Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors masking HMGB1 in human serum and plasma

High mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) is a ubiquitously expressed architectural chromosomal protein. Recently, it has become obvious that HMGB1 can also act as a proinflammatory mediator when actively secreted during cell activation or passively released from necrotic cells. HMGB1 appears to play an important role in the pathogenesis of diseases, including sepsis and rheumatoid arthritis. However, easy, sensitive, and reliable detection systems are required to investigate the clinical significance of HMGB1 in clinical samples for diagnosis and prognosis of diseases. Here, we describe sensitive ELISAs for the detection of HMGB1 in cell culture medium and cell lysates. However, these assays failed to reliably quantitate HMGB1 in serum and plasma when compared with immunoblot analysis. We found that serum/plasma components bind to HMGB1 and interfere with its detection by ELISA systems. In most serum/plasma samples investigated, including those from healthy individuals, we detected IgG antibodies binding to HMGB1. The titers of these antibodies correlated with the capacity of sera to interfere with the detection of recombinant HMGB1 by ELISA. Furthermore, HMGB1 coimmunoprecipitated with several proteins including IgG1, as identified by mass spectrometry. These HMGB1 interacting proteins are currently characterized and may contribute to complex formation, masking, and possibly, modulation of cytokine activity of HMGB1.
Wave-equation reflection tomography: annihilators and sensitivity kernels

In seismic tomography, the finite frequency content of broad-band data leads to interference effects in the process of medium reconstruction, which are ignored in traditional ray theoretical implementations. Various ways of looking at these effects in the framework of transmission tomography can be found in the literature. Here,we consider inverse scattering of bodywaves to develop a method of wave-equation reflection tomography with broad-band waveform data— which in exploration seismics is identified as a method of wave-equation migration velocity analysis. In the transition from transmission to reflection tomography the usual cross correlation between modelled and observedwaveforms of a particular phase arrival is replaced by the action of operators (annihilators) to the observed broad-bandwavefields. Using the generalized screen expansion for one-way wave propagation, we develop the Fr´echet (or sensitivity) kernel, and show how it can be evaluated with an adjoint state method. We cast the reflection tomography into an optimization procedure; the kernel appears in the gradient of this procedure.We include a numerical example of evaluating the kernel in a modified Marmousi model, which illustrates the complex dependency of the kernel on frequency band and, hence, scale. In heterogeneous media the kernels reflect proper wave dynamics and do not reveal a self-similar dependence on frequency: low-frequency wave components sample preferentially the smoother parts of the model, whereas the high-frequency data are—as expected—more sensitive to the stronger heterogeneity.We develop the concept for acoustic waves but there are no inherent limitations for the extension to the fully elastic case.
Magnetic Field Confinement in the Corona: The Role of Magnetic Helicity Accumulation

A loss of magnetic field confinement is believed to be the cause of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), a major form of solar activity in the corona. The mechanisms for magnetic energy storage are crucial in understanding how a field may possess enough free energy to overcome the Aly limit and open up. Previously, we have pointed out that the accumulation of magnetic helicity in the corona plays a significant role in storing magnetic energy. In this paper, we investigate another hydromagnetic consequence of magnetic-helicity accumulation. We propose a conjecture that there is an upper bound on the total magnetic helicity that a force-free field can contain. This is directly related to the hydromagnetic property that force-free fields in unbounded space have to be self-confining. Although a mathematical proof of this conjecture for any field configuration is formidable, its plausibility can be demonstrated with the properties of several families of power-law, axisymmetric force-free fields. We put forth mathematical evidence, as well as numerical, indicating that an upper bound on the magnetic helicity may exist for such fields. Thus, the accumulation of magnetic helicity in excess of this upper bound would initiate a nonequilibrium situation, resulting in a CME expulsion as a natural product of coronal evolution.
Automatic test generation using checkpoint encoding and antirandom testing

The implementation of an efficient automatic test generation scheme for black box testing is discussed. It uses checkpoint encoding and antirandom testing schemes. Checkpoint encoding converts test generation to a binary problem. The checkpoints are selected as the boundary and illegal cases in addition to valid cases to probe the input space. Antirandom testing selects each test case such that it is as different as possible from all the previous tests. The implementation is illustrated using benchmark examples that have been used in the literature. Use of random testing both with checkpoint encoding and without is also reported. Comparison and evaluation of the effectiveness of these methods is also presented. Implications of the observations for larger software systems are noted. Overall, antirandom testing gives higher code coverage than encoding random testing, which gives higher code coverage than pure random testing.
Health related quality of life in immigrants and native school aged adolescents in Spain

Objectives: To compare health related quality of life (HRQL) between native and immigrant adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, and to analyse psychosocial factors associated with HRQL. Design: A cross sectional study of adolescents (12–18 years old) who answered a self administered questionnaire. Setting: All the secondary schools from Lloret de Mar (Girona, Spain). Participants: 1246 participants (88.9% of the eligible students). Main outcome measures: Main outcome was the Spanish version of the Vecu et Sante Percue de l’Adolescent (VSP-A), a HRQL measure addressed to adolescents. Mean scores of the VSP-A index of natives and immigrants were compared, as well as their sociodemographic and health related factors. Multiple regression examined the relation between HRQL and psychosocial factors, controlling for the effect of socioeconomic variables. Results: Half of the sample were boys, in the middle socioeconomic status, and 18.2% were immigrants (n = 226). HRQL score was higher in native Spanish adolescents than immigrants (p<0.01). Multiple regression model explaining 48.1% of the VSP-A variance showed that migration in itself has no statistically significant impact on HRQL, and age, socioeconomic status, social support, discrimination, and psychological distress do play a part. Conclusions: Migrants have worse HRQL than natives but it seems to be mediated by their disadvantage in socioeconomic status, social support, and psychological distress.
Early genetic events in the formation of astrocytomas

Introduction The past decade has witnessed rapid growth in the knowledge about genetic alterations in gliomas. For example, there is now abundant evidence that glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) subtypes constitute distinct entities that are manifested in different age groups and that develop through different genetic pathways [1± 3]. Those studies have largely focused on advanced stages of anaplastic progression, because GBM and anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) are much more common than low-grade tumors. Although the in ̄uence of early genetic changes on downstream events and tumor behavior has been dif®cult to study because of the relative rarity of low-grade astrocytoma (LGA) patients, there is evidence that early genetic events correlate with late changes [4].
L1 Penalized Estimation in the Cox Proportional Hazards Model

This article presents a novel algorithm that efficiently computes L1 penalized (lasso) estimates of parameters in high‐dimensional models. The lasso has the property that it simultaneously performs variable selection and shrinkage, which makes it very useful for finding interpretable prediction rules in high‐dimensional data. The new algorithm is based on a combination of gradient ascent optimization with the Newton–Raphson algorithm. It is described for a general likelihood function and can be applied in generalized linear models and other models with an L1 penalty. The algorithm is demonstrated in the Cox proportional hazards model, predicting survival of breast cancer patients using gene expression data, and its performance is compared with competing approaches. An R package, penalized, that implements the method, is available on CRAN.
Changes in Risk-Taking among High School Students, 1991-1997: Evidence from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveys.

A handful of preventable health-risk behaviors-violence, substance use, suicide, and sexual activity-are responsible for much of the mortality and morbidity experienced in adolescence and early adulthood. Adolescents' participation in many of these health-risk behaviors has changed in recent years. Newspapers report increases in marijuana use among high school students one day and declines in their sexual or criminal activity another. Because changes in the prevalence of specific health-risk behaviors vary, some increasing and some declining, shifts in adolescents' overall exposure to health-risks are difficult to pinpoint. While it is well established that many risk behaviors co-occur changes in the extent and patterns of multiple risk-taking are unknown.
Rotationally Invariant 3D Shape Contexts using Asymmetry Patterns

This paper presents an approach to resolve the azimuth ambiguity of 3D Shape Contexts (3DSC) based on asymmetry patterns. We show that it is possible to provide rotational invariance to 3DSC at the expense of a marginal increase in computational load, outperforming previous algorithms dealing with the azimuth ambiguity. We build on a recently presented measure of approximate rotational symmetry in 2D deﬁned as the overlapping area between a shape and rotated versions of itself to extract asymmetry patterns from a 3DSC in a variety of ways, depending on the spatial relationships that need to be highlighted or disabled. Thus, we deﬁne Asymmetry Patterns Shape Contexts (APSC) from a subset of the possible spatial relations present in the spherical grid of 3DSC; hence they can be thought of as a family of descriptors that depend on the subset that is selected. This provides great ﬂexibility to derive different descriptors. We show that choosing the appropriate spatial patterns can considerably reduce the errors obtained with 3DSC when targeting speciﬁc types of points.
Fatal work related injuries in agricultural production and services to agriculture sectors of New Zealand, 1985–94

OBJECTIVES To describe work related fatal injuries to agricultural workers in New Zealand to identify priority areas for further research and injury control measures. METHODS Injury deaths in New Zealanders aged 15–84 inclusive for the period 1985–94 were identified and the coroner's files for these obtained. These files were then reviewed to determine whether the death arose as a result of work activities. Those deaths considered to be work related were coded for information relating to decedent demographics and the circumstances of the fatal injury. Work related deaths from injury occurring in the agricultural production and services to agriculture sectors were analysed. RESULTS The rate of fatal injuries to male agricultural workers over the study period was 21.2/100 000, with injury deaths in the agricultural sectors accounting for nearly a quarter of all work related fatal injuries in New Zealand in that time. There was no significant decline in fatal injuries to agricultural workers in the study decade. Workers in the 65–84 age bracket were at substantially higher risk of fatal injury than other age groups. Machinery and motor vehicles were commonly associated with fatal injury, with overturns on or next to embankments and slopes being the most frequent scenario. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study highlight fatal injuries in older workers and machinery incidents (particularly tractors overturning) as priority areas for further research into contributing factors and injury control measures.
Investigation of tDCS volume conduction effects in a highly realistic head model

Objective. We investigate volume conduction effects in transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and present a guideline for efficient and yet accurate volume conductor modeling in tDCS using our newly-developed finite element (FE) approach. Approach. We developed a new, accurate and fast isoparametric FE approach for high-resolution geometry-adapted hexahedral meshes and tissue anisotropy. To attain a deeper insight into tDCS, we performed computer simulations, starting with a homogenized three-compartment head model and extending this step by step to a six-compartment anisotropic model. Main results. We are able to demonstrate important tDCS effects. First, we find channeling effects of the skin, the skull spongiosa and the cerebrospinal fluid compartments. Second, current vectors tend to be oriented towards the closest higher conducting region. Third, anisotropic WM conductivity causes current flow in directions more parallel to the WM fiber tracts. Fourth, the highest cortical current magnitudes are not only found close to the stimulation sites. Fifth, the median brain current density decreases with increasing distance from the electrodes. Significance. Our results allow us to formulate a guideline for volume conductor modeling in tDCS. We recommend to accurately model the major tissues between the stimulating electrodes and the target areas, while for efficient yet accurate modeling, an exact representation of other tissues is less important. Because for the low-frequency regime in electrophysiology the quasi-static approach is justified, our results should also be valid for at least low-frequency (e.g., below 100 Hz) transcranial alternating current stimulation.
Reduced resource optimization in male alcoholics: N400 in a lexical decision paradigm.

BACKGROUND Event Related Potential (ERP) studies have highlighted some measures, notably P3 amplitude, that are associated with both state and trait deficits in alcoholism, while studies examining N400 amplitude in alcoholism are few. The present study aims to examine differences in the N400 component, an electrophysiological correlate of semantic priming, in event-related potentials from a lexical decision task in 87 alcohol dependent subjects and 57 community controls. METHODS Each subject was presented with 300 stimuli sequentially in a quasi-randomized design, where 150 stimuli were words and 150 were non-words. The subjects made a lexical decision indicating the word/non-word status with a button press. Among the words, 50 words (primed) were always preceded by their antonyms (prime, n=50), whereas the remaining 50 words were unrelated. N400 amplitude and latency measures were compiled from ERPs to the primed and unprimed words. Corresponding reaction time (RT) and response characteristics were also analyzed. RESULTS Control subjects revealed a significant attenuation of the N400 response to the primed word when compared to the unprimed word. Significantly less attenuation was observed in alcohol dependent subjects. No significant group differences were seen for latency and behavioral measures. All subjects had slower RT for unprimed words compared to primed words; however significantly less RT savings between the unprimed and primed condition was noted for alcoholics. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest a reduced flexibility in the cognitive networks and a lack of resource optimization in alcoholics. The reduced attenuation of N400 during the primed condition in the alcohol dependent subjects may reflect an inability to engage similar neuronal substrates associated with semantic relatedness as seen in the controls. As diminished N400 attenuation during priming is observed in both alcoholics and high risk subjects, it may be a marker of risk and a good endophenotype for alcoholism.
Dynamic Power-Aware Mapping of Applications onto Heterogeneous MPSoC Platforms

Multiprocessor SOC platforms have been adopted for a wide range of high-performance applications, like automotive and avionic systems. Task assignment and processing unit allocation are key steps in the design of predictable and efficient embedded systems. Given the execution modes of applications, we propose a methodology to compute a task to processing element mapping, such that the expected average power consumption is minimized. Changing usage scenarios are represented by varying execution probabilities of modes. Statically precomputed template mappings for each execution probability are stored on the system and applied at runtime, allowing the system to adapt to changing environmental conditions. The underlying model considers static (leakage) and dynamic power. This study shows that deriving approximative solutions with a constant worst-case approximation factor in polynomial time is not achievable unless P = NP, even if a feasible task mapping is provided as an input. A polynomial-time heuristic algorithm is proposed that applies a multiple-step heuristic to derive template mappings. At runtime a manager monitors the system and chooses an appropriate precomputed template, hence low power-consumption is maintained over the systems lifetime. Experimental results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by comparing the derived solutions to the optimal ones, obtained via an integer linear program (ILP).
Clinical effect of a gel containing Lippia sidoides on plaque and gingivitis control

Objective: This parallel controlled clinical trial evaluated the effect of a gel containing Lippia sidoides essential oil on plaque and gingivitis control. Methods: Thirty patients (n=30) were randomly selected and allocated into three groups: Lippia sidoides (LS, n=10), chlorhexidine (CLX, n=10) or placebo (control, n=10). Plaque and bleeding index were recorded at baseline and after three months. All volunteers were instructed to brush with the gel three times a day throughout the experiment period. Results: There was a significant reduction on plaque and gingivitis in the test groups (P<.05), but no statistically significant difference was observed between them (P>.05). Conclusion: A gel preparation containing 10% Lippia sidoides essential oil was an efficient herbal antiplaque and antigingivitis agent.
On wealth and wrongdoing: how social class influences unethical behavior

Tuesday, March 12, 2013; noon to 1 p.m. ; Room D1.602. "On Wealth and Wrongdoing: How Social Class Influences Unethical Behavior". Paul K. Piff, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Scholar, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.
DNA-Induced Structural Changes in the Papillomavirus Capsid

ABSTRACT Human papillomavirus capsid assembly requires intercapsomeric disulfide bonds between molecules of the major capsid protein L1. Virions isolated from naturally occurring lesions have a higher degree of cross-linking than virus-like particles (VLPs), which have been generated in eukaryotic expression systems. Here we show that DNA encapsidation into VLPs leads to increased cross-linking between L1 molecules comparable to that seen in virions. A higher trypsin resistance, indicating a tighter association of capsomeres through DNA interaction, accompanies this structural change.
Studies in the respiratory and carbohydrate metabolism of plant tissues II. Interrelationship between the rates of production of carbon dioxide, of lactic and of alcohol in potato tubers under anaerobic conditions

Data, presented in part I of this communication, for the changes in air and in nitrogen in the rate of CO2 production by potato tubers and in the contents of sugar, lactic acid, alcohol and other constituents, are analyzed and discussed. Certain features of the results indicate that in nitrogen a system producing lactic acid may be competing with systems in which either CO2 or CO2 and alcohol are formed, for a glycolytic intermediate, possibly pyruvic acid. Stoklasa (1904) observed the formation of lactic acid, together with a considerable amount of alcohol, in potatoes during anaerobiosis. In contrast, Kostytschew (1913) found no alcohol in low-sugar potatoes under anaerobic conditions, but a little alcohol in tubers of high sugar content. In our experiments, also with low-sugar potatoes, lactic acid but no alcohol was formed in the first phase of anaerobiosis; subsequently alcohol was produced in addition to lactic acid. Thus the results of previous workers are to a certain extent reconciled by the present study. When account is taken of the formation, under anaerobic conditions, of lactic acid and alcohol, as well as of CO2, a marked Pasteur effect is shown. The doubts expressed by Choudhury (1939) and Boswell & Whiting (1940), based solely on observations of CO2 output, as to the existence of a Pasteur effect in potatoes are thus seen to be unjustified.
Inhibins, activins, and follistatins: gonadal proteins modulating the secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone.

The endocrine system displays highly complex interactions among its components. Excesses or deficiencies of hormone production in one gland may alter the production of hormones by others. Several physiological functions are affected by a balance among hormones acting either together or in sequence. For example, FSH secretion has been demonstrated to be affected by hypothalamic influences upon the anterior pituitary through a specific releasing factor, the decapeptide LRF. This decapeptide stimulates the release of both LH and FSH by the pituitary, and these gonadotropins cause the production of steroids by the testes and the ovaries. Gonadal steroids in the blood act directly upon the anterior pituitary to regulate the output of gonadotropins as originally proposed by Moore and Price in 1932 (3), or act indirectly upon the hypothalamus to adjust the output of pituitary hormones in accordance with the needs of the reproductive system. However, such a simple negative feedback of steroids on the hypothalamic-hypophysial axis cannot account for the differential secretion of FSH observed during the estrus cycle. Therefore, the concept that a gonadal protein, inhibin, specifically regulates FSH secretion was proposed. This concept has now been validated by the isolation and characterization of two forms of inhibin that exert their effects on the pituitary to suppress FSH secretion both in vitro and probably in vivo. Furthermore, the production of inhibin is stimulated by FSH, thus establishing a reciprocal relationship between the release of FSH and inhibin. Since hormones in the body are controlled through interlocking complexes of factors, a variety of secondary factors, in one way or another, may also exert influence on the regulation of FSH secretion. As an example, TGF beta, a protein growth factor found in all tissues, promotes the basal secretion of FSH by the pituitary and enhances FSH-mediated estrogen production by the granulosa cells. It is therefore not surprising that two forms of a novel protein, activin and activin A, isolated from the same FF from which inhibins were isolated, show bioactivities similar to those of TGF beta. These activins are formed as dimers of the two beta-subunits of inhibin, probably as a result of the rearrangement of the gene products. This novel observation that different arrangements of gene products can result in opposite biological activities may thus reflect a wholly different level of control of FSH secretion. If such a phenomenon occurs in other biosystems, it would represent an important form of homeostatic mechanism for controlling biologically active substances. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)