Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Targeting Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase (FAAH) to Treat Pain and Inflammation

The endogenous cannabinoid N-arachidonoyl ethanolamine (anandamide; AEA) produces most of its pharmacological effects by binding and activating CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors within the CNS and periphery. However, the actions of AEA are short lived because of its rapid catabolism by fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH). Indeed, FAAH knockout mice as well as animals treated with FAAH inhibitors are severely impaired in their ability to hydrolyze AEA as well as a variety of noncannabinoid lipid signaling molecules and consequently possess greatly elevated levels of these endogenous ligands. In this mini review, we describe recent research that has investigated the functional consequences of inhibiting this enzyme in a wide range of animal models of inflammatory and neuropathic pain states. FAAH-compromised animals reliably display antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory phenotypes with a similar efficacy as direct-acting cannabinoid receptor agonists, such as Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive constituent of Cannabis sativa. Importantly, FAAH blockade does not elicit any apparent psychomimetic effects associated with THC or produce reinforcing effects that are predictive of human drug abuse. The beneficial effects caused by FAAH blockade in these models are predominantly mediated through the activation of CB1 and/or CB2 receptors, though noncannabinoid mechanisms of actions can also play contributory or even primary roles. Collectively, the current body of scientific literature suggests that activating the endogenous cannabinoid system by targeting FAAH is a promising strategy to treat pain and inflammation but lacks untoward side effects typically associated with Cannabis sativa.
Load balancing in the presence of random node failure and recovery

In many distributed computing systems that are prone to either induced or spontaneous node failures, the number of available computing resources is dynamically changing in a random fashion. A load-balancing (LB) policy for such systems should therefore be robust, in terms of workload re-allocation and effectiveness in task completion, with respect to the random absence and re-emergence of nodes as well as random delays in the transfer of workloads among nodes. In this paper two LB policies for such computing environments are presented: The first policy takes an initial LB action to preemptively counteract the consequences of random failure and recovery of nodes. The second policy compensates for the occurrence of node failure dynamically by transferring loads only at the actual failure instants. A probabilistic model, based on the concept of regenerative processes, is presented to assess the overall performance of the system under these policies. Optimal performance of both policies is evaluated using analytical, experimental and simulation-based results. The interplay between node-failure/recovery rates and the mean load-transfer delay are highlighted
An immunoreactive, water-soluble conidial wall fraction of Coccidioides immitis

Arthroconidia stripped of their outer, hydrophobic wall layer release an immunoreactive, water-soluble fraction (SCWF), the composition of which is examined in this paper. The immunogenicity of SCWF was determined by its reactivity with anti-Coccidioides immitis complement-fixing antibody and tube precipitin antibody in a standardized immunodiffusion assay as well as reactivity in a lymphocyte proliferation assay. SCWF was shown to be more immunoreactive for immune lymphocytes than selected cytosol and culture supernatant fractions of C. immitis. Rabbit antisera raised against SCWF were used in immunoelectron-microscopic and immunofluorescence studies to confirm that the immunoreactive components of SCWF are primarily associated with the inner conidial wall. The antigenic composition of the conidial wall fraction was characterized by advancing-line immunoelectrophoresis with the previously established coccidioidin reference system. Protein composition was characterized by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Chromatographic fractionation of SCWF was performed on a Sephacryl S-300 preparative column. Selected fractions which showed significantly higher immunoreactivity and less complex antigenic composition than whole SCWF were characterized. Two heat-sensitive antigens of Sephacryl fraction 3a were identified. One or both of these antigens may correspond to the complement-fixing antigen, which is potentially important as an immunodiagnostic antigen. Fraction 4 contained a previously described wall-associated antigen (AgCS) which may also be of immunodiagnostic value. We conclude that the conidial envelope is a reservoir of immunoreactive macromolecules which may play significant roles in early stages of infection.
Mean Field Variational Approximation for Continuous-Time Bayesian Networks

Continuous-time Bayesian networks is a natural structured representation language for multi-component stochastic processes that evolve continuously over time. Despite the compact representation provided by this language, inference in such models is intractable even in relatively simple structured networks. We introduce a mean field variational approximation in which we use a product of inhomogeneous Markov processes to approximate a joint distribution over trajectories. This variational approach leads to a globally consistent distribution, which can be efficiently queried. Additionally, it provides a lower bound on the probability of observations, thus making it attractive for learning tasks. Here we describe the theoretical foundations for the approximation, an efficient implementation that exploits the wide range of highly optimized ordinary differential equations (ODE) solvers, experimentally explore characterizations of processes for which this approximation is suitable, and show applications to a large-scale real-world inference problem.
Precision of the Dpp gradient

Morphogen concentration gradients provide positional information by activating target genes in a concentration-dependent manner. Recent reports show that the gradient of the syncytial morphogen Bicoid seems to provide precise positional information to determine target gene domains. For secreted morphogenetic ligands, the precision of the gradients, the signal transduction and the reliability of target gene expression domains have not been studied. Here we investigate these issues for the TGF-β-type morphogen Dpp. We first studied theoretically how cell-to-cell variability in the source, the target tissue, or both, contribute to the variations of the gradient. Fluctuations in the source and target generate a local maximum of precision at a finite distance to the source. We then determined experimentally in the wing epithelium: (1) the precision of the Dpp concentration gradient; (2) the precision of the Dpp signaling activity profile; and (3) the precision of activation of the Dpp target gene spalt. As captured by our theoretical description, the Dpp gradient provides positional information with a maximal precision a few cells away from the source. This maximal precision corresponds to a positional uncertainly of about a single cell diameter. The precision of the Dpp gradient accounts for the precision of the spalt expression range, implying that Dpp can act as a morphogen to coarsely determine the expression pattern of target genes.
A Rare Genetic Disorder in Juvenile Diabetes : Wolfram Syndrome − Case Report

Wolfram syndrome is a hereditary autosomal recessive disease with an estimated prevalence of 1/550,000 in children. The mutations of the Wolfram syndrome 1 gene, which encodes Wolframin are responsible for the majority of cases of Wolfram syndrome. In this case report, a 16-year-old young man with a medical history of diabetes mellitus and bilateral blindness secondary to optic atrophy presented with severe hyperglycaemia without ketoacidosis. Polyuria secondary to partial neurologic diabetes insipidus, primary hypogonadism and bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were also identified. The genetic diagnosis of Wolfram syndrome was ultimately confirmed through genetic studies of patient and his mother. With the knowledge of Wolfram syndrome being a rare genetic disorder causing juvenile nonautoimmune diabetes, the early diagnosis is imperative to provide proper early managements. With genetic analysis of patient with suspected features, the early diagnosis becomes an achievable reality.
Urinary p-cresol is elevated in small children with severe autism spectrum disorder

Several studies have described in autistic patients an overgrowth of unusual gut bacterial strains, able to push the fermentation of tyrosine up to the formation of p-cresol. We compared levels of urinary p-cresol, measured by high-performance liquid chromatography–ultraviolet, in 59 matched case-control pairs. Urinary p-cresol was significantly elevated in autistic children smaller than 8 years of age (p < 0.01), typically females (p < 0.05), and more severely affected regardless of sex (p < 0.05). Urinary cotinine measurements excluded smoking-related hydrocarbon contaminations as contributors to these differences. Hence, elevated urinary p-cresol may serve as a biomarker of autism liability in small children, especially females and more severely affected males.
Mapping of sexual and seasonal differences in Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) behaviour using GPS in southern Norway.

In mammals monogamy is often characterized in mammals by reduced sexual dimorphism. Beavers, being a monogamous species are hard to observe, due to their nocturnal and semiaquatic nature. In this study I used GPS technology to determine territory size and overlap of the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber). I tested the hypothesis that beavers present no sexual, behavioural dimorphism by measuring activity patterns and territory size. I also predict that there are some differences in behaviour between spring and autumn. Whilst in addition investigating the usefulness of GPS technology in this environment. 27 dominant, territory holding Eurasian beavers, 11 females and 16 males, were fitted with GPS transmitters from 2009-2014. I analysed territory size, territory overlap and activity start and stop times. GPS tags were deployed for an average of 13.1 ± 4.3 days with a fix rate of 15 minutes and territory size was calculated using 95% and 50% Kernel density estimator. My analyses show that beavers do not display behavioural sexual dimorphism. I found significant differences in territory overlap between spring and autumn, with a total overlap of 2.1% ± 2.1% in spring and 12.0% ± 8.0% in autumn. There were no seasonal differences in the time the beavers emerged from the lodge. However there was a significant difference of the return time. In spring they returned on average at 06:05 ± 00:44 whereas in the autumn beavers returned to the lodge at 06:44 ± 00:44. These results suggest that beavers do not present sexual dimorphism. In addition my study shows that GPS technology helps us in defining territories and movement patterns with high precision and reducing tracking efforts and costs for researchers.
Systemic Immunotherapy for Urothelial Cancer: Current Trends and Future Directions

Urothelial cancer of the bladder, renal pelvis, ureter, and other urinary organs is the fifth most common cancer in the United States, and systemic platinum-based chemotherapy remains the standard of care for first-line treatment of advanced/metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC). Until recently, there were very limited options for patients who are refractory to chemotherapy, or do not tolerate chemotherapy due to toxicities and overall outcomes have remained very poor. While the role of immunotherapy was first established in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer in the 1970s, no systemic immunotherapy was approved for advanced disease until the recent approval of a programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) inhibitor, atezolizumab, in patients with advanced/metastatic UC who have progressed on platinum-containing regimens. This represents a significant milestone in this disease after a void of over 30 years. In addition to atezolizumab, a variety of checkpoint inhibitors have shown a significant activity in advanced/metastatic urothelial carcinoma and are expected to gain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in the near future. The introduction of novel immunotherapy agents has led to rapid changes in the field of urothelial carcinoma. Numerous checkpoint inhibitors are being tested alone or in combination in the first and subsequent-line therapies of metastatic disease, as well as neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings. They are also being studied in combination with radiation therapy and for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer refractory to BCG. Furthermore, immunotherapy is being utilized for those ineligible for first-line platinum-based chemotherapy. This review outlines the novel immunotherapy agents which have either been approved, or are currently being investigated in clinical trials in UC.
Development of a semiconductor switch for high power copper vapor lasers

A semiconductor switch utilizing 2.5 kV, 1 kA flat packaged IGBTs, twenty pieces connected in series and two in parallel, was developed for high power copper vapor laser (CVL) excitation. Its voltage and current ratings are 31 kV and 2600 A, respectively. Since the flat packaged IGBT has no internal wiring, it is considered inherently suitable for the applications under high di/dt condition. Moreover, a low inductance coaxial construction was adopted, and an ultra short pulse of 300 ns was achieved. Furthermore, from the experimental results with an actual CVL amplifier, it is confirmed that the semiconductor switch has sufficient performance as the main switch of the pulsed power supply of the high power CVL.
Hybrid Geographic Routing for Flexible Energy—Delay Tradeoff

Several geographic (or position-based) routing protocols have been proposed for data dissemination in wireless sensor networks. In these protocols, routing is based on the positions of neighboring nodes. In particular, the next-hop node is selected according to either a distance-based strategy, which favors a neighbor with the largest distance progress toward the sink, or a direction-based strategy, which favors a neighbor with the lowest angle deviation toward the sink. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid geographic routing (HGR) scheme that combines both distance- and direction-based strategies in a flexible manner. To further facilitate a tradeoff between energy consumption and end-to-end delay, we propose two dynamic HGR (DHGR) mechanisms based on the basic HGR scheme, which are designed to satisfy constraints on the average end-to-end delay of specific applications while minimizing energy consumption. Packet-delivery decisions are locally made, and the state at a node is independent of the number of nodes in the network; thus, DHGR has the inherent scaling property of geographic routing. The effectiveness of the proposed schemes is evaluated by analysis and extensive simulations.
How effective are brief interventions in reducing alcohol consumption: do the setting, practitioner group and content matter? Findings from a systematic review and metaregression analysis

Background While the efficacy and effectiveness of brief interventions for alcohol (ABI) have been demonstrated in primary care, there is weaker evidence in other settings and reviews do not consider differences in content. We conducted a systematic review to measure the effect of ABIs on alcohol consumption and how it differs by the setting, practitioner group and content of intervention. Methods We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO; CINAHL, Social Science Citation Index, Cochrane Library and Global Health up to January 2015 for randomised controlled trials that measured effectiveness of ABIs on alcohol consumption. We grouped outcomes into measures of quantity and frequency indices. We used multilevel meta-analysis to estimate pooled effect sizes and tested for the effect of moderators through a multiparameter Wald test. Stratified analysis of a subset of quantity and frequency outcomes was conducted as a sensitivity check. Results 52 trials were included contributing data on 29 891 individuals. ABIs reduced the quantity of alcohol consumed by 0.15 SDs. While neither the setting nor content appeared to significantly moderate intervention effectiveness, the provider did in some analyses. Interventions delivered by nurses had the most effect in reducing quantity (d=−0.23, 95% CI (−0.33 to −0.13)) but not frequency of alcohol consumption. All content groups had statistically significant mean effects, brief advice was the most effective in reducing quantity consumed (d=−0.20, 95% CI (−0.30 to −0.09)). Effects were maintained in the stratified sensitivity analysis at the first and last assessment time. Conclusions ABIs play a small but significant role in reducing alcohol consumption. Findings show the positive role of nurses in delivering interventions. The lack of evidence on the impact of content of intervention reinforces advice that services should select the ABI tool that best suits their needs.
Search and learning for the linear ordering problem with an application to machine translation

This dissertation is about ordering. The problem of arranging a set of n items in a desired order is quite common, as well as fundamental to computer science. Sorting is one instance, as is the Traveling Salesman Problem. Each problem instance can be thought of as optimization of a function that applies to the set of permutations. The dissertation treats word reordering for machine translation as another instance of a combinatorial optimization problem. The approach introduced is to combine three different functions of permutations. The first function is based on finite-state automata, the second is an instance of the Linear Ordering Problem, and the third is an entirely new permutation problem related to the LOP. The Linear Ordering Problem has the most attractive computational properties of the three, all of which are NP-hard optimization problems. The dissertation expends significant effort developing neighborhoods for local search on the LOP, and uses grammars and other tools from natural language parsing to introduce several new results, including a state-of-the-art local search procedure. Combinatorial optimization problems such as the TSP or the LOP are usually given the function over permutations. In the machine translation setting, the weights are not given, only words. The dissertation applies machine learning techniques to derive a LOP from each given sentence using a corpus of sentences and their translations for training. It proposes a set of features for such learning and argues their propriety for translation based on an analogy to dependency parsing. It adapts a number of parameter optimization procedures to the novel setting of the LOP. The signature result of the thesis is the application of a machine learned set of linear ordering problems to machine translation. Using reorderings found by search as a preprocessing step significantly improves translation of German to English, and significantly more than the lexicalized reordering model that is the default of the translation system. In addition, the dissertation provides a number of new theoretical results, and lays out an ambitious program for potential future research. Both the reordering model and the optimization techniques have broad applicability, and the availability of machine learning makes even new problems without obvious structure approachable.
RetroSeq: transposable element discovery from next-generation sequencing data

UNLABELLED A significant proportion of eukaryote genomes consist of transposable element (TE)-derived sequence. These elements are known to have the capacity to modulate gene function and genome evolution. We have developed RetroSeq for detecting non-reference TE insertions from Illumina paired-end whole-genome sequencing data. We evaluate RetroSeq on a human trio from the 1000 Genomes Project, showing that it produces highly accurate TE calls. AVAILABILTY RetroSeq is open-source and available from https://github.com/tk2/RetroSeq.
Exposure to Solar Ultra Violet among Taxi Drivers in Damghan Area in 2016: A Cross-Sectional Study

Ultraviolet emission from sun considered as a hazardous parts of optical waves. This study aimed at determining exposure to ultraviolet radiation among taxi drivers in Damghan. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a sample of taxi drivers. Individual exposure to solar ultraviolet-A was assessed during day light working hours. Exposure was determined on the basis of radiation intensity and biologically cumulated standard erythema dose. Our findings showed that exposure was varied in terms of time and geographical sites. The exposure intensity ranged from 0.01 to 15.36W/m2 and from 1.42 to 28.7W/m2 inside and outside the vehicles, respectively. Drivers had the highest exposure from June till August (17.54W/m2). Results showed lower exposure in April, May, and September (12.34W/m2). Cumulative exposure based on erythema dose showed the highest value (41.0 SED) inside vehicle at 9-10 am intervals. Taxi drivers are exposed to significant ultraviolet radiation. Geographical situation and time caused variations in exposure. Future studies should focus on the health effects so that determine the risk of exposure more accurately.
ViNEYard: Virtual Network Embedding Algorithms With Coordinated Node and Link Mapping

Network virtualization allows multiple heterogeneous virtual networks (VNs) to coexist on a shared infrastructure. Efficient mapping of virtual nodes and virtual links of a VN request onto substrate network resources, also known as the VN embedding problem, is the first step toward enabling such multiplicity. Since this problem is known to be NP-hard, previous research focused on designing heuristic-based algorithms that had clear separation between the node mapping and the link mapping phases. In this paper, we present ViNEYard-a collection of VN embedding algorithms that leverage better coordination between the two phases. We formulate the VN embedding problem as a mixed integer program through substrate network augmentation. We then relax the integer constraints to obtain a linear program and devise two online VN embedding algorithms D-ViNE and R-ViNE using deterministic and randomized rounding techniques, respectively. We also present a generalized window-based VN embedding algorithm (WiNE) to evaluate the effect of lookahead on VN embedding. Our simulation experiments on a large mix of VN requests show that the proposed algorithms increase the acceptance ratio and the revenue while decreasing the cost incurred by the substrate network in the long run.