Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TLR4 Signaling Is a Major Mediator of the Female Tract Response to Seminal Fluid in Mice1

ABSTRACT Seminal fluid interacts with epithelial cells lining the female reproductive tract to induce expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, initiating immune tolerance mechanisms to facilitate pregnancy. TGFB cytokines are key signaling agents in seminal plasma but do not fully account for the female response to seminal fluid. We hypothesized that additional molecular pathways are utilized in seminal fluid signaling. Affymetrix microarray was employed to compare gene expression in the endometrium of mice 8 h after mating with either intact males or seminal fluid deficient (SVX/VAS) males. Bioinformatics analysis revealed TLR4 signaling as a strongly predicted upstream regulator activated by the differentially expressed genes and implicated TGFB signaling as a second key pathway. Quantitative PCR and microbead data confirmed that seminal fluid induces endometrial synthesis of several TLR4-regulated cytokines and chemokines, including CSF3, CXCL1, CXCL2, IL1A, IL6, LIF, and TNF. In primary uterine epithelial cells, CSF3, CXCL1, and CXCL2 were strongly induced by the TLR4 ligand LPS but suppressed by TGFB, while IL1A, TNF, and CSF2 were induced by both ligands. TLR4 was confirmed as essential for the full endometrial cytokine response using mice with a null mutation in Tlr4, where seminal fluid failed to induce endometrial Csf3, Cxcl2, Il6, and Tnf expression. This study provides evidence that TLR4 contributes to seminal fluid modulation of the periconception immune environment. Activation of TLR4 signaling by microbial or endogenous components of seminal fluid is thus implicated as a key element of the female tract response to seminal fluid at the outset of pregnancy in mice.
Double-blind single-session neurofeedback training in upper-alpha for cognitive enhancement of healthy subjects

This paper reports on a single-session neurofeedback (NF) training procedure on the user-specific upper alpha band for cognitive enhancement in healthy users. A double-blind study was designed using a NF group and an active control group. Control group performed as the NF group but received sham feedback, minimizing the non-specific factors of training. This design aimed to (i) investigate upper alpha as a NF parameter, (ii) evaluate the NF effects on upper alpha during the execution of a cognitive task, and (iii) evaluate the effects on cognitive performance by means of a cognitive task and a battery of psychological tests. Results of EEG analysis show the key role of the feedback: only the NF group enhanced upper alpha during the training, and it led to a desynchronization increase during the execution of the cognitive task. Regarding the behavioral results, a strong learning effect was observed, with the NF group performing better in almost all measurements but many of them without statistical significance.
Caveolin-1-Enhanced Motility and Focal Adhesion Turnover Require Tyrosine-14 but Not Accumulation to the Rear in Metastatic Cancer Cells

Caveolin-1 is known to promote cell migration, and increased caveolin-1 expression is associated with tumor progression and metastasis. In fibroblasts, caveolin-1 polarization and phosphorylation of tyrosine-14 are essential to promote migration. However, the role of caveolin-1 in migration of metastatic cells remains poorly defined. Here, caveolin-1 participation in metastatic cell migration was evaluated by shRNA targeting of endogenous caveolin-1 in MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells and ectopic expression in B16-F10 mouse melanoma cells. Depletion of caveolin-1 in MDA-MB-231 cells reduced, while expression in B16-F10 cells promoted migration, polarization and focal adhesion turnover in a sequence of events that involved phosphorylation of tyrosine-14 and Rac-1 activation. In B16-F10 cells, expression of a non-phosphorylatable tyrosine-14 to phenylalanine mutant failed to recapitulate the effects observed with wild-type caveolin-1. Alternatively, treatment of MDA-MB-231 cells with the Src family kinase inhibitor PP2 reduced caveolin-1 phosphorylation on tyrosine-14 and cell migration. Surprisingly, unlike for fibroblasts, caveolin-1 polarization and re-localization to the trailing edge were not observed in migrating metastatic cells. Thus, expression and phosphorylation, but not polarization of caveolin-1 favor the highly mobile phenotype of metastatic cells.
Climatic Regulation of Species Diversification and Extinction

Models for marine species diversity are proposed in which world oceans with mild, uniform climates are characterized by low species diversity while oceans with cooler polar waters and higher temperature gradients are characterized by high provinciality, high species diversity, and perhaps higher rates of phyletic evolution. Climates that fluctuate between cooling and warming trends will act to create species diversity and enrich the marine biota, whereas times of warming should be times of greatest extinction rates.
Glycosylated compounds from okra inhibit adhesion of Helicobacter pylori to human gastric mucosa.

In Asian medicine the fruit of the okra plant, Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench. , is used as a mucilaginous food additive against gastric irritative and inflammative diseases. To find a rational basis for its use against these diseases, several crude and purified carbohydrate-containing fractions from immature okra fruits were isolated and analyzed, and their effects against Helicobacter pylori in an in situ adhesion model on sections of human gastric mucosa were determined. Pretreatment of the bacteria with a fresh juice preparation inhibited the bacterial adhesion almost completely. Lyophilization and reconstitution of an extract solution led to a reduction of this effect. A crude polysaccharide (RPS) isolated from the fresh juice by ethanolic precipitation showed strong inhibitory effects. Further fractionation of RPS revealed a purified, highly acidic subfraction (AF III) with high antiadhesive qualities. Carbohydrate analysis revealed the presence of rhamnogalacturonans with a considerable amount of glucuronic acid, whereas other inactive subfractions contained little glucuronic acid or were glucuronic acid-free. After heat denaturation of the fresh juice or protein precipitation with 5% TCA the antiadhesive activity of the fresh extract was reduced, indicating that besides polysaccharides, protein fractions also exhibited antiadhesive properties. SDS-PAGE analysis of the precipitate revealed several bands of glycosylated proteins between 25 and 37 kDa that were almost diminished in the nonactive supernatant. Preincubations of gastric tissue with any of the active fractions did not lead to reduced bacterial binding. The antiadhesive activity is therefore due to the blocking capacity of specific Helicobacter surface receptors that coordinate the interaction between host and bacterium. Neither of the active fractions showed inhibitory effects on bacterial growth in vitro. The antiadhesive qualities of okra were assumed to be due to a combination of glycoproteins and highly acidic sugar compounds making up a complex three-dimensional structure that is fully developed only in the fresh juice of the fruit.
Modeling And Prediction of Long-Term Corrosion of Steel In Marine Environments

This paper reviews recent developments in the prediction of the likely future corrosion losses and of the maximum pit depth for steels exposed to marine environments. A robust mathematical model based on corrosion science principles and calibrated for immersion conditions to an extensive range of literature and new data is described. The model has provided explanations for the effects of steel composition, water velocity, depth of immersion and seawater salinity and also has facilitated new interpretations of data for long-term pitting corrosion. This paper briefly overviews these developments and refers to some typical applications, including marine corrosion of ship ballast tanks, corrosion of sheet piling in harbours and corrosion of offshore platform mooring chains.
Polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor and their associations with risk of schizophrenia and selected anthropometric measures

The association between vitamin D levels and skeletal growth has long been recognized. However, exposure to low levels of vitamin D during early life is also known to alter brain development, and is a candidate risk factor for schizophrenia. This study examines the association between four polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and 1) risk of schizophrenia, and 2) three anthropometric variables (height, head size, and head shape). Four single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; rs10735810/FokI, rs1544410/BsmI, rs7975232/ApaI, and rs731236/TaqI) in the VDR gene were genotyped in 179 individuals with schizophrenia and 189 healthy controls. No significant associations were detected between any of the four VDR SNPs and risk of schizophrenia. Patients were slightly but significantly shorter compared to controls. Of the four SNPs, only rs10735810/FokI was associated with any of the anthropometric measures: the M4 isoform of this SNP was significantly associated with larger head size (P = 0.002). In light of the evidence demonstrating a role for vitamin D during brain development, the association between polymorphisms in VDR and brain development warrants closer scrutiny. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:415–417, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On Optimal Secure Message Transmission by Public Discussion

In a secure message transmission (SMT) scenario, a sender wants to send a message in a private and reliable way to a receiver. Sender and receiver are connected by n wires, t of which can be controlled by an adaptive adversary with unlimited computational resources. In Eurocrypt 2008, Garay and Ostrovsky considered an SMT scenario where sender and receiver have access to a public discussion channel and showed that secure and reliable communication is possible when n ≥ t + 1. In this paper, we will show that a secure protocol requires at least three rounds of communication and two rounds invocation of the public channel and hence give a complete answer to the open question raised by Garay and Ostrovsky. We also describe a round optimal protocol that has constant transmission rate over the public channel.
Epidemiology of headache in Hong Kong primary-level schoolchildren: questionnaire study.

OBJECTIVE To collect and analyse epidemiological data on childhood headache in the Hong Kong community. DESIGN Questionnaire study. SETTING Three primary schools, Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS Two thousand, one hundred and twenty pupils from 2156 replied to the questionnaire survey. One hundred and twenty-four pupils who were identified to have suspected recurrent headache were invited to a follow-up medical consultation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Age-groups and prevalence of tension-type and migraine headache, using the diagnostic criteria of the International Headache Society. RESULTS The overall prevalence of headache in the 2120 respondents was 2.8%. The prevalence of tension-type headache, migraine, probable migraine, and unclassified headache were 1.2%, 0.5%, 0.7%, and 0.5%, respectively. The age-specific prevalence of headache from the age of 6 to 13 years showed a steadily increasing trend from childhood to the early teens. CONCLUSION Headache is a common complaint for children, although it may be underrecognised. Further study will be beneficial for providing better management of headache in this population.
Efficient Learning of Label Ranking by Soft Projections onto Polyhedra

We discuss the problem of learning to rank labels from a real valued feedback associated with each label. We cast the feedback as a preferences graph where the nodes of the graph are the labels and edges express preferences over labels. We tackle the learning problem by defining a loss function for comparing a predicted graph with a feedback graph. This loss is materialized by decomposing the feedback graph into bipartite sub-graphs. We then adopt the maximum-margin framework which leads to a quadratic optimization problem with linear constraints. While the size of the problem grows quadratically with the number of the nodes in the feedback graph, we derive a problem of a significantly smaller size and prove that it attains the same minimum. We then describe an efficient algorithm, called SOPOPO, for solving the reduced problem by employing a soft projection onto the polyhedron defined by a reduced set of constraints. We also describe and analyze a wrapper procedure for batch learning when multiple graphs are provided for training. We conclude with a set of experiments which show significant improvements in run time over a state of the art interior-point algorithm.
Chronic Morphine Up-Regulates Gα12 and Cytoskeletal Proteins in Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells Expressing the Cloned μ Opioid Receptor

A growing body of literature indicates that chronic morphine exposure alters the expression and function of cytoskeletal proteins in addition to the well established interactions between μ opioid receptors and G proteins. In the present study, we hypothesized that chronic morphine alters the expression and functional effects of Gα12, a G protein that regulates downstream cytoskeletal proteins via its control of RhoA. Our results showed that chronic morphine treatment decreased the expression of Gαi2 (64%) and Gαi3 (60%), had no effect of Gαo, and increased Gα12 (66%) expression in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells expressing the cloned human μ opioid receptors (hMOR-CHO cells) but not in cells expressing a mutant μ opioid receptor that do not develop morphine tolerance and dependence (T394A-CHO cells). Morphine treatment had no significant effect on PAR-1 thrombin receptor-activated G protein activity, as measured by thrombin-stimulated guanosine 5′-O-(3-[35S]thio)triphosphate binding. Chronic morphine treatment significantly enhanced thrombin-stimulated RhoA activity and thrombin-stimulated expression of α-actinin, a cytoskeletal anchoring protein, in hMOR-CHO cells. Proteomic analysis of two-dimensional gel spots prepared from hMOR-CHO cells showed that morphine treatment affected the expression of a number of proteins associated with morphological changes. Up-regulation of Gα12 and α-actinin by chronic morphine was also observed in mouse brain. Viewed collectively, these findings indicate, for the first time, that chronic morphine enhances the Gα12-associated signaling system, which is involved in regulating cellular morphology and growth, supporting other findings that chronic morphine may alter cellular morphology, in addition to cellular function.
Procyclicality of Capital Requirements in a General Equilibrium Model of Liquidity Dependence

This paper quantifies the procyclical effects of bank capital requirements in a general equilibrium model where financing of capital goods production is subject to an agency problem. At the center of this problem is the interaction between entrepreneurs’ moral hazard and liquidity provision by banks as analyzed by Holmstrom and Tirole (1998). We impose capital requirements under the assumption that raising funds through bank equity is more costly than through deposits. We consider the time-varying capital requirement (as in Basel II) as well as the constant requirement (as in Basel I). Importantly, under both regimes, the cost of issuing equity is higher during downturns. Comparing output fluctuations under the Basel I and Basel II economies with those in the no-requirement economy, we show that capital requirements significantly contribute to magnifying output fluctuations. The procyclicality is most pronounced around business cycle peaks and troughs.
Randomised placebo controlled trial of daytime function after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy for the sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome

BACKGROUND Patients with the sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome (SAHS) report improved sleepiness, cognitive function, and psychological well being after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, and it is for these daytime features that CPAP is usually given. However, few randomised or controlled studies exist on the effects of CPAP on daytime function. METHODS A prospective, randomised, single blind, placebo controlled, crossover trial of daytime function after CPAP was conducted in 23 patients with SAHS, all with ⩾15 apnoeas+hypopnoeas/hour and ⩾2 symptoms of SAHS. All patients spent four weeks on CPAP therapy and four weeks on oral placebo treatment, following randomisation to treatment order. With ethics committee approval, patients were told the placebo tablet might improve upper airway function. Average effective CPAP use was monitored using hidden time clocks. Assessments of objective and subjective sleepiness, symptoms, cognitive performance, and psychological well being were performed on the last day of each treatment and compared. RESULTS Objective sleepiness measured by sleep onset latency on the multiple sleep latency test improved with CPAP (mean difference from placebo +2.4 min, 95% CI 0.8 to 4.0; p<0.001) as did subjective sleepiness on the Epworth scale (mean difference –6, 95% CI –3 to –9; p = 0.001). Symptom total score also fell with CPAP (mean difference –1.6, 95% CI –2.2 to –1.0; p<0.001). No determinants of these changes with active treatment were identified, and no significant enhancements to cognitive function or psychosocial well being were found in this small sample. CONCLUSIONS These findings provide further evidence for clinically significant benefits to daytime function from CPAP.
Crystal structure of l-tryptophan–fumaric acid–water (1/1/1)

In the title compound, C11H12N2O2·C4H4O4·H2O, the l-tryptophan molecule crystallized as a zwitterion, together with a neutral fumaric acid molecule and a water solvent molecule. In the crystal, the three components are linked by a series of N—H⋯O, O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming slabs lying parallel to (001). The slabs are connected by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, involving inversion-related fumaric acid groups, leading to the formation of a three-dimensional structure.
Synthetic Images for Evaluating Topographic Correction Algorithms

In the last years, many topographic correction (TOC) methods have been proposed to correct the illumination differences between the areas observed by optical remote sensors. Although the available number of TOC methods is high, the evaluation of their performance generally relies on the existence of precise land-cover information, and a standardized and objective evaluation procedure has not been proposed yet. In this paper, we propose an objective procedure to assess the accuracy of these TOC methods on the basis of simulated scenes, i.e., synthetically generated images. These images represent the radiance an optical sensor would receive under specific geometric and temporal acquisition conditions and assuming a certain land-cover type. A simplified method for creating synthetic images using the state-of-the-art irradiance models is proposed, both considering the real topography of a certain area [synthetic real (SR) image] or considering the relief of this area as being completely flat [synthetic horizontal image (SH)]. The comparison between the corrected image obtained by applying a TOC method to the SR and SH images of the same area, allows assessing the performance of each TOC algorithm. This comparison is quantitatively carried out using the structural similarity index. The proposed TOC evaluation procedure is applied to a specific case study in northern Spain to explain its implementation and demonstrate its potential. The procedure proposed in this paper could be also used to assess the behavior of TOC methods operating under different scenarios considering diverse topographic, geometrical, and temporal acquisition configurations.
Fractional Order Modeling of a PHWR Under Step-Back Condition and Control of Its Global Power With a Robust ${\rm PI}^{\lambda} {\rm D} ^{\mu}$  Controller

Bulk reduction of reactor power within a small finite time interval under abnormal conditions is referred to as step-back. In this paper, a 500 MWe Canadian Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) type Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) is modeled using few variants of Least Square Estimator (LSE) from practical test data under a control rod drop scenario in order to design a control system to achieve a dead-beat response during a stepped reduction of its global power. A new fractional order (FO) model reduction technique is attempted which increases the parametric robustness of the control loop due to lesser modeling error and ensures iso-damped closed loop response with a PIλDμ or FOPID controller. Such a controller can, therefore, be used to achieve active step-back under varying load conditions for which the system dynamics change significantly. For closed loop active control of the reduced FO reactor models, the PIλDμ controller is shown to perform better than the classical integer order PID controllers and present operating Reactor Regulating System (RRS) due to its robustness against shift in system parameters.
Determination of Water Saturation in Relatively Dry Porous Media Using Gas‐Phase Tracer Tests

Soil desiccation (drying), induced by dry air injection and moist air extraction, is a potentially robust remediation process to slow migration of inorganic or radionuclide contaminants through the vadose zone. The application of gas‐phase partitioning tracer tests has been proposed as a means to estimate initial water volumes and to monitor the progress of the desiccation process at pilot tests and field sites. In this study, tracer tests were conducted in porous medium columns with various water saturations using SF6 as the conservative tracer and trichlorofluoromethane and difluoromethane as the water‐partitioning tracers. For porous media with minimal silt or organic matter fractions, tracer tests provided reasonable saturation estimates for saturations close to zero. For sediments with significant silt or organic matter fractions, however, tracer tests only provided satisfactory results when the water saturation was greater than 0.1 to 0.2. For drier conditions, the apparent tracer retardation increased due to air–soil sorption, which is not included in traditional retardation coefficients derived from advection–dispersion equations accounting only for air–water partitioning and water–soil sorption. Based on these results, gas‐phase partitioning tracer tests may be used to determine initial water volumes in sediments, provided that the initial water saturations are sufficiently large. Tracer tests are not suitable for quantifying moisture content in relatively dry sediments, however, especially if significant amounts of organic matter or silt are present.
Evaluating competitive advantage priorities of SMEs in Jordan

The current climate that Jordanian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face is quite fierce. Organisations in competing with products imported from Far East with fewer defects and lower prices are facing a life-or-death situation. In order to survive, it is vital that awareness on competitive advantage priorities should be made which gives managers a comprehensive evaluation tool that highlights how their companies are competing. The paper identifies and evaluates competitive advantage priorities based on the paradigms provided by the literature on competitive strategy and the perceptions of SMEs managers through a developed survey. The study reveals that cost, quality and delivery are the most important priorities among Jordanian SMEs. Also, the paper finds significant differences in the level of ranking in favour of those companies with higher percentage of exports to international markets which indicate that export-oriented companies are keener on improving their competitive priorities than those targeting local market.