Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social positioning: a way to link social identity and social representations

Cet article est une version remaniee d'une communication presentee au XXV eme congres international de psychologie a Bruxelles en 1992. L'A. y analyse les points de convergence entre les notions de representation et d'identite sociales. Trois aspects ont ete ignores ou negliges par la recherche concernant l'identite sociale : la contextualite, l'historicite et les pratiques. Une analyse de l'articulation entre identite et representations sociales devrait s'enrichir de l'etude des strategies de positionnement social du point de vue de la communication, de la negociation et de la diversite
Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation: Report From a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Workshop

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened an expert panel April 28 to 29, 2008, to identify gaps and recommend research strategies to prevent atrial fibrillation (AF). The panel reviewed the existing basic scientific, epidemiological, and clinical literature about AF and identified opportunities to advance AF prevention research. After discussion, the panel proposed the following recommendations: (1) enhance understanding of the epidemiology of AF in the population by systematically and longitudinally investigating symptomatic and asymptomatic AF in cohort studies; (2) improve detection of AF by evaluating the ability of existing and emerging methods and technologies to detect AF; (3) improve noninvasive modalities for identifying key components of cardiovascular remodeling that promote AF, including genetic, fibrotic, autonomic, structural, and electrical remodeling markers; (4) develop additional animal models reflective of the pathophysiology of human AF; (5) conduct secondary analyses of already-completed clinical trials to enhance knowledge of potentially effective methods to prevent AF and routinely include AF as an outcome in ongoing and future cardiovascular studies; and (6) conduct clinical studies focused on secondary prevention of AF recurrence, which would inform future primary prevention investigations.
Freehand vs. micro gestures in the car: Driving performance and user experience

Until now, freehand and micro gestures have only been investigated separately. We conducted a driving simulator study to investigate on the effects on the driving performance when controlling a music player and the user experience provided. Subjects felt that stimulation, control, popularity, and physical-form were addressed by both gesture types, but slightly better by freehand gestures. But micro gestures were rated notably higher regarding their perceived degree of autonomy. Regarding driving performance, deteriorations were found for both gesture types. Results indicate, freehand gestures impair lateral control while micro gestures delay steering.
Neuropsychological Evaluation in Epilepsy Surgery

Summary: Neuropsychology has played a prominent role throughout the modern era of epilepsy surgery. Neuropsychology, including the Wada test, has been of benefit in documenting dysfunction associated with a lateralized temporal lobe seizure onset. In addition, neuropsychological results have some predicative power regarding seizure outcome following anterior temporal lobectomy. The current status of neuropsychology in patient evaluation and outcome prediction will be presented. Differences between the Wada test, an inactivation procedure, and functional magnetic resonance imaging, which is an activation procedure, will be discussed. This paper will a present preliminary information about the Wechsler Adult telligence Scale‐Ill, the recent revision of the most commo used test of intellectual function, and its effects on neurop chological performance results.
Color transfer based on multiscale gradient-aware decomposition and color distribution mapping

Automatic global color transfer is a challenging problem in image editing. In this paper, we propose a novel color transfer method, which is based on the gradient-aware decomposition and the color distribution mapping. Firstly, a gradient-aware decomposition model is established to separate the target image into the base and detail layers. Then, the colors of each separated base layer are enforced to match those of a given reference image by Pitie's multi-dimensional probability density function transfer method. After that, all mapped base layers are combined with corresponding boosted detail layers to produce the final output. The experiments demonstrate that our method can achieve a visual satisfied result without post-processing gradient correction.
Polypharmacy and falls in the middle age and elderly population.

AIM Falls in the elderly are common and often serious. We studied the association between multiple drug use (polypharmacy) and falls in the elderly. METHODS This was a population-based cross-sectional study, part of the Rotterdam Study. The participants were 6928 individuals aged > or = 55 years. The prevalence of falls in the previous year was assessed. Medication use was determined with an interviewer-administered questionnaire with verification of use. Polypharmacy was defined as the use of four or more drugs per day. RESULTS The prevalence of falls strongly increased with age. Falls were more common in women than in men. Fall risk increased with increasing disability, presence of joint complaints, use of a walking aid and fracture history. The risk of falling increased significantly with the number of drugs used per day (P for trend < 0.0001). After adjustment for a large number of comorbid conditions and disability, polypharmacy remained a significant risk factor for falling. Stratification for polypharmacy with or without at least one drug which is known to increase fall risk (notably CNS drugs and diuretics) disclosed that only polypharmacy with at least one risk drug was associated with an increased risk of falling. CONCLUSIONS Fall risk is associated with the use of polypharmacy, but only when at least one established fall risk-increasing drug was part of the daily regimen.
Comparing phosphorus mobilization strategies using Aspergillus niger for the mineral dissolution of three phosphate rocks

Phosphorus deficiencies are limiting crop production in agricultural soils worldwide. Locally available sources of raw phosphate rock (PR) are being recognized for their potential role in soil fertility improvement. Phosphorus bioavailability is essential for the efficiency of PRs and can be increased by acid treatments. The utilization of organic acid producing micro‐organisms, notably Aspergillus niger, presents a sustainable alternative to the use of strong inorganic acids, but acid production of A. niger strongly depends on the mineral content of the growth media. This study compared the phosphorus mobilization efficiency of two biological treatments, namely addition of acidic cell‐free supernatants from A. niger cultivations to PRs and the direct cultivation of A. niger with PRs. The results show that addition of PR to cultivations leads to significant differences in the profile of organic acids produced by A. niger. Additions of PR, especially igneous rocks containing high amounts of iron and manganese, lead to reduced citric acid concentrations. In spite of these differences, phosphorus mobilization was similar between treatments, suggesting that the simpler direct cultivation method was not inferior. In addition to citric acid, it is suggested that oxalic acid contributes to PR solubilization in direct cultivations with A. niger, which would benefit farmers in developing countries where conventional fertilizers are not adequately accessible.
Word Sense Disambiguation with Very Large Neural Networks Extracted from Machine Readable Dictionaries

In this paper, we describe a means for automatically building very large neural networks (VLNNs) from definition texts in machine-readable dictionaries, and demonstrate the use of these networks for word sense disambiguation. Our method brings together two earlier, independent approaches to word sense disambiguation: the use of machine-readable dictionaries and spreading and activation models. The automatic construction of VLNNs enables real-size experiments with neural networks for natural language processing, which in turn provides insight into their behaviour and design and can lead to possible improvements.
Current intakes of EPA and DHA in European populations and the potential of animal-derived foods to increase them

The beneficial effects of long-chain (C chain ≥20) n-3 PUFA are well documented and, overall, increased intake reduces risk of CVD. Recent evidence also points to a role in reducing age-related decline in cognitive function. The two key fatty acids are EPA (20:5) and DHA (22:6), with current UK recommendation for adults being 450 mg EPA+DHA/d. Whilst some EPA and DHA can be synthesised in vivo from α-linolenic acid, recent data indicate this source to be very limited, suggesting that EPA and DHA should be classified as dietary essentials. In many parts of Europe the daily intake of EPA+DHA by adults and especially young adults (18–24 years) is <100 mg/d, since many never eat oily fish. Poultry meat contributes small but worthwhile amounts of EPA+DHA. Studies to enrich the EPA+DHA content of animal-derived foods mainly use fish oil in the diet of the animal. Recent work has shown that such enrichment has the potential to provide to the UK adult diet a daily intake of EPA+DHA of about 230 mg, with poultry meat providing the largest amount (74 mg). There are, however, concerns that the continued and possibly increased use of fish oils in animals' diets is not sustainable and alternative approaches are being examined, including the genetic modification of certain plants to allow them to synthesise EPA and DHA from shorter-chain precursors.
Refining carbon flux paths using atomic trace data

MOTIVATION Pathway analysis tools are a powerful strategy to analyze 'omics' data in the field of systems biology. From a metabolic perspective, several pathway definitions can be found in the literature, each one appropriate for a particular study. Recently, a novel pathway concept termed carbon flux paths (CFPs) was introduced and benchmarked against existing approaches, showing a clear advantage for finding linear pathways from a given source to target metabolite. CFPs are simple paths in a metabolite-metabolite graph that satisfy typical constraints in stoichiometric models: mass balancing and thermodynamics (irreversibility). In addition, CFPs guarantee carbon exchange in each of their intermediate steps, but not between the source and the target metabolites and consequently false positive solutions may arise. These pathways often lack biological interest, particularly when studying biosynthetic or degradation routes of a metabolite. To overcome this issue, we amend the formulation in CFP, so as to account for atomic fate information. This approach is termed atomic CFP (aCFP). RESULTS By means of a side-by-side comparison in a medium scale metabolic network in Escherichia Coli, we show that aCFP provides more biologically relevant pathways than CFP, because canonical pathways are more easily recovered, which reflects the benefits of removing false positives. In addition, we demonstrate that aCFP can be successfully applied to genome-scale metabolic networks. As the quality of genome-scale atomic reconstruction is improved, methods such as the one presented here will undoubtedly be of value to interpret 'omics' data.
Consumption growth and spatial poverty traps : an analysis of the effect of social services and community infrastructures on living standards in rural Peru

Why are there areas with persistenly low levels of income or consumption? This could result from the concentration of households with a low capital endowment or from variations in households’ environment. Peru is a country with a very much fragmented topography and climate, that combines dry deserts, high mountains and rain forest. One important question is to assess the weight of the geographic endowment in the growth process. If differences in geographic endowment matter more than those in households’ characteristics, then encouraging migration to better endowed regions might be a good development policy whereas, in the opposite, it might be better to invest in households’ capital. Of course several factors, either geographic or not, can combine to explain persistent poverty in a given area. In this chapter we test the effect of local geographic endowment of capital on household growth in living standards in rural Peru, using a four years unbalanced panel data set. Our theoretical model of household consumption growth allows for the effect of community variables to modify the returns to augmented capital in the household production function. Three different sources of data are used: the ENAHO 1997-2000 households surveys, the population census of 1993 and the district infrastructure census of 1997. Altogether the addition of these different data sources makes an unusually rich data set, at least when considered with developing country standards. As in Jalan and Ravallion (2002), we use a quasi-differencing method to identify the impact of locally determined geographic and socioeconomic variables, while removing unobserved household and community level ﬁxed effects. GMM are then used to estimate the model parameters. Several signiﬁcant interesting results appear, showing that private consumption growth depends on local geographic variables, but more on local endowments of private and public assets than on pure geographic characteristics. This suggests to combine policies focused on private and public asset endowments that will reinforce local positive externalities, with infrastructure investments that will help poor households to take advantage of growth opportunities, offered by more dynamic markets across local communities.
Maturation, Dystrophic Changes and the Continuous Production of Fibers in Skeletal Muscle Regenerating in the Absence of Nerve

To investigate how much skeletal muscle depends on influences coming from peripheral nerve, we studied muscle regeneration induced by bupivacaine in the permanently denervated soleus muscle of adult rats. Using light and electron microscopy, we studied the extent of maturation attained by regenerated myofibers and their ability to regenerate again after repeated bupivacaine injury. Morphometric analyses showed that within the first two weeks after injury, the regenerated denervated fibers increased in diameter, matured and then became atrophic. By electron microscopy the morphological characteristics of mature fibers are evident, but final differentiation into adult fiber types is not attained. This is in keeping with previously reported biochemical results. A new phase of massive regeneration occurred when bupivacaine treatment was repeated, thus demonstrating that regenerated myofibers devoid of innervation keep their intrinsic ability to regenerate after injury. Spontaneous though scanty regeneration also occurred in denervated regenerated muscle at late stages, when atrophy and dystrophy of fibers became prominent. Concomitantly the relative number of myosatellite cells remained high. These morphological observations further support the hypothesis that fiber regeneration participates in the maintenance of chronically denervated muscles.
Arterial Klotho Expression and FGF23 Effects on Vascular Calcification and Function

Recent studies support a role for FGF23 and its co-receptor Klotho in cardiovascular pathology, yet the underlying mechanisms remain largely elusive. Herein, we analyzed the expression of Klotho in mouse arteries and generated a novel mouse model harboring a vascular smooth muscle cell specific deletion of Klotho (Sm22-KL−/−). Arterial Klotho expression was detected at very low levels with quantitative real-time PCR; Klotho protein levels were undetectable by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. There was no difference in arterial Klotho between Sm22-KL−/− and wild-type mice, as well as no changes in serum markers of mineral metabolism. Intravenous delivery of FGF23 elicited a rise in renal (0.005; p<0.01) but not arterial Egr-1 expression, a marker of Klotho-dependent FGF23 signaling. Further, the impact of FGF23 on vascular calcification and endothelial response was evaluated in bovine vascular smooth muscle cells (bVSMC) and in a murine ex vivo model of endothelial function, respectively. FGF23 treatment (0.125–2 ng/mL) did not modify calcification in bVSMCs or dilatory, contractile and structural properties in mice arterial specimen ex vivo. Collectively, these results demonstrate that FGF23-Klotho signaling is absent in mouse arteries and that the vascular response was unaffected by FGF23 treatment. Thus, our data do not support Klotho-mediated FGF23 effects in the vasculature although confirmative studies in humans are warranted.
Epididymosomes: a heterogeneous population of microvesicles with multiple functions in sperm maturation and storage

Extracellular microvesicles present in the epididymal fluid have been named epididymosomes. Many epididymosome-associated proteins are transferred to spermatozoa during their maturation in the excurrent duct. Epididymosomes are heterogeneous, with their size varying between 50 and 250 nm. Two distinct population of epididymosomes characterized by different protein compositions and diameters have been isolated from the bovine epididymal fluid using different centrifugation protocols. One subpopulation of epididymosomes was characterized by CD9 and other tetraspanin partners. Transfer of proteins from these epididymosomes to maturing spermatozoa in co-incubation experiments was inhibited by antibodies against tetraspanin proteins. This suggests that this subpopulation of epididymosomes is involved in the acquisition of proteins involved in maturation by spermatozoa in the epididymis. The other population of epididymosomes was characterized by ELSPBP1 (epididymal sperm binding protein 1), known for its affinity for the phospholipid choline group. Flow cytometric analyses showed that ELSPBP1-positive epididymosomes only interacted with dying or dead epididymal spermatozoa in a Zn 2 + -dependent manner. BLVRA (biliverdin reductase) was identified as a partner of ELSPBP1. This enzyme reduces biliverdin to bilirubin: two molecules with powerful anti-oxidant properties. We hypothesize that BLVRA is involved in an ROS-scavenging mechanism protecting live epididymal spermatozoa against detrimental molecules (ROS) released by dying cells. Therefore, it appears that there are at least two epididymosome population with distinct functions: targeting specific proteins to transiting spermatozoa by tetraspanin-mediated membrane fusion, and protection of epididymal spermatozoa against ROS released from dying cells. Further work is needed to understand functions of epididymosomes in epididymal physiology and sperm maturation and storage.
The pivotal role of community building in electronic commerce

Firms competing in the arena of electronic commerce (e-commerce) strive to understand the new business potentials which the Internet offers. The paper considers Virtual Communities of Transaction as an important arena to realize these potentials. Since they can grow trust, cultivate a collective awareness, and stress community knowledge, they can be a valuable component of e-commerce sites. We focus on electronic product catalogs (EPCs) as a popular example of a component in the e-commerce setting and propose an architecture for an "enhanced EPC": the Participatory Product Catalog (PEP). The PEP brings the notion of virtual communities to e-commerce by combining aspects of product information and community building for business use. PEPs offer: (1) the social building of trust, (2) the ability to foster the growth of valuable community knowledge and (3) the effective use of personalization strategies. To personalize PEPs, we present the "My PEP" approach which uses collaborative filtering to alter the interface and the underlying data store. Concluding remarks stress the pivotal role of community building in successful e-commerce strategies.
Pulsed electromagnetic field improves subchondral bone microstructure in knee osteoarthritis rats through a Wnt/β‐catenin signaling‐associated mechanism

Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) is often used for management of osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of the study was to determine whether PEMF can successfully improve subchondral bone microstructure through a Wnt/β‐catenin signaling‐associated pathway in rats with knee OA induced by low‐dose monosodium iodoacetate (MIA). Seventy‐two 12‐week‐old male Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly assigned to three groups: OA (n = 24), PEMF (n = 24), and Control (n = 24). OA was induced (OA and PEMF groups) by injecting 0.2 mg MIA in rats’ right knee joint. The control rats received a single sterile saline injection in the right knee. Rats in the PEMF group were exposed to daily 2 h PEMF exposure with 75 Hz, 1.6 mT for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks, micro‐computed tomography (micro‐CT), real‐time PCR, and immunohistochemistry staining were performed. The PEMF group increased bone volume fraction (BV/TV), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), trabecular number (Tb.N), and suppressed bone surface/bone volume (BS/BV) and trabecular separation (Tb.Sp) levels in micro‐CT analysis. Real‐time PCR analysis showed that PEMF promoted tibial subchondral bone's gene expressions of Wnt3a, β‐catenin, and OPG, but did not alter LRP5 and RANKL mRNA levels. Similar results involved tibial subchondral bone's protein expressions that were observed in immunohistochemistry staining. These results suggest that PEMF preserved the structural integrity of subchondral bone in knee OA rats by promoting the activation of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling and OPG/RANKL/RANK signaling. Bioelectromagnetics. 39:89–97, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A spectral approach to NPR packing

This paper presents improvements in mosaic packing by combining a new title evenness metric with an efficient, effective tile placement algorithm based on the Fast Fourier Transform. This new packing method applies to existing packing applications and makes possible novel mosaic applications, such as mosaic packings of 3D volumes using temporally repeating animated shapes. Applications of our approach include static 2D mosaic packing, mosaic animations, stippling, and texture generation.
Protein kinase C pathways modulate respiratory pattern generation in the cat.

1. The significance of protein kinase C (PKC) in respiratory pattern generation was investigated in forty‐three expiratory neurones of anaesthetized cats. 2. Intracellular injection of R‐2,6‐diamino‐N‐([1‐(oxotridecyl)‐2‐piperidinyl]‐methyl)‐hexana mide dihydrochloride reversibly hyperpolarized twenty‐six neurones. Respiratory drive potentials decreased to 92% of control, and action potential discharges were reduced. Neuronal input resistance (Rin) decreased during inspiration and increased during expiration. 3. Voltage clamp revealed that blockade of PKC induced an increase of inhibitory drive currents and a decrease of excitatory drive currents in sixteen neurones. The amplitude of respiratory drive currents was decreased to 91% of control. The slope of synaptic inward currents during postinspiration was reduced. 4. After blockade of K+ conductances by TEA, additional blockade of PKC caused a hyperpolarization during postinspiration and expiration, but depolarization during inspiration in fourteen neurones. The respiratory drive currents were reduced to 61% of control. Respiratory drive potentials decreased to 72% of control, leading to reduced spontaneous discharge. Rin was increased throughout the respiratory cycle. 5. Stimulus‐evoked postsynaptic currents and potentials decreased after blockade of PKC with and without TEA. 6. The results indicate that PKC is endogenously active in expiratory neurones, modulating their excitability in three different ways: (a) it downregulates persistent K+ currents, (b) it upregulates Cl(‐)‐mediated inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs), and (c) it upregulates excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs).