Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An emerging treatment option for glaucoma: Rho kinase inhibitors

Rho kinase (ROCK) inhibitors are a novel potential class of glaucoma therapeutics with multiple compounds currently in Phase II and III US Food and Drug Administration trials in the United States. These selective agents work by relaxing the trabecular meshwork through inhibition of the actin cytoskeleton contractile tone of smooth muscle. This results in increased aqueous outflow directly through the trabecular meshwork, achieving lower intraocular pressures in a range similar to prostaglandins. There are also animal studies indicating that ROCK inhibitors may improve blood flow to the optic nerve, increase ganglion cell survival, and reduce bleb scarring in glaucoma surgery. Given the multiple beneficial effects for glaucoma patients, ROCK inhibitors are certainly a highly anticipated emerging treatment option for glaucoma.
Mediators of innate and adaptive immune responses differentially affect immune restoration disease associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis in HIV patients beginning antiretroviral therapy.

BACKGROUND Initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in human immunodeficiency virus patients with treated or unrecognized Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection may result in tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS) or ART-associated tuberculosis (ART-TB), respectively. Both conditions appear to be immune restoration disease but their immunopathogenesis is not completely understood. METHODS Chemokines and cytokines produced by the innate immune system (CCL2, CXCL8, CXCL9, CXCL10, and interleukin 18 [IL-18]) were assayed in plasma from unstimulated whole blood cultures obtained from 15 TB-IRIS case patients, 11 ART-TB case patients, and matched control participants over 24 weeks of ART. RESULTS When compared with control participants, levels of IL-18 and CXCL10 were higher in TB-IRIS case patients (P = .002 and .006, respectively), whereas CCL2 was lower (P = .006). IL-18 level was higher in ART-TB case patients (P = .002), but CXCL10 was only marginally higher (P = .06). When TB-IRIS case patients were compared with ART-TB case patients, IL-18 was higher in ART-TB (P = .03), whereas CXCL10 was higher in TB-IRIS (P = .001). Using receiver operating characteristic curves, pre-ART levels of CCL2, CXCL10, and IL-18 were predictive of TB-IRIS and additive to IFN-γ responses. CONCLUSIONS Perturbations of the innate immune response to M. tuberculosis before and during ART may contribute to the immunopathology of TB-IRIS, whereas elevated IL-18 alone suggests adaptive immune responses predominate in ART-TB. These findings may have implications for therapy in TB-IRIS.
Deep Voice: Real-time Neural Text-to-Speech

We present Deep Voice, a production-quality text-to-speech system constructed entirely from deep neural networks. Deep Voice lays the groundwork for truly end-to-end neural speech synthesis. The system comprises five major building blocks: a segmentation model for locating phoneme boundaries, a grapheme-to-phoneme conversion model, a phoneme duration prediction model, a fundamental frequency prediction model, and an audio synthesis model. For the segmentation model, we propose a novel way of performing phoneme boundary detection with deep neural networks using connectionist temporal classification (CTC) loss. For the audio synthesis model, we implement a variant of WaveNet that requires fewer parameters and trains faster than the original. By using a neural network for each component, our system is simpler and more flexible than traditional text-to-speech systems, where each component requires laborious feature engineering and extensive domain expertise. Finally, we show that inference with our system can be performed faster than real time and describe optimized WaveNet inference kernels on both CPU and GPU that achieve up to 400x speedups over existing implementations.
TASK-2: a K2P K+ channel with complex regulation and diverse physiological functions

TASK-2 (K2P5.1) is a two-pore domain K+ channel belonging to the TALK subgroup of the K2P family of proteins. TASK-2 has been shown to be activated by extra- and intracellular alkalinization. Extra- and intracellular pH-sensors reside at arginine 224 and lysine 245 and might affect separate selectivity filter and inner gates respectively. TASK-2 is modulated by changes in cell volume and a regulation by direct G-protein interaction has also been proposed. Activation by extracellular alkalinization has been associated with a role of TASK-2 in kidney proximal tubule bicarbonate reabsorption, whilst intracellular pH-sensitivity might be the mechanism for its participation in central chemosensitive neurons. In addition to these functions TASK-2 has been proposed to play a part in apoptotic volume decrease in kidney cells and in volume regulation of glial cells and T-lymphocytes. TASK-2 is present in chondrocytes of hyaline cartilage, where it is proposed to play a central role in stabilizing the membrane potential. Additional sites of expression are dorsal root ganglion neurons, endocrine and exocrine pancreas and intestinal smooth muscle cells. TASK-2 has been associated with the regulation of proliferation of breast cancer cells and could become target for breast cancer therapeutics. Further work in native tissues and cells together with genetic modification will no doubt reveal the details of TASK-2 functions that we are only starting to suspect.
The Cold Neutron Star in the Soft X-Ray Transient 1H 1905+000

We report on our analysis of 300 ks of Chandra observations of the neutron star soft X-ray transient 1H 1905+000 in quiescence. We do not detect the source down to a 95% confidence unabsorbed flux upper limit of 2 × 10-16 ergs cm-2 s-1 in the 0.5-10 keV energy range for an assumed Γ = 2 power-law spectral model. A limit of 1.4 × 10-16 ergs cm-2 s-1 is derived if we assume that the spectrum of 1H 1905+000 in quiescence is described well with a blackbody of temperature of 0.2 keV. For the upper limit to the source distance of 10 kpc this yields a 0.5-10 keV luminosity limit of 2.4 × 1030 ergs s-1/1.7 × 1030 ergs s-1 for the abovementioned power law or blackbody spectrum, respectively. This luminosity limit is lower than the luminosity of A0620-00, the weakest black hole soft X-ray transient in quiescence reported so far. Together with the uncertainties in relating the mass transfer and mass accretion rates we come to the conclusion that the claim that there is evidence for the presence of a black hole event horizon on the basis of a lower quiescent luminosity for black holes than for neutron stars is unproven. We also briefly discuss the implications of the low quiescent luminosity of 1H 1905+000 for the neutron star equation of state. Using deep Magellan images of the field of 1H 1905+000 obtained at excellent observing conditions, we do not detect the quiescent counterpart of 1H 1905+000 at the position of the outburst optical counterpart down to a magnitude limit of i′ > 25.3. This can be converted to a limit on the absolute magnitude of the counterpart of I > 9.6, which implies that the counterpart can only be a brown or a white dwarf.
Modelling Terrestrial and Marine Foraging Habitats in Breeding Audouin's Gulls Larus audouinii: Timing Matters

Although the breeding ecology of Audouin’s gull has been widely studied, its spatial distribution patterns have received little attention. We assessed the foraging movements of 36 GPS-tracked adult Audouin’s gulls breeding at the Ebro Delta (NW Mediterranean), coinciding with the incubation period (May 2011). This also coincided with a trawling moratorium northwards from the colony. We modelled the distribution of the gulls by combining these tracking data with environmental variables (including fishing activities from Vessel Monitoring System, VMS), using Maxent. The modelling range included both marine and terrestrial areas. Models were produced separately for every 2h time interval across the day, and for 2 fishing activity scenarios (workdays vs. weekends), allowing to assess the spatio-temporal distribution patterns of the gulls and the degree of association with fisheries. During workdays, gull distribution at sea fully matched with fishing activities, both trawling (daylight) and purse-seining (nightime). Gulls tended to avoid the area under trawling moratorium, confirming the high influence of fisheries on the distribution patterns of this species. On weekends, gulls made lesser use of the sea and tended to increase the use of rice fields. Overall, Audouin’s gull activity was more intense during dailight hours, although birds also showed nocturnal activity, on both workdays and weekends. Nocturnal patterns at sea were more disperse during the latter, probably because these gulls are able to capture small pelagic fish at night in natural conditions, but tend to congregate around purse-seiners (which would enhance their foraging efficiency) in workdays. These results provide important insight for the management of this species. This is of particular relevance under the current scenario of European fisheries policies, since new regulations are aimed at eliminating discards, and this would likely influence Audouin’s gull populations.
Sensory Responses during Sleep in Primate Primary and Secondary Auditory Cortex

Most sensory stimuli do not reach conscious perception during sleep. It has been thought that the thalamus prevents the relay of sensory information to cortex during sleep, but the consequences for cortical responses to sensory signals in this physiological state remain unclear. We recorded from two auditory cortical areas downstream of the thalamus in naturally sleeping marmoset monkeys. Single neurons in primary auditory cortex either increased or decreased their responses during sleep compared with wakefulness. In lateral belt, a secondary auditory cortical area, the response modulation was also bidirectional and showed no clear systematic depressive effect of sleep. When averaged across neurons, sound-evoked activity in these two auditory cortical areas was surprisingly well preserved during sleep. Neural responses to acoustic stimulation were present during both slow-wave and rapid-eye movement sleep, were repeatedly observed over multiple sleep cycles, and demonstrated similar discharge patterns to the responses recorded during wakefulness in the same neuron. Our results suggest that the thalamus is not as effective a gate for the flow of sensory information as previously thought. At the cortical stage, a novel pattern of activation/deactivation appears across neurons. Because the neural signal reaches as far as secondary auditory cortex, this leaves open the possibility of altered sensory processing of auditory information during sleep.
Loss-less condensers, unbalanced expanders, and extractors

An extractor is a procedure which extracts randomness from a detective random source using a few additional random bits. Explicit extractor constructions have numerous applications and obtaining such constructions is an important derandomization goal. Trevisan recently introduced an elegant extractor construction, but the number of truly random bits required is suboptimal when the input source has low-min-entropy. Significant progress toward overcoming this bottleneck has been made, but so far has required complicated recursive techniques that lose the simplicity of Trevisan's construction. We give a clean method for overcoming this bottleneck by constructing {\em loss-less condensers}. which compress the n-bit input source without losing any min-entropy, using O(\log n) additional random bits. Our condensers are built using a simple modification of Trevisan's construction, and yield the best extractor constructions to date. Loss-less condensers also produce unbalanced bipartite expander graphs with small (polylogarithmic) degree D and very strong expansion of (1-\epilon)D. We give other applications of our construction, including dispersers with entropy loss O(\log n), depth two super-concentrators whose size is within a polylog of optimal, and an improved hardness of approximation result.
A Study on Sexual Function in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Patients With and Without Depressive Symptoms

PURPOSE The aim of study was to evaluate sexual function in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients with and without depressive symptoms. DESIGN AND METHOD Fifty-six married OCD patients referred to the outpatient clinic of Roozbeh Hospital from 2011 to 2013 filled out the demographic questionnaire, obsessive compulsive inventory-revised OCI-R, Maudsley obsessional-compulsive inventory (MOCI), Beck depression inventory-II (BDI-II), international index of erectile function (IIEF), and female sexual function index (FSFI). FINDINGS In total, 80.6% of women and 25% of men had sexual dysfunction and 82% of them had depressive symptoms. Comparing sexual dysfunction in OCD patients with and without depressive symptoms demonstrated that the mean index of IIEF in subscales of erection and satisfaction without depressive symptoms (BDI-II index ≤ 15) is higher than in those with depressive symptoms and the mean index of FSFI showed a marginal significance in the pain subscale of the FSFI. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Regarding the possible role of the symptoms of depression on sexual function, sexual assessment in OCD patients should be considered.
1.15-μm wavelength oxide-confined quantum-dot vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

Low-threshold lasing is achieved at 1.154 /spl mu/m for an oxide-confined quantum-dot (QD) vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) grown on a GaAs substrate. The long wavelength emission is obtained through use of an InAs-GaAs QD active region. A continuous-wave (CW) threshold of 502 /spl mu/A is obtained for a device size of 10-/spl mu/m diameter, corresponding to a threshold current density of 640 A/cm/sup 2/.
Inventory of Small Forest Areas Using an Unmanned Aerial System

Acquiring high spatial and temporal resolution imagery from small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) provides new opportunities for inventorying forests at small scales. Only a few studies have investigated the use of UASs in forest inventories, and the results are inconsistent and incomplete. The present study used three-dimensional (3D) variables derived from UAS imagery in combination with ground reference data to fit linear models for Lorey’s mean height (hL), dominant height (hdom), stem number (N), basal area (G), and stem volume (V). Plot-level cross validation revealed adjusted R2 values of 0.71, 0.97, 0.60, 0.60, and 0.85 for hL, hdom, N, G, and V, respectively, with corresponding RMSE values of 1.4 m, 0.7 m, 538.2 ha−1, 4.5 m2∙ha−1, and 38.3 m3∙ha−1. The respective relative RMSE values were 13.3%, 3.5%, 39.2%, 15.4%, and 14.5% of the mean ground reference values. The mean predicted values did not differ significantly from the reference values. The results revealed that the use of UAS imagery can provide relatively accurate and timely forest inventory information at a local scale. In addition, the present study highlights the practical advantages of UAS-assisted forest inventories, including adaptive planning, high project customization, and rapid implementation, even under challenging weather conditions.
Mesangial Cell-Binding Activity of Serum Immunoglobulin G in Patients with Lupus Nephritis

In vitro data showed that immunoglobulin G (IgG) from patients with lupus nephritis (LN) could bind to cultured human mesangial cells (HMC). The clinical relevance of such binding was unknown. Binding of IgG and subclasses was measured in 189 serial serum samples from 23 patients with Class III/IV±V LN (48 during renal flares, 141 during low level disease activity (LLDA)). 64 patients with non-lupus glomerular diseases (NLGD) and 23 healthy individuals were used as controls. HMC-binding was measured with cellular ELISA and expressed as OD index. HMC-binding index of total IgG was 0.12±0.09, 0.36±0.25, 0.59±0.37 and 0.74±0.42 in healthy subjects, NLGD, LN patients during LLDA, and LN flares respectively (P = 0.046, LN flare vs. LLDA; P<0.001, for healthy controls or NLGD vs. LN during flare or LLDA). Binding of serum IgG1 to HMC was 0.05±0.05, 0.15±0.11, 0.41±0.38 and 0.55±0.40 for the corresponding groups respectively (P = 0.007, LN flare vs. remission; P<0.001, for healthy controls or NLGD vs. LN during flare or remission). IgG2, IgG3 and IgG4 from patients and controls did not show significant binding to HMC. Total IgG and IgG1 HMC-binding index correlated with anti-dsDNA level (r = 0.26 and 0.39 respectively, P<0.001 for both), and inversely with C3 (r = −0.17 and −0.45, P<0.05 for both). Sensitivity/specificity of total IgG or IgG1 binding to HMC in predicting renal flares were 81.3%/39.7% (ROC AUC 0.61, P = 0.03) and 83.8%/41.8% (AUC 0.63, P = 0.009) respectively. HMC-binding by IgG1, but not total IgG, correlated with mesangial immune deposition in LN renal biopsies under electron microscopy. Our results showed that binding of serum total IgG and IgG1 in LN patients correlates with disease activity. The correlation between IgG1 HMC-binding and mesangial immune deposition suggests a potential pathogenic significance.
Stochastic age-related epigenetic drift in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

complex scientific paradigms. I am thankful to Karin Beehler and Fay Ling, who have “trained” me and most of the editorial team in the “science and art” of editing, and also to our colleagues at the editorial office in New York for their dedication and hard work. A special thanks to John Kerpan, our editorial assistant and podcast coordinator, who deftly navigated the art of best practices in communication and was a great ambassador for our office with our authors, reviewers, and editors from around the globe. Naming a new editor from Europe represents a historic first for the AJRCCM, and it reflects the international projection of the Journal and the American Thoracic Society. We wish Dr. Jadwiga (Wisia) Wedzicha and her editorial team a successful journey at the helm of the Blue Journal. We look forward to seeing our beloved Journal achieve even greater heights. As I complete the tenure of editorship for the Blue Journal in December 2014, I am grateful for the privilege to have served in this capacity for the past 5 years, and have a sense of deep satisfaction in completing this task, which has been a substantial part of my daily routine that required many hours of constant attention; it also greatly challenged my sense of scientific equipoise. I do anticipate a sense of loss when I am no longer afforded the privilege of seeing new research reports as they arrive at the Blue Journal, but I also look forward to this new chapter in my career. On behalf of all of us at the Journal: thank you to our readership for allowing us to be stewards of this great publication. n
Predicted performance of hot mix asphalt modified with nano-montmorillonite and nano-silicon dioxide based on Egyptian conditions

ABSTRACT This paper focused on predicting the performance of asphalt mixes modified with nano-montmorillonite (NMMT) and nano silicon dioxide (NSD) using the Quality-Related Specifications Software (QRSS), which is a simplification to the Pavement ME Design. The nanomaterials were thoroughly mixed with the binder at a temperature of 145 ± 5°C. The conventional and the rheological properties were determined for the penetration grade 60–70 control binder as well as binders modified by 3, 5 and 7% of NMMT and NSD by the weight of asphalt. The optimum nanomaterial content was found for each modifier and was then used for preparing asphalt mixtures by the conventional Marshall method. Finally, Witczak 1-40D complex shear modulus (G*) based predictive model was used to estimate the dynamic modulus (E*) for the control and nanomodified asphalt mixtures. The field performance in terms of asphalt concrete (AC) layer rutting and fatigue cracking was predicted using the QRSS software for two typical pavement sections and three different climatic locations in Egypt (Alexandria, Cairo and Aswan). The simulation runs revealed that both nanomodified asphalt mixtures exhibited superior pavement performance in terms of AC rutting compared to the control mix without a significant effect on fatigue life.
An in depth study into using EMI signatures for appliance identification

Energy conservation is a key factor towards long term energy sustainability. Real-time end user energy feedback, using disaggregated electric load composition, can play a pivotal role in motivating consumers towards energy conservation. Recent works have explored using high frequency conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) on power lines as a single point sensing parameter for monitoring common home appliances. However, key questions regarding the reliability and feasibility of using EMI signatures for non-intrusive load monitoring over multiple appliances across different sensing paradigms remain unanswered. This work presents some of the key challenges towards using EMI as a unique and time invariant feature for load disaggregation. In-depth empirical evaluations of a large number of appliances in different sensing configurations are carried out, in both laboratory and real world settings. Insights into the effects of external parameters such as line impedance, background noise and appliance coupling on the EMI behavior of an appliance are realized through simulations and measurements. A generic approach for simulating the EMI behavior of an appliance that can then be used to do a detailed analysis of real world phenomenology is presented. The simulation approach is validated with EMI data from a router. Our EMI dataset - High Frequency EMI Dataset (HFED) is also released.
BadM Is a Transcriptional Repressor and One of Three Regulators That Control Benzoyl Coenzyme A Reductase Gene Expression in Rhodopseudomonas palustris

ABSTRACT The rate-limiting enzyme of anaerobic benzoate degradation by Rhodopseudomonas palustris, benzoyl coenzyme A (CoA) reductase, is highly sensitive to oxygen, and its synthesis is tightly regulated. We determined that a previously unknown gene in the benzoate gene cluster, badM, encodes a transcriptional repressor of benzoyl-CoA reductase gene expression. BadM controls gene expression from the benzoyl-CoA reductase promoter in concert with two previously described transcriptional activators.