Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional coupling shows stronger stimulus dependency for fast oscillations than for low‐frequency components in striate cortex of awake monkey

It has been argued that coupling among the neural signals activated by a visual object supports binding of local features into a coherent object perception. During visual stimulation by a grating texture we studied functional coupling by calculating spectral coherence among pairs of signals recorded in the striate cortex of awake monkeys. Multiple unit activity (MUA) and local field potentials (LFP, 1–140 Hz) were extracted from seven parallel broad band recordings. Spectral coherence was dominated by high‐frequency oscillations in the range 35–50 Hz and often by additional low‐frequency components (0–12 Hz). Functional coupling among separate cortical sites was more stimulus specific for MUA than for LFP: MUA coherence at high and low frequencies depended highly significantly on: (i) the similarity of the preferred orientations at the two sites − the more similar the higher the coherence; (ii) the orientation of the stimulus grating − with highest coherence at half angle between the preferred orientations at the two sites; (iii) cortical distance − coherence decreases to noise levels at ∼ 3 mm (MUA) and 6 mm (LFP). Coherence of fast oscillations did not depend on the degree of coaxiality of the orientation‐sensitive receptive fields, whereas low frequencies showed significant dependency. This indicates that different frequency components can engage different coupling networks in the striate cortex which probably support different coding tasks. Changes in average oscillation frequency with stimulus orientation were highly significant for fast oscillations while there was no dependency for low frequencies. Finally, stimulus‐related spectral power and coherence of fast oscillations were considerably higher than of low frequency components. Fast oscillations may therefore contribute more to feature binding and coding of object continuity than low‐frequency components, at least for texture surfaces as analysed here.
Automatic computer aided diagnosis for early diabetic retinopathy detection and monitoring: A comprehensive review

One of the major consequence of diabetic disease is diabetic retinopathy (DR), which effect on retina of diabetic people and the critical phase of diabetic retinopathy can lead to permanent vision loss. The early detection and monitoring of diabetic retinopathy is important to prevent it or for effective treatment, but the problem associated to early detection of DR is very minor changes on retinal fundus image, it includes-hemorrhages, exudates, red lesion, cotton wool spots, drusen etc. To early detection or screening of changes on retinal image is very challenging and time consuming for ophthalmologists, as the size and color changes are initially matched with local blood vessels in retinal image. This paper presented the exhaustive review on various latest trends on computer aided diagnosis screening systems to automated and integrated DR detection and monitoring system; the detection result will help out to take the fast decision for automatic referrals to the ompthologists. This paper also presented the comparison the performance of various predecessor DR detection systems based on quality metrics, such as sensitivity, specificity and AUC (Area under Curve). This review paper will assist to researcher to quickly analyze the latest trend of various DR screening methodologists in medical engineering.
INEQUALITY ANALYSIS OF EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA

In the end of 2015 is the time for Indonesia to enter the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) that will integrate with 10 Southeast Asia countries. AEC itself is expected can bring Indonesian economy to be better by expanding the market share. The applicability of AEC not only affects the free trade sectors, but also makes a various workers from ASEAN countries can compete to fill a variety sectors across the ASEAN countries. To be able to compete with other ASEAN countries, Indonesia must have qualified human resources. One of the ways that could be done is through the development of education in Indonesia in order to make high quality human resources. Meanwhile there are still a lot of inequality in Indonesia, both educational inequality and economic inequality itself. This study aims to determine the inequality of education and economic development within the framework of the preparation of AEC. The research methods used are descriptive statistics and statistical inference to know the relationships between the variables. The variables are Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Net Enrolment Ratio (NER), Dropout Rate, Natioal Exam Score, and the Literacy Rate, on the other variables: School Operational Assistance, government expenditure in education sector, Specific Allocation Funds of education, deconcentration fund, GDRP per capita, School-Pupil Ratio, Teacher-Pupil Ratio, and the Teachers' Competency Test. The study was conducted in 33 provinces in Indonesia in 2012-2013. From the results of the estimation using Eviews 7 software, are known that GER inequality, Dropout and Literacy rate inequality variable influenced by economic inequality and education inequality in different directions.
Role of immunoglobulin G in killing of Borrelia burgdorferi by the classical complement pathway

The antibody and complement requirements for killing of Borrelia burgdorferi 297 by normal human serum (NHS) and NHS plus immunoglobulin G (IgG) were examined. B. burgdorferi activated both the alternative and classical complement pathways in NHS. In NHS chelated with 10 mM ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid plus 4 mM MgCl2 (Mg-EGTA) to block classical pathway activation, consumption (activation) of total hemolytic complement, complement component 3 (C3), and C9 by B. burgdorferi was observed. Furthermore, challenge of unchelated NHS with 297 cells resulted in the consumption of C4, in addition to an increase in C3 and C9 consumption over that observed in chelated serum. In spite of complement activation, B. burgdorferi was resistant to the nonspecific bactericidal activity of NHS. The addition of human anti-B. burgdorferi IgG to NHS, however, resulted in the complete killing of 297 cells. Bactericidal activity of this serum was abrogated if NHS was immunochemically depleted of C1, indicating that killing was mediated by the classical pathway. The manifestation of bactericidal activity was accompanied by a large increase in total complement and C3 consumption over that observed in NHS alone. Under similar conditions, only a minimal increase in C9 consumption was observed. No increase in total complement consumption was observed if NHS plus anti-B. burgdorferi IgG was treated with Mg-EGTA prior to challenge. The results of these experiments demonstrate that B. burgdorferi is resistant to the nonspecific bactericidal activity of NHS, in spite of classical and alternative complement pathway activation. B. burgdorferi is sensitive to serum, however, in the presence of IgG, which mediates bacterial killing through the classical complement pathway.
Nucleotide excision repair pathways involved in Cisplatin resistance in non-small-cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND In spite of the growing list of genetic abnormalities identified as being involved in DNA repair pathways that alter chemosensitivity in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, translational assays have not yet been developed for use in individualized chemotherapy. METHODS In metastatic NSCLC, no single cisplatin-based chemotherapy regimen has been shown to be superior to any other. Although these studies show a small survival tail at 3 years, the majority of patients had a median survival of 8 to 10 months. We review the principal mechanisms of cisplatin resistance, particularly those involved in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathways (transcription-coupled repair and global genomic repair). RESULTS ERCC1 is a single-stranded DNA endonuclease that forms a tight heterodimer with xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group F. It incises DNA on the 5' side of a lesion such as cisplatin-DNA adduct. Therefore, overexpression of ERCC1 and other NER enzymes during ovarian cancer chemotherapy with cisplatin appears to be implicated in the formation of cellular and clinical drug resistance. Recently, baseline ERCC1 mRNA overexpression has been related to poor response and survival in cisplatin-treated NSCLC patients. CONCLUSIONS The level of evidence for many assays is limited, and only ERCC1 mRNA levels have been analyzed extensively. The impact of ERCC1 should be fully validated in prospective clinical trials.
Novel Functional Dissection of the Localization-Specific Roles of Budding Yeast Polo Kinase Cdc5p

ABSTRACT Budding yeast polo kinase Cdc5p localizes to the spindle pole body (SPB) and to the bud-neck and plays multiple roles during M-phase progression. To dissect localization-specific mitotic functions of Cdc5p, we tethered a localization-defective N-terminal kinase domain of Cdc5p (Cdc5pΔC) to the SPB or to the bud-neck with components specifically localizing to one of these sites and characterized these mutants in a cdc5Δ background. Characterization of a viable, SPB-localizing, CDC5ΔC-CNM67 mutant revealed that it is defective in timely degradation of Swe1p, a negative regulator of Cdc28p. Loss of BFA1, a negative regulator of mitotic exit, rescued the lethality of a neck-localizing CDC5ΔC-CDC12 or CDC5ΔC-CDC3 mutant but yielded severe defects in cytokinesis. These data suggest that the SPB-associated Cdc5p activity is critical for both mitotic exit and cytokinesis, whereas the bud neck-localized Cdc5p is required for proper Swe1p regulation. Interestingly, a cdc5Δ bfa1Δ swe1Δ triple mutant is viable but grows slowly, whereas cdc5Δ cells bearing both CDC5ΔC-CNM67 and CDC5ΔC-CDC12 grow well with only a mild cell cycle delay. Thus, SPB- and the bud-neck-localized Cdc5p control most of the critical Cdc5p functions and downregulation of Bfa1p and Swe1p at the respective locations are two critical factors that require Cdc5p.
Natural Human Antibodies to Gram-Negative Bacteria: Immunoglobulins G, A, and M

Significant amounts of immunoglobulins G and M, and a small amount of natural antibodies reactive with Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Escherichia coli, have been detected in human adult serums by imnmunofluorescent techniques. Umbilical cord serums also contained substantial immunoglobulin-G antibody but little or no M or A. These findings challenge the concept that natural antibodies reactive with Gram-negative bacteria are primarily of the immunoglobulin-M class.
Comparing Knowledge of Colorectal and Prostate Cancer Among African American and Hispanic Men

African American and Hispanic men are less likely to participate in prostate and colorectal cancer screening and have poorer outcomes from these diseases. Guided by the Patient/Provider/System Theoretical Model for Cancer Screening, this study compares the relationships among knowledge of prostate and colorectal cancer, perceptions of cancer fatalism, common sources of cancer information, and awareness of cancer resources screening between African American (n = 72) and Hispanic (n = 47) men who attend federally qualified health centers and a hospital-based primary care clinic in a southern state. African American men were older, had higher levels of education, and were more knowledgeable about cancer than Hispanic men were. However, Hispanic men were more fatalistic about cancer. Most men in both groups were more likely to get cancer information from the television and/or radio, with few accessing the Internet for this information. The men were not aware of many of the leading cancer-related organizations and programs. Nurses continue to play a critical role in patient education and enhancing screening rates. These findings suggest that culturally and educationally appropriate intervention strategies are needed to enhance knowledge and that the television/radio may be an effective medium for delivering these strategies.
Effectiveness of pre-licensure interprofessional education and post-licensure collaborative interventions

In this paper we scanned and summarized the empirical research evidence and found that the effects of pre-licensure interprofessional education on patient/client care are unknown. In contrast, for post-licensure collaboration interventions, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting positive effects on the delivery of care. The coverage of this latter evidence, however, is patchy, being especially weak in primary care. In interprofessional education, where policy level interventions have been value driven for the last half century, we have identified a base of evidence for the effectiveness of certain post-licensure collaboration interventions; this evidence is lacking for pre-licensure interprofessional education. If interventions and policies for both pre-licensure interprofessional education and post-licensure collaboration are implemented without accompanying rigorous evaluation research, we will remain mired in this same uncertainty into the future.
Effect of concurrent zidovudine use on the resistance pathway selected by abacavir‐containing regimens

Abacavir (ABC) selects for four mutations (K65R, L74V, Y115F and M184V) in HIV‐1 reverse transcriptase (RT), both in vitro and during monotherapy in vivo. The aim of this analysis was to compare the selection of these and other nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI)‐associated mutations by ABC‐containing therapies in the presence and absence of concurrent lamivudine (3TC) and/or zidovudine (ZDV) and to assess the effect of these mutations on phenotypic susceptibility to the NRTIs.
Voting Simulation for Increasing Voter Turnout and Reducing the Number of Polls

In this paper, we employ a genetic algorithm to increase the vote turnout rates and to reduce the number of polling places without being lower than the actual rates by reallocating polling places. In order to estimate the decision making process of each voter, we adjust the parameters of voters in each area of the city. Through computer simulation, we could minimize the difference between the estimated voter turnout rates and the actual rates. Using the estimated parameters in each area, we increase the rates using a genetic algorithm. The simulation result shows that we can increase the voter turnout rates and reduce the number of polling places without being lower than the actual rates.
Analysis of Self-Pulsating Sources Based on Regenerative SPM: Ignition, Pulse Characteristics and Stability

We provide design guidelines and resulting outputs of a self-pulsating source based on regenerative self-phase modulation and offset band-pass filtering. We assess the conditions for self-pulsation and discuss the output pulse properties under the influence of spectral separation between the filters and their bandwidth. We also examine the source behavior when the central wavelength of the bandpass filters are subject to increasing spectral separation in the pulse-buffering regime. The results emphasize the role of chromatic dispersion for the reduction of amplitude and timing jitter.
Characterisation of binary Josephson series arrays of different types at BNM-LNE and comparisons with conventional SIS arrays

Three 1 V binary Josephson arrays developed by the NIST, the PTB and the VTT and using respectively SNS (superconductor-normal-superconductor), SINIS (superconductor-insulator-normal-insulator-superconductor) and externally shunted SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) junctions have been tested at BNM-LNE. Preliminary results of direct comparisons with conventional SIS arrays globally show a good agreement of less than 0.5 nV, at any nominal voltages between 41 mV and 1.3 V.
Emotions matter for public engagement in the emerging biobased economy

This thesis explores the role of emotions for triggering public engagement in the emerging bio-based economy. Emotions have been found to be important in people’s communication, judgement formation decision making and interactions with our surroundings. In current engagement practises there is hardly any attention for emotions; how they can be vented, elicited or taken into account in a meaningful way. Approaches such as Q methodology, art and dinners have been studied as alternative means to elicit and articulate emotions hence triggering public engagement. Especially for such a distant issue as the emerging bio-based economy emotions might be a way to get people to consider what it all means, initiating their engagement.
Statistical Background Modeling: An Edge Segment Based Moving Object Detection Approach

We propose an edge segment based statistical backgroundmodeling algorithm and a moving edge detectionframework for the detection of moving objects. We analyzethe performance of the proposed segment based statisticalbackground model with traditional pixel based, edge pixelbased and edge segment based approaches. Existing edgebased moving object detection algorithms fetches difficultydue to the change in background motion, object shape, illuminationvariation and noise. The proposed algorithmmakes efficient use of statistical background model usingthe edge-segment structure. Experiments with natural imagesequences show that our method can detect moving objectsefficiently under the above mentioned environments.
Establishment of Immortal Swine Kidney Epithelial Cells

Using normal swine kidney epithelial (SKE) cells that were shown to be senescent at passages 12 to 14, we have established one lifespan-extended cell line and two lifespan-extended cell lines by exogenous introduction of the human catalytic subunit of telomerase (hTERT) and simian virus 40 large T-antigen (SV40LT), all of which maintain epithelial morphology and express cytokeratin, a marker of epithelial cells. SV40LT- and hTERT-transduced immortal cell lines appeared to be smaller and exhibited more uniform morphology relative to primary and spontaneously immortalized SKE cells. We determined the in vitro lifespan of primary SKE cells using a standard 3T6 protocol. There were two steps of the proliferation barrier at 12 and 20, in which a majority of primary SKE cells appeared enlarged, flattened, vacuolated, and β-galactosidase-positive, all phenotypical characteristics of senescent cells. Lifespan-extended SKE cells were eventually established from most of the cellular foci, which is indicative of spontaneous cellular conversion at passage 23. Beyond passage 25, the rate of population doubling of the established cells gradually increased. At passage 30, immortal cell lines grew faster than primary counterpart cells in 10% FBS-DMEM culture conditions, and only SV40LT-transduced immortal cells grew faster than primary and other SKE immortal cells in 0.5% FBS-DMEM. These lifespan-extended SKE cell lines failed to grow in an anchorage-independent manner in soft-agar dishes. Hence, three immortalized swine kidney epithelial cells that are not transformed would be valuable biological tools for virus propagation and basic kidney epithelial cell research.
The time traveller’s CAPM

ABSTRACT This empirical study comprises six emerging market portfolios and five industry replicating portfolios from the USA, using data from 2005 to 2014. The purpose of this study is to test the ability of the ex-ante beta against the ex-post beta using six different generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models and the machine learning artificial neural network (ANN) to construct the ex-ante models. Whereas most studies use GARCH models for ultra-short forecasts, little is known about long-run forecasts using these models. The ANN model is also trained to learn the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to see if the computer can improve upon the traditional model. This study uses a one month (five week) forecast window in all its sample and subsample horseraces, 55 races in all. The ability to forecast the CAPM beta parameters, travel to the future, was found to be more accurate than the historical method across all 11 markets for the three three-year, two five-year and one full 10-year sample periods. Using out-of-sample testing (backtests), the SGARCH was the best predictor overall in developed markets while the IGARCH was in emerging markets.
Revisiting Neighbourhood-Based Recommenders For Temporal Scenarios

Modelling the temporal context efficiently and effectively is essential to provide useful recommendations to users. Methods such as matrix factorisation and Markov chains have been combined recently to model the temporal preferences of users in a sequential basis. In this work, we focus on Neighbourhood-based Collaborative Filtering and propose a simple technique that incorporates interaction sequences when producing a personalised ranking. We show the efficiency of this method when compared against other sequenceand time-aware recommendation methods under two classical temporal evaluation methodologies.
Restoration Method Based on Low-Rank Decomposition for Video under Turbulence

Atmospheric turbulence can cause the image degraded with blur and distortion. These make the image reconstruction big challenges. In order to correct pixel distortion and reduce blur in the turbulence degraded videos, a novel video restoration algorithm based on low-rank decomposition is proposed. First it analyzes the characteristics of atmospheric turbulence degradation. Next, according to the low-rank decomposition, it decomposes the turbulence sequence into two components: the low-rank stabilized background and the sparse turbulence pixel offsets. The object function of decomposition, which is a combination of the matrix nuclear norm and Frobenius norm, is optimized by inexact augmented Lagrange multiplier. Finally, the stabilized frames can be restored in a frame-by-frame basis. Experimental results show that the effectiveness of the proposed method. It can effectively alleviate pixel distortions and blur, improve visual quality significantly.
Metabolic adaptation in Cryptococcus neoformans during early murine pulmonary infection

The pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans generally initiates infection in mammalian lung tissue and subsequently disseminates to the brain. We performed serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) on C. neoformans cells recovered from the lungs of mice and found elevated expression of genes for central carbon metabolism including functions for acetyl‐CoA production and utilization. Deletion of the highly expressed ACS1 gene encoding acetyl‐CoA synthetase revealed a requirement for growth on acetate and for full virulence. Transcripts for transporters (e.g. for monosaccharides, iron, copper and acetate) and for stress‐response proteins were also elevated thus indicating a nutrient‐limited and hostile host environment. The pattern of regulation was reminiscent of the control of alternative carbon source utilization and stress response by the Snf1 protein kinase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A snf1 mutant of C. neoformans showed defects in alternative carbon source utilization, the response to nitrosative stress, melanin production and virulence. However, loss of Snf1 did not influence the expression of a set of genes for carbon metabolism that were elevated upon lung infection. Taken together, the results reveal specific metabolic adaptations of C. neoformans during pulmonary infection and indicate a role for ACS1 and SNF1 in virulence.