Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning in Networks of Cortical Neurons

The results presented here demonstrate selective learning in a network of real cortical neurons. We focally stimulate the network at a low frequency (0.3–1 Hz) until a desired predefined response is observed 50 ± 10 msec after a stimulus, at which point the stimulus is stopped for 5 min. Repeated cycles of this procedure ultimately lead to the desired response being directly elicited by the stimulus. By plotting the number of stimuli required to achieve the target response in each cycle, we are able to generate learning curves. Presumably, the repetitive stimulation is driving changes in the circuit, and we are selecting for changes consistent with the predefined desired response. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time learning of arbitrarily chosen tasks, in networks composed of real cortical neurons, is demonstrated outside of the body.
Utilization of the Methoxymalonyl-Acyl Carrier Protein Biosynthesis Locus for Cloning the Oxazolomycin Biosynthetic Gene Cluster from Streptomyces albus JA3453

ABSTRACT Oxazolomycin (OZM), a hybrid peptide-polyketide antibiotic, exhibits potent antitumor and antiviral activities. Using degenerate primers to clone genes encoding methoxymalonyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) biosynthesis as probes, a 135-kb DNA region from Streptomyces albus JA3453 was cloned and found to cover the entire OZM biosynthetic gene cluster. The involvement of the cloned genes in OZM biosynthesis was confirmed by deletion of a 12-kb DNA fragment containing six genes for methoxymalonyl-ACP biosynthesis from the specific region of the chromosome, as well as deletion of the ozmC gene within this region, to generate OZM-nonproducing mutants.
Using Embeddings for Both Entity Recognition and Linking in Tweet

English. The paper describes our submissions to the task on Named Entity rEcognition and Linking in Italian Tweets (NEEL-IT) at Evalita 2016. Our approach relies on a technique of Named Entity tagging that exploits both character-level and word-level embeddings. Character-based embeddings allow learning the idiosyncrasies of the language used in tweets. Using a full-blown Named Entity tagger allows recognizing a wider range of entities than those well known by their presence in a Knowledge Base or gazetteer. Our submissions achieved first, second and fourth top official scores. Italiano. L’articolo descrive la nostra partecipazione al task di Named Entity rEcognition and Linking in Italian Tweets (NEEL-IT) a Evalita 2016. Il nostro approccio si basa sull’utilizzo di un Named Entity tagger che sfrutta embeddings sia character-level che word-level. I primi consentono di apprendere le idiosincrasie della scrittura nei tweet. L’uso di un tagger completo consente di riconoscere uno spettro più ampio di entità rispetto a quelle conosciute per la loro presenza in Knowledge Base o gazetteer. Le prove sottomesse hanno ottenuto il primo, secondo e quarto dei punteggi ufficiali.
The Evaluation of the Public Opinion - A Case Study: MERS-CoV Infection Virus in KSA

Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis are active research trends in natural language processing and data mining. Recently, this research has been extended outside the computer science area to cover other areas such as social science, political science, and business. The explosion of social media such as social networks, Blogs, Twitter, and forums has created unprecedented opportunities for data mining research community. Analyzers can study and analyze users' opinions, attitudes, and emotions about news or social events. Big data focuses on the intelligent analysis of a large amount of data that is typically collected from several different sources. Our focus in this work is to address new challenges raised by combining Apache Hadoop as a big data platform with an opinion mining approach to make a decision we often seek based on collected data from the opinions of people. We presented a case study about MERS virus in KSA to evaluate our proposed approach. A discussion of available dataset and results are also provided.
LMP1 Increases Expression of NADPH Oxidase (NOX) and Its Regulatory Subunit p22 in NP69 Nasopharyngeal Cells and Makes Them Sensitive to a Treatment by a NOX Inhibitor

Oxidative stress is thought to contribute to cancer development. Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and its encoded oncoprotein, latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1), are closely associated with the transformation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL). In this study, we used LMP1-transformed NP cells and EBV-related malignant cell lines to assess the effects of LMP1 on reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and glycolytic activity. Using NPC tissue samples and a tissue array to address clinical implications, we report that LMP1 activates NAD(P)H oxidases to generate excessive amount of ROS in EBV-related malignant diseases. By evaluating NAD(P)H oxidase (NOX) subunit expression, we found that the expression of the NAD(P)H oxidase regulatory subunit p22phox was significantly upregulated upon LMP1-induced transformation. Furthermore, this upregulation was mediated by the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway. In addition, LMP1 markedly stimulated anaerobic glycolytic activity through the PI3K/Akt pathway. Additionally, in both NPC cells and tissue samples, p22phox expression correlated with LMP1 expression. The NAD(P)H oxidase inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium (DPI) also exerted a marked cytotoxic effect in LMP1-transformed and malignant cells, providing a novel strategy for anticancer therapy.
The Role of Self-Compassion in Posttraumatic Growth

Although the experience of trauma is associated with a great deal of psychological distress, it may also lead to meaningful positive change, known as posttraumatic growth (PTG), evidenced as progression in areas of life appreciation, intimacy in relationships, sense of personal strength, new possibilities, and spiritual development. Utilizing an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) perspective, the current study explored whether self-compassion helped to explain the willingness to approach and make sense of a trauma, leading to growth. A sample of 758 undergraduate students completed online self-report questionnaires, and results suggested that self-compassion does partially predict PTG and support for how self-compassion may be understood in relation to PTG is provided. Implications of the current study's findings, as well as suggestions for future research related to trauma within a college population, are discussed.
Susceptibility to Infection and Immune Response in Insular and Continental Populations of Egyptian Vulture: Implications for Conservation

Background A generalized decline in populations of Old World avian scavengers is occurring on a global scale. The main cause of the observed crisis in continental populations of these birds should be looked for in the interaction between two factors - changes in livestock management, including the increased use of pharmaceutical products, and disease. Insular vertebrates seem to be especially susceptible to diseases induced by the arrival of exotic pathogens, a process often favored by human activities, and sedentary and highly dense insular scavengers populations may be thus especially exposed to infection by such pathogens. Here, we compare pathogen prevalence and immune response in insular and continental populations of the globally endangered Egyptian vulture under similar livestock management scenarios, but with different ecological and evolutionary perspectives. Methods/Principal Findings Adult, immature, and fledgling vultures from the Canary Islands and the Iberian Peninsula were sampled to determine a) the prevalence of seven pathogen taxa and b) their immunocompetence, as measured by monitoring techniques (white blood cells counts and immunoglobulins). In the Canarian population, pathogen prevalence was higher and, in addition, an association among pathogens was apparent, contrary to the situation detected in continental populations. Despite that, insular fledglings showed lower leukocyte profiles than continental birds and Canarian fledglings infected by Chlamydophila psittaci showed poorer cellular immune response. Conclusions/Significance A combination of environmental and ecological factors may contribute to explain the high susceptibility to infection found in insular vultures. The scenario described here may be similar in other insular systems where populations of carrion-eaters are in strong decline and are seriously threatened. Higher susceptibility to infection may be a further factor contributing decisively to the extinction of island scavengers in the present context of global change and increasing numbers of emerging infectious diseases.
Exploiting Homologies in Global Calibration of a Multi-imager Array

Advances in building high-performance camera arrays have opened the opportunity - and challenge - of using these devices for synchronized 3D and multi-viewpoint capture. A requirement of using camera arrays for metric work is that their relative poses be known. With a structured array - that is, one whose imagers' intrinsics and relative positions do not change - it is feasible to perform this calibration once, before any use. We present progress in developing a new approach to this calibration that capitalizes on high quality homographies between pairs of imagers to develop a global optimal solution delivering epipoles and fundamental matrices simultaneously for the entire system. The method exploits what we identify as the rank-one-perturbation-of-identity (ROPI) structure of homologies in posing a unified SVD estimator for the parameters. We summarize the theory, and present both qualitative depictions and quantitative assessments of our results.
Electro-tactile sensation thresholds for an amputee gait-retraining system

Approximately 5000 new referrals are received every year in the UK for limb amputations [1]. Lower back pain is reported in as high as 52 - 94% of lower limb amputees, from [2]. Following discharge patients do not receive regular reviews by physiotherapists and often adopt a variety of habitual gait patterns that can lead to back pain. Circumduction is a one such pattern which is thought to contribute to lower back pain. It involves a wider than normal lateral arc of the prosthesis during swing to prevent the foot striking the floor [3]. This results in an asymmetrical movement of the pelvis and lumbar spine. An increase in transverse rotation of the pelvis in trans-femoral amputees is a contributing factor to lower back pain [4].
VRML program slicing

VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) is a programming language with promising effectiveness in describing cyberspace because of its real-time expressive power for 3D objects via the Internet. Concerning its 3D design, CAD tools can support static feature developments effectively, but currently, developments of dynamic features such as animation cannot be supported well, thus the tasks of debugging, testing, and behavior parameter adjustment become difficult. A program slicing technique is effective for such tasks. Thus we have applied it into VRML programs. In this paper, we studied VRML program structures and features, then proposed various kinds of dependency in VRML, and also proposed a VRML slicing approach based on such dependency. Finally we implemented several support tools.
Responsabilidad Social Empresarial de los servicios hoteleros: valoración de los consumidores (Corporate Social Responsibility of Hotel Services: Valuation of Consumers)

La responsabilidad social se origino luego de la preocupacion de los ciudadanos por los danos causados al medio ambiente, por parte de las empresas que contaminan o se despreocupan de su entorno. En el Peru los estudios de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (RSE) son incipientes, en especial los asociados al sector hotelero, por lo que aun se desconoce la influencia que tiene la RSE en el comportamiento del consumo de alojamiento. Por lo anterior, el presente trabajo de investigacion se realizo con la finalidad de determinar de que manera influye la RSE en el comportamiento de compra de los consumidores de servicios hoteleros en la ciudad de Tacna, determinando la valoracion que posee el consumidor y los factores que influyen en su decision de compra. Se utilizaron entrevistas y un grupo de expertos para desarrollar el contexto del sector y dos tipos de cuestionarios, uno aplicado a las empresas hoteleras y el otro aplicado a los huespedes del mismo. El estudio concluye que existe relacion entre la RSE y el comportamiento de compra de los consumidores de los servicios hoteleros de Tacna, tanto en el ambito economico, como legal, etico y filantropico.
Centriole/basal body morphogenesis and migration during ciliogenesis in animal cells

Cilia, either motile or immotile, exist on most cells in the human body. There are several different mechanisms of ciliogenesis, which enable the production of many kinds of cilia and flagella: motile and immotile, transient and long-lived. These can be linked to the cell cycle or associated with differentiation. A primary cilium is extended from a basal body analogous to the mitotic centrioles, whereas the several hundred centrioles needed to form the cilia of a multi-ciliated cell can be generated by centriolar or acentriolar pathways. Little is known about the molecular control of these pathways and most of our knowledge comes from ultrastructural studies. The increasing number of genetic diseases linked to dysfunctional cilia and basal bodies has renewed interest in this area, and recent proteomic and cell biological studies in model organisms have helped to shed light on the molecular components of these enigmatic organelles.
Genetic Algorithm Based Feature Selection for Fracture Surface Images Classification

Feature extraction and feature selection of fracture surface images provided by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are two main challenges in classification of metal fracture surface images. In extracting features, the statistical characteristics of gray-level co-occurrence matrix and the fractal dimension of fracture surface images are computed as feature sets; and then , a genetic algorithm (GA) approach is presented to select a subset of features to discriminate different classes fracture surface images. A new fitness function based on minimum description length and maximum class separability is proposed to drive GA and it is compared with other feature selection method. Experimental results show that the GA driven by it selected a good subset of features to discriminate fracture surface images effectively.
Canards, Black Swans and Control of Chemical Reactions

The work is devoted to the investigation of critical phenomena using the geometric theory of singular perturbations, namely, the black swans and canards techniques. The interest to critical phenomena is occasioned by not only of safety reason, in many cases namely the critical regime is the most effective in technological processes. The sense of criticality here is as follows. The critical regime corresponds to chemical reaction separating the domains of self-accelerating reactions and domains of slow reactions. Recall that a canard (or French duck) is a trajectory of a singularly perturbed system of differential equations if it, at first, follows a stable slow integral manifold, and then an unstable one. In both cases the distances travelled are more than infinitesimally small. The slow integral manifold is defined as an invariant surface of slow motions. A canard trajectory may be considered as the result of gluing stable (attractive) and unstable (repulsive) slow integral manifolds at one point of the breakdown surface, due to the availability of an additional scalar parameter in the differential system. If we take an additional function of a vector variable parameterizing the breakdown surface, we can glue the stable and unstable slow integral manifolds at all points of the breakdown surface simultaneously. As a result we obtain the continuous stable/unstable integral surface or black swan. It is possible to consider the gluing function as a special kind of incomplete feedback control. This guarantees the safety of chemical regimes, even with perturbations, during a chemical process.
HAS THE RESPONSE OF INFLATION TO MACRO POLICY CHANGED ? Recent Changes in Macro Policy and its Effects : Some Time-Series Evidence

Has the macroeconomic policy "regime" changed in the United States in the last few years? If so, has t h s change had an effect on macroeconomic relationships, and, in particular, on the relationshp between inflation and unemployment? These two questions have been on the minds of most macroeconomists since the October 1979 switch from interest rates to reserves as an intermediate target for the Federal Reserve and the explicit endorsement of monetarism by the Reagan Administration in early 1981. The questions are important not only for predicting the course of the economy in the future, but also for assessing the practical significance of the Lucas critique. ' According to this critique a change in policy regime should cause changes in the way the economy operates. Comparing economic relations before and after a change in regime should provide a test of the critique. The approach in many recent studies has been to assume that the answer to the first question is yes-that there has been a significant change in the macroeconomic policy regime-and to look for changes in the Phllips curve as a test of the Lucas critique. Thus far, the results have been mixed. Otto Eckstein (1983), Steven Englander and Cornelis Los (1983), and George Perry (1983) conclude that there has been no significant
Multicenter Phase 2 Trial of Sirolimus for Tuberous Sclerosis: Kidney Angiomyolipomas and Other Tumors Regress and VEGF- D Levels Decrease

Background Tuberous sclerosis (TSC) related tumors are characterized by constitutively activated mTOR signaling due to mutations in TSC1 or TSC2. Methods We completed a phase 2 multicenter trial to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of the mTOR inhibitor, sirolimus, for the treatment of kidney angiomyolipomas. Results 36 adults with TSC or TSC/LAM were enrolled and started on daily sirolimus. The overall response rate was 44.4% (95% confidence intervals [CI] 28 to 61); 16/36 had a partial response. The remainder had stable disease (47.2%, 17/36), or were unevaluable (8.3%, 3/36). The mean decrease in kidney tumor size (sum of the longest diameters [sum LD]) was 29.9% (95% CI, 22 to 37; n = 28 at week 52). Drug related grade 1–2 toxicities that occurred with a frequency of >20% included: stomatitis, hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, bone marrow suppression (anemia, mild neutropenia, leucopenia), proteinuria, and joint pain. There were three drug related grade 3 events: lymphopenia, headache, weight gain. Kidney angiomyolipomas regrew when sirolimus was discontinued but responses tended to persist if treatment was continued after week 52. We observed regression of brain tumors (SEGAs) in 7/11 cases (26% mean decrease in diameter), regression of liver angiomyolipomas in 4/5 cases (32.1% mean decrease in longest diameter), subjective improvement in facial angiofibromas in 57%, and stable lung function in women with TSC/LAM (n = 15). A correlative biomarker study showed that serum VEGF-D levels are elevated at baseline, decrease with sirolimus treatment, and correlate with kidney angiomyolipoma size (Spearman correlation coefficient 0.54, p = 0.001, at baseline). Conclusions Sirolimus treatment for 52 weeks induced regression of kidney angiomyolipomas, SEGAs, and liver angiomyolipomas. Serum VEGF-D may be a useful biomarker for monitoring kidney angiomyolipoma size. Future studies are needed to determine benefits and risks of longer duration treatment in adults and children with TSC. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00126672
Effect of long-term orientation on voluntary security actions

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact an individual’s long-term orientation (a cultural dimension) has on their attitude, behavioral intention and actual voluntary security actions taken in the context of the dangers related to poor account access management.Design/methodology/approachThe paper relied upon survey data and actual usage information from a culturally diverse sample of 227 individuals who were introduced to the specific security problem and the accepted solution of using a password manager application.FindingsThe paper provides empirical evidence that the effect of positive attitudes increased when individuals were more long-term oriented, but the effect was reversed for average/negative attitudes toward the voluntary security behavior. Furthermore, participants with high long-term orientation and strong positive attitudes toward the security action actually adopted password manager applications 57 per cent more than the average adoption rate across the sample.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the research approach (survey data), security context and sample population, the research results may lack generalizability.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that security awareness messaging and training should account for differences in long-term orientation of the target audience and integrate the distinctly different types of messages that have been shown to improve an individual’s participation in voluntary security actions.Originality/valueThe paper addresses previous research calls for examining possible cultural differences that impact security behaviors and is the only study that has focused on the impact of long-term orientation, specifically on voluntary security actions.
Development and Validation of a Smartphone Heart Rate Acquisition Application for Health Promotion and Wellness Telehealth Applications

Objective. Current generation smartphones' video camera technologies enable photoplethysmographic (PPG) acquisition and heart rate (HR) measurement. The study objective was to develop an Android application and compare HRs derived from a Motorola Droid to electrocardiograph (ECG) and Nonin 9560BT pulse oximeter readings during various movement-free tasks. Materials and Methods. HRs were collected simultaneously from 14 subjects, ages 20 to 58, healthy or with clinical conditions, using the 3 devices during 5-minute periods while at rest, reading aloud under observation, and playing a video game. Correlation between the 3 devices was determined, and Bland-Altman plots for all possible pairs of devices across all conditions assessed agreement. Results. Across conditions, all device pairs showed high correlations. Bland-Altman plots further revealed the Droid as a valid measure for HR acquisition. Across all conditions, the Droid compared to ECG, 95% of the data points (differences between devices) fell within the limits of agreement. Conclusion. The Android application provides valid HRs at varying levels of movement free mental/perceptual motor exertion. Lack of electrode patches or wireless sensor telemetric straps make it advantageous for use in mobile-cell-phone-delivered health promotion and wellness programs. Further validation is needed to determine its applicability while engaging in physical movement-related activities.
Two-Dimensional Heteroscedastic Discriminant Analysis for Facial Gender Classification

In this paper, a novel discriminant analysis named two-dimensional Heteroscedastic Discriminant Analysis (2DHDA) is presented, and used for gender classification. In 2DHDA, equal within-class covariance constraint is removed. Firstly, the criterion of 2DHDA is defined according to that of 2DLDA. Secondly, the criterion of 2DHDA, log and rearranging terms are taken, and then the optimal projection matrix is solved by gradient descent algorithm. Thirdly, face images are projected onto the optimal projection matrix, thus the 2DHDA features are extracted. Finally, Nearest Neighbor classifier is selected to perform gender classification. Experimental results show that higher recognition rate is obtained by way of 2DHDA compared with 2DLDA and HDA.