Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Participation of calcium and calmodulin in the formation of acetylcholine receptor clusters

The formation of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clusters can be experimentally induced in cultured Xenopus myotomal muscle cells by positive polypeptide-coated latex beads (Peng, H.B., P.-C. Cheng, and P.W. Luther, 1981, Nature [Lond.], 292:831-834). This provides a simple procedure for studying the cellular process of AChR clustering. In this study, the involvement of calcium and calmodulin in this process was examined. A deprivation in extracellular calcium by calcium-free medium or by the addition of calcium antagonists such as divalent cations Co2+ and Ni2+ (1-5 mM) or organic compounds verapamil and D-600 (0.1-0.5 mM) suppressed the formation of AChR clusters induced by the latex beads in a largely reversible manner. Antagonists against calmodulin, including trifluoperazine (1-5 microM) and the naphthalene sulfonamide W-7 (20 microM), also suppressed AChR clustering. However, the effect of W-7 was much weaker than that of trifluoperazine (TFP). Although the formation of AChR clusters is inhibited by these drugs, the stability of the existent clusters is relatively insensitive to them. These data suggest that the clustering of AChR involves a Ca2+ and calmodulin- activated process. Immunofluorescence studies using an antibody against calmodulin indicate that calmodulin is diffusely distributed in the cytoplasm in addition to its localization at the I-bands. Thus I propose that a local rise in intracellular calcium caused by a locally applied stimulus, exemplified here by the polypeptide-coated latex beads, may trigger the formation of AChR clusters. Furthermore, the cellular machinery for this process may involve calmodulin and is diffusely distributed in the muscle cell.
On delivery guarantees of face and combined greedy-face routing in ad hoc and sensor networks

It was recently reported that all known face and combined greedy-face routing variants cannot guarantee message delivery in arbitrary undirected planar graphs. The purpose of this article is to clarify that this is not the truth in general. We show that specifically in relative neighborhood and Gabriel graphs recovery from a greedy routing failure is always possible without changing between any adjacent faces. Guaranteed delivery then follows from guaranteed recovery while traversing the very first face. In arbitrary graphs, however, a proper face selection mechanism is of importance since recovery from a greedy routing failure may require visiting a sequence of faces before greedy routing can be restarted again. A prominent approach is to visit a sequence of faces which are intersected by the line connecting the source and destination node. Whenever encountering an edge which is intersecting with this line, the critical part is to decide if face traversal has to change to the next adjacent one or not. Failures may occur from incorporating face routing procedures that force to change the traversed face at each intersection. Recently observed routing failures which were produced by the GPSR protocol in arbitrary planar graphs result from incorporating such a face routing variant. They cannot be constructed by the well known GFG algorithm which does not force changing the face anytime. Beside methods which visit the faces intersected by the source destination line, we discuss face routing variants which simply restart face routing whenever the next face has to be explored. We give the first complete and formal proofs that several proposed face routing, and combined greedyface routing schemes do guarantee delivery in specific graph classes or even any arbitrary planar graphs. We also discuss the reasons why other methods may fail to deliver a message or even end up in a loop.
Enzyme-free glucose sensor based on ferrite magnetic nanoparticles / Zohreh Shahnavaz

Magnetic nanoparticles have gained great interest recently due to their unique properties which stood up as the candidate constructing novel sensing devices; particularly in electrochemical sensors. The main goal of this research is to develop a sensitive enzyme-free glucose sensor based on nanocomposite comprises of magnetic nanoparticles, embedded in polymer matrix or graphene oxide. This is accomplished by preparation of four types of nanocomposites, namely polypyrrole (PPy) coated copper iron oxide (CuFe2O4/PPy), polypyrrole coated zinc iron oxide (ZnFe2O4/PPy), copper iron oxide reduced graphene oxide (CuFe2O4/rGO) and zinc iron oxide reduced graphene oxide (ZnFe2O4/rGO). The morphology and surface property of coating phenomenon of prepared nanocomposites were examined by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). In the first two mentioned composites, SEM and TEM images displayed the spherical shape of CuFe2O4 and ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 20 to 90 nm. The XRD and FTIR analyses confirmed that CuFe2O4 and ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles served as the nucleation sites for the polymerization of pyrrole as there is no chemical interaction between them. For the other two nanocomposites which were modified with reduced graphene oxide, SEM and TEM images showed the dispersion of magnetic nanoparticles on the graphene nanosheets which pre-synthesized via hydrothermal method. This finding is further confirmed by XRD and FTIR which supported the reduction of GO and the presence of ZnFe2O4 and CuFe2O4 nanoparticles which distributed within the graphene sheets. The sensor performance based on CuFe2O4/PPy nanocomposite showed a highly active electrochemical surface area and a fascinating electro-catalytic activity for the glucose oxidation. In the amperometric detection of glucose, CuFe2O4/PPy nanocomposite modified glassy carbon electrode exhibited detection limit and sensitivity of 0.1 μM and
Rapid quantification of oxygen tension in blood flow with a fluorine nanoparticle reporter and a novel blood flow‐enhanced‐saturation‐recovery sequence

We present a novel blood flow‐enhanced‐saturation‐recovery (BESR) sequence, which allows rapid in vivo T1 measurement of blood for both 1H and 19F nuclei. BESR sequence is achieved by combining homogeneous spin preparation and time‐of‐flight image acquisition and therefore preserves high time efficiency and signal‐to‐noise ratio for 19F imaging of circulating perfluorocarbon nanoparticles comprising a perfluoro‐15‐crown‐5‐ether core and a lipid monolayer (nominal size = 250 nm). The consistency and accuracy of the BESR sequence for measuring T1 of blood was validated experimentally. With a confirmed linear response feature of 19F R1 with oxygen tension in both salt solution and blood sample, we demonstrated the feasibility of the BESR sequence to quantitatively determine the oxygen tension within mouse left and right ventricles under both normoxia and hyperoxia conditions. Thus, 19F BESR MRI of circulating perfluorocarbon nanoparticles represents a new approach to noninvasively evaluate intravascular oxygen tension. Magn Reson Med, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Re-architecting datacenter networks and stacks for low latency and high performance

Modern datacenter networks provide very high capacity via redundant Clos topologies and low switch latency, but transport protocols rarely deliver matching performance. We present NDP, a novel data-center transport architecture that achieves near-optimal completion times for short transfers and high flow throughput in a wide range of scenarios, including incast. NDP switch buffers are very shallow and when they fill the switches trim packets to headers and priority forward the headers. This gives receivers a full view of instantaneous demand from all senders, and is the basis for our novel, high-performance, multipath-aware transport protocol that can deal gracefully with massive incast events and prioritize traffic from different senders on RTT timescales. We implemented NDP in Linux hosts with DPDK, in a software switch, in a NetFPGA-based hardware switch, and in P4. We evaluate NDP's performance in our implementations and in large-scale simulations, simultaneously demonstrating support for very low-latency and high throughput.
Differentiation of inner ear stem cells to functional sensory neurons

Inner ear stem cells can be isolated by neurosphere formation from the vestibular organs and the cochlea. The cells are pluripotent, with the potential to become hair cells and neurons, the cochlear cell types whose loss causes deafness. Here we describe the control of cell fate decisions that determine the phenotype adopted by these progenitors, and we determine whether differentiation to sensory neurons is preferred over other types of neurons. Differentiation of progenitor cells recapitulated developmental pathways of embryonic sensory neurons. Based on marker expression, retinoic acid increased the yield of neurons and the percentage of sensory neurons obtained and caused a sharp increase in Pax2, a key transcription factor of cranial placodes. Markers of embryonic auditory and other sensory neurons, GATA3, Brn3a, and islet1, could be detected after 3 days of differentiation of the cells, and markers of the sensory phenotype, peripherin, calretinin, TrkC, and TrkB were expressed after 10 days. The differentiated cells had tetrodotoxin‐sensitive sodium currents and fired action potentials, and recordings revealed functional AMPA type‐glutamate receptors, further indicating that these cells had developed neuronal features. Neurons differentiated from these stem cells grew processes to hair cells in vitro. Development of functional activity in cells with the markers of sensory neurons suggested that the inner ear stem cells might have the capacity to replace cells lost due to neural degeneration. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 2008
NTT infrared imaging of star cluster candidates towards the central parts of the Galaxy

We address the issue whether the central parts of the Galaxy harbour young clusters other than Arches, Quintuplet and the Nuclear Young Cluster. A large sample of centrally projected cluster candidates has been recently identified from the 2MASS J,H and Ks Atlas. We provide a catalogue of higher angular resolution and deeper images for 57 2MASS cluster candidates, obtained with the near-IR camera SOFI at the ESO NTT telescope. We classify 10 objects as star clusters, some of them deeply embedded in gas and/or dust clouds. Three other objects are probably star clusters, although the presence of dust in the field does not exclude the possibility of their being field stars seen through low-absorption regions. Eleven objects are concentrations of stars in areas of little or no gas, and are classified as dissolving cluster candidates. Finally, 31 objects turned out to be the blend of a few bright stars, not resolved as such in the low resolution 2MASS images. By combining the above results with other known objects we provide an updated sample of 42 embedded clusters and candidates projected within 7 ◦ . As a first step we study Object 11 of Dutra & Bica (2000) projected at ≈1 ◦ from the nucleus. We present H and Ks photometry and study the colour-magnitude diagram and luminosity function. Object 11 appears to be a less massive cluster than Arches or Quintuplet, and it is located at a distance from the Sun d� ≈ 8 kpc, with a visual absorption AV ≈ 15.
Design of low power fixed-width multiplier with row bypassing

This paper presents a low power fixed-width multiplier with row bypassing (FWM-RB) for multimedia applications. When the operands of the multiplier are zero, significant power reductions can be achieved if that particular row is disabled. This is done with the help of multiplexers incorporated in the Modified Full Adder (MFA). The design is developed by using Verilog-HDL and implemented using Cadence typical libraries of TSMC 90 nm technology with a supply voltage of 1.2 V. This work evaluates the performance of power, area and delay of fixed-width multipliers and it has been shown that the proposed architecture consumes lesser power as compared to the conventional fixed-width multipliers.
P S ] 2 4 M ar 2 00 3 Continuous families of embedded solitons in the third-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation

The nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a third-order dispersive term is considered. Infinite families of embedded solitons, parameterized by the propagation velocity, are found through a gauge transformation. By applying this transformation, an embedded soliton can acquire any velocity above a certain threshold value. It is also shown that all these families of embedded solitons are linearly stable, but nonlinearly semi-stable.
Do Lending Relationships Matter? Evidence from Bank Survey Data in Germany

Strong lending relationships between banks and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in the bank-based financial system of Germany. So far, they have been mainly described by the notion of a housebank and transactional features of long-term bank-customer relationships. In contrast, the present paper also considers interactional variables which try to measure social relations between loan officer and firm manager. Using bank survey data, the relationship and interaction variables prove to affect loan prices, collateral requirements and credit availability.
Cohort effects and structural changes in the mortality trend

In Portugal, as in other developed countries, substantial mortality gains have occurred at all ages in recent decades. An exploratory study of the patterns of mortality decline in Portugal over the last sixty years shows that, although age-specific death rates have declined at all ages, the rhythm at which specific rates have been improving differs between ages and over periods of time. In particular, an apparently odd pattern of mortality improvement was detected in the male population, suggesting that over time a specific group of male individuals might have experienced a non-declining or even increasing mortality. Also, the presence of structural changes in overall mortality time trend in several European countries (Coelho and Nunes, 2011), among them Portugal, has brought up questions about why such changes have occurred. In this paper we focus on such questions. Specifically, we explore the presence of cohort effects as a possible reason behind the structural changes. We make use of several model specifications, namely the classical log-linear age-period-cohort (APC) model as well as more complex models with age-period and age-cohort interactions. A simulation study allows us to understand the impacts of ignoring important features in mortality modeling.
Tissue elasticity reconstruction using linear perturbation method

A new method to reconstruct the elastic modulus of soft tissue subjected to an external static compression is presented. In this approach the Newton-Raphson method is used to vary a finite element (FE) model of the elasticity equations to fit, in a least squared sense, a set of axial tissue displacement fields estimated using a correlation technique applied to ultrasound signals. The ill-conditioning of the Hessian matrix is eliminated using the Tikhonov regularization technique. This regularization provides a compromise between fidelity to the observed data and a priori information of the solution. Using an echographic image formation model, it is shown that the method converges within a few iterations (8-10) and that strain images artifacts which are common in elastography are significantly reduced after the resolution of the inverse problem.
Influence of individual characteristics, perceived usefulness and ease of use on mobile entertainment adoption

This study aims at empirically investigating the influence of individual characteristics, Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) on the Consumer Intention to Use (CIU) mobile entertainment (m-entertainment/ME) in Malaysia. This study employs the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the context of m-entertainment (ME) by incorporating individual characteristics with TAM to provide better understanding and insights about the adoption of ME among Malaysians. The findings revealed that PU, PEOU, academic qualification and past adoption behaviour as factors that influence Malaysian ME adoption. This study contributed to better understanding and insights regarding factors that influence ME adoption. This study has successfully incorporated individual characteristics with the TAM. The enhanced model offers a greater understanding of user acceptance of ME in Malaysia.
Bone marrow manifestations in multicentric Castleman disease

This study aimed to document the morphological and immunophenotypic features, and describe the diagnostic features of bone marrow (BM) involvement in human herpes virus 8 Multicentric Castleman disease (HHV8‐MCD). BM trephine biopsy (BMTB) specimens from 28 patients were revisited. Samples were evaluated for expression of CD3, CD20, CD138, CD68R, glycophorin C, CD42b, HHV8‐latency‐associated nuclear antigen (LANA1), Epstein–Barr virus‐encoded small RNA and light chains. Presence of significant numbers of HHV8‐LANA1+ lymphoid/plasmacytic cells, noted in 10/28 cases, was indicative of BM involvement and was associated with low CD4 and CD8 counts in peripheral blood. The characteristic morphological appearance of MCD seen in lymph nodes is a rare finding in BMTB. 4/5 cases with lymphoid aggregates were involved by MCD, whereas 6/23 cases without lymphoid aggregates were involved by MCD (P = 0·023). 9/18 cases with hypercellular marrow were involved by MCD, whilst only 1/8 cases with normo/hypocellular marrow showed involvement by MCD (P = 0·070). While 9/21 cases with increased marrow reticulin were involved by MCD, none of the cases with no increase in reticulin were involved by MCD (P = 0·080). Reactive plasmacytosis is a frequent finding. We conclude that bone marrow is involved in a significant proportion of patients with MCD (36%), and involvement can be identified by HHV8‐LANA1 immunohistochemistry.
Occupational variations in obesity, smoking, heavy drinking, and non-adherence to physical activity recommendations: findings from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey.

BACKGROUND Understanding occupational variations in health risks is necessary to identify high risk groups. We examined the recent prevalence of obesity, heavy alcohol consumption, smoking, and leisure time physical activity (PA) across occupations. METHODS Data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey were used. Analysis was limited to adults, 18 and older who had a job or business the week before the interview (n = 14,754). Adjusted prevalences of outcomes across occupations were calculated using logistic regression. RESULTS The highest prevalence of obesity was within community and social services and morbid obesity was in computer and mathematical occupations. That of smoking was highest in healthcare support, heavy drinking in food preparation and serving related, and non-adherence to PA recommendations in the farming, fishing, and forestry occupations. CONCLUSION Important health risk factors vary across occupations. Worksite and public health interventions need to be designed and modified to address such occupational health disparities.
Lithium Niobate Optical Waveguides and Microwaveguides

Lithium niobate has attracted much attention since the 1970s due to its capacity to modify the light by means of an electric control. In this chapter, we review the evolution of electrooptical (EO) lithium niobate waveguides throughout the years, from Ti-indiffused wave- guides to photonic crystals. The race toward ever smaller EO components with ever-lower optical losses and power consumption has stimulated numerous studies, the challenge consisting of strongly confining the light while preserving low losses. We show how waveguides have evolved toward ridges or thin film-based microguides to increase the EO efficiency and reduce the driving voltage. In particular, a focus is made on an easy-to-implement technique using a circular precision saw to produce thin ridge waveguides or suspended membranes with low losses. helps preventing from optical leakage in the electrodes, and it also helps to achieve index matching between the electrical and optical propagating waves.
Clinical neuroimaging and electrophysiological assessment of three DYT6 dystonia families

The purpose of the study was to delineate clinical and electrophysiological characteristics as well as laryngoscopical and transcranial ultrasound (TCS) findings in THAP1 mutation carriers (MutC). According to recent genetic studies, DYT6 (THAP1) gene mutations are an important cause of primary early‐onset dystonia. In contrast to DYT1 mutations, THAP1 mutations are associated with primary early‐onset segmental or generalised dystonia frequently involving the craniocervical region and the larynx. Blood samples from twelve individuals of three German families with DYT6 positive index cases were obtained to test for THAP1 mutations. Eight THAP1 MutC were identified. Of these, six (three symptomatic and three asymptomatic) THAP1 MutC could be clinically evaluated. Laryngoscopy was performed to evaluate laryngeal dysfunction in patients. Brainstem echogenicity was investigated in all MutC using TCS. Two of the patients had undergone bilateral pallidal DBS. In all three symptomatic MutC, early‐onset laryngeal dystonia was a prominent feature. Laryngeal assessment demonstrated adductor‐type dystonia in all of them. On clinical examination, the three asymptomatic MutC also showed subtle signs of focal or segmental dystonia. TCS revealed increased substantia nigra (SN) hyperechogenicity in all MutC. Intraoperative microelectrode recordings under general anesthesia in two of the patients showed no difference between THAP1 and previously operated DYT1 MutC. The presence of spasmodic dysphonia in patients with young‐onset segmental or generalised dystonia is a hallmark of DYT6 dystonia. SN hyperechogenicity on TCS may represent an endophenotype in these patients. Pallidal DBS in two patients was unsatisfactory. © 2010 Movement Disorder Society
Toward Routine Automatic Pathway Discovery from On-line Scientific Text Abstracts.

We are entering a new era of research where the latest scientific discoveries are often first reported online and are readily accessible by scientists worldwide. This rapid electronic dissemination of research breakthroughs has greatly accelerated the current pace in genomics and proteomics research. The race to the discovery of a gene or a drug has now become increasingly dependent on how quickly a scientist can scan through voluminous amount of information available online to construct the relevant picture (such as protein-protein interaction pathways) as it takes shape amongst the rapidly expanding pool of globally accessible biological data (e.g. GENBANK) and scientific literature (e.g. MEDLINE). We describe a prototype system for automatic pathway discovery from on-line text abstracts, combining technologies that (1) retrieve research abstracts from online sources, (2) extract relevant information from the free texts, and (3) present the extracted information graphically and intuitively. Our work demonstrates that this framework allows us to routinely scan online scientific literature for automatic discovery of knowledge, giving modern scientists the necessary competitive edge in managing the information explosion in this electronic age.