Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mechanisms of Penile Erection and Basis for Pharmacological Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction

Erection is basically a spinal reflex that can be initiated by recruitment of penile afferents, both autonomic and somatic, and supraspinal influences from visual, olfactory, and imaginary stimuli. Several central transmitters are involved in the erectile control. Dopamine, acetylcholine, nitric oxide (NO), and peptides, such as oxytocin and adrenocorticotropin/α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, have a facilitatory role, whereas serotonin may be either facilitatory or inhibitory, and enkephalins are inhibitory. The balance between contractant and relaxant factors controls the degree of contraction of the smooth muscle of the corpora cavernosa (CC) and determines the functional state of the penis. Noradrenaline contracts both CC and penile vessels via stimulation of α1-adrenoceptors. Neurogenic NO is considered the most important factor for relaxation of penile vessels and CC. The role of other mediators, released from nerves or endothelium, has not been definitely established. Erectile dysfunction (ED), defined as the “inability to achieve or maintain an erection adequate for sexual satisfaction,” may have multiple causes and can be classified as psychogenic, vasculogenic or organic, neurologic, and endocrinologic. Many patients with ED respond well to the pharmacological treatments that are currently available, but there are still groups of patients in whom the response is unsatisfactory. The drugs used are able to substitute, partially or completely, the malfunctioning endogenous mechanisms that control penile erection. Most drugs have a direct action on penile tissue facilitating penile smooth muscle relaxation, including oral phosphodiesterase inhibitors and intracavernosal injections of prostaglandin E1. Irrespective of the underlying cause, these drugs are effective in the majority of cases. Drugs with a central site of action have so far not been very successful. There is a need for therapeutic alternatives. This requires identification of new therapeutic targets and design of new approaches. Research in the field is expanding, and several promising new targets for future drugs have been identified.
Ant Colony Algorithm for the Unsupervised Word Sense Disambiguation of Texts: Comparison and Evaluation

Brute-force word sense disambiguation (WSD) algorithms based on semantic relatedness are really time consuming. We study how to perform WSD faster and better on the span of a text. Several stochastic algorithms can be used to perform Global WSD. We focus here on an Ant Colony Algorithm and compare it to two other methods (Genetic and Simulated Annealing Algorithms) in order to evaluate them on the Semeval 2007 Task 7. A comparison of the algorithms shows that the Ant Colony Algorithm is faster than the two others, and yields better results. Furthermore, the Ant Colony Algorithm coupled with a majority vote strategy reaches the level of the first sense baseline and among other systems evaluated on the same task rivals the lower performing supervised algorithms.
One Fish, Two Fish, Butterfish, Trumpeter: Recognizing Fish in Underwater Video

This paper presents a deformable template object recognition method for classifying fish species in underwater video. This method can be a component of a system that automatically identifies fish by species, improving upon previous works which only detect and track fish and those that rely on significant inter-species shape variations or special equipment. Our method works with video shot by a standard uncalibrated camera in a natural setting rather than the calibrated stereo cameras and man-made imaging environments described in other publications. We use deformable template matching which employs an efficient combination of shape contexts and large-scale spatial structure preservation. Experimental results demonstrate the improvement of deformable template matching over raw SVM texturebased classification.
Crystal structure of conjugated polyketone reductase (CPR‐C1) from Candida parapsilosis IFO 0708 complexed with NADPH

Conjugated polyketone reductase (CPR‐C1) from Candida parapsilosis IFO 0708 is a member of the aldo–keto reductase (AKR) superfamily and reduces ketopantoyl lactone to d‐pantoyl lactone in a NADPH‐dependent and stereospecific manner. We determined the crystal structure of CPR‐C1.NADPH complex at 2.20 Å resolution. CPR‐C1 adopted a triose‐phosphate isomerase (TIM) barrel fold at the core of the structure in which Thr25 and Lys26 of the GXGTX motif bind uniquely to the adenosine 2′‐phosphate group of NADPH. This finding provides a novel structural basis for NADPH binding of the AKR superfamily. Proteins 2013; 81:2059–2063. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Intellectual capital - defining key performance indicators for organizational knowledge assets

Measuring intellectual capital is on the agenda of most 21st century organisations. This paper takes a knowledge‐based view of the firm and discusses the importance of measuring organizational knowledge assets. Knowledge assets underpin capabilities and core competencies of any organisation. Therefore, they play a key strategic role and need to be measured. This paper reviews the existing approaches for measuring knowledge based assets and then introduces the knowledge asset map which integrates existing approaches in order to achieve comprehensiveness. The paper then introduces the knowledge asset dashboard to clarify the important actor/infrastructure relationship, which elucidates the dynamic nature of these assets. Finally, the paper suggests to visualise the value pathways of knowledge assets before designing strategic key performance indicators which can then be used to test the assumed causal relationships. This will enable organisations to manage and report these key value drivers in today's economy.
The Regulatory Activities of Plant MicroRNAs: A More Dynamic Perspective1

Twenty years have passed since the first discovery of the microRNA (miRNA) genes in Caenorhabditis elegans. Based on the growing research progress, we are approaching an understanding of this small RNA species, which seemed to be mysterious before. The regulatory activities of miRNAs have been extensively studied through target identification, physiological and phenotypic assays by using bioinformatic, genetic, and biochemical approaches. However, recent evidences indicate that the effective levels of miRNAs are determined by transcription, processing, miRISC (microRNA-induced silencing complex) loading, action, turnover use, and decay. Each process is affected by certain factors, such as genomic modifications, RNA editing, miRISC loading competition, target abundance and complementarity, and spatio-temporal effects, thus conferring a highly dynamic feature to the miRNA activities. To maintain the steady-state levels of the functional miRNAs, thus ensuring normal physiological and biochemical status, plants employ several exquisite strategies, such as feedback regulation and buffering system, to minimize the influence of external signal fluctuations. In this review, we raised the notion that a more dynamic picture of miRNA activities should be drawn to construct comprehensive miRNA-mediated networks in plants.
Use of Insurance Claims Data to Determine Prevalence and Confirm a Cluster of Sarcoidosis Cases in Vermont

Objectives. In 2006, the Vermont Department of Health was asked to respond to a potential cluster of sarcoidosis cases related to a Vermont office building. Sarcoidosis prevalence has not been formally described for the United States. A range of <1–40/100,000 is commonly reported; however, we have not identified primary sources supporting this conclusion. Because of the wide prevalence range and lack of a local estimate, confirming existence of a cluster was difficult. Methods. We ascertained the prevalence of sarcoidosis cases in Vermont by using insurance claims data to determine whether or not a cluster of sarcoidosis cases was related to the office building. We calculated county and state annual prevalence proportions for sarcoidosis for 2004 and 2005 and annual building prevalences for 1992–2006. Results. The pooled sarcoidosis case prevalence for Vermont was 66.1/100,000. The pooled building annual prevalence (1,128/100,000) was statistically different from the county in which the building is located (odds ratio = 15.5, 95% confidence interval 3.0, 50.3). Conclusions. We reported the first statewide sarcoidosis prevalence in the United States. This prevalence exceeded previous limited and unsubstantiated U.S. reports. Even with Vermont's elevated sarcoidosis prevalence, the presence of a cluster in this building was apparent.
An Indoor Localization Framework for Four-Rotor Flying Robots Using Low-Power Sensor Nodes

We study the relevance of highly precise indoor localization techniques for quadrocopters and present an ultrasonic sensor system that achieves excellent localization performance, although the system has to rely on the limited computation resources of sensor nodes used for time-of-flight-based localization. Quadrocopters, i.e., flying four-rotor robots, are on-board sensor controlled systems. In comparison to classical monorotor objects (helicopters), the quadrocopters can be piloted with much lower effort. However, lateral drifts cannot be compensated for only referring to the built-in sensors. Nonetheless, the detection of such drifts is strongly necessary for indoor operation-without any corrections, the quadrocopter would quickly cause a collision. To compensate for the dislocation, we developed an indoor-localization framework for time-of-flight-based localization using ultrasonic sensors. It is optimized for use in sensor nodes with low computational power and limited memory. The system is designed for high scalability and to provide high accuracy, even in the case of erroneous measurements. The developed hardware platform is very lightweight to be carried by mobile robots and flying quadrocopters. Based on our real-time localization system, position controller and navigation functionality can be implemented.
A cloud computing model using multi-channel queuing system with cooling

A cloud computing model is proposed, accounting cooling using an M/M/C/n/R non-markov queuing system model, this paper will display how the multi-channel queue will be divided into micro states, and how cooling effects the performance of the cloud servers by comparing results from different cooling intensities. Cooling can be understood as: decrypting, emptying cache, logging, etc. all these factors have influence on the cloud performance and thereby affecting the QoS.
Haptic Feedback Steering Wheel

In uncoupled steering systems such as drive by wire, it is necessary for the driver to feel a simulated reaction torque related to tire/road interactions. To investigate this haptic necessity, we constructed a simple stationary force feedback steering wheel. This paper describes a low cost force feedback steering wheel system and introduces several driving events to validate the unit’s fidelity. Qualitative testing was done without the use of a display to see how the feel of these road events compares to the feel of driving in a car. This low budget solution looks to simply evaluate the torque magnitude and oscillation that is fed back to the driver through the steering
Convergence of Pyramidal and Medial Brain Stem Descending Pathways Onto Macaque Cervical Spinal Interneurons

We investigated the control of spinal interneurons by corticospinal and medial brain stem descending tracts in two macaque monkeys. Stimulating electrodes were implanted in the left pyramidal tract (PT), and the right medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF), which contains reticulospinal, vestibulospinal, and some tectospinal fibers. Single unit discharge was recorded from 163 interneurons in the intermediate zone of the right spinal cord (segmental levels C6–C8) in the awake state; inputs from descending pathways were assessed from the responses to stimulation through the PT and MLF electrodes. Convergent input from both pathways was the most common finding (71/163 cells); responses to PT and MLF stimulation were of similar amplitude. Interneuron discharge was also recorded while the animal performed a reach and grasp task with the right hand; the output connections of the recorded cells were determined by delivering intraspinal microstimulation (ISMS) at the recording sites. Convergent input from MLF/PT stimulation was also common when analysis was restricted to cells that increased their rate during grasp (14/23 cells) or to cells recorded at sites where ISMS elicited finger or wrist movements (23/57 cells). We conclude that medial brain stem and corticospinal descending pathways have largely overlapping effects on spinal interneurons, including those involved in the control of the hand. This may imply a more important role for the brain stem in coordinating hand movements in primates than commonly assumed; brain stem pathways could contribute to the restoration of function seen after lesions to the corticospinal tract.
Changes in Market Values and Analysts ’ EPS Forecasts around Insider Ownership Changes

The empirically-observed cross-sectional relationship between the level of insider share ownership and the level of firm value has often been interpreted to mean that a change in share ownership can lead to a change in firm value. Such an interpretation has been criticized for ignoring potential endogeneity. In this paper, we perform two sets of tests to circumvent this alleged endogeneity. First, we measure changes in value over the 6-day interval around announcements of insider share purchases and find that the cross-sectional variability in changes in value is described by a curvilinear relation between firm value and insider ownership where the value of the firm first increases, then decreases, as insider share ownership increases. In a related analysis, we find that revisions to analysts’ EPS forecasts at the time of insider purchases are consistent with the same curvilinear relation. Second, we conduct tests to determine (1) whether the insider purchases are moving firms toward a new optimal equilibrium ownership level or (2) whether insiders are purchasing shares to signal that the firm is undervalued. We find no evidence to support these interpretations. Overall, our results are consistent with a causal interpretation of the relation between insider ownership and firm value. ______________________________________ * Corresponding author, London Business School, Sussex Place – Regent’s Park, London NW14SA, United Kingdom, phone +44 20 7000 8268, fax +44 20 7000 8201, e-mail: hservaes@london.edu. We thank Jason Abrevaya, Eli Berkowitz, Charles Chang, Jon Garfinkle, Joel Hasbrouck, Clifford Holderness, Alexander Ljungqvist, René Stulz, Ane Tamayo, seminar participants at Baruch School at CUNY, BI (Norwegian School of Management), Boston College, Cornell University, Georgetown University, IDC Herzliya, London Business School, Pennsylvania State University, Stockholm School of Economics, University of Gothenburg, and University of Zurich for comments and suggestions, and Sergey Sanzhar and Pedro Saffi for excellent research assistance. Part of this work was completed while the second author was Bertil Danielsson Visiting Scholar at the Stockholm School of Economics. Changes in Market Values and Analysts’ EPS Forecasts around Insider Ownership Changes
FAST: frequency-aware static timing analysis

Power is a valuable resource in embedded systems as the lifetime of many such systems is constrained by their battery capacity. Recent advances in processor design have added support for dynamic frequency/voltage scaling (DVS) for saving power. Recent work on real-time scheduling focuses on saving power in static as well as dynamic scheduling environments by exploiting idle and slack due to early task completion for DVS of subsequent tasks. These scheduling algorithms rely on a priori knowledge of worst-case execution times (WCET) for each task. They assume that DVS has no effect on the worst-case execution cycles (WCEC) of a task and scale the WCET according to the processor frequency. However, for systems with memory hierarchies, the WCEC typically does not change under DVS due to frequency modulation. Hence, current assumptions used by DVS schemes result in a highly exaggerated WCET. This paper contributes novel techniques for tight and flexible static timing analysis particularly well-suited for dynamic scheduling schemes. The technical contributions are as follows: (1) we assess the problem of changing execution cycles due to scaling techniques. (2) We propose a parametric approach towards bounding the WCET statically with respect to the frequency. Using a parametric model, we can capture the effect of changes in frequency on the WCEC and thus, accurately model the WCET over any frequency range. (3) We discuss design and implementation of the frequency-aware static timing analysis (FAST) tool based on our prior experience with static timing analysis. (4) We demonstrate in experiments that our FAST tool provides safe upper bounds on the WCET, which are tight. The FAST tool allows us to capture the WCET of six benchmarks using equations that overestimate the WCET by less than 1%. FAST equations can also be used to improve existing DVS scheduling schemes to ensure that the effect of frequency scaling on WCET is considered and that the WCET used is not exaggerated. (5) We leverage three DVS scheduling schemes by incorporating FAST into them and by showing that the power consumption further decreases. To the best of our knowledge, this study of DVS effects on timing analysis is unprecedented.
Effect of Flanking Sounds on the Auditory Continuity Illusion

Background The auditory continuity illusion or the perceptual restoration of a target sound briefly interrupted by an extraneous sound has been shown to depend on masking. However, little is known about factors other than masking. Methodology/Principal Findings We examined whether a sequence of flanking transient sounds affects the apparent continuity of a target tone alternated with a bandpass noise at regular intervals. The flanking sounds significantly increased the limit of perceiving apparent continuity in terms of the maximum target level at a fixed noise level, irrespective of the frequency separation between the target and flanking sounds: the flanking sounds enhanced the continuity illusion. This effect was dependent on the temporal relationship between the flanking sounds and noise bursts. Conclusions/Significance The spectrotemporal characteristics of the enhancement effect suggest that a mechanism to compensate for exogenous attentional distraction may contribute to the continuity illusion.
Hypothalamic dysfunction in obesity

A growing number of studies have shown that a diet high in long chain SFA and/or obesity cause profound changes to the energy balance centres of the hypothalamus which results in the loss of central leptin and insulin sensitivity. Insensitivity to these important anorexigenic messengers of nutritional status perpetuates the development of both obesity and peripheral insulin insensitivity. A high-fat diet induces changes in the hypothalamus that include an increase in markers of oxidative stress, inflammation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, autophagy defect and changes in the rate of apoptosis and neuronal regeneration. In addition, a number of mechanisms have recently come to light that are important in the hypothalamic control of energy balance, which could play a role in perpetuating the effect of a high-fat diet on hypothalamic dysfunction. These include: reactive oxygen species as an important second messenger, lipid metabolism, autophagy and neuronal and synaptic plasticity. The importance of nutritional activation of the Toll-like receptor 4 and the inhibitor of NF-κB kinase subunit β/NK-κB and c-Jun amino-terminal kinase 1 inflammatory pathways in linking a high-fat diet to obesity and insulin insensitivity via the hypothalamus is now widely recognised. All of the hypothalamic changes induced by a high-fat diet appear to be causally linked and inhibitors of inflammation, ER stress and autophagy defect can prevent or reverse the development of obesity pointing to potential drug targets in the prevention of obesity and metabolic dysfunction.
Language modeling for broadcast news transcription

This paper addresses the problem of language modeling for the transcription of broadcast news data. Different approaches for language model training were explored and tested in the context of a complete transcription system. Language model efficiency was investigated for the following aspects: mixing of different training material (sources and epoch); approach for mixing (interpolation vs count merging); and using class-based language models. The experimental results indicate that judicious selection of the training source and epoch is important, and that given sufficient broadcast new transcriptions, newspaper and newswire texts are not necessary. Results are given in terms of perplexity and word error rates. The combined improvements in text selection, interpolation, 4-gram and class-based LMs led to a 20% reduction in the perplexity of the LM of the final pass (3-gram class interpolated with a word 4-gram) compared with the 3-gram LM used in the the LIMSI Nov’97 BN system.
Distributed compression of linear functions: Partial sum-rate tightness and gap to optimal sum-rate

We consider the problem of distributed compression of the difference Z = Y1 − cY2 of two jointly Gaussian sources Y1 and Y2 (with positive correlation coefficient ρ and positive c) under an MSE distortion constraint D on Z. The rate region for this problem is unknown. We provide a new lower bound on the minimum sum-rate by utilizing the connection of the above problem with the two-terminal source coding problem with matrix-distortion constraint. Our lower bound not only improves existing bounds in many cases, but also allows us to prove sum-rate tightness of the Berger-Tung scheme when c is either relatively small or large and D is larger than some threshold. Furthermore, our lower bound enables us to show that the improved lattice-based scheme recently introduced in [1] (with the smallest achievable sum-rate) performs within 1.18 b/s from the optimal sum-rate for all values of ρ, c, and D.
An Overview of Haemodialysis and Oxidant Stress

Today’s patient population is increasingly older. Patients with chronic renal failure therefore start extracorporeal substitutive treatment having congestive heart failure, chronic liver disease, diabetes and so forth. In these patients, however, long-term haemodialytic treatment may add further aggravation on their pre-existing pathological conditions. Oxidative stress and alterations in lipid metabolism are caused by haemodialysis mainly due to (1) bioincompatibility type of reactions such as production of reactive oxygen species by inflammatory cells due to complement-mediated or -independent pathways, and (2) the imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants due to the diffusive loss of hydrophilic vitamins such as ascorbic acid. The events related to the oxidant stress may sustain a state of chronic inflammation. Recent advances suggest that atherosclerosis and proliferation of the smooth muscle are initiated and sustained by inflammatory mechanisms. Therefore, attempts to counterbalance the prooxidant effect of haemodialysis and to reduce the chronic inflammatory state will be presented.