Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Targeting calpain in synaptic plasticity

Introduction: Calpains represent a family of neutral, calcium-dependent proteases, which modify the function of their target proteins by partial truncation. These proteases have been implicated in numerous cell functions, including cell division, proliferation, migration, and death. In the CNS, where µ-calpain and m-calpain are the main calpain isoforms, their activation has been linked to synaptic plasticity as well as to neurodegeneration. This review will focus on the role of calpains in synaptic plasticity and discuss the possibility of developing methods to manipulate calpain activity for therapeutic purposes. Areas covered: This review covers the literature showing how calpains are implicated in synaptic plasticity and in a number of conditions associated with learning impairment. The possibility of developing new drugs targeting these enzymes for treating these conditions is discussed. Expert opinion: As evidence accumulates that calpain activation participates in neurodegeneration and cancer, there is interest in developing therapeutic approaches using direct or indirect calpain inhibition. In particular, a peptide derived from the calpain truncation site of mGluR1α was shown to decrease neurodegeneration following neonatal hypoxia/ischemia. More selective approaches need to be developed to target calpain or some of its substrates for therapeutic indications associated with deregulation of synaptic plasticity.
Visualization of nucleosomal substructure in native chromatin by atomic force microscopy.

Intact rDNA minichromosomes from Tetrahymena thermophila were isolated as native chromatin and imaged by atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM measurements of condensed rDNA chromatin were consistent with a 30 nm fiber that frequently (87% of molecules observed) contained stretches of nucleosome cores arranged in a zig-zag conformation. Examination of rDNA chromatin in a dispersed conformation by tapping mode AFM in low humidity resulted in high resolution images of partially dissociated nucleosome cores and associated linker DNA. A majority of these nucleosome cores contained six to eight smaller particles with dimensions consistent with those of individual histones. Many of the nucleosome cores showed a striking resemblance to the wedge (35%), axial (15%), and front (6%) views of the nucleosome histone octamer modeled by Arents et al. [Arents, G. , Burlingame, R. W. , Wang, B. -C. , Love, W.E. , & Moudrianakis, E. N. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 88, 10148-10152]. This direct visualization of histone subunits and nucleosomal substructure in native chromatin illustrates the potential use of AFM to localize individual proteins in condensed cellular chromatin.
Can Scatter Communication Beneet from Multidestination Message Passing? 1

Multiple research directions in the past have emphasized the beneets of multidesti-nation message passing to support eecient non-personalized communication like broadcast and multicast. In this paper, we investigate whether personalized communications like scatter can beneet by using multidestination message-passing support, if available in a system. In order to use such support, we propose a new approach where personalized data for a set of destinations can be grouped together and sent as a single multidestination broadcast/multicast worm. This approach is shown to use less number of communication steps while achieving the lower bound for scatter communication. Using this approach, we propose two schemes, sequential multidestination tree-based (SMT) and hierarchical multidestination tree-based (HMT), to implement one-to-all scatter in k-ary n-cube wormhole systems. Performance of these two schemes are compared with two commonly used unicast-based schemes, sequential tree-based (ST) and binomial tree-based (BT). Analytical and simulation studies are carried out to determine the scatter latency under the four schemes for k-ary n-cube systems with varying communication start-up times (t s), propagation times (t p), and message lengths (l, size of data being sent to each destination). The study indicates that for l ts ktp , the scatter can be best implemented by the HMT scheme. Similarly, the SMT scheme is shown to outperform where ts ktp < l ts tp. For l > ts tp , both ST and SMT perform better than other algorithms. Simulation results on an 8 8 system with t s =10.0 microsec show that the HMT and SMT schemes reduce scatter latency up to a factor of 30 and 8 compared to the ST scheme for small message lengths. These results connrm that scatter communication can in fact take advantage of multidestination message passing support.
Search and Navigation in Structured Document Retrieval: Comparison of User Behaviour in Search on Document Passages and XML Elements

This paper investigates search and browsing behaviour of users presented with two types of structured document retrieval approaches: passage retrieval and XML element retrieval. Our findings, based on the system logs gathered from 82 participants of the INEX 2006 interactive track experiment (iTrack), indicate that XML element retrieval leads to increased task performance. In addition, qualitative analysis of our video study, where we recorded the interactions of four participants, highlights potential issues with the experimental design employed at iTrack 2006.
An Outbreak of Human Rhinovirus Species C Infections in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

We describe an outbreak of human rhinovirus type C infection in 7 infants in our neonatal/pediatric intensive care unit. Five infants had clinically significant apneic episodes and 5 required increased oxygen or ventilatory support. Infants shed virus detectable by polymerase chain reaction for a median of 4 weeks.
Approximate Fekete points for weighted polynomial interpolation

We compute approximate Fekete points for weighted polynomial interpolation by a recent algorithm based on QR factorizations of Vandermonde matrices. We consider in particular the case of univariate and bivariate functions with prescribed poles or other singularities, wh ich are absorbed in the basis by a weight function. Moreover, we apply the method to the construction of real and complex weighted polynomial filters, where the relevant concept is that of weighted norm.
A Study of Failures in Community Clusters: The Case of Conte

Large community clusters are becoming increasingly common in universities and other organizations due to the benefits they provide to the researchers in terms of operational costs and resource availability. However, efficient administration, failure diagnosis, and performance debugging on community clusters are challenging tasks due to the sheer diversity of workloads and users. These clusters are typically shared by users coming from various scientific domains and experience levels. Many users have little experience in computing and, hence, often face performance issues—leading to resource wastage. In this paper, we study these dynamics in one of the largest university-wide community clusters (Conte at Purdue University). We perform in-depth analysis of library and application usage patterns, job failures and performance issues. Further, we introduce a set of novel analysis techniques that can be used to identify hidden trends and diagnose job failures in compute clusters in general. We provide concrete recommendations for the cluster administrators and present case studies highlighting how such information can be used to proactively solve many user issues, ultimately leading to better quality of service.
RGSZ1, a Gz-selective Regulator of G Protein Signaling Whose Action Is Sensitive to the Phosphorylation State of Gzα*

Regulators of G protein signaling (RGS) are a family of proteins that attenuate the activity of the trimeric G proteins. RGS proteins act as GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) for the α subunits of several trimeric G proteins, much like the GAPs that regulate the activity of monomeric G proteins such as Ras. RGS proteins have been cloned from many eukaryotes, and those whose biochemical activity has been characterized regulate the members of the Gi family of G proteins; some forms can also act on Gq proteins. In an ongoing effort to elucidate the role of Gzα in cell signaling, the yeast two-hybrid system was employed to identify proteins that could interact with a mutationally activated form of Gzα. A novel RGS, termed RGSZ1, was identified that is most closely related to two existing RGS proteins termed RetRGS1 and GAIP. Northern blot analysis revealed that expression of RGSZ1 was limited to brain, and expression was particularly high in the caudate nucleus. Biochemical characterization of recombinant RGSZ1 protein revealed that RGSZ1 was indeed a GAP and, most significantly, showed a marked preference for Gzα over other members of the Giα family. Phosphorylation of Gzα by protein kinase C, an event known to occur in cells and that was previously shown to influence α-βγ interactions of Gz, rendered the G protein much less susceptible to RGSZ1 action.
Ca21 waves during triggered propagated contractions in intact trabeculae

Miura, Masahito, Penelope A. Boyden, and Henk E. D. J. ter Keurs. Ca21 waves during triggered propagated contractions in intact trabeculae. Am. J. Physiol. 274 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 43): H266–H276, 1998. —Triggered propagated contractions (TPCs) starting from damaged regions travel along multicellular cardiac muscle preparations. We have reported that octanol (100 μM) inhibits TPCs. The inhibitory effect of octanol on propagation of TPCs could be due to an effect of octanol on Ca21-induced Ca21 release (CICR) mediated by Ca21 diffusion inside the single cell or on the diffusion of Ca21 from cell to cell via gap junctions (GJs). Therefore, we studied the regional changes in intracellular Ca21 concentration ([Ca]i) during TPCs and the effect of octanol on the permeability of gap junctions (PGJ) in rat cardiac trabeculae. [Ca]i was measured using electrophoretically injected fura 2 and an image-intensified charge-coupled device camera. PGJ was calculated from the diffusion coefficient for fura 2 in trabeculae (Dtrab) and in the myoplasm (Dmyop). After 1and 3-h superfusion with 100 μM 1-octanol, Dmyop showed no significant changes, whereas Dtrab was reduced significantly. Therefore, calculated PGJ was reduced from 4.15 3 1025 to 2.10 3 1025 and 0.86 3 1025 cm/s, respectively. The propagation velocity of the regional increases in [Ca]i during TPCs was constant, averaging 1.69 6 1.48 mm/s (range 0.34–5.47 mm/s, n 5 10). These observations support the hypothesis that TPCs are initiated near the damaged ends of trabeculae and are propagated by CICR from the sarcoplasmic reticulum mediated by diffusion of Ca21 through cells and from cell to cell through GJs.
Towards Controlling Refinements of Statecharts

In incremental development strategies, modelers frequently refine Statecharts models to satisfy requirements and changes. Although several solutions exist to the problem of Statecharts refinement, they provide such levels of freedom that a statechart cannot make assumptions or guarantees about its future structure. In this paper, we propose a set of bounding rules to limit the allowable Statecharts refinement operations such that certain assumptions will hold.
Developing a Clinical Diabetes Guideline in Diabetes Research Network in Iran

Abstract Development of evidence-based clinical guidelines to raising standards of medical care in diabetes is a core element of coping with the global diabetes epidemic. The purpose of this study was to develop a systematic clinical diabetes guideline from the latest scientific evidences and also to localize its recommendations according to regional and cultural needs of our society. Searches were conducted using NICE, SIGN, WDPCP, IDF, JDC, ADA, AACE, ICSI, CDA, AMDA, IDC, NyDoH guidelines which were examined and criticized and scored using Agree method. Guidelines which got higher score in some important areas of Agree scale including: rigor of development, clarity and comprehensiveness of the recommendations and applicability, especially in the climatic conditions of our country were selected. The existing recommendations were extracted by committee members and supporting evidences of each recommendation were determined based on the sources listed in the clinical guideline. Recommendations grading were classified from grade A to D based on the quality of their supporting evidences (BEL1-5). This guideline covered all areas related to diabetes including screening and diagnosis, lifestyle modification and patient education, management, complications and hypoglycemia. Regarding capacities of this guideline and lack of comprehensive and updated guidelines in our country and region, it is suggested that designing a pilot study to implement this Learner-centered guideline and finding its weaknesses can lead to patient care improvement and also propel us towards our goal to design a comprehensive guideline in compliance with regional and national needs in Middle East.
Gaze cueing by pareidolia faces

Visual images that are not faces are sometimes perceived as faces (the pareidolia phenomenon). While the pareidolia phenomenon provides people with a strong impression that a face is present, it is unclear how deeply pareidolia faces are processed as faces. In the present study, we examined whether a shift in spatial attention would be produced by gaze cueing of face-like objects. A robust cueing effect was observed when the face-like objects were perceived as faces. The magnitude of the cueing effect was comparable between the face-like objects and a cartoon face. However, the cueing effect was eliminated when the observer did not perceive the objects as faces. These results demonstrated that pareidolia faces do more than give the impression of the presence of faces; indeed, they trigger an additional face-specific attentional process.
Neuromuscular activation strategies of voluntary andelectrically elicited muscle fatigue: Underlying mechanisms and clinicalimplications

The clinical care of muscle fatigue with exercise therapies aim at quality of life improvement and usually involve unilateral exercises or neuromuscular electrical stimulation to compensate impaired muscle function in both healthy and health-compromised people. The overall objective of this thesis was to study the effect of neuromuscular activation strategies during muscle fatigue, endurance and muscle performance after unilateral fatiguing voluntary and electrically evoked contractions (NMES) in healthy and health-compromised populations such as children with cerebral palsy (CP) and patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). A unilateral fatiguing exercise impaired the maximal torque production of the contralateral non-exercising limb, but the time course of torque production loss differed between limbs, being delayed in the non-exercising limb. This cross-over effect could be a compensatory strategy to reduce the gap of muscle performance between the weaker, exercised, limb and the non-exercised one likely to warrant interlimb coordination. A NMES protocol delivered over the nerve trunk, maintaining constant or increasing the current intensity induced similar peripheral and central adaptations of muscle fatigue. Therefore, for similar energy expenditure, maintaining the current intensity constant, as when increasing it, would yield the same adaptations to muscle fatigue. Also, we found that even though strength and time to task failure were similar in both groups, the children with CP exhibited a lower increase in EMG (electromyographic) amplitude compared to typically developing peers. This suggests that the children with CP were not able to recruit additional motor units to compensate for muscle fatigue during a sustained low-force level isometric elbow flexion contraction. Finally, no tibialis anterior muscle strength, endurance and motor function improvements were observed after a NMES training in a group of patients with FSHD. Maybe, the NMES protocol was not strenuous enough and/or parameters of stimulation were not adequate as no improvements were observed in healthy participants either. However, the group of patients with FSHD showed lower force losses during the 2-minute sustained MVC, suggesting that they were experiencing a lower amount of muscle fatigue compared to the healthy participants group.Limiting muscle fatigue and developing rehabilitation strategies is needed and further research should be conducted regarding the muscle activation patterns with muscle fatigue, especially in neuromuscular disorders. The potential beneficial cross-over and NMES effects should be further investigated with regards to the variety of neuromuscular disorders and the associated muscle activation impairments.
TST/BTD: An End-to-End Visual Recognition System

We describe a visual recognition system operating on a hand-held device. Feature selection and tracking are performed in real-time, and used to train a template-based classier during a capture phase prompted by the user. During normal operation, the system scores objects in the eld of view based on their ranking. Severe resource constraints have prompted a re-evaluation of existing algorithms improving their performance (accuracy and robustness) as well as computational eciency. We motivate the design choices in the implementation with a characterization of the stability properties of local invariant detectors, and of the conditions under which a template-based descriptor is optimal. The analysis also highlights the role of time as \weak supervisor" during training, which we exploit in our implementation.
Automatically segmenting and clustering minimal-impact personal audio archives

To capture essentially everything that you hear takes little more than a $100 MP3 player with a built-in microphone; a year’s worth of recordings is maybe 60 GB, or a small stack of writable DVDs. We have been collecting this kind of ‘personal audio’ on and off for a couple of years, and experimenting with methods to index and access the resulting data. Audio archives have several distinctive features when compared to other kinds of artificial memory, not least the serious privacy issues that arise when recording conversations – which may be one reason they have previously received almost no attention from the research community. At the same time, continuous audio archives are minimally intrusive to collect, contain a great deal of valuable information, and present some very interesting challenges in providing convenient and useful access. We describe our experiments in segmenting and labeling these recordings into ‘episodes’ (relatively consistent acoustic situations lasting a few minutes or more) using the BIC criterion (from speaker segmentation) and spectral clustering. We also briefly discuss our experiences in browsing and scanning the data, and our plans and ideas concerning future directions both for our research and for the technology of personal audio recording as a whole.
Determination of ERL optics with Undulators

Cornell University is currently investigating the feasibility and benefits of building an Energy Recovery Linear Accelerator. One possible layout is shown in Fig.1. The ERL will use undulators (series of dipole magnets with alternating poles), to produce high quality x-ray beams. Part of this investigation is optimizing the electron/positron bunches to make sure that the required beam parameters can be achieved. In order to manipulate the beams and achieve the proposed results you need to alter the magnet strengths within the ERL. Here I will investigate whether it’s possible to take into account the undulators’ effects on the particles’ optics and still achieve the desired beam parameters. We will show that it is possible to conform the beam to the specifications all the way throughout the ERL. Computer simulation software and computer optimizers were used to help us attain our goals.
Graphene nanosheet counter-electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Graphene nanosheets (GNs) have been investigated as a counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Mesoporous TiO2 films are prepared from the commercial TiO2 nano-powders by screen-printing technique on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) slides. GNs are applied to substitute for platinum as counter-electrode materials. GN films are screen printed on FTO glass using a paste based on GNs dispersed in a mixture of terpineol and ethylcellulose. GN counter-electrodes were prepared by annealing the GN films at different temperatures. A metal-free organic dye (indoline dye D102) is used as a sensitizer. Morphological and electrochemical properties of the formed counter-electrodes are investigated by scanning electronic microscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), respectively. The electronic and ionic processes in platinum and GNs based DSCs are analysized and discussed. A conversion efficiency of 2.94 % has been obtained for GNs based DSCs. It is found that the quality of the GN counter-electrode and the photovoltaic performance are strongly affected by the annealing temperature of GN materials.
Profiles of adolescent perpetrators of CSA

Title Profiles of adolescent perpetrators of CSA Authors(s) O'Halloran, Maria; Carr, Alan; O'Reilly, Gary; et al. Publication date 2004 Publication information Carr, A. , O'Reilly, G. and Browne, K. (eds.). Clinical Psychology in Ireland Volume 5: Empirical Studies of Child Sexual Abuse Publisher Edwin Mellen Press Link to online version http://mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm? bookid=6165&pc=9 Item record/more information http://hdl.handle. net/10197/6243
Design and analysis of an image restoration using wiener filter with a quality based hybrid algorithms

An adaptive wiener filter design method is presented using quality based hybrid algorithms. The proposed method restore degraded image using Wiener filter with Gradient based smoothing and Median filter with an adaption of Bilateral filter for edge preserving and Guided filter for reducing staircase effect and gradient reversal. Using this method, clear images are obtained from degraded images without increasing noise, ringing artifacts and halo effect. Experimental results show that the proposed method improves image quality, provide image compression, and improvement in parameters like PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio), MSE (Mean Square Error) and SSIM (Structure Similarity Index Measurement) as compared to conventional method.
Adult cognition : an experimental psychology of human aging / Timothy A. Salthouse

For some time now, the study of cognitive development has been far and away the most active discipline within developmental psychology. Although there would be much disagreement as to the exact proportion of papers published in developmental journals that could be considered cognitive, 50% seems like a conservative estimate. Hence, a series of scholarly books to be devoted to work in cognitive development is especially appropriate at this time. The Springer Series in Cognitive Development contains two basic types of books, namely, edited collections of original chapters by several authors, and original volumes written by one author or a small group of authors. The flagship for the Springer Series is a serial publication of the "advances" type, carrying the subtitle Progress in Cognitive Development Research. Volumes in the Progress sequence are strongly thematic, in that each is limited to some well-defined domain of cognitive-developmental research (e. g., logical and mathematical development, semantic development). All Progress volumes are edited collections. Editors of such books, upon consultation with the Series Editor, may elect to have their works published either as contributions to the Progress sequence or as separate volumes. All books written by one author or a small group of authors will be published as separate volumes within the series. A fairly broad definition of cognitive development is being used in the selection of books for this series.