Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinesin-mediated organelle translocation revealed by specific cellular manipulations

The distribution of membrane-bound organelles was studied in cultured hippocampal neurons after antisense oligonucleotide suppression of the kinesin-heavy chain (KHC). We observed reduced 3,3'- dihexyloxacarbocyanine iodide (DiOC6(3)) fluorescent staining in neurites and growth cones. In astrocytes, KHC suppression results in the disappearance of the DiOC6(3)-positive reticular network from the cell periphery, and a parallel accumulation of label within the cell center. On the other hand, mitochondria microtubules and microfilaments display a distribution that closely resembles that observed in control cells. KHC suppression of neurons and astrocytes completely inhibited the Brefeldin A-induced spreading and tubulation of the Golgi- associated structure enriched in mannose-6-phosphate receptors. In addition, KHC suppression prevents the low pH-induced anterograde redistribution of late endocytic structures. Taken collectively, these observations suggest that in living neurons, kinesin mediates the anterograde transport of tubulovesicular structures originated in the central vacuolar system (e.g., the endoplasmic reticulum) and that the regulation of kinesin-membrane interactions may be of key importance for determining the intracellular distribution of selected organelles.
Dynamic Localization of the DNA Replication Proteins MCM5 and MCM7 in Plants1[W][OA]

Genome integrity in eukaryotes depends on licensing mechanisms that prevent loading of the minichromosome maintenance complex (MCM2-7) onto replicated DNA during S phase. Although the principle of licensing appears to be conserved across all eukaryotes, the mechanisms that control it vary, and it is not clear how licensing is regulated in plants. In this work, we demonstrate that subunits of the MCM2-7 complex are coordinately expressed during Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) development and are abundant in proliferating and endocycling tissues, indicative of a role in DNA replication. We show that endogenous MCM5 and MCM7 proteins are localized in the nucleus during G1, S, and G2 phases of the cell cycle and are released into the cytoplasmic compartment during mitosis. We also show that MCM5 and MCM7 are topologically constrained on DNA and that the MCM complex is stable under high-salt conditions. Our results are consistent with a conserved replicative helicase function for the MCM complex in plants but not with the idea that plants resemble budding yeast by actively exporting the MCM complex from the nucleus to prevent unauthorized origin licensing and rereplication during S phase. Instead, our data show that, like other higher eukaryotes, the MCM complex in plants remains in the nucleus throughout most of the cell cycle and is only dispersed in mitotic cells.
Ionization mechanisms in dielectrics irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses (Poster Award Paper)

In order to investigate the ultrafast dynamics of free carriers generated in bulk dielectrics by intense femtosecond laser pulses we have designed a setup for ultrafast time-resolved imaging Mach-Zehnder interferometry. The application of the 2D-Fourier-transform technique allows us to accurately reconstruct the actual laser-induced phase shifts and transmission changes for the probe pulses, which provide the properties of free carriers. Interferometric measurements in high-purity fused silica clearly demonstrate that the dominant ionization mechanism for intensities below 10 TW/cm2 is multiphoton ionization.
Witnesses for Boolean matrix multiplication and for shortest paths

The subcubic (O(n/sup w/) for w(3) algorithms to multiply Boolean matrices do not provide the witnesses; namely, they compute C=A.B but if C/sub ij/=1 they do not find an index k (a witness) such that A/sub ik/=B/sub kj/=1. The authors design a deterministic algorithm for computing the matrix of witnesses that runs in O(n/sup w/) time, where here O(n/sup w/) denotes O(n/sup w/(log n)/sup O(1)/). The subcubic methods to compute the shortest distances between all pairs of vertices also do not provide for witnesses; namely they compute the shortest distances but do not generate information for computing quickly the paths themselves. A witness for a shortest path from v/sub i/ to v/sub j/ is an index k such that v/sub k/ is the first vertex on such a path. They describe subcubic methods to compute such witnesses for several versions of the all pairs shortest paths problem. As a result, they derive shortest paths algorithms that provide characterization of the shortest paths in addition to the shortest distances in the same time (up to a polylogarithmic factor) needed for computing the distances; namely O(n/sup (3+w)/2/) time in the directed case and O(n/sup w/) time in the undirected case. They also design an algorithm that computes witnesses for the transitive closure in the same time needed to compute witnesses for Boolean matrix multiplication. <<ETX>>
A Categorization of Explanation Questions for Task Processing Systems

A critical aspect of any explanation module is the set of user questions the system will be able to address. However, there has been relatively little work on listing and organizing the various categories of questions helpful to explanation. In this paper we address this problem by proposing a categorization of question types relevant to explaining task processing. For each question type, we also propose alternative explanation strategies for answering them. This categorization has helped to drive our work on an integrated cognitive explanation environment that has been used to explain the behavior of CALO, a software cognitive assistant that learns and organizes.
Tocotrienol Attenuates Stress-Induced Gastric Lesions via Activation of Prostaglandin and Upregulation of COX-1 mRNA

The present study aims to distinguish the effect of tocotrienol on an important gastric protective factor, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), in stress-induced gastric injury. Twenty-eight Wistar rats were divided into four groups of seven rats each. Two control groups were fed commercial rat diet, and two treatment groups were fed the same diet but with additional dose of omeprazole (20 mg/kg) or tocotrienol (60 mg/kg). After 28 days, rats from one control group and both treated groups were subjected to water-immersion restraint stress for 3.5 hours once. The rats were then sacrificed, their stomach isolated and gastric juice collected, lesions examined, and gastric PGE2 content and cyclooxygenase (COX) mRNA expression were determined. Both the regimes significantly attenuated the total lesion area in the stomach compared to the control. Gastric acidity, which was increased in stress, was significantly reduced in rats supplemented with omeprazole and tocotrienol. The PGE2 content was also significantly higher in the rats given tocotrienol supplementation compared to the control followed by an increase in COX-1 mRNA expression. We conclude that tocotrienol supplementation protected rat gastric mucosa against stress-induced lesions possibly by reducing gastric acidity and preserving gastric PGE2 by increasing COX-1 mRNA.
Assessment of sperm functions in infertile patients with varicoceles

Summary. Acrosin activity, acrosome reaction and nuclear chromatin condensation were studied in 24 infertile patients with varicoceles and 26 fertile men with or without varicocele. Chromatin condensation, assessed by aniline blue staining, and acrosin activity, evaluated by gelatinolysis technique, were significantly affected in the group of infertile patients. Defective chromatin condensation and defective acrosin activity were detected in 67% and 50% of the infertile patients, respectively. No significant difference was found between the two groups regarding the acrosome reaction, which was assessed by the triple staining technique after exposure of spermatozoa to low temperature (4°C). This study identified a subgroup of infertile patients with normal standard semen parameters but impaired sperm functions. Results of the sperm function tests and standard semen parameters were not correlated. Therefore, it is concluded from this study that important sperm functions are impaired in patients with varicocele and that the gelatinolysis technique and aniline blue staining are effective tools for assessment of the fertilization potential of varicocele patients.
Piezoresistive polymer composites based on EPDM and MWNTs for strain sensing applications

Abstract Elastomeric composites based on Ethylene-Propylene-Diene-Monomer (EPDM) filled with multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) have been prepared, showing improved mechanical properties as compared to the pure EPDM matrix. The results have been discussed using the Guth model. The main focus of the study was on the electrical behavior of these conductive polymer composites (CPCs), in view of possible sensor applications. A linear relation has been found between conductivity and deformations up to 10% strain, which means that such materials could be used for applications such as strain or pressure sensors. Cyclic experiments were conducted to establish whether the linear relation was reversible, which is an important requirement for sensor materials.
A Randomized Study of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillator Versus Dual-Chamber Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator in Ischemic Cardiomyopathy With Narrow QRS: The NARROW-CRT Study

Background—Current recommendations require a QRS duration of ≥120 ms as a condition for prescribing cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). This study was designed to test the hypothesis that patients with heart failure (HF) of ischemic origin, current indications for defibrillator implantation, and QRS <120 ms may benefit from CRT in the presence of marked mechanical dyssynchrony. Methods and Results—Patients with intraventricular dyssynchrony on echocardiography were randomly assigned to CRT or dual-chamber defibrillator implantation (CRT defibrillator and dual-chamber implantable cardioverter-defibrillator arm, respectively). The primary end point was the HF clinical composite response, which scores patients as improved, unchanged, or worsened. The secondary end point was the cumulative survival from HF hospitalization and HF death. An additional secondary end point was the composite of HF hospitalization, HF death, and spontaneous ventricular fibrillation. Twenty-three of 56 patients with CRT defibrillator showed an improvement in their clinical composite response at 1 year, compared with 9 of 55 patients with dual-chamber implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (41% versus 16%; P=0.004). After a median follow-up of 16 months, the CRT defibrillator arm showed a nonsignificant higher survival from HF hospitalization and HF death (P=0.077), and a significantly higher survival from the combined end point of HF hospitalization, HF death, and spontaneous ventricular fibrillation (P=0.028). Conclusions—In this comparison of CRT defibrillator and dual-chamber implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, CRT improved clinical status in some patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, mild-to-moderate symptoms, narrow QRS duration, and mechanical dyssynchrony on echocardiography. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01577446.
The Combination of Homocysteine and C-Reactive Protein Predicts the Outcomes of Chinese Patients with Parkinson's Disease and Vascular Parkinsonism

Background The elevation of plasma homocysteine (Hcy) and C-reactive protein (CRP) has been correlated to an increased risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) or vascular diseases. The association and clinical relevance of a combined assessment of Hcy and CRP levels in patients with PD and vascular parkinsonism (VP) are unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings We performed a cross-sectional study of 88 Chinese patients with PD and VP using a clinical interview and the measurement of plasma Hcy and CRP to determine if Hcy and CRP levels in patients may predict the outcomes of the motor status, non-motor symptoms (NMS), disease severity, and cognitive declines. Each patient's NMS, cognitive deficit, disease severity, and motor status were assessed by the Nonmotor Symptoms Scale (NMSS), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the modified Hoehn and Yahr staging scale (H&Y), and the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale part III (UPDRS III), respectively. We found that 100% of patients with PD and VP presented with NMS. The UPDRS III significantly correlated with CRP (P = 0.011) and NMSS (P = 0.042) in PD patients. The H&Y was also correlated with Hcy (P = 0.002), CRP (P = 0.000), and NMSS (P = 0.023) in PD patients. In VP patients, the UPDRS III and H&Y were not significantly associated with NMSS, Hcy, CRP, or MMSE. Strong correlations were observed between Hcy and NMSS as well as between CRP and NMSS in PD and VP. Conclusions/Significance Our findings support the hypothesis that Hcy and CRP play important roles in the pathogenesis of PD. The combination of Hcy and CRP may be used to assess the progression of PD and VP. Whether or not anti-inflammatory medication could be used in the management of PD and VP will produce an interesting topic for further research.
Location Decisions and Minimum Wages Location Decisions and Minimum Wages

The paper contributes to the living debate on the controversial effects of minimum wage policy on economic performances, focusing on its impact on firms’ location choice. The question is investigated through a theoretical model, that incorporates features from the new trade literature (Krugman (1991)) and the labor-market literature. In a two-country framework, we model endogenous entry of firms under wage rigidity. In this setting, the impact of an unilateral increase in the home country’s minimum wage is analyzed. The policy shock is shown to have a twofold influence on the relative attractiveness of the home country, simultaneously affecting its relative cost competitiveness and the aggregate demand addressed to firms. The final effect on firms’ location decisions notably depends on the way skilled and unskilled labor markets adjust. Our overall results suggest that the impact of labor-market policies on firms’ location decisions have to be taken into account when evaluating their whole consequences in the national economy. JEL Classification: F12, F16, F21, J31, F41
Direct inhibition of arcuate proopiomelanocortin neurons: a potential mechanism for the orexigenic actions of dynorphin

• In conjunction with fast amino acid transmitters, neuropeptides such as dynorphin play key roles in regulating energy homeostasis. • Dynorphin immunoreactive axons are abundant in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus and terminate near or on proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons. • Dynorphin directly inhibits POMC cells by a mechanism based on activation of GIRK channels, mediated by kappa‐2 opioid receptors. • Dynorphin indirectly modulates the activity of POMC neurons by depressing afferent glutamate and GABA synaptic neurotransmission. • These data suggest that dynorphin‐containing neurons could modulate food intake and energy homeostasis by directly attenuating the activity of the anorexigenic POMC cell.
An Exploratory Study of the Emerging Role of Electronic Intermediaries

It is often argued that as electronic markets lower the cost of market transactions, traditional roles for intermediaries will be eliminated, leading to "disintermediation. " We discuss the findings of an exploratory study of intermediaries in electronic markets that suggest that markets do not necessarily become disintermediated as they become facilitated by information technology. We explore thirteen case studies of firms participating in electronic commerce and find evidence of certain new emerging roles for electronic intermediaries, including aggregating, matching suppliers and customers, providing trust, and providing interorganizational market information. Two specific examples are discussed in greater detail to illustrate an unsuccessful strategy for electronic intermediation (BargainFinder) as well as a successful one (Firefly).
X-Route: An X-architecture full-chip multilevel router

In this paper, we present an X-architecture multilevel full-chip router, called X-Route. Unlike the traditional Λ-shaped multilevel framework that adopts bottom-up coarsening followed by top-down uncoarsening, our multilevel framework runs in the Vshaped manner: top-down uncoarsening followed by bottom-up coarsening. The top-down uncoarsening stage performs octagonal global routing and X-detailed routing for local nets at each level and then refines the solution for the next level. Then, the bottom-up coarsening stage performs the X-detailed routing to reroute failed nets and refines the solution level by level. Since we perform top-down routing first, global long nets are routed earlier. To prevent a wrong decision from blocking the later nets, we keep a dynamic congestion map that records the updated routing congestion information based on the routed nets and the global-path prediction of the unrouted nets. To take full advantage of the X-architecture, we also develop a progressive X-Steiner tree algorithm based on the delaunay triangulation approach for the X-architecture. Compared with the state-of-the-art Λ-shaped multilevel routing for the X-architecture, experimental results show that our X-Route reduces the respective wirelength and average delay by about 14.05% and 30.62%, with better routing completion.
Preliminary investigation of the RAMpage memory hierarchy

The RAMpage memory hierarchy addresses the growing concern about the memory wall – the possibility that the CPU-DRAM speed gap will ultimately limit the benefits of rapid improvement in CPU speed. Reducing references to DRAM is an increasingly desirable goal as CPU speed improves relative to DRAM. As the cost of a DRAM reference increases, it makes increasing sense to consider options like pinning crucial parts of the operating system in at least the lowest-level cache, and to consider possibilities like context switches on references to DRAM. All these factors combine to make it increasingly desirable to treat DRAM as a paging device, while moving the main memory a level up to the lowest level of SRAM. The RAMpage hierarchy relegates DRAM to the role of a first-level paging device. Results presented here are for a preliminary simulation of the RAMpage hierarchy, and show that, if current memory system and CPU trends continue, the RAMpage strategy will become increasingly viable. Even with current miss costs and without implementing all features favourable to the RAMpage hierarchy, simulations show that it is possible to achieve run times up to 25% faster than those for a conventional hierarchy. Furthermore, RAMpage scales up better than the conventional hierarchy (as simulated) in that performance degrades less as DRAM reference costs increase. keywords: memory hierarchy, caches, paging, software-controlled replacement CR categories: B.3, C.4, D.4. 2
Loss of Visual Acuity after Successful Surgery for Macula-On Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment in a Prospective Multicentre Study

Purpose. To quantify the frequency of visual loss after successful retinal detachment (RD) surgery in macula-on patients in a multicentric, prospective series of RD. Methods. Clinical variables from consecutive macula-on RD patients were collected in a prospective multicentric study. Visual loss was defined as at least a reduction in one line in best corrected visual acuity (VA) with Snellen chart. The series were divided into 4 subgroups: (1) all macula-on eyes (n = 357); (2) macula-on patients with visual loss at the third month of follow-up (n = 53) which were further subdivided in (3) phakic eyes (n = 39); and (4) pseudophakic eyes (n = 14). Results. Fifty-three eyes (14.9%) had visual loss three months after surgery (n = 39 phakic eyes; n = 14 pseudophakic eyes). There were no statistically significant differences between them regarding their clinical characteristics. Pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) was used in 67.2% of cases, scleral buckle in 57.7%, and scleral explant in 11.9% (36.1% were combined procedures). Conclusions. Around 15% of macula-on RD eyes lose VA after successful surgery. Development of cataracts may be one cause in phakic eyes, but vision loss in pseudophakic eyes could have other explanations such as the effect of released factors produced by retinal ischemia on the macula area. Further investigations are necessary to elucidate this hypothesis.
Long-term outcomes in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer after bladder-preserving combined-modality therapy: A pooled analysis of RTOG 8802, 8903, 9506, 9706, 9906, and 0233.

264 Background: Multiple prospective RTOG studies have evaluated bladder preserving combined-modality therapy (CMT) including local resection with chemo-radiation for the treatment of muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) reserving cystectomy for salvage. Here we report a pooled analysis of long-term outcomes. METHODS We performed a pooled analysis of 468 patients (pts) with MIBC enrolled on six RTOG bladder preservation studies, including five Phase II studies: RTOG 8802, 9506, 9706, 9906, and 0233, and one phase III study: 8903. Overall survival (OS) was estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method, and disease specific survival (DSS), local failure (LF) and distant metastasis (DM) were estimated by the cumulative incidence method. RESULTS The median age of the pts was 66 (range, 34-93), and the majority had a Zubrod performance status (PS) of 0 (89.1%). The most common tumor histology was transitional cell carcinoma (94.2%). Clinical tumor stage distribution included 60.6% T2, 29.1% T3a, 6.2% T3b, and 3.9% T4a. A complete response to CMT was observed in 72.0% of pts. With a median follow-up of 4.29 years among all pts, and 7.80 years among survivors (n=205), the 5-year and 10-year results were as follows (Table). Examining outcomes by subgroups, higher clinical T-stage (T2 vs. T3/T4) was associated with decreased DSS (5-year DSS: 74% vs. 66%; 10-year DSS: 69% vs. 60%; p=0.05), and OS (5-year OS: 62% vs. 49%; 10-year OS: 41% vs. 30%; p=0.002). On multivariate analysis, after adjusting for age and PS, higher T-stage was associated with decreased DSS (Hazard ratio: 1.65; 95% confidence interval: 1.19-2.27; p=0.002). Among pts with non-transitional cell carcinoma histology (n=29), the 5-year and 10-year DSS was 66% and 60%, respectively, and 5-year and 10-year OS was 41% and 21%. CONCLUSIONS This pooled analysis of RTOG trials of bladder preserving CMT for MIBC demonstrates long-term OS and DSS comparable to modern immediate cystectomy-based strategies with and without neoadjuvant chemotherapy. CMT can be considered as an alternative to radical cystectomy in selected pts. [Table: see text].