Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hyaluronan-oligosaccharide-induced transcription of metalloproteases

Activated dendritic epidermal Langerhans cells and metastatic tumour cells share many properties. Both cell types can invade the surrounding tissue, enter the lymphatic system and travel to regional lymph nodes. We have recently shown that fragments of the extracellular matrix component hyaluronan, which are typically produced at sites of inflammation, can activate dendritic cells. Upon activation, dendritic cells upregulate expression of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs). These observations prompted us to investigate whether exposure to hyaluronan fragments also induces MMP expression in tumour cells. Here, we report that MMP-9, MMP-13 and urokinase plasminogen activator are upregulated in murine 3LL tumour cells after exposure to mixed-size hyaluronan. Similarly upregulated MMP-9 and MMP-13 expression was observed in primary fibroblasts. By using size-fractionated hyaluronan preparations, we show that the enhanced expression of MMP-9 and MMP-13 is only induced by small hyaluronan (HA) fragments. Although our data suggest that HA-fragment-induced MMP-9 and MMP-13 expression is receptor mediated, they rule out an involvement of the hyaluronan receptors CD44, RHAMM/IHAP and TLR-4. Finally, we show that HA fragment-induced MMP-9 transcription is mediated via NF-κB. Our results suggest that the metastasis-associated HA degradation in tumours might promote invasion by inducing MMP expression.
Age-Related Changes in 1/f Neural Electrophysiological Noise

Aging is associated with performance decrements across multiple cognitive domains. The neural noise hypothesis, a dominant view of the basis of this decline, posits that aging is accompanied by an increase in spontaneous, noisy baseline neural activity. Here we analyze data from two different groups of human subjects: intracranial electrocorticography from 15 participants over a 38 year age range (15–53 years) and scalp EEG data from healthy younger (20–30 years) and older (60–70 years) adults to test the neural noise hypothesis from a 1/f noise perspective. Many natural phenomena, including electrophysiology, are characterized by 1/f noise. The defining characteristic of 1/f is that the power of the signal frequency content decreases rapidly as a function of the frequency (f) itself. The slope of this decay, the noise exponent (χ), is often <−1 for electrophysiological data and has been shown to approach white noise (defined as χ = 0) with increasing task difficulty. We observed, in both electrophysiological datasets, that aging is associated with a flatter (more noisy) 1/f power spectral density, even at rest, and that visual cortical 1/f noise statistically mediates age-related impairments in visual working memory. These results provide electrophysiological support for the neural noise hypothesis of aging. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Understanding the neurobiological origins of age-related cognitive decline is of critical scientific, medical, and public health importance, especially considering the rapid aging of the world's population. We find, in two separate human studies, that 1/f electrophysiological noise increases with aging. In addition, we observe that this age-related 1/f noise statistically mediates age-related working memory decline. These results significantly add to this understanding and contextualize a long-standing problem in cognition by encapsulating age-related cognitive decline within a neurocomputational model of 1/f noise-induced deficits in neural communication.
Passive-Aggression: A Guide for the Therapist, the Patient and the Victim

The Passive-Aggressive Patient Making the Diagnosis Anger and Anger Styles Causes of the Anger Indirect Anger: Manifestations Developmental and Defensive Aspects of Anger Restraint Cognitive-Behavioral, Interpersonal, and Biological Aspects of Indirect Hostility Pseudopassive-Aggressives The Victims of Passive-Aggression The Pathognomonic Effect of Passive-Aggression on the Victim Pseudovictims Sadomasochism and Passive-Aggression Therapy Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Supportive-Directive Therapy Cognitive Therapy Interpersonal Therapy Transference Therapy and Countertransference Issues Treatment of Victims of Passive-Aggression Treatment of Sadomasochistic Interactions Bibliography Index
Electrochemical Modeling and Equivalent Circuit Representation of a Microphotosynthetic Power Cell

This paper discusses the electrochemical modeling of a microphotosynthetic power cell (μ-PSC) in a similar way as the conventional fuel cell model while taking into consideration the electrochemical dynamics of the chemical contents of the cell. It also presents the development of an electrical equivalent circuit that represents the operation of the fabricated cell. The developed equivalent circuit is different from previous works in which they used the equivalent circuit of an ordinary solar cell. The proposed model predicts the performance of this type of power harvesting cell. The study includes the steady-state and transient responses when the cell is connected to an external load. In particular, the focus of this paper is related to the development of an electrical representation with a computationally efficient parameter model for real-time simulation and control. The performance of this model is simulated and results are evaluated and compared with experimental data.
DNA Barcode Authentication of Wood Samples of Threatened and Commercial Timber Trees within the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest of India

Background India is rich with biodiversity, which includes a large number of endemic, rare and threatened plant species. Previous studies have used DNA barcoding to inventory species for applications in biodiversity monitoring, conservation impact assessment, monitoring of illegal trading, authentication of traded medicinal plants etc. This is the first tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEF) barcode study in the World and the first attempt to assemble a reference barcode library for the trees of India as part of a larger project initiated by this research group. Methodology/Principal Findings We sampled 429 trees representing 143 tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEF) species, which included 16 threatened species. DNA barcoding was completed using rbcL and matK markers. The tiered approach (1st tier rbcL; 2nd tier matK) correctly identified 136 out of 143 species (95%). This high level of species resolution was largely due to the fact that the tree species were taxonomically diverse in the TDEF. Ability to resolve taxonomically diverse tree species of TDEF was comparable among the best match method, the phylogenetic method, and the characteristic attribute organization system method. Conclusions We demonstrated the utility of the TDEF reference barcode library to authenticate wood samples from timber operations in the TDEF. This pilot research study will enable more comprehensive surveys of the illegal timber trade of threatened species in the TDEF. This TDEF reference barcode library also contains trees that have medicinal properties, which could be used to monitor unsustainable and indiscriminate collection of plants from the wild for their medicinal value.
Adaptive dropout for training deep neural networks

Recently, it was shown that deep neural networks can perform very well if the activities of hidden units are regularized during learning, e.g, by randomly dropping out 50% of their activities. We describe a method called 'standout' in which a binary belief network is overlaid on a neural network and is used to regularize of its hidden units by selectively setting activities to zero. This 'adaptive dropout network' can be trained jointly with the neural network by approximately computing local expectations of binary dropout variables, computing derivatives using back-propagation, and using stochastic gradient descent. Interestingly, experiments show that the learnt dropout network parameters recapitulate the neural network parameters, suggesting that a good dropout network regularizes activities according to magnitude. When evaluated on the MNIST and NORB datasets, we found that our method achieves lower classification error rates than other feature learning methods, including standard dropout, denoising auto-encoders, and restricted Boltzmann machines. For example, our method achieves 0.80% and 5.8% errors on the MNIST and NORB test sets, which is better than state-of-the-art results obtained using feature learning methods, including those that use convolutional architectures.
Placenta-specific Methylation of the Vitamin D 24-Hydroxylase Gene

Plasma concentrations of biologically active vitamin D (1,25-(OH)2D) are tightly controlled via feedback regulation of renal 1α-hydroxylase (CYP27B1; positive) and 24-hydroxylase (CYP24A1; catabolic) enzymes. In pregnancy, this regulation is uncoupled, and 1,25-(OH)2D levels are significantly elevated, suggesting a role in pregnancy progression. Epigenetic regulation of CYP27B1 and CYP24A1 has previously been described in cell and animal models, and despite emerging evidence for a critical role of epigenetics in placentation generally, little is known about the regulation of enzymes modulating vitamin D homeostasis at the fetomaternal interface. In this study, we investigated the methylation status of genes regulating vitamin D bioavailability and activity in the placenta. No methylation of the VDR (vitamin D receptor) and CYP27B1 genes was found in any placental tissues. In contrast, the CYP24A1 gene is methylated in human placenta, purified cytotrophoblasts, and primary and cultured chorionic villus sampling tissue. No methylation was detected in any somatic human tissue tested. Methylation was also evident in marmoset and mouse placental tissue. All three genes were hypermethylated in choriocarcinoma cell lines, highlighting the role of vitamin D deregulation in this cancer. Gene expression analysis confirmed a reduced capacity for CYP24A1 induction with promoter methylation in primary cells and in vitro reporter analysis demonstrated that promoter methylation directly down-regulates basal promoter activity and abolishes vitamin D-mediated feedback activation. This study strongly suggests that epigenetic decoupling of vitamin D feedback catabolism plays an important role in maximizing active vitamin D bioavailability at the fetomaternal interface.
Optimal slotted random access in coded wireless packet networks

We consider the problem of jointly optimizing random access and subgraph selection in coded wireless packet networks. As opposed to the corresponding scheduling approach, the problem cannot be formulated as a convex optimization problem and is thus difficult to solve. We propose a special adaptation of the branch and bound method which allows for computing the optimal strategy for small and medium networks. The key tool for efficiency is a random access specific convex relaxation bound. We compare these results to both optimal and suboptimal joint medium access and subgraph selection techniques, to conclude that there is room for further improvement of suboptimal yet practical random access schemes.
Characterisation of haematological profiles and low risk of thromboembolic events with bortezomib in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma

Haematological toxicities and thromboembolic (TE) events are common complications of myeloma therapy. TE risk may be elevated with combination regimens, notably thalidomide/lenalidomide plus high‐dose dexamethasone; concomitant erythropoietin appears to further increase the risk with lenalidomide–dexamethasone. We characterised thrombocytopenia and neutropenia in the phase 3 APEX (Assessment of Proteasome Inhibition for Extending Remissions) study of bortezomib versus high‐dose dexamethasone in relapsed myeloma, and calculated the incidences of deep‐vein thrombosis (DVT)/pulmonary embolism (PE) with: bortezomib or dexamethasone ± erythropoietin in APEX; bortezomib ± dexamethasone ± erythropoietin in two phase 2 studies of relapsed/refractory myeloma. Bortezomib‐associated thrombocytopenia and neutropenia were transient, predictable and manageable; mean platelet and neutrophil counts followed a cyclical pattern, and improved over the treatment course. Grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia incidence was higher with bortezomib versus dexamethasone (26%/4% vs. 5%/1%), but significant bleeding events were comparable (4% vs. 5%). DVT/PE incidence was low (≤3·1%) in all analyses; addition of dexamethasone/erythropoietin did not affect TE risk. In APEX, TE risk appeared lower with bortezomib versus dexamethasone. Bortezomib caused transient and cyclical thrombocytopenia and was not associated with elevated TE risk, alone or with dexamethasone ± erythropoietin. Preliminary data suggest bortezomib may reduce the thrombogenic potential of combination regimens via inhibition of platelet function or other mechanism‐specific effects on coagulation.
DISCOUNT WINDOW POLICY, BANKING CRISES, AND INDETERMINACY OF EQUILIBRIUM

We study how discount window policy affects the frequency of banking crises, the level of investment, and the scope for indeterminacy of equilibrium. Previous work has shown that providing costless liquidity through a discount window has mixed effects in terms of these criteria: It prevents episodes of high liquidity demand from causing crises but can lead to indeterminacy of stationary equilibrium and to inefficiently low levels of investment. We show how offering discount window loans at an above-market interest rate can be unambiguously beneficial. Such a policy generates a unique stationary equilibrium. Banking crises occur with positive probability in this equilibrium and the level of investment is suboptimal, but a proper combination of discount window and monetary policies can make the welfare effects of these inefficiencies arbitrarily small. The near-optimal policies can be viewed as approximately implementing the Friedman rule.
Females have lower skin surface pH than men

Background/aims: It is of great interest to describe the many functions and properties of the skin in order to better understand reactions that result in different skin abnormalities, as a prerequisite in the development of skin products and topical medicines. Skin surface pH is considered a critical parameter of skin wellbeing and is typically studied on the forearm skin. Despite many previous investigations, this is an extensive field that still needs a great deal of research. The aim of our study was to investigate gender related differences, differences between right and left arms, anatomical variation and daytime variation in skin surface pH.
Dynamic Competitive Newsvendors with Service-Sensitive Demands

When two firms compete for service-sensitive demands based on their product availability, their actions will affect the future market share reallocation. This problem was first studied by Hall and Porteus (2000) using a dynamic game model. We extend their work by incorporating a general demand model, which enables us to obtain properties that reveal the dynamics of the game and the behavior of the players. In particular, we provide conditions under which the market share of a firm has a positive value and give it an upper bound. We further extend the game competition model to an infinite-horizon setting. We prove that there exists a stationary equilibrium policy and that the dynamic equilibrium policy always converges to a stationary equilibrium policy. We demonstrate that demand patterns will dictate how firms compete rationally and show the likely outcomes of the competition.
Expropriation of Minority Shareholders: Evidence from East Asia

As many East Asian countries plunged into economic decline, the structure of concentrated ownership and associated corporate governance, along with weak corporate performance, have been blamed for the crisis. There is little empirical evidence, however, of the nature of ownership structures in East Asia and their relationship to corporate performance in the typical East Asian environment (where inefficient judicial systems, and weak property and shareholder rights are common). The authors examine evidence of the expropriation of minority shareholders for 2,658 corporations in nine East Asian countries in 1996. They distinguish control from cash-flow rights. They also distinguish between various types of ultimate owners, including family, state, widely held corporations, and widely held financial institutions. Higher cash-flow rights are associated with higher market values, consistent with Jensen and Meckling (1976). In contrast, deviations of control from cash-flow rights - through the use of dual-class shares, pyramiding, and cross-holdings - are associated with lower market values. This is especially true for corporations under family control and, in Japan, under the control of widely held financial institutions. They conclude that the risk of expropriation is the major principal-agent problem for large corporations, as suggested by La Porta and colleagues (1999). The degree to which certain ownership structures are associated with expropriation depends on country-specific circumstances. These may include the quality of banking systems, the legal and judicial protection of individual shareholders, and the degree of financial disclosures required.
A Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in Catalase Is Strongly Associated with Ovarian Cancer Survival

Ovarian cancer is the deadliest of all gynecologic cancers. Recent evidence demonstrates an association between enzymatic activity altering single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) with human cancer susceptibility. We sought to evaluate the association of SNPs in key oxidant and antioxidant enzymes with increased risk and survival in epithelial ovarian cancer. Individuals (n = 143) recruited were divided into controls, (n = 94): healthy volunteers, (n = 18), high-risk BRCA1/2 negative (n = 53), high-risk BRCA1/2 positive (n = 23) and ovarian cancer cases (n = 49). DNA was subjected to TaqMan SNP genotype analysis for selected oxidant and antioxidant enzymes. Of the seven selected SNP studied, no association with ovarian cancer risk (Pearson Chi-square) was found. However, a catalase SNP was identified as a predictor of ovarian cancer survival by the Cox regression model. The presence of this SNP was associated with a higher likelihood of death (hazard ratio (HR) of 3.68 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.149–11.836)) for ovarian cancer patients. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated a significant median overall survival difference (108 versus 60 months, p<0.05) for those without the catalase SNP as compared to those with the SNP. Additionally, age at diagnosis greater than the median was found to be a significant predictor of death (HR of 2.78 (95% CI: 1.022–7.578)). This study indicates a strong association with the catalase SNP and survival of ovarian cancer patients, and thus may serve as a prognosticator.
Transient response of a peak voltage detector for sinusoidal signals

A fast peak detector for constant frequency sinusoidal signals is proposed. This detector is based on the concept of the orthogonal function set. The theoretical response time of this detector is less than one-fourth of a cycle. When this detector is used, the transient response of the output voltage is different under different inception angles. The mathematical equations to describe transient phenomena are derived and simulated. Because its transient response performance is superior to the conventional sinusoidal amplitude detector used in an analog controller, it can improve the transient response performance of the controller. For practical applications, the effects of harmonics and frequency variation are also discussed, simulated, and tested. >
Distributed Asynchronous Clustering for Self-Organisation of Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper presents a fully distributed asynchronous clustering protocol for the self-organisation of a wireless sensor network into an infrastructure of well separated cluster heads that supports in-network processing, routing, and deployment. In this protocol, nodes volunteer asynchronously for cluster head duty and use a radio beacon to preemptively recruit members. Limited beacon range is used as the primary parameter for self-organisation. The resulting topology substantially reduces total transmission distance and the expected energy consumed by radio communication. To further extend network lifetime and capability, well separated cluster heads may be easily located and replaced by more powerful devices
LA PRODUCCIÓN DE MEZCAL EN EL MUNICIPIO DE DURANGO, MÉXICO

En el municipio de Durango existen seis empresas que elaboran mezcal, cuatro de estas estan certificadas. La materia prima se extrae de plantaciones silvestres, el 72% proviene de los campos del Ejido Nicolas Romero. La posibilidad de produccion de mezcal es de 528,092 litros al ano, esta cantidad rebasa en 5 veces la capacidad de produccion maxima proyectada, de acuerdo a la infraestructura instalada. Las empresas certificadas tienen mayores costos de produccion pero tambien mayores utilidades que las vinatas. El costo en el mercado de una botella de mezcal de 750 ml es de $138.00 mas IVA, mientras que el precio de una botella de la misma capacidad, elaborado en las empresas rusticas oscila entre $30.00 y $70.00. Las empresas certificadas producen el mezcal siguiendo los criterios de produccion y envasado de la a NOM-070-SCFI1994. Las empresas rusticas no siguen esta norma, almacenando y vendiendo el producto en cualquier tipo de botellas, tanto de vidrio como de plastico. Se concluye que la produccion de mezcal puede ser rentable si los productores se asocian y certifican su producto, especialmente en la produccion de maguey y el proceso de envasado. Esto por un lado, contribuiria a conservar la biodiversidad en los sitios de donde se extrae la planta actualmente y por otro, disminuiria la intervencion de los intermediarios contribuyendo a la obtencion de mayores ingresos economicos para los productores de mezcal.
RURAL PEDESTRIAN CRASH RATE: ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF EXPOSURE

The objective of this research is to better understand how to prevent pedestrian fatalities by investigating new means of measuring pedestrian exposure to crashes. The study involves finding ways to estimate pedestrian volumes (pedestrians per week) on specific facilities, focusing on rural areas. Part I investigates the relationship between the weekly pedestrian exposure in rural areas of Connecticut and factors such as population density, sidewalk system, number of lanes, area type, signal type and median household income. General Linear Regression (GLM) and Tukey or Duncan multiple comparison of means methods are used to identify the significant factors. Only the number of lanes, area type and sidewalk system are significant in the resulting model for pedestrian exposure. Other factors do not significantly explain the variation in the pedestrian exposure. Part II identifies site characteristics, i.e., factors describing land use activity, roadside design, merging and crossing traffic, traffic control and vehicular speed, that can be used to predict roadway risk, the probability of a crash leading to injury and/or death. All variables, with the exception of crosswalks, street parking and paved shoulder width, proved significant. Typical village and residential sites proved to be the least hazardous and shopping sites the most hazardous. The findings from this project could significantly change the way pedestrian crashes are reported and analyzed, and thus improve their usefulness and meaning. This new reporting format could help jurisdictions decide how to allocate funds for enhancing pedestrian safety by giving them more detailed information about where the enhancements are best applied. This research also has applications toward general travel demand forecasting, by providing insight into how to better predict the choice of walking as a travel mode.