Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seasonal expressions of androgen receptor, estrogen receptors and cytochrome P450 aromatase in the uteri of the wild Daurian ground squirrels (Spermophilus dauricus)

The reproductive tissues including the uterus undergo dramatic changes in seasonal breeders from the breeding to non-breeding seasons. Classically, sex steroid hormones play important roles in the uterine morphology and functions. To clarify the relationship between sex steroid hormones and seasonal changes in the uterine morphology and functions, the wild Daurian ground squirrels (Spermophilus dauricus) were used as seasonal breeder model. And the immunolocalizations and expression levels of androgen receptor (AR), estrogen receptors α and β (ERα and ERβ) and cytochrome P450 aromatase (P450arom) were investigated in the uteri of the wild Daurian ground squirrels in the breeding (April) and the non-breeding (June) seasons via immunohistochemistry, Western blot and RT-PCR. Histologically, the uterine weight, the thickness of endometrium and the glandular density were significantly higher in the uteri of the breeding season than those of the non-breeding season. In both seasons, the immunostaining of AR was only presented in stromal cells of the uteri; the positive staining of ERα and ERβ were localized in stromal cells and glandular cells; P450arom was merely immunolocalized in glandular cells. The protein and mRNA expression levels of ERα, ERβ and P450arom were higher in the uteri of the breeding season than those of the nonbreeding season; conversely, the expressions of AR were higher in the uteri of the non-breeding season comparing with those of the breeding season in both protein and mRNA levels. The AR: ER ratio in the uteri of the non-breeding season exceeded the AR: ER ratio in the uteri of the breeding season in the wild Daurian ground squirrels. These results suggested that seasonal changes in the expression levels of AR, ERs and P450arom might be correlated with the uterine morphology and histology changes, and estrogen may play an important autocrine/paracrine role in regulating the uterine functions of the wild Daurian ground squirrels.
Multi-rate control over AWGN channels via analog joint source-channel coding

We consider the problem of controlling an unstable plant over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel with a transmit power constraint, where the signaling rate of communication is larger than the sampling rate (for generating observations and applying control inputs) of the underlying plant. Such a situation is quite common since sampling is done at a rate that captures the dynamics of the plant and which is often much lower than the rate that can be communicated. This setting offers the opportunity of improving the system performance by employing multiple channel uses to convey a single message (output plant observation or control input). Common ways of doing so are through either repeating the message, or by quantizing it to a number of bits and then transmitting a channel coded version of the bits whose length is commensurate with the number of channel uses per sampled message. We argue that such “separated source and channel coding” can be suboptimal and propose to perform joint source-channel coding. Since the block length is short we obviate the need to go to the digital domain altogether and instead consider analog joint source-channel coding. For the case where the communication signaling rate is twice the sampling rate, we employ the Archimedean bi-spiral-based Shannon-Kotel'nikov analog maps to show significant improvement in stability margins and linear-quadratic Gaussian (LQG) costs over simple schemes that employ repetition.
Review Article: THE ROLE OF MICROGLIA AS PRIME COMPONENT OF CNS IMMUNE SYSTEM IN ACUTE AND CHRONIC NEUROINFLAMMATION

The understanding of microglia function in central nervous system (CNS) immune system has changed the neuroscientists’ view on CNS response to activating stimuli. Once microglia were considered a supporting cell, in the last 2 decades however they have been recognized as the prime component of CNS immune system due to their ability to actively response to both acute and chronic/persistent stimuli by proliferation and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and other toxic substances. Many studies have shown that pro-inflammatory cytokines produced by microglia play role in secondary CNS injury. Many other studies however have established that potentially toxic mediators (e.g. glutamate, Ca2+ and reactive oxygen species/ROS) released in traumatic CNS injury play prominent role in secondary CNS injury. We think therefore that the role of pro-inflammatory cytokines in secondary CNS injury is uncertain. This uncertainty is supported by the finding that pro-inflammatory cytokines affect only damaged neurons, which are caused by those potentially toxic mediators. The dual inflammatory response of cytokines also supports this uncertainty. On the basis of the above findings, we therefore suggest studies investigating the role of microglia in contributing secondary CNS injury and the effectiveness of suppressing microglia response to produce toxic substances to improve the outcome of CNS injured patients should be carried out. It has been proposed that neuroinflammation proceeds neuronal loss in many neurological disorders such in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Non-steroid anti-inflammation drugs (NSAIDs) therefore have been widely used in the management of AD. Many studies however have shown that NSAIDs are not effective to suppress the progressive neuronal loss in AD. Looking at the responsible of microglia (neuroinflammation) in neuronal loss and the failure of NSAIDs in improving outcomes of AD patients, we therefore hypothesize that suppressing microglia response to produce toxic substances may account for reducing neuronal loss in AD.
The Effects of Integrative Reminiscence on Depressive Symptoms in Older African Americans

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effect of integrative reminiscence on depressive symptoms in older African Americans. Fifty-six community-dwelling participants from a northeast urban setting were randomized into a reminiscence intervention group (n = 19), attention control group (health education; n = 19), or true control group (n = 18). Data were collected pre- and posttest using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Significant differences were found between groups, F(2, 52) = 8.6, p = . 001, η2 = . 10. Using Holm’s method of post hoc analysis, the mean score for the reminiscence group was 6.8 (SD = 4.7), significantly different from the control group 14.6 (SD = 10.1) and the health education group 11.7 (SD = 7.1). Findings demonstrate that integrative reminiscence has a positive effect on decreasing depressive symptoms in older African Americans.
Adaptive patrolling by mobile robot for changing visitor trends

In this paper, a single mobile robot is used to patrol an indoor environment composed of rooms. The robot is required to monitor the rooms and detect visitors as many as possible. A key idea in the patrolling mission is to allow the robot to utilize information about visitor trends. Thus far, we have focused on a visiting probability as the trend. However, the visitor trends usually change over time. Therefore, the robot is further required to detect the changes and identify the correct visitor trends in each room. For this challenge, we present a novel change-point detection method. In this method, the Jensen-Shannon divergence is used as a dissimilarity measure between two distributions of the visiting probability. The change-point detection method is activated in the Bayesian learning for estimating the changed visiting probability. Consequently, the robot is allowed to adaptively patrol the changing environment. Through the simulation experiments, we discuss the effectiveness of the adaptive patrolling for the changes in the visitor trends.
A Space-Optimal Grammar Compression

A grammar compression is a context-free grammar (CFG) deriving a single string deterministically. For an input string of length N over an alphabet of size σ, the smallest CFG is O(lgN)approximable in the offline setting and O(lgN lg∗N)-approximable in the online setting. In addition, an information-theoretic lower bound for representing a CFG in Chomsky normal form of n variables is lg(n! /n) + n + o(n) bits. Although there is an online grammar compression algorithm that directly computes the succinct encoding of its output CFG with O(lgN lg∗N) approximation guarantee, the problem of optimizing its working space has remained open. We propose a fully-online algorithm that requires the fewest bits of working space asymptotically equal to the lower bound in O(N lg lgn) compression time. In addition we propose several techniques to boost grammar compression and show their efficiency by computational experiments. 1998 ACM Subject Classification E.4 Coding and Information Theory
Nonlinear Modeling and Decoupling Control of XY Micropositioning Stages With Piezoelectric Actuators

In this paper, a modeling method of XY micropositioning stage with piezoelectric actuators is proposed. In the modeling scheme, a sandwich model consists of both input and output linear submodels, and an embedded neural-network-based hysteresis submodel is used to describe the motion behavior of each axis of the stage. Moreover, a neural-network-based submodel is constructed to describe the nonlinear interactive dynamics caused by the movement of another axis. Then, a tracking control scheme combined with a nonlinear decoupling control is proposed to compensate for the effect of the interactions between axes and track the reference trajectory. Then, the robust design method for the tracking and decoupling control is discussed. Finally, the experimental results on an XY micropositioning stage are presented.
Correlation between Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) III score and immunological parameters in critically ill patients with sepsis

Time after admission (h) immunological parameters in ten critically ill patients. We performed daily Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) 111 scoring and C-reactive protein (CRP) measurement on five consecutive patients with severe acute pancreatitis admitted to intensive care in the second half of 1995. APACHE I11 scores and CRP measurements at admission and 72 h are shown in Fig. 1 together with patient demographics and outcome. We found no correlation related to outcome in this small group with pancreatitis. Any correlation in a larger sample would be unhelpful for prediction of outcome because of individual variation. We cannot support the findings of Rogy et al. that APACHE I11 scoring at 72 h predicts the outcome of critically ill patients when applied to severe acute pancreatitis.
A framework for understanding the role of self-interest in attitude formation

Jennifer Kirstin Benz: A Framework for Understanding the Role of Self-Interest in Attitude Formation (Under the direction of Thomas Carsey) In this paper I present a framework based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion to explain the interplay of self-interest with symbolic beliefs and sociotropic perceptions in determining policy preferences. In developing the self-interest framework, I generate three testable hypotheses. I address two of these hypotheses in this paper using individual level survey data on preferences for a system of universal health insurance. The results of these tests provide preliminary support for the self-interest framework and suggest that a new conception of the effect of self-interest on policy preferences is in order.
Internet Traffic Behavior Profiling for Network Security Monitoring

Recent spates of cyber-attacks and frequent emergence of applications affecting Internet traffic dynamics have made it imperative to develop effective techniques that can extract, and make sense of, significant communication patterns from Internet traffic data for use in network operations and security management. In this paper, we present a general methodology for building comprehensive behavior profiles of Internet backbone traffic in terms of communication patterns of end-hosts and services. Relying on data mining and entropy-based techniques, the methodology consists of significant cluster extraction, automatic behavior classification and structural modeling for in-depth interpretive analyses. We validate the methodology using data sets from the core of the Internet.
A Story of Discrimination and Unfairness Implicit Bias Embedded in Language Models

Bias can be present individually in humans or collectively in corporations, groups, or cultures. We observe collective and individual implicit bias through analyzing writing in an automated way. Automating bias observations is possible through incorporating machine learning and natural language processing techniques to text analysis. The use of such an automated method makes large scale analysis possible with a variety of settings to compare and contrast bias in different conditions, such as subject of interest, time, location, culture, and language. Our proposed approach is a step towards a principled method for quantifying bias and fairness in language models that are used digital communications.
Brain regional vulnerability to anaesthesia-induced neuroapoptosis shifts with age at exposure and extends into adulthood for some regions.

BACKGROUND General anaesthesia facilitates surgical operations and painful interventions in millions of patients every year. Recent observations of anaesthetic-induced neuronal cell death in newborn animals have raised substantial concerns for young children undergoing anaesthesia. However, it remains unclear why some brain regions are more affected than others, why certain neurones are eliminated while neighbouring cells are seemingly unaffected, and what renders the developing brain exquisitely vulnerable, while the adult brain apparently remains resistant to the phenomenon. METHODS Neonatal (P7), juvenile (P21), and young adult mice (P49) were anaesthetized with 1.5% isoflurane. At the conclusion of anaesthesia, activated cleaved caspase 3 (AC3), a marker of apoptotic cell death, was quantified in the neocortex (RSA), caudoputamen (CPu), hippocampal CA1 and dentate gyrus (DG), cerebellum (Cb), and olfactory bulb (GrO) and compared with that found in unanaesthetized littermates. RESULTS After anaesthetic exposure, increased AC3 was detected in neonatal mice in RSA (11-fold, compared with controls), CPu (10-fold), CA1 (three-fold), Cb (four-fold), and GrO (four-fold). Surprisingly, AC3 continued to be elevated in the DG and GrO of juvenile (15- and 12-fold, respectively) and young adult mice (two- and four-fold, respectively). CONCLUSIONS The present study confirms the findings of previous studies showing peak vulnerability to anaesthesia-induced neuronal cell death in the newborn forebrain. It also shows sustained susceptibility into adulthood in areas of continued neurogenesis, substantially expanding the previously observed age of vulnerability. The differential windows of vulnerability among brain regions, which closely follow regional peaks in neurogenesis, may explain the heightened vulnerability of the developing brain because of its increased number of immature neurones.
Characterization of biofiber breakage in composite processing using a capillary rheometer

This study used a capillary rheometer to determine the impact that shear and elongational flow have on the breakage of aspen fibers in a polypropylene matrix. Composites were processed at different concentrations, temperatures, and rates of strain. The influence of the processing parameters was also analyzed. The difference in breakage of the fibers was assessed through their weight–average fiber length. Results showed that both types of flow exert influence on the total breakage of the fibers. In some cases, the percentage of breakage in the elongational flow is higher. The level of fiber breakage was similar for all fiber concentrations and shear rates. Temperature influence depended on the type of flow.
Hermite reduction and creative telescoping for hyperexponential functions

We present a new reduction algorithm that simultaneously extends Hermite's reduction for rational functions and the Hermite-like reduction for hyperexponential functions. It yields a unique additive decomposition that allows to decide hyperexponential integrability. Based on this reduction algorithm, we design a new algorithm to compute minimal telescopers for bivariate hyperexponential functions. One of its main features is that it can avoid the costly computation of certificates. Its implementation outperforms Maple's function DEtools[Zeilberger]. We also derive an order bound on minimal telescopers that is tighter than the known ones.
Global Survey of the Frequency of Atrial Fibrillation–Associated Stroke: Embolic Stroke of Undetermined Source Global Registry

Background and Purpose— Atrial fibrillation (AF) is increasingly recognized as the single most important cause of disabling ischemic stroke in the elderly. We undertook an international survey to characterize the frequency of AF-associated stroke, methods of AF detection, and patient features. Methods— Consecutive patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke in 2013 to 2014 were surveyed from 19 stroke research centers in 19 different countries. Data were analyzed by global regions and World Bank income levels. Results— Of 2144 patients with ischemic stroke, 590 (28%; 95% confidence interval, 25.6–29.5) had AF-associated stroke, with highest frequencies in North America (35%) and Europe (33%) and lowest in Latin America (17%). Most had a history of AF before stroke (15%) or newly detected AF on electrocardiography (10%); only 2% of patients with ischemic stroke had unsuspected AF detected by poststroke cardiac rhythm monitoring. The mean age and 30-day mortality rate of patients with AF-associated stroke (75 years; SD, 11.5 years; 10%; 95% confidence interval, 7.6–12.6, respectively) were substantially higher than those of patients without AF (64 years; SD, 15.58 years; 4%; 95% confidence interval, 3.3–5.4; P<0.001 for both comparisons). There was a strong positive correlation between the mean age and the frequency of AF (r=0.76; P=0.0002). Conclusions— This cross-sectional global sample of patients with recent ischemic stroke shows a substantial frequency of AF-associated stroke throughout the world in proportion to the mean age of the stroke population. Most AF is identified by history or electrocardiography; the yield of conventional short-duration cardiac rhythm monitoring is relatively low. Patients with AF-associated stroke were typically elderly (>75 years old) and more often women.
A therapeutic application of the experience sampling method in the treatment of depression: a randomized controlled trial

In depression, the ability to experience daily life positive affect predicts recovery and reduces relapse rates. Interventions based on the experience sampling method (ESM‐I) are ideally suited to provide insight in personal, contextualized patterns of positive affect. The aim of this study was to examine whether add‐on ESM‐derived feedback on personalized patterns of positive affect is feasible and useful to patients, and results in a reduction of depressive symptomatology. Depressed outpatients (n=102) receiving pharmacological treatment participated in a randomized controlled trial with three arms: an experimental group receiving add‐on ESM‐derived feedback, a pseudo‐experimental group participating in ESM but receiving no feedback, and a control group. The experimental group participated in an ESM procedure (three days per week over a 6‐week period) using a palmtop. This group received weekly standardized feedback on personalized patterns of positive affect. Hamilton Depression Rating Scale – 17 (HDRS) and Inventory of Depressive Symptoms (IDS) scores were obtained before and after the intervention. During a 6‐month follow‐up period, five HDRS and IDS assessments were completed. Add‐on ESM‐derived feedback resulted in a significant and clinically relevant stronger decrease in HDRS score relative to the control group (p<0.01; −5.5 point reduction in HDRS at 6 months). Compared to the pseudo‐experimental group, a clinically relevant decrease in HDRS score was apparent at 6 months (B=−3.6, p=0.053). Self‐reported depressive complaints (IDS) yielded the same pattern over time. The use of ESM‐I was deemed acceptable and the provided feedback easy to understand. Patients attempted to apply suggestions from ESM‐derived feedback to daily life. These data suggest that the efficacy of traditional passive pharmacological approach to treatment of major depression can be enhanced by using person‐tailored daily life information regarding positive affect.
Effective Trust-aware E-learning Recommender System based on Learning Styles and Knowledge Levels

In the age of information explosion, e-learning recommender systems (ELRSs) have emerged as the most essential tool to deliver personalized learning resources to learners. Due to enormous amount of information on the web, learner faces problem in searching right information. ELRSs deal with the problem of information overload effectively and provide recommendations by taking into consideration the learners’ preferences such as learning styles, goals, knowledge levels, learning paths etc. In this paper, we propose a weighted hybrid scheme to recommend right learning resources to a learner by incorporating both the learners’ learning styles (LSs) and the knowledge levels (KLs). Further, by elicitation of trust values among learners, we develop a scheme such that for a given active learner, the trustworthy learners having greater knowledge and similar learning style patterns as that of the active learner have greater weightage in recommendation strategy. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Chromosome congression is promoted by CENP-Q- and CENP-E-dependent pathways

ABSTRACT A key step of mitosis is the congression of chromosomes to the spindle equator. Congression is driven by at least two distinct mechanisms: (1) kinetochores slide along the microtubule lattice using the plus-end directed CENP-E motor, and (2) kinetochores biorientating near the pole move to the equator through microtubule depolymerisation-coupled pulling. Here, we show that CENP-Q – a subunit of the CENP-O complex (comprising CENP-O, CENP-P, CENP-Q and CENP-U) that targets polo-like kinase (Plk1) to kinetochores – is also required for the recruitment of CENP-E to kinetochores. We further reveal a CENP-E recruitment-independent role for CENP-Q in depolymerisation-coupled pulling. Both of these functions are abolished by a single point mutation in CENP-Q (S50A) – a residue that is phosphorylated in vivo. Importantly, the S50A mutant does not affect the loading of Plk1 onto kinetochores and leaves the CENP-O complex intact. Thus, the functions of CENP-Q in CENP-E loading and depolymerisation-coupled pulling are independent from its role in Plk1 recruitment and CENP-O complex stabilisation. Taken together, our data provide evidence that phosphoregulation of CENP-Q plays a central function in coordinating chromosome congression mechanisms.