Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reactive Oxygen Species as Intracellular Messengers During Cell Growth and Differentiation

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated following ligand-receptor interactions and function as specific second messengers in signaling cascades involved in cell proliferation and differentiation. Although ROS are generated intracellularly by several sources, including mitochondria, the primary sources of ROS involved in receptor-mediated signaling cascades are plasma membrane oxidases, preferentially NADPH oxidases, with a rapid kinetics of activation and inactivation. This allows a tight up- and downregulation of intracellular ROS levels within the short time required for the transduction of signals from the plasma membrane to the cell nucleus. The mode of action of ROS may involve direct interaction with specific receptors, and/or redox-activation of members of signaling pathways such as protein kinases, protein phosphatases, and transcription factors. Furthermore, ROS act in concert with intracellular Ca2+ in signaling pathways which regulate the balance of cell proliferation versus cell cycle arrest and cell death. The delicate intracellular interplay between oxidizing and reducing equivalents allows ROS to function as second messengers in the control of cell proliferation and differentiation.
MOEA/D with Adaptive IWO for Synthesizing Phase-Only Reconfigurable Linear Arrays

In order to well solve the phase-only reconfigurable arrays synthesis problems, we introduce an adaptive strate- gy in invasive weed optimization (IWO), and integrate the adaptive IWO (AIWO) into the framework of MOEA/D, a popular multi-objective algorithm. Then, a new version of MOEA/D with adaptive IWO, named MOEA/D-AIWO is pro- posed in this paper for solving the synthesis problems. In MOEA/D-AIWO, the proposed adaptive strategy is adopted for improving search ability and balancing diversity and convergence. We introduce an adaptive standard deviation, which changes not only with the increase of evolution generations, but also exponentially with the fitness function value of each individual. This strategy improves the convergence rate and helps the seeds escape from local optimum. Taking advantage of the powerful searching ability of invasive weeds and well framework of MOEA/D, the overall performance of the pro- posed MOEA/D-AIWO is illustrated in solving two sets of phase-only reconfigurable arrays synthesis problems. Compar- ing results with MOEA/D-IWO (MOEA/D with original IWO) and MOEA/D-DE are also provided in this paper.
QoS estimators for client-side dynamic server selection: limitations and keys

The traditional way to cope with the increasing number of users in distributed information services is to use server replication, but additional and complementary strategies have been proposed in the last few years, in this paper, we evaluate those server selection strategies in which, by means of a packet burst sent from the client side, some QoS parameters such as delay, available bandwidth and packet loss can be estimated. In particular, our study is focused on the estimation of available bandwidth, proposing a two-step algorithm to measure it in the path to each server. Ethernet, ISDN and ADSL technologies have been used, and different scenarios and packet conditions have been tested in order to identify the limitations and design keys of bandwidth estimation methods.
Human Mental Models of Humanoid Robots

Effective communication between a person and a robot may depend on whether there exists a common ground of understanding between the two. In two experiments modelled after human-human studies we examined how people form a mental model of a robot’s factual knowledge. Participants estimated the robot’s knowledge by extrapolating from their own knowledge and from information about the robot’s origin and language. These results suggest that designers of humanoid robots must attend not only to the social cues that robots emit but also to the information people use to create mental models of a robot.
The Gender Congruity Effect: Evidence from Spanish and Catalan

In five picture-word interference experiments we explore the gender congruity effect observed in Dutch in two languages, Spanish and Catalan. Participants' performance was not affected by the relationship between the gender of the picture and the gender of the word. The results show that the gender congruity effect is not a universal effect, but varies from language to language, depending on crucial characteristics of the gender/determiner selection system used to process a given language. Consistent with the crosslinguistic hypothesis presented by Miozzo and Caramazza we argue that the retrieval of the noun's gender is enough to specify the determiner's phonological form in Dutch, but not in Catalan or Spanish, and this is the cause of the failure to replicate the Dutch results in these two languages.
Evaluation of 17 CE‐marked HBsAg assays with respect to clinical sensitivity, analytical sensitivity, and hepatitis B virus mutant detection

Seventeen HBsAg assays, in use in the European market (CE‐marked), were assessed for their diagnostic sensitivity using 38 commercially available seroconversion panels, and for their analytical sensitivity with the HBsAg ad and ay standards of the Paul‐Ehrlich‐Institut (PEI). In addition, the ability to detect HBsAg mutants was investigated by means of 21 recombinant HBsAg mutant samples and 5 natural mutants. Analysis of seroconversion data revealed that there were marked differences in the sensitivity among the CE‐marked HBsAg assays. Differences in the window period between the most and the least sensitive assays were up to 2 weeks. Analytical sensitivities of the investigated assays ranged from 0.009 to 0.05 PEI‐U/ml for HBsAg ad standard (relating to ≈0.018 to 0.100 IU/ml of the 2nd WHO HBsAg standard) and 0.012 to 0.11 PEI‐U/ml for the ay standard. Clinical and analytical sensitivities were basically correlated. The capacity to detect mutant HBsAg forms was influenced by the assay format and the properties of the monoclonal antibodies used for coating of the solid phase or in the conjugate. While some assays detected all mutants others exhibited weaknesses especially in recognising HBsAg mutations affecting loop 2 of the HBsAg a‐determinant. The results obtained with the recombinant mutants were largely confirmed by the investigation of clinical samples. The study gives a broad overview of the current state of the art of about 70% of the HBsAg assays currently available in Europe. The overall sensitivity has not been improved further since 1995 when the most sensitive assay was introduced into the market. In addition, detection of HBsAg mutants seems problematic with several assays. It is concluded that there is potential to improve clinical sensitivity and mutant recognition of HBsAg assays. J. Med. Virol. 78:S66–S70, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Distance constrained labeling on graphs with bounded neighborhood diversity

We study the complexity of a group of distance-constrained graph labeling problems when parameterized by the neighborhood diversity ($nd$), which is a natural graph parameter between vertex cover and clique width. Neighborhood diversity has been used to generalize and speed up \sf{FPT} algorithms previously parameterized by vertex cover, as is also demonstrated by our paper. We show that the {\sc Uniform Channel Assignment} problem is fixed parameter tractable when parameterized by $nd$ and the largest weight and that every {\sc $L(p_1, p_2,\dots, p_k)$-labeling} problem is \sf{FPT} when parameterized by $nd$, maximum $p_i$ and $k$. These results furthermore yield an \sf{FPT} algorithms for {\sc $L(p_1, p_2,\dots, p_k)$-labeling} and {\sc Channel Assignment} problems when parameterized by vertex cover size, answering an open question of Fiala et al.: {\emph Parameterized complexity of coloring problems: Treewidth versus vertex cover}, generalizing their results beyond $L(2,1)$-labeling, and tightening the complexity gap to clique width, where the problems are already hard for constant clique width.
Acute Megakaryoblastic Leukemia in Children: Diagnosis and Management Challenges in Resource-Poor Countries

Acute Megakaryoblastic Leukemia (AMKL) is a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukemia classified as AML M7 by the French-American-British (FAB) Leukemia Cooperative Study Group. We reviewed the records of children aged less than 18 years with AMKL during the period from January 2003 to December 2010. The diagnosis of AMKL was established on the basis of the FAB criteria and confirmed by immunophenotyping. Eight cases were assigned for this period. The incidence rate of AMKL was 5.5 % of AML. The median age at the time of diagnosis was 1 year. The karyotype presented translocation (1, 22) in two cases. One girl had Down syndrome (DS). Treatment included two inductions based on daunorubicin and cytosine arabinoside (7+3) followed by two consolidations with high dose of cytosine arabinoside (16 g/m 2 ). Complete remission (CR) was achieved in 3 patients (43%). One patient underwent allogeneic stem cell transplant (SCT) and is still enjoying continuous CR 5 years after treatment. Other patients died from failure or relapse. In this small series from a single institution, reported incidence of AMKL is underestimated probably due to the difficulties of diagnosis. The prognosis was poor, particularly because of unavailability of intensified chemotherapy treatment and allogeneic SCT.
Perceived Stress at Work Is Associated with Lower Levels of DHEA-S

Background It is known that long-term psychosocial stress may cause or contribute to different diseases and symptoms and accelerate aging. One of the consequences of prolonged psychosocial stress may be a negative effect on the levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulphated metabolite dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S). The aim of this study is to investigate whether levels of DHEA and DHEA-S differ in individuals who report perceived stress at work compared to individuals who report no perceived stress at work. Methods Morning fasting DHEA-S and DHEA levels were measured in serum in a non-stressed group (n = 40) and a stressed group (n = 41). DHEA and DHEA-S levels were compared between the groups using ANCOVA, controlling for age. Results The mean DHEA-S levels were 23% lower in the subjects who reported stress at work compared to the non-stressed group. Statistical analysis (ANCOVA) showed a significant difference in DHEA-S levels between the groups (p = 0.010). There was no difference in DHEA level between the groups. Conclusions This study indicates that stressed individual have markedly lower levels of DHEA-S. Given the important and beneficial functions of DHEA and DHEA-S, lower levels of DHEA-S may constitute one link between psychosocial stress, ill health and accelerated ageing.
Ultrasonic time-of-flight estimation through unscented Kalman filter

This paper deals with distance or level measurements based on ultrasonic time-of-fight estimation. Moving from a past experience concerning the proposal of a method based on discrete extended Kalman filter (DEKF) to overcome some limitations of already available ultrasonic-based techniques, a new digital signal processing method capable of granting further improvements is presented. The method is based on the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), which is a new extension of the Kalman filter theory mandated to face some DEKF problems, mainly due to its inherent linearization approach. To this aim, UKF is applied to the acquired ultrasonic signal in order to estimate the returned echo envelope as well as to locate its onset more accurately. After describing key features and implementation issues of the new method, the results obtained in a number of tests on simulated and actual ultrasonic signals, which assess its reliability and effectiveness as well as advantages with respect to the previous one, are given.
Evaluating tangible paradigms for ground robot teleoperation

Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) exhibit innovative interaction paradigms, for example through motion sensing, tactile feedback, or gesturing. Whilst wide spread in human-computer interaction, their value in robotic systems has still to be assessed. In this paper, we present some results obtained through an extensive experimental evaluation of motion sensing interaction paradigms implemented on TUIs for the teleoperation of ground robots. Once analyzed the collected data, in order to evince relevant properties of TUIs, we provide a detailed discussion of our results in terms of mission-related performance, environment conditions, robot operation degree, and human cognitive effort. Our belief is that such a study represents a valuable step towards a formal assessment of tangible interfaces in robotics.
Dynamic Interaction of Spindles and Gamma Activity during Cortical Slow Oscillations and Its Modulation by Subcortical Afferents

Slow oscillations are a hallmark of slow wave sleep. They provide a temporal framework for a variety of phasic events to occur and interact during sleep, including the expression of high-frequency oscillations and the discharge of neurons across the entire brain. Evidence shows that the emergence of distinct high-frequency oscillations during slow oscillations facilitates the communication among brain regions whose activity was correlated during the preceding waking period. While the frequencies of oscillations involved in such interactions have been identified, their dynamics and the correlations between them require further investigation. Here we analyzed the structure and dynamics of these signals in anesthetized rats. We show that spindles and gamma oscillations coexist but have distinct temporal dynamics across the slow oscillation cycle. Furthermore, we observed that spindles and gamma are functionally coupled to the slow oscillations and between each other. Following the activation of ascending pathways from the brainstem by means of a carbachol injection in the pedunculopontine nucleus, we were able to modify the gain in the gamma oscillations that are independent of the spindles while the spindle amplitude was reduced. Furthermore, carbachol produced a decoupling of the gamma oscillations that are dependent on the spindles but with no effect on their amplitude. None of the changes in the high-frequency oscillations affected the onset or shape of the slow oscillations, suggesting that slow oscillations occur independently of the phasic events that coexist with them. Our results provide novel insights into the regulation, dynamics and homeostasis of cortical slow oscillations.
Tracheobronchial Cytologic Changes during Prolonged Cannulation

The tracheobronchial cytology of eighteen patients undergoing prolonged mechanical ventilation were examined for the type of cell population present, together with the morphologic integrity of the ciliated epithelial cells 1, 3, 5, 10, and 20 days after tracheal cannulation. Smears obtained from patients recovering from cardiac surgery were different from all others in that: (1) they contained fewer epithelial cells (ciliated and squamous) which disappeared earlier; (2) they initially had more pus cells which appeared earlier; (3) they originally contained more histiocytes but these were not found after the 5th day after cannulation; and (4) their ciliated epithelial cells displayed more cytomorphologic changes. Differences in cytology were attributed to impaired cardiac output in these patients. The reduced perfusion pressure of the vasculature of their tracheobronchial tree was presumably unable to sustain the lateral wall pressure of tube cuffs pressure, which further impaired tracheal perfusion. Less reparative processes (squamous metaplasia and early appearance of histiocytes) were also found in patients following cardiac surgery, together with early invasion of smears by pus cells indicating premature lowered resistance to bacterial infection.
Cross-layer directional antenna MAC protocol for wireless ad hoc networks

In this paper, we propose a directional antenna medium access (DAMA) protocol and its enhanced version called enhanced DAMA (EDAMA), which takes advantage of the benefits offered by directional antennas. Both of these schemes have been inspired by the IEEE 802.11 MAC, with major enhancements including a new neighbor discovery scheme, an optimized circular directional transmission of RTS and CTS to prevent the hidden node problem, reduce collisions and decrease node deafness, and also a multi-buffer management scheme. A pair of communicating nodes using these schemes simultaneously transmits the circular directional RTS and CTS only to those sectors with neighbors, hence reducing overall communication delay and enhancing throughput. The main difference between DAMA and EDAMA lies in the way buffering is provided in the MAC layer. Unlike DAMA, which uses a single MAC buffer for all antenna beams as in IEEE 802.11, EDAMA employs separate buffers for each of the antenna sectors and introduces an integrated network and MAC cross-layer design. This helps in eliminating the ‘self-induced blocking’ problem prominent in existing directional MAC protocols. We have compared DAMA, EDAMA, IEEE 802.11, and two recently proposed directional MAC protocols, and results show that DAMA and EDAMA perform better than existing MAC protocols in the majority of the scenarios investigated, while EDAMA is observed to perform best. We also point out that the performance usually depends on the network topology and traffic pattern. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Antibody 2G12 Recognizes Di-Mannose Equivalently in Domain- and Nondomain-Exchanged Forms but Only Binds the HIV-1 Glycan Shield if Domain Exchanged

ABSTRACT The broadly neutralizing anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) antibody 2G12 targets the high-mannose cluster on the glycan shield of HIV-1. 2G12 has a unique VH domain-exchanged structure, with a multivalent binding surface that includes two primary glycan binding sites. The high-mannose cluster is an attractive target for HIV-1 vaccine design, but so far, no carbohydrate immunogen has elicited 2G12-like antibodies. Important questions remain as to how this domain exchange arose in 2G12 and how this unusual event conferred unexpected reactivity against the glycan shield of HIV-1. In order to address these questions, we generated a nondomain-exchanged variant of 2G12 to produce a conventional Y/T-shaped antibody through a single amino acid substitution (2G12 I19R) and showed that, as for the 2G12 wild type (2G12 WT), this antibody is able to recognize the same Manα1,2Man motif on recombinant gp120, Candida albicans, and synthetic glycoconjugates. However, the nondomain-exchanged variant of 2G12 is unable to bind the cluster of mannose moieties on the surface of HIV-1. Crystallographic analysis of 2G12 I19R in complex with Manα1,2Man revealed an adaptable hinge between VH and CH1 that enables the VH and VL domains to assemble in such a way that the configuration of the primary binding site and its interaction with disaccharide are remarkably similar in the nondomain-exchanged and domain-exchanged forms. Together with data that suggest that very few substitutions are required for domain exchange, the results suggest potential mechanisms for the evolution of domain-exchanged antibodies and immunization strategies for eliciting such antibodies.
Environmental controls on modern scleractinian coral and reef-scale calcification

In situ coral calcification was primarily controlled by temperature and relatively insensitive to seawater CO2 chemistry. Modern reef-building corals sustain a wide range of ecosystem services because of their ability to build calcium carbonate reef systems. The influence of environmental variables on coral calcification rates has been extensively studied, but our understanding of their relative importance is limited by the absence of in situ observations and the ability to decouple the interactions between different properties. We show that temperature is the primary driver of coral colony (Porites astreoides and Diploria labyrinthiformis) and reef-scale calcification rates over a 2-year monitoring period from the Bermuda coral reef. On the basis of multimodel climate simulations (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5) and assuming sufficient coral nutrition, our results suggest that P. astreoides and D. labyrinthiformis coral calcification rates in Bermuda could increase throughout the 21st century as a result of gradual warming predicted under a minimum CO2 emissions pathway [representative concentration pathway (RCP) 2.6] with positive 21st-century calcification rates potentially maintained under a reduced CO2 emissions pathway (RCP 4.5). These results highlight the potential benefits of rapid reductions in global anthropogenic CO2 emissions for 21st-century Bermuda coral reefs and the ecosystem services they provide.
TCP over WiMAX: A Measurement Study

We present active measurement results from a commercial IEEE 802.16/WiMAX-based network, with primary focus on TCP performance. We compare four TCP variants, namely New Reno, Cubic, Vegas and Veno, using throughput, round-trip time (RTT), and retransmission rate metrics. While all TCP variants achieve similar throughput, they do so in different ways, with different impacts on the network performance. We identify adverse effects of TCP window auto-tuning in this environment and demonstrate that on the downlink, congestion losses dominate wireless transmission errors. We reveal several issues for this WiMAX-based network, including limited bandwidth for TCP, high RTT and jitter, and unfairness during bidirectional transfers. Such a network environment may be challenging for many wireless Internet applications, such as remote login, VoIP, and video streaming.
Long-term retention in 3.5-month-olds: familiarization time and individual differences in attentional style.

Using a paired-comparison procedure, we examined the effect of familiarization variables on 3.5-month-old infants' (n = 120) retention of dynamic visual stimuli after 1-min, 1-day, and 1-month delays. The proportion of total looking time to the novel stimulus revealed novelty, null, and familiarity preferences after 1-min, 1-day, and 1-month delays, respectively, for infants who were permitted 30 s of familiarization time. Twenty seconds of familiarization time was insufficient to produce novelty preferences. These results support models of infant retention in which the direction of attentional preferences (novel, familiar, or null) depends on memory accessibility. To examine the impact of individual differences in familiarization or attentional style on memory, infants were identified as long or short lookers according to their peak-look duration on pretest and familiarization trial measures. Compared to long lookers, short lookers showed better retention over time indicating that much of the variability in the infant group data could be accounted for by these individual differences.