Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coupling of glutamatergic receptors to changes in intracellular Ca2+ in rat cerebellar granule cells in primary culture

Changes in cytosolic free Ca2+ concentrations, [Ca2+]i, in response to glutamate and glutamate receptor agonists were measured in rat cerebellar granule cells grown on coverlips. The intracellular Ca2+ as measured with fura‐2increased by applying kainate, N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA), quisqualate, and (RS)‐d‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazole‐propionic (AMPA). When the extracellular Mg2+ was removed, the effects of NMDA and the NMDA receptor agonist cis‐(±)‐1‐amino‐1,3‐cyclopentanedicarboxylic acid (cis‐ACPD) ON intracellular Ca2+ were augmented. Glycine potentiated the effects of NMDA and cis‐ACPD if the membrane was depolarized by increasing the extracellular K+ concentration. The NMDA receptor antagonist DL‐2‐AMONO‐5‐phosphonopentanoic acid (AP5) abolished and the antagonist 3‐([±]‐2‐carboxypiperazin‐4‐yl)propyl‐1‐phosphonic acid (CPP) greatly reduced the effect of NMDA in both the normal and the Mg‐free media. The dose‐ response curves of NMDA and, to a lesser extent, of kainate were shifted to the left, and that of quisqualate became biphasic in the Mg‐free medium. The increase in [Ca2+]i produced by high quisqualate concentrations in the Mg‐free medium was totally abolished by AP5. The results suggest that Ca2+ influx in cerebellar granule cells occurs through both NMDA‐ and non‐NMDA‐Coupled ion channels. A part of the quisqualate‐induced rise in cytosolic Ca2+ seems to be linked to the activation of NMDA recptors.
Assessment of quality of life in patients with perennial allergic rhinitis with the French version of the SF-36 Health Status Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND AND AIM Perennial allergic rhinitis may impair social life. General scales of quality of life (QOL) are used to detect the importance of social life impairment, but the reliability and validity of QOL measures should be tested in patients with perennial allergic rhinitis. The extent to which QOL scores differ in patients with rhinitis and healthy subjects is unknown. METHODS A cross-sectional study was carried out in 111 patients with moderate to severe perennial allergic rhinitis and 116 healthy subjects to assess the validity of a general QOL scale, the SF-36 Health Status Questionnaire. This scale is based on 36 items selected to represent nine health concepts (dimensions). The internal reliability of each dimension of the questionnaire was examined. The differences in QOL scores between patients with rhinitis and healthy subjects were studied. RESULTS Most QOL scores were highly reliable. There was a significant impairment in eight of nine QOL dimensions in patients with perennial allergic rhinitis in comparison with healthy subjects. CONCLUSIONS The SF-36 Health Status Questionnaire allows discrimination between patients with perennial allergic rhinitis and healthy subjects.
Interaction Pursuit with Feature Screening and Selection

Understanding how features interact with each other is of paramount importance in many scientific discoveries and contemporary applications. Yet interaction identification becomes challenging even for a moderate number of covariates. In this paper, we suggest an efficient and flexible procedure, called the interaction pursuit (IP), for interaction identification in ultra-high dimensions. The suggested method first reduces the number of interactions and main effects to a moderate scale by a new feature screening approach, and then selects important interactions and main effects in the reduced feature space using regularization methods. Compared to existing approaches, our method screens interactions separately from main effects and thus can be more effective in interaction screening. Under a fairly general framework, we establish that for both interactions and main effects, the method enjoys the sure screening property in screening and oracle inequalities in selection. Our method and theoretical results are supported by several simulation and real data examples.
The influence of MHC class II antigen blockade by perfusion with a monoclonal antibody on rat renal graft survival

To decrease immunogenicity of the rat kidney, grafts were perfused with an anti-MHC class II monoclonal antibody (mAb). How effectively this procedure blocked class II-positive cells, which were mainly dendritic in appearance, was checked by immunostaining renal sections after perfusion and comparing them with in vitro stained sections. Optimum conditions were applied for graft pretreatment before transplantation. This procedure prolonged graft survival, though not satisfactorily from the biological point of view (9.6±0.8 versus 7.7±0.5 days in the control group; P<0.02). The dendritic cells were not killed but blocked. Several hours after transplantation, the mAb dissociated from these class II-positive cells. It was also shown that donor cells migrate into the recipient's spleen early after transplantation. The number of these cells was smaller when the transplanted organ was perfused with the mAb. Further studies are suggested to deplete the graft of donor dendritic cells more adequately. They should also combine graft perfusion with anticlass II mAb and recipient immunosuppression at reduced doses.
Technology and Business Cycles: A Schumpeterian Investigation for the USA

The purpose of this paper is to deal with questions of instability and economic crisis, deriving theoretical arguments from Schumpeter’s works and presenting relevant empirical evidence for the case of the US economy by sector of economic activity in the time period 1957-2006, just before the first signs of the global recession made their appearance. More precisely, we make an attempt to interpret the economic fluctuations in the US economy by sector of economic activity and find causal relationships between the crucial variables dictated by Schumpeterian theory. In this context, a number of relevant techniques have been used, such as cointegration analysis, periodograms, Granger causality tests as well as stepwise bi-directional causality test a la Dufour and Renault. Our findings seem to give credit to certain aspects of the Schumpeterian theory of business cycles. The results are discussed in a broader context, related to the US sectoral economy.
The evaluation of Network Anomaly Detection Systems: Statistical analysis of the UNSW-NB15 data set and the comparison with the KDD99 data set

ABSTRACT Over the last three decades, Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDSs), particularly, Anomaly Detection Systems (ADSs), have become more significant in detecting novel attacks than Signature Detection Systems (SDSs). Evaluating NIDSs using the existing benchmark data sets of KDD99 and NSLKDD does not reflect satisfactory results, due to three major issues: (1) their lack of modern low footprint attack styles, (2) their lack of modern normal traffic scenarios, and (3) a different distribution of training and testing sets. To address these issues, the UNSW-NB15 data set has recently been generated. This data set has nine types of the modern attacks fashions and new patterns of normal traffic, and it contains 49 attributes that comprise the flow based between hosts and the network packets inspection to discriminate between the observations, either normal or abnormal. In this paper, we demonstrate the complexity of the UNSW-NB15 data set in three aspects. First, the statistical analysis of the observations and the attributes are explained. Second, the examination of feature correlations is provided. Third, five existing classifiers are used to evaluate the complexity in terms of accuracy and false alarm rates (FARs) and then, the results are compared with the KDD99 data set. The experimental results show that UNSW-NB15 is more complex than KDD99 and is considered as a new benchmark data set for evaluating NIDSs.
Os Impactos das mudanças inesperadas da SELIC no mercado acionário brasileiro

Doutor em Economia pela PUC-RJ Vinculo: Professor Assistente em Economia no IBMEC/RJ Endereco: Rua Tiradentes 114 903 Inga Niteroi. E-mail: fernando.nascimento@bcb.gov. br Telefone: (21) 2189-5011 Fax: (21) 2189-5092 Ω Mestre em Economia IBMEC-RJ Vinculo: JAR Consultoria Endereco: Av. Almirante Barroso, 63, sl 1811, Rio de Janeiro/RJ. E-mail: alexandre.romaguera@icloud.com Telefone: (21) 3923-5667
Surface pauses in relation to dive duration in imperial cormorants; how much time for a breather?

SUMMARY Air-breathing animals diving to forage can optimize time underwater by diving with just enough oxygen for the projected performance underwater. By so doing they surface with minimal body oxygen levels, which leads to maximal rates of oxygen uptake. We examined whether imperial cormorants Phalacrocorax atriceps adhere to this by examining dive:pause ratios in birds diving for extended, continuous periods to constant depths, assuming that the oxygen used underwater was exactly replenished by the periods at the surface. Examination of the cumulative time spent in surface pauses relative to the cumulative time spent in diving showed that surface pauses increase according to a power curve function of time spent in the dive or water depth. In a simplistic model we considered the rate at which birds expended energy underwater to be constant and that the rate of oxygen replenishment during the surface pause was directly proportional to the oxygen deficit. We then worked out values for the rate constant for the surface pause before using this constant to examine bird body oxygen levels immediately pre- and post dive. The model predicted that imperial cormorants do not submerge with just enough oxygen to cover their projected dive performance but rather dive with substantial reserves, although these reserves decrease with increasing dive depth/duration. We speculate that these oxygen reserves may be used to enhance bird survival when rare events, such as the appearance of predators or discovery of large prey requiring extended handling time, occur. The form of the oxygen saturation curve over time at the surface means that the time costs for maintaining constant oxygen reserves become particularly onerous for long, deep dives, so the observed decrease in reserves with increasing dive duration is expected in animals benefiting by optimizing for time.
Junctional adhesion molecule (JAM) is phosphorylated by protein kinase C upon platelet activation.

Junctional adhesion molecule (JAM) is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) expressed in tight junctions of epithelial cells and endothelial cells, and implicated in transendothelial migration of leukocytes. Recently, JAM is reported to be constitutively expressed on circulating monocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes subsets, and platelets. However, the role of JAM is not known. Here, we examined how phosphorylaton of JAM is regulated upon platelet activation. Phosphorylation of JAM was induced by thrombin, collagen, but not by ADP. The phosphorylated amino acids were shown to be serine residues by phosphoamino acid analysis. Inhibition of JAM's phosphorylation by PKC inhibitors and Ca(++) chelator suggests the involvement of conventional types of PKCs. By in vitro kinase assays, we demonstrated that JAM could be directly phosphorylated by cPKCs. We also demonstrated phosphorylation of Ser 284, a putative PKC phosphorylation site, by immunoblotting with anti-phosphoserine-JAM antibody in thrombin-stimulated platelets. In addition to the phosphorylation, JAM seemed to form clusters at several sites of cell-cell contact in aggregated platelets by immunoelectron microscopic study. We speculate that JAM may be directly phosphorylated by cPKC(s)upon platelet activation and that the phosphorylationmight be involved in platelet activation.
One-Shot Fine-Grained Instance Retrieval

Fine-Grained Visual Categorization (FGVC) has achieved significant progress recently. However, the number of fine-grained species could be huge and dynamically increasing in real scenarios, making it difficult to recognize unseen objects under the current FGVC framework. This raises an open issue to perform large-scale fine-grained identification without a complete training set. Aiming to conquer this issue, we propose a retrieval task named One-Shot Fine-Grained Instance Retrieval (OSFGIR). "One-Shot" denotes the ability of identifying unseen objects through a fine-grained retrieval task assisted with an incomplete auxiliary training set. This paper first presents the detailed description to OSFGIR task and our collected OSFGIR-378K dataset. Next, we propose the Convolutional and Normalization Networks (CN-Nets) learned on the auxiliary dataset to generate a concise and discriminative representation. Finally, we present a coarse-to-fine retrieval framework consisting of three components, i.e., coarse retrieval, fine-grained retrieval, and query expansion, respectively. The framework progressively retrieves images with similar semantics, and performs fine-grained identification. Experiments show our OSFGIR framework achieves significantly better accuracy and efficiency than existing FGVC and image retrieval methods, thus could be a better solution for large-scale fine-grained object identification.
Linear and nonlinear analysis of human dynamic cerebral autoregulation

Panerai, Ronney B. , Suzanne L. Dawson, and John F. Potter. Linear and nonlinear analysis of human dynamic cerebral autoregulation. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 46): H1089–H1099, 1999. —The linear dynamic relationship between systemic arterial blood pressure (ABP) and cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) was studied by timeand frequency-domain analysis methods. A nonlinear movingaverage approach was also implemented using VolterraWiener kernels. In 47 normal subjects, ABP was measured with Finapres and CBFV was recorded with Doppler ultrasound in both middle cerebral arteries at rest in the supine position and also during ABP drops induced by the sudden deflation of thigh cuffs. Impulse response functions estimated by Fourier transfer function analysis, a second-order mathematical model proposed by Tiecks, and the linear kernel of the Volterra-Wiener moving-average representation provided reconstructed velocity model responses, for the same segment of data, with significant correlations to CBFV recordings corresponding to r 5 0.52 6 0.19, 0.53 6 0.16, and 0.67 6 0.12 (mean 6 SD), respectively. The correlation coefficient for the linear plus quadratic kernels was 0.82 6 0.08, significantly superior to that for the linear models (P , 1026). The supine linear impulse responses were also used to predict the velocity transient of a different baseline segment of data and of the thigh cuff velocity response with significant correlations. In both cases, the three linear methods provided equivalent model performances, but the correlation coefficient for the nonlinear model dropped to 0.26 6 0.25 for the baseline test set of data and to 0.21 6 0.42 for the thigh cuff data. Whereas it is possible to model dynamic cerebral autoregulation in humans with different linear methods, in the supine position a second-order nonlinear component contributes significantly to improve model accuracy for the same segment of data used to estimate model parameters, but it cannot be automatically extended to represent the nonlinear component of velocity responses of different segments of data or transient changes induced by the thigh cuff test.
Atherosclerosis in Psoriatic Arthritis: A Multiparametric Analysis Using Imaging Technique and Laboratory Markers of Inflammation and Vascular Function

Abstract Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Pathogenesis of accelerated atherosclerosis in PsA remains to be elucidated. Endothelial dysfunction (ED) often precedes manifesting atherosclerosis. This study aims to assess carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), a marker of atherosclerosis in PsA, in context of markers of inflammation and vascular function. A cross-sectional study was performed in 18 PsA patients who were compared with 18 controls matched for age and sex. Flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) assessed by AngioDefender (Everist Health, Ann Arbor, MI), endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) quantified by flow cytometry and CIMT measured ultrasonographically. Inflammatory measures included disease activity score of 28 joints count and disease activity index in psoriatic arthritis. We also assayed markers of inflammation, including C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin [IL]-1, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α), and endothelial dysfunction, including lipids, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1), and EPCs. CIMT is significantly higher in PsA patients compared with controls (0.062 ± 0.18 vs. 0.045 ± 0.10 cm, p < 0.01) whereas FMD%, EPCs%, and high-density lipoproteins (HDL) cholesterol are significantly reduced in PsA compared with controls (p < 0.05). Compared with controls, PsA patients had significantly increased concentrations of ESR, CRP, TNF-α, IL-6, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1. In PsA, CIMT positively correlated with IL-6 and ICAM-1 and inversely correlated with FMD, HDL, and EPCs (p < 0.05). In PsA, FMD and CIMT were impaired, indicating endothelial dysfunction and accelerated atherosclerosis, respectively. PsA-related inflammatory mechanisms (TNF-α, IL-6) and markers of vascular function (CRP, ICAM-1, and EPCs) may all be involved in the development of vascular disease in PsA. Cytokine-triggered inflammation upregulates expression of adhesion molecules, depletes EPCs with endothelial dysfunction, and increased CIMT in PsA.
v-erbA acts on retinoic acid receptors in immature avian erythroid cells

The v-erbA oncogene of avian erythroblastosis virus (AEV) encodes an aberrant version of a gene for a thyroid hormone receptor (c-erbA) and functions in neoplasia by blocking erythroid differentiation and altering the growth properties of fibroblasts. The v-erbA gene has been proposed to act as a dominant negative allele, functioning by interfering with the actions of its normal cell homologs, the thyroid hormone receptors. The v-erbA protein can also, however, interfere with the actions of other members of the nuclear hormone receptor family, and it has been proposed that interference with a retinoic acid-mediated response may be a crucial determinant of v-erbA's function in the cancer cell. Here we report that the ability of v-erbA to interfere with retinoic acid receptor (RAR) action extends to the neoplastic erythroid cell and that v-erbA can inhibit transcriptional activation by all three isoforms (alpha, beta, and gamma) of RAR. Overexpression of RAR-alpha was found to partially overcome the presumptive v-erbA block to transcription in the erythroleukemic cell. These results are consistent with our hypothesis that v-erbA can act in neoplasia by interfering with a retinoic acid-mediated signal transduction pathway.
FTY720 Versus Mycophenolate Mofetil in De Novo Renal Transplantation: Six-Month Results of a Double-Blind Study

Background. FTY720 is a novel immunomodulator that was developed to produce optimal graft protection with improved safety and tolerability. Phase II studies have demonstrated the efficacy of FTY720 up to the doses of 2.5 mg with full-dose cyclosporine (FDC). Methods. This multicenter, double-blind, Phase IIb, randomized study evaluated the safety and efficacy of 5 mg FTY720 (n=87; Group 1) vs. 2.5 mg FTY720 (n=90; Group 2) vs. mycophenolate mofetil (MMF; n=94; Group 3) in de novo renal transplant patients receiving FDC and prednisone. Results. The primary efficacy endpoint was the occurrence of treated biopsy-proven acute rejection, graft loss, death, or premature study discontinuation (composite endpoint) within 6 months. The primary endpoint was superior in Group 1 (24%) and statistically noninferior in Group 2 compared to Group 3 (24.1% vs. 29.2% vs. 39.4%; P=0.025 and 0.0039, respectively). FTY720 plus FDC was generally well tolerated, with a similar incidence of adverse events across all groups. FTY720 was associated with higher incidence of bradycardia (Group 1: 26.4%, P=0.0002 and Group 2: 15.6%, P=0.046, vs. Group 3: 6.4%), respiratory disorders (Group 1: 40.2%, not significant [P=NS] and Group 2: 34.4%, P=NS vs. Group 3: 28.7%). One macular edema occurred in Group 2. Lower creatinine clearances were observed with FTY720 versus MMF (Group 1: 52.4 ml/min, P=NS and Group 2: 51.7 ml/min, P=0.039 vs. Group 3: 62.5 ml/min). Conclusions. Although FTY720 with FDC provided adequate protection from acute rejection the safety profile was less favorable for adverse events than current standard immunosuppression in de novo renal transplant patients.
Credit Distribution and influence maximization in online social networks using node features

Influence maximization is a problem of identifying a small set of highly influential individuals such that obtaining the maximized influence spread after propagation in social networks. How to evaluate the influence is essential to solve the influence maximization problem. Meanwhile, finding out influence propagation paths is one of key factors in the assessment of influence spread. However, since most of existent models and algorithms use degrees to simplify the activation probability on edges, node features are always ignored in the evaluation of influence ability for different users. In this paper, besides the node features, the Credit Distribution (CD) model is extended to incorporate the time-critical aspect of influence in social networks. After assigning credit along with the action propagation paths, we pick up the nodes which have maximal marginal gain in each iteration to form the seed set. The experiments we performed on real online social networks demonstrate that our approach is efficiency and reasonability for identifying seed sets, and the influence spread prediction by our approach is more accurately than that of original algorithm which disregards the node features in the influence evaluation and diffusion.
Regulation of aortic wall mechanics and stress An experimental study in man

Objective: Most risk factors are similar for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and atherosclerosis, e.g. smoking, male gender, age, high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia. Diabetes mellitus however, is a risk factor for atherosclerosis, but diabetic patients seldom develop AAA. The reason for this discrepancy is unknown. Increased aortic wall stress seems to be an etiologic factor in the formation, growth and rupture of AAA in man. The aim of our study was to study the wall stress in the abdominal aorta in diabetic patients compared with healthy controls. Methods: 39 patients with diabetes mellitus and 46 age – and sex matched healthy subjects were examined with B-mode ultrasound to determine the lumen diameter (LD) and intima-media thickness (IMT) in the abdominal aorta (AA) and the common carotid artery (CCA). Diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was measured non-invasively in the brachial artery. LaPlace law was used to calculate circumferential wall stress. Results: Age, DBP, and LD in the abdominal aorta were not significantly different in the diabetic patients compared to controls. IMT in the AA was larger in the diabetic patients, 0.89 ± 0.17 vs 0.73 ± 0.11 mm (p < .001). Accordingly aortic wall stress was reduced in the diabetics, 7.8 ± 1.7 × 105 vs 9.7 ± 1.9 × 105 dynes/cm2 (p < .001). Conclusions: Wall stress in the abdominal aorta is reduced in diabetes mellitus. This is mainly due to a thicker aortic wall compared to healthy controls. The reduced aortic wall stress coincides with the fact that epidemiological studies have shown a decreased risk of aneurysm development in diabetic patients.