Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stathmin is Required for Stability of the Drosophila Neuromuscular Junction

Synaptic connections can be stably maintained for prolonged periods, yet can be rapidly disassembled during the developmental refinement of neural circuitry and following cytological insults that lead to neurodegeneration. To date, the molecular mechanisms that determine whether a synapse will persist versus being remodeled or eliminated remain poorly understood. Mutations in Drosophila stathmin were isolated in two independent genetic screens that sought mutations leading to impaired synapse stability at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Here we demonstrate that Stathmin, a protein that associates with microtubules and can function as a point of signaling integration, is necessary to maintain the stability of the Drosophila NMJ. We show that Stathmin protein is widely distributed within motoneurons and that loss of Stathmin causes impaired NMJ growth and stability. In addition, we show that stathmin mutants display evidence of defective axonal transport, a common feature associated with neuronal degeneration and altered synapse stability. The disassembly of the NMJ in stathmin includes a predictable sequence of cytological events, suggesting that a common program of synapse disassembly is induced following the loss of Stathmin protein. These data define a required function for Stathmin during synapse maintenance in a model system in which there is only a single stathmin gene, enabling future genetic investigation of Stathmin function with potential relevance to the cause and progression of neuromuscular degenerative disease.
A message passing algorithm for active contours

Many important early vision techniques, such as active contours (ACs), can be formulated as energy minimization. However, finding global optimum (minimum energy) configurations is often computationally intractable. Approximate solutions obtained using iterative numerical methods may be ill-conditioned, and exhibit poor convergence and inaccuracy due to noise and discretization errors. We formulate AC as a statistical estimation problem and solve it using (Gaussian) message passing on factor graphs of linear models. The resulting algorithm exhibits faster convergence and the solutions possess higher numerical stability, robustness and accuracy.
Using HLT for Acquiring, Retrieving and Publishing Knowledge in AKT

AKT is a major research project applying a variety of technologies to knowledge management. Knowledge is a dynamic, ubiquitous resource, which is to be found equally in an expert's head, under terabytes of data, or explicitly stated in manuals. AKT will extend knowledge management technologies to exploit the potential of the semantic web, covering the use of knowledge over its entire lifecycle, from acquisition to maintenance and deletion. In this paper we discuss how HLT will be used in AKT and how the use of HLT will affect different areas of KM, such as knowledge acquisition, retrieval and publishing.
Review paper. Neuropsychological dimension of schizophrenia - evaluation possibilities and therapeutic implications

Abstract Introduction: In the last decades, researchers' attention has been focused on cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Numerous studies indicate the existence of neurodegenerative deficits in schizophrenia including, but not limited to, motor functions, learning and memory, executive functions, attention, language, spatial skills and general intelligence. Method: A review of available literature on the topic of the past two decades, available in the Pubmed, EBSCO, SCOPUS databases has been made using the keywords: schizophrenia, cognition, early intervention. Results: Cognitive dysfunction is an important feature of the prodromal phase and the first episode of schizophrenia. Researchers have thus proposed to initiate early therapeutic interventions for people with so-called risky mental conditions. The article includes the reference to research on neurocognitive disorders essence in schizophrenia, the definition and review of methods used to identify specific cognitive deficits and issues related to risk of developing psychosis and early therapeutic intervention in high-risk states. Conclusions: Researchers report the importance of detecting cognitive disorders in the early stages of schizophrenia. This broadens the range of therapeutic interventions and enables early intervention in the increased risk of psychosis.
Governance Patterns in Global Software Engineering: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Over the past decade Global Software Engineering (GSE) has become the norm influenced by several factors such as market evolutions in emerging economies, availability of skilled pool of resources at optimal costs and globalization trends such as mergers and acquisitions. Evidently, market leaders, large businesses as well as niche players in Software Product Engineering have leveraged GSE in several areas such as product development, sustenance, support, testing and professional services. In this context, governance of GSE projects or engagements is a critical factor that provides adequate foundation and support structure to ensure results. This paper discusses three fundamental governance patterns and additional derived patterns observed in a set of GSE projects. Also, this paper presents two case studies and our experiential findings on governance perspective.
How Body Asym m etries Determ ine Accessibility in Spatial Fram eworks

Spatial frameworks are a class of spatial mental model that code locations of objects relative to the body axes. Spatial frameworks predict accessibility of spatial relations from memory primarily on the basis of the relative asymmetry of the body axes, such that highly asymmetric axes lead to faster retrieval of information. The present research examined how bodily asymmetries affect retrieval. Experiment 1 contrasted two theoretical accounts. T he Salience Account proposes that relative degrees of asymmetry render axes differentially salient, and hence differentially foregrounded in one’s mental model. The Direction Decision Account proposes that an explicit decision process is necessary to access speci® c locations along body axes. The ease of the decision process presumably depends on the degree of asymmetry that exists to discriminate poles along a body axis. The spatial framework pattern of accessibility was observed both when subjects identi® ed speci® c directions of objects and when subjects identi® ed just the axis to which objects were associated, supporting the Salience Account. Experiment 2 investigated whether lateralization affects accessibility from spatial frameworks. Performance of highly lateralized individuals did not differ from that of weakly lateralized individuals.
Greek Primary School Websites: The Construction of Institutional Identities in a Highly Centralized System

ABSTRACT This study aims at revealing the institutional identities of Greek primary schools through analysis of their websites. The sample consisted of 150 randomly selected websites. The grid of content analysis used focused on (a) information about school life, (b) links with society and (c) presentation style. Results show that schools tend to present a celebratory image of themselves, focusing more on special moments of school life while downplaying their everyday work. This is a clear strategy of schools to buffer their technical core from public control. A second strategy identified is the schools’ effort to present themselves as “ordinary. ”
Toward automatic generation of novice user test scripts

Graphical user interfaces (GUI's) make applications easier to learn and use. At the same time, they make application design, construction, and especially test more difficult because user-directed dialogs increase the number of potential execution paths. This paper considers a subset of GUI-based application testing: how to exercise an applica tion like a novice user. We discuss different solutions and a specific implementation that uses genetic algorithms to automatically generate user events in an unpredictable yet controlled manner to produce novice-like test scripts.
The Detection of Emerging Trends Using Wikipedia Traffic Data and Context Networks

Can online media predict new and emerging trends, since there is a relationship between trends in society and their representation in online systems? While several recent studies have used Google Trends as the leading online information source to answer corresponding research questions, we focus on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia often used for deeper topical reading. Wikipedia grants open access to all traffic data and provides lots of additional (semantic) information in a context network besides single keywords. Specifically, we suggest and study context-normalized and time-dependent measures for a topic’s importance based on page-view time series of Wikipedia articles in different languages and articles related to them by internal links. As an example, we present a study of the recently emerging Big Data market with a focus on the Hadoop ecosystem, and compare the capabilities of Wikipedia versus Google in predicting its popularity and life cycles. To support further applications, we have developed an open web platform to share results of Wikipedia analytics, providing context-rich and language-independent relevance measures for emerging trends.
Coordination in an Email Game Without Mutual Knowledge

The paper presents a version of the EMAIL Game, originally proposed by Rubinstein (AER,1989), in which efficient coordination is shown to obtain even when the relevant coordination game is not mutual knowledge. In the model investigated a mediator is introduced in such a way that the two individuals are symmetrically informed on the game chosen by nature, rather than asymmetrically as in Rubinstein. As long as the message failure probability is sufficiently low, with the upper bound being a function of the game payoffs, conditional beliefs on the opponent's actions can allow players to coordinate on the more rewarding-risky choice.
Integrated design , scheduling and automation of a production process using Petri Nets

In traditional industrial practice, the tasks of production planning and control and of automation design and implementation are performed in the same industry at different levels by different departments or teams, using quite different, application specific conceptual and programming tools (e.g. IDEF-0 in the production planning, STL, LAD, or SCL in the automation area, etc). This paper proposes the integrated application of Petri-nets for the whole spectrum of the above activities, demonstrating this approach in a case study in the consumer goods industry. The use of the same model for the design of the production system and the automation system facilitates largely the communication, not only between the experts but also between the information tools used, reducing radicaly the design, installation and re-engineering time and increasing the flexibility and modularity of the system. CSCC'99 Proc.pp.3331-3337 Key-Words: Interpreted Petri-Nets, Discrete event systems, Automation systems
Language Perceptions and Identityamong Kenyan Speakers

In this paper, I draw on data collected from a research project carried out in four different regions of Kenya between 2006 and 2007, to provide and discuss results that examine the language perceptions that Kenyan youths in selected rural and urban areas exhibit. I also examine how such perceptions are reflected in their daily language practices and how they help in constructing their language identities. This paper utilizes both quantitative and qualitative sociolinguistic methods of data collection that include the use of questionnaires, informal interviews and participant observations to capture and characterize language practices of the target population. Using these strategies I examine the discrepancy between speakers’ stated perceptions and their actual language performances and how this mismatch helps explain the meaning of the different identities speakers perform, enact or project. In the discussion, I underscore the importance of underlying metalinguistic phenomena responsible for the ambivalence evident among the youths that were studied. This is made possible through an eclectic sociolinguistic approach that examines different language ideologies at play. This approach and the questions raised in this paper ultimately contribute to a better understanding of the larger question of the state of language maintenance and shift in Kenya and the ever dynamic identities of youth language, which could be replicated in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mid-term Perspectives for the Western / Central European Electricity Market

The restructuring process of electricity markets in Europe started in the late 1990s and is still going on. This process was triggered by the Directive 96/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity (EC, 1997). This article will analyse the recent developments in the liberalised Western and Central European electricity markets and discuss future developments with respect to system adequacy, reliability and security of supply.
Evolution of privacy-preserving data publishing

To achieve privacy protection better in data publishing, data must be sanitized before release. Research on protecting individual privacy and data confidentiality has received contributions from many fields. In order to grasp the development of privacy preserving data publishing, we discussed the evolution of this theme, focused on privacy mechanism, data utility and its metrics. The privacy mechanism, such as k-anonymity, l-diversity and t-closeness, provides formal safety guarantees and data utility preserve useful information while publishing data. Meantime, we discussed social network privacy and location based service. Finally, we made a conclusion with respect to privacy preserving data publishing, and given further research directions.
An Assessment of the Self-Protective Function of Self-Handicapping.

ABSTRACT Self-handicapping is the phenomenon of setting oneself up to fail a feared evaluation task to protect a sense of self-worth. A study examined whether individuals self-handicap to protect a general or global perception of themselves or to protect perceptions of competence in the specific domain being evaluated. Handicapping behaviors related to preparation for and completion of a mock math quiz were examined in 495 junior high school students. Students' perceptions of their math competence were assessed through four scales of self-reported competence, and actual competence was measured through two standardized arithmetic tests. Overraters were expected to self-handicap to sustain their exaggerated positive self-view. In a second test session, student's preparation and handicapping behaviors were determined through a quiz practice sheet, questionnaires regarding claimed effort and excuses, an anxiety inventory, and completion of a math quiz with optional levels of difficulty. Study findings included the following: (1) perceived math competence was generally accurate for most of the students; (2) students who did overrate their math competence did not self-handicap as expected, while underraters did, indicating that the motive was not self-protection but self-consistency or verification, allowing individuals to maintain their current self-view; and (3) students who overrated their competence claimed less anxiety and fewer excuses but tended to choose easier questions than other students, in effect setting themselves up to do well in a self-enhancing way. (BCY)
Direct interactions between B and T lymphocytes bearing complementary receptors

A murine cloned Th cell line specific for the antigen conalbumin in the context of self I-A molecules can be activated by low concentrations of soluble antireceptor mAb. By using an antireceptor mAb to shared antigenic determinants on T cell receptors, we have shown that the ability to be activated by soluble antireceptor mAb is an unusual, although not unique, feature of this cloned T cell line. This activation does not involve occult APC, FcR, or interaction between individual cloned T cells, as limiting-dilution analysis shows that individual cells of this clone will grow in the presence of the antireceptor antibody and IL-1 as stimulus. This cloned T cell line is highly immunogenic in vivo, giving rise to antireceptor antibodies that stimulate its growth in both mice and rats. This response is not dependent upon exogenous T cells. Rather, the clone directly interacts with complementary B cells, as shown by the production of mAb in nude mice, and by production of stimulating antireceptor antibodies by purified B cells cultured with cloned Th cells in vitro. Several features of this cloned Th cell line, most especially its ability to be activated, rather than inhibited, by antireceptor antibodies, may account for its striking ability to directly activate B cells bearing complementary receptors. The direct interaction of the cloned Th cell with B cells bearing complementary receptors may serve as a model for receptor-receptor interactions in the generation of both T and B cell repertoires.
Modeling transition dynamics in MDPs with RKHS embeddings of conditional distributions

We propose a new, nonparametric approach to estimating the value function in reinforcement learning. This approach makes use of a recently developed representation of conditional distributions as functions in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. Such representations bypass the need for estimating transition probabilities, and apply to any domain on which kernels can be defined. Our approach avoids the need to approximate intractable integrals since expectations are represented as RKHS inner products whose computation has linear complexity in the sample size. Thus, we can efficiently perform value function estimation in a wide variety of settings, including finite state spaces, continuous states spaces, and partially observable tasks where only sensor measurements are available. A second advantage of the approach is that we learn the conditional distribution representation from a training sample, and do not require an exhaustive exploration of the state space. We prove convergence of our approach either to the optimal policy, or to the closest projection of the optimal policy in our model class, under reasonable assumptions. In experiments, we demonstrate the performance of our algorithm on a learning task in a continuous state space (the under-actuated pendulum), and on a navigation problem where only images from a sensor are observed. We compare with least-squares policy iteration where a Gaussian process is used for value function estimation. Our algorithm achieves better performance in both tasks.
Reorientation of Special Education in Improving Self Help Of Children with Special Need

Effective special educational delivery for children with special needs is very crucial and pertinent for the development of the children’s growth, knowledge and living skills. Special Education is indeed a volatile and changeable field and very dynamic as it constantly needs to change and reorient to cater the needs of special children. In anticipation of the global changes in the 21 st century, educating children with special needs is no longer confined within the four walls but is an education that needs and must prepare these children towards independence and able to contribute and support to the community as individuals with self-respect. This paper explicates the importance of employability for children with special needs as means of self-help by changing the landscape of education aspects from academic based education setting towards vocational and self-reliance settings through programs that enhanced and expounded on the children’s knowledge and living skills. This is a necessary orientation of Special Education field that is important to help children to become independent adults with strong foundation of Special Education received in their schooling lives
Built-In Self Test Design of an Asynchronous Block Sorter

The design of an asynchronous block sorter and issues relating to its testability are discussed in this paper. The sorter takes an input data stream and sends it to the output sorted in descending order. The testable structure of the block sorter is implemented using the built-in self test (BIST) design methodology. A novel technique for changing the operation mode of the sorting cells of the block sorter which allows them to be set to normal operation mode or BIST mode sequentially or in parallel respectively is described. In BIST mode the sorting cells are tested in parallel reducing the overall test application time of the sorter. Fault simulation results reveal 100% testability of both single stuck-at-output faults at the high-level representation of the block sorter and all stuck-at faults inside data processing blocks of its sorting cells. The total area overhead of the BIST block sorter is 15.7%.
Investigation of CYP1B1 mutations in Chinese patients with primary congenital glaucoma

Purpose This study was conducted to investigate the mutation spectrum of the cytochrome P450 gene (CYP1B1) in Chinese patients with primary congenital glaucoma (PCG). Methods The coding regions of CYP1B1 from 41 Chinese PCG patients were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and heteroduplex analysis-single strand conformation polymorphism (HA-SSCP) followed by subsequent cloning and bidirectional sequencing. New variants were confirmed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis in 80 normal Chinese controls. Results Six distinct mutations, four of which are novel, were identified in 14.6% (6/41) of all patients. The CYP1B1 mutations in two patients were homozygous, and the other four patients were compound heterozygous. Beyond the four novel mutations (g.4531_4552del22bp, g.4633delC, p.S336Y, and p.I471S), two reported missense mutations (R469W and R390H) were also identified. The missense mutation, R390H, was involved in 9.8% (4/41) of patients in our study. None of the novel mutations was observed in any of the 80 controls. Conclusions Our results support the premise that CYP1B1 is a major gene for PCG, appearing to be responsible for the disease in roughly one in six Chinese PCG patients. The R390H mutation was identified as a predominant CYP1B1 allele among the Chinese PCG patients in our study. This observation emphasizes the importance of mutational screening of CYP1B1, especially for the R390H mutation in Chinese patients.
Human Neutrophils Kill Bacillus anthracis

Bacillus anthracis spores cause natural infections and are used as biological weapons. Inhalation infection with B. anthracis, the etiological agent of anthrax, is almost always lethal, yet cutaneous infections usually remain localized and resolve spontaneously. Neutrophils are typically recruited to cutaneous but seldom to other forms of anthrax infections, raising the possibility that neutrophils kill B. anthracis. In this study we infected human neutrophils with either spores or vegetative bacteria of a wild-type strain, or strains, expressing only one of the two major virulence factors. The human neutrophils engulfed B. anthracis spores, which germinated intracellularly and were then efficiently killed. Interestingly, neutrophil killing was independent of reactive oxygen species production. We fractionated a human neutrophil granule extract by high-performance liquid chromatography and identified α-defensins as the component responsible for B. anthracis killing. These data suggest that the timely recruitment of neutrophils can control cutaneous infections and possibly other forms of B. anthracis infections, and that α-defensins play an important role in the potent anti-B. anthracis activity of neutrophils.