Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Let’s Blog About Health! Exploring the Persuasiveness of a Personal HIV Blog Compared to an Institutional HIV Website

On HIV blogs, people living with HIV share their intimate thoughts and experiences with the world in the form of personal online diaries. While previous research investigated the reasons why patients engage in blogging activities, the effects of such diaries on nondiseased recipients are largely unexplored. Following an experimental design, this study (n = 261) tested whether a one-time exposure to a personal HIV blog has greater persuasive effects on its readers than an institutional HIV website providing the same content. Results showed that although source credibility was perceived as higher when reading the HIV website from an official institution, blog readers had more positive attitudes and a higher self-efficacy toward condom use than website readers. Implications for health message design are discussed.
Generalizing Permissive-Upgrade in Dynamic Information Flow Analysis

Preventing implicit information flows by dynamic program analysis requires coarse approximations that result in false positives, because a dynamic monitor sees only the executed trace of the program. One widely deployed method is the no-sensitive-upgrade check, which terminates a program whenever a variable's taint is upgraded (made more sensitive) due to a control dependence on tainted data. Although sound, this method is restrictive, e.g., it terminates the program even if the upgraded variable is never used subsequently. To counter this, Austin and Flanagan introduced the permissive-upgrade check, which allows a variable upgrade due to control dependence, but marks the variable "partially-leaked". The program is stopped later if it tries to use the partially-leaked variable. Permissive-upgrade handles the dead-variable assignment problem and remains sound. However, Austin and Flanagan develop permissive-upgrade only for a two-point (low-high) security lattice and indicate a generalization to pointwise products of such lattices. In this paper, we develop a non-trivial and non-obvious generalization of permissive-upgrade to arbitrary lattices. The key difficulty lies in finding a suitable notion of partial leaks that is both sound and permissive and in developing a suitable definition of memory equivalence that allows an inductive proof of soundness.
Distribution fitting 16. How many colors are actually in the field

A study to compare different methods of estimation was conducted. The goal was to provide an estimate for the number of petal colors existing in the field by using a random sample of Lycoris longituba flowers taken from the field. The study revealed that the estimation from observed sample agrees very well with third order Jackknife method of estimation.
The Effect of Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Epileptiform Activity Recorded from Hippocampal Depth Electrodes

Summary: Purpose: To assess the effect of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) on interictal epileptiform activity in the human hippocampus. Clinical studies have established the efficacy of vagus nerve stimulation in patients with epilepsy (VNS Study Group, 1995), although the electrophysiologic effects of VNS on the human hippocampus and mesial temporal lobe structures remain unknown.
Convex approximation algorithms for back-pressure power control of wireless multi-hop networks

Cross-layer design and operation of wireless networks has attracted significant interest in the last decade, yet some basic problems in the area remain unsolved. In this paper, we consider the joint routing and power control problem, and specifically how to choose transmission powers at the physical layer to maximize stable end-to-end throughput at the network layer for a multi-hop wireless network. This is the back-pressure power control (BPPC) problem. Earlier work had recognized that BPPC is a non-convex problem, and suggested relatively simple suboptimal strategies. Here we show that BPPC is NP-hard. This is a negative result, which however comes with a positive flip side: drawing from related developments in the digital subscriber line (DSL) literature, we devise effective ways to approximate it. We report substantial improvements in transport capacity relative to the earlier state of art, as illustrated in pertinent simulations.
A novel methodology for the analysis of membrane and cytosolic sub‐proteomes of erythrocytes by 2‐DE

With the aim of studying a wide cohort of erythrocyte samples in a clinical setting, we propose here a novel approach that allows the analysis of both human cytosolic and membrane sub‐proteomes. Despite their simple structure, the high content of hemoglobin present in the red blood cells (RBCs) makes their proteome analysis enormously difficult. We investigate here different strategies for isolation of the membrane and cytosolic fractions from erythrocytes and their influence on proteome profiling by 2‐DE, paying particular attention to hemoglobin removal. A simple, quick and satisfactory approach for hemoglobin depletion based on HemogloBind™ reagent was satisfactorily applied to erythrocyte cells, allowing the analysis of the cytosolic sub‐proteome by 2‐DE without major interference. For membrane proteome, a novel combined strategy based on hypotonic lysis isolation and further purification on minicolumns is described here, allowing detection of high molecular weight proteins (i.e. spectrin, ankyrin) and well‐resolved 2‐DE patterns. An aliquot of the membrane fraction was also in solution digested and analyzed by nano‐LC coupled to an LTQ‐Orbitrap mass spectrometer. A total of 188 unique proteins were identified by this approach. This study sets the basis for future clinical studies where the erythrocyte cell may be implicated.
Essential Role of Sox2 for the Establishment and Maintenance of the Germ Cell Line

Sox2 is a pluripotency‐conferring gene expressed in primordial germ cells (PGCs) and postnatal oocytes, but the role it plays during germ cell development and early embryogenesis is unknown. Since Sox2 ablation causes early embryonic lethality shortly after blastocyst implantation, we generated mice bearing Sox2‐conditional deletion in germ cells at different stages of their development through the Cre/loxP recombination system. Embryos lacking Sox2 in PGCs show a dramatic decrease of germ cell numbers at the time of their specification. At later stages, we found that Sox2 is strictly required for PGC proliferation. On the contrary, Sox2 deletion in meiotic oocytes does not impair postnatal oogenesis and early embryogenesis, indicating that it is not essential for oocyte maturation or for zygotic development. We also show that Sox2 regulates Kit expression in PGCs and binds to discrete transcriptional regulatory sequences of this gene, which is known to be important for PGCs survival and proliferation. Sox2 also stimulates the expression of Zfp148, which is required for normal development of fetal germ cells, and Rif1, a potential regulator of PGC pluripotency. STEM Cells2013;31:1408–1421
Fundamental Limits Of Delay And Security In Device-To-Device Communication

Abstract : As networks become more distributed, the bulk of the communication is being carried out between end-users or devices. The distributed nature of the communication poses novel challenges for efficient operation of such networks and requires design considerations that are fundamentally different from those of classical point-to-point communication systems. This thesis studies two such design issues, (1) delay management and (2) security, and attempts to understand the information-theoretic limits of distributed communication with regard to these issues.
Risk Factors of Hypersensitivity to Carboplatin in Patients with Gynecologic Malignancies

We evaluated the prevalence of and risk factors for hypersensitivity reactions related to carboplatin, which is commonly used to treat gynecological malignancies. All women with pathologically documented ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer treated with carboplatin alone or a carboplatin-based combination chemotherapy regimen at a single hospital between January 2006 and December 2013 were retrospectively recruited. We analyzed the incidence, characteristics, risk factors, management, and outcomes of carboplatin-related hypersensitivity reactions among these patients. Among 735 eligible women, 75 (10.2%) experienced a total of 215 carboplatin-related hypersensitivity reaction events. The annual incidence of carboplatin-related hypersensitivity reactions gradually increased from 0.88% in 2006 to 5.42% in 2013. The incidence of carboplatin-related hypersensitivity was higher in patients with advanced stage disease (P < 0.001, Kruskal-Wallis test), serous and mixed histological types (P = 0.003, Kruskal-Wallis test), malignant ascites (P = 0.009, chi-square test), and history of other drug allergy (P < 0.001, chi-square test). Compared to women without hypersensitivity reactions, women who experienced hypersensitivity reactions had a significantly greater median cycle number (12 vs. 6, P < 0.001, independent sample t-test) and dose (6,816 vs. 3,844 mg, P < 0.001, independent sample t-test). The cumulative incidence of carboplatin-related hypersensitivity reactions dramatically increased with >8 cycles or dose >3,500 mg. Therefore, disease severity, histological type, malignant ascites, past drug allergies, and cumulative carboplatin dose are risk factors for carboplatin-related hypersensitivity reactions. Such reactions could potentially be reduced or prevented by slowing the infusion rate and using a desensitization protocol involving anti-allergy medications.
Characterization of In Vitro Glucuronidation Clearance of a Range of Drugs in Human Kidney Microsomes: Comparison with Liver and Intestinal Glucuronidation and Impact of Albumin

Previous studies have shown the importance of the addition of albumin for characterization of hepatic glucuronidation in vitro; however, no reports exist on the effects of albumin on renal or intestinal microsomal glucuronidation assays. This study characterized glucuronidation clearance (CLint, UGT) in human kidney, liver, and intestinal microsomes in the presence and absence of bovine serum albumin (BSA) for seven drugs with differential UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) 1A9 and UGT2B7 specificity, namely, diclofenac, ezetimibe, gemfibrozil, mycophenolic acid, naloxone, propofol, and telmisartan. The impact of renal CLint, UGT on accuracy of in vitro-in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) of glucuronidation clearance was investigated. Inclusion of 1% BSA for acidic drugs and 2% for bases/neutral drugs in incubations was found to be suitable for characterization of CLint, UGT in different tissues. Although BSA increased CLint, UGT in all tissues, the extent was tissue- and drug-dependent. Scaled CLint, UGT in the presence of BSA ranged from 2.22 to 207, 0.439 to 24.4, and 0.292 to 23.8 ml · min−1 · g tissue−1 in liver, kidney, and intestinal microsomes. Renal CLint, UGT (per gram of tissue) was up to 2-fold higher in comparison with that for liver for UGT1A9 substrates; in contrast, CLint, UGT for UGT2B7 substrates represented approximately one-third of hepatic estimates. Scaled renal CLint, UGT (in the presence of BSA) was up to 30-fold higher than intestinal glucuronidation for the drugs investigated. Use of in vitro data obtained in the presence of BSA and inclusion of renal clearance improved the IVIVE of glucuronidation clearance, with 50% of drugs predicted within 2-fold of observed values. Characterization and consideration of kidney CLint, UGT is particularly important for UGT1A9 substrates.
Allosteric Modulation of a Chemogenetically Modified G Protein-Coupled Receptor

Designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) are chemogenetically modified muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) that have minimal responsiveness to acetylcholine (ACh) but are potently and efficaciously activated by an otherwise inert synthetic ligand, clozapine-N-oxide (CNO). DREADDs have been used as tools for selectively modulating signal transduction pathways in vitro and in vivo. Recent comprehensive studies have validated how the pharmacology of a CNO-bound DREADD mirrors that of an ACh-bound wild-type (WT) mAChR. However, nothing is known about whether this equivalence extends to the allosteric modulation of DREADDs by small molecules. To address this, we investigated the actions at an M1 DREADD of benzyl quinolone carboxylic acid (BQCA), a positive allosteric modulator of ACh binding and function that is known to behave according to a simple two-state mechanism at the WT receptor. We found that allosteric modulation of the CNO-bound DREADD receptor is not equivalent to the corresponding modulation of the ACh-bound WT receptor. We also found that BQCA engenders stimulus bias at the M1 DREADD, having differential types of cooperativity depending on the signaling pathway. Furthermore, the modulation of ACh itself by BQCA at the DREADD is not compatible with the two-state model that we previously applied to the M1 WT receptor.
Geometric study of the beta-integers for a Perron number and mathematical quasicrystals

R´´ Nousgeometriquement les ensembles de points de R obtenus par la -numeration que sont les -entiers Z Z( ) ou est un nombre de Perron. Nous montrons qu'il existe deux schemas de coupe-et-projection canoniques associesla - numeration, ou les -entiers se relevent en certains points du reseau Z m (m = degre de ) , situes autour du sous-espace propre dominant de la matrice compagnon de . Lorsque est en particulier un nombre de Pisot, nous redonnons une preuve du fait que Z est un ensemble de Meyer. Dans les espaces internes les fenetres d'acceptation canoniques sont des fractals dont l'une est le fractal de Rauzy (`a quasi-homothetie pres). Nous le montrons sur un exemple. Nous montrons que Z \R + est de type fini sur N, faisons le lien avec la classification de Lagarias des ensembles de Delaunay et donnons une borne superieure eective de l'entier q dans la relation : x,y2 Z =) x+y (respectivement x y )2 q Z lorsquex+y (respectivementx y ) a un -developpement de Renyi fini. Abstract. We investigate in a geometrical way the point sets of R obtained by the -numeration that are the -integers Z Z( ) where is a Perron number. We show that there exist two canonical cut-and-project schemes associated with the -numeration, allowing to lift up the -integers to some points of the lattice Z m (m = degree of ) lying about the dominant eigenspace of the companion matrix of . When is in par- ticular a Pisot number, this framework gives another proof of the fact that Z is a Meyer set. In the internal spaces, the canoni- cal acceptance windows are fractals and one of them is the Rauzy fractal (up to quasi-dilation). We show it on an example. We show that Z \R + is finitely generated over N and make a link with the classification of Delone sets proposed by Lagarias. Finally we give an eective upper bound for the integer
Associations among facial masculinity, physical strength, fluctuating asymmetry and attractiveness in young men and women

Abstract Background: Studies of the process of human mate selection and attractiveness have assumed that selection favours morphological features that correlate with (genetic) quality. Degree of masculinity/femininity and fluctuating asymmetry (FA) may signal (genetic) quality, but what information they harboured and how they relate to fitness is still debated. Aim: To study strength of associations between facial masculinity/femininity, facial FA, attractiveness and physical strength in humans. Subjects and methods: Two-hundred young males and females were studied by measuring facial asymmetry and masculinity on the basis of frontal photographs. Attractiveness was determined on the basis of scores given by an anonymous panel, and physical strength using hand grip strength. Results: Patterns differed markedly between males and females and analysis method used (univariate vs multivariate). Overall, no associations between FA and attractiveness, masculinity and physical strength were found. In females, but not males, masculinity and attractiveness correlated negatively and masculinity and physical strength correlated positively. Conclusion: Further research into the differences between males and females in associations between facial morphology, attractiveness and physical strength is clearly needed. The use of a multivariate approach can increase our understanding of which regions of the face harbour specific information of hormone levels and perhaps behavioural traits.
Systemic Human T Cell Developmental Processes in Humanized Mice Cotransplanted With Human Fetal Thymus/Liver Tissue and Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Background In many humanized mouse models, there are few T cells in the engrafted human cell, whereas the number of B cells is high. We attempted to overcome this limitation and investigate whether the entire process of human T cell development arose similarly to the process in humans, as previously reported. Methods To produce an advanced humanized mice model, we transplanted human fetal liver/thymus tissue subrenally and injected human CD34+ stem cells intravenously into NOD/SCID/IL2Rgamma null (NSG) mice. Results Humanized mice transplanted with fetal thymus/liver tissues and fetal liver-derived CD34+ stem cells (FLT+FLCD34) showed higher levels of human cells and T cells than mice transplanted with fetal liver-derived CD34+ stem cells only (FLCD34). In the transplanted thymus tissue of FLT+FLCD34 mice, thymus seeding progenitors (TSPs), early thymic progenitors (ETPs), pre-T cells, and all the other human T cell populations were identified. In the periphery, FLT+FLCD34 mice have high levels of CD45RA+ T cells; conversely, FLCD34 mice have higher levels of CD45RO+ T cells. The CD45RO+ T cells of FLCD34 mice proliferated rapidly after stimulation and exhibited innate T cells properties, expressing PLZF (promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein). Conclusion Human T cells educated by mouse MHC II in mice without a human thymus differ from normal human T cells. On the basis of these findings, numerous T cell-tropic human diseases could be explored in our humanized mice and molecular aspects of human T cell development could be also studied extensively.
Accessibility of a glucocorticoid response element in a nucleosome depends on its rotational positioning

Gene expression requires binding of transcription factors to their cognate DNA response elements, the latter being often integrated into sequence-specifically positioned nucleosomes. To investigate the constraints imposed on factor-DNA recognition by the nucleosomal organization, we studied the binding of glucocorticoid receptor to a single glucocorticoid response element (GRE) displaying four different rotational frames in three different translational positions in reconstituted nucleosomes. We demonstrate that rotational setting of the GRE per se is important for its accessibility. Furthermore, the effects of rotational positioning of the GRE are different for different translational positions of the GRE in the nucleosome. A GRE placed near the nucleosomal dyad is totally blocked by rotating it 180 degrees so that the major groove of the GRE faces the histone octamer. If, on the other hand, the GRE is placed about 40 bp from the nucleosome dyad, then the 180 degrees rotation of the GRE still allows glucocorticoid receptor binding, albeit with a sixfold lower affinity than the peripherally oriented GRE. This suggests that both the rotational positioning and the translational positioning function as a framework for transcription factor response elements in gene regulation.
Molecular pathways underlying cardiac remodeling during pathophysiological stimulation.

Cardiac remodeling involves molecular, cellular, and interstitial changes that manifest clinically as changes in size, shape, and function of the heart after injury or stress stimulation.1 Although the term cardiac remodeling was initially coined to describe the prominent changes that occur after myocardial infarction,2,3 it is clear that similar processes transpire after other types of injury such as with pressure overload (aortic valve stenosis, hypertension), inflammatory disease (myocarditis), idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, and volume overload (valvular regurgitation). Although the causes of these diseases are different, they share molecular, biochemical, and cellular events to collectively change the shape of the myocardium. Cardiac hypertrophy is a common type of cardiac remodeling that occurs when the heart experiences elevated workload. The heart and individual myocytes enlarge as a means of reducing ventricular wall and septal stress when faced with increased workload or injury. Cardiac hypertrophy is classified as “physiological” when it occurs in healthy individuals after exercise or pregnancy and is not associated with cardiac damage. In contrast, hypertrophy that results from pressure or volume overload or after myocardial infarction is usually referred to as “pathological. ” This name may be misleading, however, because pathological hypertrophy may also involve a compensatory and adaptive phase that tends to reduce wall stress and maintain output, although ultimately these positive aspects are lost and ventricular function declines, often leading to heart failure. In addition to ventricular remodeling, pathological cardiac hypertrophy involves cellular and molecular remodeling such as myocyte growth without significant proliferation, reexpression of fetal genes, alterations in the expression of proteins involved in excitation-contraction coupling, and changes in the energetic and metabolic state of the myocyte. These cellular and molecular changes within the myocyte are accompanied by changes in the extracellular matrix (ECM) and by myocyte death caused by necrosis or apoptosis. As …
Vision metrology with superwide-angle and fish-eye optics

Photogrammetrists have generally made use of wide or super wide angle rectilinear lenses that are designed to reproduce straight lines in the object space as straight lines in the image space. This paper investigates the use of fish-eye optics as an alternative to the conventional super wide-angle lens for vision metrology. The fish-eye design, whilst still retro-focus in construction, rejects the design constraints of rectilinear imaging in exchange for more even illumination across the image format and the expectation of reduced lens aberration effects. By means of a series of practical comparisons, this paper will investigate the target image performance and practical usage of two off-the-shelf 35 mm camera mount lenses, namely an 18 mm focal length super wide- angle rectilinear lens and a 16 mm quasi fish-eye lens. Investigations include: an image quality assessment of retro- target images of differing sizes; an analysis of the variation in retro-target image quality with lens aperture; the influence of the different lenses on the internal consistency of highly over-determined self-calibrating multi-station photogrammetric networks and; an accuracy test between networks obtained with each lens type against measurement of the same targets using an industrial theodolite system.
The dynamics of national innovation systems: a panel cointegration analysis of the coevolution between innovative capability and absorptive capacity

This paper puts forward the idea that the dynamics of national innovation systems is driven by the coevolution of two main dimensions: innovative capability and absorptive capacity. The empirical analysis employs a broad set of indicators measuring national innovative capabilities and absorptive capacity for a panel of 98 countries in the period 1980-2008, and makes use of panel cointegration analysis to investigate long-run relationships and coevolution patterns among these variables. The results indicate that the dynamics of national systems of innovation is driven by the coevolution of three innovative capability variables (technological output, scientific output, innovative input), on the one hand, and three absorptive capacity factors (income per capita, infrastructures and international trade), on the other.