Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medial prefrontal cortical output neurons to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and their responses to burst‐patterned stimulation of the VTA: Neuroanatomical and in vivo electrophysiological analyses

During a delayed period in a delayed‐response task, prefrontal cortical neurons show a change in neuronal firing rate that is dependent on a functional mesocortical dopamine input. This change in firing rate has been attributed to be part of the cellular processes underlying working memory. However, it is unclear what neural mechanisms activate mesocortical dopamine neurons to provide an optimal level of dopamine to modulate the firing of the medial prefrontal cortical (mPFC) neurons. This study examined the possibility of whether mPFC neurons that project to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) might activate the ascending mesocortical dopamine neurons. To determine the locations of the mPFC→VTA neurons, cholera toxin subunit B was microinjected into the VTA. Retrogradely labeled mPFC neurons mainly reside in the deep lamina V and VI. In vivo single unit recording in urethane‐anesthetized rats were also used to determine the responses of some of these neurons to burst‐patterned stimulation of the VTA. Single‐pulse stimulation (1 Hz) of the VTA antidromically activated burst firing mPFC→VTA neurons. In response to burst‐patterned stimulation of the VTA, which mimicked burst firing of VTA dopamine neurons (4–10 pulses at 10–15 Hz cycled at 0.5–3 Hz), the temporal structure of spontaneous burst firing patterns of these neurons but not their mean firing rate were changed. However, the mean firing rate of the non‐VTA projecting neurons (i.e., no antidromic response to VTA stimulations) was either increased or decreased by similar burst‐patterned stimulation of the VTA. These data suggest that burst‐patterned stimulation of the ascending VTA→mPFC or putative mesocortical dopamine neurons might have released dopamine and/or other neuromodulators to modulate the temporal code, rather than the rate code, of mPFC→VTA neurons. Medial PFC neurons that project elsewhere (e.g., nucleus accumbens or mediodorsal thalamus) may mediate the sustained firing rate changes during, e.g., short‐term working memory. Synapse 34:245–255, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Flame Retardant Polyamide Fibres: The Challenge of Minimising Flame Retardant Additive Contents with Added Nanoclays

This work shows that halogen-free, flame retarded polyamide 6 (PA6), fabrics may be produced in which component fibres still have acceptable tensile properties and low levels (preferably ≤10 wt %) of additives by incorporating a nanoclay along with two types of flame retardant formulations. The latter include (i) aluminium diethyl phosphinate (AlPi) at 10 wt %, known to work principally in the vapour phase and (ii) ammonium sulphamate (AS)/dipentaerythritol (DP) system present at 2.5 and 1 wt % respectively, believed to be condense phase active. The nanoclay chosen is an organically modified montmorillonite clay, Cloisite 25A. The effect of each additive system is analysed in terms of its ability to maximise both filament tensile properties relative to 100% PA6 and flame retardant behaviour of knitted fabrics in a vertical orientation. None of the AlPi-containing formulations achieved self-extinguishability, although the presence of nanoclay promoted lower burning and melt dripping rates. The AS/DP-containing formulations with total flame retardant levels of 5.5 wt % or less showed far superior properties and with nanoclay, showed fabric extinction times ≤ 39 s and reduced melt dripping. The tensile and flammability results, supported by thermogravimetric analysis, have been interpreted in terms of the mechanism of action of each flame retardant/nanoclay type.
Multiple hypothesis tracking for automated vehicle perception

The use of multiple hypothesis tracking has proven to provide significant performance benefits over the single hypothesis GNN or the PDA algorithm. Automotive sensors like radars, laser-scanners or vision systems are being integrated into vehicles for commercial or scientific purposes, in increasing numbers over the last years. As a result, there is profound literature on this area and several approaches have been proposed to the problem of multi-target, multi-sensor target tracking. The most advanced vehicle applications allow the use of highly or even fully automated driving. Of course, these applications require an accurate, robust and reliable perception output so that the vehicle can be driven autonomously. The HAVEit EU project investigates the application and validation of automated vehicles applications, technologies that are going to have great impact in transport safety and comfort. In this paper the MHT algorithm is applied to real sensor data, installed in Volvo Technology vehicle demonstrating Automated Queue Assistance. In conjunction with simulated scenarios, the benefits in tracking performance compared to conventional GNN tracking are presented.
Cohesin acetylation and Wapl‐Pds5 oppositely regulate translocation of cohesin along DNA

Cohesin is a ring‐shaped protein complex that plays a crucial role in sister chromatid cohesion and gene expression. The dynamic association of cohesin with chromatin is essential for these functions. However, the exact nature of cohesin dynamics, particularly cohesin translocation, remains unclear. We evaluated the dynamics of individual cohesin molecules on DNA and found that the cohesin core complex possesses an intrinsic ability to traverse DNA in an adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase)‐dependent manner. Translocation ability is suppressed in the presence of Wapl‐Pds5 and Sororin; this suppression is alleviated by the acetylation of cohesin and the action of mitotic kinases. In Xenopus laevis egg extracts, cohesin is translocated on unreplicated DNA in an ATPase‐ and Smc3 acetylation‐dependent manner. Cohesin movement changes from bidirectional to unidirectional when cohesin faces DNA replication; otherwise, it is incorporated into replicating DNA without being translocated or is dissociated from replicating DNA. This study provides insight into the nature of individual cohesin dynamics and the mechanisms by which cohesin achieves cohesion in different chromatin contexts.
Identification of a New Acute Phase Protein (*)

We have previously reported mouse SIP24 protein as a secreted inducible protein produced by quiescent Balb/c 3T3 cells. SIP24 can be produced in response to many factors, including serum, basic fibroblast growth factor, prostaglandin F2α, phorbol ester, and dexamethasone. Here we present evidence to show that SIP24 is the product of mouse 24P3 mRNA. The 24P3 cDNA was originally cloned from an SV40-transformed quiescent mouse primary kidney cell culture, and it has been classified as a new member of the lipocalin protein family. We show that the SIP24/24P3 protein and mRNA increase dramatically in mouse serum and liver during the acute phase response induced by turpentine injection. Injection of mice with dexamethasone caused a modest increase of SIP24/24P3 mRNA in the liver. Tissue distribution studies revealed that SIP24/24P3 is mainly expressed in liver during the acute phase response. SIP24/24P3 was also detected in the brain and the uterus. In mouse BNL (Balb/c normal liver) cells, the production of SIP24/24P3 is stimulated by tumor necrosis factor α, which is a major regulator of the expression of other acute phase proteins. From its pattern of regulation, we conclude that SIP24/24P3 is a new type 1 acute phase protein.
Early productive vocabulary predicts academic achievement 10 years later

We use a longitudinal design to examine associations for a diverse sample of 2,120 Danish 16- to 30-month-old children between early expressive vocabulary and later reading and math outcomes in the sixth grade. Educational outcomes, in particular decoding and reading comprehension, can be predicted from an early vocabulary measure as early as 16 months with effect sizes (in proportion of variance accounted for) comparable to 1 year's mean growth in reading scores. The findings confirm in a relatively large population-based study that late talkers are at risk for low educational attainment because the majority of children experiencing early language delay obtain scores below average in measures of reading in the sixth grade. Low scores have the greatest predictive power, indicating that children with early delays have elevated risk for later reading problems.
Throwing voices: Investigating the psychological effects of the spatial location of projected voices

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Early Career Award, 2015 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, 2013 Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 (TR35), 2012 PopTech Science Fellowship, 2012 Fast Company 100 Most Creative People in Business, 2012 Silicon Valley 40 Under 40, 2011 Nathan Maccoby Outstanding Dissertation Award (granted only in years when justified), 2008 Phi Beta Kappa; Golden Key National Honour Society; Psi Chi, Psychology Honors Society
An Efficient Task-Based Execution Model for Stochastic Linear Solver on Multi-core and Many-Core Systems

Monte Carlo methods are a wide range of computational algorithms which depend on repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results. They are of great interest in parallel computing because the samplings are very often independent of one another, which expose abundant parallelism. Such parallelism is well suited for modern processors with large number of cores. In this study, we revisit the Monte Carlo technique for solving linear systems. The conventional implementation of this method, in spite of its abundant parallelism, still exhibits some fundamental bottlenecks which limit performance: (a) relatively large amount of time spent in random number generation, (b) serialized selection of new states, (c) lack of vectorization which leads to low SIMD efficiency for processors with wide vector units, and (d) variable results due to the stochastic nature of algorithm. We propose an efficient task-based execution model for tackling these problems. It provides a new perspective to interpret the theory so we can bypass the inevitable routines in conventional implementation of Monte Carlo method, such as random number generation. The new model also exploits the salient architectural features of modern multi-core system, such as wide vector units and hardware support for irregular memory access. Our work is built on the latest research on task-based scheduling. It shows very promising performance on both multi-core and many-core system. Compared with optimized conventional parallel implementation, we achieved significant speedups (up to 3.68x) on test matrices.
Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in Young Asthmatic Children Ages 6-10 Years Old

� Abstract≤The aim of this study was to establish the feasibility of a minute incremental exercise testing protocol in young asthma children. Twenty-two children with clinically diagnosed mild to moderate asthma volunteered to participate. The maximum incremental exercise test was performed using a cycle ergometer with an electromagnetic braking. A warm-up unloaded for 2 minutes then the workload was started at 40 watts for 2 minutes, and then stepwise increments of 8 watts per 2 minutes were applied. The pedaling frequency was set at 50 rpm. Ventilation and gas exchange were measured with a breath-by-breath automatic metabolic measurement system. Results showed that this test was well tolerated by all asthmatic children. Most of the children reached the VO2 plateau and satisfied the criteria for maximal respiratory exchange ratio of i 1. This Study demonstrated that this testing protocol was suitable for young asthmatic children.
Performance of Separation Processes for Precipitated Calcium Carbonate Produced with an Innovative Method from Steelmaking Slag and Carbon Dioxide

In this work, experiments were performed to determine the filterability of calcium carbonate produced with an alternative calcium carbonate production concept. The concept uses steelmaking slag as raw material and has potential to fix CO2 emissions and utilize steelmaking slag, simultaneously. As calcium carbonate is precipitated in a solution containing ammonium chloride, calcium chloride and ammonia, the product needs to be washed and hence filtered. In this work different separation processes, including washing, filtering and drying, were tested on two calcium carbonate slurries produced from steel converter slag and CO2 by a laboratory-scale pilot facility, with the aim of obtaining a solid product with a low chloride content using a minimum amount of washing water. The order of maximum filtration rates achievable of the calcium carbonate slurries was determined by experimental work. The tests included pressure filtration and vacuum filtration and the test series contained altogether 21 different filtration cycles with varying combinations of filtering, washing, and drying steps. The filtered cakes were analyzed by their residual moisture content, chloride content and conductivity, and the filtrates by their residual solids content, chloride content and conductivity. Pressure filtration gave a high capacity (400-460 kg/m2h) and a low cake residual moisture content (12-14 wt-%). Vacuum filtration gave slightly higher filtration rates (500-610 kg/m2h at the lowest residual chloride contents of the cakes), but the cake residual moisture also stayed higher (25-26 wt-%). As the vacuum filtration tests used a filter cloth with higher permeability than that of the pressure filtration tests, a slightly higher filtration rate was expected. However, both filtration technologies seem suitable for filtering and washing calcium carbonate prepared with the studied method as a residual chloride content as low as 10 ppm of the filtered solids can be achieved with quite a small amount of washing water and the filtration rate is fast.
Cellular uptake and concentrations of tamoxifen upon administration in poly(ε-caprolactone) nanoparticles

Purpose: In an attempt to increase the local concentration of tamoxifen in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cells, we have prepared and characterized poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) nanoparticle formulation. Methods: PCL (mol wt 14,800 daltons) nanoparticles were prepared by the solvent displacement method in acetonewater system in the presence of Pluronic F-68. PCL nanoparticles, labeled with rhodamine 123, were incubated with MCF-7 estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cells to determine uptake, intracellular distribution, and localization as a function of time. Intracellular drug concentrations over a specified period of time using different initial doses were examined using tritiated [3H]-tamoxifen. Results: A significant fraction of the administered rhodamine 123-loaded PCL nanoparticles was found in the perinuclear region of the MCF-7 cells, where estrogen receptors are also localized, after 1 hour of incubation. Measurements of the intracellular concentrations revealed that most of the administered nanoparticle dose was internalized within the first 30 minutes of incubation, and the uptake followed saturable transport kinetics. Conclusion: Results of this study show that PCL nanoparticles were rapidly internalized in MCF-7 cells and intracellular tamoxifen concentrations followed a saturable process. This approach may provide better therapeutic benefit by delivering the drug locally, near the tumor cells, for a longer period of time.
Distribution, Data, Deployment: Software Architecture Convergence in Big Data Systems

Big data applications are pushing the limits of software engineering on multiple horizons. Successful solutions span the design of the data, distribution, and deployment architectures. The body of software architecture knowledge must evolve to capture this advanced design knowledge for big data systems. This article is a first step on this path. Our research is proceeding in two complementary directions. First, we're expanding our collection of architecture tactics and encoding them in an environment that supports navigation between quality attributes and tactics, making crosscutting concerns for design choices explicit. Second, we're linking tactics to design solutions based on specific big data technologies, enabling architects to rapidly relate a particular technology's capabilities to a specific set of tactics.
Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 Genome-wide Discovered Psychosis-risk Gene Znf804a Impacts on White Matter Microstructure in Health, Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

Background. Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) have both been associated with reduced microstructural white matter integrity using, as a proxy, fractional anisotropy (FA) detected using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Genetic susceptibility for both illnesses has also been positively correlated in recent genome-wide association studies with allele A (adenine) of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1344706 of the ZNF804A gene. However, little is known about how the genomic linkage disequilibrium region tagged by this SNP impacts on the brain to increase risk for psychosis. This study aimed to assess the impact of this risk variant on FA in patients with SZ, in those with BD and in healthy controls. Methods. 230 individuals were genotyped for the rs1344706 SNP and underwent DTI. We used tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) followed by an analysis of variance, with threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE), to assess underlying effects of genotype, diagnosis and their interaction, on FA. Results. As predicted, statistically significant reductions in FA across a widely distributed brain network (p < 0.05, TFCE-corrected) were positively associated both with a diagnosis of SZ or BD and with the double (homozygous) presence of the ZNF804A rs1344706 risk variant (A). The main effect of genotype was medium (d = 0.48 in a 44,054-voxel cluster) and the effect in the SZ group alone was large (d = 1.01 in a 51,260-voxel cluster), with no significant effects in BD or controls, in isolation. No areas under a significant diagnosis by genotype interaction were found. Discussion. We provide the first evidence in a predominantly Caucasian clinical sample, of an association between ZNF804A rs1344706 A-homozygosity and reduced FA, both
HEAL ME - An Architecture for Health Software Ecosystem Evaluation

Software Ecosystems are complex environments. Several actors are grouped on a software platform, facilitating investments in research, development, and reuse of components. However, such investments may be lost if the ecosystem is not solid. Therefore, it is important to assess the health of an ecosystem. This work presents HEAL-ME architecture, which main goal is to evaluate the health of software ecosystems. A pilot case study using a scientific software ecosystem is also presented. Enhancements will be provided for a complete SECO health assessment.
The Multifunctionality of Dreaming and the Oblivious Avatar

Sleep and dreaming do not serve a single biological function, but are multifunctional. Their functions include memory consolidation and integration, emotion regulation, creativity and problem solving, and preparation for waking life. One promising level of description is that of dreaming as a virtual reality: The dreamer interacts with a simulated environment including other simulated avatars. While dreaming can be considered a multifunctional general reality simulator, the threat simulation and social simulation functions of dreaming are unique among other dream functions in their ability to explain a striking feature of dream phenomenology: obliviousness towards the true state of mind.
Self-propelled micro-swimmers in a Brinkman fluid

We prove an existence, uniqueness, and regularity result for the motion of a self-propelled micro-swimmer in a particulate viscous medium, modelled as a Brinkman fluid. A suitable functional setting is introduced to solve the Brinkman system for the velocity field and the pressure of the fluid by variational techniques. The equations of motion are written by imposing a self-propulsion constraint, thus allowing the viscous forces and torques to be the only ones acting on the swimmer. From an infinite-dimensional control on the shape of the swimmer, a system of six ordinary differential equations for the spatial position and the orientation of the swimmer is obtained. This is dealt with standard techniques for ordinary differential equations, once the coefficients are proved to be measurable and bounded. The main result turns out to extend an analogous result previously obtained for the Stokes system.
Proliferation and ovarian hormone signaling are impaired in normal breast tissues from women with BRCA1 mutations: benefit of a progesterone receptor modulator treatment as a breast cancer preventive strategy in women with inherited BRCA1 mutations

Women with inherited BRCA1 mutations have an elevated risk (40-80%) for developing breast and ovarian cancers. Reproductive history has been reported to alter this risk, suggesting a relationship between ovarian hormone signaling and BRCA1-related tumor development. BRCA1 interactions with estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) signaling were previously described in human breast cancer cell lines and mouse models. However, few studies have examined the effect of ovarian hormone regulation in normal human breast tissues bearing a heterozygous BRCA1 mutation. This study compares the proliferation level (Ki67) and the expression of ER, PR, and of the PR target gene, fatty acid synthase (FASN), in histologically normal breast tissues from women with BRCA1 mutations (BRCA1+/mut, n=23) or without BRCA1 mutations (BRCA1+/+, n=28). BRCA1+/mut tissues showed an increased proliferation and impaired hormone receptor expression with a marked loss of the PR isoform, PR-B. Responses to estradiol and progesterone treatments in BRCA1+/mut and BRCA1+/+ breast tissues were studied in a mouse xenograft model, and showed that PR and FASN expression were deregulated in BRCA1+/mut breast tissues. Progesterone added to estradiol treatment increased the proliferation in a subset of BRCA1+/mut breast tissues. The PR inhibitor, ulipristal acetate (UPA), was able to reverse this aberrant progesterone-induced proliferation. This study suggests that a subset of women with BRCA1 mutations could be candidates for a UPA treatment as a preventive breast cancer strategy.
Professionals’ Attitudes Regarding Large-Scale Genetic Information Generated Through Next Generation Sequencing in Research

Under the auspices of a multi-national European scientific project involving whole genome sequencing, GEUVADIS, we set out to investigate the attitudes of the participating scientists of having their own genome sequenced. The views of such researchers on this subject have not been fully explored before and we utilized questionnaires and discussion groups to elicit their opinions. Many said that it was the first time that they had an opportunity to discuss ethical and social issues about sequencing. The many ongoing multi-national science projects present a good opportunity for social science research involving scientists and would benefit from rigorous research methodology, taking into account any language barriers.
Iterative interstream interference cancellation for MIMO HSPA+ system

In this paper, we propose an iterative interstream interference cancellation technique for system with frequency selective multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel. Our method is inspired by the fact that the cancellation of the interstream interference can be regarded as a reduction in the magnitude of the interfering channel. We show that, as iteration goes on, the channel experienced by the equalizer gets close to the single input multiple output (SIMO) channel and, therefore, the proposed SIMO-like equalizer achieves improved equalization performance in terms of normalized mean square error. From simulations on downlink communications of 2 x 2 MIMO systems in high speed packet access universal mobile telecommunications system standard, we show that the proposed method provides substantial performance gain over the conventional receiver algorithms.