Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pioglitazone Inhibits Androgen Production in NCI-H295R Cells by Regulating Gene Expression of CYP17 and HSD3B2

Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) such as pioglitazone and rosiglitazone are widely used as insulin sensitizers in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. In diabetic women with polycystic ovary syndrome, treatment with pioglitazone or rosiglitazone improves insulin resistance and hyperandrogenism, but the mechanism by which TZDs down-regulate androgen production is unknown. Androgens are synthesized in the human gonads as well as the adrenals. We studied the regulation of androgen production by analyzing the effect of pioglitazone and rosiglitazone on steroidogenesis in human adrenal NCI-H295R cells, an established in vitro model of steroidogenesis of the human adrenal cortex. Both TZDs changed the steroid profile of the NCI-H295R cells and inhibited the activities of P450c17 and 3βHSDII, key enzymes of androgen biosynthesis. Pioglitazone but not rosiglitazone inhibited the expression of the CYP17 and HSD3B2 genes. Likewise, pioglitazone repressed basal and 8-bromo-cAMP-stimulated activities of CYP17 and HSD3B2 promoter reporters in NCI-H295R cells. However, pioglitazone did not change the activity of a cAMP-responsive luciferase reporter, indicating that it does not influence cAMP/protein kinase A/cAMP response element-binding protein pathway signaling. Although peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) is the nuclear receptor for TZDs, suppression of PPARγ by small interfering RNA technique did not alter the inhibitory effect of pioglitazone on CYP17 and HSD3B2 expression, suggesting that the action of pioglitazone is independent of PPARγ. On the other hand, treatment of NCI-H295R cells with mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) inhibitor 2-(2-amino-3-methoxyphenyl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (PD98059) enhanced promoter activity and expression of CYP17. This effect was reversed by pioglitazone treatment, indicating that the MEK/ERK signaling pathway plays a role in regulating androgen biosynthesis by pioglitazone.
Modeling, Design and Characterization of a Very Wideband Slot Antenna With Reconfigurable Band Rejection

An antenna exhibiting a very wide bandwidth with reconfigurable rejection within the band is presented. The proposed topology is versatile in terms of the number of available antenna states and location of the rejection frequencies, and also allows the operation of the antenna in an “all-pass” state. First, a physical interpretation of the rejection mechanism and its corresponding circuit model are presented and validated. The proposed antenna concept is then demonstrated on a 4-state slot bow-tie antenna operating from 1.5 to 5 GHz with various rejection frequencies. PIN diodes are used as switching elements, with particular care taken to minimize power consumption. Simulated and measured return loss, radiation patterns and gain of the fully operational antenna are presented. Finally, we characterize and discuss the overall efficiency-considered here as the most relevant parameter to characterize the antenna filtering performance-both theoretically and experimentally, thereby highlighting the benefit of the proposed topology.
Title A WORLDWIDE INVESTIGATION OF CRITICAL CARE RESEARCH COORDINATORS ’ SELF-REPORTED ROLE AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES : THE WINNER SURVEY Short title Research Coordinators in Critical Care : The WINNER survey Authors / Affiliations ( * Corresponding author )

Aim and objectives. To describe the self-reported role and professional development priorities of Research Coordinators in different regions of the world. Background. Research Coordinators employed in critical care settings provide clinical and technical expertise in the development, conduct and completion of clinical research studies. Knowledge of this specialised role is well established in some parts of the world, yet emerging in others. Design. Descriptive exploratory study involving research coordinators outside of Australia and New Zealand. Method. An anonymous, structured, multiple-choice, web-based questionnaire conducted between April and May 2011. Results. There were 80 respondents from North America (61%), Europe (29%) and Latin America (10%). The majority of respondents performed data collection and obtained informed consent, and half had presented study findings at conferences or wrote scholarly articles, despite a greater willingness to do so. Requisite skills for the Research Coordinator role included clinical research knowledge, creative problem solving and the ability to identify/resolve ethical questions. ‘Best’ reported aspects of the role were promotion of evidence-based clinical practice, intellectual stimulation and autonomy. ‘Worst’ aspects included heavy workload, lack of funding and recognition. Conclusion: Research Coordinators working in critical care settings collect data, require clinical research knowledge and problem solving skills, and are interested in, but have less confidence in, dissemination of research findings. They feel isolated with a lack of support and inadequate remuneration for the effort and time required to maintain the high standards of their role. This is outweighed by the satisfaction derived from promoting the research process and autonomy. Further observational studies aimed at clarifying and advancing the role of the Research Coordinator is warranted. Relevance to clinical practice. This paper offers insight into the global roles and responsibilities as reported RCs employed in critical care settings.
Risky Sexual Behavior Among College Students With ADHD

Objective: This study examined the extent to which ADHD was associated with risky sexual behaviors (RSBs) in a sample of 92 undergraduates with (n = 44) and without (n = 48) ADHD. Mother–child relationship quality was examined as a potential moderator. Method: We conducted comprehensive assessments for ADHD and comorbid conditions and collected measures of RSB and mother–child relationship quality. Results: Female students with ADHD were least likely to use condoms than males overall and females without ADHD. An interaction between ADHD and mother–child relationship quality accounted for significant variance in the number of past-year sexual partners, such that a high-quality relationship was protective only for students with ADHD. No other significant associations were found between ADHD and RSB. Conclusion: Results suggest that female college students with ADHD are at risk for unprotected sex. Moreover, a positive mother–child relationship may be protective for college students with ADHD in relation to RSB.
The Call to Vocation: Life Histories of Elderly Women Religious

Thirty elderly women religious (Catholic nuns) were studied using a phenomenological interview technique. This paper discusses the women's “call to vocation”—the remembered life events that influenced their decisions to enter the convent as young girls. The women talked about romantic and pragmatic motivations as well as spiritual direction. Remembrances of three of the study participants are used to demonstrate circumstances and emotions that led the women to choose their life course. The recollections have significance for the women religious in late life; they provide a source of satisfaction and commitment. They also offer researchers a means of viewing the worlds of this population of women.
Simulating one-dimensional physics with stationary dark polaritons

Simulating one-dimensional physics with stationary dark polaritons Hudson Pimenta Silveira Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Physics University of Toronto 2018 In recent years, the development of various platforms for quantum simulation made it possible to study many-body systems under controlled conditions. Of particular interest are one-dimensional systems, known to exhibit some unique properties compared to their higher-dimensional counterparts. One of the current promising platforms for simulations of one-dimensional systems are Rydberg dark polaritons, quasiparticles of a photon-matter hybrid character emerging in the context of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) coupled with Rydberg atoms. These polaritons are long-lived (owing to the properties of EIT) and inherit interaction properties from the huge polarizability of Rydberg atoms, both attractive features in the context of simulations. We herein construct an experimental proposal for realizing one-dimensional physics through Rydberg dark polaritons. By using a stationary-light scheme, a sequence of steps allows a laser pulse incident on a transversally trapped gas of Rydberg atoms to yield a stationary pulse of weakly interacting polaritons. Within the stationarity regime, the lasers are further tuned to adjust the interaction effective one-dimensional scattering length through a Feshbach-like resonance to create a Tonks-Girardeau-type gas of polaritons. Signatures of non-trivial correlations can then experimentally probed by retrieving the photons through a subsequent adjustment of the laser strengths. Realizing this proposal would be a landmark achievement in the fields of many-body simulations and Rydberg
Duración del periodo de lluvias y aptitud de tierras para la agricultura de temporal

El concepto duracion del periodo de lluvias (DPLL) es una propuesta de mejoramiento de otro denominado longitud del periodo de crecimiento (LPC). El objetivo fue realizar un mapa de aptitud para la agricultura de temporal basado en la seleccion de un modelo de la duracion del periodo de lluvias con el indice de humedad. Se utilizaron los datos de 65 estaciones meteorologicas del estado de Yucatan y zonas circundantes. Se analizo la relacion entre el resultado del modelo con el mapa de la vegetacion potencial. Se encontro que el indice de humedad es mayor cuando proviene del metodo de Thornthwaite (MT), con el que se obtuvo el mejor modelo cartogra co con valor de de nicion de un mes humedo cuando es mayor a 0.65. El variograma fue tipo Gaussiano con una r 2 = 0.98 y el porcentaje de la varianza explicada C/(C0+C) = 74 %. La validacion cruzada de la interpolacion presento una r= 0.63 y la raiz cuadrada del error cuadratico medio (RECM) = 1.34. Los cinco intervalos de meses humedos de interes agricola fue de tres a cuatro meses, de cuatro a cinco meses, de cinco a seis meses, de seis a siete meses, y de siete a ocho meses.
The International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) Task Force report on the nomenclature of course and outcome in bipolar disorders.

OBJECTIVES Via an international panel of experts, this paper attempts to document, review, interpret, and propose operational definitions used to describe the course of bipolar disorders for worldwide use, and to disseminate consensus opinion, supported by the existing literature, in order to better predict course and treatment outcomes. METHODS Under the auspices of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, a task force was convened to examine, report, discuss, and integrate findings from the scientific literature related to observational and clinical trial studies in order to reach consensus and propose terminology describing course and outcome in bipolar disorders. RESULTS Consensus opinion was reached regarding the definition of nine terms (response, remission, recovery, relapse, recurrence, subsyndromal states, predominant polarity, switch, and functional outcome) commonly used to describe course and outcomes in bipolar disorders. Further studies are needed to validate the proposed definitions. CONCLUSION Determination and dissemination of a consensus nomenclature serve as the first step toward producing a validated and standardized system to define course and outcome in bipolar disorders in order to identify predictors of outcome and effects of treatment. The task force acknowledges that there is limited validity to the proposed terms, as for the most part they represent a consensus opinion. These definitions need to be validated in existing databases and in future studies, and the primary goals of the task force are to stimulate research on the validity of proposed concepts and further standardize the technical nomenclature.
Dual Skew Divergence Loss for Neural Machine Translation

For neural sequence model training, maximum likelihood (ML) has been commonly adopted to optimize model parameters with respect to the corresponding objective. However, in the case of sequence prediction tasks like neural machine translation (NMT), training with the ML-based cross entropy loss would often lead to models that overgeneralize and plunge into local optima. In this paper, we propose an extended loss function called dual skew divergence (DSD), which aims to give a better tradeoff between generalization ability and error avoidance during NMT training. Our empirical study indicates that switching to DSD loss after the convergence of ML training helps the model skip the local optimum and stimulates a stable performance improvement. The evaluations on WMT 2014 English-German and English-French translation tasks demonstrate that the proposed loss indeed helps bring about better translation performance than several baselines.
Use of the Isolated Perfused Heart for Evaluation of Cardiac Toxicity 1

The isolated perfused rat heart model can be used to evaluate cardiotoxicity, and is especially useful in distinguishing direct vs indirect cardiac injury. Various perfusion systems can be used to characterize the pathophysiologic as well as morphologic changes induced by drugs or chemicals of interest. The isolated perfused heart was used in the studies described herein to characterize the mechanism of allylamine cardiotoxicity. Rat hearts were perfused with Krebs-Henseleit buffer containing 10 mm allylamine and a latex balloon was inserted into the left ventricle to monitor pressure. Coronary flow in hearts perfused with 10 mm allylamine was similar to control hearts at 5, 10, and 30 min, but was reduced by 1 hr (11.5 ± 0.6 ml/min/g wet heart weight vs 16.0 ± 0.7, p < 0.01). Peak left ventricular systolic pressure increased in hearts perfused with allylamine for 5 min (156 ± 8 mm Hg vs 103 ± 9, p < 0.01), but by 2 hr was decreased compared to controls (89 ± 6 vs 105 ± 5, p < 0.05). End diastolic pressure was markedly increased at 2 hr (58 ± 3 vs 4 ± 0.8, p < 0.01). Morphologically, allylamine perfused hearts exhibited significant contraction band changes as well as numerous cells with marked swelling of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. The findings in this study suggest that allylamine produces direct myocardial damage that appears to be independent of coronary flow. These studies demonstrate that the isolated perfused rat heart model can be used to evaluate mechanisms of acute cardiotoxicity.
Understanding behavioural patterns of advanced mobile service users

Better understanding of consumers' behavioural patterns related to the acceptance, use and purchase of advanced mobile services is critical to ensure their successful uptake in the market. While much research exists on technology acceptance and use, less research has focused on the underlying economic influences fuelling consumers' behaviours. This paper brings insights from the behavioural economics research domain to investigate the mental processing of consumers during the trial of new advanced mobile services. Through an exploratory analysis of the results of a field study on advanced mobile service use in Denmark, this paper suggests that pricing of services and consumers references to already established service delivery platforms can be important elements influencing consumers' behaviours.
Crystal Structure of ATP Phosphoribosyltransferase fromMycobacterium tuberculosis *

The N-1-(5′-phosphoribosyl)-ATP transferase catalyzes the first step of the histidine biosynthetic pathway and is regulated by a feedback mechanism by the product histidine. The crystal structures of theN-1-(5′-phosphoribosyl)-ATP transferase fromMycobacterium tuberculosis in complex with inhibitor histidine and AMP has been determined to 1.8 Å resolution and without ligands to 2.7 Å resolution. The active enzyme exists primarily as a dimer, and the histidine-inhibited form is a hexamer. The structure represents a new fold for a phosphoribosyltransferase, consisting of three continuous domains. The inhibitor AMP binds in the active site cavity formed between the two catalytic domains. A model for the mechanism of allosteric inhibition has been derived from conformational differences between the AMP:His-bound and apo structures.
Testing for path delay faults using test points

Path delay fault testing is often difficult due to the large number of paths that must be tested. Inserting controllable/observable points in the test architecture has been shown to be a viable method for reducing the number of paths that need to be tested in a circuit. Test points allow the tester to test subpaths of the circuit and then draw conclusions of the operability of the circuit based upon the delays of subpaths. We illustrate some of the limitations of current subpath testing procedures and illustrate some of the difficulties associated with unstructured test point placement. We give an implementation of test points embedded in a scan chain and present a new testing technique that is more accurate than the previous method. We also present a novel test point insertion approach that has reasonable test times and minimal impact on the hardware size and the operational clock.
Evaluation of the Abbott LCx Assay for Detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Endocervical Swab Specimens from Females

ABSTRACT The Abbott LCx Neisseria gonorrhoeae assay (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill.) uses a ligase chain reaction (LCR) amplification in the LCx probe system for detection of a specific nucleotide sequence in the Opa-encoding gene of N. gonorrhoeae. We evaluated the LCx assay in a comparison with conventional culture employing modified Thayer-Martin media for the detection of N. gonorrhoeae from female endocervical specimens obtained from patients attending a sexually transmitted disease clinic. Discordantly LCR-positive and culture-negative specimens were further evaluated by testing with another LCR assay which used an N. gonorrhoeae-specific pilin probe. Specimens positive by both LCR assays were considered confirmed LCx-positive specimens. A specimen was considered to contain N. gonorrhoeae when it was either culture positive or culture negative and confirmed LCx positive. A total of 403 female endocervical specimens were evaluated. The prevalence of N. gonorrhoeae in this population was 8.7%. The sensitivity and specificity of the LCx assay were 94.3 and 99.4%, and those of culture were 77.1 and 100%, respectively. The Abbott LCx assay is a rapid, sensitive method for detection of N. gonorrhoeae in female endocervical specimens.
Differential VASP phosphorylation controls remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton

Proteins of the Enabled/vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (Ena/VASP) family link signal transduction pathways to actin cytoskeleton dynamics. VASP is substrate of cAMP-dependent, cGMP-dependent and AMP-activated protein kinases that primarily phosphorylate the sites S157, S239 and T278, respectively. Here, we systematically analyzed functions of VASP phosphorylation patterns for actin assembly and subcellular targeting in vivo and compared the phosphorylation effects of Ena/VASP family members. Methods used were the reconstitution of VASP-null cells with `locked' phosphomimetic VASP mutants, actin polymerization of VASP mutants in vitro and in living cells, site-specific kinase-mediated VASP phosphorylation, and analysis of the endogenous protein with phosphorylation-status-specific antibodies. Phosphorylation at S157 influenced VASP localization, but had a minor impact on F-actin assembly. Phosphorylation of the S157-equivalent site in the Ena/VASP family members Mena and EVL had no effect on the ratio of cellular F-actin to G-actin. By contrast, VASP phosphorylation at S239 (and the equivalent site in Mena) or T278 impaired VASP-driven actin filament formation. The data show that VASP functions are precisely regulated by differential phosphorylation and provide new insights into cytoskeletal control by serine/threonine kinase-dependent signaling pathways.
(Work in Progress) User-Tailored Privacy by Design

The “privacy by design” philosophy addresses privacy aspects early in the design and development of an information system. While privacy by design solutions often provide considerable advantages over “post hoc” privacy solutions, they are usually not customized to the needs of individual users. Further, research shows that users differ substantially in their privacy management strategies. Thus, how can we support such broad privacy needs in a comprehensive and user-centered way? This paper presents the idea of user-tailored privacy by design, a design methodology that combines multiple privacy features into a single intelligent user interface. We discuss how this methodology moves beyond the “one-size-fits-all” approach of existing privacy by design solutions and the narrow focus on information disclosure of existing user-tailored privacy solutions. We illustrate our approach through an implementation of usertailored privacy by design within Facebook based on six privacy management profiles that were discovered in recent work, and subsequently extend this idea to the context of the Total Learning Architecture (TLA), which is a next generation learning platform that uses pervasive user monitoring to provide highly adaptive learning recommendations. Keywords—Privacy; Social Networking Sites; Training Systems; Design; Personalization
CTL-DNNet: E®ective Circular Tra±c Light Recognition with a Deep Neural Network

This paper proposed an algorithm for a deep learning network for identifying circular tra±c lights (CTL-DNNet). The sample labeling process uses translation to increase the number of positive samples, and the similarity is calculated to reduce the number of negative samples, thereby reducing over¯tting. We use a dataset of approximately 370000 samples, with approximately 20000 positive samples and approximately 350000 negative samples. The datasets are generated from images taken at the Beijing Garden Expo. To obtain a very robust method for the detection of tra±c lights, we use di®erent layers, di®erent cost functions and di®erent activation functions of the depth neural network for training and comparison. Our algorithm has evaluated autonomous vehicles in varying illumination and gets the result with high accuracy and robustness. The experimental results show that CTL-DNNet is e®ective at recognizing road tra±c lights in the Beijing Garden Expo area.