Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cytotoxic Aaptamines from Malaysian Aaptos aaptos

In a preliminary screen, Aaptos aaptos showed significant cytotoxic activity towards a panel of cell lines and was thus subjected to bioassay-guided isolation of the bioactive constituents. In addition to the known aaptamine, two new derivatives of the alkaloid were isolated from the bioactive chloroform fraction of the crude methanolic extract. Detailed analysis by NMR and mass spectroscopy enabled their identification to be 3-(phenethylamino)demethyl(oxy)aaptamine and 3-(isopentylamino)demethyl(oxy) aaptamine. The cytotoxic activities of the three alkaloids were further evaluated against CEM-SS cells.
Immunogenicity, immunologic memory, and safety following measles revaccination in HIV-infected children receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy.

BACKGROUND Response rates and immunologic memory following measles vaccination are reduced in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children in the absence of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). METHODS HIV-infected children 2 to <19 years old receiving HAART and with HIV loads <30,000 copies/mL, CD4% ≥15, and ≥1 prior measles-mumps-rubella vaccination (MMR) were given another MMR. Measles antibody concentrations before and 8, 32, and 80 weeks postvaccination were determined by plaque reduction neutralization (PRN). A subset was given another MMR 4-5 years later, and PRN antibody was measured before and 7 and 28 days later. RESULTS At entry, 52% of 193 subjects were seroprotected (PRN ≥120 mIU/mL). Seroprotection increased to 89% 8 weeks postvaccination, and remained at 80% 80 weeks postvaccination. Of 65 subjects revaccinated 4-5 years later, 85% demonstrated memory based on seroprotection before or 7 days after vaccination. HIV load ≤400 copies/mL at initial study vaccination was associated with higher seroprotection rates, greater antibody concentrations, and memory. Grade 3 fever or fatigue occurred in 2% of subjects. CONCLUSIONS Measles revaccination induced high rates of seroprotection and memory in children receiving HAART. Both endpoints were associated with HIV viral load suppression. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION NCT00013871 (www.clinicaltrials.gov).
Signed consensus problems on networks of agents with fixed and switching topologies

ABSTRACTThis paper deals with signed consensus problems for networks of agents in the presence of both fixed and switching topologies. By specifying signs for the agents, they are divided into two groups and are enabled to reach agreement on a consensus value which is the same in modulus for both groups but not in sign. Using nearest-neighbour interaction rules, we propose the distributed protocols and address their exponential convergence problem. It is shown that the quasi-strong connectivity of fixed networks or joint quasi-strong connectivity of switching networks can provide a necessary and sufficient guarantee for all agents to achieve signed consensus exponentially fast. In particular, the signed consensus results can include as special cases those of bipartite consensus in signed networks with fixed and switching topologies. Numerical simulations are also provided to illustrate the exponential convergence performance of the proposed signed consensus protocols.
Testing a Multidimensional Nonveridical Aircraft Collision Avoidance System

Objective: This study explores operators' ability to use a multidimensional, nonveridical control display. Background: Veridical displays represent realistic scenes. State space displays represent nonveridical n-dimensional information based on informative coordinate axes plus variable features such as color and shading. Empirical investigation of state space displays is relatively new to human factors research. Method: Twelve licensed general aviation pilots flew flight scenarios, trying to deviate as little as possible from a preassigned course while still maintaining standard en route separation from traffic. Flight performance using only a veridical cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) was compared with performance using the CDTI augmented by a 4-D nonveridical state space collision avoidance system (CDTI+4CAS). Results: Using moderate traffic density and complex traffic geometry, the CDTI+4CAS condition showed performance superiority over the baseline CDTI-only condition for five of five dependent measures of maneuver efficiency, four of four measures of maneuver safety, and six of nine measures of user workload. Conclusion: Results suggest that nonveridical information display may enhance operator performance on a control task involving simultaneous processing of multidimensional information. Application: Nonveridical information displays have potential application wherever human control of multidimensional processes is involved.
Comparative effectiveness of a fixed-dose combination of losartan + HCTZ versus bisoprolol + HCTZ in patients with moderate-to-severe hypertension: results of the 6-month ELIZA trial

Background The aim of this study was to compare the antihypertensive efficacy of losartan 100 mg + hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) 25 mg versus bisoprolol 10 mg + HCTZ 25 mg and their influence on arterial stiffness and central blood pressure (BP). Methods Of 60 patients with a mean BP of 173.3 ± 1.7/98.4 ± 1.2 mmHg, 59 were random-ized to losartan + HCTZ (n = 32) or bisoprolol + HCTZ (n = 27). Amlodipine was added if target BP was not achieved at 1 month, and doxazosin was added if target BP was not achieved after 3 months. Body mass index, office and 24-hour ambulatory BP, pulse wave velocity (carotid-femoral [PWVE] and radial [PWVM]), noninvasive central systolic BP, augmentation index (AIx), laboratory investigations, and electrocardiography were done at baseline and after 6 months of treatment. Results Losartan + HCTZ was as effective as bisoprolol + HCTZ, with target office BP achieved in 96.9% and 92.6% of patients and target 24-hour BP in 75% and 66.7% of patients, respectively, after 6 months. Effective treatment of BP led to significant lowering of central systolic BP, but this was decreased to a significantly (P < 0.05) greater extent by losartan + HCTZ (−23.0 ± 2.3 mmHg) than by bisoprolol + HCTZ (−15.4 ± 2.9 mmHg) despite equal lowering of brachial BP. Factors correlated with central systolic BP and its lowering differed between the treatment groups. Losartan + HCTZ did not alter arterial stiffness patterns significantly, but bisoprolol + HCTZ significantly increased AIx. We noted differences in ΔPWVE, ΔPWVM, and ΔAIx between the groups in favor of losartan + HCTZ. Decreased heart rate was associated with higher central systolic BP and AIx in the bisoprolol + HCTZ group, but was not associated with increased AIx in the losartan + HCTZ group. Conclusion Although both treatments decreased both office and 24-hour BP, losartan + HCTZ significantly decreased central systolic BP and had a more positive influence on pulse wave velocity, with a less negative effect of decreased heart rate on AIx and central systolic BP.
Facial Expression Biometrics Using Statistical Shape Models

This paper describes a novel method for representing different facial expressions based on the shape space vector (SSV) of the statistical shape model (SSM) built from 3D facial data. The method relies only on the 3D shape, with texture information not being used in any part of the algorithm, that makes it inherently invariant to changes in the background, illumination, and to some extent viewing angle variations. To evaluate the proposed method, two comprehensive 3D facial data sets have been used for the testing. The experimental results show that the SSV not only controls the shape variations but also captures the expressive characteristic of the faces and can be used as a significant feature for facial expression recognition. Finally the paper suggests improvements of the SSV discriminatory characteristics by using 3D facial sequences rather than 3D stills.
On elliptic curves with an isogeny of degree 7

ON ELLIPTIC CURVES WITH AN ISOGENY OF DEGREE 7 arXiv:1007.4617v3 [math.NT] 16 Oct 2012 R. GREENBERG, K. RUBIN, A. SILVERBERG, AND M. STOLL Abstract. We show that if E is an elliptic curve over Q with a Q-rational isogeny of degree 7, then the image of the 7-adic Galois representation attached to E is as large as allowed by the isogeny, except for the curves with complex multiplication by Q( −7). The analogous result with 7 replaced by a prime p > 7 was proved by the first author in [8]. The present case p = 7 has additional interesting complications. We show that any exceptions correspond to the rational points on a certain curve of genus 12. We then use the method of Chabauty to show that the exceptions are exactly the curves with complex multiplication. As a by-product of one of the key steps in our proof, we determine exactly when there exist elliptic curves over an arbitrary field k of characteristic not 7 with a k-rational isogeny of degree 7 and a specified Galois action on the kernel of the isogeny, and we give a parametric description of such curves. 1. Introduction Suppose that E is an elliptic curve defined over Q, p is a rational prime, T p (E) is the p-adic Tate module of E, and G Q = Gal( Q/Q). Then there is a natural homomorphism ρ E,p : G Q −→ Aut Z p (T p (E)) giving the action of G Q on T p (E). Since T p (E) is a free Z p -module of rank 2, Aut Z p (T p (E)) can be identified (non-canonically) with GL 2 (Z p ). Serre [20] showed that if E does not have complex multiplication (CM), then ρ E,p (G Q ) has finite index in Aut(T p (E)), and ρ E,p is surjective for all but finitely many primes p. Suppose now that E has an isogeny of degree p that is defined over Q (in other words, E has a Q-rational p-isogeny). Mazur [15] showed that p is then in the finite set {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 37, 43, 67, 163}, and if further E is non-CM, then p ∈ {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 37}. The kernel of the isogeny is a Q-rational subgroup ¯ of order p. Since Aut(Ψ) ∼ Ψ of E( Q) = F × p , the action of G Q on Ψ is given by a homomorphism ψ : G Q → F p . We refer to ψ as the character of the isogeny. The isogeny and the corresponding character ψ put an obvious constraint on the image of the map ρ E,p . In particular, ρ E,p cannot be surjective. If E has complex multiplication, then the additional endomorphisms of E put another constraint on the image of ρ E,p . In that case, ρ E,p (G Q ) is a p-adic Lie group of dimension 2. We wish to understand whether these are the only constraints, or equivalently, whether there are any non-CM elliptic curves over Q for which ρ E,p (G Q ) does not contain 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 11G05 (primary), 11D45, 11F80, 11G18, 11G30, 14G05 (secondary). Key words and phrases. elliptic curves, isogeny, explicit families, Galois representations, method of Chabauty. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants DMS-0200785, DMS-0757807, and CNS-0831004.
Enhanced activity of murine peritoneal cells after aclacinomycin injection: characteristics of the enhanced respiratory burst.

After the i.p. injection into normal mice, of 4 mg/kg of aclacinomycin (ACM), a dose which prolongs the survival of tumor-bearing mice, the zymosan-elicited chemoluminescence (CL) of the peritoneal cells (PC) is greater than that of control cells. The volume in which the drug is administered plays an important role in the intensity of the response. ACM also stimulated the CL of PC from tumor-bearing mice. It is known that CL can also be elicited by soluble stimuli such as 4 beta-phorbol-12-myristate-13 alpha-acetate or Ca2+ ionophore A 23187, which, however, act in different ways. The response of ACM cells to these stimuli is also greater than in control cells. The enhanced CL of ACM-treated cells can be inhibited by incubating in vitro the zymosan-triggered PC with superoxide dismutase (300 units/ml) and catalase (2750 units/ml), but not with ethanol (20 microM) or potassium cyanide (100 microM). This indicates the participation of O2- and H2O2 in the CL of ACM-treated cells, whereas mitochondrial respiration does not appear to be involved. Furthermore, the following facts suggest the participation of arachidonic acid metabolism in the control of CL: (a) the in vitro addition of nordihydroguaiaretic acid (7 x 10(-6) M) and indomethacin (10(-3) M) inhibits the CL, while indomethacin (10(-6) M) has the opposite effect; (b) the PC from normal or ACM-treated mice when stimulated with zymosan secrete high amounts of prostaglandin (PG); (c) treated cells secrete the same amounts of PGE2 and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha but the secretion of PGF2 alpha and particularly of thromboxane B2 is greater in treated cells than in control cells and indomethacin (10(-6) M) strongly inhibits PG secretion in all groups; (d) in vitro addition of PGE2 at a concentration of 10(-6) M has an inhibitory effect on the CL emission of control and of treated cells, but it does not have this effect at lower concentrations (10(-8) M). These data suggest that the lipoxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid metabolism may be involved in the triggering of CL of ACM-treated cells, as well as that of normal cells, whereas products of the cyclooxygenase pathway may act as feedback inhibitors.
Host defense function of the airway epithelium in health and disease: clinical background

Respiratory infection is extremely common and a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The airway epithelium has an important role in host defense against infection and this is illustrated in this review by considering infection by respiratory viruses. In patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory viruses are a common trigger of exacerbations. Rhinoviruses (RV) are the most common virus type detected. Knowledge of the immunopathogenesis of such RV‐induced exacerbations remains limited, but information is available from in vitro and from in vivo studies, especially of experimental infection in human volunteers. RV infects and replicates within epithelial cells (EC) of the lower respiratory tract. EC are an important component of the innate‐immune response to RV infection. The interaction between virus and the intracellular signaling pathways of the host cell results in activation of potentially antiviral mechanisms, including type 1 interferons and nitric oxide, and in the producton of cytokines and chemokines [interleukin (IL)‐1β, IL‐6, IL‐8, IL‐11, IL‐16, tumor necrosis factor α, granulocyte macrophage‐colony stimulating factor, growth‐regulated oncogene‐α, epithelial neutrophil‐activating protein‐78, regulated on activation, normal T expressed and secreted, eotaxin 1/2, macrophage‐inflammatory protein‐1α], which influence the subsequent induced innate‐ and specific‐immune response. Although this is beneficial in facilitating clearance of virus from the respiratory tract, the generation of proinflammatory mediators and the recruitment of inflammatory cells result in a degree of immunopathology and may amplify pre‐existing airway inflammation. Further research will be necessary to determine whether modification of EC responses to respiratory virus infection will be of therapeutic benefit.
The Relative Influence of Competition and Prey Defenses on the Phenotypic Structure of Insectivorous Bat Ensembles in Southern Africa

Deterministic filters such as competition and prey defences should have a strong influence on the community structure of animals such as insectivorous bats that have life histories characterized by low fecundity, low predation risk, long life expectancy, and stable populations. We investigated the relative influence of these two deterministic filters on the phenotypic structure of insectivorous bat ensembles in southern Africa. We used null models to simulate the random phenotypic patterns expected in the absence of competition or prey defences and analysed the deviations of the observed phenotypic pattern from these expected random patterns. The phenotypic structure at local scales exhibited non-random patterns consistent with both competition and prey defense hypotheses. There was evidence that competition influenced body size distribution across ensembles. Competition also influenced wing and echolocation patterns in ensembles and in functional foraging groups with high species richness or abundance. At the same time, prey defense filters influenced echolocation patterns in two species-poor ensembles. Non-random patterns remained evident even after we removed the influence of body size from wing morphology and echolocation parameters taking phylogeny into account. However, abiotic filters such as geographic distribution ranges of small and large-bodied species, extinction risk, and the physics of flight and sound probably also interacted with biotic filters at local and/or regional scales to influence the community structure of sympatric bats in southern Africa. Future studies should investigate alternative parameters that define bat community structure such as diet and abundance to better determine the influence of competition and prey defences on the structure of insectivorous bat ensembles in southern Africa.
Canine Cutaneous Mast Cell Tumor: Biologic Behavior and Its Correlation with Prognostic Indicators

Cutaneous mast cell tumor (MCT) shows a variable biological behavior in dogs and may present either as solitary masse that can be treated and cured with surgical removal or as a systemic metastatic and fatal disease. Histological grade, KIT pattern and proliferative index are typically prognostic factors in MCTs. In the present study, we have investigated correlation between clinical data (breed, age, gender, tumour location, tumor size, time before surgery, number of tumours, occurrence of metastasis and recurrence), cellular proliferation (Ki-67, mitotic index), intratumoural microvessel density (IMVD) and apoptotic index with the histological grade and KIT pattern. 28 tumors, from 20 dogs with cutaneous MCT were evaluated. There was association between histological grade, IMVD, tumor ulceration and number of tumors. A significant increase of Ki-67 expression and mitotic index was observed in MCTs with cytoplasmic KIT staining pattern. Patnaik histological grade system was related to mitotic index. Histological grade in canine cutaneous MCT should not be assessed as the only prognostic factor, but associated with KIT pattern, IMDV, cellular proliferation, presence of tumour ulceration, number of tumours, recurrences and metastases.
Density-based clustering with topographic maps

A new unsupervised competitive learning rule is introduced, called the kernel-based maximum entropy learning rule (kMER), for equiprobabilistic topographic map formation. The application envisaged is density-based clustering. An empirical study is conducted to compare the clustering performance of kMER with that of a number of other unsupervised competitive learning rules.
Parallel Constraint Satisfaction in Memory-Based Decisions

Three studies sought to investigate decision strategies in memory-based decisions and to test the predictions of the parallel constraint satisfaction (PCS) model for decision making (Glöckner & Betsch, 2008). Time pressure was manipulated and the model was compared against simple heuristics (take the best and equal weight) and a weighted additive strategy. From PCS we predicted that fast intuitive decision making is based on compensatory information integration and that decision time increases and confidence decreases with increasing inconsistency in the decision task. In line with these predictions we observed a predominant usage of compensatory strategies under all time-pressure conditions and even with decision times as short as 1.7 s. For a substantial number of participants, choices and decision times were best explained by PCS, but there was also evidence for use of simple heuristics. The time-pressure manipulation did not significantly affect decision strategies. Overall, the results highlight intuitive, automatic processes in decision making and support the idea that human information-processing capabilities are less severely bounded than often assumed.
Endpoint admission control: architectural issues and performance

The traditional approach to implementing admission control, as exemplified by the Integrated Services proposal in the IETF, uses a signalling protocol to establish reservations at all routers along the path. While providing excellent quality-of-service, this approach has limited scalability because it requires routers to keep per-flow state and to process per-flow reservation messages. In an attempt to implement admission control without these scalability problems, several recent papers have proposed various forms of endpoint admission control. In these designs, the hosts (the endpoints) probe the network to detect the level of congestion; the host admits the flow only if the detected level of congestion is sufficiently low. This paper is devoted to the study of endpoint admission control. We first consider several architectural issues that guide (and constrain) the design of such systems. We then use simulations to evaluate the performance of endpoint admission control in various settings. The modest performance degradation between traditional router-based admission control and endpoint admission control suggests that a real-time service based on endpoint probing may be viable.
P-Body Components, microRNA Regulation, and Synaptic Plasticity

What is the protein apparatus required for microRNA (miRNA) function and translational repression in neurons? This article reviews our recent work on Me31B, a conserved P-body protein present on Staufen-containing neuronal and maternal ribonucleoprotein (RNP) particles, which is required for dendrite morphogenesis and miRNA function in vivo. In addition, it provides new data to show that Me31B is present on and regulates formation of P-bodies in the Drosophila wing disc, where it has a general role in the regulation of miRNA function. While illuminating the function of this important RNA regulatory molecule, it also brings into focus a hypothesis of potentially broad significance. Namely, that P-body proteins may play important roles in regulation of dendrite-localized mRNAs and, thereby, in synaptic plasticity. A wide range of protein localization and early functional data support this hypothesis. We also discuss current knowledge of RNP particles that mediate translational repression and the implications of these findings for understanding translational control in neurons.
Interest Points for Hyperspectral Image Data

Interest points are widely used as point-features for image matching. This paper describes robust and efficient algorithms to extract multiscale interest points in hyperspectral images in which structural information is distributed across several spectral bands. The formulation is based on a Gaussian scale-space representation of the hyperspectral data cube, and the use of a principal components decomposition to combine information efficiently across spectral bands. A spectral distance measure is used to characterize spatial relations between neighboring hyperspectral pixels. In addition, we describe methods for preprocessing a pair of hyperspectral images, clustering the spectral signatures of interest points, and using the resulting data for matching points under simple geometric transformations. The stability of the resulting interest points in time-lapse satellite images was determined to be in the range of 52% to 75% in the testing data set that were acquired from variety of landforms like coastal islands of La Parguera, Chesapeake Bay, the Cuprite Mining District of Nevada, and agricultural field images of Kansas and Oklahoma, and thus, they can be used as a foundation for image matching and related image analysis tasks.