Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Different Roles of a Rat Cortical Thymic Epithelial Cell Line In Vitro on Thymocytes and Thymocyte Hybridoma Cells: Phagocytosis, Induction of Apoptosis, Nursing and Growth Promoting Activities

In this work, the interaction between a rat cortical thymic epithelial cell (TEC) line (R-TNC.1) with nursing activity and thymocytes as well as BWRT 8 thymocyte hybridoma (TH) cells has been studied. The R-TNC.1 cell line significantly bound thymocytes and TH. Binding was stronger during the first 30 min of cell incubation and was followed by a progressive deadhesion. Among adherent thymocytes the proportion of apoptotic cells increased with culture time which was a consequence of higher capacity of the line for binding of apoptotic than viable cells and induction of apoptosis in a subset of adherent thymocytes. Emperiopolesis activity of this thymic nurse cell (TNC) line was manifested by engulfment of thymocytes as well as TH cells. A subset of viable intra-TNC thymocytes has been triggered to die by apoptosis, whereas other internalized thymocytes have been stimulated to proliferate, as measured by an increase in the percentage of cells in mitosis and higher incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), in comparison to thymocytes cultivated alone. A significant stimulation of proliferation of engulfed TH cells was also observed. The R-TNC.1 cell line efficiently phagocytosed both apoptotic thymocytes and TH, and the process is followed by intra-TNC destruction of ingested cells. Cumulatively, these results suggest different role of the R-TNC.1 clone: phagocytosis of apoptotic cells; induction of apoptotic cell death in a subset of both bound and internalized thymocytes and stimulation of proliferation of a subset of intra-TNC thymocytes or TH cells.
The Effects of Ionized and Nonionized Compression Garments on Sprint and Endurance Cycling

Abstract Burden, RJ and Glaister, M. The effects of ionized and nonionized compression garments on sprint and endurance cycling. J Strength Cond Res 26(10): 2837–2843, 2012—The aim of this study was to examine the effects of ionized and nonionized compression tights on sprint and endurance cycling performance. Using a randomized, blind, crossover design, 10 well-trained male athletes (age: 34.6 ± 6.8 years, height: 1.80 ± 0.05 m, body mass: 82.2 ± 10.4 kg, V[Combining Dot Above]O2max: 50.86 ± 6.81 ml·kg−1·min−1) performed 3 sprint trials (30-second sprint at 150% of the power output required to elicit V[Combining Dot Above]O2max [pV[Combining Dot Above]O2max] + 3 minutes recovery at 40% pV[Combining Dot Above]O2max + 30-second Wingate test + 3 minutes recovery at 40% pV[Combining Dot Above]O2max) and 3 endurance trials (30 minutes at 60% pV[Combining Dot Above]O2max + 5 minutes stationary recovery + 10-km time trial) wearing nonionized compression tights, ionized compression tights, or standard running tights (control). There was no significant effect of garment type on key Wingate measures of peak power (grand mean: 1,164 ± 219 W, p = 0.812), mean power (grand mean: 716 ± 68 W, p = 0.800), or fatigue (grand mean: 66.5 ± 6.9%, p = 0.106). There was an effect of garment type on blood lactate in the sprint and the endurance trials (p < 0.05), although post hoc tests only detected a significant difference between the control and the nonionized conditions in the endurance trial (mean difference: 0.55 mmol·L−1, 95% likely range: 0.1–1.1 mmol·L−1). Relative to control, oxygen uptake (p = 0.703), heart rate (p = 0.774), and time trial performance (grand mean: 14.77 ± 0.74 minutes, p = 0.790) were unaffected by either type of compression garment during endurance cycling. Despite widespread use in sport, neither ionized nor nonionized compression tights had any significant effect on sprint or endurance cycling performance.
Locality-constrained and spatially regularized coding for scene categorization

Improving coding and spatial pooling for bag-of-words based feature design have gained a lot of attention in recent works addressing object recognition and scene classification. Regarding the coding step in particular, properties such as sparsity, locality and saliency have been investigated. The main contribution of this work consists in taking into acount the local spatial context of an image into the usual coding strategies proposed in the state-of-the-art. For this purpose, given an imgae, dense local features are extracted and structured in a lattice. The latter is endowed with a neighborhood system and pairwise interactions. We propose a new objective function to encode local features, which preserves locality constraints both in the feature space and the spatial domain of the image. In addition, an appropriate efficient optimization algorithm is provided, inspired from the graph-cut framework. In conjunction with the maximum-pooling operation and the spatial pyramid matching, that reflects a global spatial layout, the proposed method improves the performances of several state-of-the-art coding schemes for scene classification on three publicly available benchmarks (UIUC 8-sport, Scene-15 and Caltech-101).
Self-adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm for Constrained Real-Parameter Optimization

In this paper, we propose an extension of Self-adaptive Differential Evolution algorithm (SaDE) to solve optimization problems with constraints. In comparison with the original SaDE algorithm, the replacement criterion was modified for handling constraints. The performance of the proposed method is reported on the set of 24 benchmark problems provided by CEC2006 special session on constrained real parameter optimization.
Infeasibility detection in alternating direction method of multipliers for convex quadratic programs

We investigate the infeasibility detection in the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) when minimizing a convex quadratic objective subject to linear equalities and simple bounds. The ADMM formulation consists of alternating between an equality constrained quadratic program (QP) and a projection onto the bounds. We show that: (i) the sequence of iterates generated by ADMM diverges, (ii) the divergence is restricted to the component of the multipliers along the range space of the constraints and (iii) the primal iterates converge to a minimizer of the Euclidean distance between the subspace defined by equality constraints and the convex set defined by bounds. In addition, we derive the optimal value for the step size parameter in the ADMM algorithm that maximizes the rate of convergence of the primal iterates and dual iterates along the null space. In fact, the optimal step size parameter for the infeasible instances is identical to that for the feasible instances. The theoretical results allow us to specify a practical termination condition for infeasibility and the performance of such criterion is demonstrated in a model predictive control application.
Robot initiative in a team learning task increases the rhythm of interaction but not the perceived engagement

We hypothesize that the initiative of a robot during a collaborative task with a human can influence the pace of interaction, the human response to attention cues, and the perceived engagement. We propose an object learning experiment where the human interacts in a natural way with the humanoid iCub. Through a two-phases scenario, the human teaches the robot about the properties of some objects. We compare the effect of the initiator of the task in the teaching phase (human or robot) on the rhythm of the interaction in the verification phase. We measure the reaction time of the human gaze when responding to attention utterances of the robot. Our experiments show that when the robot is the initiator of the learning task, the pace of interaction is higher and the reaction to attention cues faster. Subjective evaluations suggest that the initiating role of the robot, however, does not affect the perceived engagement. Moreover, subjective and third-person evaluations of the interaction task suggest that the attentive mechanism we implemented in the humanoid robot iCub is able to arouse engagement and make the robot's behavior readable.
Learning Disability Status and Gender as Predictors of Self-Efficacy.

Learning Disability Status and Gender as Predictors of Self-Efficacy by Irene E. Aikhomu MEd, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, 1988 BEd, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, 1984 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University January 2015 Abstract In the school district under study, students with learning disabilities were underperforming when compared to students without disabilities. Research has indicated that improved self-efficacy can promote improved student outcomes and that selfefficacy can be taught. Despite this known association, the school district under study has not provided students with such support. The current study addressed ways in which thatIn the school district under study, students with learning disabilities were underperforming when compared to students without disabilities. Research has indicated that improved self-efficacy can promote improved student outcomes and that selfefficacy can be taught. Despite this known association, the school district under study has not provided students with such support. The current study addressed ways in which that gap may be attenuated. Guided by the framework of Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy and social cognitive theory, the purpose of this study was to explore (a) whether students’ perceptions of self-efficacy differed depending on whether or not they had diagnosed learning disabilities and (b) whether learning disability status and gender were predictors of self-efficacy. Bandura’s Children’s Perceived Self-Efficacy scale was used to examine students’ (N = 394) levels of self-efficacy in this causal-comparative study. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics (scale reliability analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and multiple regression). Results indicated that students with learning disabilities had lower levels of perceived self-efficacy, whether measured using the 7 subscales or the 3 overall scales, and that these differences were independent of gender. These results indicate a need for administrators and teachers to implement strategies to improve levels of self-efficacy for students with learning disabilities. Ultimately, improving students’ levels of self-efficacy could contribute to improved academic outcomes, thus promoting social change. Learning Disability Status and Gender as Predictors of Self-Efficacy by Irene E. Aikhomu MEd, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria BEd. , University of Maiduguri, Nigeria Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Education
Patterns of Expression of the Follistatin and Follistatin‐Like1 Genes During Chicken Heart Development: A Potential Role in Valvulogenesis and Late Heart Muscle Cell Formation

The regulation of concentration and function of growth factors is of crucial importance to proper embryonic development of the heart. The patterns of expression of three extracellular modulators of the transforming growth factor‐β superfamily of growth factors, Follistatin, Follistatin‐like1, and Follistatin‐like3, are described with respect to heart development. Follistatin is highly localized in the endocardium covering the developing cardiac valves. Follistatin‐like1 is localized in the mesenchymal filling of the pharyngeal arches and broadly expressed in cells directly bordering myocardium. Follistatin‐like3 is not expressed in the heart. Taken together, these observations are suggestive for a role for Follistatin in cardiac valvulogenesis and a role for Follistatin‐like1 in controlling late heart muscle cell formation. Anat Rec, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Applications of Mass Spectrometry Techniques in the Investigation of Milk Proteome

The introduction of “soft” desorption/ionization methods such as electrospray ionization and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization has determined a breakthrough in the application of mass spectrometry to the structural analysis of proteins. The contemporary advancement of bioinformatics, together with the possibility to combine these mass spectrometric methods with electrophoretic or chromatographic separation techniques has opened up the new field of proteome analysis and, more generally, has established these approaches as indispensable tools for protein and peptide analysis in complex mixtures, such as milk and milk-derived foods. Here, a necessarily not exhaustive series of current applications of mass spectrometry-based techniques for the characterization of milk proteins will be summarized. These include the characterization of milk protein polymorphism, determination of the structural modifications induced on milk proteins by industrial processes, investigation of milk adulterations and characterization of milk allergens.
Bone Marrow-Derived Cells from Male Donors Do Not Contribute to the Endometrial Side Population of the Recipient

Accumulated evidence demonstrates the existence of bone marrow-derived cells origin in the endometria of women undergoing bone marrow transplantation (BMT). In these reports, cells of a bone marrow (BM) origin are able to differentiate into endometrial cells, although their contribution to endometrial regeneration is not yet clear. We have previously demonstrated the functional relevance of side population (SP) cells as the endogenous source of somatic stem cells (SSC) in the human endometrium. The present work aims to understand the presence and contribution of bone marrow-derived cells to the endometrium and the endometrial SP population of women who received BMT from male donors. Five female recipients with spontaneous or induced menstruations were selected and their endometrium was examined for the contribution of XY donor-derived cells using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), telomapping and SP method investigation. We confirm the presence of XY donor-derived cells in the recipient endometrium ranging from 1.7% to 2.62%. We also identify 0.45–0.85% of the donor-derived cells in the epithelial compartment displaying CD9 marker, and 1.0–1.83% of the Vimentin-positive XY donor-derived cells in the stromal compartment. Although the percentage of endometrial SP cells decreased, possibly being due to chemotherapy applied to these patients, they were not formed by XY donor-derived cells, donor BM cells were not associated with the stem cell (SC) niches assessed by telomapping technique, and engraftment percentages were very low with no correlation between time from transplant and engraftment efficiency, suggesting random terminal differentiation. In conclusion, XY donor-derived cells of a BM origin may be considered a limited exogenous source of transdifferentiated endometrial cells rather than a cyclic source of BM donor-derived stem cells.
Summary of: ‘Unto Others. The evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior'

Introduction: Bentham's corpse. Part 1 Evolutionary altruism: altruism as a biological concept a unified evolutionary theory of social behaviour adaptation and multilevel selection group selection and human behaviour human groups as adaptive units. Part 2 Psychological altruism: motives as proximate mechanisms three theories of motivation psychological evidence psychological evidence philosophical arguments the evolution of psychological altruism. Conclusion pluralsim.
Impact of Age at Primary Breast Cancer on Contralateral Breast Cancer Risk in BRCA1/2 Mutation Carriers.

PURPOSE To determine prospectively overall and age-specific estimates of contralateral breast cancer (CBC) risk for young patients with breast cancer with or without BRCA1/2 mutations. PATIENTS AND METHODS A cohort of 6,294 patients with invasive breast cancer diagnosed under 50 years of age and treated between 1970 and 2003 in 10 Dutch centers was tested for the most prevalent BRCA1/2 mutations. We report absolute risks and hazard ratios within the cohort from competing risk analyses. RESULTS After a median follow-up of 12.5 years, 578 CBCs were observed in our study population. CBC risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers was two to three times higher than for noncarriers (hazard ratios, 3.31 [95% CI, 2.41 to 4.55; P < .001] and 2.17 [95% CI,1.22 to 3.85; P = .01], respectively). Ten-year cumulative CBC risks were 21.1% (95% CI, 15.4 to 27.4) for BRCA1, 10.8% (95% CI, 4.7 to 19.6) for BRCA2 mutation carriers and 5.1% (95% CI, 4.5 to 5.7) for noncarriers. Age at diagnosis of the first breast cancer was a significant predictor of CBC risk in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers only; those diagnosed before age 41 years had a 10-year cumulative CBC risk of 23.9% (BRCA1: 25.5%; BRCA2: 17.2%) compared with 12.6% (BRCA1: 15.6%; BRCA2: 7.2%) for those 41 to 49 years of age (P = .02); our review of published studies showed ranges of 24% to 31% before age 40 years (BRCA1: 24% to 32%; BRCA2:17% to 29%) and 8% to 21% after 40 years (BRCA1: 11% to 52%; BRCA2: 7% to 18%), respectively. CONCLUSION Age at first breast cancer is a strong risk factor for cumulative CBC risk in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. Considering the available evidence, age-specific risk estimates should be included in counseling.
Immunofluorescence identification of eosinophil granule major basic protein in the flame figures of Wells' syndrome

An indirect immunofluorescence assay using formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded skin was performed on six biopsies from four patients with eosinophilic cellulitis (Wells' syndrome) to determine the extracellular localization of eosinophil granule major basic protein (MBP). Serial sections from each biopsy were treated with either affinity chromatography‐purified antihuman‐ MBP or staphylococcal protein A purified rabbit IgG (control material). There was striking extracellular fluorescence localized to flame figures, and intracellular staining of eosinophils in all sections treated with anti‐MBP as compared with controls. The pattern of MBP extracellular staining corresponded to the configuration of each flame figure (as verified by counterstain of the same section with haematoxylin and eosin). These findings show that MBP can be used as a marker for determining eosinophil degranulation and, because MBP is localized to flame figures, they suggest that MBP may play a pathogenic role in Wells' syndrome.
Post-conflict behaviour of spectacled Langurs (Trachypithecus obscurus)

Studies of post-conflict behaviour in primates have two aims, 1) to uncover the fundamental mechanisms underlying conflict resolution, 2) to integrate patterns of reconciliation within broad models of socio-ecology. Comparative studies are vital in answering questions related to both of these problems. So far, research has focused mainly on members of the cercopithecine family and the great apes. Hypotheses derived from these studies predict that the "quality" of dyadic relationships, measured according to their value in terms of reproductive fitness, is a good predictor of the tendency to reconcile; and that high conciliatory tendencies are often associated with a high degree of social tolerance. In this study, two groups of spectacled langurs (members of the colobine family) were demonstrated to reconcile at high rates (41.3% and 51.3% of conflicts) and display relatively egalitarian social structures. Highly affiliative dyadic relationships were associated with high conciliatory tendencies. Other variables such as kinship and rank had little effect. In agreement with previous studies concerning highly conciliatory species, former opponents engaged in a specific behaviour (ventro-ventro hugging) during reconciliation which make these reunions highly visible or "explicit". Victims of aggression also contacted uninvolved third parties at high rates, and here too, hugging was demonstrated to occur significantly more often in this context than during control periods. There was some evidence of consolation, the first for any monkey species, where the distribution of hugging following a conflict was examined in one of the groups, although small sample sizes precluded its confirmation.
Learning the Roles of Directional Expressions and Domain Concepts in Financial News Analysis

Rapid development of natural language processing technologies has paved way for automatic sentiment analysis and emergence of robo-readers in computational finance. However, the technology is still in its nascent state. Distilling sentiment information from unstructured sources has turned out to be a complicated and strongly domain-dependent problem. To emulate the human ability to recognize financial sentiments in natural language by using machines, we need to provide them with (i) necessary ontological knowledge on the relevant domain-concepts, and (ii) learning strategies that help the machines to combine this knowledge with the syntactic structures extracted from text. In this paper, we present a knowledge-driven tree kernel framework for sentence-level analysis of financial news sentiments. Comparisons with linear kernels and classical lexicon-based systems suggest that significant performance gains can be achieved by incorporating information on financial concepts and their grammatical context. The framework is decomposable into learning, knowledge and syntactic structure components. Contribution of each part is separately examined using a human-annotated phrase-bank with close to 5000 sentences collected across a number of financial news sources. The proposed sentiment analysis framework is flexible and can be applied also outside financial domain. To evaluate cross-domain performance, a further comparison of the algorithms is done with datasets from non-financial domains including movie reviews and general political discussions.
Perception of complex coda clusters and the role of the SSP

Modern Persian permits coda clusters, many of which violate the Sonority Sequencing Principle. In a syllable counting task, Persian speakers consistently perceived clusters in CVCC target items as monosyllabic, whereas English speakers generally perceived clusters existing in English as monosyllabic but those not existing in English as bi-syllabic. Moreover, the latter were perceived as monosyllabic more frequently if they adhered to the SSP than if they did not. In a follow-up experiment, French speakers performed a similar task, related to the clusters of that language. It is anticipated that the French speakers will exhibit similar perceptual behavior demonstrating the influence of the native language when the cluster exists in French, and the influence of the SSP if it does not.