Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Auditory spatial discriminatory and mnemonic neurons in rat posterior parietal cortex.

The present study was designed to investigate whether the rat posterior parietal cortex is involved in the perception and the representation of the auditory space. We recorded single neural activity in the posterior parietal cortex of rats that performed a directional delayed nonmatching-to-sample task. In the task, cue tones were presented in one of six speakers that were placed symmetrically around the rats. "Familiar tones" were those repeatedly used in the course of behavioral training. Novel tones were presented only during the unit recording time and less frequently used (e.g., only once in alternate weeks). The responses of the posterior parietal cortex neurons were typically tested with familiar cue tones while the rats were situated in a particular geomagnetic orientation. The same cells were further tested while the rats were reoriented by 180 degrees, or by novel cue tones. As the task included a delay period, in which the cue tone was removed, the rats had to maintain the directional information of the cue tones during this period to maximize the reward rates. A well-trained rat could perform the task with 85% success. We found two major types of neurons intermixed in the rat posterior parietal cortex. One type (n = 14) mainly discriminated the direction of the cue tones, whereas the other (n = 36) carried a mnemonic value of the cue tones while the tones were removed. The former responded only during the cue tone period (discriminatory neurons), whereas the latter responded during the cue tone period and the delay period (mnemonic neurons). These cells also exhibited broad directional tuning. The results agreed with previous studies, suggesting that a population coding scheme exists in the posterior parietal cortex. When the cells were tested with novel tones or when the rats were rotated through 180 degrees, the vast majority of the cells exhibited a directional tuning similar to those under the control conditions. Three quarters (18/24) of the cells that exhibited a mnemonic characteristic persisted in their directional preference when the rat's orientation was changed (12/17 neurons) or when an unfamiliar auditory stimulus was used (6/7 neurons). Half of the discriminatory neurons (4/8 neurons) persisted in their directional preference. These results, consistent with previous behavioral studies, suggest an allocentric representation of the auditory processing in this area. Furthermore, when the rat was reoriented or an unfamiliar cue tone was used, both the average and peak directional responses were enhanced in more than half of the mnemonic or discriminatory neurons. These results support the frequency-dependent neocortical gating hypothesis of the entorhinal hippocampal loop.
Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation analysis on different life cycle of enterprise development strategy

Theory of enterprise life cycle has been mature since its initiation by Haire in 1959. In this paper, key factors affecting the competitiveness are used as the evaluative indicators to evaluate enterprise strategy and strategy evaluating systems for the survival, growth, maturity and ageing stages. Weight determination of the evaluative indicators in survival stage is used as an example to introduce fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. Based on a clear understanding of current enterprise strategy, this paper lays the foundation for enterprises' strategic transformation and reform.
Renal outcome after ciclosporin-induced nephrotoxicity.

BACKGROUND Renal outcome after ciclosporin (CsA) is not clear in most studies involving patients with many renal comorbid conditions. We first report on renal function recovery after CsA in previously healthy kidney patients. METHODS Uveitis patients, enroled in a unique single centre cohort follow-up study initiated in 1987, were prospectively evaluated for plasma creatinine and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) before, during (>2 years) and after (>6 months) CsA therapy. We hypothesized that CsA alters renal function progressively over time according to two additive exponential components (irreversible and reversible) and used a mixed linear model with exponential speed parameters maximizing the likelihood. RESULTS Twenty-seven patients treated for 60+/-34 months (CsA 5.1+/-2.5 mg/kg/day) were followed up for 56+/-42 months after CsA withdrawal. Baseline creatinine was 0.92+/-0.15 mg/dl. The reversible effect of CsA was quantified as a 0.11+/-0.07 mg/dl increase in creatinine/100 mg CsA/day (P<0.001) and a 6.0+/-3.7 ml/min/1.73 m(2) decrease in GFR/100 mg CsA/day (P<0.0001). The irreversible effect was quantified as a 0.03+/-0.05 mg/dl increase in creatinine/100 g cumulative CsA received (P<0.007) and a decrease of 3.3+/-3.9 ml/min/1.73 m(2) GFR/100 g CsA. CONCLUSIONS Although significant decrease in GFR is induced by low-dose CsA therapy in previously healthy kidney patients, renal function recovery is possible after CsA withdrawal and best predicted by CsA daily dosage. Irreversible loss in GFR is correlated to cumulated CsA exposure. The lowest CsA dosage and shortest exposure time effect as well as unlimited renal monitoring are required in order to provide the best long-term renal outcome.
Results of the 2014-15 Campus Travel Survey

The UC Davis Campus Travel Survey is a joint effort by the Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS) and the Sustainable Transportation Center, part of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis. Since 2007 the survey has been administered each fall by a graduate student at the Institute of Transportation Studies. The main purpose of the survey is to collect annual data on how the UC Davis community travels to campus, including mode choice, vehicle occupancy, distances traveled, and carbon emissions. Over the past seven years, the travel survey results have been used to assess awareness and utilization of campus transportation services and estimate demand for new services designed to promote sustainable commuting at UC Davis. Data from the campus travel survey have also provided researchers with valuable insights about the effects of attitudes and perceptions of mobility options on commute mode choice. This year’s survey is the eighth administration of the campus travel survey. The 2014-15 survey was administered online in October 2014, distributed by email to a stratified random sample of 30,815 students, faculty, and staff (out of an estimated total population of 42,405). About 14 percent (4,224 individuals) of those contacted responded to this year’s survey, with 11.4 percent actually completing it. For the statistics presented throughout this report, the authors weighed the responses by role (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, Master’s student, PhD student, faculty, and staff) and gender so that the proportion of respondents in each group reflects their proportion in the campus population.
Mesenchymal Precursor Cells as Adjunctive Therapy in Recipients of Contemporary Left Ventricular Assist Devices

Background— Allogeneic mesenchymal precursor cells (MPCs) injected during left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation may contribute to myocardial recovery. This trial explores the safety and efficacy of this strategy. Methods and Results— In this multicenter, double-blind, sham-procedure controlled trial, 30 patients were randomized (2:1) to intramyocardial injection of 25 million MPCs or medium during LVAD implantation. The primary safety end point was incidence of infectious myocarditis, myocardial rupture, neoplasm, hypersensitivity reaction, and immune sensitization (90 days after randomization). Key efficacy end points were functional status and ventricular function while temporarily weaned from LVAD support (90 days after randomization). Patients were followed up until transplant or 12 months after randomization, whichever came first. Mean age was 57.4 (±13.6) years, mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 18.1%, and 66.7% were destination therapy LVADs. No safety events were observed. Successful temporary LVAD weaning was achieved in 50% of MPC and 20% of control patients at 90 days (P=0.24); the posterior probability that MPCs increased the likelihood of successful weaning was 93%. At 90 days, 3 deaths (30%) occurred in control patients, and none occurred in MPC patients. Mean left ventricular ejection fraction after successful wean was 24.0% (MPC=10) and 22.5% (control=2; P=0.56). At 12 months, 30% of MPC patients and 40% of control patients were successfully temporarily weaned from LVAD support (P=0.69), and 6 deaths (30%) occurred in MPC patients. Donor-specific HLA sensitization developed in 2 MPC and 3 control patients and resolved by 12 months. Conclusions— In this preliminary trial, administration of MPCs appeared to be safe, and there was a potential signal of efficacy. Future studies will evaluate the potential for higher or additional doses to enhance the ability to wean LVAD recipients off support. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT01442129.
TIL therapy broadens the tumor-reactive CD8+ T cell compartment in melanoma patients

There is strong evidence that both adoptive T cell transfer and T cell checkpoint blockade can lead to regression of human melanoma. However, little data are available on the effect of these cancer therapies on the tumor-reactive T cell compartment. To address this issue we have profiled therapy-induced T cell reactivity against a panel of 145 melanoma-associated CD8+ T cell epitopes. Using this approach, we demonstrate that individual tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte cell products from melanoma patients contain unique patterns of reactivity against shared melanoma-associated antigens, and that the combined magnitude of these responses is surprisingly low. Importantly, TIL therapy increases the breadth of the tumor-reactive T cell compartment in vivo, and T cell reactivity observed post-therapy can almost in full be explained by the reactivity observed within the matched cell product. These results establish the value of high-throughput monitoring for the analysis of immuno-active therapeutics and suggest that the clinical efficacy of TIL therapy can be enhanced by the preparation of more defined tumor-reactive T cell products.
Using visual speech for training Chinese pronunciation: an in-vivo experiment

Recent research showed that our perception and understanding of speech are influenced by a speaker's facial expressions and accompanying gestures, as well as the actual sound of the speech. Perceivers expertly use these multiple sources of information to identify and interpret the language input. Baldi® is a three-dimensional animated talking head appropriately aligned with either synthesized or natural speech. The present in-vivo experiment used Bao, a Chinese version of Baldi, to teach Chinese syllables to adult English native speakers. The result showed that students trained with Baldi, improved more than students trained with ordinary speech. Advantages of the Baldi pedagogy and technology include the popularity and proven effectiveness of computers and embodied conversational agents, the perpetual availability of the program, and individualized instruction. The technological edge of Baldi holds great promise in language learning, dialog, human-machine interaction, education, and edutainment.
Skeletal Shape Correspondence Through Entropy

We present a novel approach for improving the shape statistics of medical image objects by generating correspondence of skeletal points. Each object’s interior is modeled by an s-rep, i.e., by a sampled, folded, two-sided skeletal sheet with spoke vectors proceeding from the skeletal sheet to the boundary. The skeleton is divided into three parts: the up side, the down side, and the fold curve. The spokes on each part are treated separately and, using spoke interpolation, are shifted along that skeleton in each training sample so as to tighten the probability distribution on those spokes’ geometric properties while sampling the object interior regularly. As with the surface/boundary-based correspondence method of Cates et al., entropy is used to measure both the probability distribution tightness and the sampling regularity, here of the spokes’ geometric properties. Evaluation on synthetic and real world lateral ventricle and hippocampus data sets demonstrate improvement in the performance of statistics using the resulting probability distributions. This improvement is greater than that achieved by an entropy-based correspondence method on the boundary points.
Overcoming Stunting Through Local Wisdom Community Towards a Food Consumption Diversity: A Preliminary Research of Torbangun Leaves (Coleus Amboinicus L) Biscuit

Objective: This paper shows that torbangun leaves (Coleus Amboinicus L) are suitable for nursing mothers in a practical, comfortable, and healthy form according to the standards of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, namely in the form of biscuits. In the Batak ethnic group in Indonesia, it was found that local wisdom in the community that torbangun leaves are believed to improve the quality of breast milk for infants aged 12-24 months. Various studies show that the torbangun leaf contains elements that can increase a baby's height and nutrition. Method: The research was conducted experimentally to obtain biscuits from torbangun leaves based on the biscuits' aroma, texture, taste, and color. The last method is to intervene in stunting children aged 12-24 months. Children were grouped into children who were given biscuits with torbangun leaves and children who were given biscuits without torbangun leaves for three months every day. Result and Conclusion: The findings from the organoleptic test showed that the most suitable biscuits to be given to children aged 12-24 months were biscuits with the addition of torbangun leaf flour. There was a significant difference in body length in children who were given biscuits mixed with torbangun leaves and without torbangun leaves. Research implications: Research related to food consumption diversity comes from traditional knowledge of the Toba Batak ethnicity, which can be modified into healthy food to overcome stunting. From this initial research, the food industry can develop it into biscuits as a supplement for children aged 6-24 months. Originality/value: The value of this study lies in new findings in the field of supplementary diet and food consumption diversity for nutritional improvement in children aged 6 -24 months. To ensure reliability, the habit of adding food supplements to nursing mothers based on traditional knowledge of one ethnicity was studied through laboratory studies. Furthermore, the raw materials always used by breastfeeding mothers are checked to be modified into biscuits so that they are easy to obtain, easy to use, and low cost.
Landslide inventory and main geomorphological features affecting slope stability in the Picentino river basin (Campania, southern Italy)

ABSTRACT The landslide inventory of the Picentino basin was realized at 1:25,000, with focus on main geomorphological features affecting slope stability. It is based on different sets of air-photos (scales 1:33,000–1:18,000, dated up to 1998), and on field surveys. Among shallow landslides, channelized debris flows strongly prevail, originated as debris slides on moderately steep slopes. Further sectors are affected by deeper slope movements of greater extent. Items related to tectonics, erosion processes, and anthropized sectors are also mapped. Relevant predisposing factors to slope instability are shown in 1:100,000 thematic maps. In addition, shallow landslides of the 1998 inventory were compared to those derived from two event-based inventories (PSAI 2002, PSAI 2011, dated 1998–2005 at 1:13,000–1:10,000). Discrepancies are mainly ascribable to types of employed air-photos, age of surveys, scale of mapping, and freshness of forms, remarking the relevance of suitable shallow-landslide inventories for susceptibility evaluations.
Splay Trees

Splay trees generalize the MTF heuristic for the list-access problem to binary search trees. They were introduced by Sleator and Tarjan in 1985 1]. We assume that everybody is familiar with height-balanced search trees 4]. Deenition 1. A splay tree is a binary search tree, where after access to item x the item is made the root of the tree by a splay operation at x, consisting of a sequence of splay steps: If x has no grandparent then rotate(parent(x)). This is called a zig step. x A A B C y y x B C If x has a grandparent, and x and parent(x) are both left (or both right) children then rst rotate(grandparent(x)) and then rotate(parent(x)). This is called a zig-zig step. A B C x y D z A B C y D z x If x has a grandparent, x is a left (right) child, and parent(x) is a right(left) child then rst rotate(parent(x)) and then rotate(z), where z is the new parent of x after the rst rotation (the former grandparent of x). This is called a zigzag step.
The relationship between phonemic awareness and cue weighting in speech perception : longitudinal and cross-sectional child studies.

Studies have shown a potential relationship between speech perception, and the development of both alphabetic literacy and phonemic awareness. Most of these studies have assumed that all perceptual changes are developmental, with literacy and phonemic awareness building on, but not affecting perception. However, a study by Nittrouer (1996b) of the relationship between phonemic awareness, and changes in perceptual cue weighting (also called the Developmental Weighting Shift) brings into question this assumption. Nittrouer showed that, while early perceptual development might affect later metaphonemic skills, it is equally possible that the development of phonemic awareness could impact on apparently developmental perceptual changes. The studies in this thesis aimed to determine which of these two possible causal directions is more likely. Experiment 1 was a longitudinal study of 18 beginning– reading children (average age at the beginning of the study: 5;8). These children were tested on their phonemic awareness, and their perceptual weighting of two cues to a / /–/s/ contrast. This study showed that changes in acoustic cue weighting always follow the development of good phonemic awareness skills, and furthermore, that early phonemic awareness scores predict later cue weighting strategies. Experiment 2 was a cross–sectional study of 8 normally developing older children, who had not begun literacy or pre–literacy training (average age: 7;3). These children were also tested on their phonemic awareness skills and cue weighting strategies. This second study showed that in the absence of phonemic awareness development, changes in cue weighting strategy do not take place. These two studies show that changes in cue weighting strategy are affected by the development of phonemic awareness. This indicates that Nittrouer’s Developmental Weighting Shift model does not in fact describe a developmental process. These results also suggest that, when studying the development of low level linguistic behavior, the effect of higher order cognitive processes must be taken into account.
Viral proteins E1B19K and p35 protect sympathetic neurons from cell death induced by NGF deprivation

To study molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal cell death, we have used sympathetic neurons from superior cervical ganglia which undergo programmed cell death when deprived of nerve growth factor. These neurons have been microinjected with expression vectors containing cDNAs encoding selected proteins to test their regulatory influence over cell death. Using this procedure, we have shown previously that sympathetic neurons can be protected from NGF deprivation by the protooncogene Bcl-2. We now report that the E1B19K protein from adenovirus and the p35 protein from baculovirus also rescue neurons. Other adenoviral proteins, E1A and E1B55K, have no effect on neuronal survival. E1B55K, known to block apoptosis mediated by p53 in proliferative cells, failed to rescue sympathetic neurons suggesting that p53 is not involved in neuronal death induced by NGF deprivation. E1B19K and p35 were also coinjected with Bcl-Xs which blocks Bcl-2 function in lymphoid cells. Although Bcl-Xs blocked the ability of Bcl- 2 to rescue neurons, it had no effect on survival that was dependent upon expression of E1B19K or p35.
On guaranteed accuracy computation

The concept of guaranteed accuracy computation is a natural one: the user could specify any á priori relative or absolute precision bound on the numerical values which are to be computed in an algorithm. It is a generalization of guaranteed sign computation, a concept originally proposed to solve the ubiquitous problem of non-robustness in geometric algorithms. In this paper, we investigate some basic properties of such computational mode. We formulate a theory of real computation and approximation to capture guaranteed accuracy computation. We also introduce an algebraic and a numerical model of computation based on Schönhage’s pointer machines.
A Flexible and Parallel Simulator for Networks-on-Chip with Error Control

We present a fast parallel simulator to evaluate the impact of different error control methods on the performance of networks-on-chip (NoCs). The simulator, implemented with message passing interface (MPI) language to exploit multiprocessor server environments, models characteristics of intellectual property (IP) cores, network interfaces (NIs), and routers. Moreover, different error control schemes can be inserted to the simulator in a plug-and-play manner for evaluation. A highly tunable fault injection feature allows estimation of the latency, throughout and energy consumption of an error control scheme against different fault types, fault injection locations and traffic injections. Case NoC studies are presented to demonstrate how the simulator assists in NoC design space exploration, evaluating the impact of different error control methods on NoC performance, and providing design guidelines for NoCs with error control capabilities.
Systemic Candida Infection and Pulmonary Aspergillosis in an Alpaca (Vicugna pacos): A Case Report

This study reports a peculiar case of systemic candidiasis infection associated with pulmonary aspergillosis in an apparently immunocompetent alpaca. A captive 7-year-old female alpaca exhibited respiratory symptoms, underwent treatment with benzylpenicillin and dexamethasone, and succumbed to the infection 40 days later. During the post-mortem examination, subcutaneous emphysema, widespread pneumonia with multiple suppurative foci, scattered necro-suppurative lesions throughout the renal and hepatic parenchyma were evident. Histopathological analysis of the collected tissues revealed multifocal mild lymphoplasmacytic chronic interstitial nephritis, necro-suppurative pneumonia with the presence of fungal hyphae, multifocal foci of mineralization, and fibrosis in the liver. Fungal cultures confirmed the growth of Aspergillus fumigatus from the lungs, and Candida albicans from the liver, kidney, and heart. The only recognizable risk factor for candidiasis and pulmonary aspergillosis in this case was prior corticosteroid and antibiotic therapy. Nevertheless, it is crucial to consider systemic candidosis and pulmonary aspergillosis as potential differential diagnoses in respiratory infections among camelids. Prolonged treatment with glucocorticoids and antibiotics should be avoided as it could represent a risk factor for the onset of pathologies caused by opportunistic fungi such as Candida spp. and Aspergillus spp.