Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Zebrafish arl6ip1 Is Required for Neural Crest Development during Embryogenesis

Background Although the embryonic expression pattern of ADP ribosylation factor-like 6 interacting protein 1 (Arl6ip1) has been reported, its function in neural crest development is unclear. Methods/Principal Findings We found that knockdown of Arl6ip1 caused defective embryonic neural crest derivatives that were particularly severe in craniofacial cartilages. Expressions of the ectodermal patterning factors msxb, dlx3b, and pax3 were normal, but the expressions of the neural crest specifier genes foxd3, snai1b, and sox10 were greatly reduced. These findings suggest that arl6ip1 is essential for specification of neural crest derivatives, but not neural crest induction. Furthermore, we revealed that the streams of crestin- and sox10-expressing neural crest cells, which migrate ventrally from neural tube into trunk, were disrupted in arl6ip1 morphants. This migration defect was not only in the trunk neural crest, but also in the enteric tract where the vagal-derived neural crest cells failed to populate the enteric nervous system. We found that this migration defect was induced by dampened Shh signaling, which may have resulted from defective cilia. These data further suggested that arl6ip1 is required for neural crest migration. Finally, by double-staining of TUNEL and crestin, we confirmed that the loss of neural crest cells could not be attributed to apoptosis. Conclusions/Significance Therefore, we concluded that arl6ip1 is required for neural crest migration and sublineage specification.
Conditions for gender equality in police leadership – making way for senior police women

Abstract This paper aims to analyse and discuss conditions for gender equality in police leadership. This is done by interviewing 28 sworn police leaders in Sweden, and using a doing gender perspective for analyses. The results show that women and, to a greater extent, men in police leadership do gender traditionally. Explanations for the lack of female leaders and strategies for increasing the number of female leaders are shown to either focus on women as individuals (mostly men) or organisational structure and culture (mostly women). Further, strategies to reach gender equality goals are critically examined. These could be used to create concrete diversity and equality work within police and other organisations. Whether or not quantitative gender equality work (raising the number of females in leadership positions) can create changes in qualitative gender equality (the learning of new norms to change experiences of inclusion and exclusion in relation to gender) is discussed.
The Neuroprotective Role of Acupuncture and Activation of the BDNF Signaling Pathway

Recent studies have been conducted to examine the neuroprotective effects of acupuncture in many neurological disorders. Although the neuroprotective effects of acupuncture has been linked to changes in signaling pathways, accumulating evidence suggest the participation of endogenous biological mediators, such as the neurotrophin (NT) family of proteins, specifically, the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Accordingly, acupuncture can inhibit neurodegeneration via expression and activation of BDNF. Moreover, recent studies have reported that acupuncture can increase ATP levels at local stimulated points. We have also demonstrated that acupuncture could activate monocytes and increase the expression of BDNF via the stimulation of ATP. The purpose of this article is to review the recent findings and ongoing studies on the neuroprotective roles of acupuncture and therapeutic implications of acupuncture-induced activation of BDNF and its signaling pathway.
Depression, Comorbidities, and Prescriptions of Antidepressants in a German Network of GPs and Specialists with Subspecialisation in Anthroposophic Medicine: A Longitudinal Observational Study

Background. Depression is a major reason for counselling in primary care. Our study aims at evaluating pharmacological treatment strategies among physicians specialised in anthroposophic medicine (AM). Methods. From 2004 to 2008, twenty-two German primary care AM-physicians participated in this prospective, multicentre observational study. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with a prescription of any antidepressant medication. Results. A total of 2444 patients with depression were included (mean age: 49.1 years (SD: 15.4); 77.3% female). 2645 prescriptions of antidepressants for 833 patients were reported. Phytotherapeutic preparations from Hypericum perforatum were the most frequently prescribed antidepressants over all (44.6% of all antidepressants), followed by amitriptyline (16.1%). The likelihood of receiving an antidepressant medication did not depend on comorbidity after controlling for age, gender, physician specialisation, and type of depression (adjusted OR (AOR) = 1.01; CI: 0.81–1.26). Patients who had cancer were significantly less likely to be prescribed an antidepressant medication than those who had no cancer (AOR = 0.75; CI: 0.57–0.97). Conclusion. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of everyday practice for the treatment of depression in AM -physicians. Further analysis regarding the occurrence of critical combinations is of high interest to health services research.
Test-retest strength reliability of the Electronic Push/Pull Dynamometer (EPPD) in the measurement of the quadriceps and hamstring muscles on a new chair

Background: Test-retest strength reliability of the Electronic Push/Pull Dynamometer (EPPD) in the measurement of the extensor and flexor muscles on a new constructed chair. The objective of the study was to assess reliability of Electronic Push/Pull Dynamometer in the measurement of the knee flexion and extension at 90° and 60° on a new constructed chair. The aims of the author: To assess reliability of Electronic Push/Pull Dynamometer in the measurement of the knee flexion and extension at 90° and 60° on a new constructed chair. Design: A test-retest reliability study. Subjects: One hundred healthy students male and female (mean age, 21y). Methods: Maximum isometric strength of the quadriceps and hamstring muscle groups was measured using the EPPD were recorded at 60° and 90° for 3 trials on 2 occasions. Reliability was assessed with the Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), mean and standard deviation (SD) of measurements, and smallest real differences were calculated for the maximum and for the mean and work of the 3 repetitions. Results: Mean strength ranged from 50.44 kg for knee flexion to 55.76 kg for knee extension 50.44 kg to 61.98 kg at 90° hip flexion. Test-retest reliability Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) ranged from 0.85 to 0.99. ICCs for test-retest reliability ranged from 0.780 to 0.998. Conclusions: The results of the reliability study indicate that the EPPD in reliable dynamometer to use in determining lower limb muscle force production. It can be used to measure disease progression and to evaluate changes in knee extension and flexion strength at the individual patient level.
Structural Insights into the Prereaction State of Pyruvate Decarboxylase from Zymomonas mobilis†,‡

Pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) uses thiamine diphosphate as an essential cofactor to catalyze the formation of acetaldehyde on the pathway of ethanol synthesis. Here we report the crystallographic image of a prereaction intermediate of a bacterial pyruvate decarboxylase prepared by cocrystallizing the enzyme with pyruvate and a stable analogue of the cofactor’s activated ylid form. A second crystal structure of PDC in complex with fluoride shows that the ion organizes a water molecule that occludes the pyruvate binding site, accounting for the inhibitory effect of the halide. Also reported is a structure of the cofactor-free apo form, which when compared to the structure of the holo form indicates how thiamine diphosphate organizes the active site pocket of pyruvate decarboxylase to support catalysis. Guided by the structural and enzymatic data, we propose roles for several key residues in the catalytic mechanism.
LogMax observation model with MFCC-based spectral prior for reduction of highly nonstationary ambient noise

This paper proposes a new single/multi-channel speech enhancement approach based on a LogMax observation model integrated with Gaussian mixture models of speech and noise mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC-GMM). It has been reported that the LogMax observation model has high potential for reducing highly nonstationary noise, for example, when it is combined with factorial hidden Markov models. In addition, it has recently been shown that a source location based speech enhancement approach can be easily incorporated into this model for more efficient and reliable estimation. However, the unique structure of the LogMax model has prevented us from using it with MFCC-GMMs, which is a fundamental limitation of this approach. Our proposal in this paper is aimed at overcoming this limitation. Experiments using the PASCAL CHiME separation and recognition challenge task show the superiority of the proposed approach as regards both speech quality and automatic speech recognition performance.
Enabling End-User Tailoring and Development of Mobile Information Systems

The research planned for this PhD is concerned with resolving novel challenges of mobile information systems through adapting and tailoring requirements engineering techniques and assembling a thorough design pattern space. Both the requirements engineering techniques and the patterns will be concerned with the importance of non-functional requirements and focus on the idiosyncrasies of mobile solutions such as context-awareness, and the possibly unclear requirements and information needs of mobile workers. This lack of clarity can be compounded when reengineering business processes to mobile business processes. An anticipated result is that the requirements engineering techniques coupled with the pattern space can enable end-user tailoring and possibly even end-user development of mobile information systems through providing suitable requirements techniques, selected design patterns and through the pattern space enable a shared vocabulary that can aid in design decision communication.
Formalised Online Creativity using ThinXels

Computer-supported creativity tools are one example of Group Support Systems (GSS) which have been shown to outperform their traditional face-to-face counterparts. We present a framework for GSS which is based on formal languages and the new concept of a ThinXel. The name "ThinXel" (thinking element) is formed analogously to the wellknown "pixel" (picture element) in Computer Science. We claim that ThinXel-based GSS can provide significant advantages. A ThinXel is defined as an elementary instruction leading to a response which has a well-defined function in the context of the group's goal. ThinXels can be sequenced according to formal rules to form more complex modules like the statements in a computer programming language. These modules can be collected to form a library which can be assembled to create facilitation scripts for entire meetings or workshops. Our approach allows an unambiguous, compact representation of the facilitation steps for both traditional and computer-based group processes. We believe that it will eventually allow them to be completely formalised and to a large extent even automated. We will present experimental results carried out with a ThinXel-based software tool. These illustrate concepts from ThinXel-based ideation and provide quantitative evidence which supports our claim.
The impact of I/O on program behavior and parallel scheduling

In this paper we systematically examine various performance issues involved in the coordinated allocation of processor and disk resources in large-scale parallel computer systems. Models are formulated to investigate the I/O and computation behavior of parallel programs and workloads, and to analyze parallel scheduling policies under such workloads. These models are parameterized by measurements of parallel programs, and they are solved via analytic methods and simulation. Our results provide important insights into the performance of parallel applications and resource management strategies when I/O demands are not negligible.
Robust kernel design for SSD tracker

SSD-based object tracking has shown its improved performance compared with mean-shift and many people have made further improvements based on it. However, how kernels should be designed to better cooperate with SSD metric and Newton-style iteration remains unsolved. Our work is to find out the underlying principles for SSD kernel design, which can help make the tracker more sensitive to the object movement and make the iteration have better onestep performance. We also create a new kernel called “QPeak” to demonstrate our theorems.
A novel adaptive current regulator for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor based on modified current dynamics

A new RMRAC (Robust Model Reference Adaptive Control) scheme for the PMSM (Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor) current regulation is proposed in a synchronous frame which is completely free from the parameterpsilas uncertainty. A current regulator of PMSM is the inner most loop of electromechanical driving systems and plays a foundation role in the control hierarchy. When the PMSM runs in high speed, the cross-coupling terms must be compensated precisely for large system BW. In the proposed RMRAC, the input signal is composed of a calculated voltage defined by MRAC law and an output of the disturbance compensator. The gains of feed forward and feedback controller are estimated by the proposed modified gradient method, where the system disturbances are assumed as filtered current regulation errors. After the compensation of the system disturbance from error information, the corresponding voltage is fed forward to control input to compensate for real disturbances. The proposed method robustly compensates the system disturbance and cross-coupling term. It also shows a good real-time performance due to the simplicity of control structure. Through real experiments, the efficiency of the proposed method is verified.
Pictorial and multimodal metaphors of DISTRUST in subverted BP logos from Greenpeace’s ‘Behind the logo’ competition

Trust is a valuable relational asset for companies. A high level of public trust can bring a number of benefits to business organizations, including increased customer satisfaction, higher investor confidence, and fewer regulatory restrictions (Barney and Hansen, 1994; Garcia-Marza, 2005; Ingenhoff and Sommer, 2010; Pirson and Malhotra, 2011). But trust is also a fragile commodity; it takes a long time to build, but just moments to destroy. Episodes of wrongdoing or negligence can generate distrust in a company. Recent history has provided a number of such examples – from Enron and WorldCom in the early 2000s to the more recent BP, FIFA and Volkswagen controversies.What happens when trust is broken? How do we perceive and understand trust- breaking events? How do we communicate distrust? This paper is part of a larger project that investigates the cognitive underpinnings and discursive dynamics of TRUST and DISTRUST, which are still poorly understood (Fuoli and Paradis, 2014). It examines the pictorial and multimodal metaphors (Forceville 1996, 2002; Forceville and Urios-Aparisi, 2009) used by participants in the ‘Behind the logo’ rebranding competition launched online by Greenpeace in the aftermath of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill of 20101. As part of the competition, participants were asked to re-design BP’s sunflower logo to reflect what they thought are the ‘real’ values and principles guiding the company’s behavior. The result is a collection of culture-jammed or ‘subverted’ logos (see e.g. Harold, 2007; Kukuk, 2014; Rumbo, 2002) that capture the widespread feelings of distrust and resentment towards BP after the spill and the controversies that arose from it.The analysis aims to (i) identify and describe the pictorial and multimodal metaphors found in the subverted logos that relate to the concept of DISTRUST, and (ii) uncover regularities in how this construct is conceptualized and understood by the participants in the competition. The identification and analysis of the metaphors follows the criteria outlined by Forceville (1996, 2002). Preliminary results reveal consistent patterns in the way that DISTRUST in BP is conceptualized and expressed, and in how the company portrayed. Common pictorial metaphors found in the corpus include TRUST IS A FRAGILE OBJECT, BEING UNTRUSTWORTHY IS BEING DOUBLE-SIDED, BEING UNTRUSTWORTHY IS HIDING SOMETHING, and UNETHICAL IS DIRTY.In addition to advancing our understanding of the cognitive and discursive dynamics of TRUST and DISTRUST, this paper adds to the literature on pictorial and multimodal metaphor by examining the phenomenon of subvertising, which, to date, has not been systematically investigated. (Less)
Full Title: Does Incarceration Reduce Voting? Evidence about the Political Consequences of Spending Time in Prison Short Title: Does Incarceration Reduce Voting?

The rise in mass incarceration provides a growing impetus to understand the effect that interactions with the criminal justice system have on political participation. While a substantial body of prior research studies the political consequences of criminal disenfranchisement, less work examines why eligible ex-felons vote at very low rates. We use administrative data on voting and interactions with the criminal justice system from Pennsylvania to assess whether the association between incarceration and reduced voting is causal. Using administrative records that reduce the possibility of measurement error, we employ several different research designs to investigate the possibility that the observed negative correlation between incarceration and voting might result from differences across individuals that both lead to incarceration and low participation. As this selection bias issue is addressed, we find that the estimated effect of serving time in prison on voting falls dramatically and for some research designs vanishes entirely.
Diagnosis and Management of Oropharyngeal Dysphagia and Its Nutritional and Respiratory Complications in the Elderly

Oropharyngeal dysphagia is a major complaint among older people. Dysphagia may cause two types of complications in these patients: (a) a decrease in the efficacy of deglutition leading to malnutrition and dehydration, (b) a decrease in deglutition safety, leading to tracheobronchial aspiration which results in aspiration pneumonia and can lead to death. Clinical screening methods should be used to identify older people with oropharyngeal dysphagia and to identify those patients who are at risk of aspiration. Videofluoroscopy (VFS) is the gold standard to study the oral and pharyngeal mechanisms of dysphagia in older patients. Up to 30% of older patients with dysphagia present aspiration—half of them without cough, and 45%, oropharyngeal residue; and 55% older patients with dysphagia are at risk of malnutrition. Treatment with dietetic changes in bolus volume and viscosity, as well as rehabilitation procedures can improve deglutition and prevent nutritional and respiratory complications in older patients. Diagnosis and management of oropharyngeal dysphagia need a multidisciplinary approach.
How should educational neuroscience conceptualise the relation between cognition and brain function? Mathematical reasoning as a network process

Background: There is increasing interest in applying neuroscience findings to topics in education. Purpose: This application requires a proper conceptualisation of the relation between cognition and brain function. This paper considers two such conceptualisations. The area focus understands each cognitive competency as the product of one (and only one) brain area. The network focus explains each cognitive competency as the product of collaborative processing among multiple brain areas. Sources of evidence: We first review neuroscience studies of mathematical reasoning–specifically arithmetic problem-solving and magnitude comparison–that exemplify the area focus and network focus. We then review neuroscience findings that illustrate the potential of the network focus for informing three topics in mathematics education: the development of mathematical reasoning, the effects of practice and instruction, and the derailment of mathematical reasoning in dyscalculia. Main argument: Although the area focus has historically dominated discussions in educational neuroscience, we argue that the network focus offers a complementary perspective on brain function that should not be ignored. Conclusions: We conclude by describing the current limitations of network-focus theorising and emerging neuroscience methods that promise to make such theorising more tractable in the future.
Time-switched space-time coded OFDM over time-varying channels

In this paper, we propose a time-switched space-time coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing scheme over time-varying channels. The base station can use the proposed TSST-OFDM scheme with only two power amplifiers for four transmit antennas. For a given space-time code, we show that the signal to inter-antenna interference ratio is a function of Doppler frequency in time-varying channels. The proposed scheme not only gets time-switched diversity and lower decoding complexity, but also less sensitive to the time-varying channels, hence it exhibits better performance than quasi-orthogonal space-time coded scheme.
Probabilistic Learning Algorithms and Optimality Theory

This article provides a critical assessment of the Gradual Learning Algorithm (GLA) for probabilistic optimality-theoretic (OT) grammars proposed by Boersma and Hayes (2001). We discuss the limitations of a standard algorithm for OT learning and outline how the GLA attempts to overcome these limitations. We point out a number of serious shortcomings with the GLA: (a) A methodological problem is that the GLA has not been tested on unseen data, which is standard practice in computational language learning. (b) We provide counterexamples, that is, attested data sets that the GLA is not able to learn. (c) Essential algorithmic properties of the GLA (correctness and convergence) have not been proven formally. (d) By modeling frequency distributions in the grammar, the GLA conflates the notions of competence and performance. This leads to serious conceptual problems, as OT crucially relies on the competence/performance distinction.
Digital Evidence as a Means of Proof before the International Court of Justice

This article discusses the use of digital evidence as a means of proof before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The absence of specific Court rules and procedures for digital evidence (with the exception of Practice Direction IX bis) is not necessarily an obstacle to its production and evaluation before the ICJ, as the general evidentiary rules can also be applied to digital evidence. The article first looks at the rules on the production of documentary evidence and then examines the specific issues related to audiovisual evidence. Finally, it examines the admissibility of digital evidence unlawfully obtained by a litigant through unilateral transborder access to data. The article concludes that, even if specific regulation may be needed as to the specific way in which authenticity and accuracy of digital evidence are to be established, the particular facts of the case and the grounds of challenge can vary widely, and it is doubtful that any regulation could be sufficiently flexible to deal with this in advance.