Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EphB1 recruits c-Src and p52Shc to activate MAPK/ERK and promote chemotaxis

Eph receptors and their ligands (ephrins) play an important role in axonal guidance, topographic mapping, and angiogenesis. The signaling pathways mediating these activities are starting to emerge and are highly cell- and receptor-type specific. Here we demonstrate that activated EphB1 recruits the adaptor proteins Grb2 and p52Shc and promotes p52Shc and c-Src tyrosine phosphorylation as well as MAPK/extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) activation. EphB1-mediated increase of cell migration was abrogated by the MEK inhibitor PD98059 and Src inhibitor PP2. In contrast, cell adhesion, which we previously showed to be c-jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) dependent, was unaffected by ERK1/2 and Src inhibition. Expression of dominant-negative c-Src significantly reduced EphB1-dependent ERK1/2 activation and chemotaxis. Site-directed mutagenesis experiments demonstrate that tyrosines 600 and 778 of EphB1 are required for its interaction with c-Src and p52Shc. Furthermore, phosphorylation of p52Shc by c-Src is essential for its recruitment to EphB1 signaling complexes through its phosphotyrosine binding domain. Together these findings highlight a new aspect of EphB1 signaling, whereby the concerted action of c-Src and p52Shc activates MAPK/ERK and regulates events involved in cell motility.
A new interpretation of data hiding capacity

We present a new definition of data hiding capacity which complements the established theory in the field and produces practical estimates under many attacks. We discuss the relation between the proposed definition and the current theoretical work on data hiding capacity. The definition proposed is applied to still images to estimate the hiding capacity of a particular image under attacks such as JPEG compression and additive noise.
The Effectiveness of Lloyd-Type Methods for the k-Means Problem

We investigate variants of Lloyd's heuristic for clustering high dimensional data in an attempt to explain its popularity (a half century after its introduction) among practitioners, and in order to suggest improvements in its application. We propose and justify a clusterability criterion for data sets. We present variants of Lloyd's heuristic that quickly lead to provably near-optimal clustering solutions when applied to well-clusterable instances. This is the first performance guarantee for a variant of Lloyd's heuristic. The provision of a guarantee on output quality does not come at the expense of speed: some of our algorithms are candidates for being faster in practice than currently used variants of Lloyd's method. In addition, our other algorithms are faster on well-clusterable instances than recently proposed approximation algorithms, while maintaining similar guarantees on clustering quality. Our main algorithmic contribution is a novel probabilistic seeding process for the starting configuration of a Lloyd-type iteration
HIV-Infected Spleens Present Altered Follicular Helper T Cell (Tfh) Subsets and Skewed B Cell Maturation

Follicular helper T (Tfh) cells within secondary lymphoid organs control multiple steps of B cell maturation and antibody (Ab) production. HIV-1 infection is associated with an altered B cell differentiation and Tfh isolated from lymph nodes of HIV-infected (HIV+) individuals provide inadequate B cell help in vitro. However, the mechanisms underlying this impairment of Tfh function are not fully defined. Using a unique collection of splenocytes, we compared the frequency, phenotype and transcriptome of Tfh subsets in spleens from HIV negative (HIV-) and HIV+ subjects. We observed an increase of CXCR5+PD-1highCD57-Tfh and germinal center (GC) CD57+ Tfh in HIV+ spleens. Both subsets showed a reduced mRNA expression of the transcription factor STAT-3, co-stimulatory, regulatory and signal transduction molecules as compared to HIV- spleens. Similarly, Foxp3 expressing follicular regulatory T (Tfr) cells were increased, suggesting sustained GC reactions in chronically HIV+ spleens. As a consequence, GC B cell populations were expanded, however, complete maturation into memory B cells was reduced in HIV+ spleens where we evidenced a compromised production of B cell-activating cytokines such as IL-4 and IL-10. Collectively our data indicate that, although Tfh proliferation and GC reactions seem to be ongoing in HIV-infected spleens, Tfh “differentiation” and expression of costimulatory molecules is skewed with a profound effect on B cell maturation.
Hybrid Loopy Belief Propagation

We propose an algorithm called Hybrid Loopy Belief Propagation (HLBP), which extends the Loopy Belief Propagation (LBP) (Murphy et al., 1999) and Nonparametric Belief Propagation (NBP) (Sudderth et al., 2003) algorithms to deal with general hybrid Bayesian networks. The main idea is to represent the LBP messages with mixture of Gaussians and formulate their calculation as Monte Carlo integration problems. The new algorithm is general enough to deal with hybrid models that may represent linear or nonlinear equations and arbitrary probability distributions.
A Consistent and Efficient Estimator for Data-Oriented Parsing

Given a sequence of samples from an unknown probability distribution, a statistical estimator aims at providing an approximate guess of the distribution by utilizing statistics from the samples. One crucial property of a ‘good’ estimator is that its guess approaches the unknown distribution as the sample sequence grows large. This property is called consistency. This paper concerns estimators for natural language parsing under the Data-Oriented Parsing (DOP) model. The DOP model specifies how a probabilistic grammar is acquired from statistics over a given training treebank, a corpus of sentence-parse pairs. Recently, Johnson [16] showed that the DOP estimator (called DOP1) is biased and inconsistent. A second relevant problem with DOP1 is that it suffers from an overwhelming computational inefficiency. This paper presents the first (nontrivial) consistent estimator for the DOP model. The new estimator is based on a combination of held-out estimation and a bias toward parsing with shorter derivations. To justify the need for a biased estimator in the case of DOP, we prove that every nonoverfitting DOP estimator is statistically biased. Our choice for the bias toward shorter derivations is justified by empirical experience, mathematical convenience and efficiency considerations. In support of our theoretical results of consistency and computational efficiency, we also report experimental results with the new estimator.
TOCOPHEROL SUPPLEMENTATION ON STOCKING DENSITY OF BROILER: EFFECT ON PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS AND SERUM ENZYMES

A t otal of two hundred and seventy day-old Arbor Acre strain of broiler chicks were used for this research. Five treatment: T 1 - positive control (10 birds/m 2 ), T2 - negative control, T3, T4 and T5 had 20 birds/m 2 . T1 and T2 had no supplementation with vitamin E (d1-I±-tocopheryl acetate) . T3, T4 and T5 had 50mg/kg, 100mg/kg and 150 mg/kg vitamin E supplementations respectively. Feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and weight gain and serum enzymes ( Aspartate Aminotransferase ( AST) and Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT)) were determined. There were no significant changes in the weight gain and final weight of the birds fed the different dietary treatments . The feed intake increased significantly in birds fed T2 (1.91kg) and compared to their counterpart on vitamin E supplementation (from 1.58 to 1.60 kg). However, FCR of birds on diets T1 (2.50), T4 (2.77) and T5 (2.50) was similar (P>0.05). The total protein and Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) values were neither affected by increased stocking density nor with or without vitamin E supplementation. However, increased stocking density without vitamin E supplementation (T2) (0.97 U.I/l) resulted in a significant reduction in the albumin values. Although ALT values increased significantly with increase in vitamin E supplementation, the birds on dietary T1 (8.00 U.I/l) had similar level of ALT with their counterpart on T4 (7.50U.I/l) and T5 (8.50 U.I/l). In conclusion broiler chicks could be stocked up to 20 birds/m 2 only if the diet is supplemented with 100mg/kg vitamin E.
Aphid–parasitoid community structure on genetically modified wheat

Since the introduction of genetically modified (GM) plants, one of the main concerns has been their potential effect on non-target insects. Many studies have looked at GM plant effects on single non-target herbivore species or on simple herbivore–natural enemy food chains. Agro-ecosystems, however, are characterized by numerous insect species which are involved in complex interactions, forming food webs. In this study, we looked at transgenic disease-resistant wheat (Triticum aestivum) and its effect on aphid–parasitoid food webs. We hypothesized that the GM of the wheat lines directly or indirectly affect aphids and that these effects cascade up to change the structure of the associated food webs. Over 2 years, we studied different experimental wheat lines under semi-field conditions. We constructed quantitative food webs to compare their properties on GM lines with the properties on corresponding non-transgenic controls. We found significant effects of the different wheat lines on insect community structure up to the fourth trophic level. However, the observed effects were inconsistent between study years and the variation between wheat varieties was as big as between GM plants and their controls. This suggests that the impact of our powdery mildew-resistant GM wheat plants on food web structure may be negligible and potential ecological effects on non-target insects limited.
The Impact of Energy Consumption on the Surface Urban Heat Island in China's 32 Major Cities

Supported by the rapid economic development in the last few decades, China has become the largest energy consumer in the world. Alongside this, the effect of the anthropogenic heat released from energy consumption is increasingly apparent. We quantified the daytime and nighttime surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) for the 32 major cities in mainland China, using MODIS land surface temperature data from 2008 to 2012, and estimated the energy consumption intensity (ECI) based on the correlation between energy consumption and the sum of nighttime lights. On this basis, the impact of energy consumption on the surface urban heat island in China’s 32 major cities was analyzed, by directly examining the relationship between SUHII and the urban-suburban difference in ECI. The results show that energy consumption has a significantly positive correlation with the nighttime SUHII, but no correlation with the daytime SUHII. It indicates that the cities with a larger urban-suburban difference in ECI have a far greater impact on SUHII during the nighttime. Therefore, the statistical analysis of the historical observation data in this study provides evidence for a long-held hypothesis that the anthropogenic heat released from energy consumption is an important contributor to the urban thermal environment.
Immunoprotective Efficacy of Six In vivo-Induced Antigens against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae as Potential Vaccine Candidates in Murine Model

Six in vivo-induced (IVI) antigens—RnhB, GalU, GalT, Apl_1061, Apl_1166, and HflX were selected for a vaccine trial in a mouse model. The results showed that the IgG levels in each immune group was significantly higher than that of the negative control (P < 0.001). Except rRnhB group, proliferation of splenocytes was observed in all immunized groups and a relatively higher proliferation activity was observed in rGalU and rGalT groups (P < 0.05). In the rGalT vaccinated group, the proportion of CD4+ T cells in spleen was significant higher than that of negative control (P < 0.05). Moreover, proportions of CD4+ T cells in other vaccinated groups were all up-regulated to varying degrees. Up-regulation of both Th1 (IFN-γ, IL-2) and Th2 (IL-4) cytokines were detected. A survival rate of 87.5, 62.5, and 62.5% were obtained among rGalT, rAPL_1166, and rHflX group, respectively while the remaining three groups was only 25%. Histopathological analyses of lungs indicated that surviving animals from the vaccinated groups showed relatively normal pulmonary structure alveoli. These findings confirm that IVI antigens used as vaccine candidates provide partial protection against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae infection in a mouse model, which could be used as potential vaccine candidates in piglets.
Vasopressin function in the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuresis.

In 1938 Winkler & Crankshaw (1) described a group of patients who had hypochloremia and excessive urinary excretion of chloride despite appar­ ently normal kidneys and adrenal glands at autopsy. Subsequently other investigators reported patients with hyponatremia and urinary sodium wasting (2-5). In 1957, Schwartz et al (6) described similar findings in association with impaired urinary dilution in two patients with broncho­ genic carcinoma. They concluded from indirect evidence that the syndrome was due to inappropriate secretion of the antidiuretic hormone, arginine vasopressin. It is now recognized that the syndrome of inappropriate anti­ diuresis (SIAD) occurs in a great variety of malignant and nonmalignant diseases, most commonly those involving the central nervous system and lungs (Table 1) (7-51). The pathophysiology of this syndrome has been well delineated and reviewed elsewhere (7,8). Briefly, Schwartz and Bartter originally deduced from earlier studies of the effect of exogenous antidiuretic hormone in normal humans (52) that the syndrome resulted from inappropriate secre­ tion of antidiuretic hormone in the face of excessive water intake. This constellation of defects results in hyponatremia due to dilution and exces­ sive urinary excretion of sodium caused by the water retention. Hence, the cardinal features of SIAD as defined by Bartter & Schwartz (7) are (a) hyponatremia with corresponding hypoosmolality of the plasma, (b) osmo­ lality of the urine greater than that appropriate for concomitant plasma
Tolerating intermittent faults in input/state asynchronous sequential machines with a bounded delay

We address fault diagnosis and tolerance in dynamics of asynchronous sequential machines based on corrective control theory. The controlled asynchronous machine has input/state type where the present state is given as the output value. We consider a kind of intermittent faults that cause unauthorized state transitions to the machine, and that persist for finite time after the initial occurrence. Not only does the machine's stable reachability decrease as a result of the fault occurrence, but also immediate state recovery is made impossible. We examine the existence condition and design algorithm for a corrective controller that tolerates the adverse effect of intermittent faults with degraded performance, that is, the closed-loop system regains the normal behavior within a bounded delay. Through an illustrative example, we demonstrate the proposed fault tolerant control methodology.
Research Paper: Human Factors Barriers to the Effective Use of Ten HIV Clinical Reminders

OBJECTIVE Substantial variations in adherence to guidelines for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care have been documented. To evaluate their effectiveness in improving quality of care, ten computerized clinical reminders (CRs) were implemented at two pilot and eight study sites. The aim of this study was to identify human factors barriers to the use of these CRs. DESIGN Observational study was conducted of CRs in use at eight outpatient clinics for one day each and semistructured interviews were conducted with physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and case managers. MEASUREMENTS Detailed handwritten field notes of interpretations and actions using the CRs and responses to interview questions were used for measurement. RESULTS Barriers present at more than one site were (1) workload during patient visits (8 of 8 sites), (2) time to document when a CR was not clinically relevant (8 of 8 sites), (3) inapplicability of the CR due to context-specific reasons (9 of 26 patients), (4) limited training on how to use the CR software for rotating staff (5 of 8 sites) and permanent staff (3 of 8 sites), (5) perceived reduction of quality of provider-patient interaction (3 of 23 permanent staff), and (6) the decision to use paper forms to enable review of resident physician orders prior to order entry (2 of 8 sites). CONCLUSION Six human factors barriers to the use of HIV CRs were identified. Reducing these barriers has the potential to increase use of the CRs and thereby improve the quality of HIV care.
Overweight and obesity among children with developmental disabilities

Abstract Background The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children with developmental disabilities attending a metropolitan Diagnosis and Assessment Service. Method A retrospective chart review was carried out for 98 children (67 male) aged 2–18 years. Data on age, sex, weight, height, and severity of intellectual disability or global developmental delay were collected from medical records. Body mass index (BMI, weight/height2) was calculated, and overweight and obesity defined using standard international criteria. Results Data indicated that 24% of the children were overweight and a further 15% were obese (i.e., a total of 40% either overweight or obese), which is significantly higher than the prevalence rate for Australian school children in the New South Wales Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (SPANS) 2004, which found that 17% were overweight (p = .05) and 6% were obese (p = .0003) (i.e., 23% either overweight or obese, p = .0001). Conclusions The prevalence of overweight and obesity is higher among children with developmental disabilities than in the general population. Community‐based studies with larger sample sizes are required to confirm this finding. The results also highlight the need to develop health care strategies for the prevention, early identification and management of excess weight gain for this group.
Send Orders of Reprints at Reprints@benthamscience.org Gh in the Central Nervous System: Lessons from the Growth Hormone Receptor Knockout Mouse

Various central nervous system (CNS) tissues express both growth hormone (GH) and its receptor (GHR), including those involved in memory and cognition. Studies show the presence of GHR in the pituitary, choroid plexus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, pituitary and the spinal cord during development and, to a lesser extent, in adults. This expression implies a role of GH signaling in growth, development and functionality of the CNS. While data on the function of GH in the CNS is sparse, several studies have been conducted using the GHR knockout (-/-) mouse in order to better understand this role. Abnormal growth hormone signaling in humans is the cause of various diseases that include Laron syndrome, GH deficiency and acromegaly. This article will review the research conducted using the GHR-/-mouse on the role of GH signaling in the CNS. Where possible, we will attempt to contextualize the animal data with respect to human disease.
Genome-wide analysis of mRNA targets for Caenorhabditis elegans FBF, a conserved stem cell regulator

Stem cells are essential for tissue generation during the development of multicellular creatures, and for tissue homeostasis in adults. The great therapeutic promise of stem cells makes understanding their regulation a high priority. PUF RNA-binding proteins have a conserved role in promoting self-renewal of germline stem cells. Here we use a genome-wide approach to identify putative target mRNAs for the Caenorhabditis elegans PUF protein known as FBF. We find that putative FBF targets represent ∼7% of all protein-coding genes in C. elegans, implicating FBF as a broad-spectrum gene regulator. These putative FBF targets are enriched for regulators of meiotic entry and other components of the meiotic program as well as regulators of key developmental pathways. We suggest that these targets may be critical for FBF’s role in stem cell maintenance. Comparison of likely FBF target mRNAs with putative PUF target mRNAs from Drosophila and humans reveals 40 shared targets, including several established stem cell regulators. We speculate that shared PUF targets represent part of a broadly used module of stem cell control.
Slowdown in branching Brownian motion with inhomogeneous variance

We consider the distribution of the maximum MT of branching Brownian motion with time-inhomogeneous variance of the form 2 (t=T ), where ( ) is a strictly decreasing function. This corresponds to the study of the time-inhomogeneous Fisher{KolmogorovPetrovskii-Piskunov (FKPP) equation Ft(x;t) = 2 (1 t=T )Fxx(x;t)=2 +g(F (x;t)), for appropriate nonlinearities g( ). Fang and Zeitouni (2012) showed that MT v T is negative of order T 1=3 , where v = R 1 0 (s)ds. In this paper, we show the existence of a function m 0 , such that MT m 0 converges in law, as T ! 1. Furthermore, m 0 = v T w T 1=3 (1) logT +O(1) with w = 2 1=3 1 R 1 0 (s) 1=3 j 0 (s)j 2=3 ds. Here,
Incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome: a comparison of two definitions

OBJECTIVES To determine the incidence and outcome of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in children by comparing two commonly used definitions: the lung injury score and the American-European Consensus Conference definition. The causes and risk for developing ARDS were also studied. METHODS Part prospective and retrospective analysis of 8100 consecutive hospital admissions from 1 June 1995 to 1 April 1997. RESULTS Twenty one patients fulfilled the criteria for ARDS. Both definitions identified the same group of patients. The incidence was 2.8/1000 hospital admissions or 4.2% of paediatric intensive care unit admissions. The main causes were sepsis and pneumonia. Mortality was 13 of 21. Factors predicting death were a high admission paediatric risk of mortality (PRISM) score (30.38 v 18.75) and the presence of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (92%v 25%). CONCLUSION Both definitions identified similar groups of patients. The incidence in this population was higher than that reported elsewhere, but mortality and cause were similar to those in developed countries. Poor outcome was associated with sepsis, a high admission PRISM score, and simultaneous occurrence of other organ dysfunction.