Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A possible novel pathway of regulation by murine T helper type‐2 (Th2) cells of a Th1 cell activity via the modulation of the induction of nitric oxide synthase on macrophages

Murine peritoneal macrophages activated with interferon (IFN)‐γ and lipopoly‐saccharide (LPS) produce high levels of nitric oxide (NO) and are efficient in killing the intracellular protozoan parasites Leishmania major in vitro. Earlier studies have shown that NO, whose synthesis in murine macrophages is catalyzed by an inducible enzyme NO synthase, plays a major effector role in the host resistance against microbial infection. We now show that both the NO synthesis and the leishmanicidal activity can be inhibited by prior treatment of the cells with recombinant interleukin 4 (IL 4). IL 4 treatment had no effect on the binding of IFN‐γ to macrophages but prevented the induction of NO synthase in these cells activated with IFN‐γ and LPS. Since IFN‐γ is produced by murine T helper type‐1 (Th1) cells, whereas IL 4 is secreted by Th2 cells, these results suggest a novel pathway by which Th2 cells regulate an activity of Th1 cells, namely by inhibiting the induction of NO synthase. These results may also account for the mechanism by which the disease‐promoting Th2 cells counteract the host‐protective effect of Th1 cells in leishmaniasis and other intracellular parasitic diseases.
Human blastocyst segmentation using neural network

In this paper, a new method to segment the blastocyst images in JPEG compressed domain is proposed. We exploit valuable features of a DCT transform to automate the segmentation process in a blastocyst image. A two layer feedforward backpropagation neural network is trained using the derived features of DCT coefficients of JPEG images to learn the characteristics of blastocyst different components. The precision value for the identification of ZP, TE and ICM detection in test data are 0.80, 0.69 and 0.76, while the recall values are 0.88, 0.78 and 0.87, respectively.
Interleukin-8 for Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis: A Meta-Analysis

Background Neonatal sepsis (NS) is a life-threatening disorder and an important cause of morbidity and mortality in neonates. Previous studies showed that interleukin 8 (IL-8) may effectively and rapidly diagnose NS. Objective We conducted the systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the diagnostic value of the IL-8 in NS. Methods The literature was searched in PUBMED, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP and other Chinese Medical Databases during October 1998 to January 2014 using set search criteria. Each included study was evaluated by quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies tool. Two investigators independently extracted the data and study characteristics, and disagreements, if any, were resolved by consensus. Meta-disc software was used to calculate the pooled sensitivity, specificity and summary diagnostic odds ratio (SDOR), I² or Cochrane Q to test heterogeneity, and meta-regression to investigate the source of heterogeneity. Funnel plots were used to test the potential presence of publication bias. False-positive report probability (FPRP) was calculated to confirm the significance of the results. Results Eight studies (548 neonates) were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of IL-8 were 0.78 and 0.84, respectively, which had moderate accuracy in the diagnosis of NS. The pooled diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and area under curve (AUC) was 21.64 and 0.8908 (Q*=0.8215), respectively. The diagnostic threshold analysis showed that there was no threshold effect. The meta-regression analysis showed the cut-off, QUADAS and onset time have no effect on the heterogeneity. The funnel plots showed the existence of publication bias. Conclusion Meta-analysis showed IL-8 had a moderate accuracy (AUC=0.8908) for the diagnosis of NS. IL-8 is a helpful biomarker for early diagnosis of NS. However, we should combine the results with clinical symptoms and signs, laboratory and microbial results.
The role of the subthalamic nucleus in cognition

Abstract Because the complex functions of the basal ganglia have been increasingly studied over the past several decades, the understanding of the role of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in motor and cognitive functions has evolved. The traditional role in motor function ascribed to the STN, based on its involvement in the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical motor loops, the pathologic STN activity seen in Parkinson’s disease, and the benefits in motor symptoms following STN lesions and deep brain stimulation, has been revised to include wider cognitive functions. The increased attention focused on such nonmotor functions housed within the STN partially arose from the observed cognitive and affective side effects seen with STN deep brain stimulation. The multiple modalities of research have corroborated these findings and have provided converging evidence that the STN is critically involved in cognitive processes. In particular, numerous experiments have demonstrated the involvement of the STN in high-conflict decisions. The different STN functions appear to be related to activity in anatomically distinct subregions, with the ventral STN contributing to high-conflict decision-making through its role in the hyperdirect pathway involving the prefrontal cortex.
Predicting the impacts of an introduced species from its invasion history: an empirical approach applied to zebra mussel invasions

SUMMARY 1. Quantitative models of impact are lacking for the vast majority of known invasive species, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. Consequently, managers lack predictive tools to help them prioritise invasion threats and decide where they can most effectively allocate limited resources. Predictive tools would also enhance the accuracy of water quality assessments, so that impacts caused by an invader are not erroneously attributed to other anthropogenic stressors. 2. The invasion history of a species is a valuable guide for predicting the consequences of its introduction into a new environment. Regression analysis of data from multiple invaded sites can generate empirical models of impact, as is shown here for the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha. Dreissena’s impacts on benthic invertebrate abundance and diversity follow predictable patterns that are robust across a range of habitat types and geographic regions. Similar empirical models could be developed for other invaders with a documented invasion history. 3. Because an invader’s impact is correlated with its abundance, a surrogate model may be generated (when impact data are unavailable) by relating the invader’s abundance to environmental variables. Such a model could help anticipate which habitats will be most affected by invasion. Lack of precision should not be a deterrent to developing predictive models where none exist. Crude predictions can be refined as additional data become available. Empirical modelling is a highly informative and inexpensive, but underused, approach in the management of aquatic invasive species.
Joint quantile regression in vector-valued RKHSs

Addressing the will to give a more complete picture than an average relationship provided by standard regression, a novel framework for estimating and predicting simultaneously several conditional quantiles is introduced. The proposed methodology leverages kernel-based multi-task learning to curb the embarrassing phenomenon of quantile crossing, with a one-step estimation procedure and no post-processing. Moreover, this framework comes along with theoretical guarantees and an efficient coordinate descent learning algorithm. Numerical experiments on benchmark and real datasets highlight the enhancements of our approach regarding the prediction error, the crossing occurrences and the training time.
Knitter: Fast, resilient single-user indoor floor plan construction

Lacking of floor plans is a fundamental obstacle to ubiquitous indoor location-based services. Recent work have made significant progress to accuracy, but they largely rely on slow crowdsensing that may take weeks or even months to collect enough data. In this paper, we propose Knitter that can generate accurate floor maps by a single random user's one hour data collection efforts. Knitter extracts high quality floor layout information from single images, calibrates user trajectories and filters outliers. It uses a multi-hypothesis map fusion framework that updates landmark positions/orientations and accessible areas incrementally according to evidences from each measurement. Our experiments on 3 different large buildings and 30+ users show that Knitter produces correct map topology, and 90-percentile landmark location and orientation errors of 3 ∼ 5m and 4 ∼ 6°, comparable to the state-of-the-art at more than 20× speed up: data collection can finish in about one hour even by a novice user trained just a few minutes.
The Role of Sickness in the Evaluation of Job Search Assistance and Sanctions

Unemployment insurance agencies may combat moral hazard by punishing refusals to apply to assigned vacancies. However, the possibility to report sick creates an additional moral hazard, since during sickness spells, minimum requirements on search behavior do not apply. This reduces the ex-ante threat of sanctions. We analyze the effects of vacancy referrals and sanctions on the unemployment duration and the quality of job matches, in conjunction with the possibility to report sick. We estimate multi-spell duration models with selection on unobserved characteristics. We find that a vacancy referral increases the transition rate into work and that such accepted jobs go along with lower wages. We also find a positive effect of a vacancy referral on the probability of reporting sick. This effect is smaller at high durations, which suggests that the relative attractiveness of vacancy referrals increases over the time spent in unemployment. Overall, around 9% of sickness absence during unemployment is induced by vacancy referrals.
Repigmentation of Vitiligo with Pimecrolimus Cream: A Case Report

Introduction Vitiligo is a chronic disease that affects children and young adults. In 50% of patients, the disease begins before the age of 20 years. Current medical treatment options include oral and topical psoralen photochemotherapy, topical steroids, and recently immune modulators. The excimer laser, pseudocatalase, phenylalanine, and melagenine have also been reported to induce repigmentation. Surgical treatment options include thin Thiersch grafts, minigrafting of small punch biopsies, suction-blistered epidermis, and cultured melanocytes [1]. Although many treatment options are available, regimens are often complicated, time consuming, expensive and difficult to comply with. In addition, therapeutic responses are often inconsistent and incomplete. Great social stigma is associated with this condition, especially in individuals with darker skin. Because it remains one of the most difficult treatment challenges in dermatology, finding a simple and effective treatment for vitiligo would be a significant improvement to current treatment modalities. Several abnormalities in humoral and cell-mediated immunity have been reported in patients with vitiligo [1]. Both Grimes et al. [2] and Smith et al. [3] have demonstrated the effectiveness of tacrolimus, a topical immunomodulatory agent, in the treatment of vitiligo in both children and adults. Based on this report, we decided to use the newer topical immune modulator, pimecrolimus, for the treatment of vitiligo. Both tacrolimus ointment and pimecrolimus cream have a similar mechanism of action and have been approved for the treatment of atopic dermatitis. Specifically, pimecrolimus binds with high affinity to macrophilin-12 (FKBP-12) and inhibits the calciumdependent phosphatase, calcineurin. As a result, it blocks the transcription of early cytokines, particularly IL-2, IFN-Á, IL-4, and IL-10 [4].
Modeling Flocks and Prices: Jumping Particles with an Attractive Interaction (shortened version)

We introduce and investigate a new model of a finite number of particles jumping forward on the real line. The jump lengths are independent of everything, but the jump rate of each particle depends on the relative position of the particle compared to the center of mass of the system. The rates are higher for those left behind, and lower for those ahead of the center of mass, providing an attractive interaction keeping the particles together. We prove that in the fluid limit, as the number of particles goes to infinity, the evolution of the system is described by a mean field equation that exhibits traveling wave solutions. A connection to extreme value statistics is also provided.
Chemokines and Their Receptors Are Key Players in the Orchestra That Regulates Wound Healing.

SIGNIFICANCE Normal wound healing progresses through a series of overlapping phases, all of which are coordinated and regulated by a variety of molecules, including chemokines. Because these regulatory molecules play roles during the various stages of healing, alterations in their presence or function can lead to dysregulation of the wound-healing process, potentially leading to the development of chronic, nonhealing wounds. RECENT ADVANCES A discovery that chemokines participate in a variety of disease conditions has propelled the study of these proteins to a level that potentially could lead to new avenues to treat disease. Their small size, exposed termini, and the fact that their only modifications are two disulfide bonds make them excellent targets for manipulation. In addition, because they bind to G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), they are highly amenable to pharmacological modulation. CRITICAL ISSUES Chemokines are multifunctional, and in many situations, their functions are highly dependent on the microenvironment. Moreover, each specific chemokine can bind to several GPCRs to stimulate the function, and both can function as monomers, homodimers, heterodimers, and even oligomers. Activation of one receptor by any single chemokine can lead to desensitization of other chemokine receptors, or even other GPCRs in the same cell, with implications for how these proteins or their receptors could be used to manipulate function. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Investment in better understanding of the functions of chemokines and their receptors in a local context can reveal new ways for therapeutic intervention. Understanding how different chemokines can activate the same receptor and vice versa could identify new possibilities for drug development based on their heterotypic interactions.
Killed but Metabolically Active Leishmania infantum as a Novel Whole-Cell Vaccine for Visceral Leishmaniasis

ABSTRACT There are currently no effective vaccines for visceral leishmaniasis, the second most deadly parasitic infection in the world. Here, we describe a novel whole-cell vaccine approach using Leishmania infantum chagasi promastigotes treated with the psoralen compound amotosalen (S-59) and low doses of UV A radiation. This treatment generates permanent, covalent DNA cross-links within parasites and results in Leishmania organisms termed killed but metabolically active (KBMA). In this report, we characterize the in vitro growth characteristics of both KBMA L. major and KBMA L. infantum chagasi. Concentrations of S-59 that generate optimally attenuated parasites were identified. Like live L. infantum chagasi, KBMA L. infantum chagasi parasites were able to initially enter liver cells in vivo after intravenous infection. However, whereas live L. infantum chagasi infection leads to hepatosplenomegaly in mice after 6 months, KBMA L. infantum chagasi parasites were undetectable in the organs of mice at this time point. In vitro, KBMA L. infantum chagasi retained the ability to enter macrophages and induce nitric oxide production. These characteristics of KBMA L. infantum chagasi correlated with the ability to prophylactically protect mice via subcutaneous vaccination at levels similar to vaccination with live, virulent organisms. Splenocytes from mice vaccinated with either live L. infantum chagasi or KBMA L. infantum chagasi displayed similar cytokine patterns in vitro. These results suggest that KBMA technology is a potentially safe and effective novel vaccine strategy against the intracellular protozoan L. infantum chagasi. This approach may represent a new method for whole-cell vaccination against other complex intracellular pathogens.
Bursty Communication Patterns Facilitate Spreading in a Threshold-Based Epidemic Dynamics

Records of social interactions provide us with new sources of data for understanding how interaction patterns affect collective dynamics. Such human activity patterns are often bursty, i.e., they consist of short periods of intense activity followed by long periods of silence. This burstiness has been shown to affect spreading phenomena; it accelerates epidemic spreading in some cases and slows it down in other cases. We investigate a model of history-dependent contagion. In our model, repeated interactions between susceptible and infected individuals in a short period of time is needed for a susceptible individual to contract infection. We carry out numerical simulations on real temporal network data to find that bursty activity patterns facilitate epidemic spreading in our model.
Gastric Inhibitory Polypeptide Receptor Methylation in Newly Diagnosed, Drug-Naïve Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Case-Control Study

GIP action in type 2 diabetic (T2D) patients is altered. We hypothesized that methylation changes could be present in GIP receptor of T2D patients. This study aimed to assess the differences in DNA methylation profile of GIPR promoter between T2D patients and age- and Body Mass Index (BMI)-matched controls. We included 93 T2D patients (cases) that were uniquely on diet (without any anti-diabetic pharmacological treatment). We matched one control (with oral glucose tolerance test negative, non diabetic), by age and BMI, for every case. Cytokines and hormones were determined by ELISA. DNA was extracted from whole blood and DNA methylation was assessed using the Sequenom EpiTYPER system. Our results showed that T2D patients were more insulin resistant and had a poorer β cell function than their controls. Fasting adiponectin was lower in T2D patients as compared to controls (7.0±3.8 µgr/mL vs. 10.0±4.2 µgr/mL). Levels of IL 12 in serum were almost double in T2D patients (52.8±58.3 pg/mL vs. 29.7±37.4 pg/mL). We found that GIPR promoter was hypomethylated in T2D patients as compared to controls. In addition, HOMA-IR and fasting glucose correlated negatively with mean methylation of GIPR promoter, especially in T2D patients. This case-control study confirms that newly diagnosed, drug-naïve T2D patients are more insulin resistant and have worse β cell function than age- and BMI-matched controls, which is partly related to changes in the insulin-sensitizing metabolites (adiponectin), in the proinflammatory profile (IL12) and we suggest in the methylation pattern of GIPR. Our study provides novel findings on GIPR promoter methylation profile which may improve our ability to understand type 2 diabetes pathogenesis.
To Insure Prejudice: Racial Disparities in Taxicab Tipping

We collected data on over 1000 taxicab rides in New Haven, CT in 2001. After controlling for a host of other variables, we find two potential racial disparities in tipping: (1) African-American cab drivers were tipped approximately one-third less than white cab drivers; and (2) African-American passengers tipped approximately one-half the amount of white passengers (African-American passengers are 3.7 times more likely than white passengers to leave no tip). Many studies have documented seller discrimination against consumers, but this study tests and finds that consumers discriminate based on the seller's race. African-American passengers also participated in the racial discrimination. While African-American passengers generally tipped less, they also tipped black drivers approximately one-third less than they tipped white drivers.The finding that African-American passengers tend to tip less may not be robust to including better controls for passenger social class. But it is still possible to test for the racialized inference that cab drivers (who also could not directly observe passenger income) might make. Regressions suggest that a "rational" statistical discriminator would expect African Americans to tip 56.5% less than white passengers.These findings suggest that government-mandated tipping (via a "tip included" decal) might reduce two different types of disparate treatment. First, mandated tipping would directly reduce the passenger discrimination against black drivers documented in this study. Second, mandated tipping might indirectly reduce the widely-documented tendency of drivers to refuse to pick up black passengers.
Automatic Detection of Discourse Structure by Checking Surface Information in Sentences

In this paper, we propose an automatic method for detecting discourse structure using a variety of clues existing in the surface information of sentences. We have considered three types of clue information: clue expressions, occurrence of identical/synonymous words/phrases, and similarity between two sentences. Experimental results have shown that, in the case of scientific and technical texts, considerable part of the discourse structure can be estimated by incorporating the three types of clue information, without performing sentence understanding processes which requires giving knowledge to computers.
Distributed Fault Accommodation for a Class of Interconnected Nonlinear Systems With Partial Communication

Motivated by applications related to large-scale and complex systems, there has recently been an increased interest in the design and analysis of distributed control and fault accommodation schemes. This note presents a distributed fault detection and accommodation design method for a class of nonlinear interconnected subsystems. A fault may occur in the subsystems local dynamics as well as in the interconnections between the subsystems. The subsystems exchange state information according to a tracking error based communication protocol, where each subsystem transmits its state information only when its tracking error exceeds a certain threshold. The robustness of the distributed fault detection scheme and the closed-loop stability properties of the fault accommodation design are established through a rigorous analysis.
Human Connexin43E42K Mutation From a Sudden Infant Death Victim Leads to Impaired Ventricular Activation and Neonatal Death in Mice

Background—Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) describes the sudden, unexplained death of a baby during its first year of age and is the third leading cause of infant mortality. It is assumed that ⩽20% of all SIDS cases are because of cardiac arrhythmias resulting from mutations in ion channel proteins. Besides ion channels also cardiac gap junction channels are important for proper conduction of cardiac electric activation. In the mammalian heart Connexin43 (Cx43) is the major gap junction protein expressed in ventricular cardiomyocytes. Recently, a novel Connexin43 loss-of-function mutation (Cx43E42K) was identified in a 2-month-old SIDS victim. Methods and Results—We have generated Cx43E42K-expressing mice as a model for SIDS. Heterozygous cardiac-restricted Cx43E42K-mutated mice die neonatally without major cardiac morphological defects. Electrocardiographic recordings of embryonic Cx43+/E42K mice reveal severely disturbed ventricular activation, whereas immunohistochemical analyses show normal localization and expression patterns of gap junctional Connexin43 protein in the Cx43E42K-mutated newborn mouse heart. Conclusions—Because we did not find heterogeneous gap junction loss in Cx43E42K mouse hearts, we conclude that the Cx43E42K gap junction channel creates an arrhythmogenic substrate leading to lethal ventricular arrhythmias. The strong cardiac phenotype of Cx43E42K expressing mice supports the association between the human Cx43E42K mutation and SIDS and indicates that Connexin43 mutations should be considered in future studies when SIDS cases are to be molecularly explained.