Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Purinergic receptors and their activation by endogenous purines at perisynaptic glial cells of the frog neuromuscular junction

Glial cells are closely associated with synapses and are modulated by neurotransmitters released during synaptic transmission. At many synapses, ATP is released during synaptic transmission and is involved in cell-cell signaling. Since glial cells have purinoceptors, it is possible that ATP mediates synaptic neuron-glia signaling. This work aims at determining which types of purinoceptors are present on perisynaptic Schwann cells, the perisynaptic glial cells at the frog neuromuscular junction, and test their sensitivity to endogenous purines by monitoring the relative changes of intracellular Ca2+. Local application of ATP induced the release of Ca2+ from internal stores. Adenosine induced Ca2+ responses that were blocked by A1 receptor antagonists and mimicked by an A1 receptor agonist and were caused by the release of Ca2+ from internal stores via a pertussis toxin- sensitive G-protein. A2 receptor antagonists had no effect on Ca2+ responses induced by adenosine. Me-S-ATP, an ATP analog, triggered Ca2+ release from internal stores via a pertussis toxin-sensitive G-protein, consistent with the activation of P2Y receptors. L-AMP-PCP, another ATP analog, induced Ca2+ entry mainly through L-type Ca2+ channels by a pertussis toxin-insensitive mechanism, consistent with the activation of P2X receptors. Blockade of adenosine receptors did not affect glial Ca2+ responses induced by nerve evoked transmitter release. However, blockade of ATP receptors reduced the size and increased the delay of the responses. Hence, purinoceptors are present on the perisynaptic Schwann cells and are activated by endogenous ATP released during synaptic transmission.
Principle and Performance of Magnetically Induced Magnetoacoustic Tomography for Tissues with Cone Shaped Transducer

The theory on the principle of the Magnetically Induced Magnetoacoustic Tomography (MI-MAT) with a cone shaped transducer in cylindrical measure configuration is proposed in this paper. The principle of MI-MAT generation and magnetoacoustic detection are theoretically deduced in formula. It is proved that the acoustic waveforms are mainly generated at the conductivity boundaries and only the configuration of the scanned layer can be reconstructed without the inner conductivity distribution using the waveforms detected around the object with the cone shaped transducer. The performance of MI-MAT, including the improved resolution at high frequency excitation and the favorable SNR dependence, provides a non- invasive means for conductivity differentiation in diagnostic imaging. The numerical simulations of the proposed theory for a cylindrical sample phantom have good agreements with the former published results and suggest the potential applications for bioimpedance imaging.
A synthesis method for fault-tolerant and flexible multipath routing protocols

Design of practical routing protocols is complex and difficult due to complicated requirements of fault tolerance and flexibility. The protocol is defined to be fault-tolerant if messages can be rerouted via another path when the communication channel fails. In this paper, we propose a new synthesis method for generating a fault-tolerant routing protocol for a given service specification and a network topology. The routing protocol thus obtained adopts a multipath routing augmented with sets, where each set stores the next nodes for routing, and updates the sets according to network topology changes. Additionally, the routing protocol can attain flexibility by the multipath routing mechanism in the sense that only a small amount of changes is needed for addition or deletion of nodes. Finally, we show the effectiveness of the proposed method through an application to a typical routing service of message delivery from a source node to a destination node.
Reactive Oxygen Species and Mitochondrial DNA Damage and Repair in BCR-ABL1 Cells Resistant to Imatinib

Abstract Imatinib revolutionized the therapy of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), but the resistance to it became an emerging problem. We reported previously that CML cells expressing the BCR/ABL1 fusion gene, accumulated a high level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to deregulated mitochondrial electron transport chain, which in turn led to genomic instability, resulting in imatinib resistance. In the present work, we hypothesize that imatinib-resistant cells may show higher instability of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) than their sensitive counterparts. To verify this hypothesis, we checked the ROS level and mtDNA damage and repair in model CML cells sensitive and resistant to imatinib and exposed to doxorubicin (DOX), a DNA-damaging agent. The extent of endogenous ROS in imatinib-resistant cells was higher than in their sensitive counterparts and DOX potentiated this relationship. ROS level in cells with primary resistance, which resulted from the T315I mutation in BCR/ABL1, was higher than in cells with acquired resistance. DOX-induced mtDNA damage in T315I imatinib-resistant cells was more pronounced than in imatinib-sensitive cells. All kinds of cells were repairing mtDNA damage with similar kinetics. In conclusion, imatinib-resistant cells can show increased instability of mtDNA, which can result from increased ROS production.
Addressing the Joint Simulation of Engineering and Engagement Level over Heterogeneous Systems

The joint simulation of Engineering and Engagement level systems could improve the quality of weapon system's effectiveness analysis due to the support of reliable weapon performance data. Since engineering systems were developed independently and often incorporate real assets in the virtual environment, heterogeneity and real-time performance are key issues that need to be considered when constructing the joint simulation. To overcome these limitations, this paper presents an interoperation architecture with a 3-tier hierarchy to organize various messages during the simulation. The proposed approach is demonstrated through a warship air defense simulation, including engineering and engagement models. Experiments are performed to evaluate the architecture's validity and real-time performance. The conclusion shows that this architecture could effectively address the joint simulation of the two levels.
Myosin IIB Activity and Phosphorylation Status Determines Dendritic Spine and Post-Synaptic Density Morphology

Dendritic spines in hippocampal neurons mature from a filopodia-like precursor into a mushroom-shape with an enlarged post-synaptic density (PSD) and serve as the primary post-synaptic location of the excitatory neurotransmission that underlies learning and memory. Using myosin II regulatory mutants, inhibitors, and knockdowns, we show that non-muscle myosin IIB (MIIB) activity determines where spines form and whether they persist as filopodia-like spine precursors or mature into a mushroom-shape. MIIB also determines PSD size, morphology, and placement in the spine. Local inactivation of MIIB leads to the formation of filopodia-like spine protrusions from the dendritic shaft. However, di-phosphorylation of the regulatory light chain on residues Thr18 and Ser19 by Rho kinase is required for spine maturation. Inhibition of MIIB activity or a mono-phosphomimetic mutant of RLC similarly prevented maturation even in the presence of NMDA receptor activation. Expression of an actin cross-linking, non-contractile mutant, MIIB R709C, showed that maturation into a mushroom-shape requires contractile activity. Loss of MIIB also leads to an elongated PSD morphology that is no longer restricted to the spine tip; whereas increased MIIB activity, specifically through RLC-T18, S19 di-phosphorylation, increases PSD area. These observations support a model whereby myosin II inactivation forms filopodia-like protrusions that only mature once NMDA receptor activation increases RLC di-phosphorylation to stimulate MIIB contractility, resulting in mushroom-shaped spines with an enlarged PSD.
Sex differences in spatial cognition: an evolutionary approach

This thesis is concerned with investigating causal explanations for the observed patterns of sex differences in spatial cognition. Researchers in this area have traditionally reported a male advantage in many spatial tasks, particularly mental rotation. However, a number of more recent results suggest that the pattern of sex differences in spatial ability is more complicated: females show a spatial memory advantage on some tasks involving large arrays of objects, and navigational tasks seem to reveal sex differences in attentional bias toward different types of spatial information. After reviewing three main types of causal explanations, it is concluded that the evolutionary approach has at least two compelling advantages. Firstly, it is inherently multidisciplinary, and readily incorporates both biological-proximal and social-developmental explanations, as these mechanisms are integral to the expression of evolved traits. Secondly, it not only fits the available data, but provides a framework for generating novel theories and predictions; indeed, Silverman and Eals (1992) used an evolutionary model of sex differences in spatial ability – the 'hunter-gatherer' model, based on the sexual division of labour hypothesized to underlie hominid foraging and navigational requirements – to successfully predict the previously unobserved female advantage on certain object array tasks. Thus, the primary aim of this thesis is to expand the hunter-gatherer model by further examining the computational demands placed on spatial ability in ancestral humans, and by making increasingly focused predictions about the cognitive skills underlying sex differences in spatial performance. Following a detailed discussion of these computational demands, it is argued that male-typical hunting as a foraging strategy is associated with long range surveybased wayfinding, which requires the allocentric encoding of spatial relationships and enhanced sensitivity to coordinate information such as distance, based on the use of external geometric reference points. By contrast, it is argued that female-typical gathering as a foraging strategy is associated with short range route-based wayfinding, which requires the ability to encode relational egocentric-categorical information about a large number of objects, but does not require enhanced sensitivity to categorical information. In order to examine this proposed model, several different spatial tasks are used and devised, with the aim of measuring sex differences in bias and sensitivity toward different types of spatial information. In all cases the computational demands of the task are related to the computational demands hypothesized to underlie hunting and gathering. Examples of manipulations of established tasks include variations on mental rotation (including measurements of the effects of angular distance), object array tasks, object recognition, categorical and coordinate sensitivity tasks, the judgement of line angle and position, and the tilt illusion. Examples of novel lower-level tasks designed to measure the skills underlying mental
Implications of the financial crisis for models in monetary policy

Monetary authorities have been implicated in the financial crisis of 2007-2008. John Muellbauer, for example, has blamed what he thought was initially inadequate policy responses by central banks to the crisis on their models, which are, in his words, “overdue for the scrap heap”. This paper investigates the role of monetary policy models in the crisis and finds that (i) it is likely that monetary policy contributed to the financial crisis and (ii) that an inappropriately narrow suite of models made this mistake easier. The core models currently used at prominent central banks were not designed to discover emergent financial fragility. In that respect John Muellbauer is right. But the implications drawn here are less dramatic than his: while the representative agent approach to microfoundations now seems indefensible, other aspects of modern macroeconomics are not similarly suspect. The case made here is rather for expanding the suite of models used in the regular deliberations of monetary authorities, with new models that give explicit roles to the financial sector, to money and to the process of exchange. Recommending a suite of models for policy making entails no methodological innovation. That is what central banks do; though, of course, how they do it is open to improvement. The methodological innovation is the inclusion of a model that would be sensitive to financial fragility, a sensitivity that was absent in the run-up to the current financial crisis.
Understanding the success of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains causing epidemic disease in the community.

Since it was first described in 1961, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been an increasingly important cause of health care-associated infections worldwide [1, 2]. For several decades, MRSA was almost exclusively a health care-associated pathogen and was not considered a significant threat to healthy persons in the general community. During the 1990s, new strains of MRSA emerged and caused communityassociated infections on multiple continents [3]. The genetic backgrounds of these strains vary geographically but are distinct from those of MRSA strains that
A secure dominating set based routing and key management scheme in mobile ad hoc network

In Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) nodes communicate with each other using shared wireless medium. Due to their distributed nature and dynamic topology, MANET is less secured than wired network. To enhance the security of MANET, it is important to establish routing path based on the trustworthiness of each node in the network. Most existing routing protocols in MANET mainly focus at finding efficient routing path. To deal with the effect of malicious node, trustworthiness of node can be taken into consideration in routing decision making. A routing protocol based on distributed dominating set based clustering algorithm is presented in this paper. The dominator set is formed based on the trust ability of the node and probability of future contact of the node in the network. This paper present a adaptive neuro fuzzy logic controller to evaluate the trust level of each node and a composite key management technique used for effective key management within cluster. Simulation results show that proposed routing protocol provides efficient routing path that bypass malicious nodes in the network.
The Perspectives of First-Year Principals Regarding Their Experiences with Mentors and the Mentoring Process Within the Louisiana Educational Leaders Induction (LELI) Program

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Mining Association Rules with Range Support

Mining association rules from large databases is a predominant research problem in the data mining community. Although in the past two decades we have witnessed substantial achievements on developing efficient algorithms, the classical model of mining association rules with high frequency is not feasible for some real applications. For example, in the area of medical data mining, useful or valuable patterns, such as the associations that disclose the relationship between drugs and ADRs (Adverse Drug Reactions) usually occur rarely, i.e., less than 0.1%. This leads to at least two drawbacks when applying contemporary efficient algorithms to these applications: (1) most discovered frequent patterns are uninteresting or useless, and (2) most of the efforts spent on pattern discovery are wasted. As such, even the fastest algorithm will become dramatically inefficient in discovering such infrequent but promising rules. In light of these observations, we propose a new model of association rule mining, called range supported association rules, which extends the strict support threshold to an interval. Problems of adopting Apriori-like algorithms for this new model are discussed and a promising algorithm is also proposed.
An Empirical Evaluation Framework for Qualifying Dynamic Neural Fields

In this paper, the behavior of dynamic neural fields is studied through the lens of performance. As an alternative to the currently available analytical instruments, an empirical evaluation methodology is proposed in order to examine the dynamic quality of a field. This consists of simulating the field through various key scenarios and compare the observed behavior to an optimal expected one. Some desired effects concerning the evolution of an ideal field are inspected, and a performance criterion is defined accordingly. Practically, this approach implements a generic benchmark framework for qualifying neural fields, allowing to inspect the evolution of the model in different key situations. The presented methodology provides a basis for a methodological computational approach towards adjusting the free parameters of the fields in order to satisfy specific desired properties.
Computer Analysis of the Indirect Piano Touch : Analysis Methods and Results

Indirect touches touches that originate from above the key play an important role in piano technique. Analysis methods are presented and applied in a study with piano students performing different touches in slow motion. Colored markers that were attached to the players’ fingers were tracked and the angles in the joints were determined. Methods to judge the regularity of the measured movements are introduced and applied to the obtained dataset. Further, phenomena that we found in the motion graphs are discussed.
Break-Even Maturity as a Guide to Financial Distress

During the recent crisis, lags in the transmission mechanism of economic shocks, together with monetary and fiscal policy, made it difficult to assess the evolving dynamics of creditworthiness. As such, developments in financial markets became a key guide for investors and policymakers in determining the degree of financial distress that borrowers faced, providing a real-time update of market participants’ views. However, simple measures of borrowing costs such as secondary market yields typically ignore differences in debt maturities and hence refinancing risks. This paper describes a new indicator of financial distress – the break-even maturity – that combines these factors. Using financial market data for euro area countries, the break-even maturity is shown to provide an alternative perspective on the absolute and relative risks associated with different borrowers that is distinct from the standard metrics gleaned from bond yields or credit-default swaps. As such, while break-even maturities are ultimately theoretical constructs, they can offer a valuable alternative perspective on how the financing pressures facing distressed borrowers are evolving in real-time.
Interactive visualizer for the extended perspective system as support for architectural design

The flexibility of free-hand drawing perspectives denotes the dynamic nature of human sight and no single perspective system, linear or curvilinear, can translate human vision with such agility. For instance, linear perspective cannot deal with large fields of view, and curvilinear perspectives introduce curvature in lines. But together, complementing each other, they can overcome many of their limitations. This paper describes an interactive computational tool for architectural visualization — a digital perspectograph that implements a new theoretical and operative hybrid solution to perspective, the Extended Perspective System (EPS) — and presents a user evaluation carried out to determine its usability, perceived usefulness, satisfaction and ease of use, as an interactive tool to support the design process in architecture. It also aimed to learn about the most effective and appreciated features and interface design options to support the EPS perspective, and identify potential directions for improvement. The user study involved participants with different backgrounds — students and experts, in the target audience of architects and informatics engineers with experience in using and developing interactive tools, HCI and computer graphics. The visualizer was highly appreciated, in terms of layout, available features, produced images and flexibility, and the most effective design options were identified, mainly for their simplicity, visibility, and familiarity. It was considered advantageous compared to conventional perspective visualizers, and users would like to see it integrated into 3D modelling tools.
Genetic Relatedness among Hepatitis A Virus Strains Associated with Food-Borne Outbreaks

The genetic characterization of hepatitis A virus (HAV) strains is commonly accomplished by sequencing subgenomic regions, such as the VP1/P2B junction. HAV genome is not extensively variable, thus presenting opportunity for sharing sequences of subgenomic regions among genetically unrelated isolates. The degree of misrepresentation of phylogenetic relationships by subgenomic regions is especially important for tracking transmissions. Here, we analyzed whole-genome (WG) sequences of 101 HAV strains identified from 4 major multi-state, food-borne outbreaks of hepatitis A in the Unites States and from 14 non-outbreak-related HAV strains that shared identical VP1/P2B sequences with the outbreak strains. Although HAV strains with an identical VP1/P2B sequence were specific to each outbreak, WG were different, with genetic diversity reaching 0.31% (mean 0.09%). Evaluation of different subgenomic regions did not identify any other section of the HAV genome that could accurately represent phylogenetic relationships observed using WG sequences. The identification of 2–3 dominant HAV strains in 3 out of 4 outbreaks indicates contamination of the implicated food items with a heterogeneous HAV population. However, analysis of intra-host HAV variants from eight patients involved in one outbreak showed that only a single sequence variant established infection in each patient. Four non-outbreak strains were found closely related to strains from 2 outbreaks, whereas ten were genetically different from the outbreak strains. Thus, accurate tracking of HAV strains can be accomplished using HAV WG sequences, while short subgenomic regions are useful for identification of transmissions only among cases with known epidemiological association.