Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dichotomy in host environments and signs of recycled active galactic nuclei

We analyse the relation between active galactic nuclei (AGN) host properties and large-scale environment for a representative red and blue AGN host galaxy sample selected from the Data Release 4 Sloan Digital Sky Survey. A comparison is made with two carefully constructed control samples of non-active galaxies, covering the same redshift range and colour baseline. The cross-correlation functions show that the density distribution of neighbours is almost identical for blue galaxies, either active or non-active. Although active red galaxies inhabit environments less dense compared to non-active red galaxies, both reside in environments considerably denser than those of blue hosts. Moreover, the radial density profile of AGN relative to galaxy group centres is less concentrated than galaxies. This is particularly evident when comparing red AGN and non-active galaxies. The properties of the neighbouring galaxies of blue and red AGN and non active galaxies reflect this effect. While the neighbourhood of the blue samples is indistinguishable, the red AGN environs show an excess of blue-star-forming galaxies with respect to their nonactive counterpart. On the other hand, the active and non-active blue systems have similar environments but markedly different morphological distributions, showing an excess of blue early-type AGN, which are argued to be late-stage mergers. This comparison reveals that the observable differences between active red and blue host galaxy properties including star formation history and AGN activity depends on the environment within which the galaxies form and evolve.
Lipoarabinomannan and related glycoconjugates: structure, biogenesis and role in Mycobacterium tuberculosis physiology and host–pathogen interaction

Approximately one third of the world's population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. This bacterium has an unusual lipid-rich cell wall containing a vast repertoire of antigens, providing a hydrophobic impermeable barrier against chemical drugs, thus representing an attractive target for vaccine and drug development. Apart from the mycolyl–arabinogalactan–peptidoglycan complex, mycobacteria possess several immunomodulatory constituents, notably lipomannan and lipoarabinomannan. The availability of whole-genome sequences of M. tuberculosis and related bacilli over the past decade has led to the identification and functional characterization of various enzymes and the potential drug targets involved in the biosynthesis of these glycoconjugates. Both lipomannan and lipoarabinomannan possess highly variable chemical structures, which interact with different receptors of the immune system during host–pathogen interactions, such as Toll-like receptors-2 and C-type lectins. Recently, the availability of mutants defective in the synthesis of these glycoconjugates in mycobacteria and the closely related bacterium, Corynebacterium glutamicum, has paved the way for host–pathogen interaction studies, as well as, providing attenuated strains of mycobacteria for the development of new vaccine candidates. This review provides a comprehensive account of the structure, biosynthesis and immunomodulatory properties of these important glycoconjugates.
The Extent to Which Clubs Are Perceived As Learning Organizations

In 1995 a Federal Government Report, Enterprising Nation: Renewing Australia’s Managers to Meet the Challenges of the Asia-Pacific Century (Karpin, 1995) was published. One of the key themes of this report was that “The ‘learning organisation’ will be standard philosophy for many Australian enterprises and a major way they cope with change and turbulence. Managers will create conditions conducive to learning for both individuals and the enterprise as a whole, within and between groups, across individual business units and between enterprises and their external environments. ” There is a dearth of published literature internationally, not only on clubs and the degree to which they are learning organizations but organizations in general. A systematic search of the literature identified only one published report in which there was an in-depth exploration of an organization to determine if it was a learning organization. Therefore, this study has a dual purpose. Firstly, it provides an in-depth study of a specific industry; and secondly it helps to fill a knowledge gap in the study of organizations. This study has used as its theoretical framework Marquardt’s (2002) learning organization model to determine the extent to which the characteristics of the learning organization are perceived to apply to a group of clubs in a regional area of Australia. The study has used a survey method utilising the Learning Organization Profile (LOP) questionnaire developed by Marquardt (1996) and validated by Griego, Geroy and Wright (2000) and interviews with the CEOs and Human Resource Managers from four clubs. The LOP was distributed to permanent staff working in these clubs resulting in 36% of the LOPs being returned. Statistical analysis of the returned LOPs indicated that the clubs had not adopted the characteristics of the learning organization to any great extent. The clubs divided into two groups. The perceptions of staff from two clubs were that the clubs had adopted learning organization characteristics to a minor extent. The perceptions of staff from the other two clubs was that the two clubs had adopted learning organization characteristics to a moderate extent. In all cases the pattern of perceptions of staff represented differences of degree rather than fundamental differences. When the data obtained from the managers were examined, managers perceptions were that the clubs had adopted the characteristics of a learning organization to a moderate extent. These results compare favourably with the results of the Byers study (1999), which found that the perceptions of senior managers in Australian organizations were that the characteristics of a learning organization applied to a moderate extent. The perceptions of non-managers were that the characteristics applied to a minor extent. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that there were no significant differences between managers and non-managers, with the differences being in the degree rather than there being any fundamental differences.
A file organization for cluster-based retrieval

A file organization for cluster-based retrieval is presented and tested. This file organization is based on the bottom-up search which, in contrast to the more usual top-down search, starts at the lowest level of a cluster hierarchy (the documents) and looks at progressively larger clusters. This approach enables most of the efficiency problems previously associated with clustered file organizations to be avoided. There are two parts to this file organization - a compact cluster hierarchy representation which does not store cluster representatives and a compact inverted file which is used to provide a starting point for the bottom-up search. Retrieval experiments show that the bottom-up search using this file organization can be more effective than a serial search, especially if high precision results are required.
Bandwidth and Bad Driving

A considerable amount of recent research demonstrates that conversing on a cellular telephone markedly diminishes a person’s ability to sim ultaneously drive an automobile. In a recent study, Strayer, Drews and Crouch demonst rate that speaking on a (“hands free”) cell-phone degrades a driver’s performance about as much as having a blood-alcohol level of 0.08, see [4]. While conversing with another passenger can be somewhat distracting, it has never been suggested that it pr oduces these sorts of severe cognitive deficits. Lacking in the literature is a convincin g hypothesis to explain this marked cognitive difference. It is this gap that we hope to fil l. Since the earliest days of telephony, the bandwidth allotte d for a single telephone conversation has been approximately 3000 Hertz, see [3] and the references therein. For cellular telephones, the CDMA standard voice network pr ovides less bandwidth than a standard land-line. Indeed the bit-rate of the CDMA st andard is about 1/8 that of a standard land-line. There is considerable evidence tha t the band used for phone conversations, 200-3200 Hertz, omits important parts of th e information contained in spoken language. Indeed, many consonant sounds are impossi ble to distinguish on the basis of spoken language band-limited to this passband, see [2, 3]. The signal one receives through a cell phone therefore lies at or near the th reshold of comprehensibility. We hypothesize that the primary cause for the large cogn itive load of cell-phone conversation (versus face-to-face conversation) is the na rrow bandwidth of the signal delivered by the cell-phone ear-piece. The noise often pres ent in a cell-phone channel exacerbates an already bad situation. Ideally, one would like to have an fMRI study demonstrating t hat a band-limited channel produces the cognitive demands described above. Su ch a study would be very difficult to perform both because of the complexity of the cog nitive processes involved, and the noise produced by MR-hardware. To the best of our know ledge, this precise experiment has not yet been done. On the other hand, there are now brain activation studies, showing that, as the information content of a simpl e percept decreases, our perceptual “front end” makes less of an effort to “capture” the s ignal. While, at the same time, the processing parts of our brain make a greater and gre ater ffort to decode these degraded signals. The later effort increases, up to a point, and then, as the information content becomes too small, it falls off. Once the input is cle arly recognizable as noise, the brain is willing to ignore it, see [1]. In their seminal wo rk, French and Steinberg
Kepemimpinan Intrapersonal Dan Implikasi Organisasional

The study describes the intrapersonal leadership in a variety of organizational metaphors. The purpose of this study provides a conceptual constructs about intrapersonal leadership and the importance of intrapersonal leadership within the organization in a variety of perspectives. There are five metaphors, those are organisms, population ecology, transactional and power, the engine and psychological shackles. Recently studies have highlighted the importance of intrapersonal leadership in integrative view of the above five metaphors. This study provides the conceptual basis intrapersonal leadership and organizational implications of the hypothetical.
Mental Health Status and Quality of Life in Undiagnosed Glaucoma Patients

AbstractGlaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible vision loss. Mental health and quality of life (QoL) are important issues for patients with glaucoma because visual impairment can be related to those. Analysis of mental health status or QoL in undiagnosed glaucoma patients can be free of the bias caused by awareness of the disease itself. In this study, the association between mental health status or QoL and undiagnosed glaucoma, along with the effects of visual acuity or visual field damage was investigated. Among individuals in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) V (2010–2012), subjects 40 years or older were included. KNHANES is a cross-sectional study using a stratified, multistage, probability sampling survey. The KNHANES includes questionnaires to assess psychological health, including depression, sleep duration, psychological stress, and suicidal ideations. To evaluate QoL, the KNHANES includes the EuroQoL, which is composed of a health-status descriptive system (EuroQol 5-dimension, EQ-5D) and the EQ visual analog scale (EQ-VAS). The proportion of people reporting symptoms of “some or severe problems” in all 5 dimensions of the EuroQoL-5 instrument, including anxiety/depression, was higher in the glaucoma group than in the nonglaucoma group. The subjective health status reported by the EQ-VAS was lower in the subjects with glaucoma than in those without glaucoma. Suicidal ideation was greater in subjects with glaucoma than in those without glaucoma (P = 0.005). After adjustment for demographic factors, glaucoma subjects were more likely than those without glaucoma to have some or severe problems with anxiety/depression (odds ratio 1.77; 95% confidence interval, 1.26–2.49). Worse best corrected visual acuity was associated with more problems with a lower EQ-5D score in glaucoma subjects. Individuals who had undiagnosed glaucoma were more depressed than those without glaucoma. QoL can be affected by glaucoma, especially in patients with worse visual acuity.
Contrasting Evolutionary Patterns of Functional Connectivity in Sensorimotor and Cognitive Regions after Stroke

The human brain is a highly connected and integrated system. Local stroke lesions can evoke reorganization in multiple functional networks. However, the temporally-evolving patterns in different functional networks after stroke remain unclear. Here, we aimed to investigate the dynamic evolutionary patterns of functional connectivity density (FCD) and strength (FCS) of the brain after subcortical stroke involving in the motor pathways. Eight male patients with left subcortical infarctions were longitudinally examined at five time points within a year. Voxel-wise FCD analysis was used to identify brain regions with significant dynamic changes. The temporally-evolving patterns in FCD and FCS in these regions were analyzed by a mixed-effects model. Associations between these measures and clinical variables were also explored in stroke patients. Voxel-wise analysis revealed dynamic FCD changes only in the sensorimotor and cognitive regions after stroke. FCD and FCS in the sensorimotor regions decreased initially, as compared to controls, remaining at lower levels for months, and finally returned to normal levels. In contrast, FCD and FCS in the cognitive regions increased initially, remaining at higher levels for months, and finally returned to normal levels. Most of these measures were correlated with patients’ motor scores. These findings suggest a network-specific dynamic functional reorganization after stroke. Besides the sensorimotor regions, the spared cognitive regions may also play an important role in stroke recovery.
Inward-rectifying potassium channels in retinal glial (Muller) cells

The voltage- and K(+)-dependent properties of Muller cell currents and channels were characterized in freshly dissociated salamander Muller cells. In whole-cell voltage-clamp experiments, cells with endfeet intact and cells missing endfeet both displayed strong inward rectification. The rectification was similar in shape in both groups of cells but currents were 9.2 times larger in cells with endfeet. Ba2+ at 100 microM reduced the inward current to 6.8% of control amplitude. Decreasing external K+ concentration shifted the cell current-voltage (I-V) relation in a hyperpolarizing direction and reduced current magnitude. In multichannel, cell-attached patch-clamp experiments, patches from both endfoot and soma membrane displayed strong inward rectification. Currents were 38 times larger in endfoot patches. In single-channel, cell-attached patch-clamp experiments, inward- rectifying K+ channels were, in almost all cases, the only channels present in patches of endfoot, proximal process, and soma membrane. Channel conductance was 27.8 pS in 98 mM external K+. Reducing external K+ shifted the channel reversal potential in a hyperpolarizing direction and reduced channel conductance. Channel open probability varied as a function of voltage, being reduced at more negative potentials. Together, these observations demonstrate that the principal ion channel in all Muller cell regions is an inward-rectifying K+ channel. Channel density is far higher on the cell endfoot than in other cell regions. Whole-cell I-V plots of cells bathed in 12, 7, 4, and 2.5 mM K+ were fit by an equation including Boltzmann relation terms representing channel rectification and channel open probability. This equation was incorporated into a model of K+ dynamics in the retina to evaluate the significance of inward-rectifying channels to the spatial buffering/K+ siphoning mechanism of K+ regulation. Compared with ohmic channels, inward-rectifying channels increased the rate of K+ clearance from the retina by 23% for a 1 mM K+ increase and by 137% for a 9.5 mM K+ increase, demonstrating that Muller cell inward- rectifying channels enhance K+ regulation in the retina.
Empathy at the confluence of neuroscience and empirical literary studies

The objective of this article is to review extant empirical studies of empathy in narrative reading in light of (a) contemporary literary theory, and (b) neuroscientific studies of empathy, and to discuss how a closer interplay between neuroscience and literary studies may enhance our understanding of empathy in narrative reading. An introduction to some of the philosophical roots of empathy is followed by tracing its application in contemporary literary theory, in which scholars have pursued empathy with varying degrees of conceptual precision, often within the context of embodied/enactive cognition. The presentation of empirical literary studies of empathy is subsequently contextualized by an overview of psychological and neuroscientific aspects of empathy. Highlighting points of convergence and divergence, the discussion illustrates how findings of empirical literary studies align with recent neuroscientific research. The article concludes with some prospects for future empirical research, suggesting that digitization may contribute to advancing the scientific knowledge of empathy in narrative reading.
Secure Autonomous UAVs Fleets by Using New Specific Embedded Secure Elements

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) fleets are becoming more apparent in both military and civilian applications. However security of these systems still remains unsatisfactory if a strong adversary model with a high attack potential (i.e. the adversary has capabilities and knowledge to capture a UAV, to perform side-channel or fault injection or other physical, software or combined attacks in order to gain access to some secret data like cryptographic keys, mission plan, etc.) is considered. The aim of this position paper is to draw security requirements for this kind of adversaries and to propose theoretical solutions based on an embedded Secure Element (SE) that could help to accommodate these requirements. Finally, our proposal on how to use these SEs to secure Autonomous UAVs fleets is presented.
Inhibition of the mammalian target of rapamycin leads to autophagy activation and cell death of MG63 osteosarcoma cells

It has been well documented that the inhibition of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) induces autophagy in proliferative cells. Therefore, mTOR inhibitors have been proposed for the treatment of cancer. As autophagy plays significant roles in tumor cell survival, the present study aimed to investigate the contribution of autophagy activation to the antitumor effects of cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (CDDP). An MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxic effects of rapamycin on MG63 osteosarcoma cells. The cell cycle was assessed using a flow cytometry analysis subsequent to staining the DNA with propidium iodide. The mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψ) was measured using the fluorescent probe, JC-1. Western blot analysis was used to determine the expression of the proteins that are involved in apoptosis and autophagy, including p53, p62, light chain 3 (LC3) and Beclin-1. The viability of the MG63 cells was inhibited following rapamycin or CDDP treatment. The mitochondrial Δψ collapsed following treatment with rapamycin or CDDP. Rapamycin induced cell death and enhanced the effects of the induction of MG63 cell death by CDDP. Western blot analysis detected the induced expression of the p53 and Beclin-1 proteins and the autophagic proteins, LC3 and p62. Rapamycin was observed to induce the death of cancer cells through apoptotic and autophagic mechanisms. Rapamycin may enhance the effects of the activation of autophagy and the induction of apoptosis by CDDP.
Covariance-domain Dictionary Learning for Overcomplete EEG Source Identification

We propose an algorithm targeting the identification of more sources than channels for electroencephalography (EEG). Our overcomplete source identification algorithm, Cov-DL, leverages dictionary learning methods applied in the covariance-domain. Assuming that EEG sources are uncorrelated within moving time-windows and the scalp mixing is linear, the forward problem can be transferred to the covariance domain which has higher dimensionality than the original EEG channel domain. This allows for learning the overcomplete mixing matrix that generates the scalp EEG even when there may be more sources than sensors active at any time segment, i.e. when there are non-sparse sources. This is contrary to straight-forward dictionary learning methods that are based on the assumption of sparsity, which is not a satisfied condition in the case of low-density EEG systems. We present two different learning strategies for Cov-DL, determined by the size of the target mixing matrix. We demonstrate that Cov-DL outperforms existing overcomplete ICA algorithms under various scenarios of EEG simulations and real EEG experiments.
Microinjected U snRNAs are imported to oocyte nuclei via the nuclear pore complex by three distinguishable targeting pathways

The inhibitory effects of wheat germ agglutinin and mAb 414 on the nuclear import of all types of U snRNAs indicate that they cross the nuclear envelope through the nuclear pore complex. However, the import of different U snRNAs occurs by kinetically distinct targeting pathways that can be distinguished from one another by the competitive effects of free trimethylguanosine cap dinucleotide (m3GpppG) and P(Lys)-BSA, an efficient synthetic karyophile based on the nuclear localization signal of SV40 large T antigen. The import of U snRNAs that contain 5' m3GpppN caps and are complexed by Sm proteins (U1, U2, U4, and U5) is competed by coinjection with free m3GpppG, indicating a shared transport factor, but not by P(Lys)-BSA. The import of U6 snRNA, which lacks a m3GpppN cap and is not complexed by the Sm proteins, is competed by P(Lys)-BSA but not by free m3GpppG. Thus, by the criterion of kinetic competition, U6 snRNA import is identical to that of the karyophilic proteins P(Lys)-BSA and nucleoplasmin. Uniquely, the import of U3 snRNA, which contains a m3GpppN cap but does not bind Sm proteins is not competed by either free m3GpppG or P(Lys)-BSA. Thus, U3 snRNA appears to be imported by a novel third kinetic pathway.
Replica Fourier Transforms on Ultrametric Trees, and Block-Diagonalizing Multi-Replica Matrices

The analysis of objects living on ultrametric trees, in particular the block-diagonalization of 4-replica matrices $M^{\alpha \beta ; \gamma \delta}$, is shown to be dramatically simplified through the introduction of properly chosen operations on those objects. These are the Replica Fourier Transforms on ultrametric trees. Those transformations are defined and used in the present work.