Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Human C-Reactive Protein on Pathogenesis of Features of the Metabolic Syndrome

Major controversy exists as to whether increased C-reactive protein (CRP) contributes to individual components of the metabolic syndrome or is just a secondary response to inflammatory disease processes. We measured blood pressure and metabolic phenotypes in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) in which we transgenically expressed human CRP in the liver under control of the apolipoprotein E promoter. In transgenic SHRs, serum levels of human CRP approximated the endogenous levels of CRP normally found in the rat. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures measured by telemetry were 10 to 15 mm Hg greater in transgenic SHRs expressing human CRP than in SHR controls (P<0.01). During oral glucose tolerance testing, transgenic SHRs exhibited hyperinsulinemia compared with controls (insulin area under the curve: 36±7 versus 8±2 nmol/L per 2 hours, respectively; P<0.05). Transgenic SHRs also exhibited resistance to insulin stimulated glycogenesis in skeletal muscle (174±18 versus 278±32 nmol of glucose per gram per 2 hours; P<0.05), hypertriglyceridemia (0.84±0.05 versus 0.64±0.03 mmol/L; P<0.05), reduced serum adiponectin (2.4±0.3 versus 4.3±0.6 mmol/L; P<0.05), and microalbuminuria (200±35 versus 26±5 mg of albumin per gram of creatinine, respectively; P<0.001). Transgenic SHRs had evidence of inflammation and oxidative tissue damage with increased serum levels of interleukin 6 (36.4±5.2 versus 18±1.7 pg/mL; P<0.005) and increased hepatic and renal thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (1.2±0.09 versus 0.8±0.07 and 1.5±0.1 versus 1.1±0.05 nmol/L per milligram of protein, respectively; P<0.01), suggesting that oxidative stress may be mediating adverse effects of increased human CRP. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that increased CRP is more than just a marker of inflammation and can directly promote multiple features of the metabolic syndrome.
Expansion of CMV-Mediated NKG2C+ NK Cells Associates with the Development of Specific De Novo Malignancies in Liver-Transplanted Patients

Solid cancers are a major adverse outcome of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Although the use of chronic immunosuppression is known to play a role in T cell impairment, recent insights into the specificities of NK cells led us to reassess the potential modulation of this innate immune cell compartment after transplantation. Our extensive phenotypic and functional study reveals that the development of specific de novo noncutaneous tumors post-OLT is linked to unusual NK cell subsets with maturation defects and to uncommon cytokine production associated with the development of specific cancers. Remarkably, in CMV+ patients, the development de novo head/neck or colorectal tumors is linked to an aberrant expansion of NK cells expressing NKG2C and a high level of intracellular TNF-α, which impact on their polyfunctional capacities. In contrast, NK cells from patients diagnosed with genitourinary tumors possessed a standard immature signature, including high expression of NKG2A and a robust production of IFN-γ. Taken together, our results suggest that under an immunosuppressive environment, the interplay between the modulation of NK repertoire and CMV status may greatly hamper the spectrum of immune surveillance and thus favor outgrowth and the development of specific de novo tumors after OLT.
Authentic leading as relational accountability: Facing up to the conflicting expectations of media leaders

This research is focused on understanding the ethical implications of conflicting expectations faced by leaders in the media industries. Though the “blended leadership” approach proposed by Collinson and Collinson discusses the existence of these conflicting expectations, we argue that work remains to be done on how this impacts leaders’ authenticity and accountability. Can leaders who respond to these varied demands still consider themselves authentic and accountable to a broad range of stakeholders? As our analysis of data gathered through an empirical study in Europe and the USA shows, the pursuit of profit does not always sit comfortably with the insistence on journalistic integrity, and decisiveness does not always foster openness toward experimentation. We explore the literature on authentic leadership to argue that its references to relational transparency make it difficult to deal with the “blended” nature of leadership reality. In response, we propose that relational accountability could be a more appropriate way to remain authentic despite conflicting demands.
Distributed Bayesian Posterior Sampling via Moment Sharing

We propose a distributed Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) inference algorithm for large scale Bayesian posterior simulation. We assume that the dataset is partitioned and stored across nodes of a cluster. Our procedure involves an independent MCMC posterior sampler at each node based on its local partition of the data. Moment statistics of the local posteriors are collected from each sampler and propagated across the cluster using expectation propagation message passing with low communication costs. The moment sharing scheme improves posterior estimation quality by enforcing agreement among the samplers. We demonstrate the speed and inference quality of our method with empirical studies on Bayesian logistic regression and sparse linear regression with a spike-and-slab prior.
Relationship between Metabolic Syndrome and MTHFR Polymorphism in Colorectal Cancer

Purpose There have been studies on the relations between metabolic syndrome and colorectal cancer or on the relations between methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) polymorphism and colorectal cancer, but reports on the relationship between metabolic syndrome, MTHFR polymorphism and colorectal cancer all together are rare. The aim of this study is to find the interrelation between metabolic syndrome and MTHFR polymorphism in colorectal cancer. Methods This study investigated 255 colorectal cancer patients (cancer group) who underwent surgery in our hospital from March 2003 to December 2008 and compared those patients to 488 healthy patients (control group). The diagnostic criterion for metabolic syndrome was based on the National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III), and the MTHFR 677 polymorphism was analyzed. Results When colorectal cancer patients and patients in the control group were classified as MTHFR 677 subtypes, there was no difference between the two groups: CC 87 (34.1%), CT 134 (52.6%), and TT 34 (13.3%) for the cancer group and CC 145 (32.4%), CT 238 (53.1%), and TT 65 (14.5%) for the control group. Distributions of MTHFR 677C/T genotype and allele frequencies in the individuals with and without metabolic syndrome in the cancer group showed no differences. Moreover, we could find no differences in distributions of MTHFR 677C/T genotypes in the clinical and the biomedical variables of individuals with and without metabolic syndrome in the cancer group. Conclusion Our results show no relation between metabolic syndrome and MTHFR polymorphism in colorectal cancer. However, a further prospective study, based on a precise diagnostic criterion for metabolic syndrome, is needed.
Contraction of cross-linked actomyosin bundles

Cross-linked actomyosin bundles retract when severed in vivo by laser ablation, or when isolated from the cell and micromanipulated in vitro in the presence of ATP. We identify the timescale for contraction as a viscoelastic time τ, where the viscosity is due to (internal) protein friction. We obtain an estimate of the order of magnitude of the contraction time τ ≈ 10–100 s, consistent with available experimental data for circumferential microfilament bundles and stress fibers. Our results are supported by an exactly solvable, hydrodynamic model of a retracting bundle as a cylinder of isotropic, active matter, from which the order of magnitude of the active stress is estimated.
IL‐4‐Dependent Effector Phase in Autoimmune Exocrinopathy as Defined by the NOD.IL‐4‐Gene Knockout Mouse Model of Sjögren's Syndrome

NOD mice manifest many features of autoimmune exocrinopathy (Sjögren's syndrome), a disease generally characterized by a chronic, progressive immunological attack against the exocrine tissues of the salivary and lacrimal glands. Previous studies using the NOD congenic partner strain, NOD. Igμnull, defined an important role for B lymphocytes in the development of xerostomia, implicating autoantibodies reactive with the acetylcholine muscarinic receptor (M3R) as the possible effector mechanism. In the present study, we have examined the impact of the cytokine, interleukin (IL)‐4, on autoimmune exocrinopathy by using the IL‐4 gene knockout (KO) NOD mouse strain, NOD.IL‐4−/−. Despite manifesting the physiological aberrations and marked leukocytic infiltration of the salivary glands characteristic of autoimmune xerostomia in NOD mice, the NOD.IL‐4−/− mice do not develop xerostomia. However, NOD.IL‐4−/− mice that received adoptively transferred T lymphocytes derived from NOD. Igμ−/− mice progress to xerostomia, thereby reversing the defect. While progression or lack of progression to xerostomia correlated with the ability of the NOD.IL‐4−/− mice to express detectable anti‐M3R autoantibodies, the precise mechanism of how IL‐4 influences the development of autoimmune xerostomia remains speculative.
Techniques and Methods for Testing the Postural Function in Healthy and Pathological Subjects

The different techniques and methods employed as well as the different quantitative and qualitative variables measured in order to objectify postural control are often chosen without taking into account the population studied, the objective of the postural test, and the environmental conditions. For these reasons, the aim of this review was to present and justify the different testing techniques and methods with their different quantitative and qualitative variables to make it possible to precisely evaluate each sensory, central, and motor component of the postural function according to the experiment protocol under consideration. The main practical and technological methods and techniques used in evaluating postural control were explained and justified according to the experimental protocol defined. The main postural conditions (postural stance, visual condition, balance condition, and test duration) were also analyzed. Moreover, the mechanistic exploration of the postural function often requires implementing disturbing postural conditions by using motor disturbance (mechanical disturbance), sensory stimulation (sensory manipulation), and/or cognitive disturbance (cognitive task associated with maintaining postural balance) protocols. Each type of disturbance was tackled in order to facilitate understanding of subtle postural control mechanisms and the means to explore them.
Impact Of Self-Regulated Use Of Computer-Based Social-Emotional Learning On Rural Adolescents At Risk For Alcohol Abuse

High rural dropout rates and alcohol abuse persist despite efforts to reduce them. Adolescents at risk for these problems often resist preventive services. A real world, randomized controlled trial of Ripple Effects computerized, social-emotional learning intervention examined whether a) adolescents would comply with group requirements, and options for personal use of the software intervention; and b) if they complied, it would result in positive internal and external outcomes. 107 rural 8 and 9 graders participated. The intervention was self-regulated completion of 42 multimedia tutorials over seven weeks. Sixty-three percent of treatment group students who had access to the technology were compliant. Among those who complied, 95% also opted to explore selfselected content. ANOVAs indicated these students had significantly greater gains in perception of norms and risks about alcohol, and positive trends for marijuana. They were significantly less likely to attribute outcomes to Self, an unexpected finding for “ruggedly individualistic” rural students. T-tests indicated no significant differences between groups for GPA, absenteeism or discipline referrals. School structure, technology limits, and lack of adult monitoring contributed to intervention attrition.
Pulse-like and crack-like ruptures in experiments mimicking crustal earthquakes

Theoretical studies have shown that the issue of rupture modes has important implications for fault constitutive laws, stress conditions on faults, energy partition and heat generation during earthquakes, scaling laws, and spatiotemporal complexity of fault slip. Early theoretical models treated earthquakes as crack-like ruptures, but seismic inversions indicate that earthquake ruptures may propagate in a self-healing pulse-like mode. A number of explanations for the existence of slip pulses have been proposed and continue to be vigorously debated. This study presents experimental observations of spontaneous pulse-like ruptures in a homogeneous linear-elastic setting that mimics crustal earthquakes; reveals how different rupture modes are selected based on the level of fault prestress; demonstrates that both rupture modes can transition to supershear speeds; and advocates, based on comparison with theoretical studies, the importance of velocity-weakening friction for earthquake dynamics.
Phylloplanins of Tobacco Are Defensive Proteins Deployed on Aerial Surfaces by Short Glandular Trichomes

In plants, defensive proteins secreted to leaf aerial surfaces have not previously been considered to be a strategy of pathogen resistance, and the general occurrence of leaf surface proteins is not generally recognized. We found that leaf water washes (LWW) of the experimental plant Nicotiana tabacum tobacco introduction (TI) 1068 contained highly hydrophobic, basic proteins that inhibited spore germination and leaf infection by the oomycete pathogen Peronospora tabacina. We termed these surface-localized proteins tobacco phylloplanins, and we isolated the novel gene T-Phylloplanin (for Tobacco Phylloplanin) and its promoter from N. tabacum. Escherichia coli–expressed T-phylloplanin inhibited P. tabacina spore germination and greatly reduced leaf infection. The T-phylloplanin promoter, when fused to the reporter genes β-glucuronidase and green fluorescent protein, directed biosynthesis only in apical–tip cell clusters of short, procumbent glandular trichomes. Here, we provide evidence for a protein-based surface defense system in the plant kingdom, wherein protein biosynthesis in short, procumbent glandular trichomes allows surface secretion and deposition of defensive phylloplanins on aerial surfaces as a first-point-of-contact deterrent to pathogen establishment. As yet uncharacterized surface proteins have been detected on most plant species examined.
RADIO VARIABILITY IN SEYFERT NUCLEI

Comparison of 8.4 GHz radio images of a sample of eleven, early-type Seyfert galaxies with previous observations reveals possible variation in the nuclear radio flux density in five of them over a seven year period. Four Seyferts (NGC 2110, NGC 3081, MCG −6-30-15, and NGC 5273) show a decline in their 8.4 GHz nuclear flux density between 1992 and 1999, while one (NGC 4117) shows an increase; the flux densities of the remaining six Seyferts (Mrk 607, NGC 1386, Mrk 620, NGC 3516, NGC 4968, and NGC 7465) have remained constant over this period. New images of MCG −5-23-16 are also presented. We find no correlation between radio variability and nuclear radio luminosity or Seyfert nuclear type, although the sample is small and dominated by type 2 Seyferts. Instead, a possible correlation between the presence of nuclear radio variability and the absence of hundred parsec-scale radio emission is seen, with four out of five marginally resolved or unresolved nuclei showing a change in nuclear flux density, while five out of six extended sources show no nuclear variability despite having unresolved nuclear sources. NGC 2110 is the only source in our sample with significant extended radio structure and strong nuclear variability (∼38% decline in nuclear flux density over seven years). The observed nuclear flux variability indicates significant changes are likely to have occurred in the structure of the nucleus on scales smaller than the VLA beam size (i.e., within the central ∼0.″1 (15 pc)), between the two epochs, possibly due to the appearance and fading of new components or shocks in the jet, consistent with previous detection of subparsec-scale nuclear structure in this Seyfert. Our results suggest that all Seyferts may exhibit variation in their nuclear radio flux density at 8.4 GHz, but that variability is more easily recognized in compact sources in which emission from the variable nucleus is not diluted by unresolved, constant flux density radio jet emission within the central ≲50 pc. If flares in radio light curves correspond to ejection of new relativistic components or emergence of shocks in the underlying flow, improved monitoring and high-resolution imaging using VLBI techniques are required to confirm that radio jets are intrinsically non-relativistic during quiescence but that Seyferts, as black-hole-driven active galactic nuclei (AGN), have the capacity to accelerate relativistic jets during radio flares. Finally, we conclude that our results taken together with the increased detection rate of flat spectrum radio nuclei in Seyferts imaged at VLBI resolutions and the detection of variable water megamaser emission support the paradigm of intermittent periods of quiescence and nuclear outburst across the Seyfert population.
Flame retardance of montmorillonite/rubber composites

The effect of dispersion of clay in rubber on the mechanical properties and flame retardance of rubber/montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites and rubber/MMT microcomposites were investigated in the present article, and the results were compared with the performance of silica reinforced rubber composites. Cone calorimeter test and limiting oxygen index test were employed to evaluate the flame retardance. From the results, it could be seen that the rubber/MMT nanocomposites always possessed the best flame retardance, such as lower peak heat release rate and higher fire performance index value. In addition, the rubber/MMT nanocomposites also showed better mechanical properties than the pure rubber and the other composites, especially in tear strength. With the rubber/silica composites, as expected, the silica could appropriately endow the rubber with flame retardance. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008
Bond Behavior of Reinforcement in Conventional and Self-Compacting Concrete

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) can be placed under its own weight without compaction. In addition, it is cohesive enough to be handled without segregation and bleeding. Modification in the mix design of SCC can have a significant influence on the material's mechanical properties. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether all of the assumptions about conventional concrete (CC) design structures also valid for SCC construction. Bond behavior between concrete and reinforcement is a primary factor in the design of reinforced concrete structures. This study presents a bond strength model based on the experimental results from eight recent investigations of SCC and CC. In addition, the proposed model, code provisions, and empirical equations and experimental results from recent studies on the bond strength of SCC and CC are compared. The comparison is based on the measured bond between reinforcing steel and concrete utilizing the pullout test on the embedded bars at various heights in the mock-up structural elements to assess the top-bar effect on single bars in small prismatic specimens by conducting beam tests. The investigated varying parameters on bond strength are the: steel bar diameter, concrete compressive strength, concrete type, curing age of the concrete, and height of the embedded bar along the formwork.
30.7 A 60Mb/s wideband BCC transceiver with 150pJ/b RX and 31pJ/b TX for emerging wearable applications

Wearable technology is opening the door to future wellness and mobile experience. Following the first generation wearable devices in the form of headsets, shoes and fitness monitors, second generation devices such as smart glasses and watches are making an entrance to the market with a great potential to eventually replace the current mobile device platform eventually (Fig. 30.7.1). Wearable devices can be carried by users in a most natural way and provide all-round connectivity 24-7 without the hassle of stopping all other activities, which enables a totally different mobile experience. For wearable devices, body channel communication (BCC) is an excellent alternative of conventional wireless communication through the air, to obviate the need of high-power transceivers and bulky antennas. However, present BCC transceivers [1]-[5] that mainly target biomedical and sensing applications offer rather limited data rates up to 10Mb/s, which is insufficient in transferring multimedia data for emerging wearable smart devices and content-rich information for high-end medical devices (e.g. multi-channel neural recording microsystems). In this paper, a highly energy-efficient and robust wideband BCC transceiver is presented, which achieves a maximum data rate of 60Mb/s by employing 1) a high input impedance and an equalizer at the RX front-end, 2) transient-detection RX architecture using differentiator-integrator combination coupled with injection-locking-based clock recovery, and 3) 3-level direct digital Walsh-coded signaling at the TX.
Fast approximate energy minimization via graph cuts

In this paper we address the problem of minimizing a large class of energy functions that occur in early vision. The major restriction is that the energy function's smoothness term must only involve pairs of pixels. We propose two algorithms that use graph cuts to compute a local minimum even when very large moves are allowed. The first move we consider is an /spl alpha/-/spl beta/-swap: for a pair of labels /spl alpha/,/spl beta/, this move exchanges the labels between an arbitrary set of pixels labeled a and another arbitrary set labeled /spl beta/. Our first algorithm generates a labeling such that there is no swap move that decreases the energy. The second move we consider is an /spl alpha/-expansion: for a label a, this move assigns an arbitrary set of pixels the label /spl alpha/. Our second algorithm, which requires the smoothness term to be a metric, generates a labeling such that there is no expansion move that decreases the energy. Moreover, this solution is within a known factor of the global minimum. We experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on image restoration, stereo and motion.
Discriminative Apprenticeship Learning with Both Preference and Non-preference Behavior

Considering that expert's demonstrations are usually sub optimal and failed demonstrations often have some useful guidance, in this paper, a Discriminative Apprenticeship Learning algorithm is proposed, where the apprentice is taught with the join of failed attempts to acquire the ability that could discriminate the preference and non-preference cases so that to actively take a corresponding action. Since robot usually encounters changing environments, generalization ability is taken into account in the algorithm through which the reward function is recovered under the evaluation of generalization error. The problem of the representation error is also analyzed and involved in the algorithm. To ensure performance of the algorithm, theoretical guarantee is presented. Experiments on a simple car-driving robot and the comparison with a variety of inverse reinforcement learning methods are performed, which illustrate the proposed method is an effective and promising alternative.