Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altering White Racial Identity and Interracial Comfort Through Multicultural Training

The authors examined the impact of multicultural training on the development of White racial identity and interracial comfort. Findings indicated that an integrative multicultural training program resulted in significant increases along 3 dimensions of White racial consciousness and in the levels of interracial comfort. This work extends related efforts to study White racial identity as an important parameter of multicultural training and counseling. In addition, psychometric data and factor structures are provided for the White Racial Consciousness Development Scale (Claney & Parker, 1989) and the Interracial Comfort Index (Claney & Parker, 1989).
Metabotropic glutamate receptors are involved in amygdaloid plasticity

The amygdala plays an important role in emotional learning. Synaptic plasticity underlying the acquisition of conditioned fear occurs in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala: long‐term potentiation (LTP) of synapses in the pathway of the conditioned stimulus (CS) has shown to be a neural correlate of this kind of emotional learning. The present study is based on previous results of our laboratory showing an important role of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGluR5) in fear conditioning. Here, we explored whether mGlu5 receptors within the lateral nucleus of the amygdala are involved in the plasticity underlying fear conditioning. We used an in vivo approach investigating the acquisition, consolidation and expression of conditioned fear by the fear‐potentiated startle paradigm and by the inhibition of motor activity during CS presentation. Additionally, we used an in vitro approach inducing LTP in the lateral amygdala by patch‐clamp recordings in rat brain slices. Acquisition of conditioned fear, but not consolidation and expression, was blocked by intra‐amygdaloid injections of the specific mGluR5 antagonist 2‐methyl‐6‐(phenylethynyl) pyridine hydrochloride (MPEP) in vivo. Furthermore, induction of amygdaloid LTP but not synaptic transmission was disrupted by MPEP application in vitro. These experiments show for the first time in vivo and in vitro that mGluR5 receptors are necessary for plasticity in the amygdala.
Intention estimation for ramp merging control in autonomous driving

Cooperative driving behavior is essential for driving in traffic, especially for ramp merging, lane changing or navigating intersections. Autonomous vehicles should also manage these situations by behaving cooperatively and naturally. In this paper, we present a novel learning-based method to efficiently estimate other vehicles' intentions and interact with them in ramp merging scenarios, without over-the-air communication between vehicles. The intention estimate is generated from a Probabilistic Graphical Model (PGM) which organizes historical data and latent intentions and determines predictions. Real driving trajectories are used to learn transition models in the PGM. Thus, besides the structure of the PGM, our method does not require human-designed reward or cost functions. The PGM-based intention estimation is followed by an off-the-shelf ACC distance keeping model to generate proper acceleration/deceleration commands. The PGM plays a plug-in role in our self-driving framework [1]. We validate the performance of our method both on real merging data and using a designed merging strategy in simulation, and show significant improvements compared with previous methods. Parameter design is also discussed by experiments. The new method is computationally efficient, and does not require acceleration information about other vehicles, which is hard to read directly from sensors mounted on the autonomous vehicle.
Robust and numerically stable Bézier clipping method for ray tracing NURBS surfaces

Raytracing has become a popular method for generating realistic images and movies. The progress in hardware development shows that the real time raytracing on a single PC might be possible in the ongoing future. Obviously, that new generation of raytracing based applications will require more visualization precision and flexibility. Most of the modern raytracing based applications only deal with triangles as basic primitives, which brings limitations to an application and may cause visual artifacts to appear. NURBS surface representation is common for most of 3D modeling tools because of its compactness and useful geometric properties of NURBS surfaces. Using the direct raytracing NURBS surfaces, one can achieve better quality of rendered images. Although, many such approaches have already been presented, almost all of them suffer from numerical problems or do not work in some special cases. This paper presents a modified Bézier clipping method for finding ray - NURBS surface intersection points, which is fast, robust, and numerically stable.
In Vivo Profiling Reveals a Competent Heat Shock Response in Adult Neurons: Implications for Neurodegenerative Disorders

The heat shock response (HSR) is the main pathway used by cells to counteract proteotoxicity. The inability of differentiated neurons to induce an HSR has been documented in primary neuronal cultures and has been proposed to play a critical role in ageing and neurodegeneration. However, this accepted dogma has not been demonstrated in vivo. We used BAC transgenic mice generated by the Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas project to investigate the capacity of striatal medium sized spiny neurons to induce an HSR as compared to that of astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. We found that all cell populations were competent to induce an HSR upon HSP90 inhibition. We also show the presence and relative abundance of heat shock-related genes and proteins in these striatal cell populations. The identification of a competent HSR in adult neurons supports the development of therapeutics that target the HSR pathway as treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.
Obesity-Associated Hypertension: Recent Progress in Deciphering the Pathogenesis

The worldwide epidemic of excess body weight, including overweight and obesity, is associated with increased prevalence of cardiovascular risks comprising hypertension—a condition that promotes stroke, heart disease, and end-stage organ damage, which are major causes of death and disability.1,2 The close relationship between excess adipose mass and hypertension is well documented, with population-based studies showing excess adiposity as the strongest known risk factor for hypertension in male and female subjects of different ages and races.1–5 In particular, patients with visceral or abdominal obesity are at the greatest risk of developing hypertension and other cardiovascular risks.5,6 Moreover, obesity is a major risk factor for resistant hypertension (ie, patients who have uncontrolled blood pressure, despite being on ≥3 antihypertensive medications). 7,8 Clinical and animal studies have documented that weight gain can raise arterial pressure, whereas weight loss has a beneficial effect on blood pressure control.9–11 However, there are many factors that influence the blood pressure response to weight change, leading to substantial interindividual variations. In this regard, accumulating evidence suggests that genetic variants may affect the sensitivity to weight loss, as well as blood pressure response to weight change. This is based on the observation that patients carrying certain polymorphisms related to obesity and hypertension seem more likely to benefit from dietary interventions for weight loss and blood pressure control.12,13 Lifestyle modifications that promote weight loss are generally recommended as the first line of treatment for the increasing problem of obesity-associated hypertension.14 At first glance, this recommendation seems compelling, but evidence suggests that weight loss through lifestyle modifications for obesity-associated hypertension is neither simple nor sustained and is also not consistently effective as antihypertensive therapy.15 Given that excessive sympathetic activity is common in …
Regulation of Burst Activity through Presynaptic and Postsynaptic GABAB Receptors in Mouse Superior Colliculus

In slice preparations, electrical stimulation of the superficial gray layer (SGS) of the superior colliculus (SC) induces EPSC bursts in neurons in the intermediate gray layer (SGI) when GABAA receptor (GABAAR)-mediated inhibition is reduced. This preparation has been used as a model system to study signal processing involved in execution of short-latency orienting responses to visual stimuli such as saccadic eye movements. In the present study, we investigated the role of GABAB receptors (GABABRs) in modulating signal transmission in the above pathway with whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in SC slices obtained from GAD67-GFP knock-in mice. Perfusion of the slice with the GABABR antagonist CGP52432 (CGP) greatly prolonged the duration of the EPSC bursts. Local application of CGP to the SGS but not to the SGI produced similar effects. Because SGS stimulation elicited bursts in GABAergic neurons in the SGS when GABAARs were blocked, these results suggest that GABA released after bursts activates GABABRs in the SGS, leading to reduced burst duration. We found both postsynaptic and presynaptic actions of GABABRs in the SGS; activation of postsynaptic GABABRs induced outward currents in narrow-field vertical cells, whereas it caused shunting inhibition in distal dendrites in wide-field vertical cells. On the other hand, activation of presynaptic GABABRs suppressed excitatory synaptic transmissions to non-GABAergic neurons in the SGS. These results indicate that synaptically released GABA can activate both presynaptic and postsynaptic GABABRs in the SGS and limit the duration of burst responses in the SC local circuit.
History-Assisted Adaptive-Granularity Caches (HAAG$) for High Performance 3D DRAM Architectures

3D-stacked DRAM has the potential to provide high performance and large capacity memory for future high performance computing systems and datacenters, and the integration of a dedicated logic die opens up opportunities for architectural enhancements such as DRAM row-buffer caches. However, high performance and cost-effective row-buffer cache designs remain challenging for 3D memory systems. In this paper, we propose History-Assisted Adaptive-Granularity Cache (HAAG$) that employs an adaptive caching scheme to support full associativity at various granularities, and an intelligent history-assisted predictor to support a large number of banks in 3D memory systems. By increasing the row-buffer cache hit rate and avoiding unnecessary data caching, HAAG$ significantly reduces memory access latency and dynamic power. Our design works particularly well for manycore CPUs running (irregular) memory intensive applications where memory locality is hard to exploit. Evaluation results show that with memory-intensive CPU workloads, HAAG$ can outperform the state-of-the-art row buffer cache by 33.5%.
Does constitutional hypotension exist?

cerebrovascular disease in the community: the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project 1981-1986. I. Methodology, demography, and incident cases of first-ever stroke. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1988,51:1373-80. 8 Hatano S. Experience from a multicenter stroke register: a preliminarv report. Bull WHO 1976;54:541-53. 9 Rankin J. Cerebrovascular accidents in patients over 65 vears of age. 2. Prognosis. Scott MedJ 1957;2:200-15. 10 Office of Population Censuses and Survevs. Population projections. London: HMSO, 1985. (Senes PP2, No 13.) 11 Skilbeck C, Wade D, Langton-Hewer R, Wood V. Recovery after stroke. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1983;46:5-8. 12 Office of Population Censuses and Survevs. Mortality statistics. Area: England and Wales. London: HMSO, 1984. (Series DH5, No 10.) 13 Haberman S, Capildeo R, Rose F. Epidemiological aspects of stroke. In: Greenhalgh R, Rose F, eds. Progress in stroke research I. Tunbridge Wells: Pitman 1979:3-14. 14 Fratiglioni L, Massey E, Schoenberg D, Schoenberg B. Mortality from cerebrovascular disease. Neuroepidemwlogy 1983;2:101-16. 15 Whelton P. Declining mortality from hypertension and stroke. South MedJ 1982;75:33-8. 16 Garraway W, Whisnant J, Drury I. The continuing decline in the incidence of stroke. Mayo Clin Proc 1983;58:520-3. 17 Acheson R, Williams D. Epidemiology of cerebrovascular disease: some un? answered questions. In: Rose F, ed. Clinical neuroepidemiology. Tunbridge Wells: Pitman, 1980:88-104. 18 Haberman S, Capildeo R, Rose F. Diverging trends in cerebrovascular disease and ischaemic heart disease mortality. Stroke 1982;13:582-9. 19 Broderick JP, Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP, O'Fallon WM. Stroke incidence in Rochester, Minnesota: the end of decline in stroke? Neurology 1988;38 (suppl 1):146. 20 Terent A. Increasing incidence of stroke amongst Swedish women. Stroke 1988;19:598-603. 21 Van Swieten JC, Koudstaal PJ, Visser MC, Schouten HJA, van Gijn J. Interobserver agreement of handicap in stroke patients. Stroke 1988;19: 604-7.
Sex information given to Latina adolescents by parents

A study was undertaken in 1992 to identify 1) the amount of information given on specific sexual topics by Latino parents in the US to their adolescent daughters 2) the extent to which the amount of information discriminated between never pregnant and pregnant/parenting adolescents and 3) other variables that discriminated between these two groups. Data were gathered from telephone interviews with 42 respondents 14-18 years old who were pregnant/parenting and 40 respondents 13-19 years old who had never been pregnant. The amount of information given by parents was rated on a scale of 0-15 and the topics covered included menstruation sexual intercourse sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and body parts related to sex and birth control. Acculturation was measured using an adapted version of the Short Acculturation Scale for Latinos. It was found upon t-test analysis of the findings that the never pregnant group reported receiving significantly more information from their parents on menstruation sexual intercourse and STDs. The overall sex information score was also significantly higher in this group. The most frequently discussed topics for both groups were menstruation sexual intercourse and STDs but the pregnant groups received more STD information whereas the never-pregnant group received more information on sexual intercourse. Even when other variables were controlled greater communication was associated with avoiding pregnancy as was having parents who lived together an older age at menarche a younger chronological age a more positive attitude towards school and a higher level of acculturation. The study limitations include its cross-sectional nature the possibility of recall bias and the fact that the two groups were recruited differently. However the results strongly suggest that increased parental communication about sexuality leads to a decrease in adolescent pregnancy rather than the feared increase.
The diagnostic and prognostic role of liquid-based cytology: are we ready to monitor therapy and resistance?

Here, we evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic role of liquid-based cytology (LBC) in different body lesions, including thyroid, lung, effusions and malignant breast lesions. LBC has gained consensus after being applied to both non-gynecologic and fine-needle aspiration cytology. Although some remain sceptical regarding the diagnostic efficacy of LBC, mainly when used alone, in recent years, good results have been obtained as long as it showed a high diagnostic accuracy. Here, we discuss the additional possibility of storing material for the application of ancillary techniques (immunocytochemistry–molecular analysis) with several diagnostic and prognostic advantages, which may pave the way for the challenging evaluation of both monitoring responses to treatment and resistance to targeted therapies in thyroid, lung, breast carcinoma or malignant effusions. Furthermore, it provides the use of several molecular spots as specific targets for personalized therapy.
Estrategias para el desarrollo empresarial: Asociatividad en el sector plástico venezolano

Sobre la base de una iniciativa de colaboracion puesta en marcha por un conjunto de empresas del sector plastico venezolano, este trabajo pretende ilustrar los beneficios que otorga la participacion en redes empresariales e identificar los retos para su consolidacion, a fin de proponer recomendaciones para el diseno de estrategias de desarrollo empresarial. La investigacion se realizo siguiendo una metodologia cualitativa, con base en el enfoque del estudio de caso. Se discuten los marcos conceptuales pertinentes y se presenta el caso de la Corporacion de Plasticos Mirandino (CORPLAMI), consorcio de empresas fabricantes de empaques flexibles que inicio actividades en 1999, describiendose su evolucion y analizando las barreras superadas para la conformacion del grupo asi como las amenazas a su sostenibilidad. El caso presentado esta basado en la conformacion de una red horizontal, donde las empresas cooperan en algunas actividades pero compiten entre si en un mismo mercado, esperando obtener beneficios individuales de la accion conjunta. Esta experiencia muestra que el camino a seguir para la conformacion de redes de empresas pasa por la definicion y la ejecucion de una estrategia empresarial instrumentada a traves de acciones que persiguen los objetivos de mejora en la productividad y en la competitividad.
Modeling Soil Carbon Dynamics in Northern Forests: Effects of Spatial and Temporal Aggregation of Climatic Input Data

Boreal forests contain 30% of the global forest carbon with the majority residing in soils. While challenging to quantify, soil carbon changes comprise a significant, and potentially increasing, part of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Thus, their estimation is important when designing forest-based climate change mitigation strategies and soil carbon change estimates are required for the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. Organic matter decomposition varies with climate in complex nonlinear ways, rendering data aggregation nontrivial. Here, we explored the effects of temporal and spatial aggregation of climatic and litter input data on regional estimates of soil organic carbon stocks and changes for upland forests. We used the soil carbon and decomposition model Yasso07 with input from the Norwegian National Forest Inventory (11275 plots, 1960–2012). Estimates were produced at three spatial and three temporal scales. Results showed that a national level average soil carbon stock estimate varied by 10% depending on the applied spatial and temporal scale of aggregation. Higher stocks were found when applying plot-level input compared to country-level input and when long-term climate was used as compared to annual or 5-year mean values. A national level estimate for soil carbon change was similar across spatial scales, but was considerably (60–70%) lower when applying annual or 5-year mean climate compared to long-term mean climate reflecting the recent climatic changes in Norway. This was particularly evident for the forest-dominated districts in the southeastern and central parts of Norway and in the far north. We concluded that the sensitivity of model estimates to spatial aggregation will depend on the region of interest. Further, that using long-term climate averages during periods with strong climatic trends results in large differences in soil carbon estimates. The largest differences in this study were observed in central and northern regions with strongly increasing temperatures.
Input-Specific Critical Periods for Experience-Dependent Plasticity in Layer 2/3 Pyramidal Neurons

Critical periods for experience-dependent plasticity have been well characterized within sensory cortex, in which the ability of altered sensory input to drive firing rate changes has been demonstrated across brain areas. Here we show that rapid experience-dependent changes in the strength of excitatory synapses within mouse primary somatosensory cortex exhibit a critical period that is input specific and mechanistically distinct in layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons. Removal of all but a single whisker [single whisker experience (SWE)] can trigger the strengthening of individual glutamatergic synaptic contacts onto layer 2/3 neurons only during a short window during the second and third postnatal week. At both layer 4 and putative 2/3 inputs, SWE-triggered plasticity has a discrete onset, before which it cannot be induced. SWE synaptic strengthening is concluded at both inputs after the beginning of the third postnatal week, indicating that both types of inputs display a critical period for experience-dependent plasticity. Importantly, the timing of this critical period is both delayed and prolonged for layer 2/3-2/3 versus layer 4-2/3 excitatory synapses. Furthermore, plasticity at layer 2/3 inputs does not invoke the trafficking of calcium-permeable, GluR2-lacking AMPA receptors, whereas it sometimes does at layer 4 inputs. The dissociation of critical period timing and plasticity mechanisms at layer 4 and layer 2/3 synapses, despite the close apposition of these inputs along the dendrite, suggests remarkable specificity for the developmental regulation of plasticity in vivo.
Effects of organochlorines on cytochrome P450 activity and antioxidant enzymes in liver of roundnose grenadier Coryphaenoides rupestris

Oceans function as a sink for organochlorine compounds (OCs) such as PCBs and DDTs. Deep-sea fish bioaccumulate OCs to levels 10 to 100 times higher than shallow-water species. OCs induce the cytochrome P450 (CYP) system, the activity of which may increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in liver cells. However,, the susceptibility of fish to the oxidative stress likely caused by OCs remains unclear. We analysed whether PCB and DDT contamination of roundnose grenadier Coryphaenoides rupestris was associated with higher ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity (CYP1A-related), and activities of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutases (SOD) and glutathione peroxidases (GPX). Biological parameters affecting EROD patterns (e.g. gender, ontogeny) were also investigated. Citrate synthase (CS) was used as a proxy for oxidative metabolism, responsible for basal ROS production and recruitment of antioxidant enzymes in liver cells. Hepatic OC levels were determined in individuals of different sizes (89 to 2016 g) from northern Atlantic slopes (depth range = 1000 to 1900 m). Median PCB and DDT values were 2.39 and 1.48 mu g g(-1) lipid weight, respectively, while median EROD activity was 15 pmol min(-1) mg(-1) protein. Gender greatly influenced OC levels (females were less contaminated), whilst weight (linked to ontogeny) positively affected DDT levels. EROD increased with PCB levels, and to some extent SOD and CAT were more influenced by EROD than CS, indicating that PCBs strengly affect the redox balance of roundnose grenadier liver cells through increased CYP1A activity. Therefore, 0C-related CYP1A induction may be a major source of cellular ROS in liver of roundnose grenadier.