Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coxsackievirus B3 Infection Induces cyr61 Activation via JNK To Mediate Cell Death

ABSTRACT Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), an enterovirus in the Picornavirus family, is the most common human pathogen associated with myocarditis and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. We found upregulation of the cysteine-rich protein gene (cyr61) after CVB3 infection in HeLa cells with a cDNA microarray approach, which is confirmed by Northern blot analysis. It is also revealed that the extracellular amount of Cyr61 protein was increased after CVB3 infection in HeLa cells. cyr61 is an early-transcribed gene, and the Cyr61 protein is secreted into the extracellular matrix. Its function is related to cell adhesion, migration, and neuronal cell death. Here, we show that activation of the cyr61 promoter by CVB3 infection is dependent on JNK activation induced by CVB3 replication and viral protein expression in infected cells. To explore the role of Cyr61 protein in infected HeLa cells, we transiently overexpressed cyr61 and infected HeLa cells with CVB3. This increased CVB3 growth in the cells and promoted host cell death by viral infection, whereas down-expression of cyr61 with short interfering RNA reduced CVB3 growth and showed resistance to cell death by CVB3 infection. In conclusion, we have demonstrated a new role for cyr61 in HeLa cells infected with CVB3, which is associated with the cell death induced by virus infection. These data thus expand our understanding of the physiological functions of cyr61 in virus-induced cell death and provide new insights into the cellular factors involved.
Exploiting supervector structure for speaker recognition trained on a small development set

Nowadays state-of-the-art speaker recognition systems obtain quite satisfactory results for both text-independent and text-dependent tasks as long as they are trained on a fair amount of development data from the target domain (assuming clean speech). In this work, we investigate the ability to build accurate speaker recognition systems using small amounts of data from the target domain without using out-of-domain data at all. Our method is based on exploiting the structural nature of GMM supervectors. Knowledge on the way GMM supervectors are created (namely a concatenation of statistics obtained for a set of Gaussians over the feature space) is used to guide modeling in high dimensional supervector space. We report experiments on both text-dependent and text-independent tasks which validate our method and show large error reductions.
Scaling up a hybrid MT system : From low to full resources

This article describes a hybrid approach to machine translation (MT) that is inspired by the rule-based, statistical, example-based, and other hybrid machine translation approaches currently used or described in academic literature. It describes how the approach was implemented for language pairs using only limited monolingual resources and hardly any parallel resources (the METIS-II system), and how it is currently implemented with rich resources on both the source and target side as well as rich parallel data (the PaCo-MT system). We aim to illustrate that a similar paradigm can be used, irrespectively of the resources available, but of course with an impact on translation quality.
The Neural Optimal Control Hierarchy

The NOCH framework was designed to serve as a foundation for development of models of neural motor control. The driving purpose behind the NOCH is bridging the gap between the control theory and neuroscience research in the field of motor control. This is done by identifying the underlying functions in control theory models of motor control and examining the structure/connections of the neural systems from neuroscience, identifying potential mappings and biological implementations of required processes.
Endotoxin at low doses stimulates pituitary GH whereas it decreases IGF-I and IGF-binding protein-3 in rats.

While it is well known that sepsis inhibits serum IGF-I and its gene expression in the liver, the effect on pituitary GH and IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) is poorly understood. The GH-IGF-I-IGFBP-3 response to different doses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration has been investigated in adult male rats. Two experiments were performed, administration of low doses of LPS (5, 10, 50 and 100 microg/kg) and high doses of LPS (100, 250, 500 and 1000 microg/kg). Rats received two i.p. injections of LPS (at 1730 h and 0830 h the following day) and were killed 4 h after the second injection. LPS administration induced a biphasic response in serum concentrations of GH, with an increase at the 10 microg/kg dose, followed by a decrease at higher doses (100 microg/kg on up). Pituitary GH mRNA was also increased by the administration of 10 and 50 microg/kg LPS, whereas at higher doses LPS did not modify pituitary GH mRNA. We also analyzed the GH response to LPS in primary pituitary cell cultures. When exposed to LPS, in the culture medium, there was an increase in GH release at the concentration of 0.1 and 10 ng/ml, whereas more concentrated LPS did not modify GH release. Serum concentrations of IGF-I declined in a dose-dependent fashion after LPS administration in the rats injected with 10 microg/kg LPS on up. This decrease is secondary to modifications in its synthesis in the liver, since endotoxin injection decreased both IGF-I and its mRNA in the liver. The liver GH receptor mRNA was also decreased by LPS administration, but only in the animals injected with high LPS doses. There was a decrease in both the IGFBP-3 serum levels and its gene expression in the liver with all LPS doses studied. These data suggest a biphasic LPS effect on pituitary GH, a stimulatory effect at low doses and an inhibitory effect at higher doses, whereas it has a clear inhibitory effect on IGF-I and IGFBP-3 synthesis in the liver. The decrease in liver IGFBP-3 mRNA and in serum concentrations of IGFBP-3 in the rats injected with LPS may contribute to the decrease in serum concentrations of IGF-I.
In Vitro Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Helicobacter felis, H. bizzozeronii, and H. salomonis

ABSTRACT The susceptibilities of Helicobacter felis (15 strains), H. bizzozeronii (7 strains), and H. salomonis (3 strains) to 10 antimicrobial agents were investigated by determination of the MIC using the agar dilution method. No consistent differences were noticed between the different Helicobacter species, which were all highly susceptible to ampicillin, clarithromycin, tetracycline, tylosin, enrofloxacin, gentamicin, and neomycin, as demonstrated by low MICs. Higher MICs were obtained for lincomycin (up to 8 μg/ml) and spectinomycin (up to 4 μg/ml). Two H. felis strains showed a MIC of 16 μg/ml for metronidazole, suggesting acquired resistance to this antimicrobial agent.
Tracing the Path from Personality — via Cooperativeness — to Conservation

Ecological behaviour is often conceptualized as an instance of cooperating in a social dilemma situation. Thus, it has been argued to relate to dispositional tendencies of moral virtue and pro–social orientation. To embed such notions in models of basic personality, we herein predicted that the recently proposed sixth basic personality factor, Honesty–Humility — which specifically pertains to individual differences in cooperativeness — is linked to environmental attitudes and ecological behaviour. Results from two studies (N = 137 and N = 531, respectively) supported these hypotheses and showed that Honesty–Humility explains incremental variance beyond the remaining, more classical five factors of personality. In addition, mediation analyses revealed that Honesty–Humility exerts part of its influence via individual differences in pro–social value orientations. Individual tendencies to cooperate in social dilemma situations could thus be shown to form a bridge between basic personality dimensions and ecological behaviour. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fast seed computation for reseeding shift register in test pattern compression

Solving a system of linear equations has been widely used to compute seeds for LFSR reseeding to compress test patterns. However, as chip size is growing, solving linear equations requires a large number of computations that is proportional to n/sup 3/. This paper proposes a new scan chain architecture and algorithm so that the order of computation is proportional to the number of scan cells in a chip. The new architecture is a methodology change that does not require complex design-for-testability (DFT) as proposed in the previous techniques. Instead of solving linear equations, the proposed new seed computation algorithm topologically determines seeds for test vectors. The compression ratio might be slightly lower than the other approaches, but the proposed approach can handle larger designs in a reasonable amount of time. Computation analysis shows that, for 1 million scan cell design, if we assume it takes 1 msec for the proposed technique to compute seeds, it would take more than 14 minutes for other techniques that solve linear equations.
Bayesian Cure Rate Frailty Models with Application to a Root Canal Therapy Study

Summary Due to natural or artificial clustering, multivariate survival data often arise in biomedical studies, for example, a dental study involving multiple teeth from each subject. A certain proportion of subjects in the population who are not expected to experience the event of interest are considered to be “cured” or insusceptible. To model correlated or clustered failure time data incorporating a surviving fraction, we propose two forms of cure rate frailty models. One model naturally introduces frailty based on biological considerations while the other is motivated from the Cox proportional hazards frailty model. We formulate the likelihood functions based on piecewise constant hazards and derive the full conditional distributions for Gibbs sampling in the Bayesian paradigm. As opposed to the Cox frailty model, the proposed methods demonstrate great potential in modeling multivariate survival data with a cure fraction. We illustrate the cure rate frailty models with a root canal therapy data set.
The precision of eye-trackers: a case for a new measure

Several possible measures for the precision of an eye-tracker exist. The fact that the commonly used measures of standard deviation and RMS lack with respect to their ability to produce replicable results with varying frame rate, gaze distance and arrangement of samples within a fixation, makes it difficult to compare eye-trackers. It is proposed that an area-based measure, BCEA, is adapted to provide a one dimensional quantity that is intuitive, independent of frame rate and sensitive to small jerks in the reported fixation position.
X-ray flashes and X-ray rich Gamma Ray Bursts

X-ray flashes are detected in the Wide Field Cameras on BeppoSAX in the energy range 2-25 keV as bright X-ray sources lasting of the order of minutes, but remaining undetected in the Gamma Ray Bursts Monitor on BeppoSAX. They have properties very similar to the x-ray counterparts of GRBs and account for some of the Fast X-ray Transient events seen in almost every x-ray satellite. We review their X-ray properties and show that x-ray flashes are in fact very soft, x-ray rich, untriggered gamma ray bursts, in which the peak energy in 2-10 keV x-rays could be up to a factor of 100 larger than the peak energy in the 50-300 keV gamma ray range. The frequency is ~100 per year.
What Sociologists Should Know About Complexity

I discuss the concept of complexity and the burgeoning field of complex systems and their relevance to sociology. I begin by comparing and contrasting various definitions of complexity and then describe the attributes of systems capable of producing complexity: diversity, networked interactions, interdependent behavior, and adaptation. Next, I survey the contributions of complexity sciences with the most resonance with sociology. I organize those contributions into four categories: dynamics, aggregation, distributions, and functional properties of structure and diversity. On the basis of that survey, I conclude that incorporating complexity science into sociology requires the introduction of new models and methodologies as well as a more expansive approach to empirical research, and that the benefits of a deeper engagement with complexity will be substantial.
Amblyopia: Contemporary Clinical Issues

Research into the clinical management of amblyopia has, most recently, focussed on the effectiveness of amblyopia treatment. Given the mounting evidence that the condition is treatable, an important priority is the detection of individuals with the condition. Here, we review critically the means by which this can be achieved. We conclude that intensive early screening can produce improved outcomes but that the effectiveness of real-life screening programmes is very dependent on the coverage they obtain. An almost entirely neglected subfield of amblyopia treatment research is the identification of reasons why parents and children often fail to comply with occlusion therapy. Here, we examine a psychological approach to this problem and find it to be informative in predicting compliance. Lastly, we consider the disability arising from strabismus, again from a psychological perspective, and find that on a range of psychosocial well-being indicators, strabismus surgery results in significant gains.
The Influence of Obesity-Related Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms on BMI Across the Life Course

Evidence is limited as to whether heritable risk of obesity varies throughout adulthood. Among >34,000 European Americans, aged 18–100 years, from multiple U.S. studies in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Consortium, we examined evidence for heterogeneity in the associations of five established obesity risk variants (near FTO, GNPDA2, MTCH2, TMEM18, and NEGR1) with BMI across four distinct epochs of adulthood: 1) young adulthood (ages 18–25 years), adulthood (ages 26–49 years), middle-age adulthood (ages 50–69 years), and older adulthood (ages ≥70 years); or 2) by menopausal status in women and stratification by age 50 years in men. Summary-effect estimates from each meta-analysis were compared for heterogeneity across the life epochs. We found heterogeneity in the association of the FTO (rs8050136) variant with BMI across the four adulthood epochs (P = 0.0006), with larger effects in young adults relative to older adults (β [SE] = 1.17 [0.45] vs. 0.09 [0.09] kg/m2, respectively, per A allele) and smaller intermediate effects. We found no evidence for heterogeneity in the association of GNPDA2, MTCH2, TMEM18, and NEGR1 with BMI across adulthood. Genetic predisposition to obesity may have greater effects on body weight in young compared with older adulthood for FTO, suggesting changes by age, generation, or secular trends. Future research should compare and contrast our findings with results using longitudinal data.
Methyl 7,8-diacetoxy-11-oxo-5-(2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)-7,9-epoxycyclopenta[4,5]pyrido[1,2-a]quinoline-10-carboxylate sesquihydrate

The title compound, C26H28N2O9·1.5H2O, the product of an acid-catalysed Wagner–Meerwein skeletal rearrangement, crystallizes as a sesquihydrate with the O atom of one of the two independent water molecules occupying a special position on a twofold axis. The organic molecule comprises a fused pentacyclic system containing two five-membered rings (cyclopentane and tetrahydrofuran) and three six-membered rings (piperidinone, tetrahydropyridine and benzene). The five-membered rings have the usual envelope conformations, and the central six-membered piperidinone and tetrahydropyridine rings adopt boat and sofa conformations, respectively. In the crystal, there are three independent O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, which link the organic molecules and water molecules into complex two-tier layers parallel to (001). The layers are further linked into a three-dimensional framework by attractive intermolecular carbonyl–carbonyl interactions.
From trapezoid to polynomial: Next-generation energy-efficient robot trajectories

This paper evaluates some techniques for generating robot trajectories including state of the art energy-efficient trajectories, as well as more traditional trapezoidal velocity profiles used in today's robot traditional trajectory planning. In our recent publications we have demonstrated that it is possible to convert the existing velocity profiles of KUKA robots to energy-efficient ones, with impressive results in reducing energy consumption and peak-power. In this paper we give more in-depth insight as to how the proposed velocity profiles compare with their trapezoidal or polynomial counter-parts.
Examining the Relationship between Domestic Violence and Depression among Koreans: The Role of Self-esteem and Social Support as Mediators

Domestic violence is a prevalent social issue in Korea affecting a significant number of people every day. It is thus important to examine how the experience of domestic violence affects their mental health to better address their needs. Using stress-coping theory as a theoretical framework, this study examines the domestic violence and depression relationship among Korean men and women. Two aspects of self-esteem and informal and formal social support are examined as potential mediators of this relationship. The data was the first wave of Korean Welfare Panel Study data including 2477 individuals with experiences of abuse. Structural equation modeling procedures were used for analyses. Domestic violence was significantly associated with self-worth, self-deprecation, and depression. The experiences of violence eroded self-worth while reinforcing self-deprecation and those with more exposure to violence showed a higher level of depression. Self-deprecation played a significant role in mediating the effect of domestic violence on depression. However, different findings were yielded for social support. While informal social support was significantly associated with domestic violence, formal social support was not associated with domestic violence. Findings suggest for mental health interventions targeting self-esteem, particularly the diminution of self-deprecation in working with the victims. Suggestions for future research and implications for social work are also discussed.
Regulation of macrophage activation and septic shock susceptibility via p21(WAF1/CIP1)

p21 is a cell‐cycle inhibitor that is also known to suppress autoimmunity. Here, we provide evidence of a novel role for p21 as an inhibitor of macrophage activation. LPS stimulation of p21‐deficient peritoneal macrophages induced increased activation compared with controls, with elevated production of proinflammatory mediators such as TNF‐α and IL‐1β. The enhanced activity of LPS‐stimulated p21‐deficient macrophages correlated with increased activity of the transcription factor NF‐κB. LPS stimulation of p21‐deficient macrophages led to increased IκBα kinase activity, and increased IκBα phosphorylation and degradation, resulting in elevated NF‐κB activity. The effect of p21 in macrophage activation was independent of its cell‐cycle inhibitory role. p21−/− mice showed greater sensitivity to LPS‐induced septic shock than did WT mice, indicating that p21 contributes to maintenance of a balanced response to inflammatory stimuli and suggesting biological significance for the role of p21 in macrophage activation. Our findings project a role for p21 in the control of NF‐κB‐associated inflammation, and suggest that therapeutic modulation of p21 expression could be beneficial in inflammation‐associated diseases.
Measurement of expired carbon dioxide, oxygen and volume in conjunction with pretest probability estimation as a method to diagnose and exclude pulmonary venous thromboembolism

Background: The classical alveolar pCO2–pO2 relationship predicts that pulmonary embolism (PE) causes a low ratio of pCO2/pO2 at end expiration. Our purpose was to define a simple protocol to collect expired pCO2/pO2 to diagnose PE. Emergency department patients with suspected PE were enrolled. Clinical pretest probabilities for PE were estimated prior to diagnostic testing using the Canadian score and clinicians’ unstructured estimate. Patients provided three 30‐s periods of tidal breathing, separated by three deep exhalations. Expired pCO2, pO2 and breath volume were measured. All patients underwent standardized objective testing for PE including 90‐day follow‐up. Diagnosis (PE+) required anticoagulation for image‐proven PE within 90 days.
Bacterial and fungal pattern recognition receptors in homologous innate signaling pathways of insects and mammals

In response to bacterial and fungal infections in insects and mammals, distinct families of innate immune pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) initiate highly complex intracellular signaling cascades. Those cascades induce a variety of immune functions that restrain the spread of microbes in the host. Insect and mammalian innate immune receptors include molecules that recognize conserved microbial molecular patterns. Innate immune recognition leads to the recruitment of adaptor molecules forming multi-protein complexes that include kinases, transcription factors, and other regulatory molecules. Innate immune signaling cascades induce the expression of genes encoding antimicrobial peptides and other key factors that mount and regulate the immune response against microbial challenge. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of the bacterial and fungal PRRs for homologous innate signaling pathways of insects and mammals in an effort to provide a framework for future studies.
Identification of the Salmonella enterica damX Gene Product, an Inner Membrane Protein Involved in Bile Resistance

ABSTRACT The damX gene product of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a protein located in the inner membrane. DamX migrates as a 70-kDa protein in SDS-PAGE even though the predicted protein size is 46 kDa. Synthesis of DamX protein occurs in both exponential- and stationary-phase cultures. Disruption of damX causes severe sensitivity to bile. Lack of the outer membrane protein AsmA suppresses bile sensitivity in Salmonella damX mutants.
Time Co-Ordination, the Domestic Division of Labour and Affective Relations: Time Use and the Enjoyment of Activities within Couples

In this paper the time-use of diaries of a sample of couples are used to explore the relationship between partners' daily pattern of activities and their enjoyment of those activities. By analysing the diaries of couples together it is possible to assess which activities are undertaken simultaneously, which separately, and whether time spent in different activities is more enjoyable spent separately or together. So, in addition to the usual information obtainable from time diary analysis on the domestic division of labour, these data provide information on the quality of time, and the ways in which couples may manipulate it in order to increase the proportion of enjoyable time (which, it is shown, is more enjoyable when enjoyed together). The wider significance of this approach is that an empirical link is provided between `work-related' debates on the domestic division of labour, and those on the nature of affective relationships between couples found within the sociology of emotions.
Bayesian Perspectives on Sparse Empirical Bayes Analysis ( SEBA )

We consider a joint processing of n independent similar sparse regression problems. Each is based on a sample (yi1, xi1) . , (yim, xim) of m i.i. d. observations from yi1 = xi1βi + εi1, yi1 ∈ R, xi1 ∈ R, and εi1 ∼ N(0, σ), say. The dimension p is large enough so that the empirical risk minimizer is not feasible. We consider, from a Bayesian point of view, three possible extensions of the lasso. Each of the three estimators, the lassoes, the group lasso, and the RING lasso, utilizes different assumptions on the relation between the n vectors β1, . , βn. “. and only a star or two set sparsedly in the vault of heaven; and you will find a sight as stimulating as the hoariest summit of the Alps. ” R. L. Stevenson