Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Behavioral Status Influences the Dependence of Odorant-Induced Change in Firing on Prestimulus Firing Rate

The firing rate of the mitral/tufted cells in the olfactory bulb is known to undergo significant trial-to-trial variability and is affected by anesthesia. Here we ask whether odorant-elicited changes in firing rate depend on the rate before application of the stimulus in the awake and anesthetized mouse. We find that prestimulus firing rate varies widely on a trial-to-trial basis and that the stimulus-induced change in firing rate decreases with increasing prestimulus firing rate. Interestingly, this prestimulus firing rate dependence was different when the behavioral task did not involve detecting the valence of the stimulus. Finally, when the animal was learning to associate the odor with reward, the prestimulus firing rate was smaller for false alarms compared with correct rejections, suggesting that intrinsic activity reflects the anticipatory status of the animal. Thus, in this sensory modality, changes in behavioral status alter the intrinsic prestimulus activity, leading to a change in the responsiveness of the second-order neurons. We speculate that this trial-to-trial variability in odorant responses reflects sampling of the massive parallel input by subsets of mitral cells. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The olfactory bulb must deal with processing massive parallel input from ∼1200 distinct olfactory receptors. In contrast, the visual system receives input from a small number of photoreceptors and achieves recognition of complex stimuli by allocating processing for distinct spatial locations to different brain areas. Here we find that the change in firing rate elicited by the odorant in second-order mitral cells depends on the intrinsic activity leading to a change of magnitude in the responsiveness of these neurons relative to this prestimulus activity. Further, we find that prestimulus firing rate is influenced by behavioral status. This suggests that there is top-down modulation allowing downstream brain processing areas to perform dynamic readout of olfactory information.
The Limitation of Random Network Coding

It is already known that in multicast (single source, multiple sinks) network, random linear network coding can achieve the maximum flow upper bound. In this paper, we investigate how random linear network coding behaves in general multi-source multi-sink case, where each sink has different demands, and characterize all achievable rate of random linear network coding by a simple maximum flow condition.
Oral premalignant lesions: any progress with systemic therapies?

Purpose of review To discuss the recent advances in oral cancer risk prediction, as well as agents that have been or are currently being tested in clinical trials, to treat oral premalignant lesions (OPLs) and prevent oral cancers. Recent findings Multiple predictive markers of OPL malignant transformation have been identified in retrospective or correlative studies involving patients enrolled in chemoprevention clinical trials, including chromosomal allelic imbalances, polysomy, p53, overexpression of podoplanin, p63 or epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), increased EGFR gene copy number, cyclin D1 polymorphisms, specific gene expression profiles, and specific DNA methylation profiles. Of these, loss of heterozygosity at specific chromosomal sites stands out as the most consistent and extensively characterized molecular marker of oral cancer risk described to date. This biomarker is now being prospectively integrated in chemoprevention clinical trials. Agents that have been or are currently being tested in patients with OPLs include retinoids, epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors, cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors, green tea extract, and peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-&ggr; agonists. Summary Despite extensive clinical investigations, a standard systemic therapy for patients with OPLs is yet to be developed. Integration of biomarkers of cancer risk into clinical trials using novel agents will hopefully streamline head and neck cancer chemoprevention research.
Angiostatin-converting Enzyme Activities of Human Matrilysin (MMP-7) and Gelatinase B/Type IV Collagenase (MMP-9)*

Angiostatin is one of the most potent inhibitors of angiogenesis. Reports have shown that metalloelastase, pancreas elastase, plasmin reductase, and plasmin convert plasminogen to angiostatin. However, the cleavage sites of plasminogen by those enzymes have not been determined. Here we demonstrate that two members of the human matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family, matrilysin (MMP-7) and gelatinase B/type IV collagenase (MMP-9), hydrolyze human plasminogen to generate angiostatin fragments. The cleavage sites have been determined. The 58-kDa bands derived from plasminogen by MMP-7 and MMP-9 both have the N-terminal sequence KVYLSEXKTG, which corresponds to that of angiostatin. This N terminus is identical to that of the starting plasminogen itself and corresponds to residues 97–106 of prepro-plasminogen. The 42- and 38-kDa bands generated by MMP-7 both have the N-terminal sequence VVLLPNVETP, which corresponds to the amino acid sequence 467–476 of prepro-plasminogen, between kringle domain 4 and 5. MMP-9 cleaves plasminogen to generate a 42-kDa fragment with the N-terminal sequence PVVLLPNVE, 1 residue upstream of the MMP-7 cleavage site. These results indicate that MMP-7 and MMP-9 may regulate new blood vessel formation by cleaving plasminogen and generating angiostatin molecules.
Internal governance imperatives for universities

In a world of increasing concern about corporate governance, universities should be at the forefront of role modelling sound governance and promoting the development of moral standards in society in accordance with one of their central mandates. This paper argues that compliance with relevant legislation and higher education policy of the country is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for sound and meaningful governance within universities. What is also required is the exposing and addressing of those ‘less easy to articulate’ and often subtle practices that render meaningless espoused values and that hamper full collegiality that can contribute to the achievement of university objectives. In addition, this omission has resulted in poor role modelling of governance standards to students who pass through universities on their way to becoming future leaders and decision-makers. These are the students who may translate their university experience into the way they influence, in some way, the moral standards of society. The paper concludes by posing three questions, as a start, to guide the interrogation of governance and to begin the process of developing moral responsibility at universities.
Formative Evaluation to Guide Early Deployment of an Online Content Management Tool for Medical Curriculum

KM is a Web-accessible, comprehensive database that organizes course materials (at the level of full lectures, not just outlines or syllabi) from the Vanderbilt School of Medicine curriculum. KM uses natural language processing techniques to analyze educational documents for biomedical concepts. Lecture handouts and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are indexed and available online for students, faculty and administrators to search for individual or interrelated concepts across the medical school curriculum.
Effects of age, gender, height, and weight on late responses and nerve conduction study parameters.

BACKGROUND Different methods in performing nerve conduction studies (NCS) yield different results. The results of NCS can also be affected by factors such as gender, age, height, and weight. This study aimed (1) to survey the effects of such factors, (2) to determine the importance of these factors, and (3) to analyze them for building equations in NCS and late response studies. METHODS NCS from the neurological screening tests of 101 individuals without spinal cord, root, nerve, neuro-muscular junction, muscular, or systemic diseases were collected and analyzed. RESULTS Subjects with older age had longer latencies, smaller amplitudes, and slower velocities compared with those in the younger age group. The change with age was greater in the median than in the ulnar nerve. Female subjects or those with lower weight had higher median and ulnar sensory amplitude. Females had shorter latency in the upper limbs and longer latency in the lower limbs by F-wave studies than males did. Height was an important factor by F-wave studies, with approximately 0.1 ms/cm and 0.3 ms/cm increase in the upper and lower limbs, respectively. Height and age were the most significant factors in the H reflex study with an increase of 0.18 ms/cm in height and 0.07 ms/year in age. CONCLUSION Without adjustment for these factors, the sensitivity and specificity of NCS will decrease when using the same reference data in patients with different gender, age, height, and weight.
Natural Killer Cell Memory: Progress and Implications

Immunological memory is a cardinal feature of adaptive immunity. Although natural killer (NK) cells have long been considered short-lived innate lymphocytes that respond rapidly to transformed and virus-infected cells without prior sensitization, accumulating evidence has recently shown that NK cells develop long-lasting and antigen-specific memory to haptens and viruses. Additionally, cytokine stimulation alone can induce memory-like NK cells with longevity and functional competence, leading to emerging interest in harnessing NK cell memory for cancer immunotherapy. Here, we review the evidence of NK cell memory in different settings, summarize recent advances in mechanisms driving the formation of NK cell memory, and discuss the therapeutic potential of NK cells with memory-like properties in the clinical setting.
Quantifying Urban Fragmentation under Economic Transition in Shanghai City, China

Urban fragmentation affects sustainability through multiple impacts on economic, social, and environmental cost. Characterizing the dynamics of urban fragmentation in relation to economic transition should provide implications for sustainability. However, rather few efforts have been made in this issue. Using the case of Shanghai (China), this paper quantifies urban fragmentation in relation to economic transition. In particular, urban fragmentation is quantified by a time-series of remotely sensed images and a set of landscape metrics; and economic transition is described by a set of indicators from three aspects (globalization, decentralization, and marketization). Results show that urban fragmentation presents an increasing linear trend. Multivariate regression identifies positive linear correlation between urban fragmentation and economic transition. More specifically, the relative influence is different for the three components of economic transition. The relative influence of decentralization is stronger than that of globalization and marketization. The joint influences of decentralization and globalization are the strongest for urban fragmentation. The demonstrated methodology can be applicable to other places after making suitable adjustment of the economic transition indicators and fragmentation metrics.
Observed full blood count and lymphocyte subset values in a cohort of clinically healthy South African children from a semi-informal settlement in Cape Town.

BACKGROUND The paediatric full blood count and lymphocyte subset reference intervals used by the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), South Africa (SA), are taken from two international reference interval publications. Differences in reference intervals suggest that international data sets may not be appropriate for use in SA. OBJECTIVE To study immunohaematological values of a group of clinically healthy children from an informal settlement in Cape Town, SA, to assess whether international paediatric reference intervals used by the NHLS are appropriate. METHODS A cross-sectional study of 207 female and 174 male HIV-uninfected children living in an informal settlement in Cape Town was performed. Full blood counts, automated differential counts and lymphocyte subset analysis were done using internationally accepted technologies. Data were categorised by age and reference intervals compiled using medians and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Gender comparisons were calculated by non-parametric tests. RESULTS Although median and 95% CI values differed slightly, physiological trends for red cell, platelet, white blood cell differential and lymphocyte subsets were similar to international reference intervals currently in use at the NHLS. Benign ethnic neutropenia was not a significant finding, and gender-specific intervals were not necessary until 12 years of age. Lower overall median values for haemoglobin and haematocrit, and higher median values for mean cell volume and red cell distribution width, were noted. Assessment of haemoglobin, red cell distribution width and calculated Mentzer ratios suggested underlying iron deficiency in 14.2% of participants. CONCLUSION Paediatric immunohaematological reference intervals observed in this study are similar to, and support continued use of, international paediatric reference intervals. Underlying iron and related nutritional deficiencies may be contributing to lower haemoglobin levels noted in local children. A larger nationwide study, including all ethnic groups, is recommended.
Métropolisation et résistance des territoires : l’exemple luxembourgeois.

Malgre la diminution de la contrainte de la distance liee aux progres de l’information et de la communication, qui a fait dire a Pierre Levy, dans une forme d’envolee hyperbolique contestable, qu’ « internet represente le stade de regroupement de l’humanite qui succede a la ville physique », (Levy, 2001) on assiste a une resistance des villes, et meme a leur renforcement sur la scene internationale en tant que lieux d’expression du pouvoir economique, institutionnel et symbolique. Les forces .
The 2-star spectrum of stars

Let K be a family of graphs. A K-decomposition, D , of a graph H (called the host) is a partition of the edges of H such that the subgraph induced by each part of the partition (called blocks) is isomorphic to an element of K. The chromatic index of the decomposition, denoted χ′(D), is the minimum number of colors required to color each block in the decomposition so that blocks that share a common node in H receive different colors. The K-spectrum of H, denoted SpecK(H), is the set of all values of χ′(D) over all possible K-decompositions of H. In this paper, we will show that any n-element subset of the positive integers is the spectrum of a tree when decomposing into a family of n trees. We will also look at ways of improving this result. In particular, we examine the problem of whether any n-element subset of positive integers is the spectrum of a star when decomposing into other stars. These results often have a number theoretical flavor to them, as they deal strictly with the parameters involved and not the underlying graphs. ∗ Affiliated Professor, University of Haifa 304 R.A. BEELER, R.E. JAMISON AND E. MENDELSOHN
Gradient Edge Map Features for Frontal Face Recognition under Extreme Illumination Changes

Our aim in this paper is to robustly match frontal faces in the presence of extreme illumination changes, using only a single training image per person and a single probe image. In the illumination conditions we consider, which include those with the dominant light source placed behind and to the side of the user, directly above and pointing downwards or indeed below and pointing upwards, this is a most challenging problem. The presence of sharp cast shadows, large poorly illuminated regions of the face, quantum and quantization noise and other nuisance effects, makes it difficult to extract a sufficiently discriminative yet robust representation. We introduce a representation which is based on image gradient directions near robust edges which correspond to characteristic facial features. Robust edges are extracted using a cascade of processing steps, each of which seeks to harness further discriminative information or normalize for a particular source of extra-personal appearance variability. The proposed representation was evaluated on the extremely difficult YaleB data set. Unlike most of the previous work we include all available illuminations, perform training using a single image per person and match these also to a single probe image. In this challenging evaluation setup, the proposed gradient edge map achieved 0.8% error rate, demonstrating a nearly perfect receiver-operator characteristic curve behaviour. This is by far the best performance achieved in this setup reported in the literature, the best performing methods previously proposed attaining error rates of approximately 6–7%.
GraphBuilder – A Scalable Graph Construction Library for Apache TM Hadoop TM

The exponential growth in the pursuit of knowledge gleaned from data relationships that are expressed naturally as large and complex graphs is fueling new parallel machine learning algorithms. The nature of these computations is iterative and data-dependent. Recently, frameworks have emerged to perform these computations in a distributed manner at commercial scale. But feeding data to these frameworks is a huge challenge in itself. Since graph construction is a data-parallel problem, Hadoop is well-suited for this task but lacks some elements that would make things easier for data scientists that do not have domain expertise in distributed systems engineering. We developed GraphBuilder, a scalable graph construction software library for Apache Hadoop, to address this gap. GraphBuilder offloads many of the complexities of graph construction, including graph formation, tabulation, compression, transformation, partitioning, output formatting, and serialization. It is written in Java for ease of programming and scales using the MapReduce parallel programming model. We describe the motivation for GraphBuilder, its architecture, and present two case studies that provide a preliminary evaluation.
Classification of Cardiac Arrhythmia Based on Hybrid System

This paper, describes an Intelligent Diagnosis System using Hybrid approach of Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model for classification of Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, and comparison this Technique with Feed-Forward Neural Network (FFNN), and Fuzzy Inference Systems (FIS). Feature extraction using Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and power spectrum, together with the RR interval then serve as input feature vector, this feature were used as input of FFNN, FIS, and ANFIS classifiers. six types of ECG signals they are Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR), Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVC), Atrial Premature Contraction (APC), Ventricular Tachycardia(VT), Ventricular Fibrillation (VF) and Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT). The results indicate a high level of efficient, the proposed method outperforms the other methods with an impressive accuracy of 97.1%, As for other methods FFNN, FIS results were respectively 94.3%, 95.7%.
Alterations in Helicobacter pylori Triggered by Contact with Gastric Epithelial Cells

Helicobacter pylori lives within the mucus layer of the human stomach, in close proximity to gastric epithelial cells. While a great deal is known about the effects of H. pylori on human cells and the specific bacterial products that mediate these effects, relatively little work has been done to investigate alterations in H. pylori that may be triggered by bacterial contact with human cells. In this review, we discuss the spectrum of changes in bacterial physiology and morphology that occur when H. pylori is in contact with gastric epithelial cells. Several studies have reported that cell contact causes alterations in H. pylori gene transcription. In addition, H. pylori contact with gastric epithelial cells promotes the formation of pilus-like structures at the bacteria–host cell interface. The formation of these structures requires multiple genes in the cag pathogenicity island, and these structures are proposed to have an important role in the type IV secretion system-dependent process through which CagA enters host cells. Finally, H. pylori contact with epithelial cells can promote bacterial replication and the formation of microcolonies, phenomena that are facilitated by the acquisition of iron and other nutrients from infected cells. In summary, the gastric epithelial cell surface represents an important niche for H. pylori, and upon entry into this niche, the bacteria alter their behavior in a manner that optimizes bacterial proliferation and persistent colonization of the host.
Understanding the Role of Institutions in Industrial Relations: Perspectives from Classical Sociological Theory

Theories of industrial relations have called for a stronger integration of the economic and social. Whereas economists have studied economic functions of institutions, neo‐institutional approaches in sociology have strongly rejected economic explanation in favor of seeing institutions as taken‐for‐granted cognitive assumptions. To further dialogue among these perspectives, this study reconstructs the concept of institutions in the classical sociological theory of Durkheim and Weber. Both classical perspectives place the dynamic tensions between the economic and social at the center of their theories, but develop these in distinct ways. The study illustrates the potential and limits of these four theoretical perspectives on institutions with regard to the empirical case of codetermination in Germany.
Thermal states of coldest and hottest neutron stars in soft X-ray transients

We calculate the thermal structure and quiescent thermal luminosity of accreting neutron stars (warmed by deep crustal heating in accreted matter) in soft X-ray transients (SXTs). We consider neutron stars with nucleon and hyperon cores and with accreted envelopes. It is assumed that an envelope has an outer helium layer (of variable depth) and deeper lay- ers of heavier elements, either with iron or with much heavier nuclei (of atomic weight A 100) on the top (Haensel & Zdunik 1990, 2003). The relation between the internal and surface stellar temperatures is obtained and fitted by simple expres- sions. The quiescent luminosity of the hottest (low-mass) and coldest (high-mass) neutron stars is calculated, together with the ranges of its possible variations due to variable thickness of the helium layer. The results are compared with observations of SXTs, particularly, containing the coldest (SAX J1808.4−3658) and the hottest (Aql X-1) neutron stars. The observations of SAX J1808.4−3658 in a quiescent state on March 24, 2001 (Campana et al. 2002) can be explained only if this SXT contains a massive neutron star with a nucleon/hyperon core; a hyperon core with a not too low fraction of electrons is preferable. Future observations may discriminate between the various models of hyperon/nucleon dense matter. The thermal emission of SAX J1808.4−3658 is also sensitive to the models of plasma ionization in the outermost surface layers and can serve for testing such models.
Improving Consistency and Reducing Ambiguity in Stochastic Labeling: An Optimization Approach

We approach the problem of labeling a set of objects from a quantitative standpoint. We define a world model in terms of transition probabilities and propose a definition of a class of global criteria that combine both ambiguity and consistency. A projected gradient algorithm is developed to minimize the criterion. We show that the minimization procedure can be implemented in a highly parallel manner. Results are shown on several examples and comparisons are made with relaxation labeling techniques.