Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Partial Deletion of Chromosome 8 β-defensin Cluster Confers Sperm Dysfunction and Infertility in Male Mice

β-defensin peptides are a family of antimicrobial peptides present at mucosal surfaces, with the main site of expression under normal conditions in the male reproductive tract. Although they kill microbes in vitro and interact with immune cells, the precise role of these genes in vivo remains uncertain. We show here that homozygous deletion of a cluster of nine β-defensin genes (DefbΔ9) in the mouse results in male sterility. The sperm derived from the mutants have reduced motility and increased fragility. Epididymal sperm isolated from the cauda should require capacitation to induce the acrosome reaction but sperm from the mutants demonstrate precocious capacitation and increased spontaneous acrosome reaction compared to wild-types but have reduced ability to bind the zona pellucida of oocytes. Ultrastructural examination reveals a defect in microtubule structure of the axoneme with increased disintegration in mutant derived sperm present in the epididymis cauda region, but not in caput region or testes. Consistent with premature acrosome reaction, sperm from mutant animals have significantly increased intracellular calcium content. Thus we demonstrate in vivo that β-defensins are essential for successful sperm maturation, and their disruption leads to alteration in intracellular calcium, inappropriate spontaneous acrosome reaction and profound male infertility.
Scalable big graph processing in MapReduce

MapReduce has become one of the most popular parallel computing paradigms in cloud, due to its high scalability, reliability, and fault-tolerance achieved for a large variety of applications in big data processing. In the literature, there are MapReduce Class MRC and Minimal MapReduce Class MMC to define the memory consumption, communication cost, CPU cost, and number of MapReduce rounds for an algorithm to execute in MapReduce. However, neither of them is designed for big graph processing in MapReduce, since the constraints in MMC can be hardly achieved simultaneously on graphs and the conditions in MRC may induce scalability problems when processing big graph data. In this paper, we study scalable big graph processing in MapReduce. We introduce a Scalable Graph processing Class SGC by relaxing some constraints in MMC to make it suitable for scalable graph processing. We define two graph join operators in SGC, namely, EN join and NE join, using which a wide range of graph algorithms can be designed, including PageRank, breadth first search, graph keyword search, Connected Component (CC) computation, and Minimum Spanning Forest (MSF) computation. Remarkably, to the best of our knowledge, for the two fundamental graph problems CC and MSF computation, this is the first work that can achieve O(log(n)) MapReduce rounds with $O(n+m)$ total communication cost in each round and constant memory consumption on each machine, where $n$ and $m$ are the number of nodes and edges in the graph respectively. We conducted extensive performance studies using two web-scale graphs Twitter and Friendster with different graph characteristics. The experimental results demonstrate that our algorithms can achieve high scalability in big graph processing.
The Effect of Duration of Resistance Training Interventions in Children Who Are Overweight or Obese

Sgro, M, McGuigan, MR, Pettigrew, S, and Newton, RU. The effect of duration of resistance training interventions in children who are overweight or obese. J Strength Cond Res 23(4): 1263-1270, 2009-The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different durations of resistance training on body composition and power in children. The study was a 24-week longitudinal design involving 31 preadolescent children who were overweight or obese (ages 7-12 years), divided into 3 groups and resistance trained 3 times per week. Group 8 (G8) trained for 8 weeks, group 16 (G16) trained for 16 weeks, and group 24 (G24) trained for 24 weeks. All participants were measured at weeks 0, 8, 16, and 24 for body composition and power. Subjects in G8 and G16 continued to be tested during the testing weeks after cessation of their training programs. Body composition and bone mineral content were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Significant improvements in body composition were seen in the initial 8-week training phase, and these improvements were maintained for the subsequent 16 weeks. Significant changes in percent body fat (∼5-7%) were observed at 8 weeks in all 3 groups. Total fat mass decreased significantly at week 8 in G16 and G24 (5.9%). By week 24, total fat mass was significantly reduced by 8.1% in G24. Significant improvements were observed in static jump power, which improved by 10.5% at week 16 in G24. These results suggest that an 8-week resistance training program is sufficient time to significantly change body composition, strength, and power measures in children who are overweight or obese. However, further improvements are realized with longer-duration resistance training programs. On cessation of the training programs, the G8 and G16 groups maintained the benefits of the exercise program until the end of the study period.
PPT: joint performance/power/thermal management of DRAM memory for multi-core systems

With the popularity of multi-core architecture, to sustain the memory demands from different cores, the memory system is expected to grow significantly in both speed and capacity. This will lead to increasing power consumption in the memory system. Therefore, it is critical to address the power issue in the memory subsystem. In designing a power-aware memory system, due to the interplay among power, thermal and performance, all the three factors need to be taken into account. In this paper, we propose the first joint performance, power and thermal management framework (PPT) through orchestrating task execution and page allocation. The PPT framework adapts to system loading to maximize power saving and avoid memory hotspot at the same time whiling sustaining the system bandwidth demand.
The Phases and Paradoxes of Educational Quality Assurance: The Case of the Singapore Education System.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight three important insights into educational quality assurance, using Singapore as a case study. It is useful to policy makers and practitioners to understand the phases and paradoxes in their educational quality assurance journey so that they may recognise and manage better the complex dynamics of quality assurance in education.Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilises a phase model to analyse the development of quality assurance and the challenges and paradoxes involved. This phase model is a framework of analysis of the quality assurance dynamics of primary and secondary education in Singapore with the following phases: standardisation; local accountability; and diversity and innovationFindings – The paper finds that: quality assurance develops in phases, each with its own characteristics and challenges; quality assurance changes the nature of education; quality assurance is a paradoxical journey.Practical implications – The Singapore case study .
Data fusion and topology control in wireless sensor networks

The design of large-scale sensor networks interconnecting various sensor nodes has spurred a great deal of interest due to its wide variety of applications. Data fusion is a critical step in designing a wireless sensor network as it handles data acquired by sensory devices. Wireless sensor networks allow distributed sensing and signal processing while collaborating during energy efficient operations. Wireless sensor networks are battery powered; therefore prolonging the network lifetime through an energy aware node organization is highly desirable. The main goal of a topology control scheme in wireless sensor networks is to reduce power consumption in order to extend network lifetime. Our aim is to provide a better understanding of the current research issues in this field. The paper provides a more detailed look at some existing data fusion and topology management algorithms. The most important design issues of data fusion and topology control are also highlighted.
A compressed sensing technique for OFDM channel estimation in mobile environments: Exploiting channel sparsity for reducing pilots

We consider the estimation of doubly selective wireless channels within pulse-shaping multicarrier systems (which include OFDM systems as a special case). A new channel estimation technique using the recent methodology of compressed sensing (CS) is proposed. CS-based channel estimation exploits a channel's delay-Doppler sparsity to reduce the number of pilots and, hence, increase spectral efficiency. Simulation results demonstrate a significant reduction of the number of pilots relative to least-squares channel estimation.
Prelogical Relations

We study a weakening of the notion of logical relations, called prelogical relations, that has many of the features that make logical relations so useful as well as further algebraic properties including composability. The basic idea is simply to require the reverse implication in the definition of logical relations to hold only for pairs of functions that are expressible by the same lambda term. Prelogical relations are the minimal weakening of logical relations that gives composability for extensional structures and simultaneously the most liberal definition that gives the Basic Lemma. Prelogical predicates (i.e., unary prelogical relations) coincide with sets that are invariant under Kripke logical relations with varying arity as introduced by Jung and Tiuryn, and prelogical relations are the closure under projection and intersection of logical relations. These conceptually independent characterizations of prelogical relations suggest that the concept is rather intrinsic and robust. The use of prelogical relations gives an improved version of Mitchell's representation independence theorem which characterizes observational equivalence for all signatures rather than just for first-order signatures. Prelogical relations can be used in place of logical relations to give an account of data refinement where the fact that prelogical relations compose explains why stepwise refinement is sound.
Finite Volume Methods on Spheres and Spherical Centroidal Voronoi Meshes

We study in this paper a finite volume approximation of linear convection-diffusion equations defined on a sphere using the spherical Voronoi meshes, in particular the spherical centroidal Voronoi meshes. The high quality of spherical centroidal Voronoi meshes is illustrated through both theoretical analysis and computational experiments. In particular, we show that the L2 error of the approximate solution is of quadratic order when the underlying mesh is given by a spherical centroidal Voronoi mesh. We also demonstrate numerically the high accuracy and the superconvergence of the approximate solutions.
Petri nets in cryptographic protocols

A process language for security protocols is presented together with a semantics in terms of sets of events. The denotation of process is a set of events, and as each event specifies a set of pre and postconditions, this denotation can be viewed as a Petri net. By means of an example we illustrate how the Petri-net semantics can be used to prove security properties.
Making the most of your triple store: query answering in OWL 2 using an RL reasoner

Triple stores implementing the RL profile of OWL 2 are becoming increasingly popular. In contrast to unrestricted OWL 2, the RL profile is known to enjoy favourable computational properties for query answering, and state-of-the-art RL reasoners such as OWLim and Oracle's native inference engine of Oracle Spatial and Graph have proved extremely successful in industry-scale applications. The expressive restrictions imposed by OWL 2 RL may, however, be problematical for some applications. In this paper, we propose novel techniques that allow us (in many cases) to compute exact query answers using an off-the-shelf RL reasoner, even when the ontology is outside the RL profile. Furthermore, in the cases where exact query answers cannot be computed, we can still compute both lower and upper bounds on the exact answers. These bounds allow us to estimate the degree of incompleteness of the RL reasoner on the given query, and to optimise the computation of exact answers using a fully-fledged OWL 2 reasoner. A preliminary evaluation using the RDF Semantic Graph feature in Oracle Database has shown very promising results with respect to both scalability and tightness of the bounds.
Nerve Growth Factor-Induced Neurite Sprouting in PC12 Cells Involves ς-1 Receptors: Implications for Antidepressants

One theory concerning the action of antidepressants relates to the drugs' ability to induce an adaptive plasticity in neurons such as neurite sprouting. Certain antidepressants are known to bind to ς-1 receptors (Sig-1R) with high affinity. Sig-1R are dynamic endoplasmic reticulum proteins that are highly concentrated at the tip of growth cones in cultured cells. We therefore tested the hypotheses that Sig-1R might participate in the neurite sprouting and that antidepressants with Sig-1R affinity may promote the neuronal sprouting via Sig-1R. The prototypic Sig-1R agonist (+)-pentazocine [(+)PTZ], as well as the Sig-1R-active antidepressants imipramine and fluvoxamine, although ineffective by themselves, were found to enhance the nerve growth factor (NGF)-induced neurite sprouting in PC12 cells in a dose-dependent manner. A Sig-1R antagonistN,N-dipropyl-2-[4-methoxy-3-(2-phenylethoxy)phenyl]-ethylamine monohydrochloride (NE100) blocked the enhancements caused by these Sig-1R agonists. In separate experiments, we found that NGF dose and time dependently increased Sig-1R in PC12 cells. Chronic treatment of cells with (+)PTZ, imipramine, or fluvoxamine also increased Sig-1R. These latter results suggested that NGF induces the neurite sprouting by increasing Sig-1R. Indeed, the overexpression of Sig-1R per se in PC12 cells enhanced the NGF-induced neurite sprouting. Furthermore, antisense deoxyoligonucleotides directed against Sig-1R attenuated the NGF-induced neurite sprouting. Thus, when taken together, our results indicate that Sig-1R play an important role in the NGF-induced neurite sprouting and that certain antidepressants may facilitate neuronal sprouting in the brain via Sig-1R.
A dichotomy between the expression of IgD on B cells and its requirement for triggering such cells with two T-independent antigens

The majority of adult B lymphocytes in the mouse bear two immunoglobulin isotypes, IgM and IgD (μ(+)δ(+) cells) (1). A small population of IgM-bearing cells lacks, or expresses very low levels of IgD (μ- predominant [μp] cells) (1). These cells are believed to constitute a less mature subset of B cells analogous to neonatal B cells (2). Based on the time during ontogeny when responses to T-independent (TI) and T-dependent (TD) antigens appear (3, 4) and the ability to block in vitro responses with anti- μ or anti-δ (5, 6, D. Mosier, personal communication), it has been suggested that the precursors of two TI-1 responses, trinitrophenyl (TNP)- Brucella (TNP-BA) and TNP-lipopolysaccharide (TNP-LPS) are μp cells (5, 6), whereas the precursor for a TD response, TNP-sheep erythrocytes (TNP-SRBC), bears both IgM and IgD (6). However, the possibility cannot be excluded that IgD is present on some or all of the TI precursors, but that it is not obligatory for triggering. In the present experiments we have examined the phenotypes of TI and TD precursors by treating cells with C’ and either anti-μ or anti-δ before stimulation with antigen. Our results suggest that the majority of B cells that respond to TNP-BA, TNP-LPS, and TNP-SRBC bear IgD, even though in the case of the two TI antigens, IgD is not required for triggering.
Early Genotoxic and Cytotoxic Effects of the Toxic Dinoflagellate Prorocentrum lima in the Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis

Okadaic acid (OA) and dinophysistoxins (DTXs) are the main toxins responsible for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) intoxications during harmful algal blooms (HABs). Although the genotoxic and cytotoxic responses to OA have been evaluated in vitro, the in vivo effects of these toxins have not yet been fully explored. The present work fills this gap by evaluating the in vivo effects of the exposure to the DSP-toxin-producing dinoflagellate Prorocentrum lima during the simulation of an early HAB episode in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. The obtained results revealed that in vivo exposure to this toxic microalgae induced early genotoxicity in hemocytes, as a consequence of oxidative DNA damage. In addition, the DNA damage observed in gill cells seems to be mainly influenced by exposure time and P. lima concentration, similarly to the case of the oxidative damage found in hemocytes exposed in vitro to OA. In both cell types, the absence of DNA damage at low toxin concentrations is consistent with the notion suggesting that this level of toxicity does not disturb the antioxidant balance. Lastly, in vivo exposure to growing P. lima cell densities increased apoptosis but not necrosis, probably due to the presence of a high number of protein apoptosis inhibitors in molluscs. Overall, this work sheds light into the in vivo genotoxic and cytotoxic effects of P. lima. In doing so, it also demonstrates for the first time the potential of the modified (OGG1) comet assay for assessing oxidative DNA damage caused by marine toxins in marine invertebrates.
Recognizing Shapes in Video Sequences Using Multi-class Boosting

We model the spatio-temporal variations of the shape of objects in a video sequence using a unique SVD-like decomposition. The decomposition is used to compute shape features, which form an approximation of the original shape sequence. The features are used to train separate classifiers using multi-class boosting strategy. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for shape recognition using the China Lake outdoor surveillance dataset; and compare the results using mean shapes as baseline. We illustrate the usefulness of the proposed shape features for detecting shapes of interest using the SIG group activity dataset.
Long-Lasting Effects of BCG Vaccination on Both Heterologous Th1/Th17 Responses and Innate Trained Immunity

We have recently shown that BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) vaccination in healthy volunteers induces epigenetic reprogramming of monocytes, leading to increased cytokine production in response to nonrelated pathogens for up to 3 months after vaccination. This phenomenon was named ‘trained immunity'. In the present study we assessed whether BCG was able to induce long-lasting effects on both trained immunity and heterologous T helper 1 (Th1) and Th17 immune responses 1 year after vaccination. The production of TNFα and IL-1β to mycobacteria or unrelated pathogens was higher after 2 weeks and 3 months postvaccination, but these effects were less pronounced 1 year after vaccination. However, monocytes recovered 1 year after vaccination had an increased expression of pattern recognition receptors such as CD14, Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and mannose receptor, and this correlated with an increase in proinflammatory cytokine production after stimulation with the TLR4 ligand lipopolysaccharide. The heterologous production of Th1 (IFN-γ) and Th17 (IL-17 and IL-22) immune responses to nonmycobacterial stimulation remained strongly elevated even 1 year after BCG vaccination. In conclusion, BCG induces sustained changes in the immune system associated with a nonspecific response to infections both at the level of innate trained immunity and at the level of heterologous Th1/Th17 responses.
Reliability and Validity of the Korean Version of the Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the fear-avoidance beliefs questionnaire (FABQ) in assessing Korean patients with low back pain. We performed translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the questionnaire and enrolled 52 patients (18 males and 34 females) with low back pain. The subjects completed a standardized self-administered questionnaire that included the FABQ assessment along with evaluations for the visual analogue scale (VAS), Oswestry disability index (ODI), self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), and Beck depression inventory-Korean version (K-BDI). The reliability of the obtained data was determined by evaluating the internal consistency on the basis of the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the Cronbach's alpha values, while the validity of the data was examined by correlating the FABQ scores to the VAS, ODI, SAS, and K-BDI scores. The translated versions of the FABQ showed good test-retest reliability: ICC (3, 1)=. 90 (FABQ for physical activity) and . 97 (FABQ for work) these values were statistically significant (p
Morning Meal More Efficient for Fat Loss in a 3-Month Lifestyle Intervention

Objective: To evaluate the effects of 2 low-calorie diets but with different distributions of calories throughout the day on weight loss and other major obesity-related metabolic parameters. Methods: We randomly assigned 42 nonsmoking homemakers (age = 46.3 ± 2.3 years, body mass index [BMI] = 35.7 ± 0.8 kg/m2, mean ± SD) in 2 groups of 21 subjects (G1 and G2). The participants underwent a 3 month individualized Mediterranean-style diet (55% carbohydrate, 30% fat, 15% protein and fiber > 30 g), calorie (600 kcal daily deficit compared to the total energy expenditure measured by a metabolic Holter). Diets consisted of the same food and complied with cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines but differed in the distribution of calories throughout the day (G1: 70% breakfast, morning snack, lunch and 30% afternoon snack and dinner; G2: 55 breakfast, morning snack, lunch and 45% afternoon snack and dinner). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used for pre- and postintervention body composition assessment. Results: Thirty-six subjects completed the study (G1 = 18, G2 = 18). Both groups had significant improvements in body composition and metabolic parameters but G1 had enhanced results for weight loss (G1: −8.2 ± 3.0 kg; G2: −6.5 ± 3.4 kg; p = 0.028), waist circumference reduction (G1: −7 ± 0.6 cm; G2: −5 ± 0.3 cm; p = 0.033), and fat mass loss (G1: −6.8 ± 2.1 kg, G2: −4.5 ± 2.9 kg, p = 0.031; mean ± SD). Improvements were detected in both groups for blood pressure and blood and lipid parameters. G1 subjects showed a greater improvement in insulin sensitivity measured by homeostasis model assessment–estimated insulin resistance (G1: −1.37 ± 0.27, G2: −0.74 ± 0.12, p = 0.017). Conclusions: These data suggest that a low-calorie Mediterranean diet with a higher amount of calories in the first part of the day could establish a greater reduction in fat mass and improved insulin sensitivity than a typical daily diet.