Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Standardization of LC-MS for therapeutic drug monitoring of tacrolimus.

BACKGROUND LC-MS is increasingly used for therapeutic drug monitoring of tacrolimus. A recent summary from an international proficiency-testing scheme demonstrated that the mass spectrometry respondents were the largest method group. However, these methods lack standardization, which may explain the relatively poor interlaboratory agreement for such methods. This study aimed to provide one path toward the standardization of tacrolimus quantification by use of LC-MS. METHODS A 40-member whole blood tacrolimus proficiency panel was circulated to 7 laboratories, 4 in the US and 3 in Europe, offering routine LC-MS-based quantification of tacrolimus. All laboratories used a common LC-MS platform and followed the manufacturer's instructions that accompanied an LC-MS reagent kit intended for tacrolimus quantification in whole blood samples. Four patient pools were prepared that had sufficient volume to allow comparison with a tacrolimus reference measurement procedure. RESULTS For the 40-member panel, the standardized MassTrak LC-MS assay demonstrated excellent agreement with a validated LC-MS method used by Analytical Services International (y = 1.02x - 0.02; r = 0.99). The CVs for the pooled patient samples ranged from 2.0% to 5.4%. The mean difference from the reference measurement procedure ranged from 0.4% to 4.4%. CONCLUSIONS Tacrolimus assay standardization, which must include all facets of the analysis, is necessary to compare patient results between laboratories and to interpret consensus guidelines. LC-MS can provide accurate and precise measurement of tacrolimus between laboratories.
School Organizational Health and Teacher Commitment: A Contingency Study with Multi-level Analysis

Traditional studies of teacher commitment often ignore the effect of interactions between personal characteristics and school environment and the implications of their findings are inevitably limited. Responding to this research gap, the present study aims to investigate the contingency relationship of school organizational health to teacher commitment with multi-level statistical analysis. The study was a survey involving 20 aided primary schools and 423 teachers in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that three school organizational health factors such as morale, consideration and institutional integrity are related to teacher commitment through interactions with the teacher personal characteristics such as position, marital status, and length of service in the school. The result supports that the relationship between school organizational health and teacher commitment is contingent upon teacher characteristics. The interesting findings can provide implications for school improvement and future research.
Advertising keyword generation using active learning

This paper proposes an efficient relevance feedback based interactive model for keyword generation in sponsored search advertising. We formulate the ranking of relevant terms as a supervised learning problem and suggest new terms for the seed by leveraging user relevance feedback information. Active learning is employed to select the most informative samples from a set of candidate terms for user labeling. Experiments show our approach improves the relevance of generated terms significantly with little user effort required.
Docosahexaenoic Acid Inhibits Cerulein-Induced Acute Pancreatitis in Rats

Oxidative stress is an important regulator in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis (AP). Reactive oxygen species induce activation of inflammatory cascades, inflammatory cell recruitment, and tissue damage. NF-κB regulates inflammatory cytokine gene expression, which induces an acute, edematous form of pancreatitis. Protein kinase C δ (PKCδ) activates NF-κB as shown in a mouse model of cerulein-induced AP. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an ω-3 fatty acid, exerts anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects in various cells and tissues. This study investigated whether DHA inhibits cerulein-induced AP in rats by assessing pancreatic edema, myeloperoxidase activity, levels of lipid peroxide and IL-6, activation of NF-κB and PKCδ, and by histologic observation. AP was induced by intraperitoneal injection (i.p.) of cerulein (50 μg/kg) every hour for 7 h. DHA (13 mg/kg) was administered i.p. for three days before AP induction. Pretreatment with DHA reduced cerulein-induced activation of NF-κB, PKCδ, and IL-6 in pancreatic tissues of rats. DHA suppressed pancreatic edema and decreased the abundance of lipid peroxide, myeloperoxidase activity, and inflammatory cell infiltration into the pancreatic tissues of cerulein-stimulated rats. Therefore, DHA may help prevent the development of pancreatitis by suppressing the activation of NF-κB and PKCδ, expression of IL-6, and oxidative damage to the pancreas.
Wide Coverage Parsing with Stochastic Attribute Value Grammars

Stochastic Attribute Value Grammars (SAVG) provide an attractive framework for syntactic analysis, because they allow the combination of linguistic sophistication with a principled treatment of ambiguity. The paper introduces a widecoverage SAVG for Dutch, known as Alpino, and we show how this SAVG can be efficiently applied, using a beam search algorithm to recover parses from a shared parse forest. Experimental results for a number of different corpora suggest that the SAVG framework is applicable for realistically sized grammars and corpora.
Modified Delay Scheduling: A Heuristic Approach for Hadoop Scheduling to Improve Fairness and Response Time

Hadoop is a widely used open source implementation of MapReduce which is a popular programming model for parallel processing large scale data intensive applications in a cloud environment. Sharing Hadoop clusters has a tradeoff between fairness and data locality. When launching a local task is not possible, Hadoop Fair Scheduler (HFS) with delay scheduling postpones the node allocation for a while to a job which is to be scheduled next as per fairness to achieve high locality. This waiting becomes waste when the desired locality could not be achieved within a reasonable period. In this paper, a modified delay scheduling in HFS is proposed and implemented in Hadoop. It avoids the aforementioned waiting of delay scheduler if achieving locality is not possible. Instead of blindly waiting for a local node, the proposed algorithm first estimates the time to wait for a local node for the job and avoids waiting wherever achieving locality is not possible within the predefined delay threshold while accomplishing same locality. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by extensive experiments and it has been observed that the algorithm works significantly better in terms of response time and fairness achieving up to 20% speedup and up to 38% fairness in certain cases.
After Paris: The rocky road ahead.

Officials call the Paris climate talks a beginning, but what9s the destination? In a series of informational graphics, Science explores the implications of three possible scenarios for global greenhouse gas emissions until 2100. One is a "business as usual" scenario that results in massive warming by the end of the century, and then many meters of sea level rise that would unfold over centuries. Another is a scenario that assumes nations meet the pledges they make in Paris, causing global emissions to dip, but then take no further action, causing emissions to rise again as population and economic growth swamp any gains. The final scenario explores what it will take to hold global warming below the 2°C of warming many researchers deem safe. For each scenario, graphics illustrate the possible range of outcomes for sea level rise, warming, and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, and provide insight to choices about energy sources that will shape future emissions.
The interaction of lexical and syntactic ambiguity

Abstract Two experiments investigated comprehension of noun/verb lexical category ambiguities such as trains, in order to determine whether resolution of these ambiguities was similar to other types of ambiguity resolution. Frazier and Rayner (1987, Journal of Memory and Language, 26, 505-526) argued that these ambiguities were resolved with a delay strategy that is not used for other ambiguities. Experiment l′s self-paced reading data replicated Frazier & Rayner′s results but also showed that evidence taken to support delay had other explanations. Experiment 2 investigated the influence of semantic biases on ambiguity resolution and found that three probabilistic factors influenced lexical category ambiguity resolution: (1) the relative frequency of head vs. modifying noun usage of a biasing noun, (2) the frequency of cooccurrence of a biasing noun and category ambiguous word in English, and (3) the combinatorial semantic information in the sentence. The extent to which alternative models account for the use of probabilistic information in ambiguity resolution is discussed.
Annexin A1 N-Terminal Derived Peptide Ac2-26 Exerts Chemokinetic Effects on Human Neutrophils

It is postulated that peptides derived from the N-terminal region of Annexin A1, a glucocorticoid-regulated 37-kDa protein, could act as biomimetics of the parent protein. However, recent evidence, amongst which the ability to interact with distinct receptors other then that described for Annexin A1, suggest that these peptides might fulfill other functions at variance to those reported for the parent protein. Here we tested the ability of peptide Ac2-26 to induce chemotaxis of human neutrophils, showing that this peptide can elicit responses comparable to those produced by the canonical activator formyl-Met-Leu-Phe (or FMLP). However, whilst disruption of the chemical gradient abolished the FMLP response, addition of peptide Ac2-26 in the top well of the chemotaxis chamber did not affect (10 μM) or augmented (at 30 μM) the neutrophil locomotion to the bottom well, as elicited by 10 μM peptide Ac2-26. Intriguingly, the sole addition of peptide Ac2-26 in the top wells produced a marked migration of neutrophils. A similar behavior was observed when human primary monocytes were used. Thus, peptide Ac2-26 is a genuine chemokinetic agent toward human blood leukocytes. Neutralization strategies indicated that engagement of either the GPCR termed FPR1 or its cognate receptor FPR2/ALX was sufficient to sustain peptide Ac2-26 induced neutrophil migration. Similarly, application of pharmacological inhibitors showed that cell locomotion to peptide Ac2-26 was mediated primarily by the ERK, but not the JNK and p38 pathways. In conclusion, we report here novel in vitro properties for peptide Ac2-26, promoting neutrophil and monocyte chemokinesis; a process that may contribute to accelerate the resolution phase of inflammation. We postulate that the generation of Annexin A1 N-terminal peptides at the site of inflammation may expedite the egress of migrated leukocytes thus promoting the return to homeostasis.
Cultured meat: will it separate us from nature?

In vitro meat, or cultured meat, is one of the ideas that are being proposed to help solve the problems associated with the ever growing global meat consumption. The prospect is a source or great moral hope, but also generates doubts and criticism. In this paper, we focus on worries about (1) the alleged unnaturalness of in vitro meat; and (2) the possible deterioration of our relations with nature and animals. We will argue that arguments about (un)naturalness take us to any conclusion we want. As to our relations with nature and animals, we think it more plausible that cultured meat will lead to improvement than to deterioration.
Nas pegadas da TV digital: como e por que o capital reinventou a televisão | On the track of digital TV: how and why capital re-invented television

Resumo O desenvolvimento da TV digital e sua introducao recente na vida quotidiana de muitos paises, decorreu de uma disputa economica e politica entre o Japao, a Comunidade Europeia e os Estados Unidos, no contexto da ultima longa crise kondratieffiana do capitalismo. A industria eletro-eletronica sediada nesses blocos economicos, aliada a seus respectivos sistemas comerciais ou estatais de radiodifusao, por sua vez pressionados pela expansao da TV por assinatura e da telefonia celular, liderou as decisoes que levaram a pesquisa e desenvolvimento, durante os anos 1980 e 1990, dos sistemas ISDB, DVB e ATSC. Durante o processo, os estados nacionais, atraves de seus governos e agencias, desempenharam papel decisivo na articulacao dos atores e na tomada de decisoes politicas essenciais. Palavras-chaves: TV digital, televisao terrestre, NHK, BBC, TV por assinatura, industria de informatica, industrial eletro-eletronica, concorrencia nas comunicacoes, sociedade da informacao, capitalismo informacional Normal 0 21 false false false PT-BR X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:. 0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Abstract In some countries, digital TV has been developed and introduced into everyday life after an economic and political race for industrial hegemony between Japan, European Community and United States, in the context of the last long-term kondratieffian crises of capitalism. The electronic industry of those economic blocks, with their commercial or state owned broadcast systems, this under pay-TV and cell phones operators pressure, lead the decisions that improved R&D on ISDB, DVB and ATSC systems, during the 80s and 90s of the past century. The national states of Japan, European Community and USA, with their governments and agencies, played a fundamental role joining the main economic actors and making the needed political decisions. Keywords digital TV, terrestrial TV, NHK, BBC, pay TV, computers industry, electronic industry, competition in communication, information society, information capitalism.
Job Satisfaction of American Part-Time College Faculty: Results from a National Study a Decade Later

Earlier research published in this journal examined factors associated with various forms of job satisfaction among part-time faculty, both at four-year institutions and community colleges. This research forwarded conclusions at odds with popular accounts regarding part-time faculty. Specifically, it was demonstrated that part-time faculty were satisfied with their roles, were pursuing the careers they had planned for, had reached a degree of satisfaction with their decisions to pursue part-time roles, agreed they would repeat their decision to pursue part-time roles, and indicated a stronger commitment to their institutions than their full-time faculty counterparts. These findings, based upon responses to the 1992–1993 National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), could be argued to be artifacts of the sample of faculty responding to the 1993 survey. Since then, NSOPF has published data from its 2004 survey. This paper reexamines the findings of the original research, testing the extent to which those findings continue to be observed a decade later. It also disaggregates the part-time faculty group to examine differences between voluntary and involuntary part-timers.
IntEnz, the integrated relational enzyme database

IntEnz is the name for the Integrated relational Enzyme database and is the official version of the Enzyme Nomenclature. The Enzyme Nomenclature comprises recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Bio chemistry and Molecular Biology (NC-IUBMB) on the nomenclature and classification of enzyme-catalysed reactions. IntEnz is supported by NC-IUBMB and contains enzyme data curated and approved by this committee. The database IntEnz is available at http://www.ebi. ac.uk/intenz.
The T Cell Receptor Triggering Apparatus Is Composed of Monovalent or Monomeric Proteins

Understanding the component stoichiometry of the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) triggering apparatus is essential for building realistic models of signal initiation. Recent studies suggesting that the TCR and other signaling-associated proteins are preclustered on resting T cells relied on measurements of the behavior of membrane proteins at interfaces with functionalized glass surfaces. Using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, we show that, compared with the apical surface, the mobility of TCRs is significantly reduced at Jurkat T cell/glass interfaces, in a signaling-sensitive manner. Using two biophysical approaches that mitigate these effects, bioluminescence resonance energy transfer and two-color coincidence detection microscopy, we show that, within the uncertainty of the methods, the membrane components of the TCR triggering apparatus, i.e. the TCR complex, MHC molecules, CD4/Lck and CD45, are exclusively monovalent or monomeric in human T cell lines, implying that TCR triggering depends only on the kinetics of TCR/pMHC interactions. These analyses also showed that constraining proteins to two dimensions at the cell surface greatly enhances random interactions versus those between the membrane and the cytoplasm. Simulations of TCR-pMHC complex formation based on these findings suggest how unclustered TCR triggering-associated proteins might nevertheless be capable of generating complex signaling outputs via the differential recruitment of cytosolic effectors to the cell membrane.
What minds have in common is space : Spatial mechanisms serving joint visual attention in infancy

A series of experiments is reported which show that three successive mechanisms are involved in the first 18 months of life in ‘looking where someone else is looking’. The earliest ‘ecological’ mechanism enables the infant to detect the direction of the adult's visual gaze within the baby's visual field but the mother's signal alone does not allow the precise localization of the target. Joint attention to the same physical object also depends on the intrinsic, attention-capturing properties of the object in the environment. By about 12 months, we have evidence for presence of a new ‘geometric’ mechanism. The infant extrapolates from the orientation of the mother's head and eyes, the intersection of the mother's line of sight within a relatively precise zone of the infant's own visual space. A third ‘representational’ mechanism emerges between 12 and 18 months, with an extension of joint reference to places outside the infant's visual field. None of these mechanisms require the infant to have a theory that others have minds; rather the perceptual systems of different observers ‘meet’ in encountering the same objects and events in the world. Such a ‘realist’ basis for interpersonal knowledge may offer an alternative starting point for development of intrapersonal knowledge, rather than the view that mental events can only be known by construction of a theory.
Model-Based Resource Provisioning in a Web Service Utility

Internet service utilities host multiple server applications on a shared server cluster. A key challenge for these systems is to provision shared resources on demand to meet service quality targets at least cost. This paper presents a new approach to utility resource management focusing on coordinated provisioning of memory and storage resources. Our approach is model-based: it incorporates internal models of service behavior to predict the value of candidate resource allotments under changing load. The model-based approach enables the system to achieve important resource management goals, including differentiated service quality, performance isolation, storage-aware caching, and proactive allocation of surplus resources to meet performance goals. Experimental results with a prototype demonstrate model-based dynamic provisioning under Web workloads with static content.
User profile modelling in online communities

With the rise of social networking sites user information is becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated. The needs, behaviours and preferences of users are dynamically changing, depending on their background knowledge, their current task, and many other parameters. Existing ontology models capture demographic information as well as the users' activities and interactions in online communities. These vocabularies represent the raw data, but actionable knowledge comes from filtering these data, selecting useful features, and mining the resulting information to uncover the most salient preferences, behaviours and needs of the users. In this paper we propose reusing and reengineering ontological resources to provide a broader representation of users and the dynamics that emerge from the virtual social environments in which they participate.
Overexpression of miR-194 Reverses HMGA2-driven Signatures in Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide with increasing incidence and mortality in developed countries. Oncogenes and microRNAs regulate key signaling pathways in CRC and are known to be deregulated. Oncogenic transcriptional regulator high-mobility group AT-hook 2 (HMGA2) participates in the transformation of several cancers including CRC and exhibits strong correlation with poor prognosis and distal metastasis. Evidence of HMGA2 and its co-regulated miRs contributing to tumor progression remains to be clarified. Methods: We performed gene-set enrichment analysis on the expression profiles of 70 CRC patients and revealed HMGA2 correlated genes that are targeted by several miRs including miR-194. To eliminate the oncogenic effects in HMGA2-driven CRC, we re-expressed miR-194 and found that miR-194 functions as a tumor suppressor by reducing cell proliferation and tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Results: As a direct upstream inhibitory regulator of miR-194, overexpression of HMGA2 reduced miR-194 expression and biological activity, whereas re-expressing miR-194 in cells with high levels of HMGA2 impaired the effects of HMGA2, compromising cell survival, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition process, and drug resistance. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that novel molecular correlations can be discovered by revisiting transcriptome profiles. We uncover that miR-194 is as important as HMGA2, and both coordinately regulate the oncogenesis of CRC with inverted behaviors, revealing alternative molecular therapeutics for CRC patients with high HMGA2 expression.