Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence of Heterosynaptic LTD in the Human Nociceptive System: Superficial Skin Neuromodulation Using a Matrix Electrode Reduces Deep Pain Sensitivity

Long term depression (LTD) is a neuronal learning mechanism after low frequency stimulation (LFS). This study compares two types of electrodes (concentric vs. matrix) and stimulation frequencies (4 and 30 Hz) to examine homo- and heterosynaptic effects indirectly depicted from the somatosensory profile of healthy subjects. Both electrodes were compared in a prospective, randomized, controlled cross-over study using 4 Hz as the conditioning LFS compared to 30 Hz (intended sham condition). Quantitative sensory testing (QST) was used to examine 13 thermal and mechanical detection and pain thresholds. Sixteen healthy volunteers (10 women, age 31.0±12.7 years) were examined. Depending on the electrodes and frequencies used a divergent pattern of sensory minus signs occurred. Using LFS the concentric electrode increased thermal thresholds, while the matrix electrode rather increased mechanical including deep pain thresholds. Findings after cutaneous neuromodulation using LFS and a matrix electrode are consistent with the concept of heterosynaptic LTD in the human nociceptive system, where deep pain sensitivity was reduced after superficial stimulation of intraepidermal nerve fibres. Cutaneous neuromodulation using LFS and a matrix electrode may be a useful tool to influence deep pain sensitivity in a variety of chronic pain syndromes.
Isolation and Partial Purification of a New Class of Transforming Growth Factors from an Avian Sarcoma Virus-transformed Rat Cell Line 1

Transformation of rat cells by avian sarcoma viruses induced the release of growth factors into serum-free conditioned me dium. An avian sarcoma virus-transformed rat cell line, 77N1, produced and released a polypeptide growth factor, classified as a transforming growth factor (TGF), which transiently pro motes anchorage-dependent BALB3T3 A31 cells to form pro gressively growing colonies in soft agar. The TGF was isolated and partially purified from an extract of 77N1 cells by ionexchange chromatography on a diethylaminoethyl Sephacel col umn followed by ammonium sulfate precipitation. The TGF was assumed to have a molecular weight of 11,000 from gel filtration on Sephadex G-50. This TGF did not compete with epidermal growth factor for binding to cell membrane receptors and was not potentiated by epidermal growth factor. The TGF was trypsin and dithiothreitol sensitive as well as heat and acid labile, indi cating that it was different from previously reported TGFs of similar molecular weight and thus belonged to a new class of TGFs.
Maintenance of Self-Renewal and Pluripotency in J1 Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells through Regulating Transcription Factor and MicroRNA Expression Induced by PD0325901

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have the ability to grow indefinitely and retain their pluripotency in culture, and this self-renewal capacity is governed by several crucial molecular pathways controlled by specific regulatory genes and epigenetic modifications. It is reported that multiple epigenetic regulators, such as miRNA and pluripotency factors, can be tightly integrated into molecular pathways and cooperate to maintain self-renewal of ESCs. However, mouse ESCs in serum-containing medium seem to be heterogeneous due to the self-activating differentiation signal of MEK/ERK. Thus, to seek for the crucial miRNA and key regulatory genes that establish ESC properties in MEK/ERK pathway, we performed microarray analysis and small RNA deep-sequencing of J1 mESCs treated with or without PD0325901 (PD), a well-known inhibitor of MEK/ERK signal pathway, followed by verification of western blot analysis and quantitative real-time PCR verification; we found that PD regulated the transcript expressions related to self-renewal and differentiation and antagonized the action of retinoic acid- (RA-) induced differentiation. Moreover, PD can significantly modulate the expressions of multiple miRNAs that have crucial functions in ESC development. Overall, our results demonstrate that PD could enhance ESC self-renewal capacity both by key regulatory genes and ES cell-specific miRNA, which in turn influences ESC self-renewal and cellular differentiation.
Factors Influencing the Design, Establishment, Administration, and Governance of Correctional Education for Females.

This article summarizes the results of a study conducted to investigate factors influencing the organizational design, establishment, administration, and governance of correctional education for females. The research involved interviews with correctional and community college administrators and practitioners representing North Carolina female offender correctional education programs. The data revealed six categories of particular interest. These categories included: (a) correctional education history, background, and establishment; (b) collaboration between leadership; (c) organizational structure, culture, and governance; (d) research and literature; (e) resources and operations; and (f) expectations, outcomes, assessment, and the future of correctional education for females. Implications are drawn for educational practice and further research.
Project Proposal : Scandinavian light-verb constructions Language Technology : Research and Development

Multiword expressions (MWEs) are known to challenge various NLP applications such as machine translation and syntactic parsing. This paper deals with one example of an MWE, a construction that I will refer to as the Position Verb and Verb construction, which is found in all three Scandinavian languages, Norwegian Swedish and Danish, as well as in a number of other languages (see e.g. Kuteva 1999). The construction is made up of a position verb (PV) like ‘sit’, ‘lie’, ‘stand’, or ‘walk’, a conjunction ‘and’, and another verb. There is general agreement that the construction expresses some aspectual meaning apart from predicating the action described by the second verb (sometimes called the content verb). Examples of the construction in the three languages can be seen in Example 1, 2, and 3 below:
The effect of plunge electrodes during electrical stimulation of cardiac tissue

The mechanism for far-field stimulation of cardiac tissue is not known, although many hypotheses have been suggested. This paper explores a new hypothesis: the insulated plunge electrodes used in experiments to map the extracellular potential may affect the transmembrane potential when an electric field is applied to cardiac tissue. The authors' calculation simulates a 10-mm-diameter sheet of passive tissue with a circular insulated plunge electrode in the middle of it, ranging in diameter from 0.05 to 2 mm. The authors calculate the transmembrane potential induced by a 500-V/m electric field. Their results shown that a transmembrane potential is induced around the electrode in alternating areas of depolarization and hyperpolarization. If the electric field is oriented parallel to the myocardial fibers, the maximum transmembrane potential is 89 mV. A layer of fluid around the electrode increases the transmembrane potential. It is concluded that plunge electrodes may introduce artifacts during experiments designed to study the response of the heart to strong electric shocks.
Affine extension of noncrystallographic Coxeter groups and quasicrystals

Unique affine extensions Haff2, Haff3 and Haff4 are determined for the noncrystallographic Coxeter groups H2, H3 and H4. They are used for the construction of new mathematical models for quasicrystal fragments with tenfold symmetry. The case of Haff2 corresponding to planar point sets is discussed in detail. In contrast to the cut-and-project scheme we obtain by construction finite point sets, which grow with a model specific growth parameter.
The nuclear and organellar tRNA-derived RNA fragment population in Arabidopsis thaliana is highly dynamic

Abstract In the expanding repertoire of small noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), tRNA-derived RNA fragments (tRFs) have been identified in all domains of life. Their existence in plants has been already proven but no detailed analysis has been performed. Here, short tRFs of 19–26 nucleotides were retrieved from Arabidopsis thaliana small RNA libraries obtained from various tissues, plants submitted to abiotic stress or fractions immunoprecipitated with ARGONAUTE 1 (AGO1). Large differences in the tRF populations of each extract were observed. Depending on the tRNA, either tRF-5D (due to a cleavage in the D region) or tRF-3T (via a cleavage in the T region) were found and hot spots of tRNA cleavages have been identified. Interestingly, up to 25% of the tRFs originate from plastid tRNAs and we provide evidence that mitochondrial tRNAs can also be a source of tRFs. Very specific tRF-5D deriving not only from nucleus-encoded but also from plastid-encoded tRNAs are strongly enriched in AGO1 immunoprecipitates. We demonstrate that the organellar tRFs are not found within chloroplasts or mitochondria but rather accumulate outside the organelles. These observations suggest that some organellar tRFs could play regulatory functions within the plant cell and may be part of a signaling pathway.
IMPACT OF BUSINESS PROCESS CAPABILITIES AND ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT ON ORGANISATIONS ’ MATURITY OF BUSINESS PROCESS ORIENTATION AND PERFORMANCE

Research problem Research concerning process-oriented organisations is emerging since these agile organisations are able to continuously keep their competitive advantage and optimally satisfy their customers [1-3]. Nevertheless, despite the extensive academic interest in Business Process Orientation (BPO), few organisations are fully process-oriented [4]. It seems that the extensive written and spoken interest in BPO has given the impression that it is well adopted and present in organisations [1, 5]. However, process orientation takes time and organisations are still reflecting on the concept before getting started or are putting a hold on their efforts [1, 4]. Therefore, the proposed project intends to contribute to revealing the reasons of low BPO adoption and to give guidelines on how to increase BPO adoption.
Embedded optimization algorithms for multi-microphone dereverberation

In this paper we propose a new approach to multi-microphone dereverberation, based on the recent paradigm of embedded optimization. The rationale of embedded optimization in performing online signal processing tasks, is to replace traditional adaptive filtering algorithms based on closed-form estimators by fast numerical algorithms solving constrained and potentially non-convex optimization problems. In the context of dereverberation, we adopt the embedded optimization paradigm to arrive at a joint estimation of the source signal of interest and the unknown room acoustics. It is shown how the inherently non-convex joint estimation problem can be smoothed by including regularization terms based on a statistical late reverberation model and a sparsity prior for the source signal spectrum. A performance evaluation for an example multi-microphone dereverberation scenario shows promising results, thus motivating future research in this direction.
Trade, climate change and sustainable development: key issues for small states, least developed countries and vulnerable economies.

Acknowledgements Preface Abbreviations and acronyms List of tables, figures and boxes Summary Introduction The Climate Change and Trade Challenges of Smaller Developing Countries Specific Trade and Climate Change Concerns 1. INTRODUCTION: KEY ISSUES FOR SMALLER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 2. RESPONSES TO TRADE AND ADAPTATION CHALLENGES 3. TRADE AND TRANSPORT 3.1 International Transport, Tourism and Services 3.2 Food Miles Debate 4. TECHNOLOGIES 4.1 Standards and Labelling for Energy-Efficient Goods 4.2 Liberalisation of Environmental Goods and Services 4.3 New Technologies and Innovation 5. MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION IN AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY 5.1 Climate Impact, Adaptation and Mitigation in the Agriculture Sector: Trade Linkages 5.2 Climate Change and Fisheries: Policy, Trade and Sustainable Development Issues 6. COMPETITIVENESS AND BORDER MEASURES 6.1 Climate-Related Border Measures 6.2 Energy-Intensive Sectors and International Trade: Possible Sectoral Agreements 7. CONCLUSIONS 7.1 Energy and Technology 7.2 Agriculture and Fisheries 7.3 Tourism and Transport 7.4 Concluding Remarks Bibliography and References Index
Blood group O protects against severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria through the mechanism of reduced rosetting

Malaria has been a major selective force on the human population, and several erythrocyte polymorphisms have evolved that confer resistance to severe malaria. Plasmodium falciparum rosetting, a parasite virulence phenotype associated with severe malaria, is reduced in blood group O erythrocytes compared with groups A, B, and AB, but the contribution of the ABO blood group system to protection against severe malaria has received little attention. We hypothesized that blood group O may confer resistance to severe falciparum malaria through the mechanism of reduced rosetting. In a matched case-control study of 567 Malian children, we found that group O was present in only 21% of severe malaria cases compared with 44–45% of uncomplicated malaria controls and healthy controls. Group O was associated with a 66% reduction in the odds of developing severe malaria compared with the non-O blood groups (odds ratio 0.34, 95% confidence interval 0.19–0.61, P < 0.0005, severe cases versus uncomplicated malaria controls). In the same sample set, P. falciparum rosetting was reduced in parasite isolates from group O children compared with isolates from the non-O blood groups (P = 0.003, Kruskal–Wallis test). Statistical analysis indicated a significant interaction between host ABO blood group and parasite rosette frequency that supports the hypothesis that the protective effect of group O operates through the mechanism of reduced P. falciparum rosetting. This work provides insights into malaria pathogenesis and suggests that the selective pressure imposed by malaria may contribute to the variable global distribution of ABO blood groups in the human population.
Networks and Heterogeneous Media Convergence of Msfem Approximations for Elliptic, Non-periodic Homogenization Problems

In this work, we are concerned with the convergence of the mul-tiscale finite element method (MsFEM) for elliptic homogenization problems, where we do not assume a certain periodic or stochastic structure, but an averaging assumption which in particular covers periodic and ergodic stochastic coefficients. We also give a result on the convergence in the case of an arbitrary coupling between grid size H and a parameter. is an indicator for the size of the fine scale which converges to zero. The findings of this work are based on the homogenization results obtained in [B. Schweizer and M. Ven-eroni, The needle problem approach to non-periodic homogenization, Netw. 1. Introduction. This contribution is dedicated to the numerical analysis of the multiscale finite element method (MsFEM) for elliptic homogenization problems. This method, originally developed by Hou and Wu [31], is constructed to solve partial differential equations, where the coefficient functions are rapidly oscillating. Typically, standard methods fail to directly solve such types of equations, since resolving the oscillatory structure requires a tremendous computational demand. Therefore it is necessary to propose alternative methods, so called multiscale methods , which are capable of determining the average effect of the micro-structure on the effective macroscopic behavior, without resolving all the fine-scale details. One example for a multiscale method is the heterogeneous multiscale finite element method (HMM) introduced by E and Engquist [11], where the fine scale behavior of the solution is reconstructed in small cells around quadrature points to pass an averaged information to a discrete coarse-scale problem (c. Another example is the variational multiscale method (VMM), based on the works of Hughes et al. [33, 34]. Here, the solution space is split into a direct sum of a coarse scale space and a fine scale space. Then fine scale equations are formally solved in dependency of the residual of the coarse scale solution (c. Another approach, based on the construction of a suitable two-scale finite element space, is the two-scale finite element method by Matache and Schwab [40, 41, 45]
Bootstrap Variance Estimation for Predicted Individual and Population-Average Risks

Often there is a need to predict the probability that an individual with specific characteristics (risk factors) will suffer from a certain disease or a health condition. Sometimes the real interest is in providing the aggregate predicted risk estimates at the population level or at the level of a subpopulation (e.g., males aged 65+). A related problem is prediction of such a probability for an individual who does not belong to the surveyed population. While the estimation of these probabilities follows from fitting an appropriate model to the available data, the design-based standard error estimation of so-obtained estimates is not obvious. We are proposing a bootstrap method for estimation of the standard errors of predicted individual and aggregate risks. The method is illustrated using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey.
Sketching and Composing Widgets for 3D Manipulation

We present an interface for 3D object manipulation in which standard transformation tools are replaced with transient 3D widgets invoked by sketching context‐dependent strokes. The widgets are automatically aligned to axes and planes determined by the user's stroke. Sketched pivot‐points further expand the interaction vocabulary. Using gestural commands, these basic elements can be assembled into dynamic, user‐constructed 3D transformation systems. We supplement precise widget interaction with techniques for coarse object positioning and snapping. Our approach, which is implemented within a broader sketch‐based modeling system, also integrates an underlying “widget history” to enable the fluid transfer of widgets between objects. An evaluation indicates that users familiar with 3D manipulation concepts can be taught how to efficiently use our system in under an hour.
Indirect interaction and decentralized coordination

We distinguish two forms of interaction: direct, where messages are sent to pre-specified recipients, and indirect, consisting of persistent, observable state changes , where the recipients are any computing agents that observe the changes. Either type of interaction may occur in coordination, whose hallmarks are anonymity and asynchrony. While only the first type of interaction has been formalized as part of concurrency theory, our paper focuses on the role of the second. We argue that in self-organizing systems lacking centralized coordination, indirect interaction is needed to achieve anonymity and asynchrony. Therefore, coordination models for decentralized self-organizing systems must explicitly represent indirect interaction in order to be complete. In particular, open computational systems, characterized by mobility and dynamic reconfiguration, and operating in unpredictable environments, require decentralized approaches and hence coordination models that support indirect interaction.
Logicalization ' ' of MPI Communication Traces

Communication traces are integral to performance analysis of parallel programs. However, execution on a large number of nodes results in a large trace volume that is cumbersome and expensive to analyze. This paper presents an automatic framework to convert all process traces corresponding to a single parallel execution of an SPMD MPI message passing program into a single logical program trace. The approach first identifies the communication topology of the application from the application communication matrix computed from the traces. Topology identification is based on the application communication structure and independent of the way ranks (or numbers) are assigned to processes. Once the application topology is identified, point-to-point communication between processes is converted into logical communication that represents similar communication across all processes executing the application. This logicalization framework has been implemented and the results with NAS benchmarks show that it is efficient and effective. The procedure is part of a system to automatically generate performance skeletons that are short running programs mimicing core computation and communication characteristics of an application. “Logicalization” of MPI Communication Traces Qiang Xu Ravi Prithivathi Jaspal Subhlok Rong Zheng University of Houston, Department of Computer Science, Hou st n, TX 77204
Micromanagement of Immune System: Role of miRNAs in Helminthic Infections

Helminthic infections fall under neglected tropical diseases, although they inflict severe morbidity to human and causes major economic burden on health care system in many developing countries. There is increased effort to understand their immunopathology in recent days due to their immuno-modulatory capabilities. Immune response is primarily controlled at the transcriptional level, however, microRNA-mediated RNA interference is emerging as important regulatory machinery that works at the translation level. In the past decade, microRNA (miRNA/miR) research has advanced with significant momentum. The result is ever increasing list of curated sequences from a broad panel of organisms including helminths. Several miRNAs had been discovered from trematodes, nematodes and cestodes like let-7, miR155, miR-199, miR-134, miR-223, miR-146, and fhe-mir-125a etc., with potential role in immune modulation. These miRs had been associated with TGF-β, MAPK, Toll-like receptor, PI3K/AKT signaling pathways and insulin growth factor regulation. Thus, controlling the immune cells development, survival, proliferation and death. Apart from micromanagement of immune system, they also express certain unique miRNA also like cis-miR-001, cis-miR-2, cis-miR-6, cis-miR-10, cis-miR-18, cis-miR-19, trs-mir-0001, fhe-miR-01, fhe-miR-07, fhe-miR-08, egr-miR-4988, egr-miR-4989 etc. The specific role played by most of these species specific unique miRs are yet to be discovered. However, these newly discovered miRNAs might serve as novel targets for therapeutic intervention or biomarkers for parasitic infections.
An adaptive square root cubature Kalman filter based SLAM algorithm for mobile robots

For simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) of mobile robots, an innovative solution is proposed, named adaptive square root cubature Kalman filter based SLAM algorithm (ASRCKF-SLAM). The main contribution of the proposed algorithm lies that: 1) Square root factors are used in the proposed ASRCKF-SLAM algorithm to improve the calculation efficiency by avoiding the time-consuming Cholesky decompositions. 2) Using the adaptive Sage-Husa estimator to solve the large estimation errors or even divergence problem caused by the time-varying or unknown noise. Simulation results obtained demonstrate that the proposed ASRCKF-SLAM algorithm is superior to the existed SLAM method in the aspect of estimation accuracy and computational efficiency.