Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nuclear Factor κB-Dependent Neurite Remodeling Is Mediated by Notch Pathway

In this study, we evaluated whether a cross talk between nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and Notch may take place and contribute to regulate cell morphology and/or neuronal network in primary cortical neurons. We found that lack of p50, either induced acutely by inhibiting p50 nuclear translocation or genetically in p50−/− mice, results in cortical neurons characterized by reduced neurite branching, loss of varicosities, and Notch1 signaling hyperactivation. The neuronal morphological effects found in p50−/− cortical cells were reversed after treatment with the γ-secretase inhibitor DAPT (N-[N-(3,5-difluorophenacetyl)-1-alanyl 1]-S-phenylglycine t-butyl ester) or Notch RNA interference. Together, these data suggested that morphological abnormalities in p50−/− cortical neurons were dependent on Notch pathway hyperactivation, with Notch ligand Jagged1 being a major player in mediating such effect. In this line, we demonstrated that the p50 subunit acts as transcriptional repressor of Jagged1. We also found altered distribution of Notch1 and Jagged1 immunoreactivity in the cortex of p50−/− mice compared with wild-type littermates at postnatal day 1. These data suggest the relevance of future studies on the role of Notch/NF-κB cross talk in regulating cortex structural plasticity in physiological and pathological conditions.
Hyperspectral Image Classification Using Relevance Vector Machines

This letter presents a hyperspectral image classification method based on relevance vector machines (RVMs). Support vector machine (SVM)-based approaches have been recently proposed for hyperspectral image classification and have raised important interest. In this letter, it is genuinely proposed to use an RVM-based approach for the classification of hyperspectral images. It is shown that approximately the same classification accuracy is obtained using RVM-based classification, with a significantly smaller relevance vector rate and, therefore, much faster testing time, compared with SVM-based classification. This feature makes the RVM-based hyperspectral classification approach more suitable for applications that require low complexity and, possibly, real-time classification.
Modulation of Mid‐Holocene African Rainfall by Dust Aerosol Direct and Indirect Effects

Climate model simulations of the mid‐Holocene (MH) consistently underestimate northern African rainfall for reasons not fully understood. While most models incorporate orbital forcing and vegetation feedbacks, they neglect dust reductions associated with greater vegetation cover. Here we simulate the MH climate response to reduced Saharan dust using CESM CAM5‐chem, which resolves direct and indirect dust aerosol effects. Direct aerosol effects increase Saharan and Sahel convective rainfall by ~16% and 8%. In contrast, indirect aerosol effects decrease stratiform rainfall, damping the dust‐induced total rainfall increase by ~13% in the Sahara and ~59% in the Sahel. Sensitivity experiments indicate the dust‐induced precipitation anomaly in the Sahara and Sahel (0.27 and 0.18 mm/day) is smaller than the anomaly from MH vegetation cover (1.19 and 1.08 mm/day). Although sensitive to dust radiative properties, sea surface temperatures, and indirect aerosol effect parameterization, our results suggest that dust reductions had competing effects on MH African rainfall.
Production of a B cell growth-promoting activity, (DL)BCGF, from a cloned T cell line and its assay on the BCL1 B cell tumor

Culture supernatants from a long-term alloreactive T cell line, the Dennert line C.C3. 11.75 (DL) contain a B cell-growth-promoting activity. This activity can be assayed on normal B cells or on the in vivo BCL1 tumor line. We have called this activity (DL)BCGF. This activity can be distinguished from the T cell-replacing factor activity we had earlier found in DL supernates [(DL)TRF], which is required together with IL2 for the B cell plaque-forming cell response to erythrocyte antigens. The (DL)BCGF can be absorbed on untreated or glutaraldehyde-fixed BCL1. This absorption does not remove (DL)TRF activity. The production of (DL)BCGF is greatly enhanced when DL is cultured with IL2-containing supernatants. Sublines or clones of DL (DL.B10 and DL.A4) have been obtained that make large amounts of (DL)BCGF in the absence of any stimulator cells or IL2. B cells from the Xid-deficient male (DBA/2 X CBA/N)F1 mice do not respond to (DL)BCGF.
Bayesian analysis of GARCH and stochastic volatility : modeling leverage , jumps and heavy-tails for financial time series ∗

This paper develops a Bayesian model comparison for two broad major classes of varying volatility model, GARCH and stochastic volatility (SV) models on financial time series. The leverage effect, jumps and heavy-tailed errors are incorporated into the two models. For estimation, the efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are developed and the model comparisons are examined based on the marginal likelihood. The empirical analyses are illustrated using the daily return data of US stock indices, individual securities and exchange rates of UK Sterling and Japanese Yen against US Dollar. The estimation results indicate that the SV model with leverage and Student-t errors yields the best performance among the competing models on the return data.
Frizzled receptor 6 marks rare, highly tumourigenic stem-like cells in mouse and human neuroblastomas

Wnt signalling is an important component of vertebrate development, required for specification of the neural crest. Ten Wnt receptors [Frizzled receptor 1-10 (Fzd1-10)] have been identified so far, some of which are expressed in the developing nervous system and the neural crest. Here we show that expression of one such receptors, Fzd6, predicts poor survival in neuroblastoma patients and marks rare, HIF1/2 α-positive cells in tumour hypoxic areas. Fzd6 positive neuroblastoma cells form neurospheres with high efficiency, are resistant to doxorubicin killing and express high levels of mesenchymal markers such as Twist1 and Notch1. Expression of Fzd6 is required for the expression of genes of the non-canonical Wnt pathway and the spheres forming activity. When transplanted into immunodeficient mice, neuroblastoma cells expressing the Fzd6 marker grow more aggressively than their Fzd6 negative counterparts. We conclude that Fzd6 is a new surface marker of aggressive neuroblastoma cells with stem cell-like features.
Focal adhesion kinase regulates laminin‐induced oligodendroglial process outgrowth

In the central nervous system (CNS), myelination of axons occurs when oligodendrocyte progenitor cells undergo terminal differentiation, and initiate process formation and axonal ensheathment. Although Fyn, a member of the Src‐family kinases (SFKs), plays an important role in this differentiation process, the substrates of Fyn in oligodendrocytes are largely unknown. Using mass spectrometric analysis, we identified focal adhesion kinase (FAK) as a tyrosine‐phosphorylated protein in the rat‐derived CG4 oligodendrocyte cell line. Tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK was enhanced during differentiation of CG4 cells in a Fyn‐dependent manner. In addition, phosphorylation of FAK was stimulated by laminin, one of the ligands for integrin. Knockdown of FAK expression in CG4 cells suppressed process outgrowth on laminin. Rac1 and Cdc42 activities, which are required for oligodendrocyte process formation, were down‐regulated in FAK‐knockdown cells. Expression of wild‐type (WT) FAK in FAK‐knockdown CG4 cells restored outgrowth of processes, but the Y397F mutant lacking the autophosphorylation site did not. These results suggest that FAK/Fyn‐mediated activation of Rac1 and Cdc42 is critical for laminin‐induced outgrowth of oligodendrocyte processes.
KISS1 Gene Expression in the Developing Brain of Female Pigs in Pre- and Peripubertal Periods

Puberty is associated with an increase in gonadotropin secretion as a result of an increase in gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion. Kisspeptin is considered to play a key role in puberty onset in many mammalian species, including rodents, ruminants and primates. The present study aimed to determine if changes in hypothalamic expression of the KISS1 gene, encoding kisspeptin, are associated with the onset of puberty in pigs. The animals (n=4 in each group) were perfused with 4% paraformaldehyde at 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 months old, as prepubertal stages, and at 5 months old, as the peripubertal stage, following each blood sampling. KISS1 gene expressions in coronal sections of brains were visualized by in situ hybridization. Plasma luteinizing hormone (LH) was measured by radioimmunoassay. KISS1 mRNA signals were observed in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) at all ages examined without any significant difference in the number of KISS1-expressing cells, indicating that the KISS1 gene is constantly expressed in the ARC throughout pubertal development in pigs. The plasma LH concentration was the highest in 0-month-old piglets and significantly decreased in the 1- and 2 month-old groups (P<0.05), suggesting a developing negative feedback mechanism affecting gonadotropin release during the prepubertal period. Considering the potent stimulating effect of kisspeptin on gonadotropin release in prepubertal pigs, kisspeptin secretion rather than kisspeptin synthesis may be responsible for the onset of puberty in pigs.
Measuring the performance of an inter-hospital transport service

Most district general hospital (DGH) paediatricians will have referred critically ill children to a retrieval team at some point in their career. Inter-hospital transport services have developed in response to the centralisation of specialist services such as intensive care, with the aim of ensuring safe and rapid transport of sick children to tertiary centres.1–3 In many parts of the UK, retrievals are undertaken by staff despatched from the receiving intensive care unit (ICU), although dedicated regional transport teams, similar to those in North America and Australia, have also evolved recently for neonatal and paediatric transfers.4–6 Regional transport teams allow concentration of expertise and often serve as a single point of contact for immediate advice, information on an appropriate ICU bed and access to a specialist team. Clinicians, commissioners and patients justifiably expect specialist services to deliver high quality, cost-effective care. While a number of quality indicators have been proposed for intensive care,7 there is currently no consensus on how the performance of an inter-hospital transport service can be measured. This is likely to be a significant drawback in the future. Ongoing changes in the NHS such as re-organisation of children’s emergency services, implementation of the recommendations of the Darzi Next Steps Review, and proliferation of managed clinical networks are all likely to greatly increase the need for safe and efficient patient transfer between ambulatory, secondary and tertiary care settings.8–11 Payment-by-results is also likely to generate greater competition between existing NHS providers and encourage the involvement of independent sector providers in patient transport.12 The absence of agreed key performance indicators or reference values means that transport teams will be unable to measure their own performance over time and commissioners will not be able to compare services or benchmark performance, raising …
Long-term flexible 2D cepstral modeling of speech spectral amplitudes

This paper presents a method for modeling the envelope of spectral amplitude parameters of speech signals in "two dimensions" (2D). It consists of two cascaded modelings: the first one along the frequency axis is the usual cepstrum technique, which consists of modeling the log-scaled spectral envelope with a discrete cosine model (DCM). The second one, along the time axis, consists of modeling the trajectory of the envelope DCM coefficients by another similar DCM model. An iterative algorithm is proposed to optimally fit this 2D-model to the data according to a perceptual criterion based on frequency masking. This approach is shown to provide an efficient and flexible representation of spectral amplitude parameters in terms of coefficient rates, while providing good signal quality, opening new perspectives in very-low bit-rate sinusoidal speech coding.
Influence of Geographic Location in Modeling Blood Pesticide Levels in a Community Surrounding a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Site

In this study we evaluated residential location as a potential determinant for exposure to organochlorine compounds. We investigated the geographic distribution characteristics of organochlorine levels in approximately 1,374 blood samples collected in 1974 from residents of a community with a potential organochlorine source. Street addresses of Washington County, Maryland, residents were obtained and geocoded in a geographic information system. We used multivariate linear regression models to characterize the blood organochlorine levels of these residents that had been analyzed as part of previous studies using both environmental- and individual-level covariates. This was done to evaluate if the geographic distribution of blood levels in participants was related to the environmental source in the community. Model inference was based on generalized least squares to account for residual spatial variation. A significant inverse relationship was found between blood dieldrin levels and residential distance from the potential source. For every mile of distance from the source, blood dieldrin levels decreased 1.6 ng/g in study participants (p-value = 0.042), adjusting for age, sex, education level, smoking status, and drinking water source. 1,1-Dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene (DDE) levels in the blood did not change significantly based on residential distance from the source, taking the same covariates into account. However, these results are limited by the inability to account for several potential confounders. This study demonstrates that spatially distributed covariates may play an important role in individual exposure patterns. Spatial information may enable researchers to detect a potential exposure pattern that may not be revealed with only nonspatial variables.
Autophagy-Regulating microRNAs and Cancer

Macroautophagy (autophagy herein) is a cellular stress response and a survival pathway that is responsible for the degradation of long-lived proteins, protein aggregates, as well as damaged organelles in order to maintain cellular homeostasis. Consequently, abnormalities of autophagy are associated with a number of diseases, including Alzheimers’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer. According to the current view, autophagy seems to serve as a tumor suppressor in the early phases of cancer formation, yet in later phases, autophagy may support and/or facilitate tumor growth, spread, and contribute to treatment resistance. Therefore, autophagy is considered as a stage-dependent dual player in cancer. microRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous non-coding small RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression at a post-transcriptional level. miRNAs control several fundamental biological processes, and autophagy is no exception. Furthermore, accumulating data in the literature indicate that dysregulation of miRNA expression contribute to the mechanisms of cancer formation, invasion, metastasis, and affect responses to chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Therefore, considering the importance of autophagy for cancer biology, study of autophagy-regulating miRNA in cancer will allow a better understanding of malignancies and lead to the development of novel disease markers and therapeutic strategies. The potential to provide study of some of these cancer-related miRNAs were also implicated in autophagy regulation. In this review, we will focus on autophagy, miRNA, and cancer connection, and discuss its implications for cancer biology and cancer treatment.
Embodied technical progress and unemployment

In this paper we build up a canonical vintage capital model with embodied and disembodied technical progress and generalized Nash bargaining in the labor market. First, we handle both types of technical progress as exogenous, but we endogenize them after. In these setups, we comprehensively study the relations between technical progress, unemployment, and job creation and destruction in the short and long run.
The annual cost of blood transfusions in the UK

Summary. This study estimated the annual UK cost of blood transfusions in 2000/2001, updating a study we performed in 1994/1995. The analysis was based on published data, information from interviews with National Health Service (NHS) personnel and a structured questionnaire for blood donors. The annual cost of provision and transfusion of blood products increased by 256% in real terms, to £898 million in 2000/2001, whereas the number of whole‐blood donations increased by 2% to 2·8 million. The number of apheresis donations decreased by 52% to 70 000. Total blood product units issued to hospitals in 2000/2001 increased by 17% and were used in an estimated 1·7 million transfusions. The estimated NHS cost for an adult transfusion was £635 for red blood cells, £378 for fresh frozen plasma, £347 for platelets and £834 for cryoprecipitate. Blood donors incurred an annual direct cost of £8·1 million and 3·1 million hours of used leisure time. There was also an indirect cost of £7·2 million arising from lost productivity. The large increases since 1994/1995 reflect a real increase in expenditure by the blood transfusion services, partly due to the introduction of leucodepletion, greater hospital resource use due to more transfusions being undertaken and under‐recording of hospital activity in 1994/1995.
Assessment of the economic impact of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus on United States pork producers

Materials and methods: Data for the analysis was compiled from the US Department of Agriculture, a survey of swine veterinarians on the incidence and impact of PRRSV, and production records (2005 to 2010) from commercial farms with known PRRSV status. Animal-level economic impact of productivity losses and other costs attributed to PRRSV were estimated using an enterprise budgeting approach and extrapolated to the national level on the basis of the US breedingherd inventory, number of pigs marketed, and number of pigs imported for growing.
Risk Assessment for Sudden Death in Epilepsy: The SUDEP-7 Inventory

Background Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is a major cause of death in those with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). There is a need for inventories and biomarkers associated with the risk for SUDEP. Objective To explore the revised SUDEP Risk Inventory (SUDEP-7) in a cohort with DRE and determine the association with Heart Rate and other covariates. Methods Twenty-five subjects with severe DRE were enrolled in a clinical trial for epilepsy. Baseline demographics, duration of epilepsy, seizure types, seizure frequency, seizure severity, AEDs, and vital signs were collected. Heart rate variability (HRV) was calculated from 1-h recordings of ECG. A SUDEP Risk Inventory (SUDEP-7) was administered, which included seven validated and weighted risk factors initially identified by Walczak et al. as factors associated with SUDEP risk. Results The total score on the revised SUDEP-7 ranged from 1 to 7, mean = 3.4 (SD 1.8). The SUDEP Risk Inventory score was inversely correlated with RMSSD (Pearson r = −0.45, p = 0.027). The following variables were significantly associated with RMSSD: epilepsy duration (p = 0.02), age (p = 0.03), and developmental intellectual disability (p < 0.001). The correlation between RMSSD and SUDEP-7 tended to persist also after the adjustment for patient age (r = −0.40, p = 0.05). Two subjects died of SUDEP: their SUDEP-7 scores were above average and in the upper twenty-fifth and fiftieth percentiles, respectively (6 and 4, mean = 3.4). Conclusion RMSSD, a measure of low frequency HRV, was significantly associated with SUDEP Risk Inventory (SUDEP-7) scores. Using a multivariate model, the covariates of developmental intellectual disability, age, and duration of epilepsy were also significantly associated with decreased HRV. The correlation between decreased HRV and a higher SUDEP-7 score remained unchanged even after the adjustment for patient age. The results suggest that older age, greater duration of epilepsy, and the presence of developmental intellectual disability may increase the risk of SUDEP through their direct influence on decreasing the vagus nerve-mediated HRV. Further validation of the SUDEP-7 inventory is indicated. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00871377.
CG2Real: Improving the Realism of Computer Generated Images Using a Large Collection of Photographs

Computer-generated (CG) images have achieved high levels of realism. This realism, however, comes at the cost of long and expensive manual modeling, and often humans can still distinguish between CG and real images. We introduce a new data-driven approach for rendering realistic imagery that uses a large collection of photographs gathered from online repositories. Given a CG image, we retrieve a small number of real images with similar global structure. We identify corresponding regions between the CG and real images using a mean-shift cosegmentation algorithm. The user can then automatically transfer color, tone, and texture from matching regions to the CG image. Our system only uses image processing operations and does not require a 3D model of the scene, making it fast and easy to integrate into digital content creation workflows. Results of a user study show that our hybrid images appear more realistic than the originals.
Rapid detection of major enterotoxin genes and antibiotic resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from raw milk in the Yazd province, Iran

Abstract Introduction Raw milk is a nutrient‐rich food, but it may harbour harmful bacteria, such as enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), which can cause staphylococcal food poisoning. Antibiotic resistance of S. aureus in raw milk can increase the risk of such infections, particularly among susceptible individuals. Objective This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of enterotoxin genes a, d, g, i and j and the antibiotic resistance of S. aureus isolated from raw milk samples. Methods During a 6‐month sampling period, 60 raw milk specimens were obtained from diverse locations in Yazd province, Iran. Antibiogram profiling was conducted via the disc diffusion method. In addition, staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes a, d, g, i, and j were detected through real‐time PCR analysis. Results Bacteriological assays confirmed the presence of S. aureus in 11 samples (18.3%). All isolates demonstrated 100% resistance to penicillin G but exhibited sensitivity to vancomycin, while resistance to other antibiotics ranged from 36.4% to 45.5%. The prevalence of enterotoxin genes in these strains showed variable distribution, with sea being the predominant SE (45.5%), followed by sed (36.4%), seg (18.2), sej and sei (9.1% each). Conclusions This study discovered the presence of multiple enterotoxins in S. aureus strains obtained from raw milk samples. These strains also demonstrated resistance to a variety of antibiotics. Since enterotoxigenic S. aureus is known to cause human food poisoning, monitoring food hygiene practices, especially during raw milk production, is critical.