julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
IADS, a Decomposition Product of DIDS Activates a Cation Conductance in <i>Xenopus</i> Oocytes and Human Erythrocytes: New Compound for the Diagnosis of Cystic Fibrosis
2006-01-01

DIDS (4,4'-diisothiocyanato-stilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid) is a commonly used blocker of plasma membrane anion channels and transporters. We observed that DIDS undergoes decomposition while stored in DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) forming a biologically active compound. One decomposition product, called IADS, was identified and synthesized. Voltage-clamp and patch clamp experiments on Xenopus laevis oocytes and human erythrocytes revealed that IADS is able to activate a plasma membrane cation conductance in both cell types. Furthermore, we found that IADS induces hemolysis in red blood cells of healthy donors but fails to hemolyze erythrocytes of donors with cystic fibrosis. Thus, IADS stimulated activation of a cation conductance could form the basis for a novel diagnostic test of cystic fibrosis.
On the Implementation of Tree Automata: Limitations of the Naive Approach
2006-01-01

Monadic Second Order logic (MSO) has been used as a formalism to describe Government and Binding rules. It also lends itself to be used as a query language. Main arguments are its expressive power and linear data complexity. Particularly in the domain of tree banks, where the size of the data is much bigger than the size of the query, the data complexity is an influential factor. It is known since the late 1960s that an MSO formula can be translated into a tree automaton. These results also predict an more than exponential blowup of the number of states of the tree automaton corresponding to the number of quantifier alternations in the formula. If one refrains from writing complicated formulae and thus avoids the theoretical blowup, one could hope the result becomes practically usable to write a query tool for tree banks. It is shown here that another problem arises: even with few quantifier alternations the transition tables get too big very soon. This is illustrated by a straightforward implementation of tree automata: by taking the definition in its mathematical sense, and translating every element into an equivalent computer language construct. This was done in a prototype Java version of the tool described above. I describe why this approach reaches its limits all too soon, due to the above problem.
Becoming A Simulator Instructor And Learning To Facilitate: Evaluation Of The Instructor And Facilitation Training – Infact
2006-01-01

Background: Simulation-based training courses using video-debriefing techniques require very competent instructors, especially when focussing on human factors and crisis resource management (CRM). We developed an instructor course to help new users of simulation to use the tool of realistic simulation to its full potential. The Instructor and Facilitation Training (InFacT) was provided for approximately 170 future simulator instructors in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. InFacT focuses on realistic CRM simulator training with video-debriefing. Method: The InFacT course runs four days and is divided into two blocks (two days each). Participants gradually switch from the role of a course participant in a simulator course (experience phase) into the role of a simulator instructor (InFacT “double feature” concept to allow for different perspectives of the trainees). Performing simulations and debriefings is the main focus of the course. Intermittent theory modules (patient safety, CRM, briefing and debriefing, the simulator setting, and scenario design) are supplemented by workshops, practice parts and extensive feedback. Participants begin to do debriefings and later scenarios and debriefings and receive feedback from themselves, other participants as well as from the interdisciplinary InFacT course directors. We report the detailed questionnaire based evaluation of three InFacT courses which were conducted at “SimuLearn” in Bologna, Italy with N=70 participants. Questionnaires contained 30 items on subjective competency ratings within five scales (clarity of instructor role, simulator setting overview, running a simulator course, debriefing skills, CRM skills). The questionnaire was filled in prior to (pre) and after the course (post now, post before), including methods to assess “response shift bias” (Howard et al., 1979). Results: As a multivariate analysis of variance did not yield statistical significant effects between the 3 different courses the results were combined in figure 1. The repeated measures factor time (before, post now, post before) did yield statistical significance (F(10, 29)=39,17, p<.001 – Wilks Lambda): for all five scales subjective competency ratings after the course were higher than prior to the course. After the course the estimation of competencies prior to the course was lower than the same estimation before the course, indicating a strong response shift.FigureConclusion: The results suggest that InFacT participants gained new insights into the task of being a simulator instructor for advanced simulation based courses. There was a strong response shift between pre and post before ratings. Especially when comparing the “post now” rating with the “post before” rating there seemed to be a remarkable learning curve during the 2 x 2 days course. As several of the trained instructors successfully performed simulation courses after the InFacT these questionnaire-based findings are at least anecdotally supported in practice.Table
You only need a scalar "only"
2006-01-01

We propose a compositional analysis for sentences of the kind "You only have to go to the North End to get good cheese", referred to as the Sufficiency Modal Construction in the recent literature. We argue that the SMC is ambiguous depending on the kind of ordering induced by only. So is the exceptive construction – its cross-linguistic counterpart. Only is treated as inducing either a 'comparative possibility' scale or an 'implication-based' partial order on propositions. The properties of the 'comparative possibility' scale explain the absence of the prejacent presupposition that is usually associated with only. By integrating the scalarity into the semantics of the SMC, we explain the polarity facts observed in both variants of the construction. The sufficiency meaning component is argued to be due to a pragmatic inference.&#x0D;
Handling photographic imperfections and aliasing in augmented reality
2006-01-01

In video see-through augmented reality, virtual objects are overlaid over images delivered by a digital video camera. One particular problem of this image mixing process is the fact that the visual ap-pearance of the computer-generated graphics differs strongly from the real background image. In typical augmented reality systems, standard real-time rendering techniques are used for displaying vir-tual objects. These fast, but relatively simplistic methods create an artificial, almost “plastic-like ” look for the graphical elements. In this paper, methods for incorporating two particular camera image effects in virtual overlays are described. The first effect is camera image noise, which is contained in the data delivered by the CCD chip used for capturing the real scene. The second effect is motion blur, which is caused by the temporal integration of color intensities on the CCD chip during fast movements of the camera
Mice Lacking Protein Kinase C Beta Present Modest Increases in Systolic Blood Pressure and NH<sub>4</sub>Cl-Induced Metabolic Acidosis
2006-01-01

The conventional protein kinase C isoenzyme β (PKC-β) is expressed in various structures of mouse kidney. To get insights into the function, PKC-β knockout (–/–) and wild-type (+/+) mice were studied. Under basal conditions, PKC-β–/– mice exhibited a higher systolic blood pressure (in awake mice), normal plasma concentrations of Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and K&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt;, and normal plasma pH. Urine osmolality and 24-hour excretion of fluid, Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt;, K&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and albumin were not different between genotypes, but urine pH was more alkaline in PKC-β–/– mice. Inulin clearance experiments under anesthesia confirmed a higher systolic blood pressure and revealed normal glomerular filtration rate and fractional excretion of fluid, Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and K&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; in PKC-β–/– mice. The ability to restrict renal Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; excretion in response to a low Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; diet was unaltered in PKC-β–/– mice. Chronic acid loading (NH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;Cl) did not affect blood pH in PKC-β+/+ mice, but induced a modest metabolic acidosis in PKC-β–/– mice. In conclusion, first evidence is presented that (i) PKC-β contributes to the regulation of arterial blood pressure, and (ii) PKC-β is required for normal acid-base balance, which may relate to its expression and function in intercalated cells of the collecting duct.
Phylogenies from whole genomes: Methodological update within a distance-based framework
2006-01-01

Glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) is a glycoprotein from the hyphae and spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Despite urbanization being the leading cause of present-day land-use changes, there is limited information available on the effects of urbanization on GRSP. We sampled soil from 257 plots in Harbin City, China, and surveyed forest characteristics, soil properties, and urbanization gradients related to ring road development, urban history, and land use. Two glomalin components (easily extracted glomalin, EEG; and total glomalin, TG) and their relative contributions to soil organic carbon (SOC: EEG/SOC, TG/SOC) were measured in the laboratory. We found exponential increases in EEG/SOC and TG/SOC from the most urbanized to the most rural regions, indicating that urbanization sharply reduced glomalin-related SOC sequestration. In general, 1.3-1.4-fold higher glomalin levels were found in the newly urbanized, previously rural areas, while glomalin contribution to SOC sequestration was lower by 38-59% for EEG and 74-85% for TG in the most urbanized regions compared to rural regions. Accompanying these recorded changes in glomalin, linear decreases in soil pH and electrical conductance were observed in all three urban-rural gradients from the urban center to the rural area, and steep decreases in conifer ratio and shrub richness were seen in two of the gradients. The complex associations among glomalin and forest characteristics, soil properties, and urbanization gradients were decoupled and cross-checked using redundancy analysis variation partitioning and structural equation model analysis. Urbanization indirectly changed glomalin features by altering soil properties, with soil properties accounting for over 60% of the glomalin variation. Forest characteristics and urbanization gradients contributed to 10-15% of the glomalin variation. With rapid urbanization occurring in China and on a global scale, glomalin variation should be considered when evaluating soil carbon sequestration and in developing effective forest management strategies, with the aim of ameliorating soil degradation in urbanized regions by rehabilitating glomalin accumulation.
Convergence or Divergence of National Legal and Administrative Structures? Europeanisation Effects of the Environmental Impact Assessment in Germany and England (Part 2)
2006-01-01

In the past few years the effects of European integration on national legal and administrative structures have increasingly attracted the attention of legal and administrative analysts. One of the main topics of this branch of research based on the catchword Europeanisation is the question whether and to what extent these processes have led to the approximation of national legal and administrative structures in the course of time. However, we still lack comprehensive findings as to whether and under what conditions the effects of European integration lead to domestic administrative and legal changes. It this paper, we try to address this research gap. We analyse whether and to what extent the implementation of European policies leads to an approximation of legal and administrative structures in the Member States. This question will be thoroughly elaborated by using the example of the implementation of directives related to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in Germany and England.
Methods for formative evaluations of debriefing as a tool for feedback and improvement.
2006-01-01

Debriefing is a complex task. Instructors need intensive initial training as well as continuous practice and feedback in order to be and to stay good facilitators, to reflect on their role and to harmonize approaches within a simulator team. Modern video systems are available in most simulator-based courses anyway and can be easily set up to record debriefings. A category system can be used to analyse the video recorded debriefings in terms of issues discussed. This can be matched to the plans facilitators had for the debriefing. This comparison can structure the discussions within a simulator team for continuous “quality assurance”. We will also present paper and pencil based methods that can be used online during debriefings without the need for video recording. These methods allow to code the interactions during debriefings, focussing on contents, type of interaction (questions, utterances), or the amount of talking time. Results are available with only little additional work and can also be used to discuss debriefing approaches in simulator teams and also during instructor training. We will address general principles of providing feedback within a simulator team.
Ethical, psychological and social implications of brain-computer interface application in paralyzed patients
2006-01-01

We reflect upon ethical and psychological issues of groups of patient where verbal communication is not possible due to severe physical impairment. This group of chronically ill patients is capable of emotional and cognitive processing but the patients are locked in a paralyzed body. Thinking and feeling are intact but can no longer be expressed. Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) maintain and allow communication in severely paralyzed patients. The ethical, psychological and social implications of BCIs concern mainly hasten death decisions and euthanasia. Locked-in patients need communication Imagine that you are bedridden, speechless and immobile, without any possibility to express your thoughts and feelings. Imagine furthermore that this imprisonment is not
Project “Integration of Children with Migration Background in Baden-Wuerttemberg and California”
2006-01-01

The point of departure for the scientific study of the integration of children with migration backgrounds in the two areas chosen for comparison, Baden-Wuerttemberg and California, is the following problem: Children between nine and fourteen years of age, our project’s target group, are seldom considered in both integration research and integration practice. During this stage, children face important developmental and psychological tasks, which will determine their future orientation in various areas of life. In this specific period of development children go through important processes of integration – both those with and without migration backgrounds [1] . For these reasons we argue that the study of children’s integration-experiences is of great scientific and societal relevance. Thus our research is based on a practical problem which at the same time marks a gap in current research literature. Practical problems are complex; in order to appropriately grasp and represent them, a variety of methods, both quantitative and qualitative, is needed.
Making of an interactive teaching gem
2006-01-01

Current educational repositories lack in interactive material. We describe the full pipeline for creating an interactive teaching gem in computer graphics and related domains. Based on experiences from our own classroom use, we explain why and how we specify learning objectives, set up unit tasks, design interactivity levels, and provide source code for homework. The pipeline is illustrated with the making of a real interactive teaching gem. From this we derive implications for computer graphics educators and current community building efforts, and formulate two matching repository services.
Medical Informatics in Medical Research
2006-01-01

Summary Objectives: Computers are widely used for data management in clinical trials in the developed coutries, unlike in developing countries. Dependable systems are vital for data management, and medical decision making in clinical research. Monitoring and evaluation of data management is critical. In this paper we describe database structures and procedures of systems used to implement, coordinate, and sustain data management in Africa. We outline major lessons, challenges and successes achieved, and recommendations to improve medical informatics application in biomedical research in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: A consortium of experienced research units at five sites in Africa in studying children with disease formed a new clinical trials network, Severe Malaria in African Children. In December 2000, the network introduced an observational study involving these hospital-based sites. After prototyping, relational database management systems were implemented for data entry and verification, data submission and quality assurance monitoring. Results: Between 2000 and 2005, 25,858 patients were enrolled. Failure to meet data submission deadline and data entry errors correlated positively (correlation coefficient, r = 0.82), with more errors occurring when data was submitted late. Data submission lateness correlated inversely with hospital admissions (r = –0.62). Conclusions: Developing and sustaining dependable DBMS, ongoing modifications to optimize data management is crucial for clinical studies. Monitoring and communication systems are vital in multi-center networks for good data management. Data timeliness is associated with data quality and hospital admissions.
Automatic SystemC design configuration for a faster evaluation of different partitioning alternatives
2006-01-01

In this paper we present a methodology that is based on SystemC for rapid prototyping to greatly enhance and accelerate the exploration of complex systems to optimize the system architecture. The approach introduces a methodology to automatically configure system components with regards to the memory mapping of modules. The approach reduces the implementation effort that in conventional approaches has to be done by hand to re-assign and re-configure modules in a system. This does not only save time for manual adaptation but also reduces the chance to introduce errors like known from complex manual modifications. The new approach for automatic system configuration is derived as one of the results and features that come along with the module-adapter (MA) based approach that we have proposed in different presentations (Bannow, 2004). One of the main goals, our proposed methodology has to fulfill, are industrial requirements such as applicability for complex system development, integration of existing IP, improved code quality and decreased development effort. The automated system configuration as well as the whole MA based approach greatly support the designers in the concept phase to simulate a design before the implementation starts
Delayed Formation of Actin Filaments in the Outer Pillar Head Plate of VASP–/– Mice
2006-01-01

Pillar cells with their rich network of tubulin and actin filaments have been reported to contribute to the rigidity of the organ of Corti. As the earliest expression of the actin filament enhancer vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) in the outer pillar head plate has been found to be associated with the onset of hearing, we tested hearing development in VASP–/– compared to wild-type mice. Performing measurements of auditory brainstem responses on postnatal days (P) P14 and P21, we detected statistically significantly higher thresholds in VASP–/– compared to wild-type mice at P14, but no hearing differences at P21. Staining for prestin and synaptophysin at P12 in morphologically regularly developed cochleae of VASP–/– mice provided an immature prestin protein pattern but no evidence of developmental delay in hair cell innervations. Regularly intense staining of actin filaments in the outer pillar head plate was found only in wild-type but not in VASP–/– mice at P14. At P21, intensive actin filament staining was also observed in the outer pillar head plates of VASP–/– mice. The delayed hearing development in VASP–/– mice is supposed to be caused by a delayed formation of actin filaments in the outer pillar head plate indicating the importance of appropriate pillar cell stiffness in cochlear mechanics.
From Surface Dependencies towards Deeper Semantic Representations
2006-01-01

In the past, a divide could be seen between ’deep ’ parsers on the one hand, which construct a semantic representation out of their input, but usually have significant coverage problems, and more robust parsers on the other hand, which are usually based on a (statistical) model derived from a treebank and have larger coverage,
Evaluation and Design of Processor-Like Reconfigurable Architectures
2006-01-01

Traditionally, FPGAs are deployed because of their flexibility to change the application over time. Newly developed architectures can be reconfigured within one clock cycle so that components of a device can be re-used within a single application. The reconfiguration keeping pace with the execution yields an additional degree of freedom that constitutes a new principle of reconfiguration. This principle is called processor-like reconfiguration. In the presented work, it is evaluated how processor-like reconfiguration can be exploited by a high-level compiler and which architectural resources are needed for an efficient mapping of applications. For an assessment of the benefits and costs imposed by those resources, a synthesizable model for coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures is used.