Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Right Ventricular Function in Cardiovascular Disease, Part I: Anatomy, Physiology, Aging, and Functional Assessment of the Right Ventricle

In 1616, Sir William Harvey was the first to describe the importance of right ventricular (RV) function in his seminal treatise, De Motu Cordis : “Thus the right ventricle may be said to be made for the sake of transmitting blood through the lungs, not for nourishing them. ”1,2 For many years that followed, emphasis in cardiology was placed on left ventricular (LV) physiology, overshadowing the study of the RV. In the first half of the 20th century, the study of RV function was limited to a small group of investigators who were intrigued by the hypothesis that human circulation could function adequately without RV contractile function.3 Their studies, however, were based on an open pericardial dog model, which failed to take into account the complex nature of ventricular interaction. In the early 1950s through the 1970s, cardiac surgeons recognized the importance of right-sided function as they evaluated procedures to palliate right-heart hypoplasia. Since then, the importance of RV function has been recognized in heart failure, RV myocardial infarction, congenital heart disease and pulmonary hypertension. More recently, advances in echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging have created new opportunities for the study of RV anatomy and physiology. The goal of the present review is to offer a clinical perspective on RV structure and function. In the first part, we discuss the anatomy, physiology, aging, and assessment of the RV. In the second part, we discuss the pathophysiology, clinical importance, and management of RV failure. ### Macroscopic Anatomy of the RV In the normal heart, the RV is the most anteriorly situated cardiac chamber and lies immediately behind the sternum. In the absence of transposition of great arteries, the RV is delimited by the annulus of the tricuspid valve and by the pulmonary valve. As suggested by Goor and Lillehi,4 the RV can be described in …
Pax8 controls thyroid follicular polarity through cadherin-16

ABSTRACT Organization of epithelial cells during follicular lumen formation is crucial for thyroid morphogenesis and function of the thyroid gland; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying this are poorly understood. To investigate this process, we established three-dimensional (3D) epithelial culture model systems using Fischer rat thyroid (FRT) cells or murine primary thyrocytes that developed polarized spherical structures with a central lumen, mimicking thyroid follicles. Using microarray-based differential expression analysis of FRT cells grown under 2D or 3D conditions, followed by RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) and morphogenetic analysis, we identified a key role for the thyroid transcription factor Pax8 and its target cadherin-16 (Cdh16) in the generation of polarized follicle-like structures. Silencing Pax8 expression inhibited the acquisition of apical–basal membrane polarity and impaired lumen formation. Both laminin and β1-integrin (Itgb1) expression was reduced, and cell cytoskeleton polarized distribution was altered. Silencing Cdh16 expression also led to the formation of defective structures characterized by very low laminin expression at the follicle–matrix interface, downregulation of Itgb1, and unpolarized distribution of cell cytoskeleton. Our results demonstrate that Pax8 controls apical–basal follicular polarization and follicle formation through Cdh16. Summary: Using a 3D culture model of thyroid morphogenesis, it is revealed that thyroid follicular cell polarity depends on the Pax8 transcription factor and is linked to the β1-integrin–laminin pathway through Cdh16.
Effect of Multimeric Structure of CaMKII in the GluN2B-Mediated Modulation of Kinetic Parameters of ATP

Interaction of GluN2B subunit of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor with calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is critical for the induction of long term potentiation at hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapses. We have previously reported that CaMKII binding to GluN2B increases its affinity but abolishes the cooperativity for ATP. In the present study, we demonstrate that the reduction in S0.5 for ATP of an individual CaMKII subunit seems to be directly induced by the binding of GluN2B to the same subunit, while any GluN2B induced effects on the cooperativity and maximal velocity would additionally require the CaMKII holoenzyme structure. We measured the apparent kinetic parameters for ATP using an association domain truncated monomeric CaMKII and a heteromultimeric CaMKII (having subunits that are either GluN2B binding defective or ATP binding defective), in the presence of GluN2A or GluN2B substrates. The S0.5 value for ATP of monomeric CaMKII is reduced ∼ 3 fold by the presence of GluN2B suggesting that the induced change in affinity for ATP is independent of the holoenzyme structure. The heteromultimeric mutant of CaMKII, did not exhibit cooperativity of ATP binding probably because of the interspersing of ATP binding defective subunits in the holoenzyme. In contrast to the wild type holoenzyme, presence of GluN2B increased the Vmax of monomeric CaMKII which resulted in an approximately 4.0 fold increase in the apparent catalytic constant (Vmax/S0.5) as compared to GluN2A. The kinetic parameter values of the heteromultimeric CaMKII for ATP, on the other hand, did not show any significant difference between the phosphorylation of GluN2B and GluN2A suggesting that modulation requires binding of GluN2B to the same subunit. Overall, our present study provides insights into the role of multimeric structure of CaMKII in GluN2B-mediated regulation.
ILUM: A Multi-Elimination ILU Preconditioner for General Sparse Matrices

Standard preconditioning techniques based on incomplete LU (ILU) factorizations offer a limited degree of parallelism, in general. A few of the alternatives advocated so far consist of either using some form of polynomial preconditioning or applying the usual ILU factorization to a matrix obtained from a multicolor ordering. In this paper we present an incomplete factorization technique based on independent set orderings and multicoloring. We note that in order to improve robustness, it is necessary to allow the preconditioner to have an arbitrarily high accuracy, as is done with ILUs based on threshold techniques. The ILUM factorization described in this paper is in this category. It can be viewed as a multifrontal version of a Gaussian elimination procedure with threshold dropping which has a high degree of potential parallelism. The, emphasis is on methods that deal specifically with general unstructured sparse matrices such as those arising from finite element methods on unstructured meshes.
DYNAMIC SEGMENTATION OF PAVEMENT SURFACE CONDITION DATA

Manitoba and other provinces collect automated pavement surface condition data. The process uses non-contact equipment such as laser scanning devices or ultrasonic waves on moving vehicles that travel at highway speed to collect data on surface roughness, rutting and faulting. Because of the massive amounts of data, several reduction and noise removal algorithms are applied onboard the vehicle and only certain representative expected values and their variations are stored in the database. At present, the resolution of these values is 10 to 100 sampling points per kilometre. The analysis of recent Manitoba data suggests that a weighted mean under the cumulative difference approach can be used to dynamically segment this data. The segmentation process identified subsections with uniform conditions. The process is coded into a database program written in Visual Basic. The program permits user interaction for modifying the bin size, confidence interval or the viewing parameters. The output is linearly referenced and is presented on a GIS-based map. The system facilitates the evaluation of multiple trigger criteria and is a useful visualization and reduction tool for integration with a pavement management system.
Novel Small Noncoding RNAs in Mouse Spermatozoa, Zygotes and Early Embryos

The recent discovery of a significant amount of RNA in spermatozoa contradicted the previously held belief that paternal contribution was limited to one copy of the genome. Furthermore, detection of RNA in sperm raised the intriguing question of its possible role in embryonic development. The possibility that RNAs may serve as epigenetic determinants was supported by experiments showing inheritance of epigenetic traits in mice mediated by RNA. We used high-throughput, large-scale sequencing technology to analyze sperm RNA. The RNA sequences generated were diverse in terms of length and included mRNAs, rRNAs, piRNAs, and miRNAs. We studied two small noncoding RNAs enriched in mature sperm, designated sperm RNAs (spR) −12 and −13. They are both encoded in a piRNA locus on chromosome 17, but neither their length (20–21 nt), nor their sequences correspond to known piRNAs or miRNAs. They are resistant to periodate-oxidation-mediated reaction, implying that they undergo terminal post-transcriptional modification. Both were detected in sperm and ovulated unfertilized oocytes, present in one-cell embryos and maintained in preimplantation stages, but not at later differentiation stages. These findings offer a new perspective regarding a possibly important role for gamete-specific small RNAs in early embryogenesis.
Texture analysis applied to second harmonic generation image data for ovarian cancer classification

Abstract. Remodeling of the extracellular matrix has been implicated in ovarian cancer. To quantitate the remodeling, we implement a form of texture analysis to delineate the collagen fibrillar morphology observed in second harmonic generation microscopy images of human normal and high grade malignant ovarian tissues. In the learning stage, a dictionary of “textons”—frequently occurring texture features that are identified by measuring the image response to a filter bank of various shapes, sizes, and orientations—is created. By calculating a representative model based on the texton distribution for each tissue type using a training set of respective second harmonic generation images, we then perform classification between images of normal and high grade malignant ovarian tissues. By optimizing the number of textons and nearest neighbors, we achieved classification accuracy up to 97% based on the area under receiver operating characteristic curves (true positives versus false positives). The local analysis algorithm is a more general method to probe rapidly changing fibrillar morphologies than global analyses such as FFT. It is also more versatile than other texture approaches as the filter bank can be highly tailored to specific applications (e.g., different disease states) by creating customized libraries based on common image features.
A Weighted Aggregation Rule in Crowdsourcing Systems for High Result Accuracy

Many challenging problems could be better solved by exploiting crowdsourcing platforms than traditional machine-based methods. However, data quality in crowdsourcing applications has become a crucial aspect since crowdsourcing workers may have different capabilities. In this paper, we propose a novel weighted aggregation rule (WAR) to improve the result accuracy in crowdsourcing systems. According to the agreement of answers given by the workers, we classify all the tasks into the high-agreement tasks and low-agreement tasks. For the high-agreement tasks, we use simple majority voting to select the correct answer while ensuring the result accuracy. For the low-agreement tasks, we adopt weighted majority voting strategy, which assigns a weight for each worker according to his performance on the high-agreement tasks. We evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed method using three real-world datasets on AMT. The experimental results show that our method achieves excellent result accuracy.
Institute for Mathematical Physics Remarks on the Rolling Tachyon Bcft Remarks on the Rolling Tachyon Bcft

It is shown how the boundary correlators of the Euclidean theory corresponding to the rolling tachyon solution can be calculated directly from Sen's boundary state. The resulting formulae reproduce precisely the expected perturbative open string answer. We also determine the open string spectrum and comment on the implications of our results for the timelike theory.
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teacher Preparation: Impact of Coaching Professional Development and Mobile Devices

This presentation explores the process of change for a teacher preparation program as it attempted to teach pre-service teachers how to integrate new technologies into instruction in elementary schools. The aim was to impact the instruction of preservice and inservice teachers in a way that would reach their current students. To become fully literate in today's world students must become proficient in new literacies and 21 st century skills (IRA, May 2009). Elementary teachers in the 21 st century need to have a deep understanding of new technologies and how they can be integrated into learning, however, the fast pace of technological innovation and social change makes it hard for educators to stay abreast of new developments and to integrate them into effective classroom instruction. At the same pre-service teachers sometimes lack the pedagogical knowledge required to integrate technology effectively into the existing curriculum. This project attempted to create a long-term partnership between teacher education programs, universities and school districts to create a generation of teachers who will be effective and confident using new technologies to prepare their students to participate and lead in the global society. Teacher education prepares preservice teachers with knowledge in subject matter and pedagogy. Knowledge of subject matter content includes facts, concepts, theories and procedures teachers will need to know in order to convey learning to their students. Pedagogy knowledge consists of a variety of methods to explain concepts, with frameworks to organize and connect ideas to help students apply new learning to their existing knowledge. Shulman (1987) suggested that teachers must also know how students generally understand their subjects, and areas that they consistently misunderstand. They, then, can anticipate these misunderstandings and know how to deal with them when they arise. This concept he called Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Teachers who possess Pedagogical Content Knowledge know the most useful forms of representation for the concepts they teach; the most powerful analogies to help students connect with classroom content. As technology becomes ubiquitous and integrated into teaching and learning, Koehler and Mishra (2009) argue that the most effective teaching takes place at the continuously changing intersection of three areas of teacher knowledge: content, pedagogy, and technology. They add Technological Knowledge as a third important component in planning effective learning experiences. Koehler et al. (2011) defined Technological Knowledge as knowing about print and digital technologies including how to operate, install, remove, create, and archive information. They called …
Nuclear receptor Nur77 inhibits vascular outward remodelling and reduces macrophage accumulation and matrix metalloproteinase levels.

AIMS Structural adaptation of the vessel wall in response to sustained alterations in haemodynamic forces is known as vascular remodelling. Detailed knowledge on the mechanism underlying this vascular response is limited, and we aimed to study the function of Nur77 in smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in arterial remodelling. METHODS AND RESULTS Carotid artery ligation in mice results in flow-induced, outward remodelling of the contralateral carotid artery, and we observed enhanced Nur77 expression during this process. Transgenic mice that express Nur77 or its dominant-negative variant, denoted as 'DeltaTA' in arterial SMCs, were exposed to carotid artery ligation, and after 4 weeks pressure-diameter relationships were measured. Structural outward remodelling is inhibited in Nur77-transgenic mice when compared with wild-type and DeltaTA-transgenic mice. The key determinants of remodelling vascular tone and macrophage accumulation were studied. No difference in contractile and relaxant responses was detected in isolated aorta, carotid, and mesenteric artery segments between transgenic and wild-type mice. SMC-specific overexpression of Nur77 in transgenic mice reduced macrophage accumulation and repressed matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)1 and MMP9 expression at early time points. MMP2 protein expression was reduced in Nur77-transgenic mice, whereas in DeltaTA-transgenic mice MMP2 expression was increased. CONCLUSION Nur77 is induced during outward remodelling and inhibits this vascular adaptation in mice. Nur77-mediated inhibition of arterial remodelling involves a reduction in both macrophage accumulation and MMP expression levels.
Blockade of senescence‐associated microRNA‐195 in aged skeletal muscle cells facilitates reprogramming to produce induced pluripotent stem cells.

The low reprogramming efficiency in cells from elderly patients is a challenge that must be overcome. Recently, it has been reported that senescence‐associated microRNA (miR)‐195 targets Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) to advance cellular senescence. Thus, we hypothesized that a blockade of miR‐195 expression could improve reprogramming efficiency in old skeletal myoblasts (SkMs). We found that miR‐195 expression was significantly higher in old SkMs (24 months) isolated from C57BL/6 mice as compared to young SkMs (2 months, 2.3‐fold). Expression of SIRT1 and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) was downregulated in old SkMs, and transduction of old SkMs with lentiviral miR‐195 inhibitor significantly restored their expression. Furthermore, quantitative in situ hybridization analysis demonstrated significant telomere elongation in old SkMs transduced with anti‐miR‐195 (1.7‐fold increase). It is important to note that blocking miR‐195 expression markedly increased the reprogramming efficiency of old SkMs as compared to scramble (2.2‐fold increase). Transduction of anti‐miR‐195 did not alter karyotype or pluripotency marker expression. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from old SkMs transduced with anti‐miR‐195 successfully formed embryoid bodies that spontaneously differentiated into three germ layers, indicating that deletion of miR‐195 does not affect pluripotency in transformed SkMs. In conclusion, this study provided novel evidence that the blockade of age‐induced miR‐195 is a promising approach for efficient iPSC generation from aging donor subjects, which has the potential for autologous transplantation of iPSCs in elderly patients.
Optimizations enabled by a relational data model view to querying data streams

We postulate that the popularity and efficiency of SQL for querying relational databases makes the language a viable solution to retrieving data from data streams. In response, we have developed a system, dQUOB, that uses SQL queries to extract data from streaming data in real time. The high performance needs of applications such as scientific visualization motivates our search for optimizations to improve query evaluation efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the unique optimizations we have realized by a database point of view to streaming data and to show that the enhanced conceptual model of viewing data streams as relations has reasonable overhead.
Does Who Matter?: Studying the Impact of Relationship Characteristics on Receptivity to Mobile IM Messages

This study examines the characteristics of mobile instant-messaging users' relationships with their social contacts and the effects of both relationship and interruption context on four measures of receptivity: Attentiveness, Responsiveness, Interruptibility, and Opportuneness. Overall, interruption context overshadows relationship characteristics as predictors of all four of these facets of receptivity; this overshadowing was most acute for Interruptibility and Opportuneness, but existed for all factors. In addition, while Mobile Maintenance Expectation and Activity Engagement were negatively correlated with all receptivity measures, each such measure had its own set of predictors, highlighting the conceptual differences among the measures. Finally, delving more deeply into potential relationship effects, we found that a single, simple closeness question was as effective at predicting receptivity as the 12-item Unidimensional Relationship Closeness Scale.
Point Multiplication and Soft Caching : An Approach for Accelerating Calculations in Graphics

Point multiplication is a statistical acceleration scheme which first identifies a set of characteristic key points in a graphical calculation such as articulation or rendering. Samples of the calculation at the key points are then used to provide a subspace based estimate of the entire calculation. Point multiplication is a useful acceleration scheme when the calculation requirements for evaluating the key point values are substantially lower than for evaluating the full set of points. Calculations of this sort occur in many areas of graphics here we present examples from the calculation of facial articulation and the rendering of scenes with global illumination. The soft caching process is an extension to the point multiplication technique where the key points are also used to provide a confidence estimate for the point multiplication result. In frames with high anticipated error the calculation will then “fail through” to a full evaluation of those points (a cache miss), while frames with low error can use the accelerated statistical evaluation (a cache hit).
Dynamic load balancing of MPI+OpenMP applications

The hybrid programming model MPI+OpenMP are useful to solve the problems of load balancing of parallel applications independently of the architecture. Typical approaches to balance parallel applications using two levels of parallelism or only MPI consist of including complex codes that dynamically detect which data domains are more computational intensive and either manually redistribute the allocated processors or manually redistribute data. This approach has two drawbacks: it is time consuming and it requires an expert in application analysis. In this paper we present an automatic and dynamic approach for load balancing MPI+OpenMP applications. The system calculates the percentage of load imbalance and decides a processor distribution for the MPI processes that eliminates the computational load imbalance. Results show that this method can balance effectively applications without analyzing nor modifying them and that in the cases that the application was well balanced does not incur in a great overhead for the dynamic instrumentation and analysis realized.
Elovanoids are a novel class of homeostatic lipid mediators that protect neural cell integrity upon injury

We report the discovery of a novel family of prohomeostatic and neuroprotective lipid mediators called elovanoids. We report the characterization of a novel class of lipid mediators termed elovanoids (ELVs) (ELV-N32 and ELV-N34), which are dihydroxylated derivatives of 32:6n3 and 34:6n3, respectively. The precursors of ELVs are made by elongation of a 22:6n3 fatty acid and catalyzed by ELOVL4 (elongation of very-long-chain fatty acids–4). The structure and stereochemistry of ELVs were established using synthetic compounds produced by stereocontrolled total synthesis. We report that ELV-mediated protection is induced in neuronal cultures undergoing either oxygen/glucose deprivation or N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor–mediated excitotoxicity, as well as in experimental ischemic stroke. The methyl ester or sodium salt of ELV-N32 and ELV-N34 resulted in reduced infarct volumes, promoted cell survival, and diminished neurovascular unit disruption when administered 1 hour following 2 hours of ischemia by middle cerebral artery occlusion. Together, our data reveal a novel prohomeostatic and neuroprotective lipid-signaling mechanism aiming to sustain neural cell integrity.