Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accurate Determination of the Oxidative Phosphorylation Affinity for ADP in Isolated Mitochondria

Background Mitochondrial dysfunctions appear strongly implicated in a wide range of pathologies. Therefore, there is a growing need in the determination of the normal and pathological integrated response of oxidative phosphorylation to cellular ATP demand. The present study intends to address this issue by providing a method to investigate mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation affinity for ADP in isolated mitochondria. Methodology/Principal Findings The proposed method is based on the simultaneous monitoring of substrate oxidation (determined polarographically) and phosphorylation (determined using the glucose - hexokinase - glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase - NADP+ enzymatic system) rates, coupled to the determination of actual ADP and ATP concentrations by bioluminescent assay. This enzymatic system allows the study of oxidative phosphorylation during true steady states in a wide range of ADP concentrations. We demonstrate how the application of this method allows an accurate determination of mitochondrial affinity for ADP from both oxidation (KmVox) and phosphorylation (KmVp) rates. We also demonstrate that determination of KmVox leads to an important overestimation of the mitochondrial affinity for ADP, indicating that mitochondrial affinity for ADP should be determined using phosphorylation rate. Finally, we show how this method allows the direct and precise determination of the mitochondrial coupling efficiency. Data obtained from rat skeletal muscle and liver mitochondria illustrate the discriminating capabilities of this method. Conclusions/Significance Because the proposed method allows the accurate determination of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation affinity for ADP in isolated mitochondria, it also opens the route to a better understanding of functional consequences of mitochondrial adaptations/dysfunctions arising in various physiological/pathophysiological conditions.
Sex differences of human corpus callosum revealed by polar coordinate system: magnetic resonance imaging study.

BACKGROUND Evaluation of morphological and size changes related to various pathological conditions of the corpus callosum (CC) requires the data about sex dimorphism of the CC. The purpose of our study is to define potential morphological sex differences of the CC by the use of polar coordinate system as a system of measurements. MATERIALS AND METHODS After division of the CC into three equal segments by the use of polar coordinate system, we investigated the length of the hemisphere (A-A'), the CC size as its midsagittal section area (CCA), the size of its segments (C1, C2, C3), thickness of the thinnest part of the CC (TCC) and the angular coordinate (a angle) of dorsal point of the TCC in a sample of 30 human brains magnetic resonance images (15 males and 15 females, age 20-50 years). RESULTS We found significantly larger CCA, C3 segment and the TCC in males. Statistically significant correlation in both, males and females, was found between parameters of the CCA and of all of its segments (C1, C2, C3), the C1 and C2, the C2 and C3 segments, as well as like as between the C2 and TCC. Sex differences were also in findings of significant correlation between the C1 and C3 segments, between CCA and TCC, and of significant negative correlation between the a angle and A-A' only in females. CONCLUSIONS We concluded that the use of polar coordinate system appropriately reflects the anatomical and encephalometric characteristics of human CC.
Pre‐ and postsurgical detection of IgG, IgM, and IgA specific to hydatidosis by ELISA with purified antigen enriched with the 5/B antigen complex

An enzyme‐linked immunoassay (ELISA) using purified 5/B Echinococcus enriched antigen was used to follow IgG, IgM, and IgA antibody levels pre‐ and posttreatment or surgical removal of hydatid cysts. The sensitivity was 97%, 37.5%, and 54.5%, respectively, and the specificity was 95.7%, 100%, and 98.9%, respectively. All isotypes could be detected 3 years after surgical removal of cysts in patients showing no remaining cyst evidence. This was especially true for IgG, which persisted in 85.2% of the patients. The data indicate that antigen purification improves specificity without affecting sensitivity, although this new antigen offers no advantages in the postsurgical monitoring of the patients. Clin. Lab. Anal. 16:295–298, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analysis of noise avoidance techniques in DSM interconnects using a complete crosstalk noise model

Noise estimation and avoidance are becoming critical, 'must have' capabilities in today's high performance IC design. An accurate yet efficient crosstalk noise model which contains as many driver/interconnect parameters as possible, is necessary for any sensitivity based noise avoidance approach. In this paper, we present a complete analytical crosstalk noise model which incorporates all physical properties including victim and aggressor drivers, distributed RC characteristics of interconnects and coupling locations in both victim and aggressor lines. We present closed-form analytical expressions for peak noise and noise width as well as sensitivities to all model parameters. We then use them model parameter sensitivities to analyze and evaluate various noise avoidance techniques such as driver sizing, wire sizing, wire spacing and layer assignment. Both our model and noise avoidance evaluations are verified using realistic circuits in 0.13/spl mu/ technology. We also present effectiveness of discussed noise avoidance techniques on a high performance microprocessor core.
Understanding Process Knowledge Change in Enterprise System Implementation: A Framework and Case Study

The adoption of an enterprise system often results in a substantial change of the supported business processes. Research in the area of business process redesign has traditionally focused on performance metrics for measuring process change. However, from the perspective of an employee performing the business process, such measurements are inadequate because they fail to account for the knowledge change required for the employee to perform the new process. This paper presents a framework of process change elements from the knowledge perspective. We show how the framework relates to a training knowledge framework proposed by other researchers and discuss its implications for selection of training strategies. We then discuss applications to and preliminary findings from a case study involving enterprise system adoption at the healthcare facility of a large public university.
Modeling pesticide dynamics of four different sites using the model system SIMULAT

This study aimed to assess the accuracy of SIMULAT, a computer model primarily designed for predicting the fate of pesticides in soil. The evaluation was carried out by comparing simulated results on herbicide degradation with results obtained from ®eld and lysimeters experiments. For model validation four different data sets were available. The data sets included ®eld, lysimeter, and laboratory experiments from Germany (Weiherbach), The Netherlands (Vredepeel), Great Britain (Brimstone), and Italy (Tor Mancina). The applied herbicides and the determined soil and water parameters varied substantially among the four empirical data sets used for model evaluation. In a ®rst step simulations were run with the model still being uncalibrated. Afterwards a calibration of hydraulic parameters was performed using measured water and bromide contents in soil (Weiherbach, Vredepeel and Brimstone) or leachate (Tor Mancina). In contrast to the hydraulic parameters, the sorption and degradation parameters were not calibrated. Simulations were run with the calibrated model and the results compared with those obtained from ®eld measurements. The wide range of implemented boundary conditions such as lysimeter, free drainage or ̄uctuating groundwater table enabled applying SIMULAT to all four data sets. However, usage of parameters obtained in laboratory experiments gave no satis®able simulation of the degradation of the herbicides. In contrast to the macroporous loam soil at Tor Mancina, water and bromide transport were accurately simulated in the loess (Weiherbach) and in the sandy soil (Vredepeel). Severe problems occur while simulating the ̄uctuating groundwater and drain ̄ow in the clay soil at Brimstone. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Sex-Related Differences in Gene Expression by Porcine Aortic Valvular Interstitial Cells

While many large-scale risk factors for calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) have been identified, the molecular etiology and subsequent pathogenesis of CAVD have yet to be fully understood. Specifically, it is unclear what biological phenomena underlie the significantly higher occurrence of CAVD in the male population. We hypothesized the existence of intrinsic, cellular-scale differences between male and female valvular interstitial cells (VICs) that contribute to male sex being a risk factor for CAVD. Differences in gene expression profiles between healthy male and female porcine VICs were investigated via microarray analysis. Mean expression values of each probe set in the male samples were compared to the female samples, and biological processes were analyzed for overrepresentation using Gene Ontology term enrichment analysis. There were 183 genes identified as significantly (fold change>2; P<0.05) different in male versus female aortic valve leaflets. Within this significant gene list there were 298 overrepresented biological processes, several of which are relevant to pathways identified in CAVD pathogenesis. In particular, pathway analysis indicated that cellular proliferation, apoptosis, migration, ossification, angiogenesis, inflammation, and extracellular matrix reorganization were all significantly represented in the data set. These gene expression findings also translated into functional differences in VIC behavior in the in vitro environment, as sex-related differences in proliferation and apoptosis were confirmed in VIC populations cultured in vitro. These data suggest that a sex-related propensity for CAVD exists on the cellular level in healthy subjects, a phenomenon that could have significant clinical implications. These findings also strongly support discontinuing the use of mixed-sex VIC cultures, thereby changing the current standard in the field.
Gender Differences in Executives’ Access to Information

We provide novel evidence on gender differences in insider-trading behavior and the profitability of senior corporate executives. On average, both female and male executives make positive profits from insider trading. Males, however, earn significantly more than females in equivalent positions and also trade more than females. These gender differences disappear when we limit the sample to firms in which female trading is relatively high. Collectively, these results suggest that female executives have a disadvantage relative to males in access to inside information, even if they have equal formal status, and informal networks may play an important role in attenuating this disadvantage.
Collapse of Uniformly Rotating Stars to Black Holes and the Formation of Disks

Simulations in general relativity show that the outcome of collapse of a marginally unstable, uniformly rotating star spinning at the mass-shedding limit depends critically on the equation of state. For a very stiff equation of state, which is likely to characterize a neutron star, essentially all of the mass and angular momentum of the progenitor are swallowed by the Kerr black hole formed during the collapse, leaving nearly no residual gas to form a disk. For a soft equation of state with an adiabatic index Γ - 4/3 ≪ 1, which characterizes a very massive or supermassive star supported predominantly by thermal radiation pressure, as much as 10% of the mass of the progenitor avoids capture and goes into a disk about the central hole. We present a semianalytic calculation that corroborates these numerical findings and shows how the final outcome of such a collapse may be determined from simple physical considerations. In particular, we employ a simple energy variational principle with an approximate, post-Newtonian energy functional to determine the structure of a uniformly rotating, polytropic star at the onset of collapse as a function of polytropic index n, where Γ = 1 + 1/n. We then use this data to calculate the mass and spin of the final black hole and ambient disk. We show that the fraction of the total mass that remains in the disk falls off sharply as 3 - n (equivalently, Γ - 4/3) increases.
Expression of the neuronal calcium sensor protein NCS‐1 in the developing mouse olfactory pathway

Neuron specific calcium sensor 1 (NCS‐1) is widely expressed in the developing and adult nervous system. Like calmodulin, NCS‐1 is a member of a family of calcium binding proteins that contain EF‐hand motifs, which bind calcium and induce conformational changes in the protein. Their binding varies with calcium concentration, allowing them to act as true calcium sensors rather than just calcium binding proteins. This family of proteins has been implicated in important synaptic events including neurotransmitter release and synapse formation. We examined the expression of NCS‐1 in the developing and mature olfactory system to determine whether this molecule may be playing a role in establishing and/or maintaining olfactory circuitry. During development, expression of NCS‐1 in the olfactory epithelium was localized in the dendritic knobs and axons of olfactory sensory neurons. Axonal expression was down‐regulated after synapse formation. In the developing olfactory bulb, NCS‐1 was expressed in the processes of mitral/tufted and granule cells. However, in the adult olfactory bulb, strongest expression was found in a subset of periglomerular cells (PGCs). This subset of PGCs did not express other known markers of PGCs including tyrosine hydroxylase, glutamic acid decarboxylase, calbindin, or calretinin, and only partially overlapped with the subpopulation of PGCs that express parvalbumin. Together, these data suggest multiple and overlapping roles of NCS‐1 in the developing and mature olfactory system. J. Comp. Neurol. 482:201–216, 2005. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ScalaExtrap: trace-based communication extrapolation for spmd programs

Performance modeling for scientific applications is important for assessing potential application performance and systems procurement in high-performance computing (HPC). Recent progress on communication tracing opens up novel opportunities for communication modeling due to its lossless yet scalable trace collection. Estimating the impact of scaling on communication efficiency still remains non-trivial due to execution-time variations and exposure to hardware and software artifacts. This work contributes a fundamentally novel modeling scheme. We synthetically generate the application trace for large numbers of nodes by extrapolation from a set of smaller traces. We devise an innovative approach for topology extrapolation of single program, multiple data (SPMD) codes with stencil or mesh communication. The extrapolated trace can subsequently be (a) replayed to assess communication requirements before porting an application, (b) transformed to auto-generate communication benchmarks for various target platforms, and (c) analyzed to detect communication inefficiencies and scalability limitations. To the best of our knowledge, rapidly obtaining the communication behavior of parallel applications at arbitrary scale with the availability of timed replay, yet without actual execution of the application at this scale is without precedence and has the potential to enable otherwise infeasible system simulation at the exascale level.
Acute lung injury is reduced in fat-1 mice endogenously synthesizing n-3 fatty acids.

RATIONALE Acute lung injury (ALI) remains an important cause of mortality in intensive care units. Inflammation is controlled by cytokines and eicosanoids derived from the n-6 fatty acid (FA) arachidonic acid (AA). The n-3 FA eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and mediators derived from EPA and DHA possess reduced inflammatory potency. OBJECTIVES To determine whether the ability of fat-1 mice to endogenously convert n-6 to n-3 FA, and thus generate an increased ratio of n-3 to n-6 FA, impacts experimental ALI. METHODS We investigated ALI induced by intratracheal instillation of endotoxin in fat-1 and wild-type (WT) mice, assessing leukocyte numbers, protein concentration, and prostaglandin and cytokine levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, as well as free FA in plasma, and lung ventilator compliance. Body temperature and motor activity of mice--markers of sickness behavior--were also recorded. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS In ALI, fat-1 mice exhibited significantly reduced leukocyte invasion, protein leakage, and macrophage inflammatory protein-2 and thromboxane B(2) levels in lavage fluid compared with WT mice. Free AA levels were increased in the plasma of WT mice in response to endotoxin, whereas EPA and DHA were increased in the fat-1 group. Ventilator compliance was significantly improved in fat-1 mice. Body temperature and motor activity were decreased in ALI. fat-1 Mice recovered body temperature and motor activity faster. CONCLUSIONS fat-1 Mice exhibited reduced features of ALI and sickness behavior. Increasing the availability of n-3 FA may thus be beneficial in critically ill patients with ALI.
Serum YKL-40 as a marker for cervical adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND The current study examined the clinical usefulness of YKL-40 in detection and prognosis of uterine cervical cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Serum levels of YKL-40, cancer antigen 125 (CA 125), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) antigen were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in women with benign gynecologic disease (n=24), cervical malignancy (SCC, n=104; adenocarcinoma, n=37), and age-matched healthy controls (n=45). Immunohistochemical analysis for local YKL-40 expression was carried out on 28 adenocarcinomas. RESULTS Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that YKL-40 [area under the curve (AUC)=0.882] was significantly better at discriminating adenocarcinoma from healthy control than SCC antigen, CA 125, and CA19-9. For SCC, YKL-40 (AUC=0.898) carried out similarly to SCC antigen and was better than CA 125 and CA19-9. Using a cut-off YKL-40 value of 92.2 ng/ml, sensitivity of YKL-40 in stage I adenocarcinoma (68%) was higher than that of the other three markers (11%-21%). Tumor-associated macrophages showed immunoreactivity for YKL-40 in 2 of 28 adenocarcinoma tissue samples, but adenocarcinoma cells themselves were nonimmunoreactive in all samples. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that elevated pretreatment YKL-40 levels predicted unfavorable prognosis, independent of International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage and age at diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS Pretreatment serum YKL-40 level is a possible prognosticator of cervical adenocarcinoma.
PERSONALITY PREDICTORS OF DECISION-MAKING OF MEDICAL RESCUERS

The aim of our research was to assess the predictive power of selected personality factors that are related to emotions in the decision-making process of paramedics. The focus of this study lies in emotional intelligence according to the model of Cooper and Sawaf (1997), styles of decision-making according to the Theory of Cognitive and Experiential Self (Epstein, 2003), Stroop's resilience and Big Five personality traits as possible predictors of decision- making of paramedics. 92 paramedics participated in the study which employed the Iowa Gam- bling Task, EQ TM map, Stroop test, Rational-Experiential Inventory and NEO-FFI. We deter- mined gender specifications of the predictors of decision-making of paramedics. In paramedics (men), it was possible to predict appropriate decision-making based on emotional stability, extraversion and qu ick rea ctions in the Stroop test. Appropriate decision-making of female paramedics could be predicted based on two zones of emotional intelligence (low emotional awareness and positive current conditions) and on quick reactions in the Stroop test. The results obtained are interpreted with respect to specific gender expectations within the paramedic pro- fession and the ability to resist negative emotions in the decision-making process.
An auto-calibrated laser-pointing interface for large screen displays

Most of the current laser pointing interfaces use a vision based approach, which requires camera calibration. This paper presents the use of a planar homography-based auto-calibrated technique to eliminate the camera calibration step, thus simplifying the setup process. The system performance of a user interface implemented with this technique is then analyzed in details.
Event-Driven Visual Sensor Networks: Issues in Reliability

Event-driven visual sensor networks (VSNs) rely on a combination of camera nodes and scalar sensors to determine if a frame contains an event of interest that should be transmitted to the cluster head. The appeal of event-driven VSNs stems from the possibility of eliminating non-relevant frames at the source thus implicitly minimizing the amount of energy required for coding and transmission. The challenges of the event-driven paradigm result from the vulnerability of scalar sensors to attack or error and from the lightweight image processing available to the camera nodes due to resource constraints. In this work we focus on the reliability issues of VSNs in the case of global actuation attacks on the scalar sensors. We study the extent to which various utility functions enable an attacker to increase the average expected number of affected nodes with a relatively small penalty in the loss of stealth. We then discuss tradeoffs between different attack detection strategies in terms of the cost of processing and the required information at the cluster head and nodes.
Application of the theory of planned behavior to understand intentions to engage in physical and psychosocial health behaviors after cancer diagnosis

A cancer diagnosis can trigger change in both lifestyle behaviors and mental health outcomes such as ‘growth’ and ‘benefit‐finding’. Assuming changes in mental health outcomes are based upon changes in specific behaviors, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) may facilitate understanding of post‐diagnosis change in physical and psychosocial ‘health’ behaviors. Adults (n=130) ⩽2 years post‐cancer diagnosis completed an internet survey. Current performance and future behavior intentions for two physical (e.g. eating a healthy diet) and four psychosocial (e.g. spending quality time with family/friends; engaging in spiritual or religious activities) health behaviors were assessed. TPB constructs (subjective norm, behavior attitudes, perceived behavioral control) for each of the six behaviors were also assessed. Multiple regression analyses indicated the set of TPB constructs accounted for an increment of 25–53% of variance in behavioral intentions beyond that accounted for by clinical and demographic variables. Among individual TPB constructs, behavioral attitude was most consistently associated with behavioral intentions while subjective norm was least consistently associated with behavioral intentions. The TPB could serve as a comprehensive model for understanding change in both physical and psychosocial health behaviors after cancer diagnosis and could suggest innovative approaches to developing interventions to enhance post‐diagnosis ‘growth’ and ‘benefit finding’. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.