Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The ketogenic diet has no effect on the expression of spike‐and‐wave discharges and nutrient transporters in genetic absence epilepsy rats from Strasbourg

The genetic absence epilepsy rat from Strasbourg is considered an isomorphic, predictive, and homologous model of typical childhood absence epilepsy. It is characterized by the expression of spike‐and‐wave discharges (SWDs) in the thalamus and cortex. The ketogenic diet (KD) is successfully used in humans and animals with various types of seizures, but was not effective in children with intractable atypical absence epilepsy. Here, we studied its potential impact on the occurrence of SWDs in genetic absence epilepsy rat from Strasbourg. Rats were fed the KD for 3 weeks during which they were regularly subjected to the electroencephalographic recording of SWDs. The KD did not influence the number and duration of SWDs despite a 15–22% decrease in plasma glucose levels and a large increase in β‐hydroxybutyrate levels. Likewise, the KD did not affect the level of expression of the blood–brain barrier glucose transporter GLUT1 or of the monocarboxylate transporters, MCT1 and MCT2. This report extends the observation in humans that the KD does not appear to show effectiveness in intractable atypical absence epilepsy to this model of typical childhood absence epilepsy which responds to specific antiepileptic drugs.
A Predictability Test for a Small Number of Nested Models

We introduce quasi-likelihood ratio tests for one sided multivariate hypotheses to evaluate the null that a parsimonious model performs equally well as a small number of models which nest the benchmark. The limiting distributions of the test statistics are non-standard. For critical values we consider: (i) bootstrapping and (ii) simulations assuming normality of the mean square prediction error difference. The proposed tests have good size and power properties compared with existing equal and superior predictive ability tests for multiple model comparison. We apply our tests to study the predictive ability of a Phillips curve type for the US core inflation.
Culture shock : Adjustment to new cultural environments

Culture shock tends to be an occupational disease of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad. Like most ailments, it has its own symptoms, cause, and cure. Many missionaries have suffered from it. Some never recovered, and left their field. Some live in a constant state of such shock. Many recover beautifully. As will be clear from the implications of Dr. Oberg’s article, the state of culture shock in which a Christian lives will have great bearing on his temperament and witness. Kulturschock: Anpassung an neue kulturelle Umgebungen Zusammenfassung Der Kulturschock ist fur gewohnlich eine Berufserkrankung bei Menschen, die plotzlich ins Ausland versetzt werden. Wie die meisten Leiden hat es seine eigenen Symptome, Ursachen und Therapie. Viele Missionare litten darunter, von denen sich einige nicht erholen konnten und den Einsatzort verliesen. Bei einigen halt der Schockzustand an, einige leben im Dauerzustand eines solchen Schocks, viele erholen sich vollstandig. Der Zustand des Kulturschocks, in dem ein Christ lebt, hat einen grosen Einfluss darauf wie er Zeugnis gibt. Dies wird durch die Ausfuhrungen in Dr. Obergs Artikel deutlich.
Multiple dimensions of handedness and the human corpus callosurn

Consistency of right-hand preference correlates with callosal isthmus size. Anterior corpus callosum (CC) regions vary as a function of sex and right- versus left-hand preference. We analyzed regional CC anatomy in a sample of right- and left-handed men and women on the basis of both degree (“Consistency”) and direction (“Hand”) of hand preference scores. Significant Hand × Consistency effects indicated that both are important factors in CC organization. These data also suggested that a single continuum of hand preference and regional CC size may not be applicable across all subjects.
Aggressive behaviour in English cocker spaniels and the personality of their owners

The aim of the study was to determine whether there is an association between the personality of the owners of English cocker spaniels and the expression of aggressive behaviour by their dogs. Two-hundred-and-eighty-five owners of purebred English cocker spaniels completed the Catell 16 Personality Questionnaire. One-hundred-and-twenty-eight of them owned 153 dogs previously classified as being ‘low’ in terms of aggressiveness and 157 owned 172 dogs classified as being ‘high’ in terms of aggressiveness. Both groups of owners were similar in terms of a variety of demographic variables, including the number of adults and children in the household, the type of house and the sex of the owner. The dogs in both groups were similar in age, age when acquired and sex ratio. Analyses of the data using unpaired t-tests revealed that the owners of high aggression dogs were significantly more likely to be tense (P<0.001), emotionally less stable (P<0.01), shy (P<0.01) and undisciplined (P<0.05) than owners of low aggression dogs.
Age moderates non-genetic influences on the initiation of cannabis use: a twin-sibling study in Dutch adolescents and young adults.

AIMS To examine the heritability of cannabis initiation, the influence of a possible twin-specific environment and the influence of age on the effects of genes and environment in Dutch adolescents and young adults. DESIGN Genetic structural equation modelling was used to partition the variance in the liability to cannabis initiation into genetic and environmental components. SETTING All participants were registered with the Netherlands Twin Register. PARTICIPANTS A total of 6,208 twins (age 13-20) and 1,545 siblings (age 11-25) from 3,503 families participated in this study. MEASUREMENTS Self-reported cannabis use was assessed prospectively with the Dutch Health Behavior Questionnaire. FINDINGS At the median age of the sample (16.5), genetic factors explained 40% of the individual differences in liability to cannabis initiation. Twins resembled each other more than non-twin siblings, which could not be attributed to the age difference between non-twin siblings. Environmental influences increased with age. This increase applied to environmental factors shared by twins (47% of the variance), environmental factors shared by twins and siblings (24%) and environmental factors unique to an individual (13%). CONCLUSION The heritability of the liability for cannabis initiation is higher in adolescents than in young adults due to a larger contribution of environmental factors in young adults. This is due mainly to environmental factors only shared by twins and those shared by all offspring growing up in the same family, but the contribution of environmental factors specific to individuals is also larger in young adults.
Division of labour in a lower termite: the majority of tasks are performed by older workers

Division of labour among workers was investigated in the lower termite, Reticulitermes fukienensisWorkers were separated into three age groups based on size, small workers being the youngest, medium workers intermediate and large workers the oldest. Workers were then compared in behavioural assays for the degree to which they would carry out specific tasks, which included: (1) foraging-related tasks; (2) care of eggs, larvae and the queen; and (3) some other important behaviours including burying corpses, alarm-giving and time spent stationary. All tasks were performed by two or all three of the size-groups of workers. Hence evidence does not support the hypothesis of tasks being discretely allocated among different instars in termites and this having evolved towards the extreme of one caste for every task. The oldest workers (i.e. large workers) carried out the highest frequencies of all tasks investigated. This contrasts with the social Hymenoptera, where younger workers specialize in some tasks (especially brood and queen care). The results suggest a new pattern for social insects for division of labour among workers.Copyright 1997 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour1997The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
Upregulation of Arginase by H2O2 Impairs Endothelium-Dependent Nitric Oxide–Mediated Dilation of Coronary Arterioles

Objective—Overproduction of reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has been implicated in various cardiovascular diseases. However, mechanism(s) underlying coronary vascular dysfunction induced by H2O2 is unclear. We studied the effect of H2O2 on dilation of coronary arterioles to endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent agonists. Methods and Results—Porcine coronary arterioles were isolated and pressurized without flow for in vitro study. All vessels developed basal tone and dilated dose-dependently to activators of nitric oxide (NO) synthase (adenosine and ionomycin), cyclooxygenase (arachidonic acid), and cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (bradykinin). Intraluminal incubation of vessels with H2O2 (100 &mgr;mol/L, 60 minutes) did not alter basal tone but inhibited vasodilations to adenosine and ionomycin in a manner similar as that by NO synthase inhibitor L-NAME. H2O2 affected neither endothelium-dependent responses to arachidonic acid and bradykinin nor endothelium-independent dilation to sodium nitroprusside. The inhibited adenosine response was not reversed by removal of H2O2 but was restored by excess L-arginine. Inhibition of L-arginine consuming enzyme arginase by α-difluoromethylornithine or N&ohgr;-hydroxy-nor-l-arginine also restored vasodilation. Administering deferoxamine, an inhibitor of hydroxyl radical production, prevented the H2O2-induced impairment of vasodilation to adenosine. Western blot and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction results indicated that arginase I was upregulated after treating vessels with H2O2. Conclusions—H2O2 specifically impairs endothelium-dependent NO-mediated dilation of coronary microvessels by reducing L-arginine availability through upregulation of arginase. The formation of hydroxyl radicals from H2O2 may contribute to this process.
Apigenin Sensitizes Huh-7 Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells to TRAIL-induced Apoptosis

TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising agent for management of cancer because of its selective cytotoxicity to cancer cells. However, some cancer cells have resistance to TRAIL. Accordingly, novel treatment strategies are required to overcome TRAIL resistance. Here, we examined the synergistic apoptotic effect of apigenin in combination with TRAIL in Huh-7 cells. We found that combined treatment of TRAIL and apigenin markedly inhibited Huh-7 cell growth compared to either agent alone by inducing apoptosis. Combined treatment with apigenin and TRAIL induced chromatin condensation and the cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). In addition, enhanced apoptosis by TRAIL/apigenin combination was quantified by annexin V/PI flow cytometry analysis. Western blot analysis suggested that apigenin sensitizes cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis by activating both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathway-related caspases. The augmented apoptotic effect by TRAIL/apigenin combination was accompanied by triggering mitochondria-dependent signaling pathway, as indicated by Bax/Bcl-2 ratio up-regulation. Our results demonstrate that combination of TRAIL and apigenin facilitates apoptosis in Huh-7 cells.
Noise and room acoustics distorted speech recognition by HMM composition

This paper presents a robust speech recognition method based on the HMM composition for the noisy room acoustics distorted speech. The method realizes an improved user interface such as the user is not encumbered by microphone equipment. The proposed HMM composition is obtained by naturally extending the HMM composition method of an additive noise to that of the convolutional room acoustics distortion. The HMM composition is conducted by 2 steps: (1) composition of HMMs of a speech and acoustical transfer function in the cepstrum domain, and (2) composition of distorted speech and noise HMMs in the linear spectral domain. The speaker dependent/independent word recognition experiments are carried out using the speech database contaminated by the additive noise and convolutional room acoustics distortion. The evaluation experiments are also conducted for unknown testing sound source positions. These results clarified the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Robust Facial Expression Recognition Using a Smartphone Working against Illumination Variation

Active Appearance Model (AAM) (1, 4) has been favoured among computer vision researchers, since it is useful for tracking human face or diverse objects. Moreover, recent development of the inverse composition method allows us to relieve computational burden in tracking human face with the real-time basis. The progress of fast algorithm development makes it possible that we may be able to track a human face within video image feeding from a smartphone. However, such mobile device gives us some limitation in computing power, but also illumination environment around it is not favourable to vision algorithm designers. This paper presents new method by which such illumination variation occurred in the mobile environment can be overcome. We have found that the Difference of Gaussian (DoG) kernel preceded the AAM stage is very effective in tracking human face including important facial features such as eyes, nose and mouth, despite a strong directional illumination. Performance of the proposed system is evaluated for diverse illumination conditions, and result suggests that the DoG kernel, that has been identified as biologically plausible, can plays an important role against such odd illumination environment. This algorithm has been implemented on a smartphone for the purpose of human facial expression recognition and it works well with a camera as an application program.
The pulse of learning analytics understandings and expectations from the stakeholders

While there is currently much buzz about the new field of learning analytics [19] and the potential it holds for benefiting teaching and learning, the impression one currently gets is that there is also much uncertainty and hesitation, even extending to scepticism. A clear common understanding and vision for the domain has not yet formed among the educator and research community. To investigate this situation, we distributed a stakeholder survey in September 2011 to an international audience from different sectors of education. The findings provide some further insights into the current level of understanding and expectations toward learning analytics among stakeholders. The survey was scaffolded by a conceptual framework on learning analytics that was developed based on a recent literature review. It divides the domain of learning analytics into six critical dimensions. The preliminary survey among 156 educational practitioners and researchers mostly from the higher education sector reveals substantial uncertainties in learning analytics. In this article, we first briefly introduce the learning analytics framework and its six domains that formed the backbone structure to our survey. Afterwards, we describe the method and key results of the learning analytics questionnaire and draw further conclusions for the field in research and practice. The article finishes with plans for future research on the questionnaire and the publication of both data and the questions for others to utilize.
Management of patients with acetabular socket wear and pelvic osteolysis.

Polyethylene wear and pelvic osteolysis are the most common late complications associated with stable cementless total hip implants. This manuscript describes the diagnostic strategies and treatment algorithm used at the senior author's (C.A.E) institution for patients with wear and pelvic osteolysis. This evolving management strategy is based on our experiences and ongoing research. We discuss patient selection, the evaluation of acetabular liner wear, the diagnosis of pelvic osteolysis, the timing of revision, and treatment strategies. According to this algorithm, we revise asymptomatic hips with pending or complete wear-through of the acetabular liner. We also recommend revision for most symptomatic patients with pelvic osteolysis and for patients with large pelvic osteolytic bone defects or a documented increase in osteolytic lesion size in an area of the cementless acetabular component in which a load transfer between the implant and the surrounding bone is likely to occur.
Basic Body Awareness Therapy , assessment, treatment and interaction

The purpose of the present thesis was to investigate Basic Body Awareness Therapy (Basic BAT) in psychiatric outpatient care and the BAS-H, an assessment method for analysing movements and movement behaviour. Important factors in the interaction, therapeutic relationship and working alliance between patient and physiotherapist (PT) were also explored. The results revealed the construct validity of the BAS-H assessment to be adequate and in accordance with theoretical expectations. The responsiveness to change of the BAS-H assessment was also found to be acceptable after a short-term treatment with Basic BAT. The Basic BAT treatment in addition to treatment as usual as compared to treatment as usual only, in a study comprising 77 patients in psychiatric outpatient care, turned out to be effective in the short-term perspective. Improvements with regard to the quality of movements and movement behaviour, psychiatric symptoms and attitudes towards the body and movement and self-efficacy were found in the group receiving Basic BAT. Interaction between patient and PT was considered to be important to outcome and the activation of the patients? resources according to nominated expert PTs working in both primary health-care and psychiatric care. The patients? experience of Basic BAT in psychiatric care revealed that improvements of balance and posture were the most commonly reported experiences. Personal involvement and the ability to practise alone characterised the patients reporting the most profound improvements in bodily, psychological and social terms. The working alliance construct was found to be useful in the analysis of interaction in physiotherapy.
Effects of tirilazad mesylate on postischemic brain lipid peroxidation and recovery of extracellular calcium in gerbils.

We describe the effects of the 21-aminosteroid tirilazad mesylate (U-74006F) on postischemic lipid peroxidation (depletion of brain vitamin E) and cortical extracellular calcium recovery in gerbils subjected to 3 hours of unilateral carotid artery occlusion. Male gerbils were treated with either 0.2 ml vehicle (0.05N HCl) or 10 mg/kg i.p. U-74006F 10 minutes before the induction of ischemia and again immediately after the initiation of reperfusion. In the first series of experiments, the brain concentration of vitamin E, which was unaffected by ischemia without reperfusion, was decreased after 2 hours of reperfusion by an average of 60% in vehicle-treated animals compared with sham-operated animals; in the U-74006F-treated gerbils, the 2-hour postischemic vitamin E loss was only 27% (p less than 0.002 different from vehicle-treated animals). In the second series, unilateral carotid artery occlusion produced a decrease in the cortical extracellular calcium concentration from 1.05 mM before ischemia to 0.11 mM by the end of the ischemic episode in both vehicle- and U-74006F-treated gerbils. After 2 hours of reperfusion, the calcium concentration had recovered to only 0.22 mM in the vehicle-treated animals compared with 0.56 mM in the U-74006F-treated group (p less than 0.01). Cortical blood flow, mean arterial blood pressure, and blood gases did not differ significantly between the two treatment groups. Administration of only the immediate postreperfusion dose (i.e., no pretreatment) also significantly improved the recovery of cortical extracellular calcium. The results indicate that U-74006F inhibits postischemic lipid peroxidation as assessed by the preservation of brain vitamin E and that, secondary to this membrane-protective effect, the processes responsible for the reversal of ischemia-triggered intracellular calcium accumulation are preserved.
Do limit cycles matter in the long run? Stable orbits and sliding-mass dynamics emerge in task-optimal locomotion

We investigate the task-optimality of legged limit cycles and present numerical evidence supporting a simple general locomotion-planning template. Limit cycles have been foundational to the control and analysis of legged systems, but as robots move toward completing real-world tasks, are limit cycles practical in the long run? We address this question both figuratively and literally by solving for optimal strategies for long-horizon tasks spanning as many as 20 running steps. These scenarios were designed to embody practical locomotion tasks, such as evading a pursuer, and were formulated with minimal constraints (complete the task, minimize energy cost, and don't fall). By leveraging large-scale constrained optimization techniques, we numerically solve the trajectory for a reduced-order running model to optimally complete each scenario. We find, in the tested scenarios in flat terrain, that near-limit-cycle behaviors emerge after a transient period of acceleration and deceleration, suggesting limit cycles may be a useful, near-optimal planning target. On rough terrain, enforcing a limit cycle on every step only degrades gait economy by 2-5% compared to optimal 20-step look-ahead planning. When perturbing the scenario with a single “bump” in the road, the model converged in a manner giving the appearance of an exponentially stable orbit, despite not explicitly enforcing exponential stability. Further, we show that the transient periods of acceleration and deceleration may be near-optimally approximated by planning with a simple “sliding mass” template. These results support the notion that limit cycles can be useful approximations of task-optimal behavior, and thus are useful near-term targets for long-term planning.
A small wall-walking robot with compliant, adhesive feet

The ability to walk on surfaces regardless of the presence or direction of gravity can significantly increase the mobility of a robot for both terrestrial and space applications. Insects and geckos can provide inspiration for both novel adhesive technology and for the locomotory mechanisms employed during climbing. For this work, Mini-Whegs/spl trade/, a small quadruped robot that uses wheel-legs for locomotion, was altered to explore the feasibility of scaling vertical surfaces using compliant, adhesive feet. Modifications were made to reduce its weight, and its legs were redesigned to enable its feet to better attach and detach from the substrate, mimicking homologous actions observed in animals. The resulting vehicle is self-contained, power-autonomous, and weighs only 87 grams. Using pressure-sensitive tape, it is capable of walking up a vertical surface, walking upside-down along an inverted surface, and transitioning between orthogonal surfaces.