Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Responses of medullary raphespinal neurons to coronary artery occlusion, epicardial bradykinin, and cardiac mechanical stimuli in cats.

1. A total of 59 medullary raphespinal neurons antidromically activated from the T2-T5 segments were tested for responses to coronary artery occlusion, epicardial application of bradykinin, and mechanical probing of the epicardium in cats anesthetized with alpha-chloralose. With the exception of five neurons, only those neurons that were responsive to electrical stimulation of the left stellate ganglion were tested for responses to these stimuli. Neurons in this study are a subset of those in the companion report. 2. Six neurons (12%) responded to epicardial bradykinin. Five cells were excited, and one was inhibited. Nine neurons (18%) had cardiac receptive fields, and one neuron (2%) had a field confined to the pericardium. 3. Neurons were tested for responses to separate occlusions of the left anterior descending (LAD) and circumflex (CX) coronary arteries. Overall, 13/34 (38%) of tested raphespinal neurons were responsive to coronary artery occlusion. Responses to coronary artery occlusion consisted of two major patterns. One pattern consisted of either an increase or decrease in neuronal firing rate after the heart became ischemic; this pattern was termed an ischemic (IS) response. Ten neurons (29%) exhibited an IS response to occlusion of the LAD and/or CX coronary arteries. Because four neurons exhibited IS responses to occlusion of each artery, there were a total of 14 IS responses. Of these, 10 were inhibitory, and 4 were excitatory. The second pattern of response consisted of a rapidly adapting excitation or inhibition at the onset or release of occlusion, but cell activity was unchanged during cardiac ischemia; this pattern was termed an onset (ON) response. Three neurons (9%) exhibited ON responses; two were excited, and one was inhibited. No neurons demonstrated both ON and IS responses during occlusion. 4. Twenty-one neurons were tested for responses to occlusion of each artery. Seventeen neurons (81%) exhibited similar patterns of responses to occlusion of each artery; that is, they either showed the same pattern of response to occlusion of each artery or they were unresponsive to either occlusion. For the 5 of these 17 neurons that were responsive, direction of change in neuronal activity (excitation or inhibition) was the same for occlusion of each artery. 5. All raphespinal neurons tested for responses to epicardial bradykinin and coronary artery occlusion were responsive to electrical stimulation of the left stellate ganglion. In addition, 16/28 (57%) of neurons tested for responses to occlusion were responsive to electrical stimulation of the right cervical vagus nerve. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Pay, Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, Performance, and Creativity in the Workplace: Revisiting Long-Held Beliefs

The role of compensation or extrinsic rewards, including pay for performance (PFP), has received relatively little attention in the organizational behavior/psychology literature on work motivation. What attention it has received has often taken the form of raising cautions about the potential harmful effects of PFP on (intrinsic) work motivation, as well as on creativity. We critically assess the theory and evidence that have provided the basis for such arguments and conclude that support for such claims (in workplace settings) is lacking. We seek to provide a more accurate view of how extrinsic rewards such as PFP operate in the workplace and how they influence workplace motivation, creativity, and performance. We document how social determination theory and creativity theory have recently undergone major changes that better recognize the potential positive influence of extrinsic rewards such as PFP. Finally, we identify areas in need of further research.
Agricultural Monitoring in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, Using Multi-Temporal Polarimetric RADARSAT-2 Data

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to analyze how changes in acquisition time and incidence angle affect various C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) polarimetric intensities, co-polarized phase information, polarimetric response plots and decomposition parameters for various crops typical of Northern Ontario, Canada. We examine how these parameters may be used to monitor the growth stages of five common cash crops, namely, barley ( Hordeum vulgare ), canola ( Brassica napus ), oat ( Avena sativa ), soybean ( Glycine max ) and wheat ( Triticum spp. ). In total, nine RADARSAT-2 polarimetric images were analyzed across a 14-week period beginning in June and ending in September 2011 using two incidence angles of approximately 26° and 41°. As expected, the backscatter intensities for all targets were found to show a higher response when acquired at the steeper incidence angle (26°). All cash crop targets showed a rise and fall in backscatter response over the course of the growing season, coinciding with changing growth stages. Slight phase differences were observed for cereal crops, possibly due to one of the polarizations penetrating between the rows allowing double-bounce to occur. The polarimetric response plots and decompositions offered insight into the scattering mechanisms of each crop type, generally showing an increase in volume scattering as the crops reached maturity. Specifically, the contributions of the crops increased towards the volume scattering component and zones 4 and 2, as the crops matured in regards to the Freeman-Durden and Cloude-Pottier decompositions respectively. Overall, soybean and canola showed a more similar response in comparison to the cereal cash crops. Although
Characterizing differences in precipitation regimes of extreme wet and dry years: implications for climate change experiments

Climate change is intensifying the hydrologic cycle and is expected to increase the frequency of extreme wet and dry years. Beyond precipitation amount, extreme wet and dry years may differ in other ways, such as the number of precipitation events, event size, and the time between events. We assessed 1614 long‐term (100 year) precipitation records from around the world to identify key attributes of precipitation regimes, besides amount, that distinguish statistically extreme wet from extreme dry years. In general, in regions where mean annual precipitation (MAP) exceeded 1000 mm, precipitation amounts in extreme wet and dry years differed from average years by ~40% and 30%, respectively. The magnitude of these deviations increased to >60% for dry years and to >150% for wet years in arid regions (MAP<500 mm). Extreme wet years were primarily distinguished from average and extreme dry years by the presence of multiple extreme (large) daily precipitation events (events >99th percentile of all events); these occurred twice as often in extreme wet years compared to average years. In contrast, these large precipitation events were rare in extreme dry years. Less important for distinguishing extreme wet from dry years were mean event size and frequency, or the number of dry days between events. However, extreme dry years were distinguished from average years by an increase in the number of dry days between events. These precipitation regime attributes consistently differed between extreme wet and dry years across 12 major terrestrial ecoregions from around the world, from deserts to the tropics. Thus, we recommend that climate change experiments and model simulations incorporate these differences in key precipitation regime attributes, as well as amount into treatments. This will allow experiments to more realistically simulate extreme precipitation years and more accurately assess the ecological consequences.
Self-reported anxious- and avoidant-related attachment correlated to interpersonal problems by patients starting psychotherapy

Attachment theory is an encompassing theory for understanding human reactions to life stressors, such as loss and separation, and interpersonal problems are common reasons for seeking psychotherapy. Psychotherapy may be an opportunity to revise insecure attachment and handle interpersonal problems. This study examined attachment styles and interpersonal problems in a clinical sample of psychotherapy patients (n = 168) at the start of psychotherapy. The main aim was to study how self-reported attachment styles, measured by the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), correlated with interpersonal problems measured using the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP). Avoidant-related and anxious-related attachment scales correlated positively to the total IIP scores. Inconsistent with findings in non-clinical samples, specific interpersonal problems in the dominant and affiliative parts of the IIP correlated positively to both the anxious-related and the avoidant-related attachment scales. The findings imply that a challenge for the therapist at the start of psychotherapy is to balance providing security with encouraging exploration of feelings, thoughts, and behaviour in the patient’s interpersonal problems in current relationships. Exploring individual profiles of attachment styles helps to clarify motives in expressed interpersonal problems.
Integrating multiple communication paradigms in high performance multiprocessors

In the design of FLASH, the successor to the Stanford DASH multiprocessor, we are exploring architectural mechanisms for efficiently supporting both the shared memory and message passing communication models in a single system. The unique feature in the FLASH (FLexible Architecture for SHared memory) system is the use of a programmable controller at each node that replaces the functionality of hardwired cache coherence state machines in systems like DASH. The base coherence protocol is supported by executing appropriate software handlers on the programmable controller to service memory and coherence operations. The same programmable controller is also used to support message passing. This approach is attractive because of the flexibility software provides for implementing different coherence and message passing protocols, and because of the simplification in system design and debugging that arises from the shift of complexity from hardware to software. This paper focuses on the use of the programmable controller to support message passing. Our goal is to provide message passing performance that is comparable to an aggressive hardware implementation dedicated to this task. In FLASH, message data is transferred as a sequence of cache line sized units, thus exploiting the datapath support already present for cache coherence. In addition, we avoid costly interrupts to the main processor by having the programmable engine handle the control for message transfers. Furthermore, in contrast to most earlier work, we provide an integrated solution that handles the interaction of message data with virtual memory, protected multiprogramming, and cache coherence. Our preliminary performance studies indicate that this system can sustain message transfers at a rate of several hundred megabytes per second, efficiently utilizing the available network bandwidth.
Do Turkish women in the diaspora build social capital? Evidence from the Low countries

Abstract Ever since Putnam (2000) made social capital a concept that should be mourned for its decline in the USA, researchers and policy makers in some western countries have adopted it as a solution to what they believe to be the failed practices of multiculturalism. Instead of preserving their individual cultures and traditions, critics would have them build social capital by bridging to people and institutions in their new countries and adopt the ‘shared values’ of the host countries and become ‘integrated’. This study, based on a study conducted in the Netherlands in 2006, and supplemented with survey findings from Flanders at the same time, examines whether this perspective is accurate, focusing on women migrants who live in the Low Countries (Netherlands and Flanders in Belgium), of the networks they have built or not and the reasons for that, and of the role of media and the internet in that process.
Transracial Adoptees and Their Families: A Study of Identity and Commitment

Introduction Where We Are Today: Numbers, Practices, and Policies Recent Court Rulings Looking Back at the Families The Parents' Story The Childrens' Account How the Parents' and Childrens' Accounts Match Up Special Families: A Collective Portrait Effects of Abortion, Birth Rate, and Lifestyle on Inracial and Transracial Adoptions Single Parent Adoption: A Continuing Alternative Intercountry Adoption Concluding Remarks and Recommendations Selected Bibliography Index
A Message Suppression Controller for Vehicular Delay Tolerant Networking

In this paper, we propose a Message Suppression Controller (MSC) for Vehicular Delay Tolerant Networking (VDTN) under highly stressed environment. The simulations for two scenarios are conducted considering obstacles (buildings), where MSC with Road side units (MSCRs) are present or not present. We consider 802.11p standard and send bundle messages in a Manhattan grid scenario. We use the duplicated bundle received, end-to-end delay, number of sent messages, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and storage usage as evaluation metrics. Based on simulation results, we found that our proposed method can reduce the number of sent messages in the network without reducing the PDR.
Deconstructing ‘Western esotericism’: on Wouter Hanegraaff's Esotericism and the Academy

This paper discusses a number of consequences that – although not always intended by the author – can be drawn from the radically historicist approach adopted by Wouter J. Hanegraaff in his monograph Esotericism and the Academy. These consequences are the atomization of ‘esotericism’ into a disparate range of ideas, practices, and currents with few if any shared elements; a better approximation to contemporary anthropological views of culture and cultural innovation; a focus on polemical strategies rather than substantive contents and a concomitant possibility of cross-cultural comparison; a reluctance to engage with theories of broader scope; and a vacillation between seeing ‘esotericism’ as merely a waste-basket category and attempting nonetheless to salvage a minimal substantive definition.
Glucose Signaling-Mediated Coordination of Cell Growth and Cell Cycle in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Besides being the favorite carbon and energy source for the budding yeast Sacchromyces cerevisiae, glucose can act as a signaling molecule to regulate multiple aspects of yeast physiology. Yeast cells have evolved several mechanisms for monitoring the level of glucose in their habitat and respond quickly to frequent changes in the sugar availability in the environment: the cAMP/PKA pathways (with its two branches comprising Ras and the Gpr1/Gpa2 module), the Rgt2/Snf3-Rgt1 pathway and the main repression pathway involving the kinase Snf1. The cAMP/PKA pathway plays the prominent role in responding to changes in glucose availability and initiating the signaling processes that promote cell growth and division. Snf1 (the yeast homologous to mammalian AMP-activated protein kinase) is primarily required for the adaptation of yeast cell to glucose limitation and for growth on alternative carbon source, but it is also involved in the cellular response to various environmental stresses. The Rgt2/Snf3-Rgt1 pathway regulates the expression of genes required for glucose uptake. Many interconnections exist between the diverse glucose sensing systems, which enables yeast cells to fine tune cell growth, cell cycle and their coordination in response to nutritional changes.
A multimodular algorithm for computing Bernoulli numbers

We describe an algorithm for computing Bernoulli numbers. Using a parallel implementation, we have computed B(k) for k = 10^8, a new record. Our method is to compute B(k) modulo p for many small primes p, and then reconstruct B(k) via the Chinese Remainder Theorem. The asymptotic time complexity is O(k^2 log(k)^(2+epsilon)), matching that of existing algorithms that exploit the relationship between B(k) and the Riemann zeta function. Our implementation is significantly faster than several existing implementations of the zeta-function method.
Assessing frontal lobe functioning in children: Views from developmental psychology

This review presents the potential contribution of developmental psychology to a more complete understanding of the nature of frontal lobe functioning in children. The cognitive construct of “executive function” has been adopted as a possible behavioral marker of prefrontal functioning from infancy through childhood. Instead of focusing exclusively on mature, adult‐level functioning of the frontal lobes, our article reviews evidence for the view that frontally mediated executive functions emerge in the first year of life and continue to develop at least until puberty, if not beyond. A key theme in this review is that measures used to detect executive functions must be developmentally appropriate, and suggestions regarding viable executive function measures are offered. The contribution of the animal models tested by Diamond and Goldman‐Rakic to our understanding of rudimentary executive functions in infancy is discussed. Another behavioral domain, self‐control, is proposed as a possible source of frontal .
Thrombolysis in acute ischaemic stroke.

Sir, We read with interest the recent paper by Balami et al. (2013) concerning thrombolysis in stroke patients. In medicine, every procedure requires a careful evaluation of benefit-to-risk ratio, and thrombolysis is no exception. As reported by the authors, the selection of patients is crucial to obtain the best benefit with the lowest risk. Time to treatment is critical in this selection and the reduction of the avoidable delay represents the key factor in improving the number of potentially treatable patients. Optimal management of the acute phase could contribute to obtaining this result, with a pre-notification of …
A Sensitive Double‐Isotope Derivative Assay for Norepinephrine and Epinephrine: NORMAL RESTING HUMAN PLASMA LEVELS

A sensitive and specific double-isotope dilution method for assaying norepinephrine and epinephrine separately is described. The method is based on enzymatic conversion of these two catecholamines to their respective metanephrines and was applied successfully to measurement of resting plasma concentrations of norepinephrine and epinephrine in normal subjects with the finding that norepinephrine (0.20 ± 0.08 μg/liter) normally constitutes approximately 80% of the plasma catecholamine content and epinephrine (0.05 ± 0.03 μg/liter) 20%.
Within the twilight zone: a sensitive profile-profile comparison tool based on information theory.

This paper presents a novel approach to profile-profile comparison. The method compares two input profiles (like those that are generated by PSI-BLAST) and assigns a similarity score to assess their statistical similarity. Our profile-profile comparison tool, which allows for gaps, can be used to detect weak similarities between protein families. It has also been optimized to produce alignments that are in very good agreement with structural alignments. Tests show that the profile-profile alignments are indeed highly correlated with similarities between secondary structure elements and tertiary structure. Exhaustive evaluations show that our method is significantly more sensitive in detecting distant homologies than the popular profile-based search programs PSI-BLAST and IMPALA. The relative improvement is the same order of magnitude as the improvement of PSI-BLAST relative to BLAST. Our new tool often detects similarities that fall within the twilight zone of sequence similarity.
Wireless Sensor Network based Control System - Trade off between sensor power saving and control performance -

This paper is discussed on some new control methodologies for wireless sensor network based closed loop control systems. Such a system is required to save battery energy consumption, which will be achieved by saving communication speed. Then some new control strategies considering communication interval, which corresponds to sampling period of discrete control system, are considered here. The communication saved control problems is defined. Then, some heuristic control methods are proposed. One of them is based on the optimization of a cost function including control performance and communication penally. Two types of control optimization problems are defined, which correspond to state observer problem and state feedback control problem. These wireless sensor network conscious control methods will meet industrial requirements.
Residual prediction

Residual prediction is a technique that aims at recovering the spectral details of speech that was encoded using parameterizations as linear predictive coefficients. Example applications of residual prediction are hidden Markov model-based speech synthesis or voice conversion. Our voice conversion experiments showed that only one of the seven compared techniques was capable of successfully converting the voice while achieving a fair speech quality (i.e. mean opinion score = 3)
Predicting workplace victim status from personality

This study examined the extent that workplace victim status can be predicted from personality traits. The sample comprised 60 victims and a control group of 60 non-bullied work colleagues, matched on a number of organizational and personal criteria, from two large organizations (one public, one private) in Eire. Both groups completed a semi-structured interview and the ICES Personality Inventory (Bartram, 1994, 1998). Significant differences emerged between victims and nonvictims on all major ICES scales. Victims tended to be less independent and extroverted, less stable, and more conscientious than non-victims. From the development of a weighted composite personality profile, results illustrated that ICES personality traits strongly predicted victim status. The findings suggest that, using a five-factor framework, personality traits may give an indication of those in an organization most likely to be bullied and an indication as to why these individuals become victims.
Risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in adults is the leading cause of chronic disease and cirrhosis. Globally, an estimated 200 million persons are chronically infected with HCV and 3 to 4 million persons are newly infected each year. Improved sanitary and socioeconomic conditions over time have greatly affected the frequency of HCV infection causing a decreased risk of infection along generation. However, the younger population is particularly at risk due to certain practices (use of intravenous drugs, tattooing, piercing) known to favor HCV transmission. Such practices often begin during adolescence when awareness of hepatitis C is low. We have conducted a prospective study in which have been included 286 patients with chronic hepatitis C hospitalized in the Clinic Hospital of Infectious Diseases Iasi between 2004 and 2007. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors for the acquisition of hepatitis C virus in patients with chronic hepatitis. The study confirms that the most relevant risk factors for the acquisition of HCV are transfusions of blood before 1993 (32%) followed by dental procedures (25,5%) and health care related procedures (20%). Accidental needlstick, was reported by 16 patients (5,6%). Patients older than 40 years had a significant higher rate of declared risk factors compared with younger patients (p=0,038). The results of this study stress the need of strict adherence to universal precautionary measures. Because the quality of knowledge regarding hepatitis C is very poor among adolescents it would be beneficial for public health a strong intervention to present the most relevant risk factors for the acquisition of this virus.