Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extracellular Calcium Has Distinct Effects on Fast and Slow Components of the Depolarization‐Induced Secretory Response from Chromaffin Cells

Abstract: An increase in extracellular Ca2+ concentration from 0.25 to 10 mM enhanced secretion of norepinephrine and epinephrine induced by a high extracellular K+ concentration (75 mM). The increment in extracellular Ca2+ concentration also increased the observed peak inward Ca2+ current in response to long (10‐s) depolarizing pulses from a holding potential of −55 mV to +5 mV, from about −26 to −400 pA. However, the total amount of Ca2+ influx into the cell only increased when the extracellular Ca2+ concentration was raised from 0.25 to 1 mM and then remained constant up to 10 mM extracellular Ca2+. ATP is cosecreted with catecholamines following a depolarizing stimulus. Kinetic studies indicated that ATP secretion had two components with time constants, in the presence of 2.5 mM extracellular Ca2+, of ∼4 and 41 s, being the fast component of secretion produced by the exocytosis of ∼220 chromaffin granules. The results suggest that, for a given depolarizing stimulus, the size and rate of release for the fast and slow components of secretion are dependent on extracellular Ca2+ concentration.
Organization of the GABAergic system in the rat hippocampal formation: A quantitative immunocytochemical study

Specific antibodies against gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) were used to study the organization of the GABAergic system in the rat hippocampal formation. Both the number of GABA‐like‐immunoreactive (Li) somata and neuropil density were assessed in semithin sections. Cell counts revealed that approximately 11% of the hippocampal neuronal population showed GABA‐Li within the various planes of section.
Neuropsychological methods in mild cognitive impairment

The concept of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was introduced to fill the gap between cogfii-tive changes associated with normal aging and tliose associated with dementia, Sucli cognitive changes indicate a deviation from normal aging, but are insufficient to evoke dementia and do not indicate loss of autonomy. MCI is thus a transitional state before dementia. MCI covers a range of disorders and raises the question of population heterogeneity: three MCI subcalegories have been defined to reduce tliis heterogeneity. Recognizing MCI is only a first step: for a given patient, it is more important to try to identify the disease responsible, which is now possible using neuropsychology and neuroimaging. Here, we introduce the concept of “prodromal stage” for various degenerative diseases, and propose replacement of the amnestic MCI subcategory with “prodromal Alzheimer's disease. ” for which we present the neuropsycfiological characteristics. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a concept that was introduced by Flicker et al1 and the Mayo Clinic group2,3 to fill the gap between cognitive changes associated with normal aging and those associated with dementia. The concept of MCI draws attention to cognitive disturbances that occur before the clinical diagnosis of dementia. The cognitive changes, measured by neuropsychological test scores, indicate deviation from normal aging and do not involve loss of autonomy Nevertheless, these MCI criteria are not fully specified or generally agreed upon. As a consequence, studies of MCI conducted by different research groups have divergent results (eg, the number of patients with MCI who develop frank dementia of the Alzheimer's type in follow-up studies). 3-5
Explaining with a purpose

as front now has the functions of a noun. Preschool and primary school children were given comprehension tasks to assess their ability to distinguish the man in front of the carlin the front of the car, the picture on top of the jarl on the top of the jar and the nail inside the boxlin the side of the box. The data are used to explore children’s developing abilities to optionally segment such units and to recognize that articles flag nouns.
Extracting underlying trend and predicting power usage via joint SSA and sparse binary programming

This paper proposes a novel methodology for extracting the underlying trend and predicting the power usage through a joint singular spectrum analysis (SSA) and sparse binary programming approach. The underlying trend is approximated by the sum of a part of SSA components, in which the total number of the SSA components in the sum is minimized subject to a specification on the maximum absolute difference between the original signal and the approximated underlying trend. As the selection of the SSA components is binary, this selection problem is to minimize the L0 norm of the selection vector subject to the L∞ norm constraint on the difference between the original signal and the approximated underlying trend as well as the binary valued constraint on the elements of the selection vector. This problem is actually a sparse binary programming problem. To solve this problem, first the corresponding continuous valued sparse optimization problem is solved. That is, to solve the same problem without the consideration of the binary valued constraint. This problem can be approximated by a linear programming problem when the isometry condition is satisfied, and the solution of the linear programming problem can be obtained via existing simplex methods or interior point methods. By applying the binary quantization to the obtained solution of the linear programming problem, the approximated solution of the original sparse binary programming problem is obtained. Unlike previously reported techniques that require a pre-cursor model or parameter specifications, the proposed method is completely adaptive. Experiment results show that our proposed method is very effective and efficient for extracting the underlying trend and predicting the power usage.
A cost-effective approach to testing

A method for assessing the differential risk of failure among a system's modules is proposed. The procedure has three components: external-risk assessment, module exposure, and module-failure likelihood. External-risk assessment is a consideration of the system's environment, almost independent of the software's details. To estimate module exposure, the model relates individual modules and their potential faults to the external-failure modes and their economic consequences by reverse-engineering the specifications and analyzing each module's expected use. To estimate failure likelihood, the method uses a reliability model. The method constitutes theoretical foundation for the cost-effective development of software that attempts to reduce the risk of failure. Managers can use the failure-risk estimates to better determine how much testing effort can be economically justified. <<ETX>>
Failure to detect dexamethasone phosphate in the local venous blood postcathodic lontophoresis in humans.

STUDY DESIGN A single-blind, 2-factor (4 treatments by 8 time points) repeated-measures study design. OBJECTIVE To analytically determine dexamethasone and dexamethasone phosphate concentrations in plasma derived from proximal effluent venous blood, following cathodic iontophoresis. METHODS AND MEASURES Six volunteers received the following dexamethasone phosphate (2.5 ml, 4 mg/ml) treatments to their wrists on separate occasions: cathodic iontophoresis (4 mA, 10 minutes or 4 mA, 20 minutes), passive application (10 or 20 minutes). Plasma samples from the ipsilateral antecubital vein were obtained 10 minutes prior to and half way through the treatment (5 or 10 minutes), at the end of the treatment (10 or 20 minutes), and posttreatment (15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes). The present investigation examined: (1) the sensitivity and linearity of extraction and analysis of dexamethasone and dexamethasone phosphate; (2) the necessity for determining both; and (3) the plasma levels from proximal effluent venous blood following cathodic iontophoresis. RESULTS The aggregate (n = 18) of the 6-point standard curves were linear for dexamethasone (r > 0.974) and dexamethasone phosphate (r > 0.829). In vitro dephosphorylation of dexamethasone phosphate to dexamethasone occurred in plasma at 37 degrees C and during freeze-thaw. Measurable dexamethasone or dexamethasone phosphate concentrations were absent at all time points and under all conditions in the human subjects. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate the sensitivity of the current assay and the need for evaluating both forms of the drug, as in vitro dephosphorylation results in the presence of dexamethasone and dexamethasone phosphate in samples. Absence of measurable dexamethasone or dexamethasone phosphate in the proximal effluent venous blood may require re-evaluation of the extent of drug delivery during the clinical iontophoresis of dexamethasone phosphate.
Simple radio-frequency power source for ion guides and ion traps

A high power oscillator circuit, designed to power radio-frequency (rf) ion guides and traps, is described. The rf circuit is directly coupled to the guide/trap electrodes, and no frequency or impedance matching is required. The design provides precisely adjustable rf amplitudes from ∼50 to 600 V, either under manual or computer control. The operating frequency can be varied from <1 to ∼30 MHz to allow best trapping conditions for different ion mass ranges. Provisions are made for balancing the rf amplitude to compensate for small load asymmetries. The rf can be switched off and on under control of a transistor–transistor logic signal, and the rise and fall time for the rf amplitude can be manually controlled from a few rf cycles to milliseconds. Provisions are made for applying both direct current (dc) difference and dc float potentials to the ion guide. The design is easily constructed from readily available parts.
From Segmentation to Analyses: a Probabilistic Model for Unsupervised Morphology Induction

A major motivation for unsupervised morphological analysis is to reduce the sparse data problem in under-resourced languages. Most previous work focus on segmenting surface forms into their constituent morphs (taking: tak +ing), but surface form segmentation does not solve the sparse data problem as the analyses of take and taking are not connected to each other. We present a system that adapts the MorphoChains system (Narasimhan et al., 2015) to provide morphological analyses that aim to abstract over spelling differences in functionally similar morphs. This results in analyses that are not compelled to use all the orthographic material of a word (stopping: stop +ing) or limited to only that material (acidified: acid +ify +ed). On average across six typologically varied languages our system has a similar or better F-score on EMMA (a measure of underlying morpheme accuracy) than three strong baselines; moreover, the total number of distinct morphemes identified by our system is on average 12.8% lower than for Morfessor (Virpioja et al., 2013), a state-of-the-art surface segmentation system.
A Localized Algorithm for Restoring Internode Connectivity in Networks of Moveable Sensors

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In some of these applications, such as search and rescue and battlefield reconnaissance, a set of mobile nodes is deployed in order to collectively survey an area of interest and/or perform specific surveillance tasks. Such collaboration among the sensors requires internode interaction and thus maintaining network connectivity is critical to the effectiveness of WSNs. While connectivity can be provisioned at startup time and then sustained through careful coordination when nodes move, a sudden failure of a node poses a challenge since the network may get partitioned. This paper presents RIM; a distributed algorithm for Recovery through Inward Motion. RIM strives to efficiently restore the network connectivity after a node failure. Instead of performing a networkwide analysis to assess the impact of the node failure and orchestrate a course of action, RIM triggers a local recovery process by relocating the neighbors of the lost node. In addition to minimizing the messaging overhead, RIM opts to reduce the distance that the individual nodes have to travel during the recovery. The correctness of the RIM algorithm is proven and the incurred overhead is analyzed. The performance of RIM is validated through simulation experiments.
Mentoring relationships: implications for practitioners and suggestions for future research

This review of the literature is intended to help HRD practitioners facilitate healthy mentoring relationships and better address potentially negative functions or outcomes of the mentoring process within their own organizations. This work provides a review of the social learning processes that play a role in mentoring relationships. In addition, it reviews the functions and outcomes of mentoring for individuals and organizations, as well as the characteristics of good mentors and the influence mentors have upon career choice. Finally, the implications for mentoring relationships among individuals with disabilities, minorities and women are briefly reviewed in order to provide practitioners with a sense of the breadth of individuals who may benefit from well-planned or well-implemented mentoring. This article concludes with critical comments on the current state of mentoring research. Suggestions are made for future research in order to stimulate greater study into certain aspects of mentoring.
Associations between Intake of Folate, Methionine, and Vitamins B-12, B-6 and Prostate Cancer Risk in American Veterans

Prostate cancer (PC) is the second leading cause of cancer death in men. Recent reports suggest that excess of nutrients involved in the one-carbon metabolism pathway increases PC risk; however, empirical data are lacking. Veteran American men (272 controls and 144 PC cases) who attended the Durham Veteran American Medical Center between 2004–2009 were enrolled into a case-control study. Intake of folate, vitamin B12, B6, and methionine were measured using a food frequency questionnaire. Regression models were used to evaluate the association among one-carbon cycle nutrients, MTHFR genetic variants, and prostate cancer. Higher dietary methionine intake was associated with PC risk (OR = 2.1; 95%CI 1.1–3.9) The risk was most pronounced in men with Gleason sum <7 (OR = 2.75; 95%CI 1.32– 5.73). The association of higher methionine intake and PC risk was only apparent in men who carried at least one MTHFR A1298C allele (OR = 6.7; 95%CI = 1.6–27.8), compared to MTHFR A1298A noncarrier men (OR = 0.9; 95%CI = 0.24–3.92) (p-interaction = 0.045). There was no evidence for associations between B vitamins (folate, B12, and B6) and PC risk. Our results suggest that carrying the MTHFR A1298C variants modifies the association between high methionine intake and PC risk. Larger studies are required to validate these findings.
Interaction of PPAR γ 2 gene Pro 12 Ala and PPAR α gene Leu 162 Val SNPs with dietary intake of fat in determination of plasma lipid concentrations in subjects at risk of the metabolic syndrome

1 Background: The peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) are transcriptional 2 regulators of lipid metabolism, activated by unsaturated fatty acids. 3 Objective: We investigated independent and interactive effects of PPARγ2 gene PPARG 4 Pro12Ala (rs1801282) and PPARα gene PPARA Leu162Val (rs1800206) SNP genotypes 5 with dietary intake of fatty acids on concentrations of plasma lipids in subjects at increased 6 cardiometabolic risk. 7 Design: The RISCK study is a parallel design, randomized controlled trial. Plasma lipids 8 were quantified at baseline after a 4-wk high-SFA (HS) diet and after a 24-wk intervention 9 with reference (HS), high-MUFA (HM) and low-fat (LF) diets. SNPs were genotyped in 466 10 subjects. 11 Results: At baseline, carriage of the PPARG Ala12 allele was associated with increased 12 plasma total cholesterol (n = 415; P = 0.05), LDL-cholesterol (P = 0.04) and apoB (P = 0.03) 13 after adjustment for BMI, age, gender and ethnicity. PPARA Val162Leu x PPARG Pro12Ala 14 genotype interaction influenced total cholesterol (P = 0.04) and triglyceride (P = 0.03) 15 concentrations after adjustment for covariates. After HM and LF diets, total cholesterol, 16 LDL-cholesterol and apoB concentrations were reduced (Ps < 0.001) and gene x gene 17 interaction determined LDL-cholesterol (P = 0.02) and triglyceride (P = 0.002) 18 concentrations after adjustments. After the HM diet, carriage of both variant alleles was 19 associated with a greater reduction in LDL-cholesterol and increase in triglycerides 20 compared to other genotype combinations. 21 Conclusions: Interaction between PPARG Pro12Ala and PPARA Leu162Val genotypes is a 22 significant determinant of plasma LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations after a 23 high-MUFA diet. 24
Minor Groove Binder Distamycin Remodels Chromatin but Inhibits Transcription

The condensed structure of chromatin limits access of cellular machinery towards template DNA. This in turn represses essential processes like transcription, replication, repair and recombination. The repression is alleviated by a variety of energy dependent processes, collectively known as “chromatin remodeling”. In a eukaryotic cell, a fine balance between condensed and de-condensed states of chromatin helps to maintain an optimum level of gene expression. DNA binding small molecules have the potential to perturb such equilibrium. We present herein the study of an oligopeptide antibiotic distamycin, which binds to the minor groove of B-DNA. Chromatin mobility assays and circular dichroism spectroscopy have been employed to study the effect of distamycin on chromatosomes, isolated from the liver of Sprague-Dawley rats. Our results show that distamycin is capable of remodeling both chromatosomes and reconstituted nucleosomes, and the remodeling takes place in an ATP-independent manner. Binding of distamycin to the linker and nucleosomal DNA culminates in eviction of the linker histone and the formation of a population of off-centered nucleosomes. This hints at a possible corkscrew type motion of the DNA with respect to the histone octamer. Our results indicate that distamycin in spite of remodeling chromatin, inhibits transcription from both DNA and chromatin templates. Therefore, the DNA that is made accessible due to remodeling is either structurally incompetent for transcription, or bound distamycin poses a roadblock for the transcription machinery to advance.
Aluminum Nitride Lamb-Wave Resonators for High-Power High-Frequency Applications

We report a Lamb acoustic wave resonator with high-power-handling, linearity, and intermodulation distortion capabilities. Fundamental physical aspects are examined as well, the study providing the full picture for a high-power radio-frequency application design. Despite their reduced size and freestanding structure, our checkered-electrode aluminum nitride resonators perform +20 dBm 1-dB compression point (P1dB), third-order intermodulation distortion intercept point (IIP3) close to +40 dBm, and second-order intermodulation distortion intercept point (IIP2) around +70 dBm with quality factor Q = 1225 and effective electromechanical coupling coefficient keff2 of 1.4% at 232 MHz, thus challenging current-art contour-mode and bulk acoustic wave resonators.
Postnatal myosin heavy chain isoforms in prenatal porcine skeletal muscles: insights into temporal regulation.

Our knowledge of the temporal expression of postnatal (adult) fast myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms (2a, 2x, and 2b) in prenatal muscles is limited. Using the pig as a target species and large-animal model, we report on the qualitative and quantitative expression of the major post- and prenatal MyHC isoforms during gestation, as determined by TaqMan real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. We found that postnatal fast MyHC mRNAs and proteins were expressed much earlier in the pig (gestation day 35) than was previously reported in small mammals. There was a high degree of coexpression and colocalisation of pre- and postnatal MyHC mRNAs and proteins in prenatal muscles. During a period of prenatal muscle growth (gestation days 35-77), relative expression of MyHC isoforms (embryonic > 2a > 2x > 2b) correlated with the gene order in the skeletal MyHC cluster, which suggests the possible presence of cis-acting elements on the same side as the MyHC embryonic gene associated with temporal regulation.
Linguistic changes in the Catalan spoken in Catalonia under new contact conditions

Linguistic contact between Catalan and Spanish has undergone substantial change during the last quarter of the twentieth century. A new type of transfer linked to the sociolinguistic changes that have taken place in Catalonia have for the first time after many centuries of contact brought Catalan much closer to Spanish. This article tries to interpret this sudden change in the evolution of modern Catalan by using a model of contact-induced change which takes into account the importance of the agents of change.
Citizenship, migration and loyalty towards the state: a case study of the Kyrgyzstani migrants working in Russia and Kazakhstan

Building upon recent studies in the field of citizenship and transnationalism, this article examines the relations that Kyrgyzstani migrants in Kazakhstan and Russia entertain with their homeland, both in terms of concrete status (rights and responsibilities) and subjective attitudes (feeling of membership and loyalty). The article relies on field research, including semi-structured interviews, conducted in March and April 2007. Findings show that Kyrgyzstani migrants have developed a distinctive and somewhat paradoxical relation to their state of origin, in which pragmatic interest and long-term loyalty are not easily reconciled.
Implementation and model verification of a magnetic levitation system

This paper presents the implementation of a two degree-of-freedom magnetic levitation system employing one permanent magnet linear synchronous motor, and the experimental validation of a mathematical model previously derived. The paper focuses on showing the development of a calibration procedure to estimate model parameters and its subsequent use for model verification. Experimental results show that the proposed mathematical model accurately describes the dynamics of the system over a wide operating range showing promise for the future implementation of nonlinear controllers.
NK1‐receptor‐expressing paraventricular nucleus neurones modulate daily variation in heart rate and stress‐induced changes in heart rate variability

The paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) is an established center of cardiovascular control, receiving projections from other nuclei of the hypothalamus such as the dorsomedial hypothalamus and the suprachiasmatic nucleus. The PVN contains a population of “pre‐autonomic neurones” which project to the intermediolateralis of the spinal cord and increase sympathetic activity, blood pressure, and heart rate. These spinally projecting neurones express a number of membrane receptors including GABA and substance P NK1 receptors. Activation of NK1‐expressing neurones increases heart rate, blood pressure, and sympathetic activity. However, their role in the pattern of overall cardiovascular control remains unknown. In this work, we use specific saporin lesion of NK1‐expressing PVN rat neurones with SSP‐SAP and telemetrically measure resting heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) parameters in response to mild psychological stress. The HRV parameter “low frequency/high frequency ratio” is often used as an indicator of sympathetic activity and is significantly increased with psychological stress in control rats (0.84 ± 0.14 to 2.02 ± 0.15; P < 0.001; n = 3). We find the stress‐induced increase in this parameter to be blunted in the SSP‐SAP‐lesioned rats (0.83 ± 0.09 to 0.93 ± 0.21; P > 0.05; n = 3). We also find a shift in daily variation of heart rate rhythm and conclude that NK1‐expressing PVN neurones are involved with coupling of the cardiovascular system to daily heart rate variation and the sympathetic response to psychological stress.