Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nicotine‐Mediated Ca2+‐Influx Induces IL‐8 Secretion in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell

Cigarette smoking is one of the most important risk factors for the development of various diseases. Nicotine is the most extensively investigated component of cigarette smoke, and a comprehensive analysis of the genes induced by nicotine stimulation revealed that interleukin‐8 (IL‐8) was induced in oral squamous cell carcinoma cell (OSCC). Based on this background, the signaling mechanisms of nicotine‐mediated IL‐8 induction in OSCC was investigated. Augmented IL‐8 secretion by Ca9‐22 cells was blocked by the NF‐κB inhibitor L‐1‐4′‐tosylamino‐phenylethyl‐chloromethyl ketone (TPCK) and the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR)‐specific inhibitor α‐bungarotoxin (αBtx). The downstream signaling pathway was further examined by pre‐incubating the cells with inhibitors against mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MEK), protein kinase C (PKC), and Ca2+/calmodulin‐dependent kinase II (CaMK II). Only the CaMK II inhibitor was found to exert an inhibitory effect on nicotine‐mediated IL‐8 secretion. Pre‐treatment of the Ca9‐22 cells with the Ca2+ chelator BAPTA‐AM drastically inhibited IL‐8 secretion. Although nicotine stimulation induced the phosphorylation of the NF‐κB p65 subunit, pre‐treatment with BAPTA‐AM was found to inhibit this activity significantly. CaMK II‐dependent p65 phosphorylation was confirmed by pre‐incubation of the cells with CaMK II inhibitor. The results from this study indicate that the binding of nicotine to nAChR induces Ca2+ influx, which results in the activation and phosphorylation of CaMK II and NF‐κB p65, respectively. Nicotine‐mediated IL‐8 induction should be a trigger for the initiation of various diseases. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 1009–1015, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
EWOD using P(VDF-TrFE)

A novel electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) digital microfluidic device using the high dielectric constant material P(VDF-TrFE) (poly-vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) as the dielectric layer fabricated by spin-coating process is proposed. The device is featured with the advantages of both IC compatible process and low driving voltage. The contact angle between the liquid droplet and surface of the device changes from 118° to 75° under an applied voltage of 30V. The voltage-polarity-related electrowetting on dielectric phenomenon is observed and applied in our study. A novel single-side coplanar electrodes EWOD device is developed. EWOD at positive and negative voltage is so different that a droplet 3μL is successfully transported reciprocally under 20V based on the polarity change of driving voltage.
Measurement of cardiac output by earpiece dye-dilution method with automatic calibration of dye concentration.

A non-invasive method for measuring cardiac output by an earpiece dye densitometer was proposed. The densitometer is dichromatic and has an air capsule to make subject's ear bloodless by inflation, so that it can calibrate indocyanine green dye concentration without blood sampling. Duplicate measurements of cardiac output showed a good agreement in 40 cases (r = 0.97, standard deviation (S.D.) = 8.9%), which was comparable to the result of the cuvette method (r = 0.98, S.D. = 8.1%). Simultaneous measurements of cardiac output by the earpiece method (x) and the standard cuvette method (y) revealed a good agreement (r = 0.91, y = 0.96x+0.34, S.D. = 16.4%) in 52 measurements of 25 cases. A similarly good correlation was obtained between the two methods during ergometer exercise in supine position in 5 cases. These suggest that this earpiece dye-dilution method is reliable for cardiac output measurement and advantageous for clinical use because of non-invasive technique.
Attainable Capacity of Spatial Radio Channels: A Multiple-Frequency Analysis

This paper reports an attainable channel capacity and spatial degrees-of-freedom of multiple-antenna radio channels at 15, 28 and 61 GHz. The analysis is based on channel sounding in a same street canyon. The attainable capacity is evaluated so that it depends only on the antenna aperture size but is independent of implementation of antenna elements on the aperture. The analysis shows that multipath richness decreases as the frequency increases, as indicated by the smaller spatial degrees-of-freedom at higher frequencies for the same electrical aperture size of the receive antenna. The analysis furthermore reveals that channels at the three radio frequencies can attain almost the same level of capacity for a given transmit power and physical size of the receive antenna. The result is explained by a greater electrical size of the antenna aperture at the higher frequencies that can leverage higher gains and finer angular resolution and hence normalize the availability of fewer multipaths.
In Vivo Efficacy of Glycopeptide-Colistin Combination Therapies in a Galleria mellonella Model of Acinetobacter baumannii Infection

ABSTRACT The treatment of Acinetobacter baumannii infections poses a significant clinical challenge, with isolates resistant to all commonly used agents increasingly being reported. With few new agents in the pipeline, clinicians are increasingly turning to combinations of antimicrobials in the hope that they may act synergistically together. In this study we assessed the activities of two glycopeptide-colistin combinations both in vitro and using a Galleria mellonella caterpillar model of A. baumannii infection. In checkerboard assays both vancomycin and teicoplanin were highly active against susceptible and multidrug-resistant strains of A. baumannii when combined with colistin (fractional inhibitory concentration [FIC] of <0.25). Treatment of G. mellonella caterpillars infected with lethal doses of A. baumannii resulted in significantly enhanced survival rates when either vancomycin or teicoplanin was given with colistin compared to colistin treatment alone (P < 0.05). This effect was most marked when vancomycin was the glycopeptide administered, although this agent was also highly effective as monotherapy, possibly through an immunomodulatory action on the G. mellonella response to A. baumannii infection. This work suggests that glycopeptide-colistin combinations are highly active against A. baumannii both in vitro and in a simple animal model of infection. They should be considered further as potential treatments for difficult-to-treat A. baumannii infections.
AIRBORNE CONCENTRATIONS OF BENZENE DUE TO DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE EXHAUST IN A ROUNDHOUSE

Concentrations of airborne benzene due to diesel exhaust from a locomotive were measured during a worst-case exposure scenario in a roundhouse. To understand the upper bound human health risk due to benzene, an electromotive diesel and a General Electric four-cycle turbo locomotive were allowed to run for four 30-min intervals during an 8-h workshift in a roundhouse. Full-shift and 1-h airborne concentrations of benzene were measured in the breathing zone of surrogate locomotive repairmen over the 8-h workshift on 2 consecutive days. In addition, carbon monoxide was measured continuously; elemental carbon (surrogate for diesel exhaust) was sampled with full-shift area samples; and nitrogen dioxide/nitric oxide was sampled using full-shift and 15-min (nitrogen dioxide only) area samples. Peak concentrations of carbon monoxide ranged from 22.5 to 93 ppm. The average concentration of elemental carbon for each day of the roundhouse study was 0.0543 and 0.0552 w g/m 3 for an 8-h workshift. These were considered "worst-case" conditions since the work environment was intolerably irritating to the eyes, nose, and throat. Short-term nitrogen dioxide concentrations ranged from 0.81 to 2.63 ppm during the diesel emission events with the doors closed. One-hour airborne benzene concentrations ranged from 0.001 to 0.015 ppm with 45% of the measurements below the detection limit of 0.002-0.004 ppm. Results indicated that the 8-h time-weighted average for benzene in the roundhouse was approximately 100-fold less than the current threshold limit value (TLV) of 0.5 ppm. These data are consistent with other studies, which have indicated that benzene concentrations due to diesel emissions, even in a confined environment, are quite low.
β-Adrenergic agonists and cyclic AMP decrease intracellular resting free-calcium concentration in ileum smooth muscle

Intracellular free-calcium levels were measured in strips of longitudinal smooth muscle from guinea-pig ileum; fura-2 was used as a calcium monitor. At rest the calcium concentration was about 180 nM, and this rose to 300-400 nM following electrical stimulation and during spontaneous calcium transients (all measurements at 23-25 °C). Isoprenaline suppressed the spontaneous calcium transients, and reduced the resting calcium level to about 130 nM. This fall in resting calcium concentration was seen even in muscle strips which did not have spontaneous activity. Elevation of intracellular cyclic AMP levels, produced by forskolin or dibutyryl cyclic AMP, mimicked the actions of isoprenaline. We conclude that the relaxant effects of β-adrenergic agonists of visceral smooth muscle may be explained partly by a fall in intracellular resting free- calcium level, mediated via an increase in cyclic AMP.
Motion compensation for intravascular ultrasound palpography

Rupture of vulnerable plaques in coronary arteries is the major cause of acute coronary syndromes. Most vulnerable plaques consist of a thin fibrous cap covering an atheromous core. These plaques can be identified using intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) palpography, which measures radial strain by cross-correlating RF signals at different intraluminal pressures. Multiple strain images (i.e., partial palpograms) are averaged per heart cycle to produce a more robust compounded palpogram. However, catheter motion due to cardiac activity causes misalignment of the RF signals and thus of the partial palpograms, resulting in less valid strain estimates. To compensate for in-plane catheter rotation and translation, we devised four methods based on block matching. The global rotation block matching (GRBM) and contour mapping (CMAP) methods measure catheter rotation, and local block matching (LBM) and catheter rotation and translation (CRT) estimate displacements of local tissue regions. These methods were applied to nine in vivo pullback acquisitions, made with a 20 MHz phased-array transducer. We found that all these methods significantly increase the number of valid strain estimates in the partial and compounded palpograms (P < 0.008). The best method, LBM, attained an average increase of 17% and 15%, respectively. Implementation of this method should improve the information coming from IVUS palpography, leading to better vulnerable plaque detection.
Continuation Passing Style for Effect Handlers

We present Continuation Passing Style (CPS) translations for Plotkin and Pretnar's effect handlers with Hillerstrom and Lindley's row-typed fine-grain call-by-value calculus of effect handlers as the source language. CPS translations of handlers are interesting theoretically, to explain the semantics of handlers, and also offer a practical implementation technique that does not require special support in the target language's runtime. We begin with a first-order CPS translation into untyped lambda calculus which manages a stack of continuations and handlers as a curried sequence of arguments. We then refine the initial CPS translation first by uncurrying it to yield a properly tail-recursive translation and second by making it higher-order in order to contract administrative redexes at translation time. We prove that the higher-order CPS translation simulates effect handler reduction. We have implemented the higher-order CPS translation as a JavaScript backend for the Links programming language.
Role of Streptococcus thermophilus MR-1C Capsular Exopolysaccharide in Cheese Moisture Retention

ABSTRACT Recent work by our group has shown that an exopolysaccharide (EPS)-producing starter pair, Streptococcus thermophilusMR-1C and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp.bulgaricus MR-1R, can significantly increase moisture retention in low-fat mozzarella (D. B. Perry, D. J. McMahon, and C. J. Oberg, J. Dairy Sci. 80:799–805, 1997). The objectives of this study were to determine whether MR-1C, MR-1R, or both of these strains are required for enhanced moisture retention and to establish the role of EPS in this phenomenon. Analysis of low-fat mozzarella made with different combinations of MR-1C, MR-1R, and the non-EPS-producing starter culture strains S. thermophilus TA061 andLactobacillus helveticus LH100 showed that S. thermophilus MR-1C was responsible for the increased cheese moisture level. To investigate the role of the S. thermophilus MR-1C EPS in cheese moisture retention, theepsE gene in this bacterium was inactivated by gene replacement. Low-fat mozzarella made with L. helveticusLH100 plus the non-EPS-producing mutant S. thermophilusDM10 had a significantly lower moisture content than did cheese made with strains LH100 and MR-1C, which confirmed that the MR-1C capsular EPS was responsible for the water-binding properties of this bacterium in cheese. Chemical analysis of the S. thermophilus MR-1C EPS indicated that the polymer has a novel basic repeating unit composed of d-galactose, l-rhamnose, andl-fucose in a ratio of 5:2:1.
Phosphorylation of Tyr319 in ZAP‐70 is required for T‐cell antigen receptor‐dependent phospholipase C‐γ1 and Ras activation

Accumulating evidence indicates that the interdomain B regions of ZAP‐70 and Syk play pivotal roles in the coupling of T‐cell antigen receptor (TCR) stimulation to the activation of downstream signaling pathways. The interdomain B region of ZAP‐70 contains at least three candidate sites of tyrosine phosphorylation. In this report, we identify Tyr319 as a functionally important phosphorylation site in the ZAP‐70 interdomain B region. TCR crosslinkage triggered a rapid increase in the phosphorylation of Tyr319 in Jurkat T cells. Although mutation of Tyr319 to Phe had no effect on the tyrosine kinase activity of ZAP‐70, the resulting ZAP(Y319→F) mutant failed to reconstitute TCR‐dependent Ca2+ mobilization, Ras activation, CD69 expression and NFAT‐dependent transcription in ZAP‐70‐deficient Jurkat cells. These defects were correlated with reduced tyrosine phosphorylation of phospholipase C (PLC)‐γ1 and the LAT adapter protein in the ZAP(Y319→F)‐expressing cells. On the other hand, ZAP(Y319→F)‐expressing cells displayed normal increases in SLP‐76 phosphorylation and ERK activation during TCR stimulation. Phosphorylation of Tyr319 promoted the association of ZAP‐70 with the SH2 domains of two key signaling molecules, Lck and PLC‐γ1. These studies suggest that Tyr319 phosphorylation is required for the assembly of a ZAP‐70‐containing signaling complex that leads to the activation of the PLC‐γ1‐ and Ras‐dependent signaling cascades in antigen‐stimulated T cells.
Effects of an intensive, task-specific rehabilitation program for individuals with chronic stroke: A case series

Purpose. The purpose of this case series was to determine feasibility and evaluate changes in activity and participation outcomes in persons with chronic stroke after an intensive, task-specific rehabilitation program incorporating whole-body and client-centred interventions. Method. Participants with chronic stroke (N = 12) who were ambulatory and had at least minimal arm/hand function were recruited. The program included whole-body goal-focused activities, gait training and strengthening exercises for 4 h, 5 days per week for 2 weeks. Daily educational sessions and a home activities program were also included. Activity-based measures including the Wolf motor function test, Berg balance scale, timed up and go test and 6-min walk test and participation-based measures including the Stroke Impact Scale and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure were collected at pre-test, immediate post-test and 5-month retention. Results. The effect of the intervention on participation-based outcomes was much greater than on the activity-based outcomes. Minimal detectable differences in self-perceived participation were reported for most participants. Conclusions. The intensive, task-specific intervention was a feasible program for these participants with stroke. Although minimal changes in activity-based outcomes were found, the participants perceived improvements in participation with personal goal-related activities that resulted in large effect sizes that were maintained for 5-months after the intervention.
Modulation of intercellular calcium signaling by melatonin in avian and mammalian astrocytes is brain region‐specific

Calcium waves among glial cells impact many central nervous system functions, including neural integration and brain metabolism. Here, we characterized the modulatory effects of melatonin, a pineal neurohormone that mediates circadian and seasonal processes, on glial calcium waves derived from different brain regions and species. Diencephalic and telencephalic astrocytes, from both chick and mouse brains, expressed melatonin receptor proteins. Further, using the calcium‐sensitive dye Fluo‐4, we conducted real‐time imaging analyses of calcium waves propagated among mammalian and avian astrocytes. Mouse diencephalic astrocytic calcium waves spread to an area 2–5‐fold larger than waves among avian astrocytes and application of 10 nM melatonin caused a 32% increase in the spread of these mammalian calcium waves, similar to the 23% increase observed in chick diencephalic astrocytes. In contrast, melatonin had no effect on calcium waves in either avian or mammalian telencephalic astrocytes. Mouse telencephalic calcium waves radially spread from their initiation site among untreated astrocytes. However, waves meandered among mouse diencephalic astrocytes, taking heterogeneous paths at variable rates of propagation. Brain regional differences in wave propagation were abolished by melatonin, as diencephalic astrocytes acquired more telencephalon‐like wave characteristics. Astrocytes cultured from different brain regions, therefore, possess fundamentally disparate mechanisms of calcium wave propagation and responses to melatonin. These results suggest multiple roles for melatonin receptors in the regulation of astroglial function, impacting specific brain regions differentially. J. Comp. Neurol. 493:370–380, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Transfer‐Learning Approach for Accelerated MRI Using Deep Neural Networks

Neural networks have received recent interest for reconstruction of undersampled MR acquisitions. Ideally, network performance should be optimized by drawing the training and testing data from the same domain. In practice, however, large datasets comprising hundreds of subjects scanned under a common protocol are rare. The goal of this study is to introduce a transfer‐learning approach to address the problem of data scarcity in training deep networks for accelerated MRI.
Quantitative Linguistic Predictors of Infants' Learning of Specific English Words.

To evaluate which features of spoken language aid infant word learning, a corpus of infant-directed speech (M. R. Brent & J. M. Siskind, 2001) was characterized on several linguistic dimensions and statistically related to the infants' vocabulary outcomes word by word. Comprehension (at 12 and 15 months) and production (15 months) were predicted by frequency, frequency of occurrence in one-word utterances, concreteness, utterance length, and typical duration. These features have been proposed to influence learning before, but here their relative contributions were measured. Mothers' data predicted learning in their own children better than in other children; thus, vocabulary is measurably aligned within families. These analyses provide a quantitative basis for claims concerning the relevance of several properties of maternal English speech in facilitating early word learning.
Self-assembly of an antireflective moth-like structure using antibody-functionalized nanowires and nanopore arrays

A novel framework to fabricate moth-like nanopillar arrays was proposed. In this scheme, nanowires were first cross-linked with anti-gold nanoparticle (GNP) antibodies and mixed with the nanopore array pre-deposited by GNP, which was then followed by centrifugation. An optimal success rate of 95% was finally obtained by choosing nanorods with an aspect ratio of 5:1 by modifying with 10 ng mL − 1 antibodies, and by inserting them into a pore array pre-deposited with 54.4 µM GNP. The nanopillar arrays thus fabricated showed high levels of antireflective efficiency across a broad wavelength. Here we demonstrate the assembly of nanowires and nanopores into nanopillar arrays by the assistance of antibody–antigen binding. The application of bio-nano-interaction provides an economic, time-saving, and throughput approach to manipulating objects on the nanoscale.
Who are the people in my life? towards tangible eco-maps

Eco-Maps, diagrammatic assessments of family relationships, are used by social workers in individual and family contact to understand the subjective experiences of both supportive and disruptive family, friendship, and community relationships. In this paper we present the first phase of the development of the People in my Life app. We have developed a tangible version of Eco-Maps to unlock the potential of eco-maps in the digital domain and to enhance social work practice with children and young people. The central idea is to develop an improved, technology-based means to assess relationships that supports and enhances social work practice and foregrounds children and young people's experiences. In particular, the project has three aims: (a) to collaboratively develop with social workers an application for creating eco-maps using touch-screens with tangible objects, (b) to test its usability with children, in the first instance, and (c) to provide a first exploration of the psychometric properties of parameters captured by the app.
Searching the web for significant word sense collocations

This paper presents a method for searching the Web for significant collocations related to each sense of a given polysemic word. These collocations are expressed as recurrent word sequences indicating a specific meaning of the given word. We present the preliminary results for a set of three polysemic words. The results indicate that making sense out of the Web is possible and that the discovered collocations could be useful for the word sense disambiguation task.
Microbial Air Quality in Offices at Municipal Landfills

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of two municipal landfills on the microbiological air quality in offices on landfill sites. The evaluation was based on the concentration levels of airborne bacteria and fungi and the identification of isolated strains. Air samples were collected with a six-stage Andersen impactor. The concentrations of bacterial aerosol ranged from 1.0 × 103 to 7.2 × 104 colony forming units (CFU)/m3 indoors, and from 7.0 × 10 to 4.0 × 104 CFU/m3 outdoors. The corresponding fungal aerosol ranges were from 2.3 × 102 to 7.3 × 103 CFU/m3 indoors and from 2.0 × 102 to 1.2 × 104 CFU/m3 outdoors. The concentration levels were affected by the season of the year. The study showed that both indoor and outdoor air were heavily contaminated with bacteria and fungi. The proximity of the unpaved transport route and the weighing of refuse loads contributed to the increase of bacterial and fungal aerosol concentrations significantly. The air in the offices was characterized not only by elevated concentrations of bacteria and fungi but also by high frequencies of gram-negative bacteria, along with fungal species characteristic of landfills. The quantitative and qualitative changes in the composition of the bacterial and fungal aerosol posed a possible health risk to office workers at municipal waste landfill sites.