Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impaired B and T Cell Antigen Receptor Signaling in p110δ PI 3-Kinase Mutant Mice

Class IA phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) are a family of p85/p110 heterodimeric lipid kinases that generate second messenger signals downstream of tyrosine kinases, thereby controlling cell metabolism, growth, proliferation, differentiation, motility, and survival. Mammals express three class IA catalytic subunits: p110α, p110β, and p110δ. It is unclear to what extent these p110 isoforms have overlapping or distinct biological roles. Mice expressing a catalytically inactive form of p110δ (p110δD910A) were generated by gene targeting. Antigen receptor signaling in B and T cells was impaired and immune responses in vivo were attenuated in p110δ mutant mice. They also developed inflammatory bowel disease. These results reveal a selective role for p110δ in immunity.
Interannual variation of water isotopologues at Vostok indicates a contribution from stratospheric water vapor

Combined measurements of water isotopologues of a snow pit at Vostok over the past 60 y reveal a unique signature that cannot be explained only by climatic features as usually done. Comparisons of the data using a general circulation model and a simpler isotopic distillation model reveal a stratospheric signature in the 17O-excess record at Vostok. Our data and theoretical considerations indicate that mass-independent fractionation imprints the isotopic signature of stratospheric water vapor, which may allow for a distinction between stratospheric and tropospheric influences at remote East Antarctic sites.
Novel Simulation Approaches for Smart Grids

The complexity of the power grid, in conjunction with the ever increasing demand for electricity, creates the need for efficient analysis and control of the power system. The evolution of the legacy system towards the new smart grid intensifies this need due to the large number of sensors and actuators that must be monitored and controlled, the new types of distributed energy sources that need to be integrated and the new types of loads that must be supported. At the same time, integration of human-activity awareness into the smart grid is emerging and this will allow the system to monitor, share and manage information and actions on the business, as well as the real world. In this context, modeling and simulation is an invaluable tool for system behavior analysis, energy consumption estimation and future state prediction. In this paper, we review current smart grid simulators and approaches for building and user behavior modeling, and present a federated smart grid simulation framework, in which building, control and user behavior modeling and simulation are decoupled from power or network simulators and implemented as discrete components. This framework enables evaluation of the interactions between the communication infrastructure and the power system taking into account the human activities, which are at the focus of emerging energy-related applications that aim to shape user behavior. Validation of the key functionality of the proposed framework is also presented.
MUC1 Immunohistochemical Expression as a Prognostic Factor in Gastric Cancer: Meta-Analysis

MUC1, a member of the mucin family, is expressed in tumors of various human organs and may function as an antiadhesion molecule that inhibits cell-to-cell adhesion, inducing tumor metastasis, and served as a potential biomarker of tumor progression in early gastric cancer. However, its prognostic significance in gastric cancer is still in dispute. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between MUC1 expression and prognosis of gastric cancer. A total of ten eligible studies with 834 cases and 548 controls were included. MUC1 positive cases were highly positive in intestinal-type carcinomas (OR = 1.76, 95% CI: 1.27–2.44, P = 0.0008 fixed-effect), higher rate of vascular invasion (OR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.13–2.39, P = 0.009 fixed-effect), and lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.10, 95% CI: 1.20–3.67, P = 0.01 random-effect), as well as lower 5-year survival rate (HR = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.11–0.66, P = 0.004 random-effect). However, the presence of MUC1 was not associated with gender, tumor size, histologic differentiation, and clinical stage. In summary, MUC1 is a prognostic factor in gastric cancer, which acts as a marker of poor outcome in patients with gastric cancer. Further clinical studies are needed to confirm the role of MUC1 in clinical practice.
Amino acid permeases require COPII components and the ER resident membrane protein Shr3p for packaging into transport vesicles in vitro

In S. cerevisiae lacking SHR3, amino acid permeases specifically accumulate in membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and fail to be transported to the plasma membrane. We examined the requirements of transport of the permeases from the ER to the Golgi in vitro. Addition of soluble COPII components (Sec23/24p, Sec13/31p, and Sar1p) to yeast membrane preparations generated vesicles containing the general amino acid permease. Gap1p, and the histidine permease, Hip1p. Shr3p was required for the packaging of Gap1p and Hip1p but was not itself incorporated into transport vesicles. In contrast, the packaging of the plasma membrane ATPase, Pma1p, and the soluble yeast pheromone precursor, glycosylated pro alpha factor, was independent of Shr3p. In addition, we show that integral membrane and soluble cargo colocalize in transport vesicles, indicating that different types of cargo are not segregated at an early step in secretion. Our data suggest that specific ancillary proteins in the ER membrane recruit subsets of integral membrane protein cargo into COPII transport vesicles.
Use of Incinerated Sugarcane Filter Cake as a Material in Producing Cellular Lightweight Concrete

This study investigated the properties of cellular lightweight concrete (CLC) incorporating incinerated sugarcane filter cake (FC) as a substitute for Type I Portland cement (OPC) at replacement percentages of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% by weight. CLC was maintained at a density of 1,000 ± 50 kg/m3 and a constant water–binder ratio of 0.5 was used for all mixes. Tests for density, flow behavior and setting time were carried out on fresh concrete mixes and tests for compressive strength, flexural strength, indicated that calcium oxide (CaO) is the main component of sugarcane filter cake (FC). The particles of FC are irregular in shape and most particles have both rough and smooth surfaces. CLC containing suitable amount of FC exhibited increased flowability. The compressive strength and flexural strength of CLC decreased, whereas its shrinkage and water absorption increased as a result of increasing the percentage at which FC was used to replace OPC. The results suggested that it is possible to use FC in the production of CLC according to the Thailand Industrial Standard TIS-2601-2556 (cellular lightweight concrete).
Inhibition of Neutrophil Apoptosis by TLR Agonists in Whole Blood: Involvement of the Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase/Akt and NF-κB Signaling Pathways, Leading to Increased Levels of Mcl-1, A1, and Phosphorylated Bad

Using flow cytometry, we investigated the effect of TLR agonists on human polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) apoptosis in whole blood. LPS (TLR4), peptidoglycan (TLR2), R-848 (TLR7/8), and CpG-DNA (TLR9) were equally effective at delaying spontaneous apoptosis of PMN, while PamCSK4 (TLR1/2), macrophage-activating lipopeptide-2 (TLR2/6), flagellin (TLR5), and loxoribine (TLR7) were less effective or inactive. TLR agonists found to delay apoptosis also extended the functional life span of PMN. Analysis of signaling pathways revealed that the antiapoptotic effect of TLR agonists required NF-κB and PI3K activation. Furthermore, analysis of intact cells by flow cytometry showed that TLR agonists delaying PMN apoptosis increased phosphorylation of Akt, a major target of PI3K. This effect was associated with a PI3K-dependent increase in heat shock protein 27 phosphorylation, which has been reported to play a key role in PMN survival. Finally, the TLR-induced delay in PMN apoptosis was associated with increased levels of Mcl-1 and A1, which are antiapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family. These effects were reversed by PI3K and NF-κB inhibitors, respectively. TLR activation also led to PI3K-dependent phosphorylation of the proapoptotic protein Bad. Taken together, our results strongly suggest a role of NF-κB and PI3K in TLR-induced PMN survival, leading to modulation of Bcl-2 family molecules.
The Interactions of CPP–ACP with Saliva

The repair of early dental caries lesions has been demonstrated by the application of the remineralisation technology based on casein phosphopeptide-stabilised amorphous calcium phosphate complexes (CPP–ACP). These complexes consist of an amorphous calcium phosphate mineral phase stabilised and encapsulated by the self-assembly of milk-derived phosphopeptides. During topical application of CPP–ACP complexes in the oral cavity, the CPP encounters the enamel pellicle consisting of salivary proteins and peptides. However the interactions of the CPP with the enamel salivary pellicle are not known. The studies presented here reveal that the predominant peptides of CPP–ACP complexes do interact with specific salivary proteins and peptides of the enamel pellicle, and provide a mechanism by which the CPP–ACP complexes are localised at the tooth surface to promote remineralisation.
A Portrait of the Semantic Web in Action

Without semantically enriched content, the Web cannot reach its full potential. The authors discuss tools and techniques for generating and processing such content, thus setting a foundation upon which to build the Semantic Web. The authors put a Semantic Web language through its paces and answer questions about how people can use it, such as: how do authors generate semantic descriptions; how do agents discover these descriptions; how can agents integrate information from different sites; and how can users query the Semantic Web.
Assessing spatial probabilistic distributional differences in the common space between schizophrenics and normal controls based on a novel automated probabilistic pattern analysis method

Because of the complex nature of the human brain, a full understanding of its various group specific variation factors such as volume, shape, and location related to age, gender, ethnic, and disease might be provided in both structural and functional neuroimaging studies. To serve this purpose, a novel approach for characterizing the group variability information using group specific labeled probabilistic maps was introduced in this article. An automatic labeling technique was applied to encode group specific probabilistic information for each region of interests (ROIs) covering the overall cortical region and a probabilistic pattern analytic method was proposed to assess the difference in the spatial extent between 70 schizophrenics and 70 controls in the common space. From our proposed method, we found major differences in 17 ROIs that had shown large variation in schizophrenics. Most of these ROIs were in the frontal and the temporal lobe and only three ROIs were in the parietal and the occipital lobe. The ROIs highlighted through our proposed method could be connected with previous morphological findings on schizophrenia and it also might be considered in functional analysis. As a result, our method could provide intuitive information on group difference relevant to the overall anatomical variability in the substructural level. Thus, it could be used as a prompting system to search and examine the regions of the brain that are worthy of further precise analysis by various sub‐cortical region based group studies in assessing specific patterns related to diseases. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 18, 310–324, 2008
Metal‐Chelate Affinity Chromatography

Recombinant proteins engineered to have six consecutive histidine residues on either the amino or carboxy terminus can be purified using a resin containing nickel ions (Ni2+) that have been immobilized by covalently attached nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA). This technique is know as metal‐chelate affinity chromatography and can be performed using either native or denatured protein. This unit presents protocols for expression of histidine‐tail fusion proteins and their purification in either native or denatured form (along with procedures for renaturation by either dialysis or solid‐phase renaturation). Also provided are procedures for analysis of the purified produce and regeneration of the NTA resin.
Metastatic melanoma volume in sentinel nodes: objective stereology‐based measurement predicts disease recurrence and survival

Aims: Sentinel lymph node (SLN) status is the most important prognostic factor in intermediate thickness melanoma. The amount of metastatic disease in positive SLNs varies greatly between patients, and this tumour burden appears to influence the prognosis of node‐positive patients. The aim was to use objective stereological techniques to correlate accurately total SLN tumour burden with recurrence and patient survival.
State feedback control of Boost converter using S1-ΣΔ PWM method

There are many applications which are very sensitive to the noise and should be supplied constant voltage. The boost converter is one of these applications for supplying mobiles, digital signal processors (DSP) and etc. In this paper, it is shown that the control strategy, which is based on digital pulse width modulation (DPWM) with second-order 1-bit quantizer sigma-delta (SigmaDelta) modulation and the state feedback, results in a better response than the control strategy, which is based on pulse width modulation (PWM) and the state feedback. The comparison is based on the simulation of the boost converter by MATLAB software.
FLINT+: A runtime-configurable emulation-based stochastic timing analysis framework

ASICs for Stochastic Computing conditions are designed for higher energy-efficiency or performance by sacrificing computational accuracy due to intentional circuit timing violations. To optimize the stochastic gate-level circuit behavior of a specific design, iterative timing analysis campaigns have to be carried out for a variety of chip temperature- and supply voltage-dependent timing corner cases. However, the application of common event-driven logic simulators usually leads to excessive analysis runtimes, increasing design time for hardware developers. In this paper, a gate-level netlist-oriented FPGA-based timing analysis framework is proposed, offering a runtime-configuration mechanism for emulating different timing corner cases in hardware without requiring multiple FPGA bitstreams. For an exemplary timing analysis campaign of an existing chip design, speed-up factors of up to 267 are achieved while maintaining timing behavior deviations lower than 1.05% to timing simulations.
Effect of mechanical stress on the stability of flexible InGaZnO thin-film transistors

ABSTRACT Demonstrated herein is the effect of mechanical stress on the device performance and stability of amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) on a flexible polyimide substrate. Flexible TFTs were placed on jigs with various bending radii to apply different degrees of mechanical strain on them. When the tensile strain on the TFTs was increased from 0.19% to 0.93%, the threshold voltage shifted after a 10,000 s increase in bias–temperature–stress (BTS), under vacuum conditions. The BTS instability was further exacerbated when the device was exposed to the air ambient at a 0.93% strain. The device reliability deteriorated due to the increase in the subgap density of states as well as the enhanced ambient effects via the strain-induced gas permeation paths.
Internal movement, set-up accuracy and margins for stereotactic body radiotherapy using a stereotactic body frame

The aim of this study was to evaluate the uncertainty of patient immobilization within the Elekta body frame (SBF) used for stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and to suggest margins sufficient to ensure dose coverage to the gross target volume (GTV). The study was based on the evaluation of repeated CT-scans of 30 patients treated by SBRT. The overall uncertainty was divided between uncertainty related to internal movement of the tumor and uncertainty in the patient set-up. Standard deviations of the overall tumor displacement were 2 mm, 3 mm and 4 mm in medial-lateral (m-l), anterior-posterior (a-p), and cranio-caudal (c-c) directions, respectively. In a model based on the data, an ellipsoid planned target volume (PTV) corresponding to the standard deviations in the orthogonal directions and a scaling factor, K defined a 3-dimentional (3-D) probability density. According to the model, a 90% probability of full dose coverage of the GTV was secured using margins of 9 mm (m-l), 9 mm (a-p) and 13 mm (c-c), respectively. The overall uncertainty was dominated by internal tumor movements whereas the set-up uncertainty of the patient in the SBF was less pronounced. It was concluded that the Elekta SBF is useful for immobilisation of patients for SBRT. However, due to internal movement conventional margins of 5 mm in m-l and a-p and 10 mm in the c-c directions may be insufficient for full dose coverage.
Fault-tolerant routing algorithm for 3D NoC using hamiltonian path strategy

While Networks-on-Chip (NoC) have been increasing in popularity with industry and academia, it is threatened by the decreasing reliability of aggressively scaled transistors. In this paper, we address the problem of faulty elements by the means of routing algorithms. Commonly, fault-tolerant algorithms are complex due to supporting different fault models while preventing deadlock. When moving from 2D to 3D network, the complexity increases significantly due to the possibility of creating cycles within and between layers. In this paper, we take advantages of the Hamiltonian path to tolerate faults in the network. The presented approach is not only very simple but also able to support almost all one-faulty unidirectional links in 2D and 3D NoCs.
Self-Serving Bias Effects on Job Analysis Ratings

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate whether worker-oriented job analysis importance ratings were influenced by subject matter experts’ (SME) standing (as measured by self-rated performance) on a competency. This type of relationship (whereby SMEs indicate that the traits they have are important for successful job performance) is an example of the self-serving bias (which is widely described in the social cognition literature and rarely described in the industrial/organizational psychology literature). An archival dataset covering 57 clerical and technical occupations with 26,682 participants was used. Support was found for the relationship between self-rated performance and importance ratings. Significant relationships (typically in the .30s) were observed for all 31 competencies that were studied. Controls were taken to account for common method bias and differences in the competencies required for each of the 57 occupations. Past research has demonstrated the effects of the self-serving bias on personality-based job analysis ratings. This study was the first to extend these findings to traditional job analysis, which covers other competencies in addition to personality. In addition, this study is the first to use operational field data instead of laboratory data.
Characterizing the geometrical tolerances of optimized vertical-cavity thermal emitter stack configurations for the mid-infrared via Monte Carlo testing

We evaluate a recently devised design of vertical-cavity enhanced resonant thermal emitter (VERTE) regarding stability to fabrication tolerances of PVD layer deposition techniques. Such an emitter achieves narrowband and coherent thermal emission and is composed of an multilayer stack of dielectric layers (silicon and silica) on top of a reflective metal (silver) structure. The silica layer above the metal acts as a vertical cavity enhancing the electromagnetic field between the reflective metal and the dielectric stack forming a Bragg mirror (1-D photonic crystal). In our previous work, we identified several suitable five-layer-stack configurations, which considered several features and limitations of a real-world device, such as temperature dependence of the materials, fabrication constraints or unwanted emission modes. However, the emission characteristics are very sensitive to the geometrical and optical properties of the material. In order to examine this behaviour, a Monte-Carlo algorithm was used to apply a Gauss-distributed error in depth (relative the unperturbed layer thickness) for every individual layer. The robustness of the emission properties against fabrication errors were evaluated and analyzed by significant statistical quantities. As expected, the main issue compromising the emission properties is a deviation of the resonance wavelength in relation to the initial target resonance wavelength of the unperturbed configuration. Interestingly, configurations with larger average layer thicknesses and therefore with larger absolute thickness deviations did not exhibit a larger variance of the emission wavelength. Instead, the variance slightly decreased or remained constant. A similar result was obtained for increasing the number of dielectric layers. In contrast, the peak emissivity (at normal incidence) was significantly influenced by the average layer depth of a configuration. Also, the effect of broadening of the spectral emittance curve due to random thickness fluctuations was evaluated. It was found that the broadening due to relative thickness errors can be considered as negligible for most configurations.
Nemo is an inducible antagonist of Wingless signaling during Drosophila wing development

The cellular events that govern patterning during animal development must be precisely regulated. This is achieved by extrinsic factors and through the action of both positive and negative feedback loops. Wnt/Wg signals are crucial across species in many developmental patterning events. We report that Drosophila nemo (nmo) acts as an intracellular feedback inhibitor of Wingless (Wg) and that it is a novel Wg target gene. Nemo antagonizes the activity of the Wg signal, as evidenced by the finding that reduction of nmo rescues the phenotypic defects induced by misexpression of various Wg pathway components. In addition, the activation of Wg-dependent gene expression is suppressed in wing discs ectopically expressing nmo and enhanced cell autonomously in nmo mutant clones. We find that nmo itself is a target of Wg signaling in the imaginal wing disc. nmo expression is induced upon high levels of Wg signaling and can be inhibited by interfering with Wg signaling. Finally, we observe alterations in Arm stabilization upon modulation of Nemo. These observations suggest that the patterning mechanism governed by Wg involves a negative feedback circuit in which Wg induces expression of its own antagonist Nemo.
Executive function and temperamental fear concurrently predict deception in school-aged children

The decision to intentionally withhold truthful information, or deception, is a key component of moral development and may be a precursor to more serious anti-social tendencies. Two factors, executive function (EF) and temperamental fear are each thought to influence childhood deception. Few studies, however, have explored deception in relation to both of these factors simultaneously. This was the goal of the present study. EF, as measured by a working memory (WM) task, and temperamental fear, as measured via maternal report were assessed in relation to observed deceptive behavior among six- to nine-year-old children (N = 43). Results showed that children displaying high WM capacity and high temperamental fear were more likely to exhibit deceptive behavior. Implications for predictors of childhood deception and applications for moral education are discussed.