Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cholinergic Synaptic Transmission in Adult Drosophila Kenyon Cells In Situ

Behavioral and genetic studies in Drosophila have contributed to our understanding of molecular mechanisms that underlie the complex processes of learning and memory. Use of this model organism for exploration of the cellular mechanisms of memory formation requires the ability to monitor synaptic activity in the underlying neural networks, a challenging task in the tiny adult fly. Here, we describe an isolated whole-brain preparation in which it is possible to obtain in situ whole-cell recordings from adult Kenyon cells, key members of a neural circuit essential for olfactory associative learning in Drosophila. The presence of sodium action potential (AP)-dependent synaptic potentials and synaptic currents in >50% of the Kenyon cells shows that these neurons are members of a spontaneously active neural circuit in the isolated brain. The majority of sodium AP-dependent synaptic transmission is blocked by curare and by α-bungarotoxin (α-BTX). This demonstrates that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are responsible for most of the spontaneous excitatory drive in this circuit in the absence of normal sensory input. Furthermore, analysis of sodium AP-independent synaptic currents provides the first direct demonstration that α-BTX-sensitive nAChRs mediate fast excitatory synaptic transmission in Kenyon cells in the adult Drosophila brain. This new preparation, in which whole-cell recordings and pharmacology can be combined with genetic approaches, will be critical in understanding the contribution of nAChR-mediated fast synaptic transmission to cellular plasticity in the neural circuits underlying olfactory associative learning.
The Ambiguities of Education for Active Citizenship

A notion of Education for Active Citizenship is identified in the pronouncements of certain politically influential individuals. Key elements in this are seen to include action, the citizen, appreciating the benefits of democracy and freedom, respect for the rule of law, a due balance between rights and duties, participation and service to the community. These are shown to be systematically ambiguous, simultaneously capable of evoking critical, independent-minded, socially effective citizens and docile conforming subjects. Clarification is held to be a necessary precondition of translating the ideal of citizenship into specific curricular goals.
Developing prescribing guidelines for microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knees in the South East England

Background and aim: Microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knees have gained increasing popularity over the last decade. Research supports their provision to address specific problems or to achieve certain rehabilitation goals. However, there are yet no agreed protocols or prescribing criteria to assist clinicians in the identification and appropriate selection of suitable users. The aim is to reach professionals’ agreement on specific prescribing guidelines for microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knees. Technique: The study involved multidisciplinary teams from the Inter Regional Prosthetic Audit Group, representing nine Prosthetic Rehabilitation Centres in the South East England region. We used the Delphi technique with a total of three rounds to reach professionals’ agreement. Discussion: The prescribing guidelines were agreed and will be reviewed and updated depending on new research evidence and technical advances. Clinical relevance This project is highly useful for professionals in a clinic setting to aid in appropriate patient selection and to justify the cost of prescribing microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knees.
VARIATION IN SENSORY CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE: AN INVESTIGATION INVOLVING THE SORTING OF ODOR STIMULI

Judges sorted forty-three odor stimuli into groupings of conceptual similarity, repeating the task over several sessions. There was little between-judges consistency in conceptual structure inferred from the sorting patterns and little within-judges consistency over sessions. The latter suggests that ‘one time’ sorting experiments would give different results on repetition. In a second experiment, the effect of prior categorization experience on subsequent categorical learning was examined. Naive judges and judges from the first study performed further sortings to see whether they could be induced to sort into a chosen set of perfumery categories. Various cues were given: category names, exemplar stimuli, numbers of stimuli within each category and finally the ‘correct’ answers. Increasing the cues increased the tendency to sort according to the a priori plan but complete success was not achieved. Judges who had previously sorted the stimuli according to their own conceptual structure, found the a priori perfumery structure harder to learn than naive judges.
Chlamydia muridarum Infection-Induced Destruction of Male Germ Cells and Sertoli Cells Is Partially Prevented by Chlamydia Major Outer Membrane Protein-Specific Immune CD4 cells1

ABSTRACT Chlamydia trachomatis infections are increasingly prevalent worldwide. Male chlamydial infections are associated with urethritis, epididymitis, and orchitis; however, the role of Chlamydia in prostatitis and male factor infertility remains controversial. Using a model of Chlamydia muridarum infection in male C57BL/6 mice, we investigated the effects of chlamydial infection on spermatogenesis and determined the potential of immune T cells to prevent infection-induced outcomes. Antigen-specific CD4 T cells significantly reduced the infectious burden in the penile urethra, epididymis, and vas deferens. Infection disrupted seminiferous tubules, causing loss of germ cells at 4 and 8 wk after infection, with the most severely affected tubules containing only Sertoli cells. Increased mitotic proliferation, DNA repair, and apoptosis in spermatogonial cells and damaged germ cells were evident in atrophic tubules. Activated caspase 3 (casp3) staining revealed increased (6-fold) numbers of Sertoli cells with abnormal morphology that were casp3 positive in tubules of infected mice, indicating increased levels of apoptosis. Sperm count and motility were both decreased in infected mice, and there was a significant decrease in morphologically normal spermatozoa. Assessment of the spermatogonial stem cell population revealed a decrease in promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger (PLZF)-positive cells in the seminiferous tubules. Interestingly, adoptive transfer of antigen-specific CD4 cells, particularly T-helper 2-like cells, prior to infection prevented these effects in spermatogenesis and Sertoli cells. These data suggest that chlamydial infection adversely affects spermatogenesis and male fertility, and that vaccination can potentially prevent the spread of infection and these adverse outcomes.
Bioethical Issues in Disclosing APOE Genetic Information in Research Programmes

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia in the United States, with a prevalence expected to increase dramatically in coming decades. Currently there are approximately 4.5 million persons with AD and the figure is anticipated to rise over 13 million by 2050 as the population ages. In Singapore, the prevalence rate of people with dementia aged 65 years and above is about 6.2% and this number is estimated to double every 20 years until 2050. The escalating cost of healthcare is expected to be dominated by care provided for the elderly. The need to keep health expenditure within affordable limits by focusing on disease prevention and health promotion, and containing the high costs of hospital care is being emphasised. Currently, there is no available pharmacologic intervention that can arrest the pathophysiologic deterioration in AD. Although efforts to develop disease-modifying drugs continue, resources are also being mobilised to delineate AD risk factors and implement preventive measures in a concerted effort to forestall the anticipated AD epidemic.
The Educational Philosophies of Washington, DuBois, and Houston: Laying the Foundations for Afrocentrism and Multiculturalism.

The history of African American education in the United States dates back to the first arrival of African slaves on American shores, where, according to one researcher: . the education of the black race in the Virginia Colony was inexorably interwoven with the history of the church. The teaching of blacks by church missionaries began there in 1619, when the first twenty black indentured servants landed in Jamestown. (Holte, 1947, p. 4)
Kijkwijzer: The Dutch Rating System for Audiovisual Productions

Abstract Kijkwijzer is the name of the new Dutch rating system in use since early 2001 to provide information about the possible harmful effects of movies, home videos and television programs on young people. The rating system is meant to provide audiovisual productions with both age-based and content-based ratings. It is designed to enable self-regulation by the audio-visual sector. The development of Kijkwijzer, which took place under the auspices of NICAM, the Netherlands Institute for the Classification of Audiovisual Media, is based on consumer research among Dutch parents, as well as theories and research on children and the media. The consumer survey that preceded the development of Kijkwijzer revealed that 70% of Dutch parents indicated that they would use a rating system. The majority of parents liked to receive information on the content of media productions, particularly about violence, frightening content, sexual depictions, discrimination, drug abuse, and coarse language. Parents also wanted age categories. Kijkwijzer distinguishes four age categories: All Ages, 6, 12 and 16. This article gives an overview and account of the various principles underlying Kijkwijzer version 1.1. It also offers suggestions for improvement of future versions of Kijkwijzer.
Variable Pleiotropic Effects From Mutations at the Same Locus Hamper Prediction of Fitness From a Fitness Component

The relationship of genotype, fitness components, and fitness can be complicated by genetic effects such as pleiotropy and epistasis and by heterogeneous environments. However, because it is often difficult to measure genotype and fitness directly, fitness components are commonly used to estimate fitness without regard to genetic architecture. The small bacteriophage ϕX174 enables direct evaluation of genetic and environmental effects on fitness components and fitness. We used 15 mutants to study mutation effects on attachment rate and fitness in six hosts. The mutants differed from our lab strain of ϕX174 by only one or two amino acids in the major capsid protein (gpF, sites 101 and 102). The sites are variable in natural and experimentally evolved ϕX174 populations and affect phage attachment rate. Within the limits of detection of our assays, all mutations were neutral or deleterious relative to the wild type; 11 mutants had decreased host range. While fitness was predictable from attachment rate in most cases, 3 mutants had rapid attachment but low fitness on most hosts. Thus, some mutations had a pleiotropic effect on a fitness component other than attachment rate. In addition, on one host most mutants had high attachment rate but decreased fitness, suggesting that pleiotropic effects also depended on host. The data highlight that even in this simple, well-characterized system, prediction of fitness from a fitness component depends on genetic architecture and environment.
The Study of Face Detection Algorithm Based on Improved AdaBoost with Skin Color Model

This paper proposes a face detection algorithm combined skin color detection and improved AdaBoost algorithm. First, skin regions are segmented from the detected image, and candidate face regions are obtained in terms of the statistical characteristics of human face; Then focusing on the phenomena of overfitting in training process of classical AdaBoost algorithm, this paper proposes a novel method to update weight. At the same time, the process of constructing cascade classifier is added to training process. Finally, the candidate face regions are scanned by cascade classifier for more exact face orientation. A mass of experimental results show that the new approach obtains better results and improves detection performance obviously.
Ultra-pH-Sensitive Nanoprobe Library with Broad pH Tunability and Fluorescence Emissions

pH is an important physiological parameter that plays a critical role in cellular and tissue homeostasis. Conventional small molecular pH sensors (e.g., fluorescein, Lysosensor) are limited by broad pH response and restricted fluorescent emissions. Previously, we reported the development of ultra-pH-sensitive (UPS) nanoprobes with sharp pH response using fluorophores with small Stokes shifts (<40 nm). In this study, we expand the UPS design to a library of nanoprobes with operator-predetermined pH transitions and wide fluorescent emissions (400–820 nm). A copolymer strategy was employed to fine tune the hydrophobicity of the ionizable hydrophobic block, which led to a desired transition pH based on standard curves. Interestingly, matching the hydrophobicity of the monomers was critical to achieve a sharp pH transition. To overcome the fluorophore limitations, we introduced copolymers conjugated with fluorescence quenchers (FQs). In the micelle state, the FQs effectively suppressed the emission of fluorophores regardless of their Stokes shifts and further increased the fluorescence activation ratios. As a proof of concept, we generated a library of 10 nanoprobes each encoded with a unique fluorophore. The nanoprobes cover the entire physiologic range of pH (4–7.4) with 0.3 pH increments. Each nanoprobe maintained a sharp pH transition (on/off < 0.25 pH) and high fluorescence activation ratio (>50-fold between on and off states). The UPS library provides a useful toolkit to study pH regulation in many pathophysiological indications (e.g., cancer, lysosome catabolism) as well as establishing tumor-activatable systems for cancer imaging and drug delivery.
Using Finite Series Model (FSM) and cache techniques for estimating scalability level

In order to carefully consider transformational green virtual movement, improving memory management seems an inevitable trend that each growing e-business size must take in to consideration. This paper try to proposes mathematical modelling approach that predict hit ratio reduced by two different cache placement. A Finite Series Model (FSM) were applied to measure the hit ratio saving resulted from the copies made in the cache for the requested objects. By using this model, the scalability problem can be formulated as a function of the object requests that hit the server successfully. This study also proved that the hit ratio on the origin server along adopted cache schemes follows the finite series functions. As a result, it was possible to achieve the mathematical solution by using such series.
Dealing with Work: secondary students’ work experience and the curriculum

ABSTRACT The Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) was introduced as a major programme in the United Kingdom that would relate secondary schools’ curricula to the ‘world of work’. Since its launch in 1984 TVEI has developed and taken on many forms but one of its continuing universal elements has been the requirement that secondary school students’ should have some form of work experience. Although TVEI has been much evaluated and researched little attention has been paid to how students’ work experience is perceived to be of educational value and used by their teachers. The research described in this paper is an examination of how students’ work experience was managed and used in a sample of secondary schools. The paper argues that what students learn from work experience is held to be of no value in terms of the formal curriculum. However, teachers in the school sample do consider work experience as adding value by the social development of students who are of average or below average acad.
Prospects for Change at the Nexus of Policy and Design

Recent analyses point to the importance of communication and policy representation in understanding and fostering reform success. I propose adopting the idea of a pattern language(Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein, Jacobson, Fiksdahl-King, & Angel, 1977) as a profitable direction for policy research on the design of policy documents. A pattern language is a comprehensive set of design elements that integrates abstract and concrete levels of description and notes the interconnections between these elements. In a reform document, the elements would be individual reform recommendations. It is argued that this form of representation, if adopted in standards-based reform documents, could facilitate the construction of shared meaning between policy-makers and reform-implementation agents, while sanctioning and guiding local adaptations that reflect the spirit of the reform
An action pool architecture for multi-tasking service robots with interdependent resources

We present a novel control architecture for execution of multiple tasks simultaneously. Traditionally, the task control architecture of a service robot has been focused on executing one task at a time. This has mainly been due to the history of mobility being the only function and tasks being so simple that just one or two abstract commands have been sufficient. During the last decade, these requirements have changed drastically and a more versatile operation is clearly required. Service robots commonly have physical subsystems such as manipulators and directable perception sensors that are not in use all the time. These task execution resources are dependent on the pose of the platform to which they are attached. Our architecture manages the concurrent use of these resources in order to achieve parallel task execution. We verify the architecture with experiments on two different robot platforms while performing concurrent tasks such as finding object, greeting people and taking pictures of a designated object. The proposed architecture can receive an arbitrary number of tasks to be executed at any time instant within limitations of computing resources.
Synchronising retail and space: using urban squares for competitive place differentiation

This paper argues that the town/city square, through its role as an urban node, has an important potential role in the creation of competitive place differentiation, especially in terms of the activities occurring therein (with particular reference to retail activities, such as periodic markets), which can, in turn, be considered as contributory elements in existing conceptualisations of an urban place “product”. Drawing on the concepts of rhythmanalysis and synchronisation, the paper suggests the existence of a more overt temporal dimension which can contribute to the creation of a genius loci (or “spirit of the place”), which can be capitalised on for place marketing purposes. The paper considers such issues in the specific context of St Ann's Square in Manchester, in the north west of England.
Research engagement and educational decentralisation: problematising primary school English teachers’ research experiences in China

Teachers are encouraged to enhance professional competence through reflective practice and they are also asked to undertake research to generate evidence for their professional practices. This paper reports on an inquiry into a group of primary school English language teachers’ research engagement in the province of Guangdong on the Chinese mainland. The inquiry explored the effect of educational reforms on the participants’ research engagement through the use of an open‐ended questionnaire and group interviews. The inquiry revealed that research engagement had become an important part of the teachers’ professional lives. Emerging findings from the inquiry also problematised their research engagement as it was found to have been undermined by a competitive promotion mechanism, the teachers’ conceptualisations of research and challenges in the knowledge dissemination process. The paper ends with reflections on how to make teacher research “educational” for teachers and serve as an effective way for professional development.
Conflict in Today's Aging Politics: New Population Encounters Old Ideology

Recent initiatives to partially privatize and individualize social policies directed toward older people are the product of a particular set of social, economic, and political developments. Today's improved aggregate well‐being of the old, resulting to a significant degree from public policies enacted on their behalf, is encountering a conservatizing ethos fueled in large part by the very success of past policy. The current public debate around old age is best understood as the conflict between the recently attained institutional standing of the old and the reemergent political ideology of the right.
Performance Trajectories and Performance Gaps as Achievement Effect-Size Benchmarks for Educational Interventions

Abstract Two complementary approaches to developing empirical benchmarks for achievement effect sizes in educational interventions are explored. The first approach characterizes the natural developmental progress in achievement made by students from one year to the next as effect sizes. Data for seven nationally standardized achievement tests show large annual gains in the early elementary grades followed by gradually declining gains in later grades. A given intervention effect will therefore look quite different when compared to the annual progress for different grade levels. The second approach explores achievement gaps for policy-relevant subgroups of students or schools. Data from national- and district-level achievement tests show that, when represented as effect sizes, student gaps are relatively small for gender and much larger for economic disadvantage and race/ethnicity. For schools, the differences between weak schools and average schools are surprisingly modest when expressed as student-level effect sizes. A given intervention effect viewed in terms of its potential for closing one of these performance gaps will therefore look very different depending on which gap is considered.
Discursive style and psychological practice

Abstract It is argued that the corpus of certified psychological knowledge does not permit the rigorous deduction of prescriptions for action as is entailed by the view of psychological practice as a form of technical rationality. It is suggested that a central aspect of psychological practice is the use of an authoritative and culturally valorised style of discourse which helps constitute certain aspects of social reality and justifies, legitimates, and renders intelligible decisions about the management of people. Some features of this discursive style are discussed and some implications of this view for the self-understanding and education of psychologists are considered.
Comparisons Between Sexual and Nonsexual Rapist Subtypes

Sixty incarcerated rapists were subtyped according to the Massachusetts Treatment Center Rapist Typology as either “nonsexual” (i.e., the opportunistic and vindictive subtypes) or “sexual” (i.e., the nonsadistic and sadistic subtypes). Subjects were then tested using the circumferential penile plethysmograph, assessing their erectile responses to verbal descriptions of consenting sex and rape. Additionally, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised was scored for each subject, and institutional files were summarized and coded. The index offenses committed by the nonsexual subtypes were more violent and resulted in greater victim damage; the offenses of the men in the nonsexual subtypes were more likely to be impulsive; the men in the sexual subtypes were more socially isolated at the time of the offense. Relative sexual arousal to rape descriptions was greater among the sexual subtypes than among the nonsexual subtypes. These results are discussed in terms of two separate cognitive-behavioral processes leading to rape.