Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radio and X-ray diffuse emission in six clusters of galaxies

Deep Very Large Array radio observations confirm the presence of halo and relic sources in six clusters of galaxies (A115, A520, A773, A1664, A2254, A2744) where a wide diffuse emission was previously found in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey. New images at 1.4 GHz of these six clusters of galaxies are presented and X-ray data obtained from the ROSAT archive are analyzed. The properties of clusters hosting radio halos and relics are analyzed and discussed. A correlation between the halo radio power and the cluster gravitational mass is presented.
Rapid Classification of Hairtail Fish and Pork Freshness Using an Electronic Nose Based on the PCA Method

We report a method for building a simple and reproducible electronic nose based on commercially available metal oxide sensors (MOS) to monitor the freshness of hairtail fish and pork stored at 15, 10, and 5 °C. After assembly in the laboratory, the proposed product was tested by a manufacturer. Sample delivery was based on the dynamic headspace method, and two features were extracted from the transient response of each sensor using an unsupervised principal component analysis (PCA) method. The compensation method and pattern recognition based on PCA are discussed in the current paper. PCA compensation can be used for all storage temperatures, however, pattern recognition differs according to storage conditions. Total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN) and aerobic bacterial counts of the samples were measured simultaneously with the standard indicators of hairtail fish and pork freshness. The PCA models based on TVBN and aerobic bacterial counts were used to classify hairtail fish samples as “fresh” (TVBN ≤ 25 g and microbial counts ≤ 106 cfu/g) or “spoiled” (TVBN ≥ 25 g and microbial counts ≥ 106 cfu/g) and pork samples also as “fresh” (TVBN ≤ 15 g and microbial counts ≤ 106 cfu/g) or “spoiled” (TVBN ≥ 15 g and microbial counts ≥ 106 cfu/g). Good correlation coefficients between the responses of the electronic nose and the TVBN and aerobic bacterial counts of the samples were obtained. For hairtail fish, correlation coefficients were 0.97 and 0.91, and for pork, correlation coefficients were 0.81 and 0.88, respectively. Through laboratory simulation and field application, we were able to determine that the electronic nose could help ensure the shelf life of hairtail fish and pork, especially when an instrument is needed to take measurements rapidly. The results also showed that the electronic nose could analyze the process and level of spoilage for hairtail fish and pork.
Construction of chimeric arteriviruses reveals that the ectodomain of the major glycoprotein is not the main determinant of equine arteritis virus tropism in cell culture.

The recent development of arterivirus full-length cDNA clones makes possible the construction of chimeric arteriviruses for fundamental and applied studies. Using an equine arteritis virus (EAV) infectious cDNA clone, we have engineered chimeras in which the ectodomains of the two major envelope proteins, the glycoprotein GP(5) and the membrane protein M, were replaced by sequences from envelope proteins of related and unrelated RNA viruses. Using immunofluorescence microscopy, we monitored the transport of the hybrid GP(5) and M proteins to the Golgi complex, which depends on their heterodimerization and is a prerequisite for virus assembly. The only viable chimeras were those containing the GP(5) ectodomain from the porcine (PRRSV) or mouse (LDV) arteriviruses, which are both considerably smaller than the corresponding sequence of EAV. Although the two viable GP(5) chimeras were attenuated, they were still able to infect baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) and rabbit kidney (RK-13) cells. These cells can be infected by EAV, but not by either PRRSV or LDV. This implies that the ectodomain of the major glycoprotein GP(5), which has been postulated to be involved in receptor recognition, is not the main determinant of EAV tropism in cell culture.
Hypoxia-inducible factor expression in human RPE cells

Background: Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is a common transcription factor for many angiogenic proteins. Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells are an important source of angiogenic factors in the retina. The expression of HIF, its regulation by proline hydroxylase (PHD) enzymes, and its downstream regulation of angiogenic factors like vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and erythropoietin (EPO) was studied in RPE cells in order to determine some of the molecular mechanisms underlying ischaemic retinal disease. Methods: ARPE-19 cells were cultured for various times under hypoxic conditions. Cellular HIF and PHD isoforms were analysed and quantified using western blot and densitometry. VEGF and EPO secreted into the media were assayed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Messenger RNA (mRNA) was quantified using real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). RNA interference was achieved using siRNA techniques. Results: HIF-1&agr; was readily produced by ARPE-19 cells under hypoxia, but HIF-2&agr; and HIF-3&agr; could not be detected even after HIF-1&agr; silencing. HIF-1&agr; protein levels showed an increasing trend for the first 24 h while HIF-1&agr; mRNA levels fluctuated during this time. After 36 h HIF-1&agr; protein levels declined to baseline levels, a change that was coincident with a rise in both PHD2 and PHD3. Silencing HIF-1&agr; significantly decreased VEGF secretion. Significant production of EPO could not be detected at the protein or mRNA level. Conclusions: HIF-1&agr; appears to be the main isoform of HIF functioning in ARPE-19 cells. Under hypoxia, HIF-1&agr; levels are likely self-regulated by a feedback loop that involves both transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms. VEGF production by human RPE cells is regulated by HIF-1&agr;. EPO was not produced in significant amounts by RPE cells under hypoxic conditions, suggesting that other cells and/or transcription factors in the retina are responsible for its production.
Using Constraint Grammar for Chunking

This paper presents and evaluates a novel and flexible chunking method using Constraint Grammar (CG) rules to introduce chunk edges in corpus annotation. Our method exploits preexisting (non-constituent) morphosyntactic annotation such as part-of-speech or function tags, but can also be made to work on raw text, integrated with other CG modules. The first version of the chunker was developed for German CG-annotated interview data, with a parallel English version derived from the German one, indicating a high degree of language-independence of the rules in the presence of generalized syntactic-functional tags (e.g. subject, object, modifier). Two different approaches are discussed, one for minimal, flat chunking, the other for deep, nested chunking. The system has a reasonable performance and robustness for both, achieving F-scores of 89.1 and 97.4 for nested and minimal chunking, respectively. Xml markup is supported, and with a full set of rules, the tool can be used to convert CG annotation into complete constituent trees in VISL or TIGER format.
The human visual cortex response to melanopsin-directed stimulation is accompanied by a distinct perceptual experience

Significance Melanopsin-containing retinal cells detect bright light and contribute to reflex visual responses such as pupil constriction. Their role in conscious, cortical vision is less understood. Using functional MRI to measure brain activity, we find that melanopsin-directed stimulation reaches the visual cortex in people. Such stimulation also produces a distinct perceptual experience. Our results have clinical importance as melanopsin function may contribute to the discomfort that some people experience from bright light. The photopigment melanopsin supports reflexive visual functions in people, such as pupil constriction and circadian photoentrainment. What contribution melanopsin makes to conscious visual perception is less studied. We devised a stimulus that targeted melanopsin separately from the cones using pulsed (3-s) spectral modulations around a photopic background. Pupillometry confirmed that the melanopsin stimulus evokes a response different from that produced by cone stimulation. In each of four subjects, a functional MRI response in area V1 was found. This response scaled with melanopic contrast and was not easily explained by imprecision in the silencing of the cones. Twenty additional subjects then observed melanopsin pulses and provided a structured rating of the perceptual experience. Melanopsin stimulation was described as an unpleasant, blurry, minimal brightening that quickly faded. We conclude that isolated stimulation of melanopsin is likely associated with a response within the cortical visual pathway and with an evoked conscious percept.
Confrontational Teaching and Rhetorical Practice

concerned about social justice. Such V teachers feel obliged to respond to the drama of hate, violence, and fear that is now being played out on the national political stage. But exactly how is this obligation to be honored? Such socially concerned teachers-and I am one-must choose between taking confrontational stands against arguments they disagree with, or, conversely, effacing their own beliefs in hopes of ensuring a fuller play of voices in the writing class. Several years ago, Maxine Hairston warned that political advocates can indoctrinate students or intimidate them into parroting the teacher's opinions. The vigorous negative response to Hairston (see Trimbur, Wood, Strickland, Thelin, Rouster, and Mesler in the May 1993 issue of CCC), suggests that she maps a site of real contention in composition. Some agree with Hairston that many modes of writing, including expressivist writing, can encourage diversity and tolerance in the classroom while avoiding overt politics (Fishman and McCarthy). Others endorse more activist, confrontational, or radical teaching. Activist teachers argue that the very act of teaching is a political and ethical intervention mandating a forthright choice of positions, responsibilities, and roles. They agree with Patricia Bizzell that teachers who reject the obligation to promote what they believe are positive values are "abandoning their responsibility to the community when they allow a theoretical perspective to silence them on questions of grave importance to common security" (283).
On Monetary Policy and Stock Market Anomalies

This study utilizes a macro-based VAR framework to investigate whether stock portfolios formed on the basis of their value, size and past performance characteristics are affected in a differential manner by unexpected US monetary policy actions during the period 1967-2007. Full sample results show that value, small capitalization and past loser stocks are more exposed to monetary policy shocks in comparison to growth, big capitalization and past winner stocks. Subsample analysis, motivated by variation in the realized premia and parameter instability, reveals that monetary policy shocks’ impact on these portfolios is significant and pronounced only during the pre-1983 period.
Toll-Like Receptor Induced Pro-Interleukin-1β and Interleukin-6 in Monocytes Are Lower in Healthy Infants Compared to Adults

Infants have long been known to have higher infectious diseases morbidity and mortality and suboptimal vaccination responses compared to older children and adults. A variety of differences in innate and adaptive immune responses have been described between these two groups. We compared Toll-like receptor (TLR)-induced production of pro-interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α between 2-month-old infants and adults. TLR 7/8-induced production of pro-IL-1β and IL-6 in monocytes was lower in 2-month-old infants compared to adults. There was no difference in TLR 7/8-induced production of TNF-α. Lower TLR-induced production of pro-IL-1β and IL-6 in innate immune cells during early infancy likely contributes to suboptimal vaccine responses and infectious diseases susceptibility.
Highly Specific Gene Silencing by Artificial MicroRNAs in Arabidopsis[W][OA]

Plant microRNAs (miRNAs) affect only a small number of targets with high sequence complementarity, while animal miRNAs usually have hundreds of targets with limited complementarity. We used artificial miRNAs (amiRNAs) to determine whether the narrow action spectrum of natural plant miRNAs reflects only intrinsic properties of the plant miRNA machinery or whether it is also due to past selection against natural miRNAs with broader specificity. amiRNAs were designed to target individual genes or groups of endogenous genes. Like natural miRNAs, they had varying numbers of target mismatches. Previously determined parameters of target selection for natural miRNAs could accurately predict direct targets of amiRNAs. The specificity of amiRNAs, as deduced from genome-wide expression profiling, was as high as that of natural plant miRNAs, supporting the notion that extensive base pairing with targets is required for plant miRNA function. amiRNAs make an effective tool for specific gene silencing in plants, especially when several related, but not identical, target genes need to be downregulated. We demonstrate that amiRNAs are also active when expressed under tissue-specific or inducible promoters, with limited nonautonomous effects. The design principles for amiRNAs have been generalized and integrated into a Web-based tool (http://wmd.weigelworld.org).
Real-time privacy-preserving model-based estimation of traffic flows

Road traffic information systems rely on data streams provided by various sensors, e.g., loop detectors, cameras, or GPS, containing potentially sensitive location information about private users. This paper presents an approach to enhance real-time traffic state estimators using fixed sensors with a privacy-preserving scheme providing formal guarantees to the individuals traveling on the road network. Namely, our system implements differential privacy, a strong notion of privacy that protects users against adversaries with arbitrary side information. In contrast to previous privacy-preserving schemes for trajectory data and location-based services, our procedure relies heavily on a macroscopic hydrodynamic model of the aggregated traffic in order to limit the impact on estimation performance of the privacy-preserving mechanism. The practicality of the approach is illustrated with a differentially private reconstruction of a day of traffic on a section of I-880 North in California from raw single-loop detector data.
Dipyridamole Reversibly Inhibits Mengovirus RNA Replication

ABSTRACT Dipyridamole is an effective inhibitor of cardiovirus growth in cell culture. The effects of dipyridamole on mengovirus replication in vivo and in vitro were examined in the hope the drug could be used as an experimental analog of the poliovirus inhibitor guanidine. Guanidine selectively inhibits poliovirus RNA synthesis but not RNA translation, and as such, has been a valuable research tool. Although guanidine does not inhibit cardiovirus infection, a compound with similar discriminatory characteristics would be experimentally useful for parallel work with these viruses. We found that mengovirus plaque formation in HeLa or L cells was inhibited nearly 100% by the presence of 80 μM dipyridamole. The inhibitory effect was reversible and targeted an early step in the replication cycle. Studies with luciferase-expressing mengovirus replicons showed that viral protein synthesis was unaffected by dipyridamole, and rather, RNA synthesis was the step targeted by the drug. This assessment was confirmed by direct analyses of viral translation and RNA synthesis activities in a Krebs-2-derived in vitro system that supported complete, infectious cardiovirus replication. In Krebs extracts, dipyridamole specifically inhibited viral RNA synthesis to more than 95%, with no concomitant effect on viral protein translation or polyprotein processing. The observed inhibition reversibly affected an early step in both minus-strand and plus-strand RNA synthesis, although inhibition of plus-strand synthesis was more profound than that of minus-strand synthesis. We conclude that dipyridamole is a potent experimental tool that readily distinguishes between cardiovirus translation and RNA replication functions.
Effect of sodium diclofenac on serum and tissue concentration of amoxicillin and on staphylococcal infection.

The effect of sodium diclofenac on serum and tissue amoxicillin concentration as well as their effect against staphylococcal infection was observed. Four polyurethane sponges were placed in the back of thirty rats. After 14 d, two granulomatous tissues received 0.5 ml of 10(8) cfu/ml (Staphylococcus aureus). Two days later, the rats were divided into five groups: group 1 received amoxicillin 50 mg/kg/p.o. , group 2 received amoxicillin 25 mg/kg/p.o. , group 3 received sodium diclofenac 2.5 mg/kg/i.m. and amoxicillin 50 mg/kg/p.o. , group 4 received sodium diclofenac 2.5 mg/kg/i.m. , and group 5 (control group) received NaCl 1 ml/p.o. After six hours of drug administration, blood serum (10 microl) and noninfected granulomatous tissues were placed on Mueller-Hinton agar inoculated with 10(8) cfu/ml (S. aureus). Infected tissues were dispersed in a sonic system and were spread (10 microl) on salt mannitol agar. Microorganisms were counted and the inhibition zones were measured after 18 h of incubation at 37 degrees C. Amoxicillin tissue concentration was 6.27 microg/g for group 1, 2.18 microg/g for group 2, and 0.72 microg/g for group 3. The serum concentrations were 11.56 microg/ml for group 1, 5.36 microg/ml for group 2, and 1.34 microg/ml for group 3. No differences were observed among group 1, 2, and 3 regarding staphylococci counts (Kruskall-Wallis test p>0.05). Group 4 reduced (p<0.05) staphylococci counts comparing to group 5. It was concluded that sodium diclofenac reduced serum and tissue amoxicillin concentration and, even in large doses, amoxicillin was not effective in eradicating the staphylococcal infection after 6 h of administration.
Targeting the Hedgehog signaling pathway for cancer therapy

Introduction: Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway plays key roles in embryonic development, formation and maintenance of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and acquisition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Since CSCs and EMT are important biological factors responsible for cancer cell invasion, metastasis, drug resistance and tumor recurrence, the Hh signaling pathway is believed to be an important target for cancer therapy. Areas covered: In recent years, small-molecule inhibitors of Hh signaling have been synthesized for cancer treatment. Clinical trials using these inhibitors are being conducted to determine their toxicity profiles and efficacies. In addition, nutraceuticals (such as isoflavones, curcumin, vitamin D, etc) have been shown to inhibit cancer growth through downregulation of Hh signaling. Expert opinion: Inhibition of Hh signaling is important for suppression of cancer growth, invasion, metastasis and recurrence in cancer therapy. However, targeting only one molecule in Hh signaling may not be sufficient to kill cancer cells because cancers show deregulation of multiple signals. Therefore, utilizing new technologies to determine alterations in Hh and other signals for individuals and designing combination strategies with small-molecule Hh inhibitors, nutraceuticals and other chemotherapeutics in targeted personalized therapy could have a significant effect on improving the overall survival of patients with cancers.
Benzodiazepine use and aggressive behaviour: A systematic review

Context: The relationship between benzodiazepine consumption and subsequent increases in aggressive behaviour in humans is not well understood. Objectives: The current study aimed to identify, via a systematic review, whether there is an association between benzodiazepine consumption and aggressive responding in adults. Method: A systematic review was conducted and reported in line with the PRISMA statement. English articles within MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Academic Search Complete, and Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection databases were searched. Additional studies were identified by searching reference lists of reviewed articles. Only articles that explicitly investigated the relationship between benzodiazepine consumption and subsequent aggressive behaviour, or a lack thereof, in human adults were included. Results: Forty-six studies met the inclusion criteria. It was not possible to conduct a meta-analysis due to the heterogeneity of study design and benzodiazepine type and dose. An association between benzodiazepine use and subsequent aggressive behaviour was found in the majority of the more rigorous studies, although there is a paucity of high-quality research with clinical or forensic populations. Diazepam and alprazolam have received the most attention. Dose-related findings are inconsistent: therapeutic doses may be more likely to be associated with aggressive responding when administered as a once-off, whereas higher doses may be more risky following repeated administration. Trait levels of anxiety and hostility may indicate a vulnerability to the experience of benzodiazepine-related aggression. Conclusions: There appears to be a moderate association between some benzodiazepines and subsequent aggressive behaviour in humans. The circumstances under which aggressive responding may be more likely to follow benzodiazepine use remain unclear, although some evidence suggests dose and/or personality factors may influence this effect.
Angles between subspaces and their tangents

Abstract - Principal angles between subspaces (PABS) (also called canonical angles) serve as a classical tool in mathematics, statistics, and applications, e.g., data mining. Traditionally, PABS are introduced via their cosines. The cosines and sines of PABS are commonly defined using the singular value decomposition. We utilize the same idea for the tangents, i.e., explicitly construct matrices, such that their singular values are equal to the tangents of PABS, using several approaches: orthonormal and non-orthonormal bases for subspaces, as well as projectors. Such a construction has applications, e.g., in analysis of convergence of subspace iterations for eigenvalue problems.