Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceptual Organization Overcomes the Effects of Local Surround in Determining Simultaneous Lightness Contrast

Lightness induction can occur on the basis of the immediate surround of a region (local interactions) and also on the basis of global factors of perceptual organization. The experiments reported in this article used novel displays that made it possible to differentiate the contributions of these two kinds of factors. The experiments demonstrated, for the first time, that when higher-level factors act contemporaneously with lower-level factors, the contrast effect induced by the global-organization principle of perceptual belongingness overcomes the effect due to retinal lateral inhibition.
Dynamic Pressure–Flow Velocity Relationships in the Human Cerebral Circulation

Background and Purpose— The pressure–flow velocity relationship in the cerebral circulation is characterized by the critical closing pressure (CCP), which is the pressure at which flow ceases, and the linear slope of a plot between pressure and flow velocity. It has been suggested, but not validated, that CCP can be determined from arterial blood pressure (ABP) and transcranial Doppler (TCD) recordings during the cardiac cycle. We studied a group of patients in whom ventricular fibrillation (VF) was induced. The time interval before defibrillation enabled calculation of CCP from data in which flow approached zero. These estimates were compared with values calculated before and after fibrillation and during regular heartbeats. Methods— TCD velocities and ABP in the radial artery were recorded before, during, and after 28 episodes of VF in 13 patients. CCPs were calculated by 3 different methods: (1) linear extrapolation from data during VF (gold standard); (2) linear extrapolation from normal heartbeat data; and (3) first harmonic Fourier filtering of normal heartbeat data. Results— The CCP during VF calculated from long diastoles was 32.9±11 mm Hg (mean±SD). The regular heartbeat estimate was 6.0±4.3 mm Hg lower (P <0.05). The CCP estimate with the use of a Fourier filter was 1.4±3.9 mm Hg (P =NS) lower than during VF. During hyperemia after defibrillation, the CCP decreased by 13.3 mm Hg, while velocity increased by 63%. The decrease in CCP could explain half of the increase in flow velocity during hyperemia. Conclusions— CCP can be accurately estimated from regular heartbeat data and is an important factor in regulation of the cerebral circulation.
Hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis change vascular reactivity in rabbits by different mechanisms.

Vasomotor reactivity was assessed in vitro in arterial segments obtained from rabbits with different stages of atherosclerosis. Rabbits were fed a standard chow diet (controls) or a cholesterol-enriched diet to induce hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis. A third group received the hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitor, lovastatin, simultaneously with the cholesterol diet. Contractile responses of thoracic aortas to norepinephrine, serotonin, and potassium-rich solution, as well as endothelium-dependent dilations to acetylcholine, were compared after 2 and 4 months on the respective diet. Additionally, plasma cholesterol levels and the amount of plaques covering the intimal surface (as a percentage of the intimal surface) were determined; transmission electron microscopy of atherosclerotic arteries was also performed. After 2 months, the only difference was an enhancement of contractile responses to serotonin in the cholesterol-fed versus the control group. After 4 months on the diet, contractile responses to serotonin were further enhanced, and norepinephrine- and potassium-induced vasoconstrictions were now also significantly enhanced in cholesterol-fed animals versus controls. Endothelium-dependent vasodilations were simultaneously reduced in cholesterol-fed animals. These alterations were partly prevented in cholesterol-fed and lovastatin-treated animals. Suppression of nitric oxide synthesis in control aortas by NG-nitro-L-arginine did not reveal any significant increases in contractile responses. Contractile responses to serotonin were enhanced after 2 months on the diet but before the appearance of intimal plaques, whereas attenuation of endothelium-dependent dilations, as well as the further enhancement of contractile responses to serotonin and to other agonists, were closely correlated with the degree of intimal plaques after 4 months on the diet. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen in modern sediments of carbonate platforms, barrier reefs, atolls and ramps: patterns and implications

Stable isotopes of carbon ( 13 C) and oxygen ( 18 O) were determined in surface and subsurface sediments of modern carbonate platform and barrier reef (Belize), atoll (Maldives) and ramp (Kuwait) settings. The  13 C values ranged from 1.6 to +5.3‰ and  18 O values from 3.2 to +2.3‰. Among individual particle types, non-skeletal grains such as peloids and ooids exhibit highest values whereas coral fragments display relatively low  13 C and  18 O values. The most statistically signifi cant correlations between abundance of carbonate grains, mineralogy and geochemistry occur in the ramp setting, where facies types may be defi ned using carbon and oxygen isotopic composition. In the platform, barrier and atoll examples, correlations are poor and there are no clear spatial trends in the carbon and oxygen isotopic values of sediments or facies. In locations with comparably high amounts of non-skeletal grains,  13 C values correlate with the aragonite content of the samples. The difference between the ramp and other examples is probably a consequence of the continuous depositional energy gradient, which appears to be the major controlling factor of facies distribution in the ramp setting. In the atoll, barrier reef and platform examples, depositional energy gradients are more variable due to higher morphological and environmental variability. The  13 C and  18 O values of samples from Holocene cores also exhibit high total variability ranging from 1.9 to 0.5‰ in  13 C and from 0.2 to +5.2‰ in  18 O. Strong excursions in  13 C and  18 O in individual cores are seen near the base where values become more negative as a consequence of diagenesis, i.e., the infl uence of a subaerial exposure horizon. Above the meteorically infl uenced section, however, variability along individual cores is comparably low (<1.2%). The enormous carbon and oxygen isotopic variability observed in modern shallow-water carbonates as compared with fossil sections, where  13 C is used as stratigraphic marker, is probably a result of as yet poorly defi ned taphonomic and diagenetic fi lters, which signifi cantly reduce isotopic variability.
Binocular gaze holding of a moving object with the active stereo vision system

We present a binocular gaze holding method of an object which is moving in the complicated scene with the Active Stereo Vision System. The system uses a binocular vision robot, which can simulate the human eye movements. Holding gaze on a target object with the controlled cameras keeps the target's stereo disparity small, and simplifies the visual processing to locate the target for pursuit control. The novel point of our tracking method is the disparity-based segmentation method of the target object. The method utilizes a zero disparity filter (ZDF) and correlation to separate the target object with small disparity from distracting background. Furthermore, using the correlation method to estimate stereo disparity makes it possible to fixate on a surface of the target object. We show the experimental results with the complicated scene to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. <<ETX>>
DSL Inspector : A tool to measure the quality of service of the ADSL line

ADSL is a growing technology for broadband services. New flavours are developed with higher bandwidth which generates new services. Services such as triple-play with higher bandwidth requirements have turned out to be very dependent on the quality of the lines. Therefore monitoring quality of services of the lines is becoming more and more important for providing good services to customers. Operators need an effective and precise tool for locating the problems on the lines so that they can suggest solutions. In this Master of Science thesis we implement a prototype which collects data for different parameters along an ADSL-line for Internet operators and analyses the connection on the basis of these. The prototype relies to a high degree on open standards and is implemented using stable and mature open source software. The prototype is build according to the client-server model. The client is an onlineprogram which enables operators to log in and submit or display their measurements. The server is a command line program which is running in the background and waits for new measurements from the client program to be performed. DSL Inspector: Ett verktyg för att mäta kvalitén på ADSLlinjen
Provably Good and Practically Efficient Parallel Race Detection for Fork-Join Programs

If a parallel program has determinacy race(s), different schedules can result in memory accesses that observe different values --- various race-detection tools have been designed to find such bugs. A key component of race detectors is an algorithm for series-parallel (SP) maintenance, which identifies whether two accesses are logically parallel. This paper describes an asymptotically optimal algorithm, called WSP-Order, for performing SP maintenance in programs with fork-join (or nested) parallelism. Given a fork-join program with T1 work and T∞ span, WSP-Order executes it while also maintaining SP relationships in O(T1/P + T∞) time on P processors, which is asymptotically optimal. At the heart of WSP-Order is a work-stealing scheduler designed specifically for SP maintenance. We also implemented C-RACER, a race-detector based on WSP-Order within the Cilk Plus runtime system, and evaluated its performance on five benchmarks. Empirical results demonstrate that when run sequentially, it performs almost as well as previous best sequential race detectors. More importantly, when run in parallel, it achieves almost as much speedup as the original program without race-detection.
A new marker-based watershed algorithm

The marker-based watershed approach is a very efficient means for image segmentation and has been widely used in recent years. The conventional marker-based algorithms are realized using hierarchical queues. A new marker-based watershed algorithm based on the disjoint set data structure is proposed in this paper. It consists of two steps: the flooding step and the resolving step. This algorithm has significantly lower memory requirement as compared with the conventional algorithms while maintaining the computational complexity of O(N) where N is the image size. Experimental results further show that the new algorithm implemented in C language runs much faster than the conventional algorithm based on the hierarchical queues as a result of savings from huge memory allocation and releasing operations.
Short-term blood pressure variability in acute stroke: post hoc analysis of the controlling hypertension and hypotension immediately post stroke and continue or stop post-stroke antihypertensives collaborative study trials.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Short-term blood pressure variability (BPV) may predict outcome in acute stroke. We undertook a post hoc analysis of data from 2 randomized controlled trials to determine the effect of short-term BPV on 2-week outcome. METHODS Controlling Hypertension and Hypotension Immediately Post Stroke (CHHIPS) was a trial of BP-lowering, enrolling 179 acute stroke patients (onset<36 hours). Continue or Stop Post-Stroke Antihypertensives Collaborative Study (COSSACS) compared a strategy of continuation versus temporarily stopping prestroke antihypertensive therapy in 763 acute stroke patients (onset<48 hours). BPV at baseline (defined as SD, coefficient of variation, variation independent of the mean, and average real variability) was derived from standardized casual cuff BP measures (6 readings<30 minutes). Adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess the relation between BPV and death and disability (modified Rankin scale>3) at 2 weeks. RESULTS Seven hundred six (92.5%) and 171 (95.5%) participants were included in the analysis for the COSSACS and CHHIPS data sets, respectively. Adjusted logistic regression analyses revealed no statistically significant associations between any of the included BPV parameters with 2-week death or disability in either study data set: COSSACS, odds ratio SD systolic BP 0.98 (0.78-1.23); CHHIPS, odds ratio SD systolic BP 0.97 (0.90-1.11). CONCLUSIONS When derived from casual cuff BP measures, short-term BPV is not a useful predictor of early (2 weeks) outcome after acute stroke. Differing methodology may account for the discordance with previous studies indicating long-term (casual BPV) and short-term (beat-to-beat BPV) prognostic value. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION COSSACS was registered on the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Register; URL: http://www.isrctn. com. Unique identifier: ISRCTN89712435. CHHIPS was registered on the National Research Register; URL: http://public.ukcrn. org.uk. Unique identifier: N0484128008.
Tetrairidium, a four-atom cluster, is readily visible as a density label in three-dimensional cryo-EM maps of proteins at 10-25 A resolution.

Heavy metal clusters derivatized to bind to designated chemical groups on proteins have great potential as density labels for cryo-electron microscopy. Smaller clusters offer higher resolution and penetrate more easily into sterically restricted sites, but are more difficult to detect. In this context, we have explored the potential of tetrairidium (Ir(4)) as a density label by attaching it via maleimide linkage to the C-terminus of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) capsid protein. Although the clusters are not visible in unprocessed cryo-electron micrographs, they are distinctly visible in three-dimensional density maps calculated from them, even at only partial occupancy. The Ir(4) label was clearly visualized in our maps at 11-14 A resolution of both size variants of the HBV capsid, thus confirming our previous localization of this site with undecagold (Zlotnick, A., Cheng, N., Stahl, S. J., Conway, J. F., Steven, A. C., and Wingfield, P. T., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 9556-9561, 1997). Ir(4) penetrated to the interior of intact capsids to label this site on their inner surface, unlike undecagold for which labelling was achieved only with dissociated dimers that were then reassembled into capsids. The Ir(4) cluster remained visible as the resolution of the maps was lowered progressively to approximately 25 A.
High-Throughput Behavioral Screens: the First Step towards Finding Genes Involved in Vertebrate Brain Function Using Zebrafish

The zebrafish has been in the forefront of developmental biology for three decades and has become a favorite of geneticists. Due to the accumulated genetic knowledge and tools developed for the zebrafish it is gaining popularity in other disciplines, including neuroscience. The zebrafish offers a compromise between system complexity (it is a vertebrate similar in many ways to our own species) and practical simplicity (it is small, easy to keep, and prolific). Such features make zebrafish an excellent choice for high throughput mutation and drug screening. For the identification of mutation or drug induced alteration of brain function arguably the best methods are behavioral test paradigms. This review does not present experimental examples for the identification of particular genes or drugs. Instead it describes how behavioral screening methods may enable one to find functional alterations in the vertebrate brain. Furthermore, the review is not comprehensive. The behavioral test examples presented are biased according to the personal interests of the author. They will cover research areas including learning and memory, fear and anxiety, and social behavior. Nevertheless, the general principles will apply to other functional domains and should represent a snapshot of the rapidly evolving behavioral screening field with zebrafish.
Inducible expression of keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) in mice inhibits lung epithelial cell death induced by hyperoxia

Oxidant-induced injury to the lung is associated with extensive damage to the lung epithelium. Instillation of keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) in the lungs of animals protects animals from oxidant-induced injury but the mechanism of protection is not well understood. An inherent problem in studying KGF function in vivo has been that constitutive overexpression of KGF in the lung causes embryonic lethality with extensive pulmonary malformation. Here we report the development of a stringently regulated, tetracycline-inducible, lung-specific transgenic system that allows regulated expression of KGF in the lung without causing developmental abnormalities from leaky KGF expression. By using this system, we show that exposure of KGF-expressing mice to hyperoxia protects the lung epithelium but not the endothelium from cell death in accordance with the selective expression of KGF receptor on epithelial and not on endothelial cells. Investigations of KGF-induced cell survival pathways revealed KGF-induced activation of the multifunctional pro-survival Akt signaling axis both in vitro and in vivo. Inhibition of KGF-induced Akt activation by a dominant-negative mutant of Akt blocked the KGF-mediated protection of epithelial cells exposed to hyperoxia. KGF-induced Akt activation may play an important role in inhibiting lung alveolar cell death thereby preserving the lung architecture and function during oxidative stress.
Short-term effects of dynamic lycra splints on upper limb in hemiplegic patients.

OBJECTIVE To assess acceptability, effects on swelling, resting posture, spasticity, and active (AROM) and passive range of motion (PROM) of individually tailored upper limb Lycra garments, designed as dynamic splints to exert directional pull on certain limb segments, when worn for 3 hours by hemiplegic patients. DESIGN Crossover trial. SETTING Outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation center. PATIENTS Convenience sample of 16 patients with hemiparesis and upper limb spasticity caused by a stroke more than 3 weeks before the study. INTERVENTIONS Assessments performed at the start and end of a 3-hour period during a standard rehabilitation day when the patients were and were not wearing the garment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES (1) Comfort assessed by questionnaire; (2) circumference of each limb segment; (3) resting posture at elbow and wrist; (4) spasticity at shoulder, elbow, and wrist using the Tardieu scale; and (5) AROM and PROM at shoulder, elbow, and wrist measured using a goniometer; (6) elbow proprioception using McCloskey's method; (7) visual neglect syndrome using the line bisection test. Differences between changes occurring with and without the garment were compared using Wilcoxon's signed rank test for ordinal variables (spasticity grading) and Student's t test for continuous variables (all other data). RESULTS During 3 hours, garments worn on the arm by patients with hemiplegia (1) were comfortable, (2) improved wrist posture and reduced wrist and finger flexor spasticity, (3) reduced swelling in patients with swollen limbs (digit circumference decreased by 4%; p<.01), (4) improved PROM at shoulder (mean increase in range, 4.1 degrees +/- 13.0 degrees per shoulder movement; p<.01); and (5) impaired ability to flex fingers (range of voluntary flexion of digit III reduced from 107.3 degrees +/-79.6 degrees to 91.4 degrees +/-74.1 degrees; p<.05). CONCLUSION Lycra garments, designed to produce continuous stretch of spastic muscles when worn for several hours each day, have rapid splinting and antispastic effects on wrist and fingers in patients with hemiplegia. These garments may help severely affected patients with major spasticity or painful swollen limbs.
Product Market Regulation and Macroeconomic Performance: A Review of Cross Country Evidence

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a critical overview of the recent empirical contributions that use cross-country data to study the effects of product market regulation and reform on a country's macroeconomic performance. After a brief review of the theoretical literature and of relevant micro-econometric evidence, the paper discusses the main data and methodological issues related to empirical work on this topic. It then critically evaluates the cross-country evidence on the effects of product market regulation on mark-ups, firm dynamics, investment, employment, innovation, productivity, and output growth. The paper concludes with a summary of lessons learned from the econometric results.
Acoustic Information During Motor Control and Action Perception: A Review

There is a whole body of research that provides evidence that the motor system plays a crucial role in control- ling as well as perceiving movements. So far a lot of evidence for the interaction of action and perception derives from studies in the visual domain. However, up to now not much is known about the role of acoustic information. The focus of this review is to provide an overview regarding the role of the motor system and auditory sense during action perception and motor control. Recent theories and studies that discuss the interaction of perception and action will be reviewed with an emphasis on the use of acoustic information. Empirical evidence derived from behavioral as well as neuroscience re- search using simple as well as whole-body movements will be provided. Additionally, we will provide perspectives re- garding future research questions to bring forward our understanding of the role of acoustic information in the control and perception of actions and its underlying mechanisms.
Role of transmembrane pH gradient and membrane binding in nisin pore formation

Nisin is a cationic antimicrobial peptide that belongs to the group of lantibiotics. It is thought to form oligomeric pores in the target membrane by a mechanism that requires the transmembrane electrical potential delta psi and that involves local pertubation of the lipid bilayer structure. Here we show that nisin does not form exclusively voltage-dependent pores: even in the absence of a delta psi, nisin is able to dissipate the transmembrane pH gradient (delta pH) in sensitive Lactococcus lactis cells and proteoliposomes. The rate of dissipation increases with the magnitude of the delta pH. Nisin forms pores only when the delta pH is inside alkaline. The efficiency of delta psi-induced pore formation is strongly affected by the external pH, whereas delta pH-induced pore formation is rather insensitive to the external pH. Nisin(1-12), an amino-terminal fragment of nisin, and (des-deltaAla5)-(nisin(1-32) amide have a strongly reduced capacity to dissipate the delta psi and delta pH in cytochrome c oxidase proteoliposomes and L. lactis cells. Both variants bind with reduced efficiency to liposomes containing negatively charged phospholipids, suggesting that both ring A and rings C to E play a role in membrane binding. Nisin(1-12) competes with nisin for membrane binding and antagonizes pore formation. These findings are consistent with the wedge model of nisin-induced pore formation.