Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential effects of paraoxon on the M3 muscarinic receptor and its effector system in rat submaxillary gland cells.

The effects of the organophosphorus anticholinesterase paraoxon on the binding of radioactive ligands to the M3 subtype of the muscarinic receptor and receptor-coupled synthesis of second messengers in intact rat submaxillary gland (SMG) cells were investigated. The binding of [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate ([3H]QNB) was most sensitive to atropine and the M3-specific antagonist 4-DAMP followed by pirenzepine and least sensitive to the cardioselective M2 antagonist AFDX116. This, and the binding characteristics of [3H]4-DAMP, confirmed that the muscarinic receptors in this preparation are of the M3 subtype. Activation of these muscarinic receptors by carbamylcholine (CBC) produced both stimulation of phosphoinositide (PI) hydrolysis and inhibition of cAMP synthesis, suggesting that this receptor subtype couples to both effector systems. Paraoxon (100 microM) reduced Bmax of [3H]4-DAMP binding from 27 +/- 4 to 13 +/- 3 fmol/mg protein with nonsignificant change in affinity, suggesting noncompetitive inhibition of binding by paraoxon. Like the agonist CBC, paraoxon inhibited the forskolin-induced cAMP formation in SMG cells with an EC50 of 200 nM, but paraoxon was greater than 500 fold more potent than CBC. However, while the inhibition by CBC was counteracted by 2 microM atropine, that by paraoxon was unaffected by up to 100 microM atropine. It suggested that this effect of paraoxon was not via binding to the muscarinic receptor. Paraoxon did not affect beta-adrenoreceptor function in the preparation, since it did not affect the 10 microM isoproterenol-induced cAMP synthesis, which was inhibited totally by 10 microM propranolol and partially by CBC. Paraoxon had a small but significant effect on CBC-stimulated PI metabolism in the SMG cells. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Multiple fault testing in systems-on-chip with high-level decision diagrams

A new method of high level test generation based on the concept of test groups to prove the correctness of a part of system functionality is proposed. High-level faults of any multiplicity are assumed to be present in the system, however, there will be no need to enumerate them. Unlike the known approaches, we do not target the faults as test objectives. The goal of using the test groups is to extend step by step the fault-free core of the system by exploiting the knowledge about already successfully tested parts of the system. In case when the proof fails, fault diagnosis will follow. To cope with the complexity of multiple fault masking mechanisms, high-level decision diagrams (HLDD) are used. The proposed method can be regarded as a generalization of the logic level test pair approach for identifying fault-free wires in gate-level networks. Preliminary experimental results, and a discussion of the complexity of the method is presented.
Screening of Carotid Artery Stenosis in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Patients

Background: We sought to evaluate the routine echo-Doppler screening of carotid artery stenosis in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting. Methods: A total of 2179 consecutive patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting alone or with other cardiac surgery at Tehran Heart Center, Tehran-Iran, between January 2005 and January 2006 were included in this retrospective study. Carotid Doppler was performed for 1604 (81.48%) of these patients. Results: The patients’ age ranged between 20 and 84 years (mean: 58.33, SD: 10.08 years). Of the 1604 patients studied, 1186 (73.9%) were men, 592 (36.9%) had diabetes, 598 (37.3%) were smokers, and 194 (12.1%) cases had significant left main stenosis. Twenty-one (1.3%) patients had significant carotid stenosis (> 60% stenosis), which constituted 0.9% of all the bypass surgery candidates. Post-operative cerebrovascular accident was not detected in any of the patients with significant carotid stenosis, but cerebrovascular accident occurred in 22 (1.4%) of the patients without carotid stenosis. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) was conducted in 15 patients. In our univariate analysis, female gender (p value = 0.023), hypertension (p value = 0.055), peripheral vascular disease (p value < 0.001), and age (p value = 0.001) were significant in the development of carotid stenosis. Conclusion: Pre-operative duplex carotid screening seems to be necessary in patients when there is hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, female gender, and advanced age.
The CLT Analogue for Cyclic Urns

A cyclic urn is an urn model for balls of types $0,\ldots,m-1$ where in each draw the ball drawn, say of type $j$, is returned to the urn together with a new ball of type $j+1 \mod m$. The case $m=2$ is the well-known Friedman urn. The composition vector, i.e., the vector of the numbers of balls of each type after $n$ steps is, after normalization, known to be asymptotically normal for $2\le m\le 6$. For $m\ge 7$ the normalized composition vector does not converge. However, there is an almost sure approximation by a periodic random vector. In this paper the asymptotic fluctuations around this periodic random vector are identified. We show that these fluctuations are asymptotically normal for all $m\ge 7$. However, they are of maximal dimension $m-1$ only when $6$ does not divide $m$. For $m$ being a multiple of $6$ the fluctuations are supported by a two-dimensional subspace.
Hyperbolic relaxation models for granular flows

In this work we describe an efficient model for the simulation of a two-phase flow made of a gas and a granular solid. The starting point is the two-velocity two-pressure model of Baer and Nunziato [ Int. J. Multiph. Flow 16 (1986) 861–889]. The model is supplemented by a relaxation source term in order to take into account the pressure equilibrium between the two phases and the granular stress in the solid phase. We show that the relaxation process can be made thermodynamically coherent with an adequate choice of the granular stress. We then propose a numerical scheme based on a splitting approach. Each step of the time marching algorithm is made of two stages. In the first stage, the homogeneous convection equations are solved by a standard finite volume Rusanov scheme. In the second stage, the volume fraction is updated in order to take into account the equilibrium source term. The whole procedure is entropy dissipative. For simplified pressure laws (stiffened gas laws) we are able to prove that the approximated volume fraction stays within its natural bounds.
Software Quality and Infrastructure Protection for Diffuse Computing

Diffuse computing is concerned with managing and maintaining a computational infrastucture that is distributed among many heterogeneous nodes that do not trust each other completely and may have differing incentives, needs, and priorities. As commercial, academic, civilian, government, and military systems become increasingly diffuse, the challenges of providing reliable and trustworthy diffuse systems become increasingly important. Diffuse computational systems require new software design and engineering methodologies. Components are combined on an as-needed basis, and with the increasing scale and complexity of modern distributed systems such as the WWW, the rigor and methodological support have failed to materialize in any form. With the local autonomy that characterizes large-scale distributed sytems, global design and analysis may in fact be impossible. In this paper we survey the research partially supported by OSD/ONR CIP/SW URI “Software Quality and Infrastructure Protection for Diffuse Computing” through ONR Grant N00014-01-1-0795. We develop fundamental understanding, models, algorithms, and network testbed, in order to reduce cost, improve performance, and provide higher reliability for networked operations across untrusted networks. We take a synergistic approach, combining several complementary thrusts: incentive-compatibility in distributed computation, authorization mechanisms, infrastructure and secure communication protocols, privacy and anonymity, and networking. We study a market system of autonomous agents that realistically model the behavior of a large-scale distributed system. Rules imposed on the market system (“mechanism design”) allow global desiderata to be achieved in spite of local autonomy. In this way, the behavior of the software as a system can be described formally in spite of incomplete knowledge. We carry out the initial development of such a methodology and the construction of a multi-institutional experimental platform upon which we can prototype this software-quality methodology. This will open up a whole new range of “global” software-design techniques that work in today’s and tomorrow’s systems. These advances, leading to new software technology, will ensure greater confidence in critical national infrastructures that depend so much on information technology. P.I. of the project. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. scedrov@math.upenn. edu The work reported by J.M. Smith was completed before December 31, 2003. External collaborator.
Mapping Academic Institutions According to Their Journal Publication Profile: Spanish Universities as a Case Study

We introduce a novel methodology for mapping academic institutions based on their journal publication profiles. We believe that journals in which researchers from academic institutions publish their works can be considered as useful identifiers for representing the relationships between these institutions and establishing comparisons. However, when academic journals are used for research output representation, distinctions must be introduced between them, based on their value as institution descriptors. This leads us to the use of journal weights attached to the institution identifiers. Since a journal in which researchers from a large proportion of institutions published their papers may be a bad indicator of similarity between two academic institutions, it seems reasonable to weight it in accordance with how frequently researchers from different institutions published their papers in this journal. Cluster analysis can then be applied to group the academic institutions, and dendrograms can be provided to illustrate groups of institutions following agglomerative hierarchical clustering. In order to test this methodology, we use a sample of Spanish universities as a case study. We first map the study sample according to an institution's overall research output, then we use it for two scientific fields (Information and Communication Technologies, as well as Medicine and Pharmacology) as a means to demonstrate how our methodology can be applied, not only for analyzing institutions as a whole, but also in different disciplinary contexts. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Placebo expectancy effects in the relationship between glucose and cognition

The present study investigated the extent of expectancy in the ability of glucose to affect cognitive performance. Using a within-subjects design, subjects (n 26) completed four experimental sessions (in counterbalanced order and after an initial practice session) during which they were given a 500 ml drink 30 min prior to completing a cognitive assessment battery. In addition, all subjects completed a baseline practice session during which they were given no drink. During two of the sessions, subjects were given a drink containing 50 g glucose and on the other two they were given a drink containing aspartame. A balanced placebo design was used, such that for half the sessions subjects were accurately informed as to the content of the drink (glucose or aspartame), whereas in the other two sessions they were misinformed as to the content of the drink. The task battery comprised a 6 min visual analogue of the Bakan vigilance task, an immediate verbal free-recall task, an immediate verbal recognition memory task and a measure of motor speed (two-finger tapping). Blood glucose and self-reported mood were also recorded at several time points during each session. Glucose administration was found to improve recognition memory times, in direct contrast to previous findings in the literature. Glucose administration also improved performance on the Bakan task (relative to the control drink), but only in sessions where subjects were informed that they would receive glucose and not when they were told that they would receive aspartame. There were no effects either of the nature of the drink or expectancy on the other measures. These results are interpreted in terms of there being some contribution of expectancy concerning the positive effects of glucose on cognition in studies which have not used an equi-sweet dose of aspartame as a control drink.
Inhibition of Nitrate Reduction by Chromium(VI) in Anaerobic Soil Microcosms

ABSTRACT Chromium is often found as a cocontaminant at sites polluted with organic compounds. For nitrate-respiring microbes, Cr(VI) may be not only directly toxic but may also specifically interfere with N reduction. In soil microcosms amended with organic electron donors, Cr(VI), and nitrate, bacteria oxidized added carbon, but relatively low doses of Cr(VI) caused a lag and then lower rates of CO2 accumulation. Cr(VI) strongly inhibited nitrate reduction; it occurred only after soluble Cr(VI) could not be detected. However, Cr(VI) additions did not eliminate Cr-sensitive populations; after a second dose of Cr(VI), bacterial activity was strongly inhibited. Differences in microbial community composition (assayed by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) driven by different organic substrates (glucose and protein) were smaller than when other electron acceptors had been used. However, the selection of bacterial phylotypes was modified by Cr(VI). Nine isolated clades of facultatively anaerobic Cr(VI)-resistant bacteria were closely related to cultivated members of the phylum Actinobacteria or Firmicutes. In Bacillus cereus GNCR-4, the nature of the electron donor (fermentable or nonfermentable) affected Cr(VI) resistance level and anaerobic nitrate metabolism. Our results indicate that carbon utilization and nitrate reduction in these soils were contingent upon the reduction of added Cr(VI). The amount of Cr(VI) required to inhibit nitrate reduction was 10-fold less than for aerobic catabolism of the same organic substrate. We speculate that the resistance level of a microbial process is directly related to the diversity of microbes capable of conducting it.
Instant Messaging for Collaboration: A Case Study of a High-Tech Firm

This article examines uses of instant messaging (IM) in a high-tech firm to illustrate how knowledge workers use this new work tool to collaborate with co-workers. The objectives are 1) to identify the collaborative practices of individuals in mediated work environments by looking at uses of IM; 2) to discern what social processes are reflected in employees' use of IM; and 3) to investigate how three factors proposed by Erickson and Kellogg (2000) to support social processes—visibility, awareness and accountability—are used in an IM system. Questionnaire and interview data show that while IM leads to higher connectivity and new forms of collaboration, it also creates distance: employees use the mediated environment as a shield, distancing themselves from superiors. We use Erickson & Kellogg's ‘social translucence of technology’ framework to discuss the social consequences of working in a computer-mediated work environment.
Fluid Extraction of Fluometuron Herbicide from Soil

Soil was treated with "C-ring-labeled fluometuron [N,N-dimethyl-N'[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyll urea] (0.516 and 5.16 pmol gl), air-dried, and stored for 6 months at 5 "C. The 14C was then extracted from soil with methanol by conventional extraction (twice with MeOH/H20 8020 v/v; 2:l extract/soil v/w) and with CO2 using a supercritical fluid extractor. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method development included adding modifiers and varying C02 fluid density, extraction temperature, sample mass, and extraction time. Adding H2O to modify the sample was the single most effective variable which improved recovery. Extraction temperatures above 50 "C lowered recovery, presumably because of thermal instability of fluometuron. The optimum C02 density at 50 "C was 0.80 g mL-l. Static extraction times greater than 6 min and dynamic extraction times greater than 18 min did not significantly improve recovery. Recovery using optimum SFE conditions was comparable to that obtained using conventional methods. Extraction of aged field samples indicated that this technology can also be used to extract some common fluometuron metabolites.
Testing graph isomorphism

We deal with the question of how many queries are required to distinguish between the case that two graphs <i>G</i> and <i>H</i> on <i>n</i> vertices are isomorphic, and the case that they are ε-far, that is they differ in more than ε(<sup><i>n</i></sup><inf>2</inf>) pairs for all possible bijections of their vertices. Querying is defined as probing the adjacency matrix of any one of the two graphs, i.e. asking if a pair of vertices forms an edge of the graph or not.We investigate both one-sided error and two-sided error testers under two possible settings: The first setting is where both graphs need to be queried; and the second setting is where one of the graphs is known to the algorithm in advance.We prove that the query complexity of the one-sided error testing problem is Θ(<i>n</i><sup>3/2</sup>) if both graphs need to be queried, and that it is Θ(<i>n</i>) if one of the graphs is known in advance (where the Θ notation hides polylogarithmic factors in the upper bounds). For the two-sided error testers we prove that the query complexity is Θ(√<i>n</i> when one of the graphs is known in advance, and we show that the query complexity lies between Ω(<i>n</i>) and <i>Õ</i>(<i>n</i><sup>5/4</sup>) if both <i>G</i> and <i>H</i> need to be queried. All of our algorithms are additionally non-adaptive, while all of our lower bounds apply for adaptive testers as well as non-adaptive ones.
A Critical Role for β-Catenin in Modulating Levels of Insulin Secretion from β-Cells by Regulating Actin Cytoskeleton and Insulin Vesicle Localization*

The processes regulating glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) and its modulation by incretins in pancreatic β-cells are only partly understood. Here we investigate the involvement of β-catenin in these processes. Reducing β-catenin levels using siRNA knockdown attenuated GSIS in a range of β-cell models and blocked the ability of GLP-1 agonists and the depolarizing agent KCl to potentiate this. This could be mimicked in both β-cell models and isolated islets by short-term exposure to the β-catenin inhibitory drug pyrvinium. In addition, short-term treatment with a drug that increases β-catenin levels results in an increase in insulin secretion. The timing of these effects suggests that β-catenin is required for the processes regulating trafficking and/or release of pre-existing insulin granules rather than for those regulated by gene expression. This was supported by the finding that the overexpression of the transcriptional co-activator of β-catenin, transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2), attenuated insulin secretion, consistent with the extra TCF7L2 translocating β-catenin from the plasma membrane pool to the nucleus. We show that β-catenin depletion disrupts the intracellular actin cytoskeleton, and by using total internal reflectance fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, we found that β-catenin is required for the glucose- and incretin-induced depletion of insulin vesicles from near the plasma membrane. In conclusion, we find that β-catenin levels modulate Ca2+-dependent insulin exocytosis under conditions of glucose, GLP-1, or KCl stimulation through a role in modulating insulin secretory vesicle localization and/or fusion via actin remodeling. These findings also provide insights as to how the overexpression of TCF7L2 may attenuate insulin secretion.
Codebook Design for Non-Coherent Communication in Multiple-Antenna Systems

We address the problem of space-time codebook design for non-coherent communications in multiple-antenna wireless systems. The channel matrix is assumed deterministic (no stochastic model assumed) and unknown at both the receiver and the transmitter. In contrast with other approaches, the Gaussian observation noise has an arbitrary correlation structure, known by the transmitter and the receiver. To handle the unknown deterministic space-time channel, a GLRT receiver is implemented. We propose a new methodology for space-time codebook design under this non-coherent setup. This optimizes the probability of error of the receiver's detector in the high SNR regime, thus solving a high-dimensional nonlinear non-smooth optimization problem in a two-step approach: (i) firstly, a convex SDP relaxation yields a rough estimate of the optimal codebook; (ii) this is then refined through a geodesic descent optimization algorithm that exploits the Riemannian geometry imposed by the power constraints on the space-time codewords. Computer simulations demonstrate that, for the specific case of spatio-temporal white observation noise, our codebooks are marginally better than those provided by state-of-art known solutions. However, the most relevant conclusion is that, for correlated noise environments, our method provides codes that significantly outperform other known codes
Acute Effects of Some Volatile Organic Compounds Emitted From Water-Based Paints

Objective: Acute effects during controlled exposure to some of the volatile organic compounds emitted from water-based paints were evaluated. Methods: Healthy volunteers (10 atopics, 10 nonatopics, and 10 painters) were exposed to a mixture of propyleneglycol, texanol, diethyleneglycol monoethylether, diethyleneglycol monobutyl ether, and dipropyleneglycol monomethyl ether at a total concentration of 35 mg/m3 (G), a mixture of G and ammonia (15 mg/m3) (GA), and clean air (C). Results: Subjective ratings of irritation in eyes, nose, throat, and dyspnea were significantly higher during the G and GA conditions, when compared with during the C condition. Nasal mucosal swelling was observed after G but not after GA exposure. No effects of the exposure on the pulmonary function, markers of inflammation in nasal lavages, and renal function in urine were seen. Conclusion: Exposure to G and GA caused mild irritation in eyes, nose, and airways.