Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of the Th2 CC Chemokine Ligand CCL17 in Pulmonary Fibrosis1

Increasing evidence suggests that the development of pulmonary fibrosis is a Th2-mediated process. We hypothesized that the CC chemokines that are associated with a Th2 profile (CCL17 and CCL22) have an important role in the development of pulmonary fibrosis. We measured CCL17 and CCL22 during the pathogenesis of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. We found that both CCL17 and CCL22 were significantly elevated through day 20 as compared with control mice. Peak expression of CCL22 preceded the peak levels of CCL17, as measured by real-time quantitative PCR. CCR4 is the receptor for CCL17 and CCL22 therefore, to further characterize the role of CCL17 and CCL22, we measured CCR4 mRNA in lung tissue of bleomycin-treated mice by real-time quantitative PCR. CCR4 was significantly elevated in bleomycin-treated mice as compared with control mice. Immunolocalization demonstrated that CCR4 was expressed predominantly on macrophages. Neutralization of CCL17, but not CCL22, led to a reduction in pulmonary fibrosis. Immunolocalization of bleomycin-treated lung tissue and human idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis tissue specimens showed that epithelial cells expressed CCL17. These findings demonstrate a central role for Th2 chemokines and the macrophage in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis and are further support for the role of a Th2 phenotype in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis.
Tetrodotoxin block of sodium channels in rabbit Purkinje fibers. Interactions between toxin binding and channel gating

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) block of cardiac sodium channels was studied in rabbit Purkinje fibers using a two-microelectrode voltage clamp to measure sodium current. INa decreases with TTX as if one toxin molecule blocks one channel with a dissociation constant KD approximately equal to 1 microM. KD remains unchanged when INa is partially inactivated by steady depolarization. Thus, TTX binding and channel inactivation are independent at equilibrium. Interactions between toxin binding and gating were revealed, however, by kinetic behavior that depends on rates of equilibration. For example, frequent suprathreshold pulses produce extra use-dependent block beyond the tonic block seen with widely spaced stimuli. Such lingering aftereffects of depolarization were characterized by double-pulse experiments. The extra block decays slowly enough (tau approximately equal to 5 s) to be easily separated from normal recovery from inactivation (tau less than 0.2 s at 18 degrees C). The amount of extra block increases to a saturating level with conditioning depolarizations that produce inactivation without detectable activation. Stronger depolarizations that clearly open channels give the same final level of extra block, but its development includes a fast phase whose voltage- and time-dependence resemble channel activation. Thus, TTX block and channel gating are not independent, as believed for nerve. Kinetically, TTX resembles local anesthetics, but its affinity remains unchanged during maintained depolarization. On this last point, comparison of our INa results and earlier upstroke velocity (Vmax) measurements illustrates how much these approaches can differ.
A checklist for fMRI acquisition methods reporting in the literature

I present a checklist of acquisition parameters for inclusion in the methods section of an fMRI paper. The current list expands and updates the list that was given in the 2008 paper from Poldrack et al. (I have reproduced below the section on acquisition that appeared in that 2008 paper.) The emphasis is on fMRI experiments that use 1.5 to 3 T scanners with standard hardware available today, but the list should work reasonably well for 7 T experiments as well. I further assume that fMRI is performed with 2D multi-slice EPI or spiral scanning and uses BOLD contrast, but parameter reporting for 3D sequences and other k-space trajectories as well as non-BOLD contrast should be feasible. The first full version of the checklist, version 1.1, was presented in January, 2013. Version 1.2 was released in December, 2014. This version is denoted 1.3 and will be the final series 1.x release. Release notes for this version appear below. The checklist was initially developed based on my experience with Siemens scanners but I have attempted to use generic descriptions as far as possible. Version 2.0 is planned for the end of 2015 and will include vendor-specific nomenclature under each parameter.
The light verb jungle : still hacking away

Introduction to the jungle This is a revised and updated version of Butt (2003), which noted that the study of light verbs and complex predicates is fraught with dangers and misunderstandings that go beyond the merely terminological. This chapter thus attempts to provide some clarity by addressing how light verbs and complex predicates can be identified cross-linguistically, what the relationship between the two is and whether light verbs must always be associated with uniform syntactic and semantic properties. Based primarily on both diachronic and synchronic evidence from the South Asian language Urdu, but also by taking cross-linguistic patterns into account, this chapter attempts to pull together the relevant available knowledge in order to arrive at a more definitive understanding of light verbs. Jespersen (1965, Volume VI: 117) is generally credited with first coining the term light verb , which he applied to English V+NP constructions as in (I). (I) have a rest, a read, a cry, a think take a sneak, a drive, a walk, a plunge give a sigh, a shout, a shiver, a pull, a ring The intuition behind the term ‘light’ is that although these constructions respect the standard verb complement schema in English, the verbs take , give , etc., cannot be said to be predicating fully. That is, one does not actually physically ‘take’ a ‘plunge’ but rather one ‘plunges’. The verbs therefore seem to be more of a verbal licenser for nouns.
Predictive Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Model for Antibody-Directed Enzyme Prodrug Therapy

Antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT) using anti-TAG-72 antibody and geldanamycin (GA) prodrug were validated in vitro. To understand the complexity and to explore optimal therapeutic regimens for ADEPT in vivo, a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model (PBPK) is applied to analyze each anatomical component/organ. The baseline model predicts that active drug tumor/plasma exposure (AUC) ratio is 2-fold, although antibody-enzyme conjugates (AbE) are distributed into tumors up to 9-fold higher than in plasma. However, the active drug tumor/plasma AUC ratio can be increased up to 100-fold when AbE are depleted from plasma. Similarly, the active drug tumor/plasma AUC ratio can be increased from 2- to 6-fold when the intrinsic clearance of AbE is accelerated by 10-fold. Several sensitive parameters are identified: 1) increasing flow inside tumor (Jiso,tumor) significantly increases active drug tumor/plasma AUC ratio; 2) increasing permeability of prodrug (from range 1.4 × 10–6 to 1.4 × 10–4 cm/s) increases active drug tumor/plasma AUC ratio significantly, whereas active drug permeability enhancement (from range 5 × 10–4 to 5 × 10–2 cm/s) has minimal effect; 3) decreasing Emax and increasing EC50 for converting prodrug to active drug increase tumor/plasma AUC ratio for active drug. The PBPK model predicts that the optimal dosing interval between AbE and prodrug administration is 5 days, the optimal AbE dose is 0.1 Bmax, and the optimal dose for GA prodrug is 60 mg/kg. The current PBPK model successfully identifies sensitive parameters and predicts an optimal dosing regimen for ADEPT.
Distortion-based anonymity for continuous queries in location-based mobile services

Privacy preservation has recently received considerable attention for location-based mobile services. Various location cloaking approaches have been proposed to protect the location privacy of mobile users. However, existing cloaking approaches are ill-suited for continuous queries. In view of the privacy disclosure and poor QoS (Quality of Service) under continuous query anonymization, in this paper, we propose a δp-privacy model and a δq-distortion model to balance the tradeoff between user privacy and QoS. Furthermore, two incremental utility-based cloaking algorithms --- bottom-up cloaking and hybrid cloaking, are proposed to anonymize continuous queries. Experimental results validate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.
The gypsy Insulator of Drosophila melanogaster, Together With Its Binding Protein Suppressor of Hairy-Wing, Facilitate High and Precise Expression of Transgenes in Arabidopsis thaliana

The variation of expression pattern exhibited by a transgene as a result of random integration, known as position effect, is, among other mechanisms, a particular challenge to reverse genetics. We present a strategy to counteract position effect in Arabidopsis thaliana by flanking the transgenes with the gypsy insulator from Drosophila melanogaster. In addition, Suppressor of Hairy-wing [Su(Hw)], the binding protein of the gypsy insulator, was coexpressed. Results indicated that the gypsy insulators could efficiently improve the expression levels of reporter genes driven by various kinds of promoters by 8- to 13-fold. Coexpression of the Su(Hw) protein led to a more uniform expression level of transgenes, as the coefficient of variation of expression levels was reduced further. The gypsy-Su(Hw) system enhanced expression levels, but did not alter the specificity of promoter activities, as experimentally evidenced by the promoters of the PIN and the AFB gene families. Interestingly, the gypsy insulator was also able to improve the expression of a selectable marker gene outside the insulated region, which facilitated the screen of transformants. Our system will likely decrease the number of lines that experimenters need to create and examine for a given transgene by contributing to relatively high and precise expression of transgenes in plants. Certain features of the gypsy insulator in Arabidopsis also provide new perspectives on the insulator field.
The impact of widowhood on depression: findings from a prospective survey

Background. We investigated the impact of widowhood on depression and how resources and contextual factors that define the meaning of loss modified this effect. Method. In a prospective, nationally representative sample of women in the US aged 54 or older we compared 64 women who were widowed in the 3 years between data collection waves with 431 women who were stably married over the time interval. Results. Those who became widowed reported more depression than controls for 2 years following the loss. However, this effect was confined to respondents whose husbands were not ill at baseline. Widowed women whose husbands were ill at baseline already had elevated depression in the baseline interview and did not become significantly more depressed after the death. Consistent with this result, women who were not depressed pre-bereavement were most vulnerable to depression following the loss of an ill spouse during the first year of widowhood. Conclusions. Results suggest that spouses' illness may forewarn wives of their impending loss and these women may begin to grieve before his death. Those forewarned women who are not depressed pre-bereavement may experience the most post-bereavement depression. Findings are discussed in light of previous, more methodologically limited studies.
ERK/p44p42 mitogen-activated protein kinase mediates EGF-stimulated proliferation of conjunctival goblet cells in culture.

PURPOSE To determine whether activation of the ERK pathway by EGF leads to rat and human goblet cell proliferation. METHODS The conjunctiva was removed from male Sprague-Dawley rats. Human conjunctiva was removed during ocular surgery. The tissue was minced and goblet cells were grown. The cells were stimulated with EGF (10(-7) M) for 1 and 5 minutes and Western blot analysis was performed with an antibody against phosphorylated EGFR, to measure the activation of the EGF receptor (EGFR). The cells were incubated with EGF (10(-7) M) for 24 hours, and cell proliferation was measured by WST-8. Inhibitors were added either 20 minutes before EGF or 2 hours after. The cells were stimulated with EGF (10(-7) M) for 1 minute to 24 hours. The number of cells expressing phosphorylated ERK (pERK) in the nucleus and Ki-67 was determined by immunofluorescence. RESULTS EGF increased the activation of EGFR in rat conjunctival goblet cells. EGF-stimulated proliferation was inhibited by the EGFR inhibitor AG1478 and the MEK inhibitor U0126 in rat and human cultured goblet cells. EGF caused the translocation of pERK to the nucleus in a biphasic manner. Inhibition of the second peak with U0126 prevented proliferation. EGF-stimulated goblet cells progressed through the cell cycle expressing pERK in the nucleus. CONCLUSIONS EGF stimulated human and rat conjunctival goblet cell proliferation by activating the EGFR. EGFR stimulated ERK causing its biphasic translocation to the nucleus. The second peak response is responsible for cell proliferation, but the role of the first peak is not known.
Adaptive Resource control Mechanism through Reputation-based Scheduling in Heterogeneous Distributed Systems

The service-oriented distributed systems such as Gr ids and Clouds are unified computing platform that connect and share heterogeneous resources including computation resource, storage resource, informatio n resource and knowledge resource. While these systems provide a vast amount of computing power their reliability are often hard to be guaranteed. It is due to the increased complexity of processing (e.g. , overhead, latency) that can indirectly affect the s ystem performance. In this study, we addressed the problem of dynamic control for resource management in distributed computing environment. Our dynamic resource control mechanism is designed based on rep utation-based scheduling that aims for sustainable resource sharing. Particularly, each computational resource in the environment has its own reputation value that calculated online by considering the computing capacity and availability. The degree of resource reputation significantly helps in scheduling decisi ons in terms of successful execution while adaptive ly monitoring resource availability. Results demonstra te that our resource control mechanism significantl y increases successful execution, while leading to ro bust resource management.
A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge, Volume I

The Social Contexts of Intellectual VirtueGlaube, Vernunft und CharakterHandbuch ErkenntnistheorieErnest Sosa Encountering Chinese PhilosophyConceptions of KnowledgeA Virtue EpistemologyEpistemic EntitlementThe Oxford Handbook of VirtueEpistemology of the QuranThe Routledge Handbook of Virtue EpistemologyEpistemology: Contexts, Values, DisagreementKnowledge, Belief, and CharacterThe Skillfulness of VirtueA Virtue EpistemologyKnowing Full WellVirtuous Thoughts: The Philosophy of Ernest SosaPerformance EpistemologyVirtue Epistemology: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research GuideIntellectual Virtues and EducationDie abschichtende Planungsentscheidung unter VorläufigkeitsbedingungenEpistemic SituationismThe Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of TheologyA Virtue EpistemologyVirtue-Theoretic EpistemologyEpistemic ContextualismGood ThinkingApt Belief and Reflective Knowledge: A virtue epistemologyReflective KnowledgeNaturalizing Epistemic VirtueSocially Extended EpistemologyA Virtue EpistemologyGod NaturalizedReflective KnowledgeJudgment and AgencyIntellectual Agency and Virtue Epistemology: A Montessori PerspectiveVirtue-Theoretic EpistemologyEpistemologyMoral and Intellectual Virtues in Western and Chinese PhilosophyEpistemologyVirtue Epistemology: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide
Twenty-six-Year Results after Broström Procedure for Chronic Lateral Ankle Instability

Background The procedure described by Broström has been used to address chronic lateral ankle instability; the long-term results of this procedure have not been reported. Hypothesis The Broström procedure provides good results over the long term for active patients with chronic lateral ankle instability. Study Design Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods Thirty-one male patients (32 ankles) who underwent the Broström procedure for chronic lateral ankle instability while enrolled as students at the United States Naval Academy were identified. Each patient was mailed a questionnaire that included a functional outcome measure as described by Roos et al, a score described by Good et al, and a single-number ankle functional assessment. The mean age was 20.7 years (range, 18-23 years) at the time of operation. A functional outcome score was completed on each patient, with a mean follow-up of 26.3 years (range, 24.6-27.9 years). Results The follow-up included 22 of the 31 original patients. The mean numeric score for overall ankle function was 91.2 of 100 (standard deviation, 10.2). The foot and ankle outcome score (described by Roos et al) was 92.0 (92%; standard deviation, 12.8) averaged over 5 functional areas. Ninety-one percent of the patients described their ankle function as good or excellent using the scale devised by Good et al. Conclusion The long-term results of the Broström procedure for chronic lateral ankle instability are excellent with 26-year follow-up.
On-chip chalcogenide glass waveguide-integrated mid-infrared PbTe detectors

We experimentally demonstrate an on-chip polycrystalline PbTe photoconductive detector integrated with a chalcogenide glass waveguide. The device is monolithically fabricated on silicon, operates at room-temperature, and exhibits a responsivity of 1.0 A/W at wavelengths between 2.1 and 2.5 μm.
Increased Levels of BAFF and APRIL Related to Human Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Background Despite great efforts to improve diagnosis and treatment, tuberculosis (TB) remains a major health problem worldwide, especially in developing countries. Lack of concrete immune markers is still the obstacle to properly evaluate active TB. Therefore, identification of more validated biomarkers and phenotypic signatures is imperative. In particular, T cell-related biomarkers are more significant. Methodology To understand the nature of CD4+ T cell-derived signatures involved in infection and disease development, we examined and analyzed whole genome expression profiles of purified CD4+ T cells from healthy individuals (HD), two distinct populations with latent infection (with low or high IFN-γ levels, LTBL/LTBH) and untreated TB patients. Following, we validated the expression profiles of genes in the peripheral CD4+ T cells from each group and examined secretion levels of distinct cytokines in serum and pleural effusion. Principal Findings Our bio-informatic analyses indicate that the two latent populations and clinical TB patients possess distinct CD4+ T cell gene expression profiles. Furthermore, The mRNA and protein expression levels of B cell activating factor (BAFF), which belongs to the TNF family, and a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) were markedly up-regulated at the disease stage. In particular, the dramatic enhancement of BAFF and APRIL in the pleural effusion of patients with tuberculosis pleurisy suggests that these proteins may present disease status. In addition, we found that the BAFF/APRIL system was closely related to the Th1 immune response. Our study delineates previously unreported roles of BAFF and APRIL in the development of tuberculosis, and these findings have implications for the diagnosis of the disease. Our study also identifies a number of transcriptional signatures in CD4+ T cells that have the potential to be utilized as diagnostic and prognostic tools to combat the tuberculosis epidemic.
Hybrid generative-discriminative recognition of human action in 3D joint space

We propose a novel human action recognition method based on the generative feature mapping over 3D human body joint sequences. The proposed method relies on Hidden Markov Model (HMM), but differs from the previous methods in the way of incorporating HMM and discriminative classifier, aiming to capture more discriminative information. Firstly, we use HMMs to model the joint sequences of human body. Then the Posterior Divergence is used to build feature mappings from the trained HMMs. The derived feature mappings map a variable-length joint sequence to a fixed-dimension feature vector which will be delivered to SVM for classification. We evaluate the proposed method and related methods on a large number of 3D joint sequences. The experimental results show its competitive performance, in comparison with other state-of-the-art methods.
Associating the visual representation of user interfaces with their internal structures and metadata

Pixel-based methods are emerging as a new and promising way to develop new interaction techniques on top of existing user interfaces. However, in order to maintain platform independence, other available low-level information about GUI widgets, such as accessibility metadata, was neglected intentionally. In this paper, we present a hybrid framework, PAX, which associates the visual representation of user interfaces (i.e. the pixels) and their internal hierarchical metadata (i.e. the content, role, and value). We identify challenges to building such a framework. We also develop and evaluate two new algorithms for detecting text at arbitrary places on the screen, and for segmenting a text image into individual word blobs. Finally, we validate our framework in implementations of three applications. We enhance an existing pixel-based system, Sikuli Script, and preserve the readability of its script code at the same time. Further, we create two novel applications, Screen Search and Screen Copy, to demonstrate how PAX can be applied to development of desktop-level interactive systems.
IP-Based Overlay Signaling for Seamless Service Roaming in Heterogeneous Networks

Despite recent advancements in cellular mobile network architectures, full coverage for seamless handoffs is still an open issue. Moreover, cost efficient calls for the end users in urban regions with very high coverage can be improved. In many areas overlapping networks like WLAN, GSM and 3G provide alternative wireless links. Ideally, the user should be connected to the most attractive network any time according to predefined priorities using an automatic handover. In this paper, we present a framework for vertical handoff with dualmode (cellular/WLAN) devices by using the conference bridging functionality of a PBX gateway. The communication between client and server will be realized via an overlay signaling channel. Based on the work done in [1] we extend and integrate some important services in the proposed framework: The ICAS (Individual Communication Address Space) feature allows users to be reachable by an alias name without revealing his real phone number. Our proposed Presence Enabled Phonebook shows the system presence and status information of the users' contacts. Beyond the illustration of the framework, the quality and reliability of voice and overlay channel were analyzed in terms of a vertical handoff.