Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genotype of melatonin receptor MT1 (MTNR1A) and puberty in Mediterranean Italian buffalo.

Summary In adult buff aloes, polymorphism of the MT1 receptor gene has shown to infl uence the reproductive seasonality. Th e aim of study was to assess whether the polymorphism of the MTNR1A gene may infl uence puberty in Mediterranean Italian buffalo. Th e study was conducted using 50 prepubertal buff alo cows that at the age of 15 months were placed into the group where there was the male. Estrus detection was performed by observing estrous-behaviour and pregnancy checking by palpation per rectum and/or ultrasound between days 40 and 60 post-mating. Also of each animal dates of calving was recorded. From each buff alos a blood sample was collected and used for DNA extraction. PCR analysis was performed using 100-150 ng of DNA to amplify the second exon of the MTNRA1 gene. All PCR products were digested with 2U of enzyme HpaI to highlight the polymorphism at position 82 (characterized by a C to a T substitution) of the MTNR1A gene. Frequency of C and T alleles was respectively 0.42 and 0.58 in the analyzed population which resulted in Hardy Weinberg equilibrium. Th e genotypic frequency was 28% for genotype C/C, 38% for C/T and 34% for T/T. Th e registration of reproductive data showed that the fi rst heat is around the age of 20 months and the fi rst calving around 32 months. Our data show that the genotype of the MTNR1A does not infl uence the onset of reproductive activity in prepubertal buff alo cows.
Mean�?Plus�?Noise Factor Models: An Empirical Exploration

In this paper I propose an alternative factor model whose common factor follows a mean‐plus‐noise process. While the existing methods for factor models should be valid for this model, their performance may be misleading in small samples. Because the likelihood function of this model is not tractable, I estimate this model by Bayesian methods. When applied to US macroeconomic time series, we find that the estimated mean‐plus‐noise factor is useful for predicting real personal income, industrial production and unemployment at long prediction horizons.
Performance of Trellis Coded FPM Systems with High Power Amplifiers Linearization

—Trellis coding combined with expanded signal sets has been considered in this paper to improve error performance over uncoded modulation. New communications services have created the demand for highly linear high power amplifiers (HPA's). Traveling Wave Tubes Amplifiers (TWTA) continue to offer the best microwave HPA performance in terms of power efficiency, size and cost, but lag behind Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA's) in linearity. This paper presents a technique for improving TWTA linearity. The use of pre-distorter (PD) linearization technique is found to provide TWTA performance comparable or superior to conventional SSPA's. The characteristics of the PD scheme is derived based on the extension of Saleh's model for HPA. The analysis results of hybrid modulation scheme derived from combination of frequency and phase shift keying (FSK/PSK) or (FPM) in non-linear channels are presented in this paper.
Legionnaires' disease as an occupational risk related to decontamination work after the Fukushima nuclear disaster: A case report

Legionnaires’ disease (LD), which is atypical pneumonia with a broad variety of clinical symptoms, can lead to death despite its low incidence. There are multiple risk factors for LD, yet little information is available concerning what kind of environmental factors are linked to higher risk of LD development. We have experienced a fatal case of LD, which occurred in a decontamination worker after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
A Human Epithelium-Specific Vector Optimized in Rat Pneumocytes for Lung Gene Therapy

Gene therapy vectors based on mammalian promoters offer the potential for increased cell specificity and may be less susceptible than viral promoters to transcription attenuation by host cytokines. The human cytokeratin 18 (K18) gene is naturally expressed in the lung epithelia, a target site for gene therapies to treat certain genetic pediatric lung diseases. Our original vector based on the promoter and 5′ control elements of K18 offered excellent epithelial cell specificity but relatively low expression levels compared with viral promoters. In the present study, we found that adding a stronger SV40 poly(A) signal boosted primary rat lung epithelial cell expression but greatly reduced cell specificity. Addition of a 3′ portion of the K18 gene to our vector as a 3′ untranslated region (UTR) improved epithelial cell-specific expression by reducing expression in lung fibroblasts. The effect of the 3′ UTR was not related to gross differences in cell-specific splicing. A deletion variant of this UTR further increased lung epithelial cell expression while retaining some cell specificity. These data illustrate the possibilities for using 3′ UTR to regulate cell-specific transgene expression. Our improved K18 vector should prove useful for pediatric lung gene therapy applications.
A Hidden Markov Model for the TREC Novelty Task

The algorithms for choosing relevant sentences were tuned versions of those presented in the past DUC evaluations and TREC 2003 (see [4, 5, 10] [11] for more details). The enhancements to the previous system are detailed in Section 3. Two methods were explored to find a subset of the relevant sentences that had good coverage but low redundancy. In the multi-document summarization system, the QR algorithm is used on termsentence matrices. For this work, the method of maximum marginal relevance was also employed. The evaluation of these methods is discussed in Section 5.
Effect of pulsed electric field on structural modification and thermal properties of whey protein isolate

This study evaluated structural modification and thermal properties of whey protein isolate (WPI) treated by pulsed electric fields (PEF). Structural modification and thermal properties of WPI were evaluated by using fluorescence spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The effect of PEF treatments (electric field intensity ranging from 12, 16 and 20 kV cm and pulses ranging from 10-30) on intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence and extrinsic 1-anilino-naphthalene-8-sulfonate (ANS) fluorescence of WPI were studied. PEF treatments of WPI resulted in an increase in intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence intensity and 2-4 nm red shifts. There was an increase in extrinsic ANS fluorescence intensity which showed increases in the surface hydrophobicity of WPI. The apparent enthalpy and denaturation temperatures of PEFtreated WPI samples were modified by PEF treatments. Whey protein was denatured by approximately 43.7% when WPI was treated by PEF at the electric field intensity of 20 kV cm and 30 pulses. The results of this study indicated that PEF treatments affected structural modification and thermal properties of whey protein isolates.
Document Classification Based on Support Vector Machine Using a Concept Vector Model

This paper proposes a new method for document categorization, based on support vector machine (SVM) using a concept vector model (CVM). The traditional document classification usually ignores the semantic relations among the keywords or documents. To effectively solve the semantic problem, the domain ontology is used to capture the semantic information among different terms or keywords in the documents. Using the concept vector model, domain-related semantic information more exactly from documents can be extracted. In the model, concept vector is extracted from a document by the matching method. According to concept features of the documents, documents are classified into a suitable category by SVM. The experimental results show that our CVM method yields higher accuracy compared to the traditional term-based vector space model (VSM) methods
The influence of information status on pronoun resolution in Mandarin Chinese: evidence from ERPs

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying the modulation of pronoun resolution processes by the information status of the antecedent. Information status was manipulated by using a structurally based constraint (e.g., order of mention) as well as a pragmatically based constraint (i.e., topichood). We found that the pronouns referring to topic entities [the initial noun phrase (NP) in Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) structure in Experiment 1 and OSV structure in Experiment 2] elicited attenuated P600 responses compared to the pronouns referring to non-topic entities (the initial NP in SVO structure or the second NP in OSV structure in both experiments) when potential interference from structural constraints was controlled. The linear structural constraint, namely the order of mention, had no clear influence on the P600 effect when the syntactic structural constraint was held constant (i.e., when both entities were syntactic subjects), regardless of whether one (Experiment 1) or two (Experiment 2) animate antecedents were present. These findings suggest that pragmatically encoded features such as topichood and givenness can be processed separately from structural constraints such as order of mention to promote the salient status of a referent and thereby facilitate pronoun interpretation.
Gauge principle revisited: Towards a unification of space–time and internal gauge interactions

The minimal coupling principle is revisited under the quantum perspectives of the space–time symmetry. This revision is better realized on a group approach to quantization (GAQ) where group cohomology and extensions of groups play a preponderant role. We first consider the case of the electromagnetic potential; the Galilei and/or Poincare group is (noncentrally) extended by the “local” U(1) group. The resulting group can also be seen as a central extension, parametrized by both the mass and the electric charge, of an infinite-dimensional group, on which GAQ leads to the dynamics of a particle moving in the presence of an electromagnetic field. Then we try the gravitational interaction of a particle by making the space–time translations “local. ” However, promoting to “local” the space–time subgroup of the true symmetry of the quantum free relativistic particle, i.e., the centrally extended by U(1) Poincare group, results in a new electromagneticlike force of pure gravitational origin. This is a consequence of the space–time translations not being an invariant subgroup of the extended Poincare group and constitutes a preliminary attempt to a nontrivial mixing of space–time and internal gauge interactions.
Focal CA3 hippocampal subfield atrophy following LGI1 VGKC-complex antibody limbic encephalitis

Autoantibodies linked with voltage-gated potassium channel (VGKC)-complex antibody-mediated limbic encephalitis (LE) bind to hippocampal subfields. Miller et al. report that chronic LGI1 antibody VGKC-complex LE is associated with focal CA3 atrophy on 7.0-Tesla neuroimaging and autobiographical episodic amnesia. The results point to antibody-mediated pathogenicity and CA3-mediated impairment of episodic memory.
A New Full Swing Full Adder Based on a New Logic Approach

: This paper presents a new low power full adder based on a new logic approach, which reduces power consumption by implementing full adder using only one XOR module. In addition, output inverters have been embedded in the full adder cell, which boost driving capability, reduce delay and provide complementary outputs. Simulation has been carried out by HSPICE in 0. 18µm bulk technology at 1.8V supply voltage. The results show that the proposed circuit has less power and PDP than recently proposed full adders in the literature.
Heterogeneity of firing properties among rat thalamic reticular nucleus neurons

The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) provides inhibitory innervation to most thalamic relay nuclei and receives excitatory innervation from both cortical and thalamic neurons. Ultimately, information transfer through the thalamus to the neocortex is strongly influenced by TRN. In addition, the reciprocal synaptic connectivity between TRN with associated thalamic relay nuclei is critical in generating intrathalamic rhythmic activities that occur during certain arousal states and pathophysiological conditions. Despite evidence suggesting morphological heterogeneity amongst TRN neurons, the heterogeneity of intrinsic properties of TRN neurons has not been systematically examined. One key characteristic of virtually all thalamic neurons is the ability to produce action potentials in two distinct modes: burst and tonic. In this study, we have examined the prevalence of burst discharge within TRN neurons. Our intracellular recordings revealed that TRN neurons can be differentiated by their action potential discharge modes. The majority of neurons in the dorsal TRN (56%) lack burst discharge, and the remaining neurons (35%) show an atypical burst that consists of an initial action potential followed by small amplitude, long duration depolarizations. In contrast, most neurons in ventral TRN (82%) display a stereotypical burst discharge consisting of a transient, high frequency discharge of multiple action potentials. TRN neurons that lack burst discharge typically did not produce low threshold calcium spikes or produced a significantly reduced transient depolarization. Our findings clearly indicate that TRN neurons can be differentiated by differences in their spike discharge properties and these subtypes are not uniformly distributed within TRN. The functional consequences of such intrinsic differences may play an important role in modality‐specific thalamocortical information transfer as well as overall circuit level activities.
The Institutional Ecology of Ngos: Applying Hansmann to International Development

While initially heralded as the magic bullet for development, NGOs have come under increasing criticism for their failure to deliver development as promised. Despite the plethora of new critiques, little systematic work has theorized how NGOs actually operate within the least developed countries as economic and social institutions, and what structural conditions are necessary for NGOs to operate successfully. Drawing on existing theories of the nonprofit form in a functioning three-sector economy, the Article argues that the absence of certain economic conditions has a negative impact on NGO efficiency and efficacy. For NGOs to succeed, they must exist in an economy with a functional state and private sector. Attempts to use NGOs as substitutes for private and public institutions damage the NGO sector and its objectives. The absence of functioning private and governmental sectors not only weakens NGOs but actually impedes the development of these other sectors and perpetuates institutional failures. The concentration of human capital in the NGO sector diverts human resources away from more economically productive forms of entrepreneurship. Additionally, the channeling of funding and human capital into the NGO sector weakens the state, limiting its capacity and credibility. By attempting to bypass weak institutions and create viable development partners, donors are actually contributing to the continued weakness of the organizations they are building and to those in other crucial sectors.
Spike Timing Rigidity Is Maintained in Bursting Neurons under Pentobarbital-Induced Anesthetic Conditions

Pentobarbital potentiates γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-mediated inhibitory synaptic transmission by prolonging the open time of GABAA receptors. However, it is unknown how pentobarbital regulates cortical neuronal activities via local circuits in vivo. To examine this question, we performed extracellular unit recording in rat insular cortex under awake and anesthetic conditions. Not a few studies apply time-rescaling theorem to detect the features of repetitive spike firing. Similar to these methods, we define an average spike interval locally in time using random matrix theory (RMT), which enables us to compare different activity states on a universal scale. Neurons with high spontaneous firing frequency (>5 Hz) and bursting were classified as HFB neurons (n = 10), and those with low spontaneous firing frequency (<10 Hz) and without bursting were classified as non-HFB neurons (n = 48). Pentobarbital injection (30 mg/kg) reduced firing frequency in all HFB neurons and in 78% of non-HFB neurons. RMT analysis demonstrated that pentobarbital increased in the number of neurons with repulsion in both HFB and non-HFB neurons, suggesting that there is a correlation between spikes within a short interspike interval (ISI). Under awake conditions, in 50% of HFB and 40% of non-HFB neurons, the decay phase of normalized histograms of spontaneous firing were fitted to an exponential function, which indicated that the first spike had no correlation with subsequent spikes. In contrast, under pentobarbital-induced anesthesia conditions, the number of non-HFB neurons that were fitted to an exponential function increased to 80%, but almost no change in HFB neurons was observed. These results suggest that under both awake and pentobarbital-induced anesthetized conditions, spike firing in HFB neurons is more robustly regulated by preceding spikes than by non-HFB neurons, which may reflect the GABAA receptor-mediated regulation of cortical activities. Whole-cell patch-clamp recording in the IC slice preparation was performed to compare the regularity of spike timing between pyramidal and fast-spiking (FS) neurons, which presumably correspond to non-HFB and HFB neurons, respectively. Repetitive spike firing of FS neurons exhibited a lower variance of ISI than pyramidal neurons both in control and under application of pentobarbital, supporting the above hypothesis.
Problems and Opportunities in Memory Systems

The memory system is a fundamental performance and energy bottleneck in almost all computing systems. Recent system design, application, and technology trends that require more capacity, bandwidth, efficiency, and predictability out of the memory system make it an even more important system bottleneck. At the same time, DRAM technology is experiencing difficult technology scaling challenges that make the maintenance and enhancement of its capacity, energyefficiency, and reliability significantly more costly with conventional techniques. In this article, after describing the demands and challenges faced by the memory system, we examine some promising research and design directions to overcome challenges posed by memory scaling. Specifically, we describe three major new research challenges and solution directions: 1) enabling new DRAM architectures, functions, interfaces, and better integration of the DRAM and the rest of the system (an approach we call system-DRAM co-design), 2) designing a memory system that employs emerging non-volatile memory technologies and takes advantage of multiple different technologies (i.e., hybrid memory systems), 3) providing predictable performance and QoS to applications sharing the memory system (i.e., QoS-aware memory systems). We also briefly describe our ongoing related work in combating scaling challenges of NAND flash memory.
Combining Local Optimization and Enumeration for QoS-aware Web Service Composition

Web service composition, i.e., WSC, has emerged as a promising way to integrate various distributed computing resources for complex application requirements. However, much computation time is needed to determine the optimal composite solution, which embarrasses the popularity of WSC in actual real time applications. In view of this challenge, in this paper, a heuristic service composition method, named LOEM (Local Optimization and Enumeration Method, LOEM), is proposed. It aims at filtering the candidates of each task to a small number of promising ones by local selection, and then enumerates all the composite solutions to pursue a near-to-optimal one. The experiment results demonstrate the feasibility of LOEM in dealing with the WSC problems.
Cancer Therapy : Preclinical Synergistic Activity of Bortezomib and HDACi in Preclinical Models of B-cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia via Modulation of p 53 , PI 3 K / AKT , and NFk B

Purpose: Relapse of disease and subsequent resistance to established therapies remains a major challenge in the treatment of childhood B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL). New therapeutic options, such as proteasome and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) with a toxicity profile differing from that of conventional cytotoxic agents, are needed for these extensively pretreated patients. Experimental Design: Antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects of combined HDACi/proteasome inhibitor treatments were analyzed using BCP-ALL monocultures, cocultures with primary mesenchymal stroma cells from patients with ALL, and xenograft mouse models. The underlying molecular mechanisms associated with combined treatment were determined by gene expression profiling and protein validation. Results: We identified the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib as a promising combination partner for HDACi due to the substantial synergistic antileukemic activity in BCP-ALL cells after concomitant application. This effect was maintained or even increased in the presence of chemotherapeutic agents. The synergistic effect of combined HDACi/BTZ treatment was associated with the regulation of genes involved in cell cycle, JUN/MAPK, PI3K/AKT, p53, ubiquitin/proteasome, and NF-kB pathways. We observed an activation of NF-kB after bortezomib treatment and the induction of apoptosis-related NFkB target genes such as TNFaRs after concomitant treatment, indicating a possible involvement of NF-kB as proapoptotic mediator. In this context, significantly lower NF-kB subunits gene expression was detected in leukemia cells from patients who developed a relapse during frontline chemotherapy, compared with those who relapsed after cessation of frontline therapy. Conclusion: These results provide a rationale for the integration of HDACi/BTZ combinations into current childhood BCP-ALL treatment protocols. Clin Cancer Res; 19(6); 1–13. 2013 AACR.
Interactions and the meaning of work in a 'dirty work' industry

Work meaning refers to the employees' understanding of what they do at work as well as the significance of what they do. Using 32 semi-structured interviews with employees at South African gold mines, I investigated how social interactions shape the meaning of work. Based on sensemaking and sensegiving interactions, from within the organization and outside of the work setting, four different themes are yielded which are important for understanding how the meaning of work in a ‘dirty work’ industry is shaped: organizational taint, hierarchical differences, race and gender differences, and stigma
A unifying link abstraction for wireless sensor networks

Recent technological advances and the continuing quest for greater efficiency have led to an explosion of link and network protocols for wireless sensor networks. These protocols embody very different assumptions about network stack composition and, as such, have limited interoperability. It has been suggested [3] that, in principle, wireless sensor networks would benefit from a unifying abstraction (or "narrow waist" in architectural terms), and that this abstraction should be closer to the link level than the network level. This paper takes that vague principle and turns it into practice, by proposing a specific unifying sensornet protocol (SP) that provides shared neighbor management and a message pool.The two goals of a unifying abstraction are generality and efficiency: it should be capable of running over a broad range of link-layer technologies and supporting a wide variety of network protocols, and doing so should not lead to a significant loss of efficiency. To investigate the extent to which SP meets these goals, we implemented SP (in TinyOS) on top of two very different radio technologies: B-MAC on mica2 and IEEE 802.15. 4 on Telos. We also built a variety of network protocols on SP, including examples of collection routing [53], dissemination [26], and aggregation [33]. Measurements show that these protocols do not sacrifice performance through the use of our SP abstraction.