Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CREATINE KINASE INHIBITOR IODOACETAMIDE ANTAGONIZES CALCIUM‐STIMULATED INOTROPY IN CARDIOMYOCYTES

1 Inhibition of creatine kinase is known to suppress cardiac contractile reserve in intact hearts, although the underlying mechanism has not been elucidated. 2 The present study was designed to examine whether cardiac depression induced by creatine kinase inhibition was due to action at the level of the essential contractile element, namely cardiomyocytes. Adult rat cardiomyocytes were perfused with the creatine kinase inhibitor iodoacetamide (90 µmol/L) for 90 min. Mechanical and intracellular Ca2+ properties were evaluated using edge‐detection and fluorescence microscopy, respectively. Myocytes were superfused with normal (1.3 mmol/L) or high (3.3 mmol/L) extracellular Ca2+ contractile buffer. Mechanical function was examined, including peak shortening (PS), maximal velocity of shortening/relengthening (±dL/dt), time to 90% PS (TPS90), time to 90% relengthening (TR90) and integration of shortening/relengthening (normalized to PS). Intracellular Ca2+ transients were evaluated using the following indices: resting and rise of fura‐2 fluorescence intensity (ΔFFI) and intracellular Ca2+ decay time constant. 3 The results indicate that elevated extracellular Ca2+ stimulated cardiomyocyte positive inotrope, manifested as increased PS, ±dL/dt, area of shortening, resting FFI and ΔFFI associated with a shortened TR90 and intracellular Ca2+ decay time constant. High extracellular Ca2+ did not affect TPS90 and area of relengthening. Iodoacetamide ablated high Ca2+‐induced increases in PS, ±dL/dt, area of shortening, resting FFI, ΔFFI and shortened TR90 and intracellular Ca2+ decay time constant. Iodoacetamide itself significantly enhanced the area of relengthening and TR90 without affecting other indices. 4 Collectively, these data demonstrate that inhibition of creatine kinase blunts high extracellular Ca2+‐induced increases in cardiomyocyte contractile response (i.e. cardiac contractile reserve).
EXPLORING INTERNAL SIMULATION OF PERCEPTION IN MOBILE ROBOTS

Based on a neuroscientific hypothesis, this paper explores the possibility of an ‘inner world’ based on internal simulation of perception. We present three sets of experiments with a possible minimal model, using a simulated Khepera robot controlled by a simple recurrent connectionist network. Using an evolutionary algorithm the robots are trained on increasingly complex tasks. In the first experiment, serving as a baseline, robots are simply trained to map sensory input to motor output such that they move around in an environment without collisions. In the second experiment robots are additionally trained on predicting the next time step’s sensory input. In the third experiment, finally, the robot’s own prediction replaces the actual sensory input in order to investigate its capability to act ‘blindly’, i.e. in the temporary absence of external stimuli. Although only the first two experiments give positive results, we conclude that the experimental framework presented here should turn out useful in the investigation of more complex artificial neural models.
Scaling Laws of Solar and Stellar Flares

In this study we compile for the first time comprehensive data sets of solar and stellar flare parameters, including flare peak temperatures Tp, flare peak volume emission measures EMp, and flare durations τf from both solar and stellar data, as well as flare length scales L from solar data. Key results are that both the solar and stellar data are consistent with a common scaling law of EMp ∝ T4.7p, but the stellar flares exhibit ≈250 times higher emission measures (at the same flare peak temperature). For solar flares we observe also systematic trends for the flare length scale L(Tp) ∝ T0.9p and the flare duration τF(Tp) ∝ T0.9p as a function of the flare peak temperature. Using the theoretical RTV scaling law and the fractal volume scaling observed for solar flares, i.e., V(L) ∝ L2.4, we predict a scaling law of EMp ∝ T4.3p, which is consistent with observations, and a scaling law for electron densities in flare loops, np ∝ T2p/L ∝ T1.1p. The RTV-predicted electron densities were also found to be consistent with densities inferred from total emission measures, np = (EMp/qVV)1/2, using volume filling factors of qV = 0.03–0.08 constrained by fractal dimensions measured in solar flares. Solar and stellar flares are expected to have similar electron densities for equal flare peak temperatures Tp, but the higher emission measures of detected stellar flares most likely represent a selection bias of larger flare volumes and higher volume filling factors, due to low detector sensitivity at higher temperatures. Our results affect also the determination of radiative and conductive cooling times, thermal energies, and frequency distributions of solar and stellar flare energies.
Exploratory Investigation of Early Biomarkers for Chronic Fatigue in Prostate Cancer Patients Following Radiation Therapy

Background: Fatigue is one of the most debilitating adverse effects of cancer therapy. Identifying biomarkers early during cancer therapy may help us understand the biologic underpinnings of the persistence of fatigue following therapy. Objective: We aimed to identify early biomarkers of fatigue by examining correlations of levels of cytokines during external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) with persistence of fatigue 1 year following treatment completion in men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer (NM-PC). Methods: A sample of 34 men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer scheduled to receive EBRT were followed up at baseline (T1), midpoint of EBRT (T2), and 1 year following EBRT (T3). Demographic and clinical data were obtained by chart review. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Fatigue was administered to measure fatigue levels. Plasma cytokine levels were determined at T1 and T2 using the Bio-Rad Bio-Plex Cytokine Assay Kits. Results: Significant correlations were observed between levels of interleukin 2 (IL-3), IL-8, IL-9, IL-10, IL-16, interferon &ggr;–induced protein 10, interferon &agr;2, interferon &ggr;, and stromal cell–derived factor 1&agr; at T2 with worsening of fatigue from T1 to T3. Conclusions: Immunological changes prior to chronic fatigue development may reflect the long-term response to radiation therapy–induced damage. Implications for Practice: Early biomarkers for chronic fatigue related to cancer therapy will help advance our understanding of the etiology of this distressing symptom and will help nurses identify patients at risk of developing chronic fatigue after cancer treatment. This information will also aid in patient education, as well as symptom management.
An Enhanced Autorate Algorithm for Wireless Local Area Networks Employing Loss Differentiation

Channel conditions in wireless local area networks (WLANs) are variable due to mobility and interference. Autorate algorithms are commonly used in WLANs to maximize the data rate over the variable physical channel. However, the widely used automatic rate fallback (ARF) algorithm does not work properly in the presence of multiaccess collisions due to its inability to differentiate frame losses caused by link errors from those caused by collisions. This paper proposes an improved ARF algorithm that is capable of differentiating between these two types of losses with minimal modifications to the existing medium access control protocol. The performance evaluations show substantial throughput improvements over ARF and other existing algorithms.
Effects of Goal Setting, Individual and Group Contingencies on Learning and Effort by Talented Youth Soccer Players

Identifying and developing young sporting talent are significant and challenging endeavours, yet guidance for coaches responsible for the provision of practice for such children is sparse (Martindale, Collins & Daubney, 2005). Participants in this study were nine boys (aged 7 to 8 years) who attended a talent selection and development programme of an English professional soccer club. Parents also participated as data collectors for their sons. An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of goal setting alone, an individual contingency (signed player photograph) and a group contingency (extra game time) on learning and effort in practice. Results showed that the individual and group contingencies improved technical learning, the group contingency promoted greater effort in practice but goal setting alone did not promote significant learning or practice effort. Reliable agreement scores by parents demonstrated the potential for behavioural coaching practices to enhance the talent identification and development processes.
A trained spin-glass model for grouping of image primitives

A method is presented that uses grouping to improve local classification of image primitives. The grouping process is based upon a spin-glass system, where the image primitives are treated as possessing a spin. The system is subject to an energy functional consisting of a local and a bilocal part, allowing interaction between the image primitives. Instead of defining the state of lowest energy as the grouping result, the mean state of the system is taken. In this way, instabilities caused by multiple minima in the energy are being avoided. The means of the spins are taken as the a posteriori probabilities for the grouping result. In the paper, it is shown how the energy functional can be learned from example data. The energy functional is defined in such a way that, in case of no interactions between the elements, the means of the spins equal the a priori local probabilities. The grouping process enables the fusion of the a priori local and bilocal probabilities into the a posteriori probabilities. The method is illustrated both on grouping of line elements in synthetic images and on vessel detection in retinal fundus images.
Effects of nintedanib in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis by GAP stage

We conducted a post hoc analysis to assess the potential impact of GAP (gender, age, physiology) stage on the treatment effect of nintedanib in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Outcomes were compared in patients at GAP stage I versus II/III at baseline in the INPULSIS® trials. At baseline, 500 patients were at GAP stage I (nintedanib 304, placebo 196), 489 were at GAP stage II (nintedanib 296, placebo 193) and 71 were at GAP stage III (nintedanib 38, placebo 33). In nintedanib-treated patients, the annual rate of decline in forced vital capacity (FVC) was similar in patients at GAP stage I and GAP stage II/III at baseline (−110.1 and −116.6 mL·year−1, respectively), and in both subgroups was lower than in placebo-treated patients (−218.5 and −227.6 mL·year−1, respectively) (treatment-by-time-by-subgroup interaction p=0.92). In the nintedanib group, the number of deaths was 43.8% of those predicted based on GAP stage (35 versus 79.9). In the placebo group, the number of deaths was 59.8% of those predicted based on GAP stage (33 versus 55.2). In conclusion, data from the INPULSIS® trials suggest that nintedanib has a similar beneficial effect on the rate of FVC decline in patients at GAP stage I versus II/III at baseline. Nintedanib provides a similar benefit versus placebo on the rate of decline in forced vital capacity in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis irrespective of GAP stage at baseline http://ow.ly/HfJ730nNkRT
Setaria Comes of Age: Meeting Report on the Second International Setaria Genetics Conference

Setaria viridis is an emerging model for cereal and bioenergy grasses because of its short stature, rapid life cycle and expanding genetic and genomic toolkits. Its close phylogenetic relationship with economically important crops such as maize and sorghum positions Setaria as an ideal model system for accelerating discovery and characterization of crop genes that control agronomically important traits. The Second International Setaria Genetics Conference was held on March 6–8, 2017 at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, United States to discuss recent technological breakthroughs and research directions in Setaria (presentation abstracts can be downloaded at https://www.brutnelllab.org/setaria). Here, we highlight topics presented in the conference including inflorescence architecture, C4 photosynthesis and abiotic stress. Genetic and genomic toolsets including germplasm, mutant populations, transformation and gene editing technologies are also discussed. Since the last meeting in 2014, the Setaria community has matured greatly in the quality of research being conducted. Outreach and increased communication with maize and other plant communities will allow broader adoption of Setaria as a model system to translate fundamental discovery research to crop improvement.
Ionospheric control of magnetotail reconnection

How the ionosphere gains influence In Earth's upper atmosphere, the reconnection of magnetic field lines converts latent magnetic energy into the thermal and kinetic energy of plasma flows. But reconnection appears to produce faster flows before midnight compared with after. To find out why, Lotko et al. simulated this energy exchange. Challenging common assumptions about our space weather environment, they conclude that the ionosphere plays an active role when coupled to the magnetosphere in driving the behavior of the magnetotail. Science, this issue p. 184 Asymmetric plasma flows on the night side of Earth are regulated by magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. Observed distributions of high-speed plasma flows at distances of 10 to 30 Earth radii (RE) in Earth’s magnetotail neutral sheet are highly skewed toward the premidnight sector. The flows are a product of the magnetic reconnection process that converts magnetic energy stored in the magnetotail into plasma kinetic and thermal energy. We show, using global numerical simulations, that the electrodynamic interaction between Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere produces an asymmetry consistent with observed distributions in nightside reconnection and plasmasheet flows and in accompanying ionospheric convection. The primary causal agent is the meridional gradient in the ionospheric Hall conductance which, through the Cowling effect, regulates the distribution of electrical currents flowing within and between the ionosphere and magnetotail.
Is the Value Premium a Proxy for Time-Varying Investment Opportunities? Some Time-Series Evidence

Abstract We uncover a positive stock market risk-return tradeoff after controlling for the covariance of market returns with the value premium. Fama and French (1996) conjecture that the value premium proxies for investment opportunities; therefore, by ignoring it, early specifications suffer from an omitted variable problem that causes a downward bias in the risk-return tradeoff estimation. We also document a positive relation between the value premium and its conditional variance, and the estimated conditional value premium is strongly countercyclical. The latter evidence supports the view that value is riskier than growth in bad times, when the price of risk is high.
Using GPS Technology to Quantify Human Mobility, Dynamic Contacts and Infectious Disease Dynamics in a Resource-Poor Urban Environment

Empiric quantification of human mobility patterns is paramount for better urban planning, understanding social network structure and responding to infectious disease threats, especially in light of rapid growth in urbanization and globalization. This need is of particular relevance for developing countries, since they host the majority of the global urban population and are disproportionally affected by the burden of disease. We used Global Positioning System (GPS) data-loggers to track the fine-scale (within city) mobility patterns of 582 residents from two neighborhoods from the city of Iquitos, Peru. We used ∼2.3 million GPS data-points to quantify age-specific mobility parameters and dynamic co-location networks among all tracked individuals. Geographic space significantly affected human mobility, giving rise to highly local mobility kernels. Most (∼80%) movements occurred within 1 km of an individual’s home. Potential hourly contacts among individuals were highly irregular and temporally unstructured. Only up to 38% of the tracked participants showed a regular and predictable mobility routine, a sharp contrast to the situation in the developed world. As a case study, we quantified the impact of spatially and temporally unstructured routines on the dynamics of transmission of an influenza-like pathogen within an Iquitos neighborhood. Temporally unstructured daily routines (e.g., not dominated by a single location, such as a workplace, where an individual repeatedly spent significant amount of time) increased an epidemic’s final size and effective reproduction number by 20% in comparison to scenarios modeling temporally structured contacts. Our findings provide a mechanistic description of the basic rules that shape human mobility within a resource-poor urban center, and contribute to the understanding of the role of fine-scale patterns of individual movement and co-location in infectious disease dynamics. More generally, this study emphasizes the need for careful consideration of human social interactions when designing infectious disease mitigation strategies, particularly within resource-poor urban environments.
Framing Indigenous–Settler Relations within British Columbia's Modern Treaty Context: A Discourse Analysis of the Maa-nulth Treaty in Mainstream Media

Media plays an integral role in (re)producing our social construction of reality. When viewed in light of Canada’s colonial legacy, media’s power has undoubtedly been implicated in circumscribing Indigenous peoples and Indigenous–settler relations. Employing a discourse analysis of mainstream media covering the recent (2011) implementation of a comprehensive land claims agreement in British Columbia, this study investigates how media has framed contemporary Indigenous–settler relations within the Canadian state. Findings indicate that mainstream media predominantly relies on stereotypes of Indigenous peoples and tends to neglect historical and current political complexities, thereby perpetuating stagnant Indigenous–settler relations. Concluding with empirically derived recommendations, this article points to education reform to create more robust mainstream media able to address stagnated (re)constructions of Indigenous–settler relations.
R&D Investment, Exporting, and Productivity Dynamics

A positive correlation between productivity and export market participation has been well documented in producer micro data. Recent empirical studies and theoretical analyses have emphasized that this may reflect the producer's other investment activities, particularly investments in R&D or new technology, that both raise productivity and increase the payoff to exporting. In this paper we develop a dynamic structural model of a producer's decision to invest in R&D and participate in the export market. The investment decisions depend on the expected future profitability and the fixed and sunk costs incurred with each activity. We estimate the model using plant-level data from the Taiwanese electronics industry and find a complex set of interactions between R&D, exporting, and productivity. The self- selection of high productivity plants is the dominant channel driving participation in the export market and R&D investment. Both R&D and exporting have a positive direct effect on the plant's future productivity which reinforces the selection effect. When modeled as discrete decisions, the productivity effect of R&D is larger, but, because of its higher cost, is undertaken by fewer plants than exporting. The impact of each activity on the net returns to the other are quantitatively unimportant. In model simulations, the endogenous choice of R&D and exporting generates average productivity that is 22.0 percent higher after 10 years than an environment where productivity evolution is not affected by plant investments.
Provision of injectable contraceptives in Ethiopia through community-based reproductive health agents.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether community-based health workers in a rural region of Ethiopia can provide injectable contraceptives to women with similar levels of safety, effectiveness and acceptability as health extension workers (HEWs). METHODS This was a prospective non-randomized community intervention trial designed to test the provision of injectable contraceptives by community-based reproductive health agents (CBRHAs). Effectiveness, safety, acceptability and continuation rates were the outcomes of interest. The outcomes observed when injectable contraceptives were administered by HEWs in health posts and when they were administered by CBRHAs were compared by means of χ(2) tests for association among categorical variables and t-tests for independent samples to determine differences between group means. FINDINGS A total of 1062 women participated in the study. Compared with health post clients, the clients of CBRHAs were, on average, slightly older, less likely to be married and less educated, and they had significantly more living children. Women seeking services from CBRHAs were also significantly more likely to be using injectable contraceptives for the first time; health post clients were more likely to have used them in the past. In addition, clients of CBRHAs were less likely to discontinue using injectable contraceptives over three injection cycles than health post clients. CONCLUSION Receiving injectable contraceptives from CBRHAs proved as safe and acceptable to this sample of Ethiopian women as receiving them in health posts from HEWs. These findings add to the growing body of evidence supporting the development, introduction and scale up of programmes to train community-based health workers such as CBRHAs to safely administer injectable contraceptives.
Identification of functional regions on the tail of Acanthamoeba myosin- II using recombinant fusion proteins. II. Assembly properties of tails with NH2- and COOH-terminal deletions

We used purified fusion proteins containing parts of the Acanthamoeba myosin-II tail to localize those regions of the tail responsible for each of the three steps in the successive dimerization mechanism (Sinard, J. H., W. F. Stafford, and T. D. Pollard. 1989. J. Cell Biol. 107:1537-1547) for Acanthamoeba myosin-II minifiliment assembly. Fusion proteins containing the terminal approximately 90% of the myosin-II tail assemble normally, but deletions within the last 100 amino acids of the tail sequence alter or prevent assembly. The first step in minifilament assembly, formation of antiparallel dimers, requires the COOH-terminal approximately 30 amino acids that are thought to form a nonhelical domain at the end of the coiled-coil. The second step, formation of antiparallel tetramers, requires the last approximately 40 residues in the coiled-coil. The final step, the association of two antiparallel tetramers to form the completed octameric minifilament, requires residues approximately 40-70 from the end of the coiled-coil. A region of the tail near the junction with the heads is important for tight packing of the tails in the minifilaments. Divalent cations induce the lateral aggregation of minifilaments formed from native myosin-II or fusion proteins containing a nonmyosin "head," but under the same conditions fusion proteins composed essentially only of myosin tail sequences with very little nonmyosin sequences form paracrystals. The region of the tail necessary for this paracrystal formation lies NH2-terminal to amino acid residue 1,468 in the native myosin-II sequence.