Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Discharge Characteristics of Low Pressure Receptors in the Rat

An in vitro preparation was used to examine the discharge of low pressure receptors in response to a pulsatile pressure stimulus. Both slowly adapting and rapidly adapting receptors were examined. After an increase in the mean level and/or dP/dt of a pulsatile pressure input, the discharge of slowly adapting receptors reached a steady state level within 2 minutes. An increase in mean pressure, with constant pulsatile amplitude and dP/dt, produced a sustained increase in the number of spikes/cycle, in the average number of spikes/second, and in the average frequency during the burst within the cycle. In slowly adapting receptors, an increase in dP/dt at a constant mean pressure and pulsatile amplitude produced a decrease in the number of spikes/cycle and an increase in both the average number of spikes/second and the frequency during the burst. Rapidly adapting receptors showed very different characteristics, responding to a pulsatile pressure input above threshold with an irregular discharge which averages approximately 1 spike/cycle at all mean pressure levels. Although rapidly adapting receptors transiently increased their discharge in response to an increase in mean pressure, within 60 seconds discharge returned to the pre-increase level. Rapidly adapting receptors continued to discharge with an average of 1 spike/cycle as dP/dt was increased. Since dP/dt was raised by increasing the frequency of the pulsatile input, the number of spikes/second increased. In the steady state, slowly adapting receptors transmit information reflecting mean pressure levels. They are also sensitive to the rate of change of pressure. Rapidly adapting receptors, on the other hand, are insensitive to mean pressure but do respond to the frequency of the stimulus.
Evaluation of the use of guard nodes for securing the routing in VANETs

We address the problem of effective vehicular routing in hostile scenarios where malicious nodes intend to jeopardize the delivery of messages. Compromised vehicles can severely affect the performance of the network by a number of attacks, such as selectively dropping messages, manipulating them on the fly, and the likes. One of the best performing solutions that has been used in static wireless sensor networks to deal with these attacks is based on the concept of watchdog nodes (also known as guard nodes) that collaborate to continue the forwarding of data packets in case a malicious behavior in a neighbor node is detected. In this work, we consider the beacon-less routing algorithm for vehicular environments routing protocol, which has been previously shown to perform very well in vehicular networks, and analyze whether a similar solution would be feasible for vehicular environments. Our simulation results in an urban scenario show that watchdog nodes are able to avoid up to a 50% of packet drops across different network densities and for different number of attackers, without introducing a significant increase in terms of control overhead. However, the overall performance of the routing protocol is still far from optimal. Thus, in the case of vehicular networks, watchdog nodes alone are not able to completely alleviate these security threats.
Inositol (1,4,5)-trisphosphate (InsP3)-gated Ca channels from cerebellum: conduction properties for divalent cations and regulation by intraluminal calcium

The conduction properties of inositol (1,4,5)-trisphosphate (InsP3)- gated calcium (Ca) channels (InsP3R) from canine cerebellum for divalent cations and the regulation of the channels by intraluminal Ca were studied using channels reconstituted into planar lipid bilayers. Analysis of single-channel recordings performed with different divalent cations present at 55 mM on the trans (intraluminal) side of the membrane revealed that the current amplitude at 0 mV and the single- channel slope conductance fell in the sequence: Ba (2.2 pA, 85 pS) > Sr (2.0 pA, 77 pS) > Ca (1.4 pA, 53 pS) > Mg (1.1 pA, 42 pS). The mean open time of the InsP3R recorded with Ca (2.9 ms) was significantly shorter than with other divalent cations (approximately 5.5 ms). The "anomalous mole fraction effect" was not observed in mixtures of divalent cations (Mg and Ba), suggesting that these channels are single- ion pores. Measurements of InsP3R activity at different intraluminal Ca levels demonstrated that Ca in the submillimolar range did not potentiate channel activity, and that very high levels of intraluminal Ca (> or = 10 mM) decreased channel open probability 5-10-fold. When InsP3R were measured with Ba as a current carrier in the presence of 110 mM cis potassium, a PBa/PK of 6.3 was estimated from the extrapolated value for the reversal potential. When the unitary current through the InsP3R at 0 mV was measured as a function of the permeant ion (Ba) concentration, the half-maximal current occurred at 10 mM trans Ba. The following conclusions are drawn from these data: (a) the conduction properties of InsP3R are similar to the properties of the ryanodine receptor, another intracellular Ca channel, and differ dramatically from the properties of voltage-gated Ca channels of the plasma membrane. (b) The estimated size of the Ca current through the InsP3R under physiological conditions is 0.5 pA, approximately four times less than the Ca current through the ryanodine receptor. (c) The potentiation of InsP3R by intraluminal Ca in the submillimolar range remains controversial. (d) A quantitative model that explains the inhibitory effects of high trans Ca on InsP3R activity was developed and the kinetic parameters of InsP3R gating were determined.
Effects of dietary supplementation with epigallocatechin-3-gallate on weight loss, energy homeostasis, cardiometabolic risk factors and liver function in obese women: randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on changes in body composition, energy and substrate metabolism, cardiometabolic risk factors and liver function enzymes after an energy-restricted diet intervention in obese women. In the present randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, eighty-three obese (30 kg/m2>BMI < 40 kg/m2) pre-menopausal women consumed 300 mg/d of EGCG or placebo (lactose). We measured body weight and adiposity (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry), energy expenditure and fat oxidation rates (indirect calorimetry), blood lipid levels (TAG, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol), insulin resistance, C-reactive protein and liver function markers (aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, γ-glutamyltransferase, urea, bilirubin and 2-keto[1-13C]isocaproate oxidation) before and after the intervention in the EGCG and control groups. We did not find any significant difference in the changes in body weight ( − 0·3 kg, 95 % CI − 5·0, 4·3), fat mass ( − 0·7 kg, 95 % CI − 3·5, 2·1), energy (0·3 kJ/kg per d, 95 % CI − 3·1, 2·7) and fat ( − 0·1 g/min, 95 % CI − 0·03, 0·01) metabolism, homeostasis assessment model for insulin resistance (0·2, 95 % CI − 0·2, 0·7), total cholesterol ( − 0·21 mmol/l, 95 % CI − 0·55, 0·13), LDL-cholesterol ( − 0·15 mmol/l, 95 % CI − 0·50, 0·20), TAG ( − 0·14 mmol/l, 95 % CI − 0·56, 0·29) and liver function markers between the EGCG and control groups. In conclusion, the present results suggest that dietary supplementation with 300 mg/d of EGCG for 12 weeks did not enhance energy-restricted diet-induced adiposity reductions, and did not improve weight-loss-induced changes in cardiometabolic risk factors in obese Caucasian women. The intake of 300 mg/d of EGCG for 12 weeks did not cause any adverse effect on liver function biomarkers.
In Search of the 'Magic Carpet': Design and Experimentation of a Bimanual 3D Navigation Interface

Abstract Hardware and software advances are making real-time 3D graphics part of all mainstream computers. World Wide Web sites encoded in Virtual Reality Modeling Language or other formats allow users across the Internet to share virtual 3D ‘worlds’. As the supporting software and hardware become increasingly powerful, the usability of the current 3D navigation interfaces becomes the limiting factor to the wide-spread application of 3D technologies. In this paper, we analyze the human factors issues in designing a usable navigation interface, including interface metaphor, integration and separation of multiple degrees of freedom, mode switching, isotonic versus isometric control, seamless merger of the 3D navigation devices with the GUI pointing and scrolling devices, and two-handed input. We propose a dual joystick navigation interface design based on a real-world metaphor (bulldozer), and present an experimental evaluation. The results show that the proposed bulldozer interface outperformed the status quo mouse-mapping interface in maze travelling and free flying tasks by 25–50%. Limitations of and possible future improvements to the bulldozer interface are also presented.
SPATIAL OBJECT RECOGNITION VIA INTEGRATION OF DISCRETE WAVELET DENOISING AND NONLINEAR SEGMENTATION

Spatial digital image analysis plays an important role in the information decision support systems, especially for regions frequently being affected by hurricanes and tropical storms. For the aerial and satellite imaging based pattern recognition, it is unavoidable that these images are affected by various uncertainties, like the atmosphere medium dispersing. Image denoising is thus necessary to remove noises and retain important signatures of digital images. The linear denoising approach is suitable for slowly varying noise cases. However, the spatial object recognition problem is essentially nonlinear. Being a nonlinear wavelet based technique, wavelet decomposition is effective to denoise blurring spatial images. The digital image can be split into four subbands, representing approximation (low frequency feature) and three details (high frequency features) in horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions. The proposed soft thresholding wavelet decomposition is simple and efficient for noise reduction. To further identify the individual targets, nonlinear K-means clustering based segmentation approach is proposed for image object recognition. The selected spatial images are taken across hurricane affected Louisiana areas. In addition to evaluate this integration approach via qualitative observation, quantitative measures are proposed on a basis of the information theory, where the discrete entropy, discrete energy and mutual information, are applied for the accurate decision support.
Trust and School Life: The Role of Trust for Learning, Teaching, Leading, and Bridging.

Chapter 1: Introduction. - PART I: TRUST AND LEARNING. - Chapter 2: Trust in Elementary and Secondary Urban Schools: A Pathway for Student Success and College Ambition Barbara Schneider, Justina Judy, Christina Mazuca and Michael Broda. - Chapter 3: The Interconnectivity of Trust in Schools Megan Tschannen-Moran. - Chapter 4: Organizational Predictability, the School Principal and Achievement Patrick B. Forsyth and Curt M. Adams. - Chapter 5: Teacher Trust in the Principal: Factor Structure and Effects Monixa Makiewicz and Douglas Mitchell. - PART II: TRUST AND TEACHING. - Chapter 6: The Effects of Standards Based School Accountability on Teacher Burnout and Trust Relationships: A Longitudinal Analysis Anthony Gary Dworkin and Pamela F. Tobe. - Chapter 7: Trust at Ground Zero: Trust and Collaboration within the Professional Learning Community Pamela R. Hallam, Shannon K. Dulaney, Julie M. Hite and Hank R. Smith. - Chapter 8: Teacher Trust in Students and the Organizational School Context: The Role of Student Culture and Teachability Perceptions Dimitri Van Maele and Mieke Van Houtte. - Chapter 9: Mentoring, Trust and Teacher Efficacy: A Powerful Force for New Teacher Induction Serafino M. Celano and Roxanne M. Mitchell. - PART III: TRUST AND LEADING. - Chapter 10: Linking Social Networks and Trust at Multiple Levels: Examining Dutch Elementary Schools Nienke M. Moolenaar, Sjoerd Karsten, Peter J.C. Sleegers and Alan J. Daly. - Chapter 11: Trust, Control and Comprehensive School Reform: Investigating Growth in Teacher-Teacher Relational Trust in Success for All Schools Timothy G. Ford. - Chapter 12: Principal Influence and Faculty Trust: An Analysis of Teacher Perceptions in Middle Schools Page A. Smith and Adrian A. Flores. PART IV: TRUST AND BRIDGING. - Chapter 13: The Principal Connection: Trust and Innovative Climate in a Network of Reform Alan J. Daly, Yi-Hwa Liou and Nienke M. Moolenaar. - Chapter 14: Trust in Districts: The Role of Relationships in Policymaking for School Improvement Julie Reed Kockanek and Matthew Clifford. - Chapter 15: Teachers' Trust in Knowledge Sources for Continuing Professional Development: Investigating Trust and Trustworthiness in School Systems Wieland Wermke.
Applying Double-Sided Combinational Auctions to Resource Allocation in Cloud Computing

We believe that a market-based resource allocation will be effective in a cloud computing environment where resources are virtualized and delivered to users as services. We propose such a market mechanism to allocate services to participants efficiently. The mechanism enables users (1) to order a combination of services for workflows and co-allocations and (2) to reserve future/current services in a forward/spot market. The evaluation shows that the mechanism works well in probable setting.
Bioinspired mechanical design of an upper limb exoskeleton for rehabilitation and motor control assessment

Robotic rehabilitation is a field that experienced a rapid expansion in the last decades due to two main reasons. First, due to the growth of population with rehabilitation needs such as stroke survivors, and two, due to the technological advances allowing the implementation of robotic devices in the clinical practice. These robotic rehabilitation devices can be broadly classified in two groups: the end-effector robots and the exoskeletons. Regarding the latter, it is important to note that the coupling with the human body demands a high safety factor. If the exoskeleton tries to impose kinematic or dynamic configurations that are not compatible with the human body, it may cause injury to the user. This issue is more critical in motor rehabilitation as the patients could show muscle weakness. In this context, this manuscript presents a bioinspired upper limb robotic exoskeleton, aiming to optimize the dynamic compatibility with the human arm. With this approach, it is expected that safety is intrinsic to the exoskeleton mechanism.
Over-Indebtedness in Brazil: Do We Need More Regulation?

During the last decade, many Brazilian consumers left the lower strata of the socioeconomic pyramid and ascended to the middle class. A large part of this expanding social mobility came from increased access to credit. Easing the access to credit is considered by classic economic theory an important factor for economic growth and for contributing to economic well-being. Debt is necessary to maintain a stable consumption level and to boost economy in more timid periods. In Brazil, however, although borrowing led to a higher social status for some, for others it may have led to over-indebtedness. This paper takes a law and economics approach to analyze over-indebtedness in Brazil and discusses the necessity of wider regulation of consumer credit. It investigates data searching for signals related to the increasing indebtedness of Brazilian consumers and it deals with some concepts of over-indebtedness presented by the literature.Moreover, some of the behavioral law and economics biases are presented and related to consumer behaviors. All regulators should take this analysis into consideration in order to achieve good results for their public policies in the sector.
H∞ -control by state-feedback for plants with zeros on the imaginary axis

Algebraic tests are derived for the suboptimality of some parameter in the $H_\infty $-optimization problem by state-feedback, where the finite zero structure of the plant is not restricted. As an application of these characterizations, a quadratically convergent algorithm for the computation of the optimal value is presented. The suboptimality tests are based on new solvability criteria for general algebraic Riccati inequalities that are of independent interest.
New Developments in Monetary Economics: Two Ghosts, Two Eccentricities, a Fallacy, a Mirage and a Mythos

Monetary theory and policy are part of intertemporal public finance. The two ghosts are the liquidity trap and the real balance effect. The eccentricities are negative nominal interest rates and the helicopter drop of money. The fallacy is the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level, a logically inconsistent theory of the link between the government's intertemporal budget constraint and the general price level. The mirage is the prediction that financial deregulation and technical change in the payments and settlements technology will cause monetary policy to lose its capacity to influence even nominal economic variables. Mythos refers to the independent central bank.
Market Segmentation: The Role of Opaque Travel Agencies

This paper investigates the role of discount travel agencies such as Priceline and Hotwire in the market segmentation of the hotel and airline industries. These agencies conceal important characteristics of the offered services, such as hotel locations or flight schedules. We explicitly model this opaque feature and show that it enables service providers to price discriminate between those customers who are sensitive to service characteristics and those who are not. Service providers can profit from such discrimination despite the fact that the opaque feature virtually erases product differentiation and thus intensifies competition. The reason is that the intensified competition for less sensitive customers enables service providers to commit to a higher price for more sensitive customers, which leads to higher profits overall. This explains why airlines or hotels are willing to lose the advantage of product differentiation and offer services through discount travel agencies.
On Network Randomization Methods : A Negative Control Study

Network motif exploration is a cross disciplinary field whose advancement could have implications in a plethora of research areas. [1] As a result motif detection software has become an essential tool in motif related investigations. Motif detection software relies on random graph generation algorithms to provide a negative control group. [2] Negative control in any scientific discipline is essential when trying to show correlations. This paper is a case study of negative control in the discipline of motif detection. Motif detection software relies heavily on negative control to find motifs in a given network. In these softwares the negative control group is comprised of a large of randomized networks created by internal graph randomization algorithms. [3] Specifically two graph randomization algorithms are used in this negative control study: The switching method and the ”matching” method. [2, 4, 5] Using mfinder results gathered from searching 3 to 5 node motifs using both graph randomization methods are compared and studied. [3] Multiple motif searches were conducted on the transcription regulation network of E.coli and Yeast. In all trials in the 3 node E. coli motif search the feed forward loop was found. In addition, the 4 node motif searches done on the transcription network of E. coli and Yeast yielded the identical results. Altering graph randomization methods showed different results only in the 5 node motifs searches. There were key motifs found more frequently using the switching method then ”matching” method.
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Modulates the Development of the Dopaminergic Network in the Rodent Retina

Dopaminergic cells in the retina express the receptor for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) (Cellerino and Kohler, 1997). To investigate whether BDNF can influence the development of the retinal dopaminergic pathway, we performed intraocular injections of BDNF during the second or third postnatal week and visualized the dopaminergic system with tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemistry. Both regimens of BDNF treatment caused an increase in TH immunoreactivity in stratum 1 and stratum 3 of the inner plexiform layer (IPL). D2 dopamine receptor immunoreactivity, a presynaptic marker of dopaminergic cells (Veruki, 1996), was also increased in stratum 1 and stratum 3 of the inner plexiform layer. These data suggest that BDNF causes sprouting of dopaminergic fibers in the inner plexiform layer. Other neurochemical systems, for example, the cholinergic amacrine cells, remained unaffected. Similar effects were observed after injections of neurotrophin-3 and neurotrophin-4, but not nerve growth factor. Analysis of whole-mounted TH-immunolabeled retinae revealed hypertrophy of dopaminergic cells (+41% in soma areas; p < 0.01) and an increase of labeled dopaminergic varicosities in stratum 1 of the IPL (+51%;p < 0.01) after BDNF treatment. The opposite was observed in mice homozygous for a null mutation of thebdnf gene: dopaminergic cells were atrophic (−22.5% in soma areas; p < 0.05), and the density of TH-positive varicosities in stratum 1 was reduced (57%;p < 0.01). We conclude that BDNF controls the development of the retinal dopaminergic network and may be particularly important in determining the density of dopaminergic innervation in the retina.
3D-QSAR studies on fluroquinolones derivatives as inhibitors for tuberculosis

A quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) study was performed on the fluroquinolones known to have anti-tuberculosis activity. The 3D-QSAR models were generated using stepwise variable selection of the four methods - multiple regression (MR), partial least square regression (PLSR), principal component regression (PCR) and artificial neural networks (kNN-MFA). The statistical result showed a significant correlation coefficient q2 (90%) for MR model and an external test set of (pred_r2) -1.7535, though the external predictivity showed to improve using kNN-MFA method with pred_r2 of -0.4644. Contour maps showed that steric effects dominantly determine the binding affinities. The QSAR models may lead to a better understanding of the structural requirements of anti-tuberculosis compounds and also help in the design of novel molecules.
Dynamic solid textures for real-time coherent stylization

Stylized rendering methods, which aim at depicting 3D scenes with 2D marks such as pigments or strokes, are often faced with temporal coherence issues when applied to dynamic scenes. These issues arise from the difficulty of having to satisfy two contrary goals: ensuring that the style marks follow 3D motions while preserving their 2D appearance. In this paper we describe a new texture based method for real-time temporally coherent stylization called dynamic textures. A dynamic texture is a standard texture mapped on the object and enriched with an infinite zoom mechanism. This simple and fast mechanism maintains quasi-constant size and density of texture elements in screen space for any distance from the camera. We show that these dynamic textures can be used in many stylization techniques, enforcing the 2D appearance of the style marks while preserving the accurate 3D motion of the depicted objects. Although our infinite zoom technique can be used with both 2D or 3D textures, we focus in this paper on the 3D case (dynamic solid textures) which avoids the need for complex parameterizations of 3D surfaces. This makes dynamic textures easy to integrate in existing rendering pipelines with almost no loss in performance, as demonstrated by our implementation in a game rendering engine.