Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corneal re-epithelialization stimulated by diadenosine polyphosphates recruits RhoA/ROCK and ERK1/2 pathways.

PURPOSE To investigate the role of ERK1/2 and RhoA/ROCK intracellular pathways in the modification of corneal re-epithelialization when stimulated by the diadenosine polyphosphates Ap(4)A and Ap(3)A. METHODS In wounded confluent SIRC (Statens Seruminstitut rabbit cornea) cell monolayers and in the presence or absence of Ap(4)A or Ap(3)A 100 microM, a battery of P2 receptor antagonists and inhibitors of tyrosin kinases, MAPK, and cytoskeleton pathways (AG1478 100 microM, U0126 100 microM, Y27632 100 nM, and (-)-blebbistatin 10 microM; n = 8 each) were assayed. Also, the activation of ERK1/2 and ROCK-I was examined by Western blot assay after treatment with Ap(4)A and Ap(3)A (100 microM), with or without suramin, RB-2, U0126, and Y27632. The intracellular distribution of pERK and ROCK-I was examined in the presence of Ap(4)A or Ap(3)A (100 microM) with U0126 and Y27632 (100 nM). RESULTS In the presence of Ap(4)A, U0126, Y27632, AG1478, and (-)-blebbistatin, reduced the migration rate compared to the effect of Ap(4)A alone (P < 0.0001, P < 0.001, P < 0.01, and P < 0.1 versus Ap(4)A, respectively). In the presence of Ap(3)A 100 microM, U0126 and Y27632 accelerated the migration rate when compared with the effect of Ap(3)A alone, whereas AG1478 and (-)-blebbistatin (P < 0.0001 versus Ap(3)A) slowed the migration rate. Western blot assays demonstrated that both dinucleotides activated the ERK1/2 pathway but only Ap(4)A activated the ROCK-I pathway. The intracellular distribution of pERK1/2 and ROCK-I reflected cross-talk between these two pathways. CONCLUSIONS The activation of the Ap(4)A/P2Y(2) receptor, accelerates corneal epithelial cell migration during wound healing with the activation of MAPK and cytoskeleton pathways, whereas activation of the Ap(3)A/P2Y(6) receptor signals only the MAPK pathway.
Acute Changes in Frontoparietal Activity after Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in a Cued Reaction Time Task

Lesion and functional imaging studies in humans have suggested that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) are involved in orienting attention. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study supplemented by a behavioral experiment examined the effects of 5 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) conditioning to the right and left DLPFC on reaction times and synaptic activity as indexed by changes in the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal during a cued choice reaction time task. Orienting precues were either correct (valid) or incorrect (invalid) with respect to the subsequent move cue. The effects of real and sham rTMS were compared for each site of stimulation. Invalid trials showed a significant increase in response times and increases in the BOLD signal in right frontal and parietal regions when compared with valid trials. Conditioning left DLPFC with rTMS led to decreased BOLD signal during performance of this reorienting task in areas including left VLPFC and left IPS. Comparing invalid to valid trials after right DLPFC conditioning revealed decreased BOLD signal in right VLPFC. Data from the behavioral study showed that right DLPFC rTMS selectively increases response times in invalid trials. This effect was only present in the first 10 min after rTMS conditioning. No effect was found in either validly or invalidly cued trials with left DLPFC conditioning. These results suggest that 5 Hz rTMS over right DLPFC exerts remote effects on the activity of areas that functionally interact with the DLPFC during attentional processes, particularly when the reorienting of attention is more demanding as in invalid trials.
A CMOS Four-Quadrant Analog Multiplier

A new circuit configuration for an MOS four-quadrant analog multiplier circuit is presented. It is based on the square-law characteristics of the MOS transistor. Two versions have been realized. The first has a linearity better than 0.14 percent for an output current swing of 36 percent of the supply current and a bandwidth from dc to 1 MHz. The second version has floating inputs, a linearity of 0.4 percent at an output current swing of 40 percent of the supply current and a bandwidth from dc to above 4.5 MHz.
Self-play Monte-Carlo tree search in computer poker

© Copyright 2014. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved. Self-play reinforcement learning has proved to be succ essful in many perfect information two-player games. However, research carrying over its theoretical guaranI ces and practical success to games of imperfect inform ation has been lacking. In this paper, we evaluate self- play Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) in limit Texas Hold'em and Kuhn poker. We introduce a variant of the established UCB algorithm and provide first empinc al results demonstrating its ability to find approximate Nash equilibria.
Changes in Cardiovascular Health Status and the Risk of New-Onset Hypertension in Kailuan Cohort Study

American Heart Association cardiovascular health metrics are intimately related to cardiovascular diseases. Acting as a key independent risk factor for high morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and its relationship between health status get urgent attention. While the influence of individual health status changes and the future risk of new-onset hypertension is rarely understood, the present study applied this construct to assess the changes of cardiovascular health status and the morbidity of hypertension in Kailuan cohort study in north China. The Cardiovascular Health Score (CHS) was evaluated by the follow-ups of 2006–2007, 2008–2009, 2010–2011 and 2012–2013. The study population (n = 19381) was divided into 5 groups based on the changes in their CHS score between the first two follow-ups (△CHS) of 2006–2007 and 2008–2009 (≤-2, -1, 0, 1, ≥2). The morbidity of hypertension was collected during 2010–2011 and 2012–2013 follow-ups. Data analysis showed that during a median follow-up of 3.79±0.96 years, morbidity of hypertension had a graded relationship with △CHS. As △CHS scored from low to high, the standardized morbidity of hypertension for all participants were 81.40, 75.47, 68.37, 71.43 and 83.13 per 1000 person-year, respectively. An increased △CHS score of 1 was associated with a 10% decrease in the future risk of new-onset hypertension(HR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.88–0.92). In conclusion, there was a strong inverse relationship between the incidence of new-onset hypertension and elevation of cardiovascular health metrics. Population-wide prevention, especially the promotion of lifestyle improvements, is critical to reducing the morbidity of new-onset hypertension.
Cytokines in autoimmune lacrimal gland disease in MRL/MpJ mice.

PURPOSE MRL/MpJ-+/+ (MRL/+) and MRL/MpJ-lpr/lpr (MRL/lpr) mice show spontaneous development of a T-cell-driven lacrimal gland inflammation that is a model for Sjögren syndrome. The lacrimal gland lesions in these mice were evaluated by quantitative RT-PCR for selected cytokine mRNA for the relative contributions of T-helper (Th)1 versus Th2 immune responses and by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry for the contribution of the interleukin (IL)-2/IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) autocrine pathway. METHODS RNA was isolated from lacrimal glands of MRL/+ mice ages 1 to 9 months and from MRL/lpr mice ages 1 through 5 months, and competitive RT-PCR was used to quantify mRNA for the cytokines IL-2, -4, -10, and -12 and interferon (IFN)-gamma. Frozen sections of lacrimal glands from MRL/+ and MRL/lpr mice ages 2 through 5 months were stained for the IL-2R. RESULTS IL-2 and -12 mRNA transcripts were below the limit of detection (<10(-3) fg/pg hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase gene; HPRT) in both MRL/+ and MRL/lpr mice of all ages. When detectable, IFN-gamma transcripts were present in low amounts and were below the limit of detection in most samples. IL-4 transcripts were present in 100- to 1000-fold greater amounts than IFN-gamma transcripts. IL-10 transcripts were detectable in both MRL/+ and MRL/lpr mice. IL-2R typically was detected on less than 10% of lymphocytes infiltrating lacrimal gland lesions in both substrains. CONCLUSIONS On the basis of RT-PCR for cytokine mRNA, autoimmune lacrimal gland lesions in MRL/+ and MRL/lpr mice appear to be largely Th2-mediated. There does not appear to be a direct role for the IL-2/IL-2R autocrine pathway within the microenvironment of the lacrimal gland.
Prevalence of seroreactors to the 104-kilodalton hemolysin of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae in swine herds

A rabbit homologous polyclonal antiserum to the 104-kilodalton hemolysin of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 1 strain CM-5 was specifically produced and used in an antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect swine serum antibodies to this potentially important virulence factor. Sera from pigs experimentally infected with the most common disease-producing serotypes (serotypes 1, 2, 5, and 7) of A. pleuropneumoniae produced positive results in this ELISA. Of 144 serum samples collected from 10 herds free of pleuropneumonia and 155 serum samples from 11 herds with a history of the disease, 68 (47%) and 148 (95%), respectively, were found positive by the ELISA. In addition, pigs naturally infected with Actinobacillus suis produced antibodies which seroreacted in this ELISA. The results indicated that a high proportion of swine have antibodies seroreactive with the 104-kilodalton hemolysin produced by A. pleuropneumoniae.
Lipopolysaccharide alters decorin and biglycan synthesis in rat alveolar bone osteoblasts: consequences for bone repair during periodontal disease

A prime pathogenic agent associated with periodontitis is lipopolysaccharide (LPS) derived from Porphyromonas gingivalis. This study investigated the effects of P. gingivalis LPS on osteoblasts, which are responsible for alveolar bone repair. Bone cells were obtained from explants of rat alveolar bone chips and cultured with 0–200 ng ml−1 of P. gingivalis LPS. Porphyromonas gingivalis LPS significantly increased cell proliferation and inhibited osteoblast differentiation, as judged by reduced alkaline phosphatase activity. Analysis of biglycan mRNA and protein levels indicated that P. gingivalis LPS significantly delayed the normally high expression of biglycan during the early stages of culture, which are associated with cell proliferation and early differentiation of progenitor cells. In the presence of P. gingivalis LPS, decorin expression by the alveolar bone cells was reduced during periods of culture relating to collagen fibrillogenesis and mineral deposition. Analysis of glycosaminoglycan chains conjugated to these proteoglycans suggested that in the presence of P. gingivalis LPS, dermatan sulfate persisted within the matrix. This study suggests that P. gingivalis LPS influences the expression and processing of decorin and biglycan in the matrix, altering alveolar bone cell activity and osteoblast phenotype development. The consequences of this altered expression in relation to hindering bone repair as part of the cycle of events during periodontal disease are discussed.
3D-MRI of the Ankle With Optimized 3D-SPACE

Purpose:To assess the use of 3-dimensional (3D) MR imaging of the ankle with the 3D-turbo-spin-echo-sequence 3D-“Sampling Perfection with Application optimized Contrast using different flip angle Evolutions” (SPACE), as compared with 2-dimensional-turbo-spin-echo-sequence. Material and Methods:After internal review board's approval and informed consent, 15 healthy volunteers and 45 consecutive patients were examined at 3 T with isotropic fat-saturated moderately T2-weighted 3D-SPACE (voxel size: 0.63 mm3/acquisition time: 6:43 minutes) featuring radial k-space reordering for optimized contrast. Signal- and contrast-to-noise ratios (SNR; CNR, respectively) were calculated with the subtraction method. Using free 3D reconstructions, 2 radiologists independently assessed depiction of cartilage, ligaments, and tendons, as well as detection and grading of abnormalities of these structures (5-point Likert scale) compared with conventional 2-dimensional-TSE-sequences (voxel size: 0.4 × 0.4 × 3 mm3/total acquisition time: 11 minutes). Statistical analysis was performed with Wilcoxon signed rank tests, 95% and 99% confidence intervals and weighted &kgr; coefficients. Results:SNR and CNR of fluid/cartilage were significantly higher for 3D-SPACE (P < 0.05). The isotropic voxel size facilitated improved depiction of the medial and lateral ankle ligaments with significant differences for the calcaneofibular ligament and the anteromedial ligament complex (P < 0.05). In the patient cohort, cartilage and spring ligaments were also significantly better depicted (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the number or in the diagnostic confidence of detected cartilage, ligament, or tendon abnormalities. Interreader correlation was good (&kgr; = 0.69–0.71) for both sequences. The correlation between the 2 sequences was excellent (&kgr; = 0.84–0.85). Conclusion:3D-SPACE allows 3D acquisition and assessment of the ankle and facilitates depiction of the complex ankle anatomy at sufficient SNR and CNR.
Bayesian Incentive-Compatible Bandit Exploration

Individual decision-makers consume information revealed by the previous decision makers, and produce information that may help in future decision makers. This phenomenon is common in a wide range of scenarios in the Internet economy, as well as elsewhere, such as medical decisions. Each decision maker when required to select an action, would individually prefer to exploit, select the highest expected reward action conditional on her information. At the same time, each decision maker would prefer previous decision makers to explore, producing information about the rewards of various actions. A social planner, by means of carefully designed information disclosure, can incentivize the agents to balance the exploration and exploitation, and maximize social welfare. We formulate this problem as a multi-arm bandit problem (and various generalizations thereof) under incentive-compatibility constraints induced by agents' Bayesian priors. We design an incentive-compatible bandit algorithm for the social planner with asymptotically optimal regret. Further, we provide a black-box reduction from an arbitrary multi-arm bandit algorithm to an incentive-compatible one, with only a constant multiplicative increase in regret. This reduction works for very general bandit settings, even ones that incorporate contexts and arbitrary partial feedback.
Phase I dose-escalation trial of intravaginal curcumin in women for cervical dysplasia

Background This is a Phase I trial demonstrating safety and tolerability of intravaginal curcumin for future use in women with cervical neoplasia. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of intravaginal curcumin in healthy women. Study design We conducted a 3+3 dose-escalation Phase I trial in a group of women aged 18–45 years. Thirteen subjects were given one of four doses of curcumin powder (500 mg, 1,000 mg, 1,500 mg, and 2,000 mg) packed in gelatin capsules, which was administered intravaginally daily for 14 days. The primary end point for this study was safety based on severe adverse events regarding laboratory toxicity, clinical findings, and colposcopic abnormalities. We administered an acceptability questionnaire to assess product experience and attributes. Results No dose-limiting toxicities (0/13) were experienced (95% confidence interval: 0.0%–22.8%) in this study. The pharmacokinetics data demonstrated that curcumin and curcumin conjugates were not measurable in the serum and negligible in the urine of the study participants. Although 23 adverse events occurred during the course of the trial, all events were grade I based on the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Version 4.0 and were resolved by the end of the study in an average of 9 days. Fifty-six percent of the adverse events were related to the study drug, which included genital pruritus (23% of subjects), vaginal discharge (100%), vaginal dryness (15%), abnormal prothrombin (23%), and hypokalemia (8%). Conclusion Intravaginal curcumin was well tolerated by all subjects and safe. In this Phase I trial, there were no severe adverse events observed at any of the administered dose levels. All adverse events were grade I and did not result in early termination of the study. There was no evidence of systemic absorption or significant local absorption of intravaginally administered curcumin.
Centre de Referència en Economia Analítica Barcelona Economics Working Paper Series Working Paper n o 38 Endogenous Private Information Structures

We formally incorporate the option to gather information into a game and thus endogenize the information structure. We ask whether models with exogenous information structures are robust with respect to this endogenization. Any Nash equilibrium of the game with information acquisition induces a Nash equilibrium in the corresponding game with an exogenous structure. We provide sufficient conditions on the structure of the game for which this remains true when ‘Nash’ is replaced by ‘sequential’. We characterize the (sequential) Nash equilibria of games with exogenous information structures that can arise as a (sequential) Nash equilibrium of games with endogenous information acquisition. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, D82, D83.
Restoring fertility after ovarian tissue cryopreservation: a half century of research

Summary Tissue transplantation and in vitro ovarian follicle culture have been investigated as alternative techniques to restore fertility in young women who are facing fertility-threatening diseases or treatments following ovarian tissue cryopreservation. Although transplants of fresh or frozen ovarian tissue have successfully yielded healthy live births in different species including humans, the risks of reintroducing cancer cells back into the patient, post treatment, have limited its clinical purpose. The in vitro ovarian follicle culture minimizes these risks and provides a way to harvest more mature oocytes, however its clinical translation has yet to be determined. Not only is it possible for tissue cryopreservation to safeguard fertility in cancer patients, this technique also allows the maintenance of germplasm banks for animals of high commercial value or for those animals that are at risk of extinction. Given the importance of managing female genetic material, this paper reviews the progress of the methods used to preserve and restore female fertility in different species to demonstrate the results obtained in the past 50 years of research, the current achievements and the future directions on this field.
Region-based painting style transfer

In this paper, we present a novel method for creating a painted image from a photograph using an existing painting as a style source. The core idea is to identify the corresponding objects in the two images in order to select patches more appropriately. We automatically make a region correspondence between the painted source image and the target photograph by computing color and texture feature distances. Next, we conduct a patch-based synthesis that preserves the appropriate source and target features. Unlike previous example-based approaches of painting style transfer, our results successfully reflect the features of the source images even if the input images have various colors and textures. Our method allows us to automatically render a new painted image preserving the features of the source image.
Movement Training Advances the Emergence of Reaching in Infants Born at Less Than 33 Weeks of Gestational Age: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background and Purpose: This study had 2 purposes: (1) to compare the emergence of reaching in infants born full-term and infants born at less than 33 weeks of gestational age and (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of a movement training program on the emergence of reaching in this preterm population. Participants: Twenty-six infants born at less than 33 weeks of gestational age and with a birth weight less than 2,500 g were randomly assigned to receive 20 minutes of daily movement training (PT-M group) or daily social training (PT-S group) and were compared with 13 infants born full-term (FT-S group). Methods: Reaching and hand-object interactions were tested every other week for 8 weeks. At each visit, infants were allowed six 30-second opportunities to contact a midline toy. Results: The FT-S and PT-M groups reached earlier and more consistently than the PT-S group. Specifically, the subjects in the FT-S group contacted the toy for longer durations and with an open, ventral surface of their hand. The PT-M group demonstrated increases in the number of hand-object contacts, the number of consistent reaches, and the percentage of time interacting with the toy and the surface of hand-object contact. Discussion and Conclusion: This project demonstrates that there are early gross motor skill differences in infants born at less than 33 weeks of gestational age. A caregiver-based daily training program, however, is effective at lessening some, but not all, of these differences over the short term.
Developing a parallel computational implementation of AMOEBA

As geospatial researchers' access to high-performance computing clusters continues to increase alongside the availability of high-resolution spatial data, it is imperative that techniques are devised to exploit these clusters' ability to quickly process and analyze large amounts of information. This research concentrates on the parallel computation of A Multidirectional Optimal Ecotope-Based Algorithm (AMOEBA). AMOEBA is used to derive spatial weight matrices for spatial autoregressive models and as a method for identifying irregularly shaped spatial clusters. While improvements have been made to the original ‘exhaustive’ algorithm, the resulting ‘constructive’ algorithm can still take a significant amount of time to complete with large datasets. This article outlines a parallel implementation of AMOEBA (the P-AMOEBA) written in Java utilizing the message passing library MPJ Express. In order to account for differing types of spatial grid data, two decomposition methods are developed and tested. The benefits of using the new parallel algorithm are demonstrated on an example dataset. Results show that different decompositions of spatial data affect the computational load balance across multiple processors and that the parallel version of AMOEBA achieves substantially faster runtimes than those reported in related publications.