Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Size dependence of electron-LO-phonon coupling in semiconductor nanocrystals.

An increase in the Frohlich-electron-LO-phonon interaction strength with decreasing nanocrystal size in the strong confinement limited is reported. This results from the size dependence of resonant Raman scattering by CdSxSe12x nanocrystals embedded in a glass slab. The mean particle radius 20,R ,30 Aincreases monotoni- cally with the position along the slab so that, for each laser line, the resonance has been tuned by scanning the sample with a microprobe. The relative strength between Frohlich and deformation-potential contributions is determined by analyzing the polarization properties of the scattering. @S0163-1829~96! 51716-9# Coupling between electronic and vibrational excitations plays a central role in the physics of crystalline materials, e.g., determining their transport properties and the energy relaxation rate of excited carriers. Semiconductor nanocrys- tals as small as a few hundred unit cells make it possible to investigate the electron-phonon interaction beyond the bulk approximation. In this regime, strong quantum-size effects influence the electronic and vibrational states and their coupling. 1 Also, phonon broadening of the exciton linewidth competes with quantization in determining the energy spec- trum, thereby posing an intrinsic limit to the strength of the
Essential Roles of an Intercalated Disc Protein, mXin&bgr;, in Postnatal Heart Growth and Survival

Rationale: The Xin repeat-containing proteins mXin&agr; and mXin&bgr; localize to the intercalated disc of mouse heart and are implicated in cardiac development and function. The mXin&agr; directly interacts with &bgr;-catenin, p120-catenin, and actin filaments. Ablation of mXin&agr; results in adult late-onset cardiomyopathy with conduction defects. An upregulation of the mXin&bgr; in mXin&agr;-deficient hearts suggests a partial compensation. Objective: The essential roles of mXin&bgr; in cardiac development and intercalated disc maturation were investigated. Methods and Results: Ablation of mXin&bgr; led to abnormal heart shape, ventricular septal defects, severe growth retardation, and postnatal lethality with no upregulation of the mXin&agr;. Postnatal upregulation of mXin&bgr; in wild-type hearts, as well as altered apoptosis and proliferation in mXin&bgr;-null hearts, suggests that mXin&bgr; is required for postnatal heart remodeling. The mXin&bgr;-null hearts exhibited a misorganized myocardium as detected by histological and electron microscopic studies and an impaired diastolic function, as suggested by echocardiography and a delay in switching off the slow skeletal troponin I. Loss of mXin&bgr; resulted in the failure of forming mature intercalated discs and the mislocalization of mXin&agr; and N-cadherin. The mXin&bgr;-null hearts showed upregulation of active Stat3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) and downregulation of the activities of Rac1, insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor, protein kinase B, and extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2. Conclusions: These findings identify not only an essential role of mXin&bgr; in the intercalated disc maturation but also mechanisms of mXin&bgr; modulating N-cadherin-mediated adhesion signaling and its crosstalk signaling for postnatal heart growth and animal survival.
Tuberculosis in London: the importance of homelessness, problem drug use and prison

Background: The control of tuberculosis (TB) is founded on early case detection and complete treatment of disease. In the UK, TB is concentrated in subgroups of the population in large urban centres. The impact of homelessness, imprisonment and problem drug use on TB control in London is reviewed. Methods: A cohort study was undertaken of all patients with TB in Greater London to determine the point prevalence of disease in different groups and to examine risk factors for smear positivity, drug resistance, treatment adherence, loss to follow-up and use of directly observed therapy (DOT). Results: Data were collected on 97% (1941/1995) of eligible patients. The overall prevalence of TB was 27 per 100 000. An extremely high prevalence of TB was seen in homeless people (788/100 000), problem drug users (354/100 000) and prisoners (208/100 000). Multivariate analysis showed that problem drug use was associated with smear positive disease (OR 2.2, p<0.001), being part of a known outbreak of drug resistant TB (OR 3.5, p = 0.001) and loss to follow-up (OR 2.7, p<0.001). Imprisonment was associated with being part of the outbreak (OR 10.3, p<0.001) and poor adherence (OR 3.9, p<0.001). Homelessness was associated with infectious TB (OR 1.6, p = 0.05), multidrug resistance (OR 2.1, p = 0.03), poor adherence (OR 2.5, p<0.001) and loss to follow-up (OR 3.8, p<0.001). In London, homeless people, prisoners and problem drug users collectively comprise 17% of TB cases, 44% of smear positive drug resistant cases, 38% of poorly compliant cases and 44% of cases lost to follow-up. 15% of these patients start treatment on DOT but 46% end up on DOT. Conclusions: High levels of infectious and drug resistant disease, poor adherence and loss to follow-up care indicate that TB is not effectively controlled among homeless people, prisoners and problem drug users in London.
c‐Kit immunophenotyping and metalloproteinase expression profiles of mast cells in interstitial lung diseases

Diverse interstitial lung diseases (ILD) demonstrate mesenchymal infiltration by an abundance of activated mast cells whose role in parenchymal fibrogenesis remains unclear. Since mast cells differentiate in a dynamic, tissue‐specific manner via signals transduced by c‐Kit receptor, we examined the effect of ILD microenvironments on c‐Kit expression and metalloproteinase phenotypes of mesenchymal mast cell populations. Immunohistochemical and flow cytometric analyses characterized surface expression of c‐Kit on mast cells in tissues obtained from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, systemic sclerosis, sarcoidosis, and lymphangioleiomyomatosis, thus identifying a unique immunophenotype not shared by normal lung mast cells. Isolation of c‐Kit+/FcεRI+/CD34− mast cells via immunocytometric sorting of heterogeneous cell populations from mechanically disaggregated lung tissues permitted analysis of gene expression patterns by two‐step real‐time polymerase chain reaction. Transcriptional profiling identified expression of c‐Kit and the neutral serine proteases, tryptase and chymase, establishing the identity of sorted populations as mature mast cells. Mast cells harvested from ILD tissues demonstrated characteristic metalloproteinase phenotypes which included expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)‐1 and a disintegrin and metalloproteinase (ADAM)‐9, ‐10, and ‐17. Immunohistochemical co‐localization guided by gene profiling data confirmed expression of chymase, MMP‐1, and ADAM‐17 protein in subpopulations of mast cells in remodelling interstitium. Gene profiling of harvested mast cells also showed increased transcript copy numbers for TNFα and CC chemokine receptor 2, which play critical roles in lung injury. We conclude that ILD microenvironments induce unique c‐Kit receptor and metalloproteinase mast cell phenotypes. Copyright © 2005 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Jigsopu: Square Jigsaw Puzzle Solver with Pieces of Unknown Orientation

In this paper, we consider the square jigsaw puzzle problem in which one is required to reassemble the complete image from a number of unordered square puzzle pieces. Here we focus on the special case where both location and orientation of each piece are unknown. We propose a new automatic solver for such problem without assuming prior knowledge about the original image or its dimensions. We use an accelerated edge matching based greedy method with combined compatibility measures to provide fast performance while maintaining robust results. Complexity analysis and experimental results reveal that the new solver is fast and efficient.
Tauroursodeoxycholic Acid Mitigates High Fat Diet-Induced Cardiomyocyte Contractile and Intracellular Ca2+ Anomalies

Objectives The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) has exhibited promises in the treatment of obesity, although its impact on obesity-induced cardiac dysfunction is unknown. This study examined the effect of TUDCA on cardiomyocyte function in high-fat diet-induced obesity. Methods Adult mice were fed low or high fat diet for 5 months prior to treatment of TUDCA (300 mg/kg. i.p., for 15d). Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT), cardiomyocyte mechanical and intracellular Ca2+ property, insulin signaling molecules including IRS-1, Akt, AMPK, ACC, GSK-3β, c-Jun, ERK and c-Jun N terminal kinase (JNK) as well as ER stress and intracellular Ca2+ regulatory proteins were examined. Myocardial ultrastructure was evaluated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results High-fat diet depressed peak shortening (PS) and maximal velocity of shortening/relengthenin as well as prolonged relengthening duration. TUDCA reversed or overtly ameliorated high fat diet-induced cardiomyocyte dysfunction including prolongation in relengthening. TUDCA alleviated high-fat diet-induced decrease in SERCA2a and phosphorylation of phospholamban, increase in ER stress (GRP78/BiP, CHOP, phosphorylation of PERK, IRE1α and eIF2α), ultrastructural changes and mitochondrial permeation pore opening. High-fat diet feeding inhibited phosphorylation of AMPK and promoted phosphorylation of GSK-3β. TUDCA prevented high fat-induced dephosphorylation of AMPK but not GSK-3β. High fat diet promoted phosphorylation of IRS-1 (Ser307), JNK, and ERK without affecting c-Jun phosphorylation, the effect of which with the exception of ERK phosphorylation was attenuated by TUDCA. Conclusions These data depict that TUDCA may ameliorate high fat diet feeding-induced cardiomyocyte contractile and intracellular Ca2+ defects through mechanisms associated with mitochondrial integrity, AMPK, JNK and IRS-1 serine phosphorylation.
Rapid Generation of Stable Transgenic Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Using Modular Lentivectors

Generation of stable transgenic embryonic stem (ES) cell lines by classic transfection is still a difficult task, requiring time‐consuming clonal selection, and hampered by clonal artifacts and gene silencing. Here we describe a novel system that allows construction of lentivectors and generation of stable ES cell lines with > 99% transgene expression within a very short time frame. Rapid insertion of promoters and genes of interest is obtained through a modular recombinational cloning system. Vectors contain central polypurine tract from HIV‐1 element and woodchuck hepatitis virus post‐transcriptional regulatory element as well as antibiotic resistance to achieve optimal and homogenous transgene expression. We show that the system 1) is functional in mouse and human ES cells, 2) allows the generation of ES cells expressing genes of interest under the control of ubiquitous or tissue‐specific promoters, and 3) allows ES cells expressing two constructs through selection with different antibiotics to be obtained. The technology described herein should become a useful tool in stem cell research.
Cylindrical agar gel with fluid flow subjected to an alternating magnetic field during hyperthermia

Abstract Purpose: In magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH), nanoparticles are injected into diseased tissue and subjected to an alternating high frequency magnetic field. The process triggers sufficient heat to destroy the cancerous cells. One of the challenging problems during MFH is blood flow in tissue. In real conditions the heat which is transferred by blood flow should be considered in the analysis of MFH. Methods: In this study, heat transfer was investigated in an agar gel phantom containing fluid flow. Fe3O4 as a nano-fluid was injected into the centre of a gel cylinder which was filled with another gel cylinder and subjected to an alternating magnetic field of 7.3 kA/m and a frequency of 50 kHz for 3600 s. The temperature was measured at three points in the gel. Temperature distributions regarding the time at these three points were experimentally measured. Moreover, the specific absorption rate (SAR) function was calculated with a temperature function. Results: The SAR function was a key asset in the hyperthermia and was obtained on the condition that the fluid flowed through the gel. Finally, a finite element analysis (FEA) was performed to verify the SAR function. The results revealed that there was good agreement between the measured temperature and the one obtained from FEA. In addition, the effects of fluid flow and accuracy of function obtained for heat production in the gel were presented. Conclusion: It is believed that the proposed model has the potential ability to get close to reality in this type of investigation. The proposed function has implications for use in further modelling studies as a heat generation source.
An Analog Self-Organizing Neural Network Chip

A design for a fully analog version of a self-organizing feature map neural network has been completed. Several parts of this design are in fabrication. The feature map algorithm was modified to accommodate circuit solutions to the various computations required. Performance effects were measured by simulating the design as part of a frontend for a speech recognition system. Circuits are included to implement both activation computations and weight adaption or learning. External access to the analog weight values is provided to facilitate weight initialization, testing and static storage. This fully analog implementation requires an order of magnitude less area than a comparable digital/analog hybrid version developed earlier.
Functional nuclear medicine imaging of medullary thyroid cancer

Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) originates from parafollicular C cells of the thyroid and accounts for 3–12% of all thyroid cancers. As opposed to other types of dedifferentiated thyroid tumours, MTC cells are highly functional, producing and secreting high amounts of calcitonin and carcinoembryonic antigen. As parafollicular C cells are of neural crest origin, MTC acts as a neuroendocrine tumour also and expresses somatostatin receptors. Although conventional radiological methods such as ultrasonography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are widely used in the primary diagnosis and staging, they often fail to localize the residual or recurrent disease because the majority of MTC recurrence presents as occult disease. Thus, owing to functional characteristics of MTC, functional imaging modalities of nuclear medicine play a major role in the diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for MTC. Among nuclear medicine modalities, 99mTc(V) -dimercaptosuccinic acid, 111In-octreotide and 123I/131I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine are commonly used in the diagnostic and even more in postoperative work-up of MTC. Alternatively, 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose and other positron emission tomography radiopharmaceuticals such as 18F-fluorodopa or 18F-fluorodopamine as well as radiolabelled antibodies such as 99mTc/123I/131I anticarcinoembryonic antigen, antigastrin, and anticholecystokinin-B have promising results. Functional imaging has a great advantage for nuclear medicine techniques in the routine work-up of MTC patients and also has a wide use in experimental studies.
Aggression inoculates against PTSD symptom severity—insights from armed groups in the eastern DR Congo

Background In the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), combatants are exposed to massive forms of violence and other traumatic stressors. Nevertheless, many combatants do not suffer from trauma-related disorders, although they have experienced numerous traumatizing events. Perceiving aggressive behavior as fascinating and arousing might be a defense against trauma-related disorders in the violent environment of war and conflict. Objective Thus, in this study we investigated the relationship between the exposure to traumatic stressors, appetitive aggression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. We hypothesized that cumulative traumatic experiences correlated positively and appetitive aggression negatively with PTSD symptom severity. Method In total, 105 voluntary male combatants from different armed groups in the eastern DRC took part in this study. In a semistructured interview, respondents were questioned about their exposure to traumatic stressors, the extent of appetitive aggression (Appetitive Aggression Scale) and their PTSD symptom severity (PTSD Symptom Scale - Interview). Results A multiple sequential regression analysis showed that traumatic events were positively related to PTSD symptom severity. For participants with low to medium PTSD symptom severity, appetitive aggression correlated negatively with PTSD symptom severity. Conclusions The results of this study provide further support for earlier findings that repeated exposure to traumatic stressors cumulatively heightens the risk of PTSD and revealed that appetitive aggression buffers the risk of developing PTSD symptoms under certain circumstances. Thus, the perception of aggressive behavior as fascinating and arousing seem to help combatants to adapt to violent environments but may also be one reason for recurrent failure of reintegration programs for excombatants.
Local field potentials are local events in the mouse auditory cortex

Local field potentials (LFPs) and spikes (SPKs) sampled at the thalamocortical recipient layers represent the inputs from the thalamus and outputs to other layers. Previous studies have shown that SPK‐constructed receptive fields (RFSPK) of cortical neurons are much smaller than LFP‐constructed RFs (RFLFP). The difference in cortical RFLFP and RFSPK is therefore a plausible indication of local networking. The presence of a boarder RFLFP appears due to contamination, to some degree, from remote sites. Our studies of the mouse primary auditory cortex show that the best frequencies and minimum thresholds of RFSPK and RFLFP were similar. We also observed that the RFLFP area was only slightly larger than the RFSPK area, a very different finding from previous reports. The bandwidth of RFLFP was slightly broader than that of RFSPK at all levels. These data do not support the explanation that bioelectrical signals from distant sites impact on cortical LFP through volume conduction. That the cortical LFP represents a local event is further supported by comparisons of RFSPK and RFLFP after cortical inhibition by muscimol and cortical disinhibition by bicuculine. We conclude that the difference between RFSPK (output of cortical neurons) and RFLFP (input of cortical neurons) results from intracortical processing, including cortical lateral inhibition and excitation.
Channel assortment strategy for reliable communication in multi-hop cognitive radio networks

Channel selection plays a vital role in efficient and reliable data dissemination. In the context of Cognitive Radio Network (CRN) [1], channel selection is more challenging due to the traffic pattern and channels' occupancy of primary radio (PR) nodes. Moreover, Cognitive Radio (CR) transmissions should not degrade the reception quality of PR nodes and should be immediately interrupted whenever a neighboring PR activity is detected [2]. Thus, it is essential and, however, extremely challenging for CR nodes to correctly select channels allowing reliable communication.
Investigating the use of brain-computer interaction to facilitate creativity

Brain Computer Interaction (BCI) has mainly been utilized for communication and control, but it may also find application as a channel for creative expression, as part of an entertainment package. In this paper we provide an initial investigation on how creativity can be supported and assessed. An art-based approach was adopted to investigate the effects of achieving simple drawing and painting. Subjects were asked to complete three tasks using an Steady State Visual Evoked Potential BCI; a drawing task called 'etch-a-sketch' (TASK 1) which relied entirely upon BCI control, and two painting tasks, the first (TASK 2) with a set goal and the second (TASK 3) with more potential for user expression. The tasks varied in the proportion of control to creativity required. Participants provided feedback on their perception of the control and creative aspects and their overall experience. The painting application (TASK 3) for which users perceived that they had more creativity was well accepted; 50% of the users preferred this mode of interaction. The experimental approach described allows for an initial assessment of the acceptance of BCI-mediated artistic expression.
Energy Efficient Geographic Routing for Prolonging Network Lifetime in Wireless Sensor Networks

In realistic wireless sensor networks (WSNs), wireless link can be extremely unreliable and for the reliable and efficient data delivery many characteristics should be considered such as link quality, distance and energy. Therefore, an optimal solution which considers these characteristics is necessary. Previous geographic routing protocols which consider only some of these characteristics are not adequate to use in realistic WSNs. In the paper, we propose a scheme which balances link-quality, distance and energy. Our proposed scheme is more energy-efficient than previous routing protocols, and has longer lifetime. Numerical expressions such as Packet Reception Rate (PRR), distance, and Energy-level are used in the paper. In addition, we explain how to forward a packet to the destination with these expressions. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme is more efficient than PRR x Distance scheme and achieves higher network lifetime compared with that of previous routing schemes.
Control of Dendritic Cell Migration, T Cell-Dependent Immunity, and Autoimmunity by Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase PTPN12 Expressed in Dendritic Cells

ABSTRACT Dendritic cells (DCs) capture and process antigens in peripheral tissues, migrate to lymphoid tissues, and present the antigens to T cells. PTPN12, also known as PTP-PEST, is an intracellular protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) involved in cell-cell and cell-substratum interactions. Herein, we examined the role of PTPN12 in DCs, using a genetically engineered mouse lacking PTPN12 in DCs. Our data indicated that PTPN12 was not necessary for DC differentiation, DC maturation, or cytokine production in response to inflammatory stimuli. However, it was needed for full induction of T cell-dependent immune responses in vivo. This function largely correlated with the need of PTPN12 for DC migration from peripheral sites to secondary lymphoid tissues. Loss of PTPN12 in DCs resulted in hyperphosphorylation of the protein tyrosine kinase Pyk2 and its substrate, the adaptor paxillin. Pharmacological inhibition of Pyk2 or downregulation of Pyk2 expression also compromised DC migration, suggesting that Pyk2 deregulation played a pivotal role in the migration defect caused by PTPN12 deficiency. Together, these findings identified PTPN12 as a key regulator in the ability of DCs to induce antigen-induced T cell responses. This is due primarily to the role of PTPN12 in DC migration from peripheral sites to secondary lymphoid organs through regulation of Pyk2.