Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Calcium transients in developing mouse skeletal muscle fibres

Ca2+ transients elicited by action potentials were measured using MagFluo‐4, at 20–22°C, in intact muscle fibres enzymatically dissociated from mice of different ages (7, 10, 15 and 42 days). The rise time of the transient (time from 10 to 90% of the peak) was 2.4 and 1.1 ms in fibres of 7‐ and 42‐day‐old mice, respectively. The decay of the transient was described by a double exponential function, with time constants of 1.8 and 16.4 ms in adult, and of 4.6 and 105 ms in 7‐day‐old animals. The fractional recovery of the transient peak amplitude after 10 ms, F2(10)/F1, determined using twin pulses, was 0.53 for adult fibres and ranged between 0.03 and 0.60 in fibres of 7‐day‐old animals This large variance may indicate differences in the extent of inactivation of Ca2+ release, possibly related to the difference in ryanodine receptor composition between young and old fibres. At the 7 and 10 day stages, fibres responded to Ca2+‐free solutions with a larger decrease in the transient peak amplitude (25%versus 11% in adult fibres), possibly indicating a contribution of Ca2+ influx to the Ca2+ transient in younger animals. Cyclopiazonic acid (1 μm), an inhibitor of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+‐ATPase, abolished the Ca2+ transient decay in fibres of 7‐ and 10‐day‐old animals and significantly reduced its rate in older animals. Analysis of the transients with a Ca2+ removal model showed that the results are consistent with a larger relative contribution of the SR Ca2+ pump and a lower expression of myoplasmic Ca2+ buffers in fibres of young versus old animals.
Low effective population size but high heterozygosity revealed by SNP analyses in adult and juvenile Thuja plicata in UK Woodlands

Thuja plicata is a conifer tree that is appreciated for its cultural, ecological and wood quality features in its natural range in western North America. It is also used in Europe and the UK for timber production. Some T. Plicata plantations in the UK are converted to Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) management which uses natural regeneration and concerns have been raised about the genetic diversity in both the adult trees and the offspring. We studied species diversity, stand structure, and genetic diversity in four UK woodlands planted with T. plicata which contained both adults and naturally regenerated individuals. We discovered 61,104 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) using Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) and retained 504 SNPs for analysis. We selected 67 SNPs for PCR-based genotyping of 163 adults and 176 juveniles. We found a large number of monomorphic sites (40.3%) most of which were restricted to adults in a single woodland, indicative of a high genetic differentiation among woodlands. The effective population size (Ne) was very low across all sites (Ne < 100), varied between adults and juveniles, and was lowest in the most diverse woodland in terms of species and structure. In contrast, heterozygosity was high overall (Ho = 0.38), except in the divergent woodland (Ho = 0.26), and did not vary between adults and juveniles. Our findings and genotyping methods provide insights into the ability of CCF-managed woodlands, including instances of low genetic diversity in T. plicata, to face environmental shifts and disease threats.
Adiponectin Inhibits Cell Proliferation by Interacting with Several Growth Factors in an Oligomerization-dependent Manner*

Adiponectin, an adipocyte-specific secretory protein, is present in serum as three oligomeric complexes. Apart from its roles as an anti-diabetic and anti-atherogenic hormone, adiponectin has been implicated as an important regulator of cell growth and tissue remodeling. Here we show that some of these functions might be mediated by the specific interactions of adiponectin with several important growth factors. Among six different growth factors examined, adiponectin was found to bind with platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB), basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB EGF) with distinct affinities. The bindings of adiponectin with these growth factors are oligomerization-dependent. PDGF-BB bound to the high molecular weight (HMW) and middle molecular weight (MMW) complexes, but not to the low molecular weight (LMW) complex of adiponectin. Basic FGF preferentially interacted with the HMW form, whereas HB EGF bound to all three forms with comparable affinities. These three growth factors did not compete with each other for their bindings to adiponectin, suggesting the involvement of distinct binding sites. The interactions of adiponectin with PDGF-BB, basic FGF, and HB EGF precluded the bindings to their respective membrane receptors and attenuated the DNA synthesis and cell proliferation induced by these growth factors. Small interfering RNA-mediated down-regulation of adiponectin receptors did not affect the suppressive effects of adiponectin on cell proliferation stimulated by these growth factors. These data collectively suggest that the oligomeric complexes of adiponectin can modulate the biological actions of several growth factors by controlling their bioavailability at a pre-receptor level and that this effect might partly account for the anti-atherogenic, anti-angiogenic, and anti-proliferative functions of adiponectin.
The somatic mutation landscape of normal gastric epithelium

The landscapes of somatic mutation in normal cells inform on the processes of mutation and selection operative throughout life, permitting insight into normal ageing and the earliest stages of cancer development. Here, by whole-genome sequencing of 238 microdissections from 30 individuals, including 18 with gastric cancer, we elucidate the developmental trajectories of normal and malignant gastric epithelium. We find that gastric glands are units of monoclonal cell populations which accrue ∼28 somatic single nucleotide variants per year, predominantly attributable to endogenous mutational processes. In individuals with gastric cancer, glands often show elevated mutation burdens due to acceleration of mutational processes linked to proliferation and oxidative damage. These hypermutant glands were primarily detected in the gastric antrum and were mostly associated with chronic inflammation and intestinal metaplasia, known cancer risk factors. Unusually for normal cells, gastric epithelial cells often carry recurrent trisomies of specific chromosomes, which are highly enriched in a subset of individuals. Surveying approximately 8,000 gastric glands by targeted sequencing, we found somatic driver mutations in a distinctive repertoire of known cancer genes, including ARID1A, CTNNB1, KDM6A and ARID1B. Their prevalence increases with age to occupy approximately 5% of the gastric epithelial lining by age 60 years. Our findings provide insights into the intrinsic and extrinsic influences on somatic evolution in the gastric epithelium, in healthy, precancerous and malignant states.
PrÊt À Voter: a Voter-Verifiable Voting System

¿¿¿¿¿¿Pre¿t a¿ Voter provides a practical approach to end-to-end verifiable elections with a simple, familiar voter-experience. It assures a high degree of transparency while preserving secrecy of the ballot. Assurance arises from the auditability of the election itself, rather than the need to place trust in the system components. The original idea has undergone several revisions and enhancements since its inception in 2004, driven by the identification of threats, the availability of improved cryptographic primitives, and the desire to make the scheme as flexible as possible. This paper presents the key elements of the approach and describes the evolution of the design and their suitability in various contexts. We also describe the voter experience, and the security properties that the schemes provide.
The Impact of Cell-Cell Contact, E-Cadherin and EGF Receptor on the Cellular Radiosensitivity of A431 Cancer Cells

Cell-cell contact is thought to be critically involved in mechanisms leading to radioresistance. Here, we assessed the influence of confluent compared to subconfluent cell culture conditions and the radiosensitizing ability of E-cadherin inhibition alone or in combination with C225-mediated EGFR inhibition in human squamous cell carcinoma cells. Our results show higher radioresistance under subconfluent growth conditions than under confluency. Delayed plating only resulted in higher radiation survival in confluently growing cells. While E-cadherin depletion significantly reduced basal clonogenic survival, increased the rate of apoptosis, and diminished cell adhesion, the cellular radiosensitivity remained unchanged under both subconfluent and confluent conditions. C225 decreased basal cell survival but failed to modify radiation survival. Additional treatment of E-cadherin knockdown cell cultures with C225 did not further reduce basal cell survival or lead to radiosensitization. Interestingly, E-cadherin silencing in 3D cell cultures did not alter radiosensitivity. Our data indicate that cell-cell contact and E-cadherin are not prominently involved in the regulation of radioresistance of human squamous cell carcinoma cells. In addition, no regulatory interaction between E-cadherin and EGFR in the radiation response was observed.
New Strategies in Prostate Cancer: Translating Genomics into the Clinic

With the rapidly developing use of next-generation sequencing technologies, there has been a surge in our knowledge of the genomic landscape of prostate cancer and a movement toward developing a molecular subclassification system for the disease. With this new understanding comes great clinical potential, both for the development of biomarkers as well as new therapeutic targets. Herein, we highlight the potential clinical use of recent discoveries and how they fit into our current paradigm. We describe the challenges that lie ahead as we move from genomic sequencing toward routine clinical practice and adopt precision cancer care for patients with prostate cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 19(3); 517–23. ©2012 AACR.
Neural networks, penalty logic and optimality theory

Ever since the discovery of neural networks, there has been a controversy between two modes of information processing. On the one hand, symbolic systems have proven indispensable for our understanding of higher intelligence, especially when cognitive domains like language and reasoning are examined. On the other hand, it is a matter of fact that intelligence resides in the brain, where computation appears to be organized by numerical and statistical principles and where a parallel distributed architecture is appropriate. The present claim is in line with researchers like Paul Smolensky and Peter Gardenfors and suggests that this controversy can be resolved by a unified theory of cognition - one that integrates both aspects of cognition and assigns the proper roles to symbolic computation and numerical neural computation. The overall goal in this contribution is to discuss formal systems that are suitable for grounding the formal basis for such a unified theory. It is suggested that the instruments of modern logic and model theoretic semantics are appropriate for analyzing certain aspects of dynamical systems like inferring and learning in neural networks. Hence, I suggest that an active dialogue between the traditional symbolic approaches to logic, information and language and the connectionist paradigm is possible and fruitful. An essential component of this dialogue refers to Optimality Theory (OT) - taken as a theory that likewise aims to overcome the gap between symbolic and neuronal systems. In the light of the proposed logical analysis notions like recoverability and bidirection are explained, and likewise the problem of founding a strict constraint hierarchy is discussed. Moreover, a claim is made for developing an "embodied" OT closing the gap between symbolic representation and embodied cognition.
Shape-from-Polarisation: A Nonlinear Least Squares Approach

In this paper we present a new type of approach for estimating surface height from polarimetric data, i.e. a sequence of images in which a linear polarising filter is rotated in front of a camera. In contrast to all previous shape-from-polarisation methods, we do not first transform the observed data into a polarisation image. Instead, we minimise the sum of squared residuals between predicted and observed intensities over all pixels and polariser angles. This is a nonlinear least squares optimisation problem in which the unknown is the surface height. The forward prediction is a series of transformations for which we provide analytical derivatives allowing the overall problem to be efficiently optimised using Gauss-Newton type methods with an analytical Jacobian matrix. The method is very general and can incorporate any (differentiable) illumination, reflectance or polarisation model. We also propose a variant of the method which uses image ratios to remove dependence on illumination and albedo. We demonstrate our methods on glossy objects, including with albedo variations, and provide comparison to a state of the art approach.
Performance of SIM-MDPSK FSO Systems With Hardware Imperfections

This paper studies the error performance of free-space optical (FSO) systems, employing subcarrier intensity modulation (SIM) with M-ary differential phase-shift keying (MDPSK). Novel analytical expressions for the symbol error probability are derived, based on the Fourier series approach. The irradiance fluctuations of the received optical signal are modeled by considering both Gamma-Gamma atmospheric turbulence and pointing errors. In addition, hardware imperfections of DPSK demodulator, as the phase noise of local oscillator at the receiver, are considered. It is illustrated that the phase noise significantly degrades the system performance, especially when the optical signal transmission is impaired by weak atmospheric turbulence and weak pointing errors effect. Furthermore, the phase noise results in an unrecoverable error-rate floor, which is an important limiting factor for SIM-DPSK FSO systems.
Where to go from here : Integration and future research on work engagement

Modern organizations expect their employees to be proactive, show initiative, take responsibility for their own professional development and to be committed to high quality performance standards. They need employees who feel energetic and dedicated – i.e., who are engaged with their work. It is therefore not surprising that the past decade has witnessed a sharp rise in scientific studies on engagement. The work engagement research discussed in this book offers evidence for the incremental validity of engagement over and above traditional I/O concepts. Work engagement provides a distinct, valuable perspective on the experience of work. In this final chapter, we integrate the perspectives on work engagement offered in this book and outline a research agenda. We do this by delineating a theoretical framework and by discussing seven avenues for research on work engagement. We will see that the future looks bright for engagement research. The chapter authors presented dynamic perspectives on work engagement. What we will do is try to synthesize the perspectives, and illuminate avenues for new research.
An extended case study methodology for investigating influence of cultural, organizational, and automation factors on human-automation trust

This paper describes the utilization of an extended case methodology to reveal foundational lessons and best practices from real world perspectives about how cultural, organizational, and automation factors influence human-automation trust development. The Air Force Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) was used as the context for this case study. The study employs an eclectic set of qualitative and quantitative methodologies including a literature review for secondary data on the history of Auto-GCAS, field observations, surveys, and interviews for primary data. This paper also discusses how our methodologies and methods were adapted to the limited access, and uniqueness of, the participant groups while taking advantage of emerging opportunities. We also discuss lessons learned about the required qualities of the research team, particularly those related to cultural and technical competence, political sensitivity, and trust relationship with participants.
Short-Communication: A Comparison of the In Vitro Angiotensin-1-Converting Enzyme Inhibitory Capacity of Dairy and Plant Protein Supplements

The consumption of supplements based on dairy or plant proteins may be associated with bioactive potential, including angiotensin-1-converting enzyme inhibitory (ACE-1i) activity, which is linked with blood pressure reduction in vivo. To gain insight into this proposed mechanism, the ACE-1i potential of protein-based supplements, including a selection of dairy (n = 10) and plant (n = 5) proteins were in vitro digested. The total digest was filtered and permeate and retentate were obtained. ACE-1i activity was measured as the ability of proteins (pre-digestion, ‘gastric’, permeate, and retentate) to decrease the hydrolysis of furanacroloyl-Phe-Glu-Glu (FAPGG) substrate for the ACE-1 enzyme. Permeate and retentate of dairy proteins exerted a significantly higher ACE-1i activity (mean of 10 proteins: 27.05 ± 0.2% and 20.7 ± 0.2%, respectively) compared with pre-digestion dairy proteins (16.7 ± 0.3%). Plant protein exhibited high ACE-1i in ‘gastric’ and retentate fractions (mean of five proteins: 54.9 ± 0.6% and 35.7 ± 0.6%, respectively). The comparison of the in vitro ACE-1i activity of dairy and plant proteins could provide valuable knowledge regarding their specific bioactivities, which could inform their use in the formulation of specific functional supplements that would require testing for blood pressure control in human randomly-controlled studies.
An advanced photovoltaic system based on the fifteen-Level PUC inverter

In this paper, authors propose an advanced photovoltaic system based on the 15-Level PUC inverter. The proposed inverter has the advantage to operate with a single PV array while generating fifteen voltage levels. Even it is constituted from only eight switches and two capacitors; it can nevertheless offer a fifteen-level output voltage. In order to extract the maximum power from the PV panel, authors makes use of the incremental conduction MPPT technique. Associated to the proposed multiband hysteresis control technique, the load voltage and current are nearly sinusoidal. With such waveforms, there is no need of additional investment in any filters. This also increases the system energetic efficiency. Authors' choice has been focused on the Canadian Solar 220W CS5P-220P Panel which is among the top ranked in PVUSA Test Conditions (PTC) ratings established by the California Energy Commission. The proposed concept was verified by simulations performed in the Matlab Simulink and SimPowerSystem environments.
Recall memory, recognition memory, and the eyewitness confidence-accuracy correlation

Research on the eyewitness confidence-accuracy correlation assesses the degree of insight that eyewitnesses have into the accuracy of their memories. Recently, researchers have begun to consider some of the variables that may facilitate or hinder such insight. In the present study with 205 college undergraduates, a previously unexamined influence on this correlation in the context of memory for details of a simulated crime was investigated. The authors hypothesized and found that recall memory conditions (in which no alternative answers were provided ) were characterized by a higher eyewitness confidence-accuracy correlation than recognition memory conditions (in which alternative answers were provided). These findings are explained as a function of the availability of an ease-of-retrieval cue in recall memory.
Dielectric Characterization of the Seeds of Invasive Chinese Tallow Tree

Abstract Biofuels have the potential to replace a significant portion of the transportation needs of the USA and the world. Low-cost lipid feedstock (i.e. tallow tree seeds) can be used for production of biodiesel, but these seeds need to be dried. Microwave drying is utilized to dry various seeds and grain, but for this process to be most efficient the dielectric properties of the materials need to be known. This study presents, for the first time, the dielectric properties of the seeds of the Chinese tallow tree. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor were determined using a modified free-space method for different moisture contents at frequency ranges centered around 915 and 2450 MHz respectively. The dielectric constant decreased with frequency in those respective ranges, and increased linearly with increasing moisture content, from 1.96 at 0% m.c. to 2.3 at 7% m.c. at 915 MHz, and from 2.08 at 0% m.c. to 2.42 at 7.6% m.c. at 2450 MHz. The dielectric loss factor generally decreased with frequency in both frequency ranges, and increased linearly with moisture content from a low of 0.16 at 0% m.c. to 0.21 at 7.56% at 915 MHz, respectively from a low of 0.13 at 0% m.c. to 0.2 at 7.6% m.c. at 2450 MHz. These results can be used to design microwave processing operations and systems for drying of tallow tree seeds, as well as for non-destructive determination of theses seeds’ moisture content.
Changes in kynurenine pathway metabolism in Parkinson patients with L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesia

L‐3,4‐Dihydroxyphenylalanine (L‐DOPA) is the most effective drug in the symptomatic treatment of Parkinson's disease, but chronic use is associated with L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesia in more than half the patients after 10 years of treatment. L‐DOPA treatment may affect tryptophan metabolism via the kynurenine pathway. Altered levels of kynurenine metabolites can affect glutamatergic transmission and may play a role in the development of L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesia. In this study, we assessed kynurenine metabolites in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid of Parkinson's disease patients and controls. Parkinson patients (n = 26) were clinically assessed for severity of motor symptoms (UPDRS) and L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesia (UDysRS). Plasma and cerebrospinal fluid samples were collected after overnight fasting and 1–2 h after intake of L‐DOPA or other anti‐Parkinson medication. Metabolites were analyzed in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid of controls (n = 14), Parkinson patients receiving no L‐DOPA (n = 8), patients treated with L‐DOPA without dyskinesia (n = 8), and patients with L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesia (n = 10) using liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry. We observed approximately fourfold increase in the 3‐hydroxykynurenine/kynurenic acid ratio in plasma of Parkinson's patients with L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesia. Anthranilic acid levels were decreased in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid of this patient group. 5‐Hydroxytryptophan levels were twofold increased in all L‐DOPA‐treated Parkinson's patients. We conclude that a higher 3‐hydroxykynurenine/kynurenic acid ratio in plasma may serve as a biomarker for L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesia. Longitudinal studies including larger patients cohorts are needed to verify whether the changes observed here may serve as a prognostic marker for L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesia.