Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Absence of RIP140 Reveals a Pathway Regulating glut4-Dependent Glucose Uptake in Oxidative Skeletal Muscle through UCP1-Mediated Activation of AMPK

Skeletal muscle constitutes the major site of glucose uptake leading to increased removal of glucose from the circulation in response to insulin. Type 2 diabetes and obesity are often associated with insulin resistance that can be counteracted by exercise or the use of drugs increasing the relative proportion of oxidative fibers. RIP140 is a transcriptional coregulator with a central role in metabolic tissues and we tested the effect of modulating its level of expression on muscle glucose and lipid metabolism in two mice models. Here, we show that although RIP140 protein is expressed at the same level in both oxidative and glycolytic muscles, it inhibits both fatty acid and glucose utilization in a fiber-type dependent manner. In RIP140-null mice, fatty acid utilization increases in the extensor digitorum longus and this is associated with elevated expression of genes implicated in fatty acid binding and transport. In the RIP140-null soleus, depletion of RIP140 leads to increased GLUT4 trafficking and glucose uptake with no change in Akt activity. AMPK phosphorylation/activity is inhibited in the soleus of RIP140 transgenic mice and increased in RIP140-null soleus. This is associated with increased UCP1 expression and mitochondrial uncoupling revealing the existence of a signaling pathway controlling insulin-independent glucose uptake in the soleus of RIP140-null mice. In conclusion, our findings reinforce the participation of RIP140 in the maintenance of energy homeostasis by acting as an inhibitor of energy production and particularly point to RIP140 as a promising therapeutic target in the treatment of insulin resistance.
Treating advanced non-small-cell lung cancer in Chinese patients: focus on icotinib

Icotinib hydrochloride is an orally administered small-molecule reversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor that has been independently researched and developed and has independent intellectual property rights in the People’s Republic of China. Clinical trials have demonstrated that the response to icotinib among advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who received at least one platinum-based chemotherapy regimen was not inferior to gefitinib. Since being launched August 2011 in the People’s Republic of China, icotinib has been widely used in clinics, and has become an important treatment option for Chinese patients with advanced NSCLC. The present study presents the Phase I, II, and III clinical trials of icotinib and discusses current clinical applications in the People’s Republic of China and future research directions.
Theory and Design of Soundfield Reproduction Using Continuous Loudspeaker Concept

Reproduction of a soundfield is a fundamental problem in acoustic signal processing. A common approach is to use an array of loudspeakers to reproduce the desired field where the least-squares method is used to calculate the loudspeaker weights. However, the least-squares method involves matrix inversion which may lead to errors if the matrix is poorly conditioned. In this paper, we use the concept of theoretical continuous loudspeaker on a circle to derive the discrete loudspeaker aperture functions by avoiding matrix inversion. In addition, the aperture function obtained through continuous loudspeaker method reveals the underlying structure of the solution as a function of the desired soundfield, the loudspeaker positions, and the frequency. This concept can also be applied for the 3-D soundfield reproduction using spherical harmonics analysis with a spherical array. Results are verified through computer simulations.
Time Series Classification by Class-Based Mahalanobis Distances

To classify time series by nearest neighbor, we need to specify or learn a distance. We consider several variations of the Mahalanobis distance and the related Large Margin Nearest Neighbor Classification (LMNN). We find that the conventional Mahalanobis distance is counterproductive. However, both LMNN and the class-based diagonal Mahalanobis distance are competitive.
The Influence of Pitch on Melodic Segmentation

Melodic segmentation is an important topic for music information retrieval, because it divides melodies into musically relevant units. Most influential theories on melodic segmentation of the last decades have stressed the role of pitch for melodic segmentation. The general assumption was, that relatively large changes or distances in any musical parameter like pitch, time, dynamics, or melodic movement mark segment boundaries. This has generally been accepted despite the lack of empirical studies. Here an empirical study is presented, that investigates the influence of inter-onset-intervals (IOI), intensity accents, pitch intervals, and pitch interval direction changes. The results show a significant influence only for IOIs and intensity, but neither for pitch intervals nor for changes in interval direction. The validity of the results and possible explanations are discussed and directions of further investigations are outlined.
The Brain as a Hierarchical Organization

Based on recent neuroscience evidence, we model the brain as a dual-system organization subject to three conflicts: asymmetric information, temporal horizon, and incentive salience. Under the first and second conflicts, we show that the uninformed system imposes a positive link between consumption and labor at every period. Furthermore, decreasing impatience endogenously emerges as a consequence of these two conflicts. Under the first and third conflicts, it becomes optimal to set a consumption cap. Finally, we discuss the behavioral implications of these rules for choice bracketing and expense tracking, and for consumption over the life cycle. (JEL D11, D74, D82, D87, D91)
Progeny from Sperm Obtained after Ectopic Grafting of Neonatal Mouse Testes1

Abstract Ectopic grafting of testicular tissue is a promising new approach that can be used to preserve testicular function. This technique has been used recently to differentiate the neonatal testes of different species, up to the level of complete spermatogenesis. This approach can be applied successfully to generate live progeny using sperm extracted from grafts originating from testes of newborn donors. The sperm are capable of supporting normal development and producing fertile male and female offspring after intracytoplasmic injection into mouse oocytes and embryo transfer into surrogate mothers. The grafted tissue was also capable of significantly normalizing reproductive hormone levels in the castrated recipients. This technique presents new avenues for experimentation. The recipient mouse can be regarded as a living incubator and a culture system of testicular tissue, allowing the experimental manipulation of several aspects of testis development and spermatogenesis. The successful generation of pups indicates that this technqiue can be used to study the testicular phenotype and to breed mutant or transgenic mouse strains with lethal postnatal phenotypes. The ability to generate sperm from the germ line ex vivo also paves the way for the development of new strategies for preserving fertility in boys undergoing cancer therapy.
Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Estimating Demand and Supply Functions for Differentiated Products

In choosing the level of quality to purchase, the buyer of a differentiated product also chooses a point on the marginal price schedule for that product. Hence, in general, the demand functions for product characteristics cannot be consistently estimated by ordinary least squares. Market equilibrium results in a matching of characteristics of demanders and suppliers. This matching restricts the use of buyer and seller characteristics as instruments when estimating demand and supply functions for product characteristics. The paper develops these issues. A stochastic structure for hedonic equilibrium models is then proposed, identification results are presented, and estimation procedures are outlined.
Mobile Communications in Mexico in the Latin American Context

The Latin American region has embraced the zeal for mobile technology that is sweeping the world. Indeed, the use of mobile telephony has increased dramatically, vastly surpassing all expectations for the industry. The level of mobile penetration in Latin America has grown so rapidly and in such magnitude in the past few years that it has left axed telephony behind: today, the penetration of mobile telephony is twice that of axed telephony and projections for growth point toward a further widening in the gap between the two. Although the tendency observed in the region mirrors a worldwide trend, the way mobile services are used in a developing region such as Latin America is very different from the developed regions of the world. Access to telecommunications is largely mobile and not axed; mobile services are a substitute—not a complement—to other services. While during the mid-eighties mobile telephony was considered a device to be used by the richest segments of the population, today mobile telephones reach into the poorest segments of the population, providing their only source of access.1 In fact, for some of the poorest segments of the population mobile telephony has become the central mode of communications in Latin America. In the region, despite several economic slumps, the number of mobile subscribers increased from 4 million in 1995 to almost 200 million at the end of 2005. One factor that has contributed to the expansion of the mobile network is the relatively more competitive market context in which it has developed. Compared to axed telephony, mobile has since its inception faced less regulatory restraints and has a signiacantly higher number of operators. Competition between mobile carriers has encouraged innovation, expanded the network, and reduced prices. Indeed, innovative pricing strategies such as prepaid subscription and calling party pays have contributed very signiacantly to the dramatic growth in mobile subscription. Today, however, this more competitive market structure appears to be confronted with the increasing market concentration the telecommunications sector is experiencing in Latin America. Despite the implementation of numerous promarket reforms whose objective was to promote the entrance of new players into the market, Latin America may be heading toward a duopoly market. Today, the Spanish arm Telefonica and the Mexican corporation Grupo Carso Telecom, owners of Telmex and Amer-
Is Parkinson’s Disease Acquired or Inherited?

ABSTRACT A considerable proportion of patients with Parkinson’s disease report having affected relatives. However, anamnestic data obtained from probands on the occurrence of secondary cases among their relatives are of limited value. In considering the possible role of heredity in Parkinson’s disease it is necessary to carefully distinguish between the disease and other disorders such as essential tremor and olivopontocerebellar atrophy which may manifest parkinsonian features. Controlled family studies have shown only a very slight excess of secondary cases among index siblings as compared to spouse siblings. The concordance rate for Parkinson’s disease among identical twins is extraordinarily low and does not significantly exceed that among fraternal twins or that expected from the prevalence rate among siblings found in the controlled family studies. The available evidence indicates that heredity plays no significant role in the etiology of Parkinson’s disease. Consequently the disease must be considered to be acquired.
Hyperspectral Image Compression: Adapting SPIHT and EZW to Anisotropic 3-D Wavelet Coding

Hyperspectral images present some specific characteristics that should be used by an efficient compression system. In compression, wavelets have shown a good adaptability to a wide range of data, while being of reasonable complexity. Some wavelet-based compression algorithms have been successfully used for some hyperspectral space missions. This paper focuses on the optimization of a full wavelet compression system for hyperspectral images. Each step of the compression algorithm is studied and optimized. First, an algorithm to find the optimal 3-D wavelet decomposition in a rate-distortion sense is defined. Then, it is shown that a specific fixed decomposition has almost the same performance, while being more useful in terms of complexity issues. It is shown that this decomposition significantly improves the classical isotropic decomposition. One of the most useful properties of this fixed decomposition is that it allows the use of zero tree algorithms. Various tree structures, creating a relationship between coefficients, are compared. Two efficient compression methods based on zerotree coding (EZW and SPIHT) are adapted on this near-optimal decomposition with the best tree structure found. Performances are compared with the adaptation of JPEG 2000 for hyperspectral images on six different areas presenting different statistical properties.
Sedimentology and Geochemistry of the 2930 Ma Red Lake–Wallace Lake Carbonate Platform, Western Superior Province, Canada

Chemical sedimentary rocks in the Red Lake–Wallace Lake area of the Canadian Shield form the Earth's oldest known carbonate platform and, as such, provide a unique opportunity to explore the floor of a 2930 Myr old warm, shallow sea. Peritidal depositional features dominate the platform top, ranging from colloform crusts, teepee structures, and evaporate pseudomorphs in the supratidal; pseudomorph crystal fans and laterally linked domal stromatolites, associated with stromatactis‐like structures, sheet cracks and liminoid fenestral fabrics extending from the lower supratidal through the intertidal; and herring‐bone cross‐stratification, isolated domal stromatolites and herring‐bone calcite cement in tidal channels. These lithofacies indicate a low energy, restricted evaporitic environment. Limited subtidal platform top deposits are characterized by laterally linked domal stromatolites and pseudomorph crystal fans on a larger scale than those found in the intertidal areas. A transitional lithofacies to deeper water were deposited further offshore. It consists of ribbon rock (mixed laminae and beds of carbonate, slate and iron oxide sediments), slump structures composed of intraclastic carbonate lithoclasts in a marl matrix and carbonate‐associated iron formation. Basinal deposits consist of chert and chert‐oxide facies iron formation. Peritidal lithofacies are composed of ferroan dolomite, whereas deep subtidal to upper slope lithofacies are composed of calcite. The dolomites have O and Sr isotopic ratios which were probably reset during dolomitization, whereas only O is altered in the limestones. The δ13C values for all the carbonate samples were 0 ± 1·1‰V‐PDB, with samples formed in deeper water having lighter δ13C values, suggesting the deeper open ocean had a lighter δ13C budget than water in the platform interior. Post Archean Australian Shale normalized rare earth element patterns for the carbonate samples have positive La and Eu anomalies, suprachondritic Y/Ho ratios and slight heavy rare earth element enrichment in most samples. Basin lithofacies are characterized by heavy rare earth element enrichment and positive Eu anomalies. One sample had a significant negative Ce anomaly. These data probably indicate restricted circulation in the supra and intertidal areas and possibly the development of spatially limited areas where oxygen production could move the redox boundary out into the water column.
Backpropagation Can Give Rise to Spurious Local Minima Even for Networks without Hidden Layers

We give an example of a neural net without hidden layers and with a sigmoid transfer function, together with a training set of binary vectors, for which the sum of the squared errors, regarded as a function of the weights, has a local minimum which is not a global minimum. The example consists of a set of 125 training instances, with four weights and a threshold to be learnt. We do not know if substantially smaller binary examples exist.
Cardiovascular disease risk in women with a history of spontaneous preterm delivery: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Increasing evidence suggests a relation between having had spontaneous preterm delivery and cardiovascular disease in the future. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the relation between a history of spontaneous preterm delivery and risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), stroke or overall cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods We carried out a systematic search in Medline (from 1966 to 17 July 2014) and Embase (from 1980 to 17 July 2014). We included studies with a cohort design assessing the relation between spontaneous preterm delivery and fatal or nonfatal IHD, stroke, or overall CVD. IHD, stroke and CVD were assessed through linkage with national registries. Hazard ratios (HRs) were pooled using a random-effects model. Results Of the 10 cohort studies included; sample sizes ranged from 3706 to 923,686 women and follow-up ranged from 12–35 years. Spontaneous preterm delivery was related to an increased risk of developing or dying from IHD (HR 1.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.22–1.57), stroke (HR 1.71, 95% CI 1.53–1.91) and overall CVD (relative risk (HR) 2.01, 95% CI 1.52–2.65). All studies found a positive effect, although substantial between-study heterogeneity was found for IHD and CVD. Conclusion Spontaneous preterm delivery is an independent risk factor for the development of IHD, stroke and overall CVD.
MyosinIIa contractility is required for maintenance of platelet structure during spreading on collagen and contributes to thrombus stability

Summary. Background: MyosinIIs are adenosine triphosphate‐driven molecular motors that form part of a cell’s contractile machinery. They are activated by phosphorylation of their light chains, by either activation of myosin light chain (MLC) kinase or inhibition of MLC phosphatase via Rho kinase (ROCK). MyosinIIa phosphorylation underlies platelet rounding and stress fiber formation. Objective: To identify the functional significance of myosinIIa in platelet spreading and thrombus formation on collagen using inhibitors of ROCK (Y27632) and myosinII (blebbistatin). Results: Stress fiber formation on collagen is inhibited by both Y27632 and blebbistatin. A substantial proportion of spread platelets generate internal holes or splits on collagen, presumably because of a reduction in contractile strength. Platelet integrity, however, is maintained. In an in vitro model, thrombus embolization on collagen is increased in the presence of Y27632 and blebbistatin at intermediate shear, leading to a reduction in platelet aggregate growth. Moreover, Y27632 causes a marked reduction in thrombus formation in an in vivo laser‐injury model. Conclusions: MyosinIIa contractility is required for maintenance of platelet structure during spreading on collagen and contributes to thrombus stability.
Comparison of Pharmacokinetics of the Sirolimus-Eluting Stent in Japanese Patients with Those in American Patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of the sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) implanted in 20 Japanese patients with angina pectoris and compare it with that in US study. Bx VELOCITY stent loaded with a total sirolimus dose of 150 μg was used in this study. Ten patients were treated by single-SES (group 1) and 10 patients were treated by double-SES (group 2). Sirolimus levels in whole blood were serially measured in the 2 groups after the SES implantation and compared with the pharmacokinetics in US study. We also evaluated the side effect of sirolimus, major adverse clinical events, and binary angiographic restenosis at 8 months after the SES implantation. Peak concentrations were observed approximately 4 hours after the SES implantation, and sirolimus half-lives were approximately 120 hours in each group. Mean peak sirolimus levels were 0.86 and 2.00 ng/mL for the group 1 and group 2, respectively. The peak concentrations of sirolimus in this study were twice higher in Japanese than in Americans, but they were much lower than effective concentration of sirolimus when orally administrated as an immunosuppressive agent. There were no side effects of sirolimus and no binary angiographic restenosis in any patients. One patient had target vessel revascularization at 8 months after the SES implantation. Although blood concentrations of sirolimus in Japanese patients after SES implantation are somewhat higher than those in American patients, its level is extremely low compared with the systemic administration, indicating the same clinical benefits by the SES could be safely expected in Japanese patients.
An anisotropic cosmological model with Bianchi type III universe in f(G) gravity

The paper is devoted to exploring the exact solution of the modified Einstein's field in the setting of spatially homogeneous and anisotropic Bianchi type III spacetime in modified f(G) gravity, where G is Gauss-Bonnet invariant. Here, by employing the hyperbolic hybrid scale factor a = emt (sinh(t))n in which m,n are positive constants, with the power-law f (G)=βGm+1 model where β,m are arbitrary constants, we computed the physical and geometrical properties of the cosmological parameters of the model. The results of the model parameters are well satisfied with recent cosmological observational data. To get the exact solution of the field equation of the Bianchi type III model in the presence of an anisotropic dark fluid, we consider the relation in which the shear scalar (σ) is proportional to the expansion scalar (θ), resulting in C = An. Furthermore, the energy conditions for the power-law f(G) model are graphically examined, and it turns out that the null energy condition (NEC), weak energy condition (WEC), and dominant energy condition (DEC) are well satisfied except for the strong energy condition (SEC). The violation of the strong energy conditions (SEC) indicates the f(G) model supports the universe's current expansion with negative pressure, having a quintessence model in the present and Λ cold dark matter (CDM) model in the future.
Diffusion Processes for Retrieval Revisited

In this paper we revisit diffusion processes on affinity graphs for capturing the intrinsic manifold structure defined by pair wise affinity matrices. Such diffusion processes have already proved the ability to significantly improve subsequent applications like retrieval. We give a thorough overview of the state-of-the-art in this field and discuss obvious similarities and differences. Based on our observations, we are then able to derive a generic framework for diffusion processes in the scope of retrieval applications, where the related work represents specific instances of our generic formulation. We evaluate our framework on several retrieval tasks and are able to derive algorithms that e. \, g. ~achieve a 100\% bulls eye score on the popular MPEG7 shape retrieval data set.