Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Apoptosis: its origin, history, maintenance and the medical implications for cancer and aging

Programmed cell death is a basic cellular mechanism. Apoptotic-like programmed cell death (called apoptosis in animals) occurs in both unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes, and some apoptotic mechanisms are observed in bacteria. Endosymbiosis between mitochondria and eukaryotic cells took place early in the eukaryotic evolution, and some of the apoptotic-like mechanisms of mitochondria that were retained after this event now serve as parts of the eukaryotic apoptotic machinery. Apoptotic mechanisms have several functions in unicellular organisms: they include kin-selected altruistic suicide that controls population size, sharing common goods, and responding to viral infection. Apoptotic factors also have non-apoptotic functions. Apoptosis is involved in the cellular aging of eukaryotes, including humans. In addition, apoptosis is a key part of the innate tumor-suppression mechanism. Several anticancer drugs induce apoptosis, because apoptotic mechanisms are inactivated during oncogenesis. Because of the ancient history of apoptosis, I hypothesize that there is a deep relationship between mitochondrial metabolism, its role in aerobic versus anaerobic respiration, and the connection between apoptosis and cancer. Whereas normal cells rely primarily on oxidative mitochondrial respiration, most cancer cells use anaerobic metabolism. According to the Warburg hypothesis, the remodeling of the metabolism is one of the processes that leads to cancer. Recent studies indicate that anaerobic, non-mitochondrial respiration is particularly active in embryonic cells, stem cells, and aggressive stem-like cancer cells. Mitochondrial respiration is particularly active during the pathological aging of human cells in neurodegenerative diseases. According to the reversed Warburg hypothesis formulated by Demetrius, pathological aging is induced by mitochondrial respiration. Here, I advance the hypothesis that the stimulation of mitochondrial metabolism leads to pathological aging.
New Punch-through Assisted Hot Holes Programming Mechanism for Reliable SONOS FLASH Memories with Thick Tunnel Oxide

This article reports a new, low voltage (VCG=-6V, VDS=5V) and medium power punch-through assisted hot holes (PAHH) programming mechanism for thick tunnel oxide SONOS. The mechanism is meant for short CG lengths and yields good memory characteristics: 5.5V VT window (symmetric around 0V), 100mus programming time, endurance of 10k cycles, excellent immunity to disturbs, and good memory retention. The presented operation scheme is suitable for reliable embedded SONOS flash memories in sub-100 nm CMOS generations.
The determination of the atmospheric optical thickness over Western Europe using SeaWiFS imagery

The first results obtained from the aerosol-cloud retrieval algorithm (developed at the University of Bremen) are presented. The algorithm enables the observation of the regional characteristics of aerosol and cloud optical thickness both over land and ocean surfaces. The aerosol and cloud optical thickness over Western Europe is derived from the high-resolution SeaWiFS data for October 11, 2001 (11:30 UTC). The most probable value of the aerosol optical thickness was found to be equal approximately 0.25. The frequency distributions of the aerosol and cloud optical thickness are skewed and have long tails for larger optical thickness. It was found that retrieved values of the aerosol optical thickness at wavelengths 0.412 and 0.440 /spl mu/m are close to those measured by five ground-based instruments placed at different locations. The problems related to the retrieval of the atmospheric optical thickness from space are discussed.
Correction APPLIED PHYSICAL SCIENCES Correction for “ Nucleation of metastable aragonite CaCO 3 in seawater

APPLIED PHYSICAL SCIENCES Correction for “Nucleation of metastable aragonite CaCO3 in seawater,” by Wenhao Sun, Saivenkataraman Jayaraman, Wei Chen, Kristin A. Persson, and Gerbrand Ceder, which appeared in issue 11, March 17, 2015, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (112:3199– 3204; first published March 4, 2015; 10.1073/pnas.1423898112). The authors note that, due to a printer’s error, the following text in the Abstract published incorrectly: In lines 22–23, “Mg–Ca ion concentrations” should instead appear as “Mg:Ca ion concentrations. ” The authors also note that on page 3203, right column, in the Acknowledgments section, lines 8–11 “Work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, under Contract DE-AC02-05CH11231” should instead appear as “Work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract DE-AC02-05CH11231. ”
Increased expression of the large subunit of ribonucleotide reductase is involved in resistance to gemcitabine in human mammary adenocarcinoma cells

Resistance to cytotoxic nucleoside analogues is a major problem in cancer treatment. The cellular mechanisms involved in this phenomenon have been studied for several years, and some factors have been identified. However, this resistance seems to be multifactorial and more studies are needed to gain better insight into this domain. For this purpose, we developed a gemcitabine-resistant cell line (MCF7 1K) from the human mammary adenocarcinoma MCF7 strain by prolonged exposure to gemcitabine in vitro. MCF7 1K cells are highly resistant to gemcitabine (533-fold) and cross-resistance is observed with araC (47-fold), triapine (14-fold), and hydroxyurea (6.7-fold). Quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR and Western blot analysis showed an increase in the gene and protein expression of the large subunit of ribonucleotide reductase, R1. Ribonucleotide reductase activity was also significantly increased in the gemcitabine-resistant cells. Study of genomic DNA showed 12-fold increase in R1 gene dosage in MCF7 1K cells. In contrast, the gene and protein expression of the small subunit of ribonucleotide reductase, R2, were not modified in this cell line. These results show that gemcitabine resistance can be associated with genetic modifications of target genes in malignant cells, and suggest that the large subunit of human ribonucleotide reductase is involved in the cellular response to gemcitabine.
Reasons for variability in the reported rate of occurrence of unilateral spatial neglect after stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We sought to determine the frequency of occurrence of contralesional unilateral spatial neglect (USN) after stroke and to investigate the effect of side of lesion, nature of assessment tool used, and timing of assessment relative to stroke onset. METHODS We performed a systematic review of published reports, identified by a search of electronic databases (MEDLINE 1966-1997, PSYCHLIT 1974-1996, and CINAHL 1982-1997) and by searching reference lists of the reports selected. Excluded were unpublished, non-English language, and nonhuman studies. RESULTS Thirty published reports met the selection criteria, 17 of which directly compared right brain damage (RBD) and left brain damage (LBD). Contralesional USN appeared to occur more frequently after RBD than LBD in 16 of these. Both the assessment tool used and the time of assessment relative to stroke onset affected the reported rate of occurrence, although recovery rate data were inadequate (4 reports). CONCLUSIONS The clinical belief that USN occurs more frequently after RBD than LBD was apparently supported by a systematic review of published data. However, an accurate estimate of the rates of occurrence and recovery after stroke could not be derived. Four reasons for the variability among studies were discussed, including subject selection, lesion localization, and nature and timing of assessment. Different USN disorders may exist, which may require type-specific rehabilitation approaches. This may have implications for epidemiological studies and for the development of new treatments. Theoretically driven epidemiological studies are required before adequately powered randomized controlled trials of rehabilitation can be conducted.
Flux Ratios as a Probe of Dark Substructures in Quadruple-Image Gravitational Lenses

We demonstrate that the flux ratios of quadruple-image lensed quasars provide a powerful means of probing the small-scale structure of dark matter halos. A family of smooth lens models can precisely predict certain combinations of flux ratios using only the positions of the images and the lens as inputs. Using five observed lens systems, we show that real galaxies cannot be described by smooth singular isothermal ellipsoids, nor by the more general elliptical power-law potentials. Large-scale distortions from the elliptical models cannot yet be ruled out. Nevertheless, we find by comparing with simulations that the data can be accounted for by a significant (≳5%) amount of dark substructures within a projected distance of several kiloparsecs from the center of the lenses. This interpretation favors the cold dark matter model over the warm or self-interacting dark matter models.
An RC time constant auto-tuning structure for high linearity continuous-time /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulators and active filters

An automatic RC time constant tuning scheme is proposed for high linearity continuous-time g/sub m/-C and active RC circuits in a low power consumption environment. Instead of changing the g/sub m/ (in g/sub m/-C filters), the RC time constant is tuned by discretely varying the integration capacitors to preserve a high linearity. The auto-tuning circuit, consisting of an analog integrator, a voltage comparator, and a digital tuning engine, generates a control word and sets on-chip capacitors to obtain an RC time-constant accuracy of /spl plusmn/2-10%. The proposed scheme is verified by the experimental results of a test chip in a 0.5 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. It achieves a peak S/(N+D) of 83 dB while a tuning range of over /spl plusmn/40% is accomplished.
Low-energy extreme-ultraviolet spectroscopy of Ru IV to Ru VIII using an electron beam ion trap

Astronomical observations of elements heavier than iron in stars are very crucial to understand stellar nucleosynthesis. Elements produced by the slow neutron-capture process, commonly known as the s-process, are particularly interesting in that respect because they provide information on the time-scales involved in the process. Ruthenium is among these elements. However, a direct identi cation of such elements is still not possible since wavelength positions cannot be computed precisely. Therefore, laboratory measurements are crucial to overcome this problem. In this thesis, measurements using an electron beam ion trap device were carried out. Using very low electron beam energies ruthenium ions in the charge states from Ru to Ru were produced. The uorescent emitted by these excited ions was recorded using a ateld grazing incidence spectrometer in a wavelength range of 15 nm to 24 nm. The experimental data unveiled a number of uorescent lines from ruthenium ions. The line positions and relative intensities were accurately extracted. These data may help to benchmark various theories which further may help to build precise astrophysical models to identify trans-irons lines from the stars. Zusammenfassung Astronomische Beobachtungen in Sternen von Elementen schwerer als Eisen sind zum besseren Verständnis der stellaren Nukleosynthese äuÿerst wichtig. Vor allem interessant sind Elemente, die durch langsamen Neutroneneinfang, bekannt als s-Prozess, erzeugt werden. Sie können Informationen über Zeitskalen liefern. Ein Vertreter solcher Elemente ist Ruthenium. Eine direkte Identi kation anhand von spektroskopischen Daten vieler solcher Elemente ist jedoch zurzeit nicht möglich, da die Berechnung ihrer Wellenlängen nicht genau genug ist. Deswegen sind Labormessungen unabdingbar. Die hier vorgestellten Messungen wurden am Max-PlanckInstitut für Kernphysik in einer Elektronenstrahl-Ionenfalle durchgeführt. Bei niedrigen Elektronenstrahlenergien wurden Ruthenium Ionen der Ladungsstände Ru bis Ru erzeugt. Ihre Fluoreszenz wurde mit einem Flachfeld-Weide-Inzidenzspektrometer in einem Wellenlängenbereich von 15 nm bis 24 nm spektroskopiert. Die experimentellen Daten führten zur Entdeckung einer Reihe von Spektrallinien, die Ruthenium Ionen niedriger Ladungszustände zuzuordnen sind. Linienpositionen und relativen Intensitäten wurden mit hoher Genauigkeit bestimmt. Diese Daten können als Vergleich für verschiedenen theoretische Modelle dienen. In Zukunft könnte dies einen Beitrag dazu leisten, genaue astrophysikalische Modelle zu entwickeln, welche die Linienidenti kation dieser Elemente ermöglichen. i
Estimating the heritability of female lifetime fecundity in a locally adapted Drosophila melanogaster population

The heritability of genome‐wide fitness that is expected in finite populations is poorly understood, both theoretically and empirically, despite its relevance to many fundamental concepts in evolutionary biology. In this study, we used two independent methods of estimating the heritability of lifetime female fecundity (the predominant female fitness component in this population) in a large, outbred population of Drosophila melanogaster that had adapted to the laboratory environment for over 400 generations. Despite strong directional selection on adult female fecundity, we uncovered high heritability for this trait that cannot be explained by antagonistic pleiotropy with juvenile fitness. The evolutionary significance of this high heritability of lifetime fecundity is discussed.
FPGA-based K-means clustering using tree-based data structures

K-means clustering is a popular technique for partitioning a data set into subsets of similar features. Due to their simple control flow and inherent fine-grain parallelism, K-means algorithms are well suited for hardware implementations, such as on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), to accelerate the computationally intensive calculation. However, the available hardware resources in massively parallel implementations are easily exhausted for large problem sizes. This paper presents an FPGA implementation of an efficient variant of K-means clustering which prunes the search space using a binary kd-tree data structure to reduce the computational burden. Our implementation uses on-chip dynamic memory allocation to ensure efficient use of memory resources. We describe the trade-off between data-level parallelism and search space reduction at the expense of increased control overhead. A data-sensitive analysis shows that our approach requires up to five times fewer computational FPGA resources than a conventional massively parallel implementation for the same throughput constraint.
Effects of almitrine on the release of catecholamines from the rabbit carotid body in vitro

1 . Almitrine increases ventilation by stimulating the carotid body (CB) arterial chemoreceptors but neither its intraglomic target nor its mechanism of action have been elucidated. 2 . We have tested the hypothesis that chemoreceptor cells are targets for almitrine by studying its effects on the release of 3H‐catecholamines in an in vitro rabbit CB preparation. 3 . It was found that almitrine (0.3 and 1.5 × 10−6 m; i.e. 0.2 and 1 mg l−1) increases the resting release of 3H‐catecholamines from CBs (previously loaded with [3H]‐tyrosine) incubated in a balanced 95% O2/5% CO2‐equilibrated solution. 4 . Almitrine at a concentration of 3×10−6 m (2mg l−1) also augmented the release of 3H‐catecholamines elicited by incubating the CBs in a hypoxic solution (equilibrated with 7% O2/5% CO2 in N2), by high external K+ (35 mm) and by veratridine (2 × 10−5 m), but did not modify release induced by dinitrophenol (7.5 × 10−5 m). 5 . At the same concentration (3 × 10−6 m), almitrine increased the rate of dopamine synthesis and was ineffective in modifying the cyclic AMP levels in either normoxic or hypoxic CBs. 6 . It is concluded that chemoreceptor cells are the intraglomic targets for almitrine. The mechanisms of action of almitrine on chemoreceptor cells are discussed.
A role for exercise after bariatric surgery?

Obesity predisposes an individual to develop numerous comorbidities, including type 2 diabetes, and represents a major healthcare issue in many countries worldwide. Bariatric surgery can be an effective treatment option, resulting in profound weight loss and improvements in metabolic health; however, not all patients achieve similar weight loss or metabolic improvements. Exercise is an excellent way to improve health, with well‐characterized physiological and psychological benefits. In the present paper we review the evidence to determine whether there may be a role for exercise as a complementary adjunct therapy to bariatric surgery. Objectively measured physical activity data indicate that most patients who undergo bariatric surgery do not exercise enough to reap the health benefits of exercise. While there is a dearth of data on the effects of exercise on weight loss and weight loss maintenance after surgery, evidence from studies of caloric restriction and exercise suggest that similar adjunctive benefits may be extended to patients who perform exercise after bariatric surgery. Recent evidence from exercise interventions after bariatric surgery suggests that exercise may provide further improvements in metabolic health compared with surgery‐induced weight loss alone. Additional randomized controlled exercise trials are now needed as the next step to more clearly define the potential for exercise to provide additional health benefits after bariatric surgery. This valuable evidence will inform clinical practice regarding much‐needed guidelines for exercise after bariatric surgery.
Silicon on Ferroelectric Insulator Field Effect Transistor (SOFFET): A Radical Alternative to Overcome the Thermionic Limit

The path of down-scaling traditional MOSFET is reaching its technological, economic and, most importantly, fundamental physical limits. Before the dead-end of the roadmap, it is imperative to conduct a broad research to find alternative materials and new architectures to the current technology for the MOSFET devices. Beyond silicon electronic materials like group III-V heterostructure, ferroelectric material, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and other nanowire-based designs are in development to become the core technology for non-classical CMOS structures. Field effect transistors (FETs) in general have made unprecedented progress in the last few decades by down-scaling device dimensions and power supply level leading to extremely high numbers of devices in a single chip. Highdensity integrated circuits are now facing major challenges related to power management and heat dissipation due to excessive leakage, mainly due to subthreshold conduction. Over the years, planar MOSFET dimensional reduction was the only process followed by the semiconductor industry to improve device performance and to reduce the
Validation of an Acute Ischemic Stroke Model: Does Diffusion-Weighted Imaging Lesion Volume Offer a Clinically Significant Improvement in Prediction of Outcome?

Background and Purpose— Prediction models for ischemic stroke outcome have the potential to contribute prognostic information in the clinical and/or research setting. The importance of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) in the prediction of clinical outcome, however, is unclear. The purpose of this study was to combine acute clinical data and DWI lesion volume for ischemic stroke patients to determine whether DWI improves the prediction of clinical outcome. Methods— Patients (N=382) with baseline DWI data from the Glycine Antagonist In Neuroprotection and citicoline (010 and 018) trials were used to develop the prediction models by multivariable logistic regression. Data from prospectively collected patients (N=266) from the Acute Stroke Accurate Prediction Study were used to externally validate the model equations. The models predicted either full recovery or nursing home–level disability/death, as defined by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, Barthel Index, or modified Rankin Scale. Results— The full-recovery models with DWI lesion volume had areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of 0.799 to 0.821, and those without DWI lesion volume had AUCs of 0.758 to 0.798. The nursing home–level disability/death models with DWI had AUCs of 0.832 to 0.882, and those without DWI had AUCs of 0.827 to 0.867. All models had mean absolute errors ≤0.4 for calibration. Conclusions— All 12 models had excellent discrimination and calibration, with 8 of 12 meeting prespecified performance criteria (AUC ≥0.8, mean absolute error ≤0.4). Although DWI lesion volume significantly increased model explanatory power, the magnitude of increase was not large enough to be clinically important.
On Matching Scores for LDA-based Face Verification

We address the problem of face verification using linear discriminant analysis and investigate the issue of matching score 1 . We establish the reason behind the success of the normalised correlation. The improved understanding about the role of metric then naturally leads to a novel way of measuring the distance between a probe image and a model. In extensive experimental studies on the publicly available XM2VTS database 2 using the Lausanne protocol 3 we show that the proposed metric is consistently superior to both the Euclidean distance and normalised correlation matching scores. The effect of various photometric normalisations 4 on the matching scores is also investigated.
A Circuit-Based Noise Parameter Extraction Technique for MOSFETs

Experimental verification of noise models is one of the major challenges in noise modeling. A circuit-based noise characterization technique is introduced which uses phase noise measurement data to extract MOSFET noise parameters. After a brief discussion on MOSFET noise, experimental data is presented on the severity of excess noise in a 0.18mum CMOS process using the proposed technique. It is shown that in this process, the noise power of minimum-channel-length devices is up to 6 dB larger than that of long-channel devices. The proposed technique can be used for model verification as well as for parameter extraction in developing CMOS processes.
Using Stereo Matching for 2-D Face Recognition Across Pose

We propose using stereo matching for 2-D face recognition across pose. We match one 2-D query image to one 2-D gallery image without performing 3-D reconstruction. Then the cost of this matching is used to evaluate the similarity of the two images. We show that this cost is robust to pose variations. To illustrate this idea we built a face recognition system on top of a dynamic programming stereo matching algorithm. The method works well even when the epipolar lines we use do not exactly fit the viewpoints. We have tested our approach on the PIE dataset. In all the experiments, our method demonstrates effective performance compared with other algorithms.