Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Vitro Motility of Liver Connexin Vesicles along Microtubules Utilizes Kinesin Motors*

Trafficking of the proteins that form gap junctions (connexins) from the site of synthesis to the junctional domain appears to require cytoskeletal delivery mechanisms. Although many cell types exhibit specific delivery of connexins to polarized cell sites, such as connexin32 (Cx32) gap junctions specifically localized to basolateral membrane domains of hepatocytes, the precise roles of actin- and tubulin-based systems remain unclear. We have observed fluorescently tagged Cx32 trafficking linearly at speeds averaging 0.25 μm/s in a polarized hepatocyte cell line (WIF-B9), which is abolished by 50 μm of the microtubule-disrupting agent nocodazole. To explore the involvement of cytoskeletal components in the delivery of connexins, we have used a preparation of isolated Cx32-containing vesicles from rat hepatocytes and assayed their ATP-driven motility along stabilized rhodamine-labeled microtubules in vitro. These assays revealed the presence of Cx32 and kinesin motor proteins in the same vesicles. The addition of 50 μm ATP stimulated vesicle motility along linear microtubule tracks with velocities of 0.4–0.5 μm/s, which was inhibited with 1 mm of the kinesin inhibitor AMP-PNP (adenylyl-imidodiphosphate) and by anti-kinesin antibody but only minimally affected by 5 μm vanadate, a dynein inhibitor, or by anti-dynein antibody. These studies provide evidence that Cx32 can be transported intracellularly along microtubules and presumably to junctional domains in cells and highlight an important role of kinesin motor proteins in microtubule-dependent motility of Cx32.
A Novel Reputation Computing Model for Mobile Agent-Based E-Commerce Systems

Mobile Agent based e-commerce systems are increasingly drawing more and more attention in recent years. However, there exist some transaction risks while enabling agents make purchase decisions and exploit information to other unknown agents in the virtual markets. Trust and reputation are widely introduced to mitigate this risk by deriving the trustworthiness of certain agent from his transaction history. Despite existing of some proposed reputation-based trust models addressing the above issue, most of them can not readily be used since there are many unforseen changes in the electronic markets. To this end, this paper proposes a novel reputation computing model that integrates a direct reputation and a recommended reputation. Specially, we present a three-factor method to evaluate the direct repu tation from personal self-experience, and adopt the vector similarity to evaluate the recommendation credibility that can effectively detect the dishonest recommendations. In addition, we amend the short term reputation and penalty factor metric to make our mechanism effective in detecting malicious agents with strategic behavior. Our experiments show that the model is highly dependable and effective.
Fake news, phishing, and fraud: a call for research on digital media literacy education beyond the classroom

ABSTRACT The Internet poses a variety of risks at both the individual and societal levels including scams and the spread of misinformation. Older adults are especially vulnerable to many of these risks. This paper argues that one important strategy for combating such threats is through digital media literacy education. Although a good deal of research on digital media literacy for children exists, very little research exists on effective digital media literacy instructional interventions for adult populations. Specific directions for future research are offered.
Vicarious Fear Learning Depends on Empathic Appraisals and Trait Empathy

Empathy and vicarious learning of fear are increasingly understood as separate phenomena, but the interaction between the two remains poorly understood. We investigated how social (vicarious) fear learning is affected by empathic appraisals by asking participants to either enhance or decrease their empathic responses to another individual (the demonstrator), who received electric shocks paired with a predictive conditioned stimulus. A third group of participants received no appraisal instructions and responded naturally to the demonstrator. During a later test, participants who had enhanced their empathy evinced the strongest vicarious fear learning as measured by skin conductance responses to the conditioned stimulus in the absence of the demonstrator. Moreover, this effect was augmented in observers high in trait empathy. Our results suggest that a demonstrator’s expression can serve as a “social” unconditioned stimulus (US), similar to a personally experienced US in Pavlovian fear conditioning, and that learning from a social US depends on both empathic appraisals and the observers’ stable traits.
On the Estimation of the Pareto Optimal Set Using an Evolutionary Parameter Adjustment of the Normal Distribution Function

In multi-objective evolutionary optimization it is desirable to obtain a set of solutions usually called the Pareto optimal set. In this paper, some preliminary results are presented to approximate a Pareto optimal set considering an evolutionary adjustment of the parameters of a normal distribution function. The univariable and multivariable normal distribution functions are considered. Four test functions are used considering two forms of evaluation. Results indicate a novel way to represent the Pareto front and suggest different ideas for this area of optimization.
Modeling Data-Plane Power Consumption of Future Internet Architectures

With current efforts to design Future Internet Architectures (FIAs), the evaluation and comparison of different proposals is an interesting research challenge. Previously, metrics such as bandwidth or latency have commonly been used to compare FIAs to IP networks. We suggest the use of power consumption as a metric to compare FIAs. While low power consumption is an important goal in its own right (as lower energy use translates to smaller environmental impact as well as lower operating costs), power consumption can also serve as a proxy for other metrics such as bandwidth and processor load. Lacking power consumption statistics about either commodity FIA routers or widely deployed FIA testbeds, we propose models for power consumption of FIA routers. Based on our models, we simulate scenarios for measuring power consumption of content delivery in different FIAs. Specifically, we address two questions: 1) which of the proposed FIA candidates achieves the lowest energy footprint; and 2) which set of design choices yields a power-efficient network architecture? Although the lack of real-world data makes numerous assumptions necessary for our analysis, we explore the uncertainty of our calculations through sensitivity analysis of input parameters.
Completed Suicide with Violent and Non-Violent Methods in Rural Shandong, China: A Psychological Autopsy Study

Background This study aims to describe the specific characteristics of completed suicides by violent methods and non-violent methods in rural Chinese population, and to explore the related factors for corresponding methods. Methods Data of this study came from investigation of 199 completed suicide cases and their paired controls of rural areas in three different counties in Shandong, China, by interviewing one informant of each subject using the method of Psychological Autopsy (PA). Results There were 78 (39.2%) suicides with violent methods and 121 (60.8%) suicides with non-violent methods. Ingesting pesticides, as a non-violent method, appeared to be the most common suicide method (103, 51.8%). Hanging (73 cases, 36.7%) and drowning (5 cases, 2.5%) were the only violent methods observed. Storage of pesticides at home and higher suicide intent score were significantly associated with choice of violent methods while committing suicide. Risk factors related to suicide death included negative life events and hopelessness. Conclusions Suicide with violent methods has different factors from suicide with non-violent methods. Suicide methods should be considered in suicide prevention and intervention strategies.
Integration of miRNA and Protein Profiling Reveals Coordinated Neuroadaptations in the Alcohol-Dependent Mouse Brain

The molecular mechanisms underlying alcohol dependence involve different neurochemical systems and are brain region-dependent. Chronic Intermittent Ethanol (CIE) procedure, combined with a Two-Bottle Choice voluntary drinking paradigm, represents one of the best available animal models for alcohol dependence and relapse drinking. MicroRNAs, master regulators of the cellular transcriptome and proteome, can regulate their targets in a cooperative, combinatorial fashion, ensuring fine tuning and control over a large number of cellular functions. We analyzed cortex and midbrain microRNA expression levels using an integrative approach to combine and relate data to previous protein profiling from the same CIE-subjected samples, and examined the significance of the data in terms of relative contribution to alcohol consumption and dependence. MicroRNA levels were significantly altered in CIE-exposed dependent mice compared with their non-dependent controls. More importantly, our integrative analysis identified modules of coexpressed microRNAs that were highly correlated with CIE effects and predicted target genes encoding differentially expressed proteins. Coexpressed CIE-relevant proteins, in turn, were often negatively correlated with specific microRNA modules. Our results provide evidence that microRNA-orchestrated translational imbalances are driving the behavioral transition from alcohol consumption to dependence. This study represents the first attempt to combine ex vivo microRNA and protein expression on a global scale from the same mammalian brain samples. The integrative systems approach used here will improve our understanding of brain adaptive changes in response to drug abuse and suggests the potential therapeutic use of microRNAs as tools to prevent or compensate multiple neuroadaptations underlying addictive behavior.
Gender Differences in Health Care Expenditures, Resource Utilization, and Quality of Care

BACKGROUND Rising health care costs and quality of care concerns require a re-evaluation of various aspects of health care delivery. In order to properly manage costs, payers need to understand how different patient populations contribute to spending trends and where suboptimal quality of care is more prevalent, and, therefore, may drive cost trends. OBJECTIVE To demonstrate significant opportunities for improvement in the management of postmenopausal women by highlighting areas of imbalance between health care costs and quality of care. SUMMARY Women tend to use significantly more services and spend more health care dollars than men. The greatest disparity in health care spending between men and women has been noted in the population aged 45 to 64 years. In this age group, women's health issues primarily revolve around chronic conditions and menopausal symptoms. With the onset of menopause, the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), breast cancer, and osteoporosis increases significantly. However, substantial evidence indicates that there are broad gaps in the quality of care received by postmenopausal women. In some populations, breast cancer screening rates are almost 20% below the national target. Stratification of health plan performance with the National Committee for Quality Assurance/Health Care Effectiveness Data and Information Set (NCQA/HEDIS) measures related to CVD demonstrates gender-based gaps, even when there are no disparities in access to care. The widest gender gap in CVD management is observed with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol control rates. In the management of postmenopausal women with a history of fractures, standards of care are met only 19% to 50% of the time. After the age of 45, the majority of women either do not receive any information about menopause from their physicians or they are unsatisfied with the menopause counseling that they do receive. These quality gaps should be considered in light of the high prevalence of chronic illness and costs attributed to these conditions and menopausal symptoms in women. CONCLUSION When reviewing strategies for reducing health care costs, managed care organizations (MCOs) should focus on the management of postmenopausal women. With the use of proper screening, preventive care, and therapeutic management in postmenopausal women, an MCO could potentially achieve downstream reduction in overall costs for this population.
Encoding/decoding strategies for frequency domain chipless RFIDs employing periodic surfaces

This paper reviews the main features of chipless RFID tags realized with High-Impedance Surfaces. These tags, which comprise a periodic surface printed on top of a grounded dielectric slab, can be exploited in a number of encoding and decoding schemes. Several encoding methods have been investigated and the results are here analyzed and organized into a broad overview. In particular, the attention is devoted to the physical phenomenon at the basis of each design that is obtained by resorting to absorption, polarization conversion or polarization diversity.
Anti-alias image reconstruction in magnetic resonance imaging

An image reconstruction technique that reduces aliasing artifacts by scalable image reconstruction in magnetic resonance imaging is proposed. The signal obtained by the phase-scrambling Fourier imaging technique can be transformed to the signal described in the Fresnel transform equation of the objects. Therefore, image reconstruction can be performed not only by inverse Fourier transform but also by inverse Fresnel transform. Image reconstruction by inverse Fresnel transform allows shrinking of images of rather wide scales. Thus, alias-free images can be reconstructed even from signals that produce aliasing artifacts by standard Fourier transform reconstruction. Simulation and experimental studies reveal that the proposed method can be used to produce anti-alias images.
Video analysis of approach-avoidance behaviors of teenagers speaking with virtual agents

Analysis of non-verbal behaviors in HCI allows understanding how individuals apprehend and adapt to different situations of interaction. This seems particularly relevant when considering tasks such as speaking in a foreign language, which is known to elicit anxiety. This is even truer for young users for whom negative pedagogical feedbacks might have a strong negative impact on their motivation to learn. In this paper, we consider the approach-avoidance behaviors of teenagers speaking with virtual agents when using an e-learning platform for learning English. We designed an algorithm for processing the video of these teenagers outside laboratory conditions (e.g. a classical collective classroom in a secondary school) using a webcam. This algorithm processes the video of the user and computes the inter-ocular distance. The anxiety of the users is also collected with questionnaires. Results show that the inter-ocular distance enables to discriminate between approach and avoidance behaviors of teenagers reacting to positive or negative stimulus. This simple metric collected via video processing enables to detect an approach behavior related to a positive stimulus and an avoidance behavior related to a negative stimulus. Furthermore, we observed that these automatically detected approach-avoidance behaviors are correlated with anxiety.
Aerodynamic Optimization Under a Range of Operating Conditions

conditions. This can be achieved through multipoint optimization. The desired performance objective and operating conditions must be specified, and the resulting optimization problem must be solved in such a manner that the desired performance is achieved. Issues involved in formulating multipoint optimization problems are discussed. A technique is proposed for automatically choosing sampling points within the operating range and their weights in order to obtain the desired performance over the range of operating conditions. Examples are given involving lift-constrained drag minimization over a range of Mach numbers. Trade-os and their implications for the formulation of multipoint problems are presented and discussed.
Dividend Policy, Method of Payment in Acquisitions, and Stock Price Performance

This paper seeks to explain the choice of payment method in mergers and acquisitions using the dividend clientele hypothesis. We hypothesize that the method of payment is more likely to be stock if the dividend policies of the two firms involved in a merger or acquisition are quite similar, but more likely to be cash if the dividend policies are much different. The empirical data support the relevance of the dividend clientele hypothesis for the method of payment in acquisitions.
Design, Analysis, and Testing of the NorSat-3 Microsatellite Mission Communications Subsystem

Design, Analysis, and Testing of the NorSat-3 Microsatellite Mission Communications Subsystem Massimo Andrea Mancini Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Institute for Aerospace Studies University of Toronto 2018 The NorSat-3 microsatellite will use a combination of Automatic Identification System data and civilian navigation radar to track cooperative and non-cooperative maritime targets. NorSat3 leverages a Space Flight Laboratory designed and built spacecraft bus, and extends the performance provided by the communications subsystem offered on previous missions. A design for the communications subsystem is proposed which maximizes the use of heritage components, consisting of an uplink system, high speed uplink system, and downlink system. Spacecraft antennas are positioned to optimize performance for all payload and bus antennas during the navigation radar detector payload operations. Analyses and testing performed on this design prove that the links meet requirements on link margin, data throughput, gain coverage, and incident power. The implementation of this design on NorSat-3 will demonstrate the capabilities of microsatellites and improve upon the spacecraft bus design.
New PDE-based methods for image enhancement using SOM and Bayesian inference in various discretization schemes

A novel approach is presented in this paper for improving anisotropic diffusion PDE models, based on the Perona–Malik equation. A solution is proposed from an engineering perspective to adaptively estimate the parameters of the regularizing function in this equation. The goal of such a new adaptive diffusion scheme is to better preserve edges when the anisotropic diffusion PDE models are applied to image enhancement tasks. The proposed adaptive parameter estimation in the anisotropic diffusion PDE model involves self-organizing maps and Bayesian inference to define edge probabilities accurately. The proposed modifications attempt to capture not only simple edges but also difficult textural edges and incorporate their probability in the anisotropic diffusion model. In the context of the application of PDE models to image processing such adaptive schemes are closely related to the discrete image representation problem and the investigation of more suitable discretization algorithms using constraints derived from image processing theory. The proposed adaptive anisotropic diffusion model illustrates these concepts when it is numerically approximated by various discretization schemes in a database of magnetic resonance images (MRI), where it is shown to be efficient in image filtering and restoration applications.
Palm dermatoglyphs and interleukin-4 receptor polymorphisms in asthma

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the interleukin-4 receptor (IL-4R) gene have been identified as having a close association with asthma severity in different populations. In our previous studies, a close association between asthma and a distinctive palm dermatoglyphic pattern was observed; however, the clinical implication and underlying genetic mechanisms of this particular palm pattern have not been clarified. Whether this particular palm pattern is associated with asthma severity and IL-4R SNPs was assessed in the present study. A case cohort study was conducted in 400 patients with allergic asthma and in 200 healthy controls. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes for analysis of 11 IL-4R SNPs associated with asthma via polymerase chain reaction. There are two SNPs, rs1805012 and rs3024608, which are associated with asthma (rs1805012, dominant model; P=0.03 and rs3024608, codominant model; P=0.029), and two SNPs, rs1805010 and rs3024608, which are associated with the positive palm pattern (rs1805010, log-additive model; P=0.031 and rs3024608, codominant model; P=0.016). The SNP of rs3024608 is associated with asthma and the positive palm pattern. Thus, genetic variation in IL-4R may be associated with the development of asthma and the distinctive palm pattern; however, further investigations are required to identify the connection between asthma and palm dermatoglyphic patterns.
Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes or creatinine kinetics criteria in acute kidney injury: a proof of concept study.

BACKGROUND It has been recently mathematically demonstrated that the percentage increase in serum creatinine (SCr) can delay acute kidney injury (AKI) diagnosis in patients with previous chronic kidney disease (CKD). Based on creatinine (Cr) kinetics, it was suggested a new AKI classification using absolute increase in SCr elevation over specified time periods. However, this classification has not been evaluated in clinical studies. METHODS A prospective cohort study evaluated myocardial infarction patients during the first 7 days of hospital stay with daily SCr measurements. They were classified using Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) and Cr kinetics systems. Both classifications were compared by net reclassification improvement (NRI) and area under the receiver operator characteristic (AuROC) curve regarding hospital mortality. RESULTS A total of 584 patients were included, of which 34.1% had previous CKD. Patients had more AKI by KDIGO than by Cr kinetics criteria (25.7 versus 18.0%, P < 0.001) and 81 patients (13.9%) had different AKI severity classification. Patients with AKI by KDIGO criteria and non-AKI by Cr kinetics had higher hospital mortality rates than patients with non-AKI using both classifications [adjusted mortality odds ratios (ORs): 4.753; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.119-9.023, P = 0.014]. In patients with previous CKD, NRI analysis was 6.2% favoring Cr kinetics criteria. However, there was no difference using the AuROC curve analysis. In patients with no previous CKD, NRI analysis was 33.0%, favoring KDIGO, and this was in accordance with a better AuROC curve (0.828 versus 0.664, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS AKI classification proposed by a Cr kinetics model can be superior when diagnosing patients with previous CKD. However, KDIGO had a better performance in patients with no previous CKD.
Group II PLA(2) content of tears in normal subjects.

PURPOSE To determine the concentration of group II phospholipase (PL) A(2), an antimicrobial molecule, in tears of normal subjects in different age and sex groups. METHODS PLA(2) content of tears was measured in 122 healthy volunteers with ages ranging from 20 to 89 years (mean, 49.5 years) by a time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay using a polyclonal rabbit antibody to recombinant human PLA(2). RESULTS The mean concentration of PLA(2) in tears was 54.5 +/- 33.9 microg/ml. It was highest in the age group 20 to 29 years (81.6 +/- 32.0 microg/ml), and a decrease of concentration occurred with an increase of age. PLA(2) values were statistically significantly lower in the age group 60 to 69 years (P = 0.0013) and 70 years or more (P = 0.0001) than in the age group 20 to 29 years. There were no statistically significant differences in PLA(2) content of tears between the genders in any age group (P = 0.798). CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that tears contain a high concentration of PLA(2) and that PLA(2) levels decrease with an increase of age and/or reflex tear component of the sample analyzed.