Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Dystonia-associated Protein TorsinA Modulates Synaptic Vesicle Recycling*

The loss of a glutamic acid residue in the AAA-ATPase (ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities) torsinA is responsible for most cases of early onset autosomal dominant primary dystonia. In this study, we found that snapin, which binds SNAP-25 (synaptosome-associated protein of 25,000 Da) and enhances the association of the SNARE complex with synaptotagmin, is an interacting partner for both wild type and mutant torsinA. Snapin co-localized with endogenous torsinA on dense core granules in PC12 cells and was recruited to perinuclear inclusions containing mutant ΔE-torsinA in neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. In view of these observations, synaptic vesicle recycling was analyzed using the lipophilic dye FM1-43 and an antibody directed against an intravesicular epitope of synaptotagmin I. We found that overexpression of wild type torsinA negatively affects synaptic vesicle endocytosis. Conversely, overexpression of ΔE-torsinA in neuroblastoma cells increases FM1-43 uptake. Knockdown of snapin and/or torsinA using small interfering RNAs had a similar inhibitory effect on the exo-endocytic process. In addition, down-regulation of torsinA causes the persistence of synaptotagmin I on the plasma membrane, which closely resembles the effect observed by the overexpression of the ΔE-torsinA mutant. Altogether, these findings suggest that torsinA plays a role together with snapin in regulated exocytosis and that ΔE-torsinA exerts its pathological effects through a loss of function mechanism. This may affect neuronal uptake of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, playing a role in the development of dystonic movements.
Comparison of Gender Differences in Intracerebral Hemorrhage in a Multi-Ethnic Asian Population

Background Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) accounts for 10–15% of all first time strokes and with incidence twice as high in the Asian compared to Western population. This study aims to investigate gender differences in ICH patient outcomes in a multi-ethnic Asian population. Method Data for 1,192 patients admitted for ICH were collected over a four-year period. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify independent predictors and odds ratios were computed for 30-day mortality and Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) comparing males and females. Result Males suffered ICH at a younger age than females (62.2 ± 13.2 years vs. 66.3 ± 15.3 years; P<0.001). The occurrence of ICH was higher among males than females at all ages until 80 years old, beyond which the trend was reversed. Females exhibited increased severity on admission as measured by Glasgow Coma Scale compared to males (10.9 ± 4.03 vs. 11.4 ± 4.04; P = 0.030). No difference was found in 30-day mortality between females and males (F: 30.5% [155/508] vs. M: 27.0% [186/688]), with unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio (F/M) of 1.19 (P = 0.188) and 1.21 (P = 0.300). At discharge, there was a non-statistically significant but potentially clinically relevant morbidity difference between the genders as measured by GOS (dichotomized GOS of 4–5: F: 23.7% [119/503] vs. M: 28.7% [194/677]), with unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio (F/M) of 0.77 (P = 0.055) and 0.87 (P = 0.434). Conclusion In our multi-ethnic Asian population, males developed ICH at a younger age and were more susceptible to ICH than women at all ages other than the beyond 80-year old age group. In contrast to the Western population, neurological status of female ICH patients at admission was poorer and their 30-day mortality was not reduced. Although the study was not powered to detect significance, female showed a trend toward worse 30-day morbidity at discharge.
Barbara O. Baptista and Michael Alan Watkins. 2006. English with a Latin beat: Studies in Portuguese/Spanish — English interphonology. In the series Studies in Bilingualism 31. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pp. vi + 214. US $126.00 (hardcover).

(p. 97) suscite la reflexion : « Le changement demeure en partie un phdnomene tres myst6rieux : on sait assez bien comment il fonctionne, mais guere pourquoi il intervient dans les langues ». Suit une discussion tres int6ressante sur la transmission des normes a l'ecole, l'6chec scolaire et la mont6e de la violence verbale dans les classes en France. Le chapitre 5 traite des vernaculaires ou la facon dont les gens parlent dans la vie courante. L'etude des caract£ristiques du « francais populaire » est amorc6e par l'interm6diaire d'6tudes de cas puises dans les travaux de difKrents auteurs qui ont etudid ces questions (Bauche, L6on, Berruto, Lodge, etc.). Deux autres sections discutent la langue des jeunes et les contacts de langues, notamment la pratique des jeunes issus de rimmigration. Le dernier chapitre traite de l'ajustement entre interlocuteurs (Pourquoi un locuteur ne parle-t-il pas toujours de la meme facon ? ). L'auteure remet en question la representation traditionnelle des niveaux de langue (soutenu, standard, familier, populaire). Un tel d6coupage pose probleme, en effet, parce qu'il suggere que les niveaux pourraient se derinir a travers des listes de phdnomenes, comme le signale Gadet. Une breve conclusion rappelle les themes a l'£tude et les buts de la recherche. Bref, par sa clart£, sa rigueur et son caractere synthetique, cette nouvelle Edition constitue une version ameliorge d'un excellent ouvrage susceptible d'aider chercheurs, enseignants et 6tudiants. La variation sociale en francais est un livre dont la lecture se rfrvele aussi passionnante qu'instructive pour quiconque s'inteiesse a l'enseignement du francais, a la linguistique franchise, a la sociolinguistique ou tout simplement a la langue francaise.
A personal view of James Gibson’s approach to perception

This commentary argues that James Gibson’s contribution to the field of perception can be best understood as a set of heuristics that directs researchers to describe the stimulus information that makes it possible for animals to function effectively in the environment in which they evolved. He argued that the description of stimulation provided by traditional physics could not account for veridical perception and needed to be replaced by a new, biologically relevant ecological description of the input for perceptual functioning. (Cog Crit 1: 31-41, 2008)
The Effect of Term Importance Degree on Text Retrieval

approaches to index term-weighting have been investigated. In fact, term-weighting is an indispensable process for document ranking in most retrieval systems. As well actual information retrieval systems have to deal with explosive growth of documents of various sizes and terms of various frequencies because an appropriate term-weighting scheme has a crucial impact on the overall performance of systems. This paper attempts to investigate the impact of term-weighting parameters used in the most well-known retrieval models. The study has been particularly focused on normalization of term frequency in weighting schemes. A novel factor which is called "term importance degree" has been identified, which can be applied to term-weighting schemes by using several parameters. The calculated correlations between the parameters of weighting schemes confirmed the impact of this factor to increase the performance of text retrieval systems. Two models of term frequency normalization are inserted in a basic term- weighting scheme, which shows the importance of terms. The experiments were carried out on the standard test collections which validated by multiple statistical tests.
A SURVEY ON COGNITIVE RADIO, ITS NEED AND PARADIGMS

: A network plays an important role in our day to day life. Wireless technologies, for their transportability, flexibility and maintenance are getting widely popular in networks in today’s era. The wide use of wireless technologies in turn, leads to spectrum scarcity as licensed users occupies a big part of the spectrum. Cognitive Radio (CR) technology is an ultimate approach to encounter spectrum scarceness issues arising in wireless communications. CR provides spectrum access to secondary users without affecting the activities of primary users and thus ensure smooth communication. In this paper, we discuss some basic terms and recent literature surveys related to it
Should Urban Transit Subsidies Be Reduced?

This paper derives intuitive and empirically useful formulas for the optimal pricing of passenger transit and for the welfare effects of adjusting current fare subsidies, for peak and off-peak urban rail and bus systems. The formulas are implemented based on a detailed estimation of parameter values for the metropolitan areas of Washington (D.C.), Los Angeles, and London. Our analysis accounts for congestion, pollution, and accident externalities from automobiles and from transit vehicles; scale economies in transit supply; costs of accessing and waiting for transit service as well as service crowding costs; and agency adjustment of transit frequency, vehicle size, and route network to induced changes in demand for passenger miles. The results support the efficiency case for the large fare subsidies currently applied across mode, period, and city. In almost all cases, fare subsidies of 50 percent or more of operating costs are welfare improving at the margin, and this finding is robust to alternative assumptions and parameters.
Collaborative customer services using synchronous Web browser sharing

For complicated transactions and inexptienced users, se~-smite may not be *cimL b addition, for marketing and sales, there maybe no substitute fm a good salesperson. Thus, there is tiue in combining ~chronous am to products and services OVHthe Web with Wchronous, human assistance v’hen needd h ord~ to pr~ vide better service to customas, increase d=, and ~erentiate their Webbased services tiom the repetition, a numbs of businesses are starting to fiTlore means of integrating Eve customs service into their Web sites.
Pavement pathologies classification using graph-based features

Pavement cracks involve important information to measure road quality. Crack classification is a challenging problem given the diversity of possible cracks, therefore, it is needed to retrieve good features in order to facilitate the learning of predictive models with as few samples as possible. In this paper, we propose a graph-based set of features to efficiently describe cracks. These features proved to have high degree of expressiveness and robustness when used for crack classification. We show that the proposed features succeed in the assessment of 525 images with different kinds of cracks. We proved the robustness of the approach applying different levels of noise to the images and evaluating the classification accuracy.
New developments in sum of squares optimization and SOSTOOLS

We describe the latest additions to SOSTOOLS, a freely available MATLAB toolbox for formulating and solving sum of squares programs. Among the many improvements, there are native polynomial objects, structure-exploiting techniques for sparse and structured polynomials, new customized functions, and support for alternative SDP solvers. We sketch some of the theory behind the new improvements, and illustrate the new commands using control-oriented examples.
The Effect of Specific Feedback on Critical Reflection of Physical Therapy Students during Internships.

An essential component of expert professional practice is a practitioner’s ability to critically reflect on one’s performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of specific electronic feedback provided by the coordinator of clinical education on students’ critical reflection ability displayed in weekly journal writings during two consecutive, full-time clinical internships. In a quasi-experimental cross-over cohort design, 15 physical therapy (PT) students were stratified-randomly into two groups. Independent raters scored students’ weekly journal submissions on a 5-point scale. Group one received specific feedback during the first internship; Group two received specific feedback during the second internship. While there was no statistical difference in performance between the two groups, it is undetermined whether specific electronic feedback alters critical reflection ability as reflected in journal writing. It appears that timing and continuing feedback once provided may influence effectiveness. Continued research is warranted.
Log mining to support web query expansions

In this paper, query expansion will be achieved by mining query information in a query log. An association will be constructed by data mining association technique. Then every incoming new query will be compared with the newly built association rule, and a new expanded query can be constructed with the original query and the newly added item. In addition, other information in the query log will also be processed to achieve query expansion. Then a performance evaluation comparison will be done among the original query, query expanded by association, and query expanded by query information. The experiment shows that the newly expanded query can produce better performance for web query searching.
Acupuncture: What Underlies Needle Administration?

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese therapy with its mode of action unclear and efficacy inconclusive. A lack of attention given to the role of psychosocial context presented in clinical provision of acupuncture may mainly account for the current dilemma in acupuncture research. This psychosocial context induces various cognitive and affective processes in the patient while receiving this treatment. On the basis of the analysis of these psychological factors involved in clinical provision of acupuncture and in light of prior studies on the placebo effect, the author hypothesizes that acupuncture works through potentiation and modulation of a highly organized and somatotopic network of endogenous opioids that links expectation, attention and body schema. This hypothesis, which focuses on the contextual factors involved in clinical provision of acupuncture, has immediate clinical and experimental implications and will take the acupuncture debate much further forward.
EFFECT OF BERBERINE ON PENTYLENETETRAZOL-INDUCED SEIZURES IN RATS

Objective: Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) that are usually used for treatment of epilepsy have substantial side effects and about 30% of patients continue to have seizures with current AEDs therapy. Some herbs which traditionally used in the management of seizures of many rural areas of the developing countries have shown anticonvulsant activity in modern pharmacological bioassays. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of berberine, an alkaloid from Berberis vulgaris, on seizures induced by pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) in rats. Material and Methods: Rats (n=6-7) received berberine (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg, i.p.), diazepam (4mg/kg, i.p. as positive control), and vehicle (saline) and then 30 min later PTZ (110mg/kg, i.p.) were injected . Behavioral responses of the animals to PTZ administration were evaluated using these criteria: latency to first minimal clonic seizure (MCS), incidence of MCS, latency to the first generalized tonic–clonic seizures (GTCS), incidence of GTCS, protection against GTCS and mortality. Results: Intraperitoneal administration of lower doses of berberine (100 and 200 mg/kg) had no significant effects on minimal clonic seizures (MCS) and generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) latencies, while injection of 400 mg/kg caused significant increase in both MCS and GTCS latencies (p<0.05). In this study diazepam, (4 mg/kg) 30 min prior to PTZ, significantly increased GTCS latency. Berberine at tested doses had no protection against mortality following PTZ administration. Conclusion: It can be concluded that berberine at high doses could be a useful protective agent in PTZ-induced epileptic seizures in rats.
Recursive HDR image generation from differently exposed images based on local image properties

Dynamic range limitation of CCD-cameras may cause distortions and data loses in images. Such limitations are strongly effect to the further image processing. This paper describes method of combining information from differently exposed images for increasing dynamic range. Initially image is decomposed into set of regions. For each of region we compute detail evaluation function which represents its local properties. Namely mean intensity, intensity deviation and entropy. This function is used to detect regions with high dynamic range. The regions with high dynamic range are then recursively decomposed. This process iterates until all HDR regions are processed, or the size of these regions is too small for decomposition. During the process of decomposition we select the best exposure for each sub-region. For smoothing interregional transaction we used Gaussian-based smoothing function. Proposed technique allows recovering details in overexposed and underexposed parts of image. Our experiments show effectiveness of algorithm for the scenes with high dynamic range. Proposed method shows robust results even if the exposure difference between input images is 2-stops or higher.
CD1d-dependent Activation of NKT Cells Aggravates Atherosclerosis

Adaptive and innate immunity have been implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Given their abundance in the lesion, lipids might be targets of the atherosclerosis-associated immune response. Natural killer T (NKT) cells can recognize lipid antigens presented by CD1 molecules. We have explored the role of CD1d-restricted NKT cells in atherosclerosis by using apolipoprotein E–deficient (apoE−/−) mice, a hypercholesterolemic mouse model that develops atherosclerosis. ApoE−/− mice crossed with CD1d−/− (CD1d−/−apoE−/−) mice exhibited a 25% decrease in lesion size compared with apoE−/− mice. Administration of α-galactosylceramide, a synthetic glycolipid that activates NKT cells via CD1d, induced a 50% increase in lesion size in apoE−/− mice, whereas it did not affect lesion size in apoE−/−CD1d−/− mice. Treatment was accompanied by an early burst of cytokines (IFNγ, MCP-1, TNFα, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-6) followed by sustained increases in IFNγ and IL-4 transcripts in the spleen and aorta. Early activation of both T and B cells was followed by recruitment of T and NKT cells to the aorta and activation of inflammatory genes. These results show that activation of CD1d-restricted NKT cells exacerbates atherosclerosis.
Residual stress. Part 2 – Nature and origins

Abstract Residual stress is that which remains in a body that is stationary and at equilibrium with its surroundings. It can be detrimental when it reduces the tolerance of the material to an externally applied force, as is the case with welded joints. On the other hand, it can be exploited to design materials or components which are resistant to damage, toughened glass being a good example. This paper, the second part of a two part overview, the first part having been devoted to measurement techniques, examines the nature and origins of residual stresses across a range of scales. This extends from the long range residual stress fields in engineering components and welded structures, through the interphase stresses present in composites and coatings, to the microscale interactions of phase transformations with local stresses.
Physiological feature analysis in Heart Rate Turbulence using LASSO model

Heart Rate Turbulence (HRT) is a relevant cardiac risk stratification criterion. It is usually assess by means of turbulence slope (TS) and turbulence onset (TO) parameters. HRT is known to be affected by several physiological factors, mainly heart rate (HR) and coupling interval (CI). The physiological hypothesis accepted is the baroreflex source of the HRT. However, several studies showed different results about the relationship between CI and HRT parameters. Our aim was to propose a complete LASSO model using CI and sinus cardiac length (SCL), their powers and an interaction term as explanatory variables to account for the physiological dynamic of the TS parameter. We used a database of 61 recording holters from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. The database was split into two groups; low-risk patients (TS> 2.5 & TO <; 0), and high-risk patients (TS <; 2.5 & TO> 0). We performed a feature analysis by means of the LASSO paths, in which the regularization parameter is changed from very high values, where all weights of the explanatory variables are zero, to small values were all the weights are different from zero. The first variable activated, with a coefficient different from zero, was SC L on low-risk patients and the two following where related to CI. Whereas the first variable activated on high-risk patient was CI and the two following were relate to SC L. Results from LASSO paths suggest that the influence of physiological variables on HRT is broken on AMI high-risk and completely different from low-risk. Also, the features selected by LASSO model on AMI low-risk are in agreement with the hypothesis of a baroreflex source of the HRT, in which SCL is the most important variable, and CI has a negative correlation with TS.
Conclusion and Outlook

Despite the multitude of approaches to parsing that can be found in the current literature, there is has been a steady convergence in recent years towards feature-rich discriminative models with global training and either dynamic programming or beam search for decoding. These models are found in graph-based and transition-based dependency parsers (McDonald et al., 2005; McDonald & Pereira, 2006; Koo & Collins, 2010; Zhang & Clark, 2008; Zhang & Nivre, 2011), in reranking frameworks for constituency-based parsing (Collins & Duffy, 2002; Charniak & Johnson, 2005), and in grammar-based parsers for formalims like LFG, HPSG and CCG (Riezler et al., 2002; Toutanova et al., 2002; Clark & Curran, 2004). The only real exceptions to this pattern are greedy transition-based dependency parsers (Yamada & Matsumoto, 2003; Nivre, 2003), which use local discriminative models, and latent variable PCFG models (Petrov et al., 2006; Petrov & Klein, 2007), which are instead based on a generative model (although discriminative versions exist). There has also been a clear development towards more complex feature representations, trying to incorporate more non-local information for better disambiguation, which often has to be traded against efficient exact decoding.
Robust text-line and word segmentation for handwritten documents images

This paper addresses the problem of automatic text-line and word segmentation in handwritten document images. Two novel approaches are presented, one for each task. In text-line segmentation a Viterbi algorithm is proposed while an SVM-based metric is adopted to locate words in each text-line. The overall algorithm was tested in the ICDAR2007 handwriting segmentation contest and showed highly promising results.
Synchronous Functional Programming : The Lucid Synchrone Experiment ∗

Lucid Synchrone is a programming language dedicated to the design of reactive systems. It is based on the synchronous model of Lustre [25] which it extends with features usually found in functional languages such as higher-order or constructed data-types. The language is equipped with several static analysis, all expressed as special type-systems and used to ensure the absence of certain run-time errors on the final application. It provides, in particular, automatic type and clock inference and statically detects initialization issues or dead-locks. Finally, the language offers both data-flow and automata-based programming inside a unique framework. This chapter is a tutorial introduction to the language. Its aim is to show that techniques can be applied, at the language level, to ease the specification, implementation, and verification of reactive systems.