Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term characterization of firing dynamics of spontaneous bursts in cultured neural networks

Extracellular action potentials were recorded from developing dissociated rat neocortical networks continuously for up to 49 days in vitro using planar multielectrode arrays. Spontaneous neuronal activity emerged toward the end of the first week in vitro and from then on exhibited periods of elevated firing rates, lasting for a few days up to weeks, which were largely uncorrelated among different recording sites. On a time scale of seconds to minutes, network activity typically displayed an ongoing repetition of distinctive firing patterns, including short episodes of synchronous firing at many sites ( network bursts). Network bursts were highly variable in their individual spatio-temporal firing patterns but showed a remarkably stable underlying probabilistic structure (obtained by summing consecutive bursts) on a time scale of hours. On still longer time scales, network bursts evolved gradually, with a significant broadening (to about 2 s) in the third week in vitro, followed by a drastic shortening after about one month in vitro. Bursts at this age were characterized by highly synchronized onsets reaching peak firing levels within less than ca. 60 ms. This pattern persisted for the rest of the culture period. Throughout the recording period, active sites showed highly persistent temporal relationships within network bursts. These longitudinal recordings of network firing have, thus, brought to light a reproducible pattern of complex changes in spontaneous firing dynamics of bursts during the development of isolated cortical neurons into synaptically interconnected networks.
A Novel Transmit Diversity Approach for MIMO System using Different STBC Coding Schemes

Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) technology is a wireless technology that uses multiple transmitters and receivers to transfer more data at the same time. In order to utilize the huge potential of multiple antenna concepts, it is necessary to resort to new transmit strategies, referred to as Space-Time Codes, which, in addition to the time and spectral domain, also use the spatial domain. This paper contains the performance analysis of Bit Error Rate (BER) in MIMO system using STBC codes. We compare OSTBC scheme with different coding schemes viz; ABBA, Jafarkhani, and Tarokh in PSK modulation. To achieve full diversity, Zero Forcing (Z-F), Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) equalization techniques are used. The overall performance is measured with the help of Bit Error rate.
Estimating Event Focus Time Using Neural Word Embeddings

Time associated with news events has been leveraged as a complementary dimension to text in several applications such as temporal information retrieval, news event linking, etc. Short textual event descriptions (e.g., single sentences) are prevalent in web documents (also considered as inputs in the above applications) and often lack explicit temporal expressions for grounding them to a precise time period. For example, the event description, "France swears in Emmanuel Macron as the 25th President", lacks temporal cues to indicate that the event occurred in the year "2017". Thus, we address the problem of estimating event focus time defined as a time interval with maximum association thereby indicating its occurrence period. We propose several estimators that leverage distributional event and time representations learned from large external document collections by adapting the word2vec paradigm. Extensive experiments using two real-world datasets and 100 Wikipedia events show that our method outperforms several state-of-the-art baselines.
Bounds on the sum-rate capacity of the Gaussian MIMO X channel

We consider the MIMO X channel (XC), a system consisting of two transmit-receive pairs, where each transmitter communicates with both the receivers. Both the transmitters and receivers are equipped with multiple antennas. First, we derive an upper bound on the sum-rate capacity of the MIMO XC under individual power constraint at each transmitter. The sum-rate capacity of the two-user multiple access channel (MAC) that results when receiver cooperation is assumed forms an upper bound on the sum-rate capacity of the MIMO XC. We tighten this bound by considering noise correlation between the receivers and deriving the worst noise covariance matrix. It is shown that the worst noise covariance matrix is a saddle-point of a zero-sum, two-player convex-concave game, which is solved through a primal-dual interior point method that solves the maximization and the minimization parts of the problem simultaneously. Next, we propose an achievable scheme which employs dirty paper coding at the transmitters and successive decoding at the receivers. We show that the derived upper bound is close to the achievable region of the proposed scheme at low to medium SNRs.
VineTalk: Simplifying software access and sharing of FPGAs in datacenters

FPGA-based accelerators are becoming first class citizens in data centers. Adding FPGAs in data centers can lead to higher compute densities with improved energy efficiency for latency critical workloads, such as financial applications. However FPGA deployment in datacenters brings difficulties both to application developers, and cloud providers. Application writers need to deal with the interfacing of FPGAs on top of application logic/algorithms. On the other hand, cloud providers are reluctant face the risk that their hardware remains underutilized, due to the lack of a sharing mechanism for FPGAs. In this paper, we introduce VineTalk, a framework that reduces the programming effort associated with FPGA-based accelerators and FPGA virtualization. We integrate VineTalk with the Xilinx SDAccel development framework and we map it to the Kintex UltraScale FPGA. Our preliminary evaluation with a use-case of financial applications shows that VineTalk can offer effective FPGA sharing introducing less than 4% overhead to application execution time.
Aliskiren suppresses the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system and reduces blood pressure and albuminuria in elderly chronic kidney disease patients with hypertension

Background: We investigated the effects of aliskiren in terms of its inhibition of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) as well as that on blood pressure (BP), and renal and cardiac protection in elderly chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients with hypertension. Methods: Nineteen elderly CKD patients (nine males, ten females, aged 74.6 ± 5.8 years) were assigned to receive 150 mg/day of aliskiren added to existing antihypertensives for 6 months. Changes in plasma renin activity (PRA), angiotensin I (Ang I), angiotensin II (Ang II), aldosterone (Ald), BP, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), urine albumin/creatinine ratio (UACR), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), interventricular septum thickness (IVST), left ventricular posterior wall thickness (LVPWT), and plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels were evaluated. Results: Aliskiren suppressed the RAAS as follows: PRA 1.3 ± 1.0 to 0.3 ± 0.3 ng/mL/hour, P < 0.05; Ang I 59.5 ± 32.1 to 26.0 ± 17.3 pg/mL, P < 0.05; Ang II 58.4 ± 62.1 to 14.3 ± 9.0 pg/mL, P < 0.05; and Ald 86.1 ± 38.3 to 80.1 ± 52.6 pg/mL, not significant (NS). Aliskiren reduced BP (153.6/77.2 ± 14.9/10.4 to 130.9/72.2 ± 15.6/9.9 mmHg, P < 0.05). It also reduced UACR (747.1 ± 1121.4 to 409.6 ± 636.8 mg/g, P < 0.05), whereas it did not change eGFR (52.1 ± 29.2 to 51.2 ± 29.3 mL/min/1.73 m2, NS), LVEF (66.8 ± 7.9 to 66.5% ± 6.8%, NS), IVST (10.1 ± 1.8 to 9.9 ± 1.8 mm, NS), LVPWT (10.0 ± 1.6 mm to 10.0 ± 1.4 mm, NS), or BNP (48.2 ± 46.0 to 54.9 ± 41.1 pg/mL, NS). Conclusion: Aliskiren was effective for BP control and reduced UACR while maintaining eGFR and heart function in elderly CKD patients with hypertension.
Immunomodulation by Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are pluripotent stromal cells that have the potential to give rise to cells of diverse lineages. Interestingly, MSCs can be found in virtually all postnatal tissues. The main criteria currently used to characterize and identify these cells are the capacity for self-renewal and differentiation into tissues of mesodermal origin, combined with a lack in expression of certain hematopoietic molecules. Because of their developmental plasticity, the notion of MSC-based therapeutic intervention has become an emerging strategy for the replacement of injured tissues. MSCs have also been noted to possess the ability to impart profound immunomodulatory effects in vivo. Indeed, some of the initial observations regarding MSC protection from tissue injury once thought mediated by tissue regeneration may, in reality, result from immunomodulation. Whereas the exact mechanisms underlying the immunomodulatory functions of MSC remain largely unknown, these cells have been exploited in a variety of clinical trials aimed at reducing the burden of immune-mediated disease. This article focuses on recent advances that have broadened our understanding of the immunomodulatory properties of MSC and provides insight as to their potential for clinical use as a cell-based therapy for immune-mediated disorders and, in particular, type 1 diabetes.
A dual function for a bacterial small RNA: SgrS performs base pairing-dependent regulation and encodes a functional polypeptide

SgrS is a 227-nt small RNA that is expressed in Escherichia coli during glucose-phosphate stress, a condition associated with intracellular accumulation of glucose-6-phosphate caused by disruption of glycolytic flux. Under stress conditions, SgrS negatively regulates translation and stability of the ptsG mRNA, encoding the major glucose transporter, by means of a base pairing-dependent mechanism requiring the RNA chaperone Hfq. SgrS activity mitigates the effects of glucose-phosphate stress, and the present study has elucidated a function of SgrS that is proposed to contribute to the stress response. The 5′ end of SgrS, upstream of the nucleotides involved in base pairing with the ptsG mRNA, contains a 43-aa ORF, sgrT, that is conserved in most species that contain SgrS-like small RNAs. The sgrT gene is translated in E. coli under conditions of glucose-phosphate stress. Analysis of alleles that separate the base pairing function of SgrS from the sgrT coding sequence revealed that either of these functions alone are sufficient for previously characterized SgrS phenotypes. SgrS-dependent down-regulation of ptsG mRNA stability does not require SgrT and SgrT by itself has no effect on ptsG mRNA stability. Cells expressing sgrT alone had a defect in glucose uptake even though they had nearly wild-type levels of PtsG (IICBGlc). Together, these data suggest that SgrS represents a previously unrecognized paradigm for small RNA (sRNA) regulators as a bifunctional RNA that encodes physiologically redundant but mechanistically distinct functions contributing to the same stress response.
From maximum likelihood to iterative decoding

Iterative decoding is considered in this paper from an optimization point of view. Starting from the optimal maximum likelihood decoding, a (tractable) approximate criterion is derived. The global maximum of the approximate criterion is analyzed: the maximum likelihood solution can be retrieved from the approximate criterion in some particular cases. The classical equations of turbo-decoders can be obtained as an instance of an hybrid Jacobi/Gauss-Seidel implementation of the iterative maximization for the tractable criterion. The extrinsics are a natural consequence of this implementation. In the simulation part, we show a practical application of these results.
CD9 Gene Variations Are Not Associated with Female Infertility in Humans

Background/Aims: To determine whether genetic alterations in the CD9 gene are associated with female infertility in humans. Methods: We sequenced the entire coding region of this gene in 86 Japanese women with unexplained infertility and further conducted a case-control study of six tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in this gene using an additional 164 samples obtained from a fertile control group. Results: No disease-causing mutation in the CD9 gene was evident in these samples and no significant association between the tagging SNPs and the studied cohort was identified. Conclusions: Our findings do not support the hypothesis that genetic alterations of the CD9 gene cause female infertility in humans.
Reconciling differences between technologically and socially focused theories of group communication

In today's highly mediated society it is very likely that communication technologies will be utilized for group interactions. Questions regarding how groups interact and how modalities of interaction factor into effectiveness, affinity, productivity and satisfaction abound. Scholarship in this area is broadly approached from technologically deterministic perspectives and social constructionist perspectives. The reality is that neither perspective is completely accurate and any argument that relies solely on technology or group dynamic as the determining variable will have failings. This thesis explores the middle ground, acknowledging that both communication mode and group construction are factors when assessing communication quality. In order to understand the interplay between group dynamics and mediated interaction, study participants were selected from undergraduate communication courses where group assignments are a regular part of the curriculum. The study participants were allowed to work on the assigned tasks in an unstructured setting. After completion of the tasks the students were surveyed to discover how the groups organized and interacted, with a focus on determining types of interaction, satisfaction and perceived efficiency. Participant groups chose face-to-face as their preferred form of interaction (58.33%) with email the second most frequently used (34.95%). Part of the study
Information systems : the state of the field

List of Contributors. Foreword-Gordon B. Davis. Series Preface-Rudy Hirschheim. Introduction-John Leslie King and Kalle Lyytinen. Original Papers. 1 Scoping the Discipline of Information Systems-David Avison and Steve Elliot. 2 Desperately Seeking the 'IT' in IT Research: A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact-Wanda J. Orlikowski and C. Suzanne Iacono. 3 Still Desperately Seeking the IT Artifact-Ron Weber. 4 The Identity Crisis within the IS Discipline: Defining and Communicating the Discipline's Core Properties-Izak Benbasat and Robert W. Zmud. 5 Crisis in the IS Field? A Critical Reflection on the State of the Discipline-Rudy A. Hirschheim and Heinz K. Klein. 6 Change as Crisis or Growth? Toward a Trans-disciplinary View of Information Systems as a Field of Study: A Response to Benbasat and Zmud's Call for Returning to the IT Artifact-Robert D. Galliers. 7 The Social Life of Information Systems Research: A Response to Benbasat and Zmud's Call for Returning to the IT Artifact-Gerardine DeSanctis. 8 Identity, Legitimacy and the Dominant Research Paradigm: An Alternative Prescription for the IS Discipline-Daniel Robey. 9 Design Science in Information Systems Research-Alan R. Hevner, Salvatore T. March, Jinsoo Park and Sudha Ram. 10 Nothing at the Center? : Academic Legitimacy in the Information Systems Field-Kalle Lyytinen and John Leslie King. 11 Reach and Grasp-John Leslie King and Kalle Lyytinen. Commentaries. 12 The Artifact Redux: Further Reflections on the 'IT' in IT Research-Wanda J. Orlikowski and C. Suzanne Iacono. 13 Like Ships Passing in the Night: The Debate on the Core of the Information Systems Discipline-Ron Weber. 14 Further Reflections on the Identity Crisis-Izak Benbasat and Robert W. Zmud. 15 Further Reflections on the IS Discipline: Climbing the Tower of Babel-Heinz K. Klein and Rudy A. Hirschheim. 16 'Don't Worry, be Happy . ' A Post-Modernist Perspective on the Information Systems Domain-Robert D. Galliers. 17 Cleaning the Mirror: Desperately Seeking Identity in the Information Systems Field-Daniel Robey. 18 Designing Design Science-Salvatore T. March. 19 The Future of the IS Field: Drawing Directions from Multiple Maps-John Leslie King and Kalle Lyytinen. Index.
Subpixel Accuracy Analysis of Phase Correlation Shift Measurement Methods Applied to Satellite Imagery

The key point of super resolution process is the accurate measuring of sub-pixel shift. Any tiny error in measuring such shift leads to an incorrect image focusing. In this paper, methodology of measuring sub-pixel shift using Phase correlation (PC) are evaluated using different window functions, then modified version of (PC) method using high pass filter (HPF) is introduced . Comprehensive analysis and assessment of (PC) methods shows that different natural features yield different shift measurements. It is concluded that there is no universal window function for measuring shift; it mainly depends on the features in the satellite images. Even the question of which window is optimal of particular feature is generally remains open. This paper presents the design of a method for obtaining high accuracy sub pixel shift phase correlation using (HPF). The proposed method makes the change in the different locations that lack of edges easy.
On eliminating crosstalk within multiconductor transmission lines

This letter presents a concept of total elimination of crosstalk between signals propagating in multiconductor transmission lines. It is sufficient to match the line on both ends with a proper net of resistances and assure a proper distribution of each exciting signal into some of the branches of the input net. The concept is verified using SPICE circuit simulator.
Probabilistic surfaces: point based primitives to show surface uncertainty

Efficient and informative visualization of surfaces with uncertainties is an important topic with many applications in science and engineering. Examples include environmental pollution borderline identification, identification of the limits of an oil basin, or discrimination between contaminated and healthy tissue in medicine. This paper presents an approach for such visualization using points as display primitives. The approach is to render each polygon as a collection of points and to displace each point from the surface in the direction of the surface normal by an amount proportional to some random number multiplied by the uncertainty level at that point. This approach can be used in combination with other techniques such as pseudo-coloring and shading to give rise to efficient and revealing visualizations. The method is used to visualize real and simulated tumor formations with uncertainty of tumor boundaries.
Advances in management of Urinari Calculi

Urinary calculi is an ancient disease known to mankind since its existence. Urinary stone is the most common disease treated by any department/ practicing urologist in Northern India. Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL), Percutaneous Renal Surgery (PCNL) and Ureterorenoscopy (URS) have revolutionized the management of urinary calculi during the last 25 years. 90-950/0 of urinary stones can be managed by above minirnally invasive procedures. After the advent of these procedures, further advances have taken place in these procedures and medical management, which have standardized the rational indications and management of urinary calcuh.
The Role of Inuit Languages in Nunavut Schooling: Nunavut Teachers Talk about Bilingual Education

This article provides a discourse analysis of interview transcripts generated from 10 experienced Nunavut teachers (five Inuit and five non ‐ Inuit) regarding the role of Inuit languages in Nunavut schooling. Discussion and analysis focus on the motif of bilingual education. Teachers’ talk identified discourse models of “academic truths” and “revitalization,”demonstrating how Nunavut teachers are making efforts to en ‐ gage with community to effect lasting educational change. Key words: Aboriginal languages; Nunavut education, language policy, discourse analysis, educational change Cet article presente une analyse de discours a partir de transcriptions d’entrevues aupres de dix enseignantes d’experience du Nunavut (cinq Inuits et cinq non ‐ Inuits) au sujet du role des langues inuites dans les ecoles du Nunavut. Les discussions et analyses portent sur la raison d’etre de l’enseignement bilingue. Dans leurs propos, les enseignantes ont identifie des modeles discursifs des « verites pedagogiques » et de la « revitalisation », demontrant par la comment le personnel enseignant au Nuna ‐ vut s’efforcent de travailler de concert avec la communaute pour favoriser des chan ‐ gements a long terme dans l’education. Mots cles : langues autochtones, education au Nunavut, politiques linguistiques, analyse de discours, changement en l’education.
Strategies for improved rhamnolipid production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA1

Rhamnolipids are biosurfactants with potential for diversified industrial and environmental uses. The present study evaluated three strategies for increasing the production of rhamnolipid-type biosurfactants produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA1. The influence of pH, the addition of P. aeruginosa spent culture medium and the use of a fed-batch process were examined. The culture medium adjusted to pH 7.0 was the most productive. Furthermore, the pH of the culture medium had a measurable effect on the ratio of synthesized mono- and dirhamnolipids. At pH values below 7.3, the proportion of monorhamnolipids decreased from 45 to 24%. The recycling of 20% of the spent culture medium in where P. aeruginosa was grown up to the later stationary phase was responsible for a 100% increase in rhamnolipid volumetric productivity in the new culture medium. Finally, the use of fed-batch operation under conditions of limited nitrogen resulted in a 3.8-fold increase in the amount of rhamnolipids produced (2.9 g L−1–10.9 g L−1). These results offer promising pathways for the optimization of processes for the production of rhamnolipids.
Observations of hand preference in wild groups of white‐faced sakis (Pithecia pithecia) in Suriname

Hand preference is well observed in humans and some primates. Unlike many other primates, however, humans show a consistent hand preference across a variety of tasks, and a distinct right‐handed skew at the population level. Although there are a moderate number of published studies, primate hand preference literature is unbalanced by the large number of studies on only a few species. No previous studies have addressed hand preference in white‐faced sakis (WFS; Pithecia pithecia). We followed three habituated groups of wild WFS in Suriname and recorded individual hand preference for six different manual behaviors. There was no consistent hand preference across a range of uni‐manual behaviors for any individual. Likewise, there were significantly more ambidextrous individuals in the population than expected (χ2(df = 2) = 11.2, P = 0.004) and thus, no population level hand preference. Our findings contribute baseline data to the debate of primate hand lateralization, and support the notion that lateralization of hand function does not characterize all species. Am. J. Primatol. 73:655–664, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.