Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Sum-Rate Bound for a New Class of Quadratic Gaussian Multiterminal Source Coding Problems

In this paper, we show tightness of the Berger-Tung (BT) sum-rate bound for a new class of quadratic Gaussian multiterminal (MT) source coding problems dubbed bi-eigen equal-variance with equal distortion (BEEV-ED), where the L × L source covariance matrix has equal diagonal elements with two distinct eigenvalues, and the L target distortions are equal. Let K (K <; L) be the number of repetitions of the larger eigenvalue, the BEEV covariance structure allows us to connect K i.i. d. virtual Gaussian sources with the L given MT sources via an L × K semiorthogonal transform whose rows have equal Euclidean norm plus additive i.i. d. Gaussian noises, resulting in the two sets of sources being mutually conditional i.i. d. By relating the given MT source coding problem to a generalized Gaussian CEO problem with the K virtual sources as remote sources and the L MT sources as observations, we obtain a lower bound on the MT sum-rate, and show its achievability by BT schemes under the equal distortion constraints. Our BEEV-ED class of quadratic Gaussian MT source coding problems subsumes both the positive-symmetric case considered by Wagner et al. and the negative-symmetric case. Other examples, including a subclass of sources with BE circulant symmetric covariance matrices and equal distortion constraints, are also provided to highlight tightness of the sum-rate bound.
An inward rectifier K+ channel at the basolateral membrane of the mouse distal convoluted tubule: similarities with Kir4‐Kir5.1 heteromeric channels

In this study, K+ channels present in the basolateral membrane of the distal convoluted tubule (DCT) were investigated using patch‐clamp methods. In addition, Kir4.1, Kir4.2 and Kir5.1 inward rectifier channels were investigated using RT‐PCR and immunohistochemistry (Kir4.1). DCTs were microdissected from collagenase‐treated mouse kidneys. One type of K+ channel was detected in about 50 % of cell‐attached patches from the DCT basolateral membrane; this channel was inwardly rectifying and had an inward conductance (gin) of ∼40 pS at an external [K+] of 145 mm. The current‐voltage relationship was linear when inside‐out patches were exposed to a Mg2+‐free medium. Mg2+ at a concentration of 1.2 mm considerably reduced the outward conductance (gout), yielding a gin/gout ratio of ∼4.7. The polycation spermine (5 × 10−7m) reduced the open probability (Po) by 50 %. Channel activity was dependent upon the intracellular pH, with acid pH decreasing, and basic pH increasing, Po. Internal ATP (2 mm) and Ca2+ (up to 10−3m) had no effect. Channel activity declined irreversibly when the inner side of the patch was exposed to Mg2+. Kir4.1, Kir4.2 and Kir5.1 mRNAs were all detected in the DCT. The Kir4.1 protein co‐localised with the Na+‐Cl− cotransporter, which is specific to the DCT, and was located on basolateral membranes. The DCT K+ channel differs from other functionally identified renal K+ channels with regard to its inhibition by spermine and insensitivity to internal ATP and Ca2+. At the current state of knowledge, the channel is similar to Kir4.1‐Kir5.1 and Kir4.2‐Kir5.1 heteromeric channels, but not to Kir4.1 or Kir4.2 homomeric channels.
Sense clusters for Information Retrieval: Evidence from Semcor and the EuroWordNet InterLingual Index

We examine three different types of sense clustering criteria with an Information Retrieval application in mind: methods based on the wordnet structure (such as generalization, cousins, sisters.); co-occurrence of senses obtained from Semcor; and equivalent translations of senses in other languages via the EuroWordNet InterLingual Index (ILI). We conclude that a) different NLP applications demand not only different sense granularities but different (possibly overlapped) sense clusterings. b) co-occurrence of senses in Semcor provide strong evidence for Information Retrieval clusters, unlike methods based on wordnet structure and systematic polysemy. c) parallel polysemy in three or more languages via the ILI, besides providing sense clusters for MT and CLIR, is strongly correlated with co-occurring senses in Semcor, and thus can be useful for Information Retrieval as well.
Insights into Adenovirus Uncoating from Interactions with Integrins and Mediators of Host Immunity

Human adenoviruses are large (150 MDa) nonenveloped double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses that cause acute respiratory, gastrointestinal and ocular infections. Despite these disease associations, adenovirus has aided basic and clinical research efforts through studies of its association with cells and as a target of host antiviral responses. This review highlights the knowledge of adenovirus disassembly and nuclear transport gleaned from structural, biophysical and functional analyses of adenovirus interactions with soluble and membrane-associated host molecules.
Anxiety and locomotion in Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg (GAERS): Inclusion of Wistar rats as a second control

The Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg (GAERS) is a genetic model, derived from Wistar rats by selective breeding. In all previous studies, GAERS were compared to their paired selected strain not expressing spike‐and‐wave discharges (SWDs), namely nonepileptic controls (NECs). Because the occurrence/absence of SWDs is of polygenic origin, some other traits could have been selected along with occurrence/absence of SWDs. Therefore, we explored the importance of using a second control group consisting in Wistar rats, the strain of origin of GAERS, in addition to NECs, on locomotion and anxiety in GAERS.
Photoreceptor Transplantation in Late Stage Retinal Degeneration

The recent advances in cell-based therapies for the repair of the pigmented epithelium is providing additional impetus for the translation of photoreceptor transplantation to eventual clinical trials. The prospects for transplantation of photoreceptors as a potential therapy for the treatment of photoreceptor degeneration will depend on successfully addressing many critical issues in preclinical studies. Although most of the studies that have carried out transplants of photoreceptors have primarily used normal mice, there have been recent reports that have also shown some success following transplantation to mouse models of retinitis pigmentosa. However, while these results are promising, there are several key issues that require further investigation in order to better understand the optimum timing for transplantation, given the extensive remodeling of the retina that occurs in late stage disease.
The Role of Automatic Stabilizers in the U.S. Business Cycle

Most countries have automatic rules in their tax-and-transfer systems that are partly intended to stabilize economic fluctuations. This paper measures how effective they are. We put forward a model that merges the standard incomplete-markets model of consumption and inequality with the new Keynesian model of nominal rigidities and business cycles, and that includes most of the main potential stabilizers in the U.S. data, as well as the theoretical channels by which they may work. We find that the conventional argument that stabilizing disposable income will stabilize aggregate demand plays a negligible role on the effectiveness of the stabilizers, whereas tax-and-transfer programs that affect inequality and social insurance can have a large effect on aggregate volatility. However, as currently designed, the set of stabilizers in place in the United States has barely had any effect on volatility. According to our model, expanding safety-net programs, like food stamps, has the largest potential to enhance the effectiveness of the stabilizers.
Trajectory Free Linear Model Predictive Control for Stable Walking in the Presence of Strong Perturbations

A humanoid walking robot is a highly nonlinear dynamical system that relies strongly on contact forces between its feet and the ground in order to realize stable motions, but these contact forces are unfortunately severely limited. Model predictive control, also known as receding horizon control, is a general control scheme specifically designed to deal with such constrained dynamical systems, with the potential ability to react efficiently to a wide range of situations. Apart from the question of computation time which needs to be taken care of carefully (these schemes can be highly computation intensive), the initial question of which optimal control problems should be considered to be solved online in order to lead to the desired walking movements is still unanswered. A key idea for answering to this problem can be found in the ZMP preview control scheme. After presenting here this scheme with a point of view slightly different from the original one, we focus on the problem of compensating strong perturbations of the dynamics of the robot and propose a new linear model predictive control scheme which is an improvement of the original ZMP preview control scheme.
Anabolic Actions of the Regenerative Agent Enamel Matrix Derivative (EMD) in Oral Periosteal Fibroblasts and MG 63 Osteoblasts, Modulation by Nicotine and Glutathione in a Redox Environment

Our study seeks to explore anabolic effects of a periodontal regenerative agent enamel matrix derivative (EMD). Its modulation by nicotine and the anti-oxidant glutathione (GSH) are investigated in human periosteal fibroblasts (HPF) and MG63 osteoblasts. Androgen biomarkers of oxidative stress and healing, resulting from radiolabeled androgen substrates are assayed. This in vitro model simulates a redox environment relevant to the periodontal lesion. It aims to confirm the hypothesis that EMD is an effective regenerative agent in a typically redox environment of the periodontal lesion. Monolayer cultures of MG63 osteoblasts and HPF established in culture medium are incubated with androgen substrates, and optimal concentrations of EMD, nicotine and GSH, alone and in combination. EMD significantly enhances yields of 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) an effective bioactive metabolite, alone and in combination with GSH, to overcome oxidative effects of nicotine across cultures. The ‘in vitro’ findings of this study could be extrapolated to “in vivo” applications of EMD as an adjunctive regenerative therapeutic agent in an environment of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. Increased yields of DHT implicated in matrix synthesis and direct antioxidant capacity, confirm the potential applications for enamel matrix derivative in periodontal regenerative procedures.
Working Locally Thinking Globally - Part I: Theoretical Guarantees for Convolutional Sparse Coding

The celebrated sparse representation model has led to remarkable results in various signal processing tasks in the last decade. However, despite its initial purpose of serving as a global prior for entire signals, it has been commonly used for modeling low dimensional patches due to the computational constraints it entails when deployed with learned dictionaries. A way around this problem has been proposed recently, adopting a convolutional sparse representation model. This approach assumes that the global dictionary is a concatenation of banded Circulant matrices. Although several works have presented algorithmic solutions to the global pursuit problem under this new model, very few truly-effective guarantees are known for the success of such methods. In the first of this two-part work, we address the theoretical aspects of the sparse convolutional model, providing the first meaningful answers to corresponding questions of uniqueness of solutions and success of pursuit algorithms. To this end, we generalize mathematical quantities, such as the $\ell_0$ norm, the mutual coherence and the Spark, to their counterparts in the convolutional setting, which intrinsically capture local measures of the global model. In a companion paper, we extend the analysis to a noisy regime, addressing the stability of the sparsest solutions and pursuit algorithms, and demonstrate practical approaches for solving the global pursuit problem via simple local processing.
Clients' perceptions of the quality of care in Mexico city's public-sector legal abortion program.

CONTEXT In 2007, first-trimester abortion was legalized in Mexico City. Limited research has been conducted to understand clients' perceptions of the abortion services available in public-sector facilities. METHODS Perceptions of quality of care were measured among 402 women aged 18 or older who had obtained abortions at any of three public-sector sites in Mexico City in 2009. Six domains of quality of care (client-staff interaction, information provision, technical competence, postabortion contraceptive services, accessibility and the facility environment) were assessed, and ordinal logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify the domains that were important in women's overall evaluation of care. RESULTS Clients gave overall services a high rating, with a mean of 8.8 out of 10. In multivariate analysis, overall ratings were higher among women who said the doctor made them feel comfortable (odds ratio, 3.3), the receptionist was respectful (1.7), the staff was very careful to protect their privacy (2.5), they had received sufficient information on self-care at home following the abortion and on postabortion emotions (1.9 and 2.0, respectively) and they felt confident in the doctor's technical skill (2.5). Rating site hours as very convenient (2.4), waiting time as acceptable (2.8) and the facility as very clean (1.9) were all associated with higher overall scores. Compared with women who had given birth, those who had not rated the services lower overall (0.6). CONCLUSION Efforts to improve patient experiences with abortion services should focus on client-staff interaction, information provision, service accessibility, technical competence and the facility environment. The most highly significant factor appears to be whether a doctor makes a woman feel comfortable during her visit.
Hypoxia and Extracellular Matrix Proteins Influence Angiogenesis and Lymphangiogenesis in Mouse Embryoid Bodies

Regulatory mechanisms for angiogenesis are relatively well established compared to lymphangiogenesis. Few studies have shown that a combination of vascular endothelial growth factor VEGF-A/C with hypoxia or collagen matrix promotes lymphatic structures along with blood vessel development in mouse embryoid bodies (EB). In this study we tested the hypothesis that while hypoxia combined with prolonged VEGF-A/C treatment would induce early lymphangiogenesis in addition to angiogenesis in mouse EBs, under similar conditions specific extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins would promote lymphatic vessel-like structures over angiogenesis. EBs were subjected to four conditions and were maintained under normoxia and hypoxia (21% and 2.6% O2, respectively) with or without VEGF-A/C. Microarray analyses of normoxic and hypoxic EBs, and immunofluorescence data showed very low expression of early lymphatic endothelial cell (LEC) markers, lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor 1 (LYVE1), and prospero-related homeobox 1 (Prox1) at early time points. Double immunofluorescence using MECA-32 and Prox1/LYVE1 demonstrated that combined hypoxia and VEGF-A/C treatment promoted formation of blood vessel-like structures, whereas only Prox1+/LYVE1+ LECs were detected in EBs at E22.5. Furthermore, EBs were grown on laminin or collagen-I coated plates and were subjected to the four treatments as described above. Results revealed that LECs in EBs at E36.5 attached better to collagen-I, resulting in an organized network of lymphatic vessel-like structures as compared to EBs grown on laminin. However, blood vessel-like structures were less favored under these same conditions. Collectively, our data demonstrate that hypoxia combined with growth factors promotes angiogenesis, whereas combination of these conditions with specific ECM proteins favors lymphangiogenesis processes in mouse EBs.
Discovery and Characterization of Proteins Associated with Aflatoxin-Resistance: Evaluating Their Potential as Breeding Markers

Host resistance has become a viable approach to eliminating aflatoxin contamination of maize since the discovery of several maize lines with natural resistance. However, to derive commercial benefit from this resistance and develop lines that can aid growers, markers need to be identified to facilitate the transfer of resistance into commercially useful genetic backgrounds without transfer of unwanted traits. To accomplish this, research efforts have focused on the identification of kernel resistance-associated proteins (RAPs) including the employment of comparative proteomics to investigate closely-related maize lines that vary in aflatoxin accumulation. RAPs have been identified and several further characterized through physiological and biochemical investigations to determine their causal role in resistance and, therefore, their suitability as breeding markers. Three RAPs, a 14 kDa trypsin inhibitor, pathogenesis-related protein 10 and glyoxalase I are being investigated using RNAi gene silencing and plant transformation. Several resistant lines have been subjected to QTL mapping to identify loci associated with the aflatoxin-resistance phenotype. Results of proteome and characterization studies are discussed.
GABAAergic inhibition or dopamine denervation of the A11 hypothalamic nucleus induces trigeminal analgesia

Abstract Descending pain-modulatory systems, either inhibitory or facilitatory, play a critical role in both acute and chronic pain. Compared with serotonin and norepinephrine, little is known about the function of dopamine (DA). We characterized the anatomical organization of descending DA pathways from hypothalamic A11 nuclei to the medullary dorsal horn (MDH) and investigated their role in trigeminal pain. Immunochemistry analysis reveals that A11 is a heterogeneous nucleus that contains at least 3 neuronal phenotypes, DA, GABA, and alpha-calcitonin gene–related peptide (&agr;-CGRP) neurons, exhibiting different distribution patterns, with a large proportion of GABA relative to DA neurons. Using fluorogold, we show that descending pathways from A11 nuclei to MDH originate mainly from DA neurons and are bilateral. Facial nociceptive stimulation elevates Fos immunoreactivity in both ipsilateral and contralateral A11 nuclei. Fos immunoreactivity is not detected in DA or projecting neurons but, interestingly, in GABA neurons. Finally, inactivating A11, using muscimol, or partially lesioning A11 DA neurons, using the neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine, inhibits trigeminal pain behavior. These results show that A11 nuclei are involved in pain processing. Interestingly, however, pain seems to activate GABAergic neurons within A11 nuclei, which suggests that pain inhibits rather than activates descending DA controls. We show that such inhibition produces an antinociceptive effect. Pain-induced inhibition of descending DA controls and the resulting reduced DA concentration within the dorsal horn may inhibit the transfer of nociceptive information to higher brain centers through preferential activation of dorsal horn D2-like receptors.
The effects of abrupt antipsychotic discontinuation in cognitively impaired older persons: A pilot study

Background: Antipsychotic use for behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) is controversial. Guidelines advise to reduce antipsychotics given the adverse effects and limited efficacy, to limit dose and treatment duration as well as to undertake discontinuation. Methods: A pilot study with 40 hospitalised geriatric cognitively impaired patients, in which the effects of abrupt antipsychotic discontinuation were investigated, using neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) scores before and one month after discontinuation. Withdrawal symptoms were monitored thrice a day with a checklist during five consecutive days. Results: Participants (n = 40) had a mean age of 84 years (range 67–95) and 53% were male. The total mean baseline NPI score was 21 (SD 12) with predominantly behavioural rather than psychological disturbances. After abrupt discontinuation, mild withdrawal symptoms were observed in 72% of the patients, with frequencies of symptoms peaking on day 2 (53%) and day 3 (48%). After one month, 31 patients (85%) were still off antipsychotics and improved on the majority of NPI domains, with a total mean NPI score decreasing from 18 (SD 13) to 12 (SD 8, p = 0.003). In the relapse group, there was no deterioration associated with the abrupt discontinuation and subsequent resumption of therapy with a total mean NPI score decreasing from 31 (SD 12) at baseline to 27 (SD 8) at one-month follow-up (p = 0.345). Conclusion: Abrupt antipsychotic discontinuation appears to be feasible in older individuals with BPSD. Systematically performed discontinuation efforts in clinical practice are needed to differentiate between patients where antipsychotics have no added value and patients where the benefits outweigh the risks.
Pluripotency markers are differentially induced by MEK inhibition in thyroid and melanoma BRAFV600E cell lines

ABSTRACT Oncogenic mutations in BRAF are common in melanoma and thyroid carcinoma and drive constitutive activation of the MAPK pathway. Molecularly targeted therapies of this pathway improves survival compared to chemotherapy; however, responses tend to be short-lived as resistance invariably occursCell line models of melanoma and thyroid carcinoma, +/− BRAFV600E activating mutation, were treated with the MEK inhibitor PD0325901. Treated and naive samples were assayed for expression of key members of the MAPK pathway. Global microRNA expression profiling of naive and resistant cells was performed via next generation sequencingand indicated pluripotency pathways in resistance. Parental cell lines were progressed to holoclones to confirm the miRNA stemness profileMembers of the MIR302/373/374/520 family of embryonic stem cell specific cell cycle regulating (ESCC) microRNAs were identified as differentially expressed between resistant BRAFV600E melanoma and thyroid cell lines. Upregulated expression of gene and protein stemness markers, upregulated expression of MAPK pathway genes and downregulation of the ESCC MIR302 cluster in BRAFV600E melanoma indicated an increased stem-like phenotype in resistant BRAFV600E melanoma. Conversely, downregulated expression of gene and protein stemness markers, downregulated expression of MAPK pathway genes, upregulation of the ESCC MIR520 cluster, reeexpression of cell surface receptors, and induced differentiation-associated morphology in resistant BRAFV600E indicate a differentiated phenotype associated with MEK inhibitor resistance in BRAFV600E thyroid cellsThe differential patterns of resistance observed between BRAFV600E melanoma and thyroid cell lines may reflect tissue type or de novo differentiation, but could have significant impact on the response of primary and metastatic cells to MEK inhibitor treatment. This study provides a basis for the investigation of the cellular differentiation/self-renewal access and its role in resistance to MEK inhibition.