Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implication of Kir4.1 Channel in Excess Potassium Clearance: An In Vivo Study on Anesthetized Glial-Conditional Kir4.1 Knock-Out Mice

The Kir4.1 channel is crucial for the maintenance of the resting membrane potential of glial cells, and it is believed to play a main role in the homeostasis of extracellular potassium. To understand its importance in these two phenomena, we have measured in vivo the variations of extracellular potassium concentration ([K+]o) (with potassium-sensitive microelectrodes) and membrane potential of glial cells (with sharp electrodes) during stimulations in wild-type (WT) mice and glial-conditional knock-out (cKO) Kir4.1 mice. The conditional knockout was driven by the human glial fibrillary acidic protein promoter, gfa2. Experiments were performed in the hippocampus of anesthetized mice (postnatal days 17–24). Low level stimulation (<20 stimuli, 10 Hz) induced a moderated increase of [K+]o (<2 mm increase) in both WT and cKO mice. However, cKO mice exhibited slower recovery of [K+]o levels. With long-lasting stimulation (300 stimuli, 10 Hz), [K+]o in WT and cKO mice displayed characteristic ceiling level (>2 mm increase) and recovery undershoot, with a more pronounced and prolonged undershoot in cKO mice. In addition, cKO glial cells were more depolarized, and, in contrast to those from WT mice, their membrane potential did not follow the stimulation-induced [K+]o changes, reflecting the loss of their high potassium permeability. Our in vivo results support the role of Kir4.1 in setting the membrane potential of glial cells and its contribution to the glial potassium permeability. In addition, our data confirm the necessity of the Kir4.1 channel for an efficient uptake of K+ by glial cells.
Assessing activity-based learning for a networked course

Networked environments offer new scope for presenting activity based courses, in which activities and reflection form the central backbone of course pedagogy. Such courses promise an enriching approach to study, but there are also challenges for the design of assessment. This paper describes a qualitative study of student and tutor perspectives on the assessment of an innovative undergraduate course at the UK Open University which has employed an activity-based approach. It discusses the relationship between assessment, student participation, and the development of skills, and then outlines the priorities for the design of assessment for such courses.
Optogenetics in Silicon: A Neural Processor for Predicting Optically Active Neural Networks

We present a reconfigurable neural processor for real-time simulation and prediction of opto-neural behaviour. We combined a detailed Hodgkin–Huxley CA3 neuron integrated with a four-state Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) model into reconfigurable silicon hardware. Our architecture consists of a Field Programmable Gated Array (FPGA) with a custom-built computing data-path, a separate data management system and a memory approach based router. Advancements over previous work include the incorporation of short and long-term calcium and light-dependent ion channels in reconfigurable hardware. Also, the developed processor is computationally efficient, requiring only 0.03 ms processing time per sub-frame for a single neuron and 9.7 ms for a fully connected network of 500 neurons with a given FPGA frequency of 56.7 MHz. It can therefore be utilized for exploration of closed loop processing and tuning of biologically realistic optogenetic circuitry.
Making 802.11 DCF Near-Optimal: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

This paper proposes a new protocol called Optimal DCF (O-DCF). O-DCF modifies the rule of adapting CSMA parameters, such as backoff time and transmission length, based on a function of the demand-supply differential of link capacity captured by the local queue length. O-DCF is fully compatible with 802.11 hardware, so that it can be easily implemented only with a simple device driver update. O-DCF is inspired by the recent analytical studies proven to be optimal under assumptions, which often generates a big gap between theory and practice. O-DCF effectively bridges such a gap, which is implemented in off-the-shelf 802.11 chipset. Through extensive simulations and real experiments with a 16-node wireless network testbed, we evaluate the performance of O-DCF and show that it achieves near-optimality in terms of throughput and fairness and outperforms other competitive ones, such as 802.11 DCF, optimal CSMA, and DiffQ for various scenarios. Also, we consider the coexistence of O-DCF and 802.11 DCF and show that O-DCF fairly shares the medium with 802.11 via its parameter control.
Individual differences in the concordance of self-reports and official records.

BACKGROUND Although self-reported and official measures of criminal behaviour are highly correlated, the concordance between self-reports and official records appears to vary across the population. Few studies, however, have considered the range of individual traits and characteristics that might influence the relative accuracy of self-reports and official records. METHOD Using data collected from the Australian Temperament Project, we investigated the concordance between official records and self-reports together with some of the factors that might influence it. RESULTS Those with criminal records were 3.5 times more likely to report police contact than those with no criminal record. However, there were significant sources of individual-level variation in their convergence, and notably honest respondents were less likely to report an interaction with police. Those at risk of crime and delinquency were less likely to consent to official records searches. CONCLUSIONS Many individual characteristics that predisposed individuals towards a criminal career also affected their willingness to consent to official records searches and the concordance between criminal records and self-reports.
Could motor unit control strategies be partially preserved after stroke?

There is considerable evidence on the impairments that a cerebral stroke will have down-stream of the stroke, i.e., in the spinal motoneuron and the muscle. Motor impairment following stroke has been documented as force production that is slow, weak, and lacking in precision (Garland et al., 2009) and is associated with difficulty in fully activating the muscle (Klein et al., 2013). Furthermore, in functional tasks such as standing balance and gait, there is evidence of deficits in intra-limb coordination of muscles even on the non-paretic side (Marigold and Eng, 2006; Raja et al., 2012). In this opinion paper, we will first briefly review the changes observed at the level of the motor unit (MU) after stroke and second reflect upon whether some changes in the intrinsic properties of motoneurons, typically considered to be maladaptive, might also reflect a positive adaptation that could assist in force production. Lastly, this paper will explore the control of MUs between limbs during standing balance and suggest that, while some impairment may exist, there remains the possibility of a preservation of fundamental motor control strategies after stroke that might be a target for rehabilitation.
Extending PSL with Fuzzy Quantifiers

Probabilistic soft logic (PSL) is a probabilistic modeling framework which uses first-order logic and soft truth values in the interval[0;1] for reasoning in relational domains. PSL uses the Łukasiewicz t-norm and t-conorm from fuzzy logic to model respectively conjunction and disjunction. A PSL rule such as Trusts(A;X)^Trusts(X;B)->Trusts(A;B) models that “A trusts B” is true to the degree to which there is a trusted third party X. In the current version of PSL there is no way to express that A should trust B if most trusted friends of A trust B. In this work, we propose an extension of PSL with fuzzy quantifiers to address this limitation.
A Reconnaissance Attack Mechanism for Fixed-Priority Real-Time Systems

In real-time embedded systems (RTS), failures due to security breaches can cause serious damage to the system, the environment and/or injury to humans. Therefore, it is very important to understand the potential threats and attacks against these systems. In this paper we present a novel reconnaissance attack that extracts the exact schedule of real-time systems designed using fixed priority scheduling algorithms. The attack is demonstrated on both a real hardware platform and a simulator, with a high success rate. Our evaluation results show that the algorithm is robust even in the presence of execution time variation.
Leukocyte trafficking mediated by selectin-carbohydrate interactions

The selectins have attracted intense interest because of their carbohydrate-recognition properties and their pivotal roles in leukocyte trafficking. Future studies will center on the mechanisms for regulating the expression of the selectins and their ligands, the molecular details of selectin binding to glycoprotein ligands and small carbohydrates, and the biophysical principles that selectins employ to mediate attachment and rolling of leukocytes under flow.
A toy more difficult to control than the real thing

Standard helicopters use the propeller angle to alter the aerodynamic force and have been shown to be feedback linearizable with the pitch, yaw and roll angles being the flat outputs. In this work, a-two-degree-of-freedom, laboratory-scale helicopter-like system (termed the toycopter), where the aerodynamic force is manipulated using the propeller speed, is considered. For such a system the yaw and pitch angles are not flat outputs contrarily of the real helicopters. Moreover, the system does not seem to be flat and is shown to admit at most a one dimensional defect. Various properties of this system are investigated to illustrate the difficulties that arise in the control of the toycopter.
Diffusion LMS Strategies in Sensor Networks With Noisy Input Data

We investigate the performance of distributed least-mean square (LMS) algorithms for parameter estimation over sensor networks where the regression data of each node are corrupted by white measurement noise. Under this condition, we show that the estimates produced by distributed LMS algorithms will be biased if the regression noise is excluded from consideration. We propose a bias-elimination technique and develop a novel class of diffusion LMS algorithms that can mitigate the effect of regression noise and obtain an unbiased estimate of the unknown parameter vector over the network. In our development, we first assume that the variances of the regression noises are known a priori. Later, we relax this assumption by estimating these variances in real time. We analyze the stability and convergence of the proposed algorithms and derive closed-form expressions to characterize their mean-square error performance in transient and steady-state regimes. We further provide computer experiment results that illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithms and support the analytical findings.
Recent and simultaneous origins of eusociality in halictid bees

Eusocial organisms are characterized by cooperative brood care, generation overlap and reproductive division of labour. Traits associated with eusociality are most developed in ants, termites, paper wasps and corbiculate bees; the fossil record indicates that each of these advanced eusocial taxa evolved in the Late Cretaceous or earlier (greater than 65 Myr ago). Halictid bees also include a large and diverse number of eusocial members, but, in contrast to advanced eusocial taxa, they are characterized by substantial intra- and inter-specific variation in social behaviour, which may be indicative of more recent eusocial evolution. To test this hypothesis, we used over 2400 bp of DNA sequence data gathered from three protein-coding nuclear genes (opsin, wingless and EF-1a) to infer the phylogeny of eusocial halictid lineages and their relatives. Results from relaxed molecular clock dating techniques that utilize a combination of molecular and fossil data indicate that the three independent origins of eusociality in halictid bees occurred within a narrow time frame between approximately 20 and 22 Myr ago. This relatively recent evolution helps to explain the pronounced levels of social variation observed within these bees. The three origins of eusociality appear to be temporally correlated with a period of global warming, suggesting that climate may have had an important role in the evolution and maintenance of eusociality in these bees.
The Role of CXCR4 in the Prediction of Bone Metastases from Breast Cancer: A Pilot Study

Objective: The chemokine receptor CXCR4 is involved in tumor growth and homing of cancer cells to distant sites. The aim of our retrospective case-control study was to evaluate whether CXCR4 expression is more effective than conventional markers (estrogen receptor and HER-2) in predicting bone relapse in breast cancer. Methods: CXCR4 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining in paraffin-embedded tissue sections of primary breast cancers from 20 patients with bone metastases (BM), 10 with visceral metastases (VM) and 10 with no evidence of disease (NED) at a median follow-up of 10.5 years (range 10.1–11.8). Results: Cytoplasmic CXCR4 expression was high in BM patients (45%, 95% CI 23–67), much lower in NED patients (10%, 95% CI 0–29) and negative in the VM group. CXCR4 coexpression in the nucleus and cytoplasm was observed in about half of the BM patients (45%) but never in NED or VM patients (p = 0.013). Conversely, estrogen receptor-positive and HER-2-negative status identified 80 and 95% of bone relapse patients, respectively, but did not discriminate between cases and controls. Conclusions: Our results suggest a pivotal role of CXCR4 expression as a predictor of BM in primary breast cancer. A larger study is ongoing to confirm these results.
Anaplasma phagocytophilum Reduces Neutrophil Apoptosis In Vivo

ABSTRACT Ovine neutrophils spontaneously underwent apoptosis during culture in vitro, as assessed by morphological changes and exposure of annexin V binding sites on their cell surfaces. The addition of conditioned medium from concanavalin A-treated ovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) could partially protect against this progression into apoptosis, but dexamethasone and sodium butyrate could not. Actinomycin D accelerated the rate at which ovine neutrophils underwent apoptosis. Neutrophils isolated from sheep experimentally infected with Anaplasma phagocytophilum showed significantly delayed apoptosis during culture ex vivo, and the addition of conditioned medium from PBMC to these cells could not delay apoptosis above the protective effects observed after in vivo infection. The ability of neutrophils from A. phagocytophilum-infected sheep to activate a respiratory burst was increased compared to the activity measured in neutrophils from uninfected sheep, but chemotaxis was decreased in neutrophils from infected sheep. These data are the first demonstration that in vivo infection with A. phagocytophilum results in changes in rates of apoptosis of infected immune cells. This may help explain how these bacteria replicate in these normally short-lived cells.
Mental Healthcare Act 2017: Preface to the supplement

MHCA makes it explicit that PMI are capacitous unless declared otherwise by assessments and that therefore they can independently decide on the nature of treatment they wish to undergo, its duration, and whether they would like to be an outpatient or an inpatient. They are legally empowered to make their choices even when they are incapacitous, through their advance directive (AD) and also decide who will be the Nominated Representative (NR) that will undertake the caretaker role. Admissions under section 86 (independent admission) are done with the written consent of PMI, and discharge is possible anytime on request by PMI. The MHPs have been assigned the responsibilities of maintaining basic records and providing the same on request within the specified time, ensuring that their treatments match international standards, following their clients’ registered ADs, and making effective discharge planning to ensure a smooth transition into the community. Utmost care is to be taken to protect the rights of PMI and to provide treatments in the least restrictive environment. Any disagreements PMI have with the MHPs during treatment delivery will be addressed by the Mental Health Review Board.
Impact of CPAP on asthmatic patients with obstructive sleep apnoea

The impact of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on the airway responsiveness of asthmatic subjects with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) has scarcely been studied. A prospective study was performed comparing the changes in airway responsiveness and quality of life in stable asthmatic OSA patients, before and 6 weeks after their nocturnal CPAP treatment. A total of 20 subjects (11 males and nine females) participated in the study. With the nocturnal CPAP treatment, the apnoea/hypopnoea index dropped from 48.1±23.6·h-1 to 2.6±2.5·h-1. There were no significant changes in airway responsiveness after CPAP treatment (provocative concentration causing a 20% fall in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1; PC20 2.5 mg·mL-1 (1.4–4.5)) compared with baseline (PC20 2.2 mg·mL-1 (1.3–3.5)). There was no significant change in FEV1 either. However, the asthma quality of life of the subjects improved from 5.0±1.2 at baseline to 5.8±0.9 at the end of the study. In conclusion, nocturnal continuous positive airway pressure treatment did not alter airway responsiveness or forced expiratory volume in one second in subjects with stable mild-to-moderate asthma and newly diagnosed obstructive sleep apnoea. However, nocturnal continuous positive airway pressure treatment did improve asthma quality of life.
Bad Universal Priors and Notions of Optimality

A big open question of algorithmic information theory is the choice of the universal Turing machine (UTM). For Kolmogorov complexity and Solomonoff induction we have invariance theorems: the choice of the UTM changes bounds only by a constant. For the universally intelligent agent AIXI (Hutter, 2005) no invariance theorem is known. Our results are entirely negative: we discuss cases in which unlucky or adversarial choices of the UTM cause AIXI to misbehave drastically. We show that Legg-Hutter intelligence and thus balanced Pareto optimality is entirely subjective, and that every policy is Pareto optimal in the class of all computable environments. This undermines all existing optimality properties for AIXI. While it may still serve as a gold standard for AI, our results imply that AIXI is a relative theory, dependent on the choice of the UTM.
Evaluation of image stabilization algorithms

Several techniques for electronic image stabilization have been proposed, but very little research has been done to compare and evaluate such techniques. We propose a set of measures to evaluate image stabilization algorithms based of their fidelity, displacement range, and performance. These measures do not require calibration or ground truth, making the evaluation procedure very simple and flexible, i.e., it provides the means to compare techniques based on different motion models. We have used this procedure to compare several image stabilization algorithms and also evaluate the sensitivity of these algorithms to some of its parameters. These same procedures could also be used for the comparison and evaluation of motion estimation and image registration techniques.
SYCE2 is required for synaptonemal complex assembly, double strand break repair, and homologous recombination

Synapsis is the process by which paired chromosome homologues closely associate in meiosis before crossover. In the synaptonemal complex (SC), axial elements of each homologue connect through molecules of SYCP1 to the central element, which contains the proteins SYCE1 and -2. We have derived mice lacking SYCE2 protein, producing males and females in which meiotic chromosomes align and axes form but do not synapse. Sex chromosomes are unaligned, not forming a sex body. Additionally, markers of DNA breakage and repair are retained on the axes, and crossover is impaired, culminating in both males and females failing to produce gametes. We show that SC formation can initiate at sites of SYCE1/SYCP1 localization but that these points of initiation cannot be extended in the absence of SYCE2. SC assembly is thus dependent on SYCP1, SYCE1, and SYCE2. We provide a model to explain this based on protein–protein interactions.
Social discovery tools: extending the principle of user convenience

Purpose – New social discovery systems have social‐type Web 2.0 features that allow users to enhance the content of bibliographic records by adding their own tags, ratings, and reviews. One of the primary underlying principles of cataloguing is that catalogue records be designed with the user in mind, i.e. user convenience. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the principle of user convenience and social discovery systems.Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature and codes of ethics of associations of information professions was undertaken to examine: the ethical dimensions of creating catalogue records to reflect user convenience, the relationship between culture and user convenience, and how social discovery tools can facilitate the creation of interactive and flexible catalogue records that reflect the culture(s) and needs of the library communities in which they exist.Findings – Social discovery systems can address the primary barriers to creating catalogue r.
Effect of Nitroglycerin and Nifedipine on Subendocardial Perfusion in the Presence of a Flow‐Limiting Coronary Stenosis in the Awake Dog

This study examined the effects of nitroglycerin and nifedipine on the transmural distribution of myocardial blood flow when ischemia-induced vasodilation of the distal coronary vasculature caused a proximal coronary stenosis to become flow-limiting. Studies were performed in chronically instrumented awake dogs with electromagnetic flowmeter probes and hydraulic occluders on the left circumflex coronary artery. Myocardial blood flow was estimated with 15|i radioactive microspheres. During control conditions, subendocardial (endo) flow significantly exceeded subepicardial (epi) flow (endo:epi = 1.33 ± 0.12). Following a 10-second coronary occlusion, reactive hyperemia occurred with excess arterial inflow resulting in 330 ± 37% blood flow debt repayment. This response was not altered by nitroglycerin (0.015 mg/kg, iv), but was decreased by nifedipine (0.01 mg/kg, iv) to 175 ± 38%, indicating depression of the coronary vasodilator response to a brief ischemic stimulus. When, following a 10-second occlusion, arterial inflow was limited to the preocclusion rate by a proximal stenosis, subepicardial flow increased at the expense of hypoperfusion of the subendocardium (endo/epi decreased to 0.50 ± 0.04; P < 0.01), and the continuing subendocardial ischemia resulted in augmentation of the subsequent reactive hyperemia (debt repayment = 556 ± 5%; P < 0.01). Both nitroglycerin and nifedipine abolished the augmentation of the reactive hyperemic response which occurred when a total occlusion was followed by an interval of coronary stenosis. This effect was associated with enhanced subendocardial blood flow during the interval of restricted inflow, suggesting that both of these agents alleviate the subendo- cardial hypoperfusion and ischemia which occur in the presence of a proximal flow-limiting coronary stenosis.