Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nuclear and cytoplasmic localization of basic fibroblast growth factor in astrocytes and CA2 hippocampal neurons

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are known to stimulate mitogenesis in a variety of non-neuronal cell types and to support the survival in vitro of many neuronal cell types. The physiological role of FGFs in the CNS is currently not known. The present study determined the distribution in the rat CNS of a prominent member of the FGF family, basic FGF (bFGF). Immunohistochemical analysis showed that bFGF immunoreactivity was found predominantly in astrocytes throughout all regions of the CNS. In contrast, only a few neuronal populations were found to contain bFGF immunoreactivity, most prominent among them, neurons in the CA2 area of the hippocampus. This predominant localization of bFGF to astrocytes was confirmed by two other observations: (1) highly enriched cultures of astrocytes contained bFGF immunoreactivity and bioactivity, whereas highly enriched cultures of cerebral cortical neurons contained no detectable bFGF, and (2) neonatal rat cerebral cortex, which contains only a few differentiated astrocytes, also contained no detectable bFGF immunoreactivity and only low amounts of bFGF bioactivity. Immunocytochemical analysis also suggested that bFGF immunoreactivity was present in the nucleus as well as the cytoplasm of astrocytes and CA2 neurons. This nuclear localization was confirmed by EM analysis of the intracellular distribution of the immunoperoxidase reaction product. In addition, preparations of both nuclear and soluble fractions of brain extracts contained bFGF immunoreactivity and bioactivity. These data suggest that bFGF might be involved in mediating astrocytic influences on the late postnatal maturation and plasticity in the CNS, and that the nuclear localization of bFGF within astrocytes may play an important role in the differentiation of these cells. In addition, bFGF may play a similar role in a few specific neuronal populations, such as CA2 hippocampal neurons.
Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II (CaMKII) Activity and Sinoatrial Nodal Pacemaker Cell Energetics

Ca2+-activated basal adenylate cyclase (AC) in rabbit sinoatrial node cells (SANC) guarantees, via basal cAMP/PKA-calmodulin/CaMKII-dependent protein phosphorylation, the occurrence of rhythmic, sarcoplasmic-reticulum generated, sub-membrane Ca2+ releases that prompt rhythmic, spontaneous action potentials (APs). This high-throughput signaling consumes ATP. Aims We have previously demonstrated that basal AC-cAMP/PKA signaling directly, and Ca2+ indirectly, regulate mitochondrial ATP production. While, clearly, Ca2+-calmodulin-CaMKII activity regulates ATP consumption, whether it has a role in the control of ATP production is unknown. Methods and Results We superfused single, isolated rabbit SANC at 37°C with physiological saline containing CaMKII inhibitors, (KN-93 or autocamtide-2 Related Inhibitory Peptide (AIP)), or a calmodulin inhibitor (W-7) and measured cytosolic Ca2+, flavoprotein fluorescence and spontaneous AP firing rate. We measured cAMP, ATP and O2 consumption in cell suspensions. Graded reductions in basal CaMKII activity by KN-93 (0.5–3 µmol/L) or AIP (2–10 µmol/L) markedly slow the kinetics of intracellular Ca2+ cycling, decrease the spontaneous AP firing rate, decrease cAMP, and reduce O2 consumption and flavoprotein fluorescence. In this context of graded reductions in ATP demand, however, ATP also becomes depleted, indicating reduced ATP production. Conclusions CaMKII signaling, a crucial element of normal automaticity in rabbit SANC, is also involved in SANC bioenergetics.
Discovery of the Fourth Dimension: Mental Time Travel and Human Evolution

This article considers the role of mental time travel in human evolution. A central thesis is that other primates, although having memory and expectation, do not possess the same ability to live in the past or in the future. The first half of this paper argues that reconstructive access to the past (i.e. episodic memory) is dependent on other advanced cognitive capabilities (e.g. self-awareness and meta-representation) and focuses on the results of recent `theory of mind' research in order to evaluate the thesis. Mental simulation is the proposed underlying mechanism for the development of both mindreading and mental time travel. The second half contrasts flexible awareness of possible futures with other forms of `anticipatory behaviour' and reviews evidence about how far other primates may think ahead. The phylogenetic history of mental time travel and its adaptive and exaptive relationships to other features are discussed. Mental access to the fourth dimension is essential for many of the distinctive characteristics of our species.
Large‐scale maintenance of dual projections by callosal and frontal cortical projection neurons in adult mice

Integration of sensory‐motor information in premotor cortex of rodents occurs largely through callosal and frontal cortical association projections directed in a hierarchically organized manner. Although most anatomical studies in rodents have been performed in rats, mammalian genetic models have focused on mice, because of their successful manipulation on the genetic and cell biological levels. It is therefore important to establish the normal patterns of anatomical connectivity in mice, which potentially differ from those in rats. The goal of this study is to investigate the anatomical development of callosal and frontal premotor projection neurons (CPN and FPN, respectively) in mouse sensory‐motor and premotor cortex and to investigate quantitatively the potential laminar differences between these neurons with simultaneous callosal and frontal projections during development. The retrograde tracers Fluoro‐Gold and DiI were injected into sensory‐motor and premotor cortices, respectively, C57Bl/6 mice at different developmental times (P2, P8, P21, adult). We found that, in contrast to the case in primate and cat, there is widespread overlap in populations of long‐distance projection neurons in mice; many projection neurons have simultaneous projections to both contralateral somatosensory cortex and ipsilateral frontal cortex, and a considerable number of these dual projections persist into adulthood. In addition, there are significant laminar differences in the percentage of neurons with simultaneous callosal and frontal projections, and an isolated population of layer V FPN has bilateral projections to both premotor cortical hemispheres. Taken together, our results indicate that a large proportion of individual projection neurons maintains simultaneous callosal and frontal projections in adult mice, suggesting that these dual projections might serve the critical function of integrating motor coordination information with multimodal association areas. J. Comp. Neurol. 482:17–32, 2005. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Characterization of the gate-voltage dependency of input capacitance in a SiC MOSFET

The charge/discharge phenomenon of capacitance between terminals in a power MOSFET affects on its switching behavior of the device. The input capacitance is composed of the gate-source capacitance CGS and the gate-drain capacitance CGD, which vary with gate voltage VGS. This paper characterizes the relationship between the input capacitance of a SiC MOSFET and the gate voltage with considering the internal device structure. The results give us a clue to understand the switching dynamics of the power MOSFET.
A QoS-aware Routing for Multi-Services in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper we propose a new routing algorithm for emergency bound based on multiple services for wireless sensor networks. In this routing algorithm channel conditions are associated with each time unit to provide overall fairness and maximize the total throughput of wireless sensor network. The proposed system model supports multiple users of each sensor, each user may have several service demands, every demand has different characteristics such as emergency bound, etc. How to guarantee the fairness for each user and the emergency bound for each service in wireless sensor network is the problem to be solved. In addition, we investigate the channel condition for each user and provide the maximum throughput for the single channel of each time unit.
Not-So-Special Session Ends With a Whimper.

The grand promises made at the opening of the special session seemed less plausible as the political leadership began the daunting task of revising the existing school funding system while simultaneously attempting to reduce local property taxes. Those efforts were further confounded by the realization that the achievement of either task required some major changes to the current state taxing system since raising billions of new state tax revenue would be needed to both increase education funding and provide property tax relief.
Impact of Window Length and Decorrelation Step on ICA Algorithms for EEG Blind Source Separation

Blind Source Separation (BSS) approaches for multi-channel EEG processing are popular, and in particular Independant Component Analysis (ICA) algorithms have proven their ability for artifacts removal and source extraction for this very specific class of signals. However, the blind aspect of these techniques implies well-known drawbacks. As these methods are based on estimated statistics from the data and rely on an hypothesis of signal stationarity, the length of the window is crucial and has to be chosen carefully: large enough to get reliable estimation and short enough to respect the rather non-stationary nature of the EEG signals. In addition, another issue concerns the plausibility of the resulting separated sources. Indeed, some authors suggested that ICA algorithms give more physiologically plausible results depending on the chosen whitening/sphering step. In this paper, we address both issues by comparing three popular ICA algorithms (namely FastICA, Extended InfoMax and JADER) on EEG-like simulated data and assessing their performance by using an original correlation matrices distance measure and a separation performance index. The results are consistent and lead us to a precise idea of minimal sample size that guarantees statistically robust results regarding the number of channels.
Public Investment under Fiscal Constraints

EU New Member States must comply with the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and the investment requirements implied by the Lisbon Agenda. However, the SGP rules may result in underinvestment or distortions in the allocation of public expenditure. This paper provides new evidence on the effects of debt sustainability and SGP fiscal constraints on government expenditure in fixed capital, education and health in OECD countries by estimating government expenditure reaction functions to public debt and cyclical conditions. We find that, at high levels of debt, government capital expenditure and education expenditure are significantly reduced as the debt ratio increases in all OECD countries independently of EMU (or EU) membership. By contrast neither capital expenditure nor education expenditure is affected by the debt ratio in low debt countries. These findings are robust to the inclusion of the government deficit in the estimated reaction functions. Hence, it appears that EU countries have been constrained in their investment decisions more by the need to ensure debt sustainability than by the rules of the SGP. In low debt NMS countries public investment even increases with the debt ratio, a finding that is reassuring for their growth prospects. However, a less optimistic picture emerges when we focus on expenditures in public health and education, as it appears that NMS governments cut such expenditures --even at low levels of debt-- as the deficit increases. Problems in controlling total expenditure together with the preventive arm of the SGP may have penalized investment in human capital in NMSs while leaving fixed capital investment unaffected.
psort 2009

This memo reports the results of our psort (general purpose) sorting software on a 5 disk 427.86$ PC with 4 GB of RAM and an Athlon LE 1640 2.6 GHz processor. psort sorted 67 · 2 records in 2211 seconds, for a Daytona sort size slightly larger than 224.8 GB. A version of psort hand-optimized for the Pennysort benchmark sorted 74 ·2 records in the same time and on the same hardware, for an Indy sort size slightly larger
The European Parliament, the national parliaments, and European integration

Introduction: European Parliament, National Parliament, and European Integration PART I: ROLE OF PARLIAMENTS AND PARLIAMENTARIANS 2. Representation, the Locus of Democratic Legitimation, and the Role f the National Parliaments in the European Union 3. Making Europeans? The Socializing Power of the European Parliament 4. Role Orientations in Parliaments 5. Recruitment into the European Parliament PART II: LINKAGES 6. European Parliament and Interest Groups 7. Partisan Structures in the European Parliament
Dark Chocolate Acutely Improves Walking Autonomy in Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease

Background NOX‐2, the catalytic subunit of NADPH oxidase, has a key role in the formation of reactive oxidant species and is implicated in impairing flow‐mediated dilation (FMD). Dark chocolate exerts artery dilatation via down‐regulating NOX2‐mediated oxidative stress. The aim of this study was to investigate whether dark chocolate improves walking autonomy in peripheral artery disease (PAD) patients via an oxidative stress‐mediated mechanism. Methods and Results FMD, serum levels of isoprostanes, nitrite/nitrate (NOx) and sNOX2‐dp, a marker of blood NOX2 activity, maximal walking distance (MWD) and maximal walking time (MWT) were studied in 20 PAD patients (14 males and 6 females, mean age: 69±9 years) randomly allocated to 40 g of dark chocolate (>85% cocoa) or 40 g of milk chocolate (≤35% cocoa) in a single blind, cross‐over design. The above variables were assessed at baseline and 2 hours after chocolate ingestion. Dark chocolate intake significantly increased MWD (+11%; P<0.001), MWT (+15%; P<0.001), serum NOx (+57%; P<0.001) and decreased serum isoprostanes (−23%; P=0.01) and sNOX2‐dp (−37%; P<0.001); no changes of the above variables were observed after milk chocolate intake. Serum epicatechin and its methylated metabolite significantly increased only after dark chocolate ingestion. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that Δ of MWD was independently associated with Δ of MWT (P<0.001) and Δ of NOx (P=0.018). In vitro study demonstrated that HUVEC incubated with a mixture of polyphenols significantly increased nitric oxide (P<0.001) and decreased E‐selectin (P<0.001) and VCAM1 (P<0.001). Conclusion In PAD patients dark but not milk chocolate acutely improves walking autonomy with a mechanism possibly related to an oxidative stress‐mediated mechanism involving NOX2 regulation. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT01947712.
Association of hypoproteinemia in preeclampsia with maternal and perinatal outcomes: A retrospective analysis of high-risk women

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate maternal and perinatal outcomes in preeclampsia (PE), according to the value of albumin. Materials and Methods: Preeclamptic women were retrospectively divided into mild hypoproteinemia (MHP, n = 220) and severe hypoproteinemia (SHP, n = 79) PE according to the value of albumin. The maternal and perinatal outcomes were evaluated in both groups. Results: Two hundred and ninety-nine single pregnancies complicated by PE were included in this study. Gestational age at delivery was earlier in SHP than MHP (P < 0.01). Severe hypertension, abnormal liver function, abnormal renal function, ascites, and abruption occurred more frequently in SHP than in MHP (P< 0.01, 0.03, <0.01, 0.01, and 0.04, respectively). Women in SHP had a higher rate of cesarean section than those in MHP (P = 0.04). Fetal growth restriction infants were more frequent in SHP than in MHP (P < 0.01). The occupancy rate of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was higher in SHP than in MHP (P < 0.01). Conclusion: SHP PE is associated with a higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcome than MHP PE, deserving closer surveillance during pregnancy.
The intracellular distribution and pattern of expression of Mcl-1 overlap with, but are not identical to, those of Bcl-2

A family of genes related to the bcl-2 protooncogene has recently emerged. One member of this family, mcl-1, was cloned from a human myeloblastic leukemia cell line (ML-1) undergoing differentiation. The intracellular localization of mcl-1, as well as the kinetics of its expression during differentiation, have now been studied. These studies show that the intracellular distribution of mcl-1 overlaps with, but is not identical to, that of bcl-2: mcl-1 is similar to bcl-2 in that the mcl-1 protein has a prominent mitochondrial localization, and in that it associates with membranes through its carboxyl hydrophobic tail. mcl- 1 differs from bcl-2, however, in its relative distribution among other (nonmitochondrial/heavy membrane) compartments, mcl-1 also being abundant in the light membrane fraction of immature ML-1 cells while bcl-2 is abundant in the nuclear fraction. Similarly, in differentiating ML-1 cells, the timing of expression of mcl-1 overlaps with, but is not identical to, that of bcl-2: the mcl-1 protein increases rapidly as cells initiate differentiation, and mcl-1 is a labile protein. In contrast, bcl-2 decreases gradually as cells complete differentiation. Overall, the mcl-1 and bcl-2 proteins have some properties in common and others tht are distinct. A burst of expression of mcl-1, prominently associated with mitochondria, complements the continued expression of bcl-2 in ML-1 cells differentiating along the monocyte/macrophage pathway.
Large birefringence in two-dimensional silicon photonic crystals

We report an experimental and theoretical study of the birefringence of two-dimensional photonic crystals in the spectral region below the first photonic band gap. Transmission spectroscopy is used to measure the birefringence of a sample composed of a triangular lattice of air cylinders in silicon, with a cylinder radius of $0.644 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ and a lattice pitch of $1.5 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}. $ The measured birefringence (defined as the difference in the effective refractive indices of the electric fields polarized parallel and perpendicular to the cylinder axis) reaches a maximum value of 0.366 near the first photonic band edge at a wavelength of $6.52 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}. $ The results show excellent agreement with theory and demonstrate the potential use of two-dimensional photonic crystals for highly birefringent optically integrated devices.
La estrategia de marketing con causa: Factores determinantes de su éxito

Cause-related marketing initiatives have become a frequent strategy to enhance corporate image and increase sales, attracting consumers through collaboration with social purposes. This study analyses factors determining the success of this strategy. Our results show that organisations should collaborate with causes linked with their main activity and in which consumers feel involved. Moreover, it is important that consumers attribute altruistic motivations in these initiatives.
Investigating Conversation Connectivity in Politically-and Socially-Charged Twitter Discussions

Twitter has frequently served as a platform for political and social discussion, playing a notable role in organizing protests, serving as a form of civil disobedience, and being used as a means of expressing outrage over social events. We seek to further research aspects of Twitter conversations (specifically their use of Twitter hashtags), which allow them to remain connected and bring together individuals and groups with differing opinions. Our hope is that, by finding these characteristics of Twitter hashtags, we can further elucidate methods of sustaining debate and discussion around political and social movements as well as bridging various communities of thought. We focus specifically on the Twitter conversations related to the August 2014 shooting of 18-year old Michael Brown, which have been centered on the hashtag #ferguson. We generate both undirected graphs and multigraphs to represent this Twitter conversation using co-occurring hashtags. We run two experiments on our graphs in order to investigate the effect on connectivity of node influence, edge presence and frequency, as well as node presence and
Background modelling, detection and tracking of human in video surveillance system

Video Surveillance System is a powerful tool used for monitoring people and their activities for public security. The motive of having surveillance system is not only to put cameras in place of human eyes, but also making it capable for recognizing activities automatically. In this paper, human detection and tracking is performed on Weizmann dataset having various activities like run, bend, hand wave, skip, etc. First background modelling is done by taking mean of first n frames. After this, human detection is done using background subtraction algorithm and then tracking is done using Kalman filter. Result of each stage has been discussed. The proposed methodology shows promising results which can further be used for activity recognition.
An Introduction to Knowledge Information Strategy:From Business Intelligence to Knowledge Sciences

This book discusses the essence, concepts, techniques, and applications of business intelligence. It also explores different aspects of crisis management, knowledge management and knowledge sciences, the applications of business intelligence in contingencies and crises, environmental issues and group intelligence. The book is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the significance of business intelligence, competition and intelligence, competitive information strategy, conflicts on patent issues, and the current state-of-the-art of business intelligence education in the US and France. The second part encompasses business intelligence and risk and crisis management, ecological issues and crisis management, business intelligence and knowledge management, and business intelligence as an organizational knowledge. The third part consists of case studies in business intelligence with special reference to the retail industry and the military arena. This part also focuses on applications of business intelligence. Finally, the book also envisages the future direction of knowledge information strategy. It will be of interest to students, academicians and people working in non-profit or non-government organizations. Contents: Part I: What is Business Intelligence? Competition and Intelligence Business and Competitive Intelligence Strategy in the Age of Informatization CIA-Style Intelligence Strategy Intelligence and Patent Disputes The Current Situation of Intelligence Education in America and France Part II: Business Intelligence and Crisis Management ia How Companies Reacted to Crises Environmental Issues and Crisis Management Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management Business Intelligence as Organizational Intelligence Part III: Business Intelligence and Its Practical Use Strategy in Military History and Intelligence Activities in War Readership: Students and academics studying and teaching innovation and knowledge management courses; managers, executives, and public administrators in governments, non-profit organizations and non-government organizations.