Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aversive Conditioning Methodology in Animal Research

The study of responses elicited by aversive stimulation has achieved some importance in contemporary psychology. Reviews of the literature by Mowrer (1950), Schoenfeld ( 19501, Miller (1951b), and Solomon and Brush (1956) reflect the diversity of theoretical orientations that persists within this area of research. The use of a variety of poorly standardized experimental procedures, the sparsity of data concerning fundamental relationships between independent variables and response measures, and the application of clinically derived concepts to the behavior of sub-human organisms have contributed to our lack of knowledge of basic mechanisms involved in aversive behavior. Investigators have applied constructs such as "fear," "anxiety," and "acquired drive" to animal behavior without evaluating the effects of variations in experimental method on criterion responses. The purpose of this paper is to review the experimental methodology of aversive conditioning. Studies concerned with animal behavior and with the relatively simple methods of classical and instrumenral conditioning will be considered. Use of these methods as response indicators i n studies involving electro-convulsive shock, sub-cortical stimulation and ablation, and drugs, will not be considered in the present paper.
“Okay, I will say in Korean and then in American”: Translanguaging practices in bilingual homes

Building on the research on translanguaging practices in classrooms (e.g. García, 2009; Sayer, 2011) and immigrant families’ literacy practices (e.g. Gregory et al., 2004; Li, 2006), this qualitative study explores the nature of translanguaging practices of four Korean bilingual children and their families in home literacy events. Participant observation with video recordings and field notes was used to gather data, and the data analysis focused on the literacy events defined by Heath (1982) and types of language use. The findings demonstrated that bilingual children and their family members used their two languages flexibly and strategically to create and negotiate meaning. Using both languages contributed to clarifying meaning in communication and expanding children’s linguistic repertoires in their heritage language as well as in English. This study takes a particularized look at bilingual children’s language experience in out-of-school contexts by focusing on families’ ways of using their two languages to support their children’s heritage language development in literacy events.
Waist-up protection for blind individuals using the EyeCane as a primary and secondary mobility aid

Background: One of the most stirring statistics in relation to the mobility of blind individuals is the high rate of upper body injuries, even when using the white-cane. Objective: We here addressed a rehabilitation- oriented challenge of providing a reliable tool for blind people to avoid waist-up obstacles, namely one of the impediments to their successful mobility using currently available methods (e.g., white-cane). Methods: We used the EyeCane, a device we developed which translates distances from several angles to haptic and auditory cues in an intuitive and unobtrusive manner, serving both as a primary and secondary mobility aid. We investigated the rehabilitation potential of such a device in facilitating visionless waist-up body protection. Results: After ∼5 minutes of training with the EyeCane blind participants were able to successfully detect and avoid obstacles waist-high and up. This was significantly higher than their success when using the white-cane alone. As avoidance of obstacles required participants to perform an additional cognitive process after their detection, the avoidance rate was significantly lower than the detection rate. Conclusion: Our work has demonstrated that the EyeCane has the potential to extend the sensory world of blind individuals by expanding their currently accessible inputs, and has offered them a new practical rehabilitation tool.
Improvement of cardiac function and reversal of gap junction remodeling by Neuregulin-1β in volume-overloaded rats with heart failure

Objective We performed experiments using Neuregulin-1β (NRG-1β) treatment to determine a mechanism for the protective role derived from its beneficial effects by remodeling gap junctions (GJs) during heart failure (HF). Methods Rat models of HF were established by aortocaval fistula. Forty-eight rats were divided randomly into the HF (HF, n = 16), NRG-1β treatment (NRG, n = 16), and sham operation (S, n = 16) group. The rats in the NRG group were administered NRG-1β (10 µg/kg per day) for 7 days via the tail vein, whereas the other groups were injected with the same doses of saline. Twelve weeks after operation, Connexin 43 (Cx43) expression in single myocytes obtained from the left ventricle was determined by immunocytochemistry. Total protein was extracted from frozen left ventricular tissues for immunoblotting assay, and the ultrastructure of myocytes was observed by transmission electron microscopy. Results Compared with the HF group, the cardiac function of rats in the NRG group was markedly improved, irregular distribution and deceased Cx43 expression were relieved. The ultrastructure of myocytes was seriously damaged in HF rats, and NRG-1β reduced these pathological damages. Conclusions Short-term NRG-1β treatment can rescue pump failure in experimental models of volume overload-induced HF, which is related to the recovery of GJs structure and the improvement of Cx43 expression.
Signaling transduction pathways involved in basophil adhesion and histamine release

Background Little is known about basophil with respect to the different signaling transduction pathways involved in spontaneous, cytokine or anti‐IgE induced adhesion and how this compares to IgE‐dependent and IgE‐independent mediator secretion. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the roles of &bgr;1 and &bgr;2 integrins in basophil adhesion as well as hosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K), src‐kinases and extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 in basophil adhesion and histamine release (HR). Methods Basophils (purity of 10%—50%) were preincubated with anti‐CD29 or anti‐CD18 blocking antibodies before used for adhesion study. Basophils were preincubated with the pharmacological inhibitors wortmannin, PP1, PD98059 before used for adhesion and HR study. Cell adherence to bovine serum albumin (BSA) or fibronectin (Fn) was monitored using cell associated histamine as a basophil marker and the histamine was measured by the glass fiber assay. Results Basophil spontaneous adhesion to Fn was inhibited by anti‐CD29. Interleukin (IL)‐3, granulocyte/macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM‐CSF) induced adhesion to BSA was inhibited by anti‐CD18. Wortmannin at 1 &mgr;mol/L and PP1 at 20 &mgr;mol/L strongly interfered with, whereas PD98059 at 50 &mgr;mol/L weakly inhibited basophil spontaneous adhesion to Fn. One &mgr;mol/L wortmannin strongly inhibited IL‐3, IL‐5, GM‐CSF and anti‐IgE induced adhesion to BSA. PP1 at 20 &mgr;mol/L partly inhibited anti‐IgE induced adhesion. Fifty &mgr;mol/L PD98059 marginally inhibited IL‐5, weakly inhibited anti‐IgE, partly inhibited GM‐CSF induced adhesion. Wortmannin, PP1 and PD98059 inhibited anti‐IgE (1:100 or 1:1000) induced basophil HR in a dose dependent manner. They inhibited calcium ionophore A23187 (10 &mgr;mol/L, 5 &mgr;mol/L) induced basophil HR in a dose dependent manner, but to different extend with PP1 being the most efficient. Conclusions Basophil spontaneous adhesion to Fn is mediated by &bgr;1‐integrins whereas cytokine induced adhesion to BSA is mediated by &bgr;2‐integrins. PI3K, src‐kinases and ERK1/2 play distinct signaling roles in basophil adhesion and HR. PI3K is the key player while ERK1/2 is the weakest participant.
Activation of Brain Function in a Computer-based Neuropsychological Test Estimated Using fMRI

In this study we investigated the cerebral correlation of computer-and paper-based neuropsychological tests commonly used as measures of frontal lobe function. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to record the brain activity of 12 right-handed, healthy, young adults (five males, seven females, mean age 26.4 years) during performance of the Trail Making Test (TMT) using a special writing device. In the paperbased TMT, subjects were presented with a random distribution of numbers and asked to rank them in ascending order. In computer-based neuropsychological testing (CBT), subjects were asked to rank numbers in ascending order by touching the numbers on the screen. Despite the atypical use of a virtual stylus, fMRI results in the present study illustrated a distinct left-sided dorsolateral and medial frontal activation during both paperand computer-based versions of the TMT. These findings are in agreement with previous results indicating the sensitivity of frontal regions in the left hemisphere to the TMT task. In addition, the present study indicates that both versions of the TMT result in similar activation of frontal brain regions during cognitive tasks. Finally, these results suggest that CBT may be effectively employed as a neuropsychological testing tool.
Augmented Ontology-Based Information Retrieval System with External Open Source Resources

As the number of online students has been growing significantly for the last couple of years, generic Web Information Retrieval methods have either maintained an emphasis on serving the general population, or have been lagging in integrating the power of adaptive semantics and personalization via knowledge discovery into real-life working E-learning applications. This paper is devoted to the implementation of an augmented ontology-based information retrieval system with external open-source resources from MIT OpenCourseWare that uses Protégé to design and build the structure of HyperManyMedia ontology as means of retrieving documents in two languages, English and Spanish. In addition, this paper deals with clustering the augmented documents, the outcome of the Clustering Analysis is added to the domain ontology as additional leaves under the “SubSubSubconcept = lecture”. From each cluster, we extract the keywords (descriptive terms), then we modify the ontology accordingly by adding the cluster’s terms as semantic terms under the “SubSubSubconcept = lecture” to which these documents belong. This research is implemented and evaluated on a real platform HyperManyMedia at Western Kentucky University.
Historical Perspective: Snail Control to Prevent Schistosomiasis

Effective interruption of the Schistosoma life cycle is essential to blocking the parasite’s transmission, and thus truly preventing human schistosomiasis over the long term. Our current mass treatment campaigns were expected to limit transmission by reducing environmental contamination with parasite eggs. However, the process of transmission has proven to be very focal and highly efficient, such that, in practice, mass drug treatment by itself has not been effective in lowering transmission in many affected areas. Alternative means for interruption of transmission are now being considered, including means to reduce or eliminate intermediate snail hosts from local habitats, and means to prevent water contamination through sanitation.
A Robust Iterative Energy Based Voice Activity Detector

In recent years the real time implementation of the voice biometry became a challenging field. There are several voice based technology existing today like speech recognition, speech encoding, speaker recognition, Voice over IP, voice password, hands-free telephony etc. To satisfy these requirements we need a good Voice Activity Detector (VAD) which not only detects the speech and silence portions perfectly but also the computation complexity need to be comparably lower and, the VAD should also work in different noisy environment. Our proposed VAD is time domain energy based. By iterations it calculates the threshold, still the computational complexity is found to be relatively low. In this method there is no need to predefine threshold before performing the VAD operation. The threshold parameter is updated by the SNR value which is calculated from the present speech signal. It is found to be robust and suitable for real time applications and we call it Iterative VAD.
Market Segmentation for Recycling

A study of recycling perceptions, opinions, and behaviors of members of 578 households on Chicago's North Side illustrated the value of market segmentation for planning a recycling program. Analysis focused on nonrecyclers (61% of respondents), and their reasons for not participating. Factor analysis of Likert-type scores revealed three salient dimensions—indifference, location issues, and household nuisance—among 12 important reasons for not recycling. The internal composition of these factors lent support to a three-part decision model for recycling that involves motivation, information, and overcoming practical obstacles to recycling. Opinion scores showed the relative importance of 12 obstacles to recycling. Moreover, cluster analysis was used to identify the concerns of a sizable group that appears to be on the verge of participation. Addressing their issues would be a cost-efficient way to increase participation rates. Differences in perceptions and opinions between racial/ethnic groups were also identified.
When does opportunistic routing make sense?

Different opportunistic routing protocols have been proposed recently for routing in sensor networks. These protocols exploit the redundancy among nodes by using a node that is available for routing at the time of packet transmission. This mitigates the effect of varying channel conditions and duty cycling of nodes that make static selection of routes not viable. However, there is a downside as each hop may provide extremely small progress towards the destination or the signaling overhead for selecting the forwarding node may be too large. In this paper, we provide a systematic performance evaluation, taking into account different node densities, channel qualities and traffic rates to identify the cases when opportunistic routing makes sense. The metrics we use are power consumption at the nodes, average delay suffered by packets and goodput of the protocol. Our baseline for comparison is geographic routing with nodes being duty cycled to conserve energy. The paper also identifies optimal operation points for opportunistic routing that minimizes the power consumption at nodes.
Measuring Student Expectations and Their Effects on Satisfaction: The Importance of Managing Student Expectations

Two studies investigate the relationship between student expectations and student satisfaction. Can students’ satisfaction with a course be accurately predicted by comparing their perceptions to their expectations (as suggested by the expectancy/disconfirmation paradigm)? The results of these studies suggest that the answer to this question is strongly affected by the method used to measure student expectations. When recalled expectations and current perceptions are measured together at the end of a term, the extent to which student expectations are fulfilled does appear to be a good predictor of satisfaction. When expectations are measured at the beginning of a term however, the extent to which they are fulfilled is not a strong predictor of course satisfaction. These results have implications for marketing educators both in terms of the role they can play in affecting their students’ expectations and in terms of the timing of independent course assessments they may choose to administer.
Maximizing productivity of CHO cell‐based fed‐batch culture using chemically defined media conditions and typical manufacturing equipment

A highly productive chemically defined fed‐batch process was developed to maximize titer and volumetric productivity for Chinese hamster ovary cell‐based recombinant protein manufacturing. Two cell lines producing a recombinant antibody (cell line A) and an Fc‐fusion protein (cell line B) were used for development. Both processes achieved product titers of 10 g/L on day 18 under chemically defined conditions. For cell line B, the use of plant derived hydrolysates combined with the optimized chemically defined medium increased the titer to 13 g/L. Volumetric productivities were increased from a base line of about 200 mg/L/d to about 500 mg/L/d under chemically defined conditions and as high as 700 mg/L/d with cell line B using plant derived hydrolysates. Peak cell densities reached greater than 20E6 vc/mL, and cell viabilities were maintained above 80% on day 18 without the use of antiapoptotic genes or temperature shift. A rapid compound screening method was developed to effectively test positive factors within 72 h. Peak volumetric oxygen uptake rates (OUR) more than tripled from the baseline condition. Oxygen demand continued to increase after maximum cell density was reached with a maximal OUR of 3.7 mmol/L/h. The new process format was scaled up and verified at 100 L pilot scale using reactor equipment of similar configuration as used at manufacturing scale. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 2010
The Russian Molokan Community in Los Angeles

The Russian Molokan colony in Los Angeles evidences many of the effects of cultural assimilation in spite of the resistance of the older members of the group to culture fusion. Urbanization. -Changes in occupational level, geographic dispersion of the colony, education of the children in American public schools, activities of American social agencies, city missions, etc., are undermining the traditional control of the elders, the effectiveness of the family, of mutual aid mechanisms, and the influence of Molokanism as a system of belief. Cultural hybridism. -The younger generation, after twenty-five years of American experience, displays much of the restlessness, disorganization, and social confusion characteristic of immigrant groups in which traditional controls have been only partially displaced by American urban ideals and habits. Present indications point to ultimate complete assimilation with probably decreasing disorganization in the future.
Changes in the International Regulation of Auditors: (In)Stalling the Eighth Directive in the UK

In 1984 the European Commission issued the Eighth Company Law Directive requiring each member State to ensure that its national rules met common standards for the education, training and qualification of statutory auditors (84/253/EEC; OJ 1984 L126/20). The Directive insisted that national governments take responsibility for the regulation of auditors, a requirement that clashed with the autonomy which many professional bodies believed they possessed. In this article we explore the processes through which the Eighth Directive on the regulation of auditors has been implemented in the UK. We argue that the Eighth Directive illuminates the effects of political and economic discourses on the development of accounting and auditing regulations and the protocols involved in installing such regulations into particular national contexts. The Eighth Directive represents a revealing moment in the shifts in political discourse (towards neo-liberalism) in the UK and the problems of reconciling new modes of economic and political thinking withinternationalregulatory programmes and institutions. Moreover, the implementation of the Eighth Directive in the UK cannot be comprehended outside of (i) an analysis of the problems the British Government has had in “managing” the accountancy profession in the UK and (ii), understanding the powerful image of the auditing industry as a key contributor to the UK economy.
The ataxia3 Mutation in the N-Terminal Cytoplasmic Domain of Sodium Channel Nav1.6 Disrupts Intracellular Trafficking

The ENU-induced neurological mutant ataxia3 was mapped to distal mouse chromosome 15. Sequencing of the positional candidate gene Scn8a encoding the sodium channel Nav1.6 identified a T>C transition in exon 1 resulting in the amino acid substitution p.S21P near the N terminus of the channel. The cytoplasmic N-terminal region is evolutionarily conserved but its function has not been well characterized. ataxia3 homozygotes exhibit a severe disorder that includes ataxia, tremor, and juvenile lethality. Unlike Scn8a null mice, they retain partial hindlimb function. The mutant transcript is stable but protein abundance is reduced and the mutant channel is not detected in its usual site of concentration at nodes of Ranvier. In whole-cell patch-clamp studies of transfected ND7/23 cells that were maintained at 37°C, the mutant channel did not produce sodium current, and function was not restored by coexpression of β1 and β2 subunits. However, when transfected cells were maintained at 30°C, the mutant channel generated voltage-dependent inward sodium currents with an average peak current density comparable with wild type, demonstrating recovery of channel activity. Immunohistochemistry of primary cerebellar granule cells from ataxia3 mice demonstrated that the mutant protein is retained in the cis-Golgi. This trafficking defect can account for the low level of Nav1.6-S21P at nodes of Ranvier in vivo and at the surface of transfected cells. The data demonstrate that the cytoplasmic N-terminal domain of the sodium channel is required for anterograde transport from the Golgi complex to the plasma membrane.
Coevolutionary cycles of convergence: will "NBT" become the next ICT?

Convergence between technologies can be regarded as an increasingly emerging trend, and has received particular attention in the coming-together of previously distinct products and solutions within the information and communication technologies (ICT) industry. In previous research, the overall impact of the convergence phenomenon remains ambiguous. Whereas some scholars suggest convergence to be associated with disintegration, entry and growth, others relate the phenomenon to opposite effects, such as consolidation and shakeouts. This inconsistency in managerial conceptions on convergence formulates a need for an integrated understanding. Within a multi-case study approach, the convergence within information and communication technologies (ICT) has been observed through studying the coevolution of actors in a converging environment, and patterns in innovation dynamics and managerial responses have been identified. In reflection with existing models of innovation cycles, a model for convergence innovation processes is elaborated and discussed. In particular, the reasoning within the ICT case set is transferred onto the currently emerging entrepreneurial activities in the intersection between nano- and bio-technologies (NBT), resulting in a comparison between ICT and NBT convergences, and deriving recommendations from a retrospective to a predictive context.
Osteocalcin‐hydroxyapatite interaction in the extracellular organic matrix of bone

Osteocalcin, a major noncollagenous matrix protein of bone, dentin, and cementum, is found in tight association with the calcium phosphate mineral phase of these tissues. This article reviews the structural data for osteocalcin relevant to mineral adsorption. The equilibrium‐binding properties for Ca2+ ions and hydroxyapatite are considered, along with the apparent physicochemical effects of osteocalcin on bone mineral dynamics. Several of osteocalcin's possible biological activities (involvement in mineralization, chemoattraction, and leukocyte elastase inhibition) are discussed in relation to the mineral‐adsorption characteristics of this protein.