Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased Expression and Role of Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin in Nasal Polyposis

Purpose Nasal polyposis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the upper airways often associated with asthma and characterized by markedly increased numbers of eosinophils, Th2 type lymphocytes, fibroblasts, goblet cells and mast cells. Previous studies have shown elevated levels of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) in atopic diseases like asthma, atopic dermatitis and mainly in animal models of allergic rhinitis (AR). Here, we investigated the expression of TSLP in nasal polyps from atopics and non-atopics in comparison with the nasal mucosa and its potential role in nasal polyposis. Methods Messenger RNA expression for TSLP, thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) and macrophage derived chemokine (MDC) in nasal polyps and nasal mucosa of atopics and non-atopics was analyzed by real time PCR. Immunoreactivity for TSLP in nasal polyps and in the nasal mucosa of patients with AR and non-allergic rhinitis (NAR) was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Eosinophil counts was analyzed by Wright-Giemsa staining and nasal polyp tissue IgE, by ELISA. Results Messenger RNA expression for TSLP,TARC and MDC was markedly higher in nasal polyps as compared to the allergic nasal mucosa. Immunoreactivity for TSLP was detected in epithelial cells, endothelial cells, fibroblasts and inflammatory cells of the nasal mucosa and nasal polyps. The number of TSLP+ cells was significantly greater in the nasal mucosa of AR than NAR patients. The number of TSLP+ cells in nasal polyps from atopics was significantly greater than that of non-atopics and that in the allergic nasal mucosa. The number of TSLP+ cells correlated well with the number of eosinophils and the levels of IgE in nasal polyps. Conclusions The high expression of TSLP in nasal polyps and its strong correlation to eosinophils and IgE suggest a potential role for TSLP in the pathogenesis of nasal polyps by regulating the Th2 type and eosinophilic inflammation.
Dynamic clustering in delaunay-based P2P networked virtual environments

Classical client/server approaches for Networked Virtual Environments (NVEs) require considerable server resources to support a large number of players. On the opposite peer-to-peer (p2p) architectures achieve the required scalability at much lower cost. The feasibility of a p2p approach to NVEs depends heavily on the fact that a given user is interested only in a small part of the virtual world. For this reason, the Delaunay network is an appealing solution, which organizes peers according to their position within the NVE. However, in a NVE players typically tend to aggregate around some attractive points. As the cost of maintenance of the Delaunay network increases with player density and velocity, some peers may see a considerable volume of maintenance traffic. To address this issue, we propose a dynamic clustering algorithm: each peer in the network monitors his cost of maintenance and triggers the creation of a cluster as soon as the volume of traffic generated exceeds a given threshold. Members of a cluster then expand their coordinates to increase their reciprocal distances. In this way, decreasing the concentration of players we achieve a diminution of the maintenance cost. To evaluate our clustering scheme we simulate a simple NVE and run an experiment in Second Life. The results we obtained show that our solution is effective in keeping the amount of maintenance traffic below a chosen threshold.
Investigation of intra-seasonal to multi-decadal variability in South Florida rainfall

We investigated different climatic factors affecting South Florida (climate divisions 4, 5 and 6) precipitation. The climatic indexes used here are based on over a century of global sea surface temperature anomalies. The climatic associations are studied for different seasons and in three frequency bands (intra-seasonal, inter-annual and decadal). We found that the known ENSO relationship for winter/spring (wetter than normal South Florida rainfall anomalies during El Niño) does not hold during the summer. We attribute this to an opposite relationship on intra-seasonal South Florida precipitation (dry during El Niño) that exists during that season. The ENSO associations with South Florida unfiltered precipitation depend on the different phases of the North Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific decadal variability. In general, decadal warming of the Eastern North Pacific and North Atlantic are associated with wetter decades of south Florida precipitation. Seasonal outlooks of south Florida precipitation ought to consider SST variability associated with ENSO, and from decadal modes of variability in the Pacific and the Atlantic.
SiZer for Exploration of Structures in Curves

Abstract In the use of smoothing methods in data analysis, an important question is which observed features are “really there,” as opposed to being spurious sampling artifacts. An approach is described based on scale-space ideas originally developed in the computer vision literature. Assessment of Significant ZERo crossings of derivatives results in the SiZer map, a graphical device for display of significance of features with respect to both location and scale. Here “scale” means “level of resolution”; that is, “bandwidth. ”
The Effect of Symbiotic Ant Colonies on Plant Growth: A Test Using an Azteca-Cecropia System

In studies of ant-plant mutualisms, the role that ants play in increasing the growth rates of their plant partners is potentially a key beneficial service. In the field, we measured the growth of Cecropia glaziovii saplings and compared individuals that were naturally colonized by Azteca muelleri ants with uncolonized plants in different seasons (wet and dry). We also measured light availability as well as attributes that could be influenced by the presence of Azteca colonies, such as herbivory, leaf nutrients (total nitrogen and δ15N), and investments in defense (total phenolics and leaf mass per area). We found that colonized plants grew faster than uncolonized plants and experienced a lower level of herbivory in both the wet and dry seasons. Colonized plants had higher nitrogen content than uncolonized plants, although the δ15N, light environment, total phenolics and leaf mass per area, did not differ between colonized and uncolonized plants. Since colonized and uncolonized plants did not differ in the direct defenses that we evaluated, yet herbivory was lower in colonized plants, we conclude that biotic defenses were the most effective protection against herbivores in our system. This result supports the hypothesis that protection provided by ants is an important factor promoting plant growth. Since C. glaziovii is widely distributed among a variety of forests and ecotones, and since we demonstrated a strong relationship with their ant partners, this system can be useful for comparative studies of ant-plant interactions in different habitats. Also, given this study was carried out near the transition to the subtropics, these results help generalize the geographic distribution of this mutualism and may shed light on the persistence of the interactions in the face of climate change.
Modern glacier velocities across the Icefield Ranges, St Elias Mountains, and variability at selected glaciers from 1959 to 2012

New high-resolution velocity maps of the eastern St Elias Mountains, North America, are obtained from speckle tracking of winter 2011 and 2012 RADARSAT-2 image pairs. This includes the most complete velocity mapping to date of Hubbard Glacier, allowing for an upward revision of the Hubbard Glacier calving flux to 5.48±1.16 km a. Combined with historical velocities from feature tracking of Landsat image pairs (1980s–2000s), and previously published results, these new velocity measurements allow for an evaluation of the interannual variability of motion at eight glaciers in this region, due to both long-term force-balance effects and surge dynamics. Multi-decadal velocities at the non-surge-type Kaskawulsh Glacier indicate little change along most of its length, except for the lowermost 10 km where deceleration has been pronounced since the late 1980s in a region that has undergone rapid recent thinning. Interannual variability of surge-type glaciers was high, with year-toyear velocity variations of up to several hundred ma. These glaciers were also characterized by distinct patterns of deceleration and/or acceleration along their length.
Effect of Feeding Bacillus subtilis natto on Hindgut Fermentation and Microbiota of Holstein Dairy Cows

The effect of Bacillus subtilis natto on hindgut fermentation and microbiota of early lactation Holstein dairy cows was investigated in this study. Thirty-six Holstein dairy cows in early lactation were randomly allocated to three groups: no B. subtilis natto as the control group, B. subtilis natto with 0.5×1011 cfu as DMF1 group and B. subtilis natto with 1.0×1011 cfu as DMF2 group. After 14 days of adaptation period, the formal experiment was started and lasted for 63 days. Fecal samples were collected directly from the rectum of each animal on the morning at the end of eighth week and placed into sterile plastic bags. The pH, NH3-N and VFA concentration were determined and fecal bacteria DNA was extracted and analyzed by DGGE. The results showed that the addition of B. subtilus natto at either treatment level resulted in a decrease in fecal NH3-N concentration but had no effect on fecal pH and VFA. The DGGE profile revealed that B. subtilis natto affected the population of fecal bacteria. The diversity index of Shannon-Wiener in DFM1 decreased significantly compared to the control. Fecal Alistipes sp. , Clostridium sp. , Roseospira sp. , beta proteobacterium were decreased and Bifidobacterium was increased after supplementing with B. subtilis natto. This study demonstrated that B. subtilis natto had a tendency to change fecal microbiota balance.
Long-Term Cold Acclimation Extends Survival Time at 0°C and Modifies the Metabolomic Profiles of the Larvae of the Fruit Fly Drosophila melanogaster

Background Drosophila melanogaster is a chill-susceptible insect. Previous studies on this fly focused on acute direct chilling injury during cold shock and showed that lower lethal temperature (LLT, approximately −5°C) exhibits relatively low plasticity and that acclimations, both rapid cold hardening (RCH) and long-term cold acclimation, shift the LLT by only a few degrees at the maximum. Principal Findings We found that long-term cold acclimation considerably improved cold tolerance in fully grown third-instar larvae of D. melanogaster. A comparison of the larvae acclimated at constant 25°C with those acclimated at constant 15°C followed by constant 6°C for 2 d (15°C→6°C) showed that long-term cold acclimation extended the lethal time for 50% of the population (Lt50) during exposure to constant 0°C as much as 630-fold (from 0.137 h to 86.658 h). Such marked physiological plasticity in Lt50 (in contrast to LLT) suggested that chronic indirect chilling injury at 0°C differs from that caused by cold shock. Long-term cold acclimation modified the metabolomic profiles of the larvae. Accumulations of proline (up to 17.7 mM) and trehalose (up to 36.5 mM) were the two most prominent responses. In addition, restructuring of the glycerophospholipid composition of biological membranes was observed. The relative proportion of glycerophosphoethanolamines (especially those with linoleic acid at the sn-2 position) increased at the expense of glycerophosphocholines. Conclusion Third-instar larvae of D. melanogaster improved their cold tolerance in response to long-term cold acclimation and showed metabolic potential for the accumulation of proline and trehalose and for membrane restructuring.
Construct validity of selected measures of physical activity beliefs and motives in fifth and sixth grade boys and girls.

OBJECTIVE Scales used to measure selected social-cognitive beliefs and motives for physical activity were tested among boys and girls. METHODS Covariance modeling was applied to responses obtained from large multi-ethnic samples of students in the fifth and sixth grades. RESULTS Theoretically and statistically sound models were developed, supporting the factorial validity of the scales in all groups. Multi-group longitudinal invariance was confirmed between boys and girls, overweight and normal weight students, and non-Hispanic black and white children. The construct validity of the scales was supported by hypothesized convergent and discriminant relationships within a measurement model that included correlations with physical activity (MET • min/day) measured by an accelerometer. CONCLUSIONS Scores from the scales provide valid assessments of selected beliefs and motives that are putative mediators of change in physical activity among boys and girls, as they begin the understudied transition from the fifth grade into middle school, when physical activity naturally declines.
Salinity Management in the Murray‐Darling Basin: A Transaction Cost Study

Transaction costs are fundamental to implementing, evaluating, and monitoring public policy/programs for social, economic, and/or environmental welfare. Empirical accounting for transaction costs helps identify and evaluate adaptive public policy or program arrangements that improve future institutional choices under uncertainty. However, examples of empirical transaction cost studies are few, due largely to persistent measurement challenges and limits to transaction cost comprehension. A lack of studies limits both insights into the importance of transaction costs in institutional design and validation of theories surrounding cost trajectories over time under different institutional arrangements. In this paper we apply time series analysis to a unique database of public salinity management program transaction costs in Australia's Murray‐Darling Basin. Our study provides insights into the role of transaction costs in institutional efficiency and on empirical approaches to considering relationships between observed transaction cost trajectories and the efficiency of associated institutions. Our results indicate that the Murray‐Darling Basin salinity management program succeeded in generating persistent declines in transaction costs and river salinity levels over time. We suggest some possible reasons for this that are associated with institutional design and reflect on what these findings may mean for other jurisdictions.
VUPIC: Virtual Machine Usage Based Placement in IaaS Cloud

Efficient resource allocation is one of the critical performance challenges in an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud. Virtual machine (VM) placement and migration decision making methods are integral parts of these resource allocation mechanisms. We present a novel virtual machine placement algorithm which takes performance isolation amongst VMs and their continuous resource usage into account while taking placement decisions. Performance isolation is a form of resource contention between virtual machines interested in basic low level hardware resources (CPU, memory, storage, and networks bandwidth). Resource contention amongst multiple co-hosted neighbouring VMs form the basis of the presented novel approach. Experiments are conducted to show the various categories of applications and effect of performance isolation and resource contention amongst them. A per-VM 3-dimensional Resource Utilization Vector (RUV) has been continuously calculated and used for placement decisions while taking conflicting resource interests of VMs into account. Experiments using the novel placement algorithm: VUPIC, show effective improvements in VM performance as well as overall resource utilization of the cloud.
Tradition and Innovation in Scientists’ Research Strategies

What factors affect a scientist’s choice of research problem? Qualitative research in the history and sociology of science suggests that this choice is patterned by an “essential tension” between productive tradition and risky innovation. We examine this tension through Bourdieu’s field theory of science, and we explore it empirically by analyzing millions of biomedical abstracts from MEDLINE. We represent the evolving state of chemical knowledge with networks extracted from these abstracts. We then develop a typology of research strategies on these networks. Scientists can introduce novel chemicals and chemical relationships (innovation) or delve deeper into known ones (tradition). They can consolidate knowledge clusters or bridge them. The aggregate distribution of published strategies remains remarkably stable. High-risk innovation strategies are rare and reflect a growing focus on established knowledge. An innovative publication is more likely to achieve high impact than a conservative one, but the additional reward does not compensate for the risk of failing to publish. By studying prizewinners in biomedicine and chemistry, we show that occasional gambles for extraordinary impact are a compelling explanation for observed levels of risky innovation. Our analysis of the essential tension identifies institutional forces that sustain tradition and suggests policy interventions to foster innovation.
Incorporating Yield Enhancement into the Floorplanning Process

The traditional goals of the floorplanning process for a new integrated circuit have been minimizing the total chip area and reducing the routing cost, i.e., the total length of the interconnecting wires. Recently, it has been shown that, for certain types of chips, the floorplan can affect the yield of the chip as well. Consequently, it becomes desirable to consider the expected yield, in addition to the cost of routing, when selecting a floorplan. The goal of this paper is to investigate the two seemingly unrelated, and often conflicting, objectives of yield enhancement and routing complexity minimization. We analyze the possible trade-offs between the two and then present a constructive algorithm for incorporating yield enhancement as a secondary objective into the floorplanning process, with the main objective still being the minimization of the overall routing costs.
Calcium-dependent molecular spring elements in the giant protein titin

Titin (also known as connectin) is a giant protein with a wide range of cellular functions, including providing muscle cells with elasticity. Its physiological extension is largely derived from the PEVK segment, rich in proline (P), glutamate (E), valine (V), and lysine (K) residues. We studied recombinant PEVK molecules containing the two conserved elements: ≈28-residue PEVK repeats and E-rich motifs. Single molecule experiments revealed that calcium-induced conformational changes reduce the bending rigidity of the PEVK fragments, and site-directed mutagenesis identified four glutamate residues in the E-rich motif that was studied (exon 129), as critical for this process. Experiments with muscle fibers showed that titin-based tension is calcium responsive. We propose that the PEVK segment contains E-rich motifs that render titin a calcium-dependent molecular spring that adapts to the physiological state of the cell.
Screening for risk factors of cardiometabolic disease among female university students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Results: The results showed that 22.4%, 8.5% and 11.2% of the women were overweight, obese, and underweight, respectively. Hemodynamic results indicated that of those overweight and obese, 9.4%and 21.1% were pre-hypertensive, respectively, while only 3 (1.3%) were hypertensive. Blood glucose results showed that 30 (13.5%) participants were pre-diabetic. Also, the BMI for overweight (26.9±1.54 kg/m)and obese (33.5±3.17 kg/m) categories indicated participants at the risk of CMD. Further analysis showed a statistically significant correlation between BMI and the following dependent measures: systolic (r = 0.352, p = 0.001) and diastolic (r = 0.136, p = 0.043) BP, waist circumference (r = 0.791, p = 0.001), and fasting blood glucose (r = 0.157, p = 0.019). BMI and age yielded a non-significant association (r = 0.023, p = 0.728). Results of adjusted regression coefficients indicated that BMI accounted for 65.6% of the variance in the women’s physiological variables.
Subclinical states of glucose intolerance and risk of death in the U.S.

OBJECTIVE Although clinically evident type 2 diabetes is a well-established cause of mortality, less is known about subclinical states of glucose intolerance. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Data from the Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Mortality Study, a prospective study of adults, were analyzed. This analysis focused on a nationally representative sample of 3,174 adults aged 30-75 years who underwent an oral glucose tolerance test at baseline (1976-1980) and who were followed up for death through 1992. RESULTS Using 1985 World Health Organization criteria, adults were classified as having previously diagnosed diabetes (n = 248), undiagnosed diabetes (n = 183), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (n = 480), or normal glucose tolerance (n = 2,263). For these groups, cumulative all-cause mortality through age 70 was 41, 34, 27, and 20%, respectively (P < 0.001). Compared with those with normal glucose tolerance, the multivariate adjusted RR of all-cause mortality was greatest for adults with diagnosed diabetes (RR 2.11, 95% CI 1.56-2.84), followed by those with undiagnosed diabetes (1.77, 1.13-2.75) and those with IGT (1.42, 1.08-1.87; P < 0.001). A similar pattern of risk was observed for cardiovascular disease mortality. CONCLUSIONS In the U.S., there was a gradient of mortality associated with abnormal glucose tolerance ranging from a 40% greater risk in adults with IGT to a 110% greater risk in adults with clinically evident diabetes. These associations were independent of established cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Critical analysis of results for a european GaN power amplifier after first iteration

This paper presents the results of the development of 2–6 GHz broadband high-power amplifiers (HPA) within the 1st iteration of the European Korrigan project. The HPAs were fabricated using AlGaN/GaN high electronic mobility transistors (HEMT) and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology. Two microstrip HPAs with output-stage active periphery of 4 mm and 8 mm are reported. The two-stage amplifiers were designed to be fully matched to 50 Ω input and output impedances. Based on a 0.5 µm gate-length microstrip HEMT technology, the MMICs were fabricated on a 70 µm thick SiC substrate. Under a 25 V DC bias condition the broadband amplifiers have exhibited about 18 dB small-signal gain. The 4mm-HPA delivers 10 W output power and 25% power added efficiency (PAE) in the 2–6 GHz frequency band, in continuous wave operation (CW) at Vds=25V. On the other hand, the 8mm-HPA delivers 16 W and 20% PAE in CW. In pulsed-mode, the output powers are 14 W and 25 W for the 4 mm and the 8 mm HPAs, respectively.