, (2) geoparks are not community‐free environments, and (3) increased attention to communities is needed to assess sustainable regional development in geoparks. In the final analysis, there is a need to move beyond the realm of the geosciences to advance our understanding of the societal value of geoparks, and of their sustainable development potential.
Performance improvement in OFDM system by PAPR reduction

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is an efficient method of data transmission for high speed communication systems. However, the main drawback of OFDM system is the high Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) of the transmitted signals. OFDM consist of large number of independent subcarriers, as a result of which the amplitude of such a signal can have high peak values. Coding, phase rotation and clipping are among many PAPR reduction schemes that have been proposed to overcome this problem. Here two different PAPR reduction methods e.g. partial transmit sequence (PTS) and selective mapping (SLM) are used to reduce PAPR. Significant reduction in PAPR has been achieved using these techniques. The performances of the two methods are then compared.
NEXUS/Physics: An interdisciplinary repurposing of physics for biologists

In response to increasing calls for the reform of the undergraduate science curriculum for life science majors and pre-medical students (Bio2010, Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians, Vision & Change), an interdisciplinary team has created NEXUS/Physics: a repurposing of an introductory physics curriculum for the life sciences. The curriculum interacts strongly and supportively with introductory biology and chemistry courses taken by life-science students, with the goal of helping students build general, multi-discipline scientific competencies. NEXUS/Physics stresses interdisciplinary examples and the content differs markedly from traditional introductory physics to facilitate this: it extends the discussion of energy to include interatomic potentials and chemical reactions, the discussion of thermodynamics to include enthalpy and Gibbs free energy and includes a serious discussion of random vs coherent motion including diffusion. The development of instructional materials is coordinated with careful education research. Both the new content and the results of the research are described in a series of papers for which this paper serves as an overview and context.
Discrete phase space - I: Variational formalism for classical relativistic wave fields

This is the first in a series of papers dealing with a discrete phase space formulation for classical and quantum fields. This formulation leads to a representation of quantum field theory that is covariant and possesses singularity free S-matrix. In this paper, the classical relativistic wave equations are presented as partial difference equations in the arena of covariant discrete phase space. These equations are also expressed as difference-differential equations in discrete phase space and continuous time. The relativistic invariance and covariance of the equations in both versions are established. The partial difference and difference-differential equations are derived as the Euler–Lagrange equations from the variational principle. The difference and difference-differential conservation equations are derived. Finally, the total momentum, energy, and charge of the relativistic classical fields satisfying difference-differential equations are computed.
Internet Banking–An Empirical Investigation of a Trust and Loyalty Model for New Zealand Banks

ABSTRACT The development of Internet Banking (I-Banking) requires a new recognition of customers' values for building long-term organization-customer relationships in the E-era. A Structural Equation Model was developed and tested in this paper to identify the determinants that influence customers' trust in, and loyalty to, I-Banking in New Zealand. The results indicated that shared value was the most critical factor impacting customers' trust in I-Banking, compared with two other important factors: communication and opportunistic behaviour control. With regards to improving loyalty among I-Bank customers, findings suggest that I-Banking needs to take satisfaction, trust, brand reputation and switching cost seriously. In particular, satisfaction needs to be regarded seriously, as it is the most important factor influencing customers' loyalty. Based on these findings, the paper culminates in recommendations to improve I-Banking services for customers.