Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Levamisole on Morphology, Bactericidal Activity, and Metabolism of Human Neutrophils in Vitro

Summary In previous studies the ant-helmintic agent, levamisole hydrochloride, has been shown to alter function of mono-cytes and macrophages as well as to increase random locomotion and chemotaxis of neu-trophils. In the present investigation we have extended knowledge about this potentially clinically useful agent. We found that in the optimal range of doses used in prior studies, levamisole produces vacuole formation but does not alter bactericidal activity, oxygen consumption, [l-14C]glucose oxidation, nitroblue tetrazolium reduction, or chemiluminescence of neutrophils from normal subjects. We have also demonstrated that levamisole has no effect on neutrophils from patients with chronic granulomatous disease. The results suggest that the major effects of levamisole on neutrophil function relate to its ability to improve random locomotion and chemotaxis.
EFFECTS OF INORGANIC NANOPARTICLES ON MECHANICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD FLOUR-POLYPROPYLENE NANO COMPOSITES

This research was conducted to examine the effect of SiO2 and TiO2 nanoparticles on the mechanical and morphological properties of wood flour-polypropylene nanocomposites. For this purpose, 60 (wt.%) wood flour was mixed with polypropylene. 4% maleic anhydride polypropylene was also used in all the compounds as a coupling agent. In addition, SiO2 and TiO2 nanoparticles were used as mineral fillers at 0, 1, 3 and 5%. The mixing process was performed inside an extruder and the test specimens were prepared by injection molding method. Bending and tensile tests were then performed on the specimens according to the ASTM standard. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also used to show the distribution of nanoparticles over the composite substrate. The results showed that the composites containing nano-SiO2 had more favorable mechanical properties compared to those containing nano-TiO2. On the other hand, increasing the nanoparticles from 0 to 3% led to an increase in mechanical strength, however, the addition of more nano-fillers resulted in a significant decrease in mechanical strength. The results of SEM also showed a proper dispersion of nanoparticles at 1 and 3% levels, but using 5% nanoparticles caused the particles to aggregate on the composite substrate.
Unsatis ed Variables in Local

Slightly expanded version of a paper submitted to AISB-95. Abstract Several local search algorithms for propositional satissability have recently been proposed which are able to solve hard random problems beyond the range of conventional backtracking procedures. In this paper, we explore the impact of focusing search in these procedures on the \unsatissed variables"; that is, those variables will appear in clauses which are not yet satissed. For random problems, we show that such a focus reduces the sensitivity of these procedures to their input parameters. We also observe a simple scaling law in performance. For non-random problems, we show that whilst this focus can improve performance, many problems remain diicult. We speculate that such problems will remain hard for local search unless constraint propagation techniques can be combined with hill-climbing.
A combined vaccine approach against Vibrio cholerae and ETEC based on outer membrane vesicles

Enteric infections induced by pathogens like Vibrio cholerae and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) remain a massive burden in developing countries with increasing morbidity and mortality rates. Previously, we showed that the immunization with genetically detoxified outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) derived from V. cholerae elicits a protective immune response based on the generation of O antigen antibodies, which effectively block the motility by binding to the sheathed flagellum. In this study, we investigated the potential of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-modified and toxin negative OMVs isolated from V. cholerae and ETEC as a combined OMV vaccine candidate. Our results indicate that the immunization with V. cholerae or ETEC OMVs induced a species-specific immune response, whereas the combination of both OMV species resulted in a high-titer, protective immune response against both pathogens. Interestingly, the immunization with V. cholerae OMVs alone resulted in a so far uncharacterized and cholera toxin B-subunit (CTB) independent protection mechanism against an ETEC colonization. Furthermore, we investigated the potential use of V. cholerae OMVs as delivery vehicles for the heterologously expression of the ETEC surface antigens, CFA/I, and FliC. Although we induced a detectable immune response against both heterologously expressed antigens, none of these approaches resulted in an improved protection compared to a simple combination of V. cholerae and ETEC OMVs. Finally, we expanded the current protection model from V. cholerae to ETEC by demonstrating that the inhibition of motility via anti-FliC antibodies represents a relevant protection mechanism of an OMV-based ETEC vaccine candidate in vivo.
BTZ Black Hole with Higher Derivatives, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and Statistical Entropy

I consider the thermodynamics of the BTZ black hole in the presence of the higher curvature and gravitational Chern-Simons terms, and its statistical entropy. I propose a new thermodynamical entropy, which is manifestly non-negative, such that the second law of thermodynamics is satisfied. I show that the new thermodynamical entropy agrees perfectly with the statistical entropy for all the values of the conformal factor of the higher curvature terms and the coupling constant of the gravitational Chern-Simons term, in contrast to some disagreements in the literature. The agreement with both the higher curvature and gravitational Chern-Simons terms is possible because of an appropriate balancing of them, though it is not a trivial matter because of a conflict in the appropriate Hilbert space for a well-defined conformal field theory for each term.
Evaluating Subjective Aspects of HCI on an Example of a Non-Task Oriented Conversational System

The evaluation of subjective aspects of HCI, such as human-likeness, likeability or users' emotions towards computers is still quite a neglected issue, especially in the field of non-task oriented conversational systems (chatterbots). In this paper we try to bridge this gap by proposing a new methodology of evaluation. The methods presented were tested in our research on humor-equipped chatterbots. We describe them in details, discuss their drawbacks and usability. In one of the presented methods we used an emotiveness analysis system, which itself can be considered an AI tool, as it was used to detect users' emotions towards conversational systems, and to perform their automatic evaluation. We also propose some methods that we have not used yet, which, however, seem applicable in this field, such as brain scanning techniques. Finally, we give some ideas that should be addressed in the future.
Anticardiolipin antibodies in Jamaican primiparae

Summary A prevalence survey of anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) was done among 924 primiparae. aCL were measured in serum by the standardised anticardiolipin enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and β2-glycoprotein 1 assays to determine the seroprevalence of both β2 glycoprotein 1 dependent aCL and β2-glycoprotein 1 independent aCL in Jamaican primiparae, to determine whether aCL are associated with abnormal pregnancy outcomes and if treatment with aspirin had any effect on pregnancy outcome in aCL positive primiparae. The prevalence of aCL was (32/671) 4.8% (95%CI 3.2–6.4) in women who were tested twice. A total of 49 of 924 primiparae or 5.3% (95%CI 3.9–6.7) were positive for aCL on at least one occasion. Only three of the 32 primiparae 3/32 (9.4%) who were positive for aCL on two occasions were positive for β2-glycoprotein 1 dependent aCL. Pregnancy outcome did not differ significantly with respect to aCL status. Aspirin therapy did not influence pregnancy outcome in the 49 aCL positive primiparae studied.
Hd28 .m414 No . Working Paper Alfred P. Sloan School of Management a Unified Method to Analyze Overtake Free Queueing Systems a Unified Method to Analyze Overtake Free Queueing Systems a Unified Method to Analyze Overtake Free Queueing Systems

In this paper we demonstrate that the distributional laws that relate the number of customers in the system (queue), L (<? ) and the time a customer spends in the system (queue), S (W) under the first-in-first-out (FIFO) discipline lead to a complete solution for the distributions of L, Q, S, W for queueing systems which satisfy distributional laws for both L and Q {overtake free systems). Moreover, in such systems the derivation of the distributions of L, Q, S, W can be done in a unified way. Our results include a generalization of PASTA to queueing systems with arbitrary renewal arrivals under heavy traffic conditions, a generalization of the Pollaczek-Khinchin formula to the GI/G/1 queue, an extension of the Fuhrmann and Cooper decomposition for queues with generalized vacations under mixed generalized Erlang renewal arrivals, new approximate results for the distributions of L, S in a GI/G/oo queue, and new exact results for the distributions of L, Q, S, W in priority queues with mixed generalized Erlang renewal arrivals. 'Dimitris Bertsimas, Sloan School of Management and Operations Research Center, MIT, Cambridge. Ma 02139. 'Georgia Mourtzinou, Operations Research Center, MIT, Cambridge, Ma 02139. 'The research of D. Bertsimas was partially supported by a Presidential Young Investigator Award DDM-9158118 with matching funds from Draper Laboratory. The research of both authors was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under grant DDM-9014751.
In Vitro and In Vivo Antitumor Activity of a Novel Semisynthetic Derivative of Cucurbitacin B

Lung cancer is the most deadly type of cancer in humans, with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) being the most frequent and aggressive type of lung cancer showing high resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. Despite the outstanding progress made in anti-tumor therapy, discovering effective anti-tumor drugs is still a challenging task. Here we describe a new semisynthetic derivative of cucurbitacin B (DACE) as a potent inhibitor of NSCLC cell proliferation. DACE arrested the cell cycle of lung epithelial cells at the G2/M phase and induced cell apoptosis by interfering with EGFR activation and its downstream signaling, including AKT, ERK, and STAT3. Consistent with our in vitro studies, intraperitoneal application of DACE significantly suppressed the growth of mouse NSCLC that arises from type II alveolar pneumocytes due to constitutive expression of a human oncogenic c-RAF kinase (c-RAF-1-BxB) transgene in these cells. Taken together, these findings suggest that DACE is a promising lead compound for the development of an anti-lung-cancer drug.
Characterization of Shikonin Derivative Secretion in Lithospermum erythrorhizon Hairy Roots as a Model of Lipid-Soluble Metabolite Secretion from Plants

Shikonin derivatives are specialized lipophilic metabolites, secreted in abundant amounts from the root epidermal cells of Lithospermum erythrorhizon. Because they have anti-microbial activities, these compounds, which are derivatives of red naphthoquinone, are thought to serve as a chemical barrier for plant roots. The mechanism by which they are secreted from cells is, however, largely unknown. The shikonin production system in L. erythrorhizon is an excellent model for studying the mechanism by which lipophilic compounds are secreted from plant cells, because of the abundant amounts of these compounds produced by L. erythrorhizon, the 0 to 100% inducibility of their production, the light-specific inhibition of production, and the visibility of these products as red pigments. To date, many factors regulating shikonin biosynthesis have been identified, but no mechanism that regulates shikonin secretion without inhibiting biosynthesis has been detected. This study showed that inhibitors of membrane traffic strongly inhibit shikonin secretion without inhibiting shikonin production, suggesting that the secretion of shikonin derivatives into the apoplast utilizes pathways common to the ADP-ribosylation factor/guanine nucleotide exchange factor (ARF/GEF) system and actin filament polymerization, at least in part. These findings provide clues about the machinery involved in secreting lipid-soluble metabolites from cells.
Vav1 Transduces T Cell Receptor Signals to the Activation of Phospholipase C-γ1 via Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase-dependent and -independent Pathways

Vav1 is a signal transducing protein required for T cell receptor (TCR) signals that drive positive and negative selection in the thymus. Furthermore, Vav1-deficient thymocytes show greatly reduced TCR-induced intracellular calcium flux. Using a novel genetic system which allows the study of signaling in highly enriched populations of CD4+CD8+ double positive thymocytes, we have studied the mechanism by which Vav1 regulates TCR-induced calcium flux. We show that in Vav1-deficient double positive thymocytes, phosphorylation, and activation of phospholipase C-γ1 (PLCγ1) is defective. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Vav1 regulates PLCγ1 phosphorylation by at least two distinct pathways. First, in the absence of Vav1 the Tec-family kinases Itk and Tec are no longer activated, most likely as a result of a defect in phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) activation. Second, Vav1-deficient thymocytes show defective assembly of a signaling complex containing PLCγ1 and the adaptor molecule Src homology 2 domain–containing leukocyte phosphoprotein 76. We show that this latter function is independent of PI3K.
Distributed robust beamforming in multi-user relay network

In this letter, a robust distributed amplify and forward (AF) relay beamforming problem is solved, using the stochastic approach with imperfect channel state information (CSI) at the relay nodes and destination terminals. Specifically, we model the channel estimation error as a Gaussian random vector with known statistical distribution. Our objective is to minimize the total relays transmit power subject to probabilistic quality of service (QoS) constraint at each receiver. It is shown that the original robust design is a nonconvex SDP problem with rank constraint, but it can be relaxed to a SDP convex problem using the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) technique. Then the optimal solution of the relaxed problem is utilized to generate an approximate solution of the original non-convex problem using well-known randomization technique. Simulation results are reported to corroborate our studies.
Expected I-cache miss rates via the gap model

To evaluate the performance of a memory system, computer architects must determine the miss rate m of a cache C when running program P. Typically, the measured miss rate depends on the specific address mapping M of P set arbitrarily by the compiler and linker. The author removes the effect of the address-mapping on the miss rate by analyzing a symbolic trace T of basic blocks. By assuming each basic block has an equal probability of ending up anywhere in the address map, he determines the expected miss rate averaged over all possible address mappings. The resulting gap model gives the expected miss rate for instruction caches of varying cache size, line size, and set associativity. The model is simple but robust, and turns out to be the familiar LRU stack model with a statistical viewpoint. The model allows a trace of arbitrary length to he compactly summarized in a few thousand bytes of information. It also predicts how an intervening trace, such as an operating system call or a task switch, will affect the miss rate. Comparisons to measured miss rates from SPEC 92 instruction traces show that the model typically has relative differences of less than 20% for a variety of cache parameters. <<ETX>>
Scratchpad memory allocation for data aggregates via interval coloring in superperfect graphs

Existing methods place data or code in scratchpad memory (SPM) by relying on heuristics or resorting to integer programming or mapping it to a graph-coloring problem. In this article, the SPM allocation problem for arrays is formulated as an interval coloring problem. The key observation is that in many embedded C programs, two arrays can be modeled such that either their live ranges do not interfere or one contains the other (with good accuracy). As a result, array interference graphs often form a special class of superperfect graphs (known as comparability graphs), and their optimal interval colorings become efficiently solvable. This insight has led to the development of an SPM allocation algorithm that places arrays in an interference graph in SPM by examining its maximal cliques. If the SPM is no smaller than the clique number of an interference graph, then all arrays in the graph can be placed in SPM optimally. Otherwise, we rely on containment-motivated heuristics to split or spill array live ranges until the resulting graph is optimally colorable. We have implemented our algorithm in SUIF/machSUIF and evaluated it using a set of embedded C benchmarks from MediaBench and MiBench. Compared to a graph-coloring algorithm and an optimal ILP algorithm (when it runs to completion), our algorithm achieves close-to-optimal results and is superior to graph coloring for the benchmarks tested.
Low temperature alpha particle irradiation of a STAR1000 CMOS APS

A STAR1000 CMOS active pixel sensor was irradiated with alpha particles at -130degC and dark current measurements were made at temperatures up to 25degC. Approximately 90% of dark current spikes were seen to anneal near room temperature. This implies that room temperature irradiations will not give a good estimate of on-orbit effects for cooled applications.
Language Independent Connectivity Strength Features for Phrase Pivot Statistical Machine Translation

An important challenge to statistical machine translation (SMT) is the lack of parallel data for many language pairs. One common solution is to pivot through a third language for which there exist parallel corpora with the source and target languages. Although pivoting is a robust technique, it introduces some low quality translations. In this paper, we present two language-independent features to improve the quality of phrase-pivot based SMT. The features, source connectivity strength and target connectivity strength reflect the quality of projected alignments between the source and target phrases in the pivot phrase table. We show positive results (0.6 BLEU points) on Persian-Arabic SMT as a case study.
Decreased Expression of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor in Ocular Behcet's Disease

Recent studies show that the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is involved in immune responses. AhR is activated following interaction with its ligands, such as 6-formylindolo[3,2-b]carbazole (FICZ) and 2-(1′H-indole-3′-carbonyl)-thiazole-4-carboxylic acid methyl ester (ITE). In this study, we investigated the role of AhR activation by its endogenous ligands in the pathogenesis of ocular Behcet's disease (BD). The expression of AhR was significantly decreased in active BD patients as compared to inactive BD patients and normal controls. Both FICZ and ITE inhibited Th1 and Th17 polarization and induced the expression of IL-22 by PBMCs and by CD4+T cells in active BD patients and normal controls. Stimulation of purified CD4+T cells with FICZ or ITE caused a decreased expression of RORC, IL-17, IL-23R, and CCR6 and an increased phosphorylation of STAT3 and STAT5. The present study suggests that a decreased AhR expression is associated with disease activity in BD patients. The activation of AhR by either FICZ or ITE was able to inhibit Th1 and Th17 cell polarization. Further studies are needed to investigate whether modulation of AhR might be used in the treatment of BD.
Intracerebral accumulation of glutaric and 3‐hydroxyglutaric acids secondary to limited flux across the blood–brain barrier constitute a biochemical risk factor for neurodegeneration in glutaryl‐CoA dehydrogenase deficiency

Glutaric acid (GA) and 3‐hydroxyglutaric acids (3‐OH‐GA) are key metabolites in glutaryl co‐enzyme A dehydrogenase (GCDH) deficiency and are both considered to be potential neurotoxins. As cerebral concentrations of GA and 3‐OH‐GA have not yet been studied systematically, we investigated the tissue‐specific distribution of these organic acids and glutarylcarnitine in brain, liver, skeletal and heart muscle of Gcdh‐deficient mice as well as in hepatic Gcdh–/– mice and in C57Bl/6 mice following intraperitoneal loading. Furthermore, we determined the flux of GA and 3‐OH‐GA across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) using porcine brain microvessel endothelial cells. Concentrations of GA, 3‐OH‐GA and glutarylcarnitine were significantly elevated in all tissues of Gcdh–/– mice. Strikingly, cerebral concentrations of GA and 3‐OH‐GA were unexpectedly high, reaching similar concentrations as those found in liver. In contrast, cerebral concentrations of these organic acids remained low in hepatic Gcdh–/– mice and after intraperitoneal injection of GA and 3‐OH‐GA. These results suggest limited flux of GA and 3‐OH‐GA across the BBB, which was supported in cultured porcine brain capillary endothelial cells. In conclusion, we propose that an intracerebral de novo synthesis and subsequent trapping of GA and 3‐OH‐GA should be considered as a biochemical risk factor for neurodegeneration in GCDH deficiency.
Opsonising Antibodies to P. falciparum Merozoites Associated with Immunity to Clinical Malaria

Naturally acquired humoral immunity to the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum can protect against disease, although the precise mechanisms remain unclear. Although antibody levels can be measured by ELISA, few studies have investigated functional antibody assays in relation to clinical outcomes. In this study we applied a recently developed functional assay of antibody-mediated opsonisation of merozoites, to plasma samples from a longitudinal cohort study conducted in a malaria endemic region of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Phagocytic activity was quantified by flow cytometry using a standardized and high-throughput protocol, and was subsequently evaluated for association with protection from clinical malaria and high-density parasitemia. Opsonising antibody responses were found to: i) increase with age, ii) be enhanced by concurrent infection, and iii) correlate with protection from clinical episodes and high-density parasitemia. Stronger protective associations were observed in individuals with no detectable parasitemia at baseline. This study presents the first evidence for merozoite phagocytosis as a correlate of acquired immunity and clinical protection against P. falciparum malaria.
Architectures for high-performance FPGA implementations of neural models

As the complexity of neural models continues to increase (larger populations, varied ionic conductances, more detailed morphologies, etc) traditional software-based models have difficulty scaling to reach the performance levels desired. This paper describes the use of FPGAs, or field programmable gate arrays, to easily implement a wide variety of neural models with the performance of custom analogue circuits or computer clusters, the reconfigurability of software, and at a cost rivalling personal computers. FPGAs reach this level of performance by enabling the design of neural models as parallel processed data paths. These architectures provide for a wide range of single-compartment, multi-compartment and population models to be readily converted to FPGA implementations. Generalized architectures are described for the efficient modelling of a first-order, nonlinear differential equation in throughput maximizing or latency minimizing data-path configurations. The homogeneity of population and multicompartment models is exploited to form deep pipelines for improved performance. Limitations of FPGA architectures and future research areas are explored.