Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GABA(B) receptors mediate motility signals for migrating embryonic cortical cells.

During development, postmitotic neurons migrate from germinal regions into the cortical plate (cp), where lamination occurs. In rats, GABA is transiently expressed in the cp, near target destinations for migrating neurons. In vitro GABA stimulates neuronal motility, suggesting cp cells release GABA, which acts as a chemoattractant during corticogenesis. Pharmacological studies indicate GABA stimulates migration via GABA(B)-receptor (GABA(B)-R) activation. Using immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR and Western blotting, we examined embryonic cortical cell expression of GABA(B)-Rs in vivo. At E17, GABA(B)-R1(+) cells were identified in the ventricular zone (vz) and cp. RT-PCR and Western blotting demonstrated the presence of GABA(B)-R1a and GABA(B)-R1b mRNA and proteins. Using immuno- cytochemistry, GABA(B)-R expression was examined in vz and cp cell dissociates before and after migration to GABA in an in vitro chemotaxis assay. GABA-induced migration resulted in an increase of GABA(B)-R(+) cells in the migrated population. While <20% of each starting dissociate was GABA(B)-R(+), >70% of migrated cells were immunopositive. We used a microchemotaxis assay to analyze cp cell release of diffusible chemotropic factor(s). In vitro, cp dissociates induced vz cell migration in a cell density-dependent manner that was blocked by micromolar saclofen (a GABA(B)-R antagonist). HPLC demonstrated cp cells release micromolar levels of GABA and taurine in several hours. Micromolar levels of both molecules stimulated cell migration that was blocked by micromolar saclofen. Thus, migratory cortical cells express GABA(B)-Rs, cp cells release GABA and taurine, and both molecules stimulate cortical cell movement. Together these findings suggest GABA and/or taurine act as chemoattractants for neurons during rat cortical histogenesis via mechanisms involving GABA(B)-Rs.
Exploring the Role of Punctuation in Parsing Natural Text

Few, if any, current NLP systems make any significant use of punctuation. Intuitively, a treatment of punctuation seems necessary to the analysis and production of text. Whilst this has been suggested in the fields of discourse structure, it is still unclear whether punctuation can help in the syntactic field. This investigation attempts to answer this question by parsing some corpus-based material with two similar grammars --- one including rules for punctuation, the other ignoring it. The punctuated grammar significantly out-performs the unpunctuated one, and so the conclusion is that punctuation can play a useful role in syntactic processing.
Inhibition of ADP/ATP Exchange in Receptor-Interacting Protein-Mediated Necrosis

ABSTRACT Receptor-interacting protein (RIP) has been implicated in the induction of death receptor-mediated, nonapoptotic cell death. However, the mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Here we show that tumor necrosis factor alpha induced RIP-dependent inhibition of adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT)-conducted transport of ADP into mitochondria, which resulted in reduced ATP and necrotic cell death. The inhibition of ADP/ATP exchange coincided with the loss of interaction between ANT and cyclophilin D and the inability of ANT to adopt the cytosolic conformational state, which prevented cytochrome c release. Neither overexpression of Bcl-xL nor inhibition of reactive oxygen species prevented necrosis. In contrast, the ectopic expression of ANT or cyclophilin D was effective at preventing cell death. These observations demonstrate a novel mechanism initiated through death receptor ligation and mediated by RIP that results in the suppression of ANT activity and necrosis.
Learning and adaptation in physical agents

Learning and adaptation is fundamental for autonomous agents that operate in a physical world and not a computer network. The paper is providing a general framework of skills learning within behaviour logic framework of agents that communicate, sense and act in the physical world. It is advocated that playfulness can be important in learning and to improving skills of agents.
The Origin of Intergalactic Metals around Lyman Break Galaxies

Theoretical and observational arguments suggest that the intergalactic medium (IGM) might have been polluted with metals produced by early star formation. In this scenario, Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at redshift z = 3 are likely to be surrounded by old metal bubbles, relics of an era when the characteristic mass of galaxies was small and gas retainment more difficult. We find that pregalactic enrichment of the IGM from 108-1010 M☉ dwarf galaxies at 6 < z < 12 can quantitatively explain the high cross-correlation between C IV systems and LBGs observed at z = 3. The reason is twofold. First, both LBGs and high-z dwarfs are biased tracers of the mass distribution and form from exceptionally high density fluctuations that are strongly clustered. Second, the action of gravity tends to increase the spatial association between metal bubbles and LBGs. Our analysis shows that, in order to match the abundance of C IV systems observed at z = 3, the metal bubbles generated by high-z dwarfs must have comoving sizes of ~100 kpc. We conclude that the observed galaxy-C IV spatial association does not need to be generated by late "superwinds" from LBGs.
Effects of Persuasive Claims on Desirability and Impulse Purchase Behavior

Group buying websites are getting increasingly popular in the recent years. These websites typically work with merchants to offer group deals at attractive prices. They need a pre-determined minimum number of buyers for a deal before that deal is on. It is therefore important for marketers to understand how they can encourage consumers to buy these online group deals early. Using the right persuasive claims that reflect a deal’s scarcity or popularity can help in heuristics information processing and shape a consumer’s desirability in that deal. This desirability can in turn tempt him or her to purchase immediately. As consumers are usually not informed of the deals prior to visiting the group buying websites, such buys can be termed as “impulse purchases”, i.e. unplanned or unintended buys. In particular, we investigate how one’s need-foruniqueness can influence the effectiveness of these persuasive claims. In view of the snob and bandwagon effects, marketers learn to appreciate which persuasive claims work better for what type of consumers.
Nesiritide, Renal Function, and Associated Outcomes During Hospitalization for Acute Decompensated Heart Failure: Results From the Acute Study of Clinical Effectiveness of Nesiritide and Decompensated Heart Failure (ASCEND-HF)

Background— Contradictory results have been reported on the effects of nesiritide on renal function in patients with acute decompensated heart failure. We studied the effects of nesiritide on renal function during hospitalization for acute decompensated heart failure and associated outcomes. Methods and Results— A total of 7141 patients were randomized to receive either nesiritide or placebo and creatinine was recorded in 5702 patients at baseline, after infusion, discharge, peak/nadir levels until day 30. Worsening renal function was defined as an increase of serum creatinine >0.3 mg/dL and a change of ≥25%. Median (25th–75th percentile) baseline creatinine was 1.2 (1.0–1.6) mg/dL and median baseline blood urea nitrogen was 25 (18–39) mmol/L. Changes in both serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen were similar in nesiritide-treated and placebo-treated patients (P=0.20 and P=0.41) from baseline to discharge. In a multivariable model, independent predictors of change from randomization to hospital discharge in serum creatinine were a lower baseline blood urea nitrogen, higher systolic blood pressure, lower diastolic blood pressure, previous weight gain, and lower baseline potassium (all P<0.0001). The frequency of worsening renal function during hospitalization was similar in the nesiritide and placebo group (14.1% and 12.8%, respectively; odds ratio with nesiritide 1.12; confidence interval, 0.95–1.32; P=0.19) and was not associated with death alone and death or rehospitalization at 30 days. However, baseline, discharge, and change in creatinine were associated with death alone and death or rehospitalization for heart failure (all tests, P<0.0001). Conclusions— Nesiritide did not affect renal function in patients with acute decompensated heart failure. Baseline, discharge, and change in renal function were associated with 30-day mortality or rehospitalization for heart failure. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00475852.
IoT module improves smart environment reliability

Many mission critical infrastructure systems directly impact the longevity and the usefulness of the systems they support. Heating and cooling equipment (HVAC) are important support equipment for sensitive industrial systems including manufacturing, IT, high tech testing and measuring equipment. Therefore it is important to monitor functionality and health of this sensitive equipment. Moreover, it is critical to track failures in these systems as they are indicative of future outages of the supported systems. In this paper, we present an IoT based module that monitors the heating cooling element. The module can detect outages in HVAC equipment and notify operators about the sensitive system failures following these events. The module has been deployed to find that it detects the system failures can relay this information to operators to act timely. Therefore, improves the system reliability. Moreover, the module can support logging of HVAC equipment as well as supported sensitive equipment power usage to generate usage patterns and allow operators identify key trends and potential problems.
Fusion to a Carrier Protein and a Synthetic Propeptide Enhances E7 HPV‐16 Production and Secretion in Lactococcus lactis

An inducible system to improve and stabilize the production of an extremely labile protein (E7 antigen of human papillomavirus type 16) was developed in the food‐grade bacterium Lactococcus lactis. A protein carrier, the staphylococcal nuclease Nuc, was fused either to N/ or C‐termini of E7 protein, and the resulting hybrid proteins were rescued from intracellular proteolysis but poorly secreted by L. lactis. A synthetic propeptide (LEISSTCDA) was then fused and significantly improved the secretion efficiency of the hybrid protein Nuc‐E7 by L. lactis.
Quality Modelling and Metrics of Web-based Information Systems

In recent years, the World Wide Web has become a major platform for software applications. Web-based information systems have been involved in many areas of our everyday life, such as education, entertainment, business, manufacturing, communication, etc. As web-based systems are usually distributed, multimedia, interactive and cooperative, and their production processes usually follow ad-hoc approaches, the quality of web-based systems has become a major concern. Existing quality models and metrics do not fully satisfy the needs of quality management of Web-based systems. This study has applied and adapted software quality engineering methods and principles to address the following issues, a quality modeling method for derivation of quality models of Web-based information systems; and the development, implementation and validation of quality metrics of key quality attributes of Web-based information systems, which include navigability and timeliness. The quality modeling method proposed in this study has the following strengths. It is more objective and rigorous than existing approaches. The quality analysis can be conducted in the early stage of system life cycle on the design. It is easy to use and can provide insight into the improvement of the design of systems. Results of case studies demonstrated that the quality modeling method is applicable and practical. Practitioners can use the modeling method to develop their own quality models. This study is amongst the first comprehensive attempts to develop quality measurement for Web-based information systems. First, it identified the relationship between website structural complexity and navigability. Quality metrics of navigability were defined, investigated and implemented. Empirical studies were conducted to evaluate the metrics. Second, this study investigated website timeliness and attempted to find direct and indirect measures for the quality attribute. Empirical studies for validating such metrics were also conducted. This study also suggests four areas of future research that may be fruitful.
Sierra: a SIMD extension for C++

Nowadays, SIMD hardware is omnipresent in computers. Nonetheless, many software projects make hardly use of SIMD instructions: Applications are usually written in general-purpose languages like C++. However, general-purpose languages only provide poor abstractions for SIMD programming enforcing an error-prone, assembly-like programming style. An alternative are data-parallel languages. They indeed offer more convenience to target SIMD architectures but introduce their own set of problems. In particular, programmers are often unwilling to port their working C++ code to a new programming language. In this paper we present Sierra: a SIMD extension for C++. It combines the full power of C++ with an intuitive and effective way to address SIMD hardware. With Sierra, the programmer can write efficient, portable and maintainable code. It is particularly easy to enhance existing code to run efficiently on SIMD machines. In contrast to prior approaches, the programmer has explicit control over the involved vector lengths.
Species Variation in Osmotic, Cryoprotectant, and Cooling Rate Tolerance in Poultry, Eagle, and Peregrine Falcon Spermatozoa1

Abstract Potential factors influencing spermatozoa survival to cryopreservation and thawing were analyzed across a range of the following avian species: domestic chicken (Gallus domesticus), domestic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Bonelli's eagle (Hieraaetus fasciatus), imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti), and peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). Studies focused on spermatozoa tolerance to the following: 1) osmotic stress, 2) different extracellular concentrations of the cryoprotectant dimethylacetamide (DMA), 3) equilibration times of 1 versus 4 h, 4) equilibration temperature of 4 versus 21°C, and 5) rapid versus slow cooling before cryopreservation and standard thawing. Sperm viability was assessed with the live/dead stain (SYBR-14/propidium iodine). Sperm viability at osmolalities ≥800 mOsm was higher (P < 0.05) in raptor than poultry semen. Return to isotonicity after exposure to hypertonicity (3000 mOsm) decreased (P < 0.05) number of viable spermatozoa in chicken, turkey, and golden and Bonelli's eagle spermatozoa but not in imperial eagle or peregrine falcon spermatozoa. Differences were found in spermatozoa resistance to hypotonic conditions, with eagle species demonstrating the most tolerance. Semen, equilibrated for 1 h (4°C) in diluent containing DMA (≥2.06 M), experienced decreased (P < 0.05) spermatozoa survival in all species, except the golden eagle and peregrine falcon. Number of surviving spermatozoa diminished progressively with increasing DMA concentrations in all species. Increased equilibration temperature (from 4 to 21°C) markedly reduced (P < 0.05) spermatozoa survival in all species except the Bonelli's eagle and turkey. Rapid cooling was detrimental (P < 0.05) to spermatozoa from all species except the imperial eagle and the chicken. These results demonstrate that avian spermatozoa differ remarkably in response to osmotic changes, DMA concentrations, equilibration time, temperature, and survival after fast or slow freezing. These differences emphasize the need for species-specific studies in the development and enhancement of assisted breeding for poultry and endangered species.
Effect of Transmission Codes on Hybrid SC/MRC Diversity Reception MQAM system over Rayleigh Fading Channels

(cid:3) Abstract — In this paper, the effect of transmission codes on the performance of coherent square M -ary quadrature amplitude modulation (CSMQAM) under hybrid selection/maximal-ratio combining (H-S/MRC) diversity is analysed. The fading channels are modeled as frequency non-selective slow independent and identically distributed Rayleigh fading channels corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). The results for coded MQAM are computed numerically for the case of (24,12) extended Golay code and compared with uncoded MQAM under H-S/MRC diversity by plotting error probabilities versus average signal to noise ratio (SNR) for various values L and N in order to examine the improvement in the performance of the digital communications system as the number of selected diversity branches is increased. The results for no diversity, conventional SC and L th order MRC schemes are also plotted for comparison. Closed form analytical results derived in this paper are sufficiently simple and therefore can be computed numerically without any approximations. The analytical results presented in this paper are expected to provide useful information needed for design and analysis of digital communication systems over wireless fading channels.
The definition of jets

A criterion for finding a configuration of jets for a given multiparticle event: • is derived uniquely from minimum formal input; • guarantees minimal distortion of physical information in the transition from particles to jets; • is optimally stable with respect to data errors; • does not restrict geometric shape of jets; • allows jets to share particles; • amounts to finding a matrix via minimization of a simple function; • does not otherwise restrict algorithmic implementations; • admits the conventional schemes as simple, perhaps imperfect (sic), heuristics.
Deep Active Learning for Dialogue Generation

We propose an online, end-to-end, neural generative conversational model for open-domain dialogue. It is trained using a unique combination of offline two-phase supervised learning and online human-in-the-loop active learning. While most existing research proposes offline supervision or hand-crafted reward functions for online reinforcement, we devise a novel interactive learning mechanism based on hamming-diverse beam search for response generation and one-character user-feedback at each step. Experiments show that our model inherently promotes the generation of semantically relevant and interesting responses, and can be used to train agents with customized personas, moods and conversational styles.
A state of the art regarding urban air quality prediction models

Urban pollution represents an increasing risk to residents of urban regions, particularly in large, over-industrialized cities knowing that the traffic is responsible for more than 25% of air gaseous pollutants and dust particles. Air quality modelling plays an important role in addressing air pollution control and management approaches by providing guidelines for better and more efficient air quality forecasting, along with smart monitoring sensor networks. The advances in technology regarding simulations, forecasting and monitoring are part of the new smart cities which offers a healthy environment for their occupants.
Branes for Relativists

Recently, branes in supergravity have become an indispensable tool even for traditional relativists. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide a pedagogical account of the brane technology so that the relativists can use branes in their study. The type IIA supergravity theory is mainly discussed and other cases are briefly mentioned. The repulson singularity is also explained as an interesting application.
Synaptic Activity and the Construction of Cortical Circuits

Vision is critical for the functional and structural maturation of connections in the mammalian visual system. Visual experience, however, is a subset of a more general requirement for neural activity in transforming immature circuits into the organized connections that subserve adult brain function. Early in development, internally generated spontaneous activity sculpts circuits on the basis of the brain's “best guess” at the initial configuration of connections necessary for function and survival. With maturation of the sense organs, the developing brain relies less on spontaneous activity and increasingly on sensory experience. The sequential combination of spontaneously generated and experience-dependent neural activity endows the brain with an ongoing ability to accommodate to dynamically changing inputs during development and throughout life.
Pediatric parenting stress among parents of children with type 1 diabetes: the role of self-efficacy, responsibility, and fear.

OBJECTIVE Parents of children with type 1 diabetes are crucial to promoting positive disease adaptation and health outcomes among these youngsters, yet this success may come at some consequence to parents' own well-being. Little research has examined the stress faced by parents, or explored the psychological and behavioral correlates of their stress. METHODS One hundred and thirty-four parents of children with type 1 diabetes completed measures of diabetes self-efficacy, responsibility for diabetes management, fear of hypoglycemia, and a recently developed measure of pediatric parenting stress (the Pediatric Inventory for Parents [PIP]; R. Streisand, S. Braniecki, K. P. Tercyak, & A. E. Kazak, 2001). RESULTS Bivariate analyses suggest that pediatric parenting stress is multifaceted; the frequency of parenting stress is negatively related to child age and family socioeconomic status and positively related to single parent status and regimen status (injections vs. insulin pump). Difficulty of parenting stress is negatively related to child age and positively related to regimen status. In multivariate analyses, a significant portion of the variance in stress frequency (32%) and difficulty (19%) are associated with parent psychological and behavioral functioning, including lower self-efficacy, greater responsibility for diabetes management, and greater fear of hypoglycemia. CONCLUSIONS Each area of parent functioning associated with pediatric parenting stress is amenable to behavioral intervention aimed at stress reduction or control and improvement of parent psychological and child-health outcomes.
Exploiting intracardiac and surface recording modalities for atrial signal extraction in atrial fibrillation

During atrial fibrillation (AF), atrial activity (AA) on the surface ECG consists of a pattern of quasi-periodic oscillations (f-waves), which are related to the electrical activation of the atrial substrate. However, to date no direct comparison between the extracted f-wave pattern in surface recordings and specific activation sites within the atria has been carried out. In the present study, one reference intracardiac modality consisting of a bipolar electrogram (EGM) recorded from the left atrial appendage (LAA) is exploited for the first time to guide the extraction of LAA electrical activity from standard 12-lead ECG recordings. A periodic component analysis (πCA) technique is employed for this task. The performance of the proposed multimodal extraction technique is compared to that obtained employing a noninvasive, fully blind approach, namely, independent component analysis (ICA). On a database of 31 AF patients, results suggest that the estimation of LAA activity is indeed possible, even though its contribution to the ECG total power is relatively low. Interestingly, ICA seems to provide a slightly better estimation of LAA activation rate, expressed in terms of dominant frequency (DF). On the other hand, the multimodal invasive approach performs better QRST complex suppression and provides AA waveforms with narrower spectra.