Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Voltage-Dependent Switching of Sensorimotor Integration by a Lobster Central Pattern Generator

Behavioral adaptations and the underlying neural plasticity may not simply result from peripheral information conveyed by sensory inputs. Central neuronal networks often spontaneously generate neuronal activity patterns that may also contribute to sensorimotor integration and behavioral adaptations. The present study explored a novel form of sensory-induced plasticity by which the resulting changes in motor output depend essentially on the preexisting functional state of an identified neuron of an endogenously active central network. In the isolated lobster stomatogastric nervous system, electrical stimulation of a mechanosensory nerve transiently inactivated rhythmic spike bursting in the lateral pyloric (LP) neuron of the pyloric motor pattern-generating network. Repeated sensory nerve stimulation gradually and long-lastingly strengthened the bursting of the LP neuron to the detriment of sensory-elicited inactivation. This strengthening of pyloric-timed rhythmic activity was enhanced by experimental depolarization of the neuron. Conversely, when the LP neuron was hyperpolarized, the same sensory stimulation paradigm now gradually increased the susceptibility of the pyloric-timed bursting of the network neuron to sensory-elicited inactivation. Modulation of depolarization-activated and hyperpolarization-activated ionic conductances that underlie the intrinsic bursting properties of the LP neuron may contribute via differential voltage-dependent recruitment and effects to the respective adaptive processes. These data therefore suggest a novel state-dependent mechanism by which an endogenously active central network can decrease or increase its responsiveness to the same sensory input.
Risk Analysis: Divergent Models and Convergent Interpretations

Abstract Carnes, B. A. and Gavrilova, N. Risk Analysis: Divergent Models and Convergent Interpretations. Radiat. Res. 156, 628–630 (2001). Material presented at a NASA-sponsored workshop on risk models for exposure conditions relevant to prolonged space flight are described in this paper. Analyses used mortality data from experiments conducted at Argonne National Laboratory on the long-term effects of external whole-body irradiation on B6CF1 mice by 60Co γ rays and fission neutrons delivered as a single exposure or protracted over either 24 or 60 once-weekly exposures. The maximum dose considered was restricted to 1 Gy for neutrons and 10 Gy for γ rays. Proportional hazard models were used to investigate the shape of the dose response at these lower doses for deaths caused by solid-tissue tumors and tumors of either connective or epithelial tissue origin. For protracted exposures, a significant mortality effect was detected at a neutron dose of 14 cGy and a γ-ray dose of 3 Gy. For single exposures, radiation-induced mortality for neutrons also occurred within the range of 10–20 cGy, but dropped to 86 cGy for γ rays. Plots of risk relative to control estimated for each observed dose gave a visual impression of nonlinearity for both neutrons and γ rays. At least for solid-tissue tumors, male and female mortality was nearly identical for γ-ray exposures, but mortality risks for females were higher than for males for neutron exposures. As expected, protracting the γ-ray dose reduced mortality risks. Although curvature consistent with that observed visually could be detected by a model parameterized to detect curvature, a relative risk term containing only a simple term for total dose was usually sufficient to describe the dose response. Although detectable mortality for the three pathology end points considered typically occurred at the same level of dose, the highest risks were almost always associated with deaths caused by tumors of epithelial tissue origin.
Estimates of the US health impact of influenza.

OBJECTIVES Data from the Tecumseh Community Health Study were used to estimate excess morbidity owing to influenza, and results were compared with estimates made previously using different methodology for an Institute of Medicine report. METHODS Study participants from Tecumseh, Michigan, were classified as infected or noninfected based on laboratory results. The excess numbers of respiratory illnesses, respiratory illness days, and bed and restricted activity days experienced by the infected compared with the noninfected were estimated. RESULTS The number of excess influenza-related respiratory illnesses was lower than that estimated in the Institute of Medicine report, in which all illnesses of certain characteristics occurring during an influenza season were attributed to influenza. It is now estimated that the US population under 20 years of age experiences a yearly average of 13.8 to 16.0 million influenza-related excess respiratory illnesses; for older individuals, the yearly estimate is 4.1 to 4.4 million excess illnesses. CONCLUSIONS For public health purposes, estimates of excess morbidity as well as of total morbidity associated with influenza should be used in setting health priorities.
Deep brain stimulation effect on freezing of gait

The majority of patients with Parkinson's disease suffer from freezing of gait (FOG), which responds more or less to levodopa. Thalamic stimulation, mainly used in the treatment of tremor dominant Parkinson's disease is ineffective in FOG. GPi stimulation moderately improves FOG, but this effect may abate in the long term. STN stimulation was reported to improve levodopa‐responsive FOG. In some patients, the benefit from levodopa is greater than that from STN stimulation, and levodopa and STN stimulation can have additive effects. On the contrary, STN stimulation is ineffective on levodopa‐resistant FOG. In the few cases of levodopa‐induced FOG, STN stimulation can indirectly be effective, thanks to a great decrease or arrest of levodopa. Stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus has recently been performed in small groups of patients suffering from both off‐ and on‐levodopa gait impairments. The first results appear encouraging, but they need to be confirmed by controlled studies in larger series of patients. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society
The Nlrp3 inflammasome is critical for aluminium hydroxide‐mediated IL‐1β secretion but dispensable for adjuvant activity

Aluminum hydroxide (alum) is the most widely used adjuvant in human vaccines, but the immune mechanisms that are activated by alum remain poorly understood. Alum has recently been shown to promote caspase‐1 activation and IL‐1β secretion, but the cellular pathways involved remain elusive. Here we report that the release of IL‐1β triggered by alum is abrogated in macrophages deficient in the NLR family, pyrin domain containing 3 (Nlrp3) protein and the apoptosis‐associated speck‐like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (Asc) but not the NLR family, CARD domain containing 4 (Nlrc4) protein. The requirement of the Nlrp3 inflammasome was specific for IL‐1β in that secretion of TNF‐α was independent of Nlrp3 or Asc. Consistently, processing of pro‐caspase‐1 induced by alum was abolished in macrophages lacking Nlrp3 or Asc. Unlike caspase‐1 processing and IL‐1β secretion triggered by LPS, alum‐mediated activation of the inflammasome did not require exogenous ATP. Importantly, induction of IgG production against human serum albumin by alum was unimpaired in mice deficient in Nlrp3. These results indicate that alum induces IL‐1β via the Nlrp3 inflammasome but this activity is dispensable for alum‐mediated adjuvant activity.
Observations of Urban Aerosols in India

Continuous and campaign based aerosol field measurements in different environments are essential in understanding fundamental atmospheric aerosols processes and evaluating the effect of the aerosols on global and regional climate, environment and human lives. This thesis investigates the formation and growth dynamics, characteristics of the aerosol number size distribution and seasonal and diurnal concentrations and variations of atmospheric aerosols in a highly polluted Asian mega city. The experimental results indicate that the formation and growth of atmospheric aerosols is possible in this kind of environment even though the smallest growing particles face effective scavenging by the pre-existing aerosol population. The formation and growth of atmospheric aerosols in the nucleation mode particles can be explained by high source rates of condensable vapours which was found to vary up to four orders of magnitude between the most polluted (New Delhi) and cleanest sites (Finnish Lapland and Antarctica) considered in this study. However, the average growth rates of nucleation mode particles increased only 1-2 orders of magnitude between different sites. The primary reason for this is that large vapour source rates usually appear in concert with large condensation sinks hence balancing the condensable vapour concentrations. The characteristic of the aerosol number size distribution (3-800 nm), number concentration and the analysis of diurnal modal parameters suggest that there are at least two major sources in New Delhi. Beside the traffic, another source in the evenings increased the geometric mean diameter of the detected particles. It is concluded that vehicular emissions together with biomass and/or refuse burning has significant contribution to New Delhi’s atmosphere. This analysis is also supported by the indoor number concentration measurements conducted in urban private houses in the Indian cities of Nagpur and Mysore. High seasonal and diurnal number and mass concentrations averages, substantial pollution events and the use of fossil fuels in cooking deteriorate ambient air quality in India. Continuous research activities also in other developing countries are needed to gain better scientific understanding not only in evaluating Earth’s radiative balance but also in designing technological inventions providing better living conditions for inhabitants in these countries.
Solution and Extension of a New Benchmark Problem for Eddy-Current Nondestructive Testing

We report on further measurements and a numerical solution for a proposed benchmark problem involving an eddy-current nondestructive evaluation configuration. This is a simplified version of the inspection of fastener holes in aircraft structures, comprising combinations of plates with through holes and a crack. Previously, only line (B-scan) data were provided for the coil impedance, while in this paper, we provide precision surface (C-scan) data as well as details on the evaluation of the critical parameters of the problem. Furthermore, the experimental data are cross validated with numerical ones using a model that combines an integral formulation and the FEM approach.
User adaptation of convolutional neural network for human activity recognition

Recently, monitoring human activities using smart-phone sensors, such as accelerometers, magnetometers, and gyro-scopes, has been proved effective to improve productivity in daily work. Since human activities differ largely among individuals, it is important to adapt their model to each individual with a small amount of his/her data. In this paper, we propose a user adaptation method using Learning Hidden Unit Contributions (LHUC) for Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). It inserts a special layer with a small number of free parameters between each of two CNN layers and estimates the free parameters using a small amount of data. We collected smartphone data of 43 hours from 9 users and utilized them to evaluate our method. It improved the recognition performance by 3.0% from a user-independent model on average. The largest improvement among users was 13.6%.
The Ponzo illusion in pictures with and without suggested depth.

figure was incorporated into two pictures depicting concrete scenes. The standard, abstract illusion remained unaltered when the Ponzo figure in the picture repre- sented the vertical face of an object viewed in the frontoparallel plane, but the illusion was increased when the figure represented an object extending in depth. The results are interpreted as failing to support Gregory's theory of 'misapplied' constancy scaling. The theory of geometrical illusions proposed by Gregory (1963, 1968) has not been confirmed by the results of several experiments ostensibly testing predictions derived from the theory. Gregory (1967) and Horrell (1971) have, however, defended the theory and clarified certain fre- quent misconceptions about the mechanisms involved in constancy scaling as proposed by the theory. The present experiment is a new test of Gregory's theory and is concerned with the role of primary depth cues in the Ponzo illusion in pictures with and without suggested depth. Gregory's theory should most clearly apply to the Ponzo illusion. In the present experiment, the extent of this illusion was measured under three conditions in which the converging lines of the Ponzo figure were incorporated into line drawings depicting different concrete scenes. In one condition, the converging lines of the Ponzo figure formed the sides of a gymnastic jumping box and thus represented the edges of a vertical (or nearly vertical) face of an object viewed in the frontoparallel plane. In the second condition, the converging lines of the Ponzo figure repre- sented the parallel sides of a road drawn in perspective. Finally, the Ponzo figure was presented alone, as an abstract drawing. The implications for Gregory's theory of the outcome of this procedure are considered in the discussion.
FIRST LINE 5-FU-BASED CHEMOTHERAPY WITH/ WITHOUT BEVACIZUMAB FOR METASTATIC COLORECTAL CANCER: TISSUE BIOMARKER CANDIDATES

Purpose: Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in the USA. According to Bulgarian National Statistics Institute, 2370 colon and 1664 rectal cancer cases were diagnosed in 2012 with total number of patients 29995. Adding bevacizumab to chemotherapy in patients with metastatic disease improves progression-free survival (PFS) but no predictive markers have been proven in the clinical practice. In our study we examined two tissue biomarkers that may correlate with response to bevacizumab-containing chemotherapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Patients and Methods: 54 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer were assigned to first line 5-Fu-based chemotherapy with/without bevacizumab. The primary end point was PFS, with additional determination of response and toxicity. Paraffin-embedded samples from primary tumors were collected from all 54 patients. Expression levels of two tumor biomarkers VEGFR-2 and Neuropilin 1 (NP1) were evaluated with immunohistochemistry. Results: The median PFS for the group treated with CT/Bev was 8.8 months, compared with 5.4 months for the group with chemotherapy alone (95% CI, log-rank test P =0.003). The corresponding overall response rates were 19.3% and 10.2% respectively (P < 0.05 for CT/Bev vs CT). Patients with low NP-1 had statistically significant prolongation of PFS as compared to those with high NP-1 (95% CI, log rank test p= 0.017). Patients with low NP-1 appeared to experience a larger bevacizumab treatment effect in terms of PFS (p=0,049,HR 0.333, 95% CI, 0.111 to 0.995) than patients with high NP-1. Conclusion: The addition of bevacizumab to 5-Fu based chemotherapy improves PFS for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Expression of tumor NP-1 is a potential biomarker candidate for prediction of clinical outcome in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, treated with first line chemotherapy plus bevacizumab.
Concepción de controladores reconfigurables para microinversores fotovoltaicos operando como unidades autónomas de generación de energía en microrredes

En la actualidad, los conceptos de generacion distribuida y microrredes (microgrids) estan despertando un gran interes en la comunicad cientifica, al presentar ventajas claras sobre los esquemas centralizados como son: su inherente redundancia, la mejora de la eficiencia en el transporte de energia electrica al aproximar los puntos de generacion y de consumo, asi como la posibilidad de integracion de fuentes de energia renovable. En este contexto, la tesis plantea como aspectos novedosos la propuesta de un esquema de control reconfigurable para la operacion de un microinversor fotovoltaico (convertidor electronico concebido para procesar la energia procedente de un panel fotovoltaico individual) tanto en modo aislado como interconectado con una red electrica. Normalmente, tales unidades operan en conexion a la red electrica, funcionando como una fuente de corriente. El objetivo de la tesis es la concepcion de tecnicas que permitan dotar a los microinversores con la funcionalidad adicional de poder trabajar como fuente de tension para operar en modo aislado, sin necesidad de utilizar sistemas adicionales de almacenamiento de energia (en la actualidad, baterias). Por otra parte, en la tesis se ha propuesto un nuevo algoritmo de deteccion de funcionamiento en isla (o modo aislado), basado en la inyeccion de un segundo armonico de corriente en la corriente de salida del microinversor y posterior evaluacion de como este interactua con la red electrica. La tecnica propuesta se basa en el procesado de la senal devuelta por la red mediante el algoritmo Goertzel de identificacion de componentes armonicas. En la tesis se demuestra que las propuestas realizadas permiten la reconfiguracion de los controladores del modo fuente de corriente a fuente de tension, y viceversa, sin transitorios peligrosos para el microinversor ni para las cargas locales cercanas al mismo. Los resultados analiticos se han validado mediante simulaciones detalladas y ensayos experimentales llevados a cabo en un microinversor fotovoltaico 180 W.
Polyp as a complication of argon plasma coagulation in watermelon stomach.

Gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE), or watermelon stomach, is an uncommon cause of gastrointestinal blood loss and iron−deficiency anaemia, that usually re− quires periodic blood transfusions. Endo− scopic treatments, including endoscopic sclerotherapy, coagulation with Nd:YAG and argon lasers, argon plasma coagula− tion (APC), heater probe therapy, cryo− therapy, and monopolar and multipolar electrocoagulation, are now the ap− proaches of choice [1]. They are effective and safe, reducing transfusion require− ments in these patients, although some complications have been reported [2± 4].
The Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem for Gaussian integers

Given natural numbers $n$ and $k$, with $n>k$, the Prouhet-Tarry-Escott (PTE) problem asks for distinct subsets of $\Z$, say $X=\{x_1,. ,x_n\}$ and $Y=\{y_1,. ,y_n\}$, such that \[x_1^i+. +x_n^i=y_1^i+. +y_n^i\] for $i=1,. ,k$. Many partial solutions to this problem were found in the late 19th century and early 20th century. When $n=k-1$, we call a solution $X=_{n-1}Y$ ideal. This is considered to be the most interesting case. Ideal solutions have been found using elementary methods, elliptic curves, and computational techniques. In 2007, Alpers and Tijdeman gave examples of solutions to the PTE problem over the Gaussian integers. This paper extends the framework of the problem to this setting. We prove generalizations of results from the literature, and use this information along with computational techniques to find ideal solutions to the PTE problem in the Gaussian integers.
Explaining the immobility of conjuncts

This paper aims to explain the well-observed constraint that no conjunct may move. It is claimed that, with respect to final conjuncts, this constraint simply manifests a morphological property of coordinators shared with many other types of head elements: they need to be adjacent to their complement, and thus neither deletion nor movement of their complement is possible. Final conjuncts therefore may not move. Based on the assumption that the categorial features of initial conjuncts are transferred to the coordinator and, it is claimed that this transference keeps initial conjuncts in situ, since elements without category-features may not move overtly. This new account for the immobility of initial conjuncts is supported by two generalizations. Firstly, in the Chinese de construction, kernel elements may not move because they provide categorial features for de, which has no intrinsic categorial features and is the head of the whole complex. Secondly, in the comitative coordinate construction in Chinese, initial conjuncts may move because they do not provide categorial features for the coordinators, which have their own intrinsic categorial features. This paper specifies the semantic condition of initial conjunct movement: the coordination must be non-distributive. This new account of the immobility of conjuncts suggests that the constraint is not a construction-specific syntactic constraint. Instead, it is related to the lexical/morphological makeup of coordinators. Conjuncts as regular Spec and Complement elements may undergo syntactic movement. It has been generally assumed that movement is driven by morphological considerations. This study further shows that the blocking of movement can also be related to morphological properties of specific syntactic elements in addition to the generally recognized locality restrictions.
Conservation Ecology: Variability in fire frequency and forest composition i...'s southeastern boreal forest: a challenge for sustainable forest management

Because some consequences of fire resemble the effects of industrial forest harvesting, forest management is often considered as a disturbance having effects similar to those of natural disturbances. Although the analogy http://www.ecologyandsociety. org/vol2/iss2/art6/ (1 of 11) [9/5/2008 10:08:21 AM] Conservation Ecology: Variability in fire frequency and forest composition i. 's southeastern boreal forest: a challenge for sustainable forest management between forest management and fire disturbance in boreal ecosystems has some merit, it is important to recognize that it has limitations. First, normal forest rotations truncate the natural forest stand age distribution and eliminate over-mature forests from the landscape. Second, in the boreal mixedwoods, natural forest dynamics following fire may involve a gradual replacement of stands of intolerant broadleaf species by mixedwood and then softwood stands, whereas current silvicultural practices promote successive rotations of similarly composed stands. Third, the large fluctuations observed in fire frequency during the Holocene limit the use of a single fire cycle to characterize natural fire regimes. Short fire cycles generally described for boreal ecosystems do not appear to be universal; rather, shifts between short and long fire cycles have been observed. These shifts imply important changes in forest composition at the landscape and regional levels. All of these factors create a natural variability in forest composition that should be maintained by forest managers concerned with the conservation of biodiversity. One avenue is to develop silvicultural techniques that maintain a spectrum of forest compositions over the landscape.
Charged particle spectra in central S+S collisions at 200 GeV/c per nucleon.

The transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of negative hadrons and participant protons have been measured for central [sup 32]S+ [sup 32]S collisions at [ital p][sub lab]=200 GeV/[ital c] per nucleon. The proton mean rapidity shift [l angle][Delta][ital y][r angle][similar to]1.6 and mean transverse momentum [l angle][ital p][sub [ital T]][r angle][similar to]0.6 GeV/[ital c] are much higher than in [ital pp] or peripheral [ital AA] collisions and indicate an increase in the nuclear stopping power. All [ital p][sub [ital T]] spectra exhibit similar source temperatures. Including previous results for [ital K][sub [ital s]][sup 0] [Lambda], and [bar [Lambda]], we account for all important contributions to particle production.