Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relaxin Modulates Proinflammatory Cytokine Secretion from Human Decidual Macrophages1

Relaxin (RLN) is a systemic hormone from the corpus luteum, and its levels remain low during normal human gestation. Indeed, elevation of circulating RLN has long been associated with preterm birth, for which there has been no physiological explanation. Recent studies have shown that RLN suppresses endotoxin-induced cytokine secretion from THP-1 monocytic cells by acting on the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), but its effects on primary macrophages are unknown. Therefore, in the present study, we examined the effects of RLN on cytokine secretion from primary decidual macrophages (DMs) obtained at term before labor. Unlike THP-1 cells, RLN had no effects on the cytokine responses induced by either lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or interleukin (IL) 1B, mimicking infection-induced or sterile inflammation, respectively. However, RLN alone for 4 h significantly decreased (P < 0.05) colony-stimulating factor 2 (CSF2; also known as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) and IL8 but for 24 h significantly increased IL6 (P < 0.01). We show that DMs express both the RLN receptor (RXFP1) and the GR. RLN suppression of CSF2 and IL8 was sensitive to the GR-antagonist mifepristone (RU-486). However, RLN activation of RXFP1 induced a dose-dependent cAMP response, which when mimicked by forskolin also caused significantly increased (P < 0.05) secretion of IL6. Thus, RLN may be anti-inflammatory in DMs via activation of the GR but proinflammatory via activation of RXFP1 and cAMP. In summary, we have shown that RLN targeting DMs may modulate proinflammatory cytokine secretion at the maternal-fetal interface and contribute to the localized inflammatory response associated with parturition in women.
SmartSiren: virus detection and alert for smartphones

Smartphones have recently become increasingly popular because they provide "all-in-one" convenience by integrating traditional mobile phones with handheld computing devices. However, the flexibility of running third-party softwares also leaves the smartphones open to malicious viruses. In fact, hundreds of smartphone viruses have emerged in the past two years, which can quickly spread through various means such as SMS/MMS, Bluetooth and traditional IP-based applications. Our own implementations of two proof-of-concept viruses on Windows Mobile have confirmed the vulnerability of this popular smartphone platform. In this paper, we present SmartSiren, a collaborative virusdetection and alert system for smartphones. In order to detect viruses, SmartSiren collects the communication activity information from the smartphones, and performs joint analysis to detect both single-device and system-wide abnormal behaviors. We use a proxy-based architecture to offload the processing burden from resource-constrained smartphones and simplify the collaboration among smartphones. When a potential virus is detected, the proxy quarantines the out-break by sending targeted alerts to those immediately threatened smartphones. We have demonstrated the feasibility of SmartSiren through implementations on a Dopod 577w smartphone, and evaluated its effectiveness using simulations driven by 3-week SMS traces from a national cellular carrier. Our results show that SmartSiren can effectively prevent wide-area virus outbreaks with affordable overhead.
Overlap Syndrome of Asthma and COPD Predicts Low Quality of Life

Background. In clinical practice, patients whose airway disease shares features of both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remain poorly recognized. Material and methods. The study population consisted of 1546 patients with a diagnosis of asthma or COPD or both. Based on patient-reported outcomes and retrospective medical record data, the study population was divided into three groups: (1) asthma only, (2) COPD only, and (3) both asthma and COPD (overlap syndrome group). We evaluated patient characteristics associated with health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Results. In many respects, the overlap group fell between the asthma and COPD groups. In the overlap group, however, HRQoL was the poorest of all. In the logistic regression model, with the asthma group as the reference, both the overlap and the COPD group showed higher risk for low HRQoL [odd ratio (OR): 1.9; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2–3.2; and OR: 1.8, 95% CI: 1.0–3.2; respectively]. In addition, female gender, obesity, duration of disease, disability pension, and coexisting cardiovascular disease were associated with low HRQoL across the study population. Conclusions. Patients with overlapping asthma and COPD differed from those patients with asthma or COPD only. Overlap syndrome was associated with low HRQoL.
New Opportunities in Metabolomics and Biochemical Phenotyping for Plant Systems Biology

Metabolomics is a rapidly emerging field in life sciences, which aims to identify and quantify metabolites in a biological system. Analytical chemistry is combined with sophisticated informatics and statistics tools to determine and understand metabolic changes upon genetic or environmental perturbations. Together with other 'omics analyses, such as genomics and proteomics, metabolomics plays an important role in functional genomics and systems biology studies in any biological science. This book will provide the reader with summaries of the state-of-the-art of technologies and methodologies, especially in the data analysis and interpretation approaches, as well as give insights into exciting applications of metabolomics in human health studies, safety assessments, and plant and microbial research.
Pilot programme for the rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy in pregnancy in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract Initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in pregnancy is an important intervention to prevent the mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV and to promote maternal health. Early initiation of ART is particularly important to achieve viral suppression rapidly before delivery. However, current approaches to start ART in pregnancy may be problematic in many settings, with referrals between antenatal care (ANC) and ART services, and delays for patient preparation before ART initiation. These steps contribute to a sizable proportion of women failing to receive adequate duration of ART before delivery, increasing the risk of MTCT. To address these limitations, we developed the rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy in pregnancy (RAP) programme. The programme featured the use of point-of-care CD4 testing to identify ART-eligible women with CD4 cell counts ≤ 350 cells/µl; immediate ART initiation in women on the same day that eligibility was determined, if possible; and intensive counselling and support for ART initiation during the first few weeks on ART. We implemented RAP in an antenatal clinic setting in Cape Town South Africa. Between February and August 2011, a total of 221 HIV-infected women were referred to the programme for CD4 cell count testing and 101 (46%) were eligible for ART. Of these, 98 women (97%) started therapy during pregnancy, 89 (91%) on the day of referral to the service. In-depth interviews suggested that although there were substantial challenges facing HIV-infected women initiating ART in pregnancy, the availability of immediate services and counselling support played an important role in addressing these. While further research is needed, this evaluation demonstrates that a novel service delivery approach may facilitate rapid ART initiation in pregnancy.
3D Model Retrieval Using Probability Density-Based Shape Descriptors

We address content-based retrieval of complete 3D object models by a probabilistic generative description of local shape properties. The proposed shape description framework characterizes a 3D object with sampled multivariate probability density functions of its local surface features. This density-based descriptor can be efficiently computed via kernel density estimation (KDE) coupled with fast Gauss transform. The non-parametric KDE technique allows reliable characterization of a diverse set of shapes and yields descriptors which remain relatively insensitive to small shape perturbations and mesh resolution. Density-based characterization also induces a permutation property which can be used to guarantee invariance at the shape matching stage. As proven by extensive retrieval experiments on several 3D databases, our framework provides state-of-the-art discrimination over a broad and heterogeneous set of shape categories.
An improved term weighting scheme for sentiment classification

Supervised learning methods are widely used in text sentiment classification. To acquire high classification performance, the effective and precise term weighting scheme plays a prime and necessary role for classification system. The traditional term weighting schemes often ignore the use of the available labeling information as the prior knowledge, which results the expressed relationships between features and class labels are not accurate and adequate enough. Hence, this paper proposes a term weighting scheme which makes use of class contribution of feature terms, and obtains a scheme which takes into account the class contribution, local distribution and global distribution of feature terms. The scheme expresses the relationships between features and class labels as a class contribution degree factor which is based on posterior probability, then combines it with the factors of frequency and inverse document frequency. Compared with a series of term weighting schemes, experimental results on a widely used dataset show that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the performance of sentiment classification.
Optimal Tax Progressivity: An Analytical Framework

What shapes the optimal degree of progressivity of the tax and transfer system? On the one hand, a progressive tax system can counteract inequality in initial conditions and substitute for imperfect private insurance against idiosyncratic earnings risk. At the same time, progressivity reduces incentives to work and to invest in skills, and aggravates the externality associated with valued public expenditures. We develop a tractable equilibrium model that features all of these trade-offs. The analytical expressions we derive for social welfare deliver a transparent understanding of how preferences, technology, and market structure parameters influence the optimal degree of progressivity. A calibration for the U.S. economy indicates that endogenous skill investment, flexible labor supply, and the externality linked to valued government purchases play quantitatively similar roles in limiting desired progressivity.
Effects of alterations in early hormonal environment on development and hormone dependency of carcinogen-induced mammary tumors in rats.

The purpose of this study was to determine the early role of estrogen and prolactin on subsequent hormone dependency of carcinogen-induced mammary tumors. Virgin 57-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were given i.v. injections of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA). One day prior to and 7 days after DMBA administration, the rats were divided into separate groups and given: a daily 0.1-ml s.c. injection of vehicle (controls); haloperidol (0.5 mg/kg) to increase prolactin secretion; estradiol benzoate (1 microgram/rat) to increase estrogen levels; bromocryptine (5 mg/kg) to inhibit prolactin release; tamoxifen (TAM, 20 micrograms/rat) to inhibit estrogen action; or the combination of TAM and bromocryptine. Drug and hormone treatments were terminated after 8 days. Sixteen weeks after DMBA administration, all animals were bilaterally ovariectomized, and 4 weeks later it was determined whether the mammary tumors were hormone dependent or independent. Treatment with TAM resulted in a significant reduction in incidence of mammary tumors, but also a 3-fold increase in the percentage of these tumors that showed hormone independence after ovariectomy as compared with that of control rats. Rats treated with the combination of TAM and bromocryptine also showed a significant reduction in tumor incidence and number, but a 5-fold greater percentage of hormone-independent tumors after ovariectomy. Rats given daily injections of haloperidol or estradiol benzoate showed only small differences in mammary tumor incidence or autonomy after ovariectomy, as compared with controls given injection vehicle alone. These results suggest that rats made deficient in estrogen and prolactin at the time of DMBA administration develop fewer tumors, but the tumors that develop are not dependent on these hormones for subsequent growth.
3′-Deoxy-3′-18F-Fluorothymidine PET–Derived Proliferative Volume Predicts Overall Survival in High-Grade Glioma Patients

3′-deoxy-3′-18F-fluorothymidine (18F-FLT) is a radiopharmaceutical depicting tumor cell proliferation with PET. In malignancies of the lung, breast, head and neck, digestive tract, brain, and other organs, quantitative assessment of 18F-FLT targeting has been shown to correlate with the proliferation marker Ki-67 and with clinical outcome measures such as time to progression and overall survival (OS). The aim of this study was to assess various PET segmentation methods to estimate the proliferative volume (PV) and their prognostic value for OS in patients with suspected high-grade glioma. Methods: Twenty-six consecutive patients underwent preoperative 18F-FLT PET/CT and T1-weighted MRI of the brain after contrast application. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of all tumors was calculated, and 3 different segmentation methods for estimating the PV were used: the 50% isocontour of the SUVmax signal for the PV50%, the signal-to-background ratio (SBR) for an adaptive threshold delineation (PVSBR) method, and the iterative background-subtracted relative threshold level (RTL) method to estimate the PVRTL. The prognostic value of the SUVmax and the different PVs for OS were assessed. Results: Twenty-two patients had glioblastoma multiforme, 2 had anaplastic oligodendroglioma, 1 had anaplastic ependymoma, and 1 had anaplastic astrocytoma. The median OS was 397 d (95% confidence interval, 204–577); 19 patients died during the follow-up period. The PVSBR showed a significantly (P = 0.002) better association with OS than did SUVmax, PVRTL, and PV50%. Receiver-operating-characteristic analysis resulted in a threshold volume for the PVSBR of 11.4 cm3, with a sensitivity and specificity of 70% and 83%, respectively, for the prediction of OS. Kaplan–Meier analyses showed a significant discrimination between short and long OS (P = 0.024, log rank) for this threshold. Conclusion: The PV as determined by 18F-FLT PET is associated with OS in high-grade malignant gliomas. The SBR method yielded the best results to predict short and long OS.
2,4-Bis(diphenylphosphanyl)-1,1,2,3,3,4-hexaphenyl-1,3-diphospha-2,4-diboracyclobutane tetrahydrofuran sesquisolvate

In the title compound, C60H50B2P4·1.5C4H8O, the diphosphadiborane molecule lies on an inversion centre, whereas the disordered tetrahydrofuran solvent molecule is in a general position with a partial occupancy of 0.75. The diphosphadiborane molecule consists of an ideal planar four-membered B2P2 ring with an additional phenyl and a –PPh2 group attached to each B atom.
Lifetime Maximization for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Using Power Aware Routing

This paper discusses the energy saving control problem in ad hoc wireless networks. The problem inputs are given as a set of nodes in a plane, end-to-end traffic demands, and delay bounds between node pairs. The problem is to find an optimized routing that can meet the Quality of Service requirements and the minimized total consumed power of nodes. In addition to that, the network life time must be maximized by considering fairness among power consumptions of nodes. The problem is formulated as an integer linear programming problem. An optimal algorithm has been proposed to solve the problem.
Reinventing the University Press.

Apres un quart de siecle de crise economique dans le systeme de la communication scientifique ecrite, bibliothecaires et presses universitaires voient enfin la necessite de regarder au-dela de leurs problemes individuels, de considerer le systeme dans sa globalite, et de discuter ensemble des changements necessaires.
A Robust Co-Localisation Measurement Utilising Z-Stack Image Intensity Similarities for Biological Studies

Background Co-localisation is a widely used measurement in immunohistochemical analysis to determine if fluorescently labelled biological entities, such as cells, proteins or molecules share a same location. However the measurement of co-localisation is challenging due to the complex nature of such fluorescent images, especially when multiple focal planes are captured. The current state-of-art co-localisation measurements of 3-dimensional (3D) image stacks are biased by noise and cross-overs from non-consecutive planes. Method In this study, we have developed Co-localisation Intensity Coefficients (CICs) and Co-localisation Binary Coefficients (CBCs), which uses rich z-stack data from neighbouring focal planes to identify similarities between image intensities of two and potentially more fluorescently-labelled biological entities. This was developed using z-stack images from murine organotypic slice cultures from central nervous system tissue, and two sets of pseudo-data. A large amount of non-specific cross-over situations are excluded using this method. This proposed method is also proven to be robust in recognising co-localisations even when images are polluted with a range of noises. Results The proposed CBCs and CICs produce robust co-localisation measurements which are easy to interpret, resilient to noise and capable of removing a large amount of false positivity, such as non-specific cross-overs. Performance of this method of measurement is significantly more accurate than existing measurements, as determined statistically using pseudo datasets of known values. This method provides an important and reliable tool for fluorescent 3D neurobiological studies, and will benefit other biological studies which measure fluorescence co-localisation in 3D.
Relational Features in Fine-Grained Opinion Analysis

Fine-grained opinion analysis methods often make use of linguistic features but typically do not take the interaction between opinions into account. This article describes a set of experiments that demonstrate that relational features, mainly derived from dependency-syntactic and semantic role structures, can significantly improve the performance of automatic systems for a number of fine-grained opinion analysis tasks: marking up opinion expressions, finding opinion holders, and determining the polarities of opinion expressions. These features make it possible to model the way opinions expressed in natural-language discourse interact in a sentence over arbitrary distances. The use of relations requires us to consider multiple opinions simultaneously, which makes the search for the optimal analysis intractable. However, a reranker can be used as a sufficiently accurate and efficient approximation.A number of feature sets and machine learning approaches for the rerankers are evaluated. For the task of opinion expression extraction, the best model shows a 10-point absolute improvement in soft recall on the MPQA corpus over a conventional sequence labeler based on local contextual features, while precision decreases only slightly. Significant improvements are also seen for the extended tasks where holders and polarities are considered: 10 and 7 points in recall, respectively. In addition, the systems outperform previously published results for unlabeled (6 F-measure points) and polarity-labeled (10–15 points) opinion expression extraction. Finally, as an extrinsic evaluation, the extracted MPQA-style opinion expressions are used in practical opinion mining tasks. In all scenarios considered, the machine learning features derived from the opinion expressions lead to statistically significant improvements.
Monitoring the acute phase response.

Furthermore, responsibility for professional acts rests with the actUal treatihg physician and may not be trahsferted to leiployers, government programnmes, hospital officials or commnittees, chiefs of service, comftiiWs§onets, atid the like. We have no professional dMty to any such party; our obligatlon is solely t6 out patienits. Who, if anyone, will pay to have our orders carried out must remain an entirely separate question. ttt Professor Willatins's dangerous solution is to comingle these Issues, thus muddying the clatity of professional thought. tf, constr4ined by bUdgets and policies, we fail to tell our pitients Whit We think is best for them they'll never khow and will never be able to act in their own ititerest.
Writing as Inquiry: Storying the Teaching Self in Writing Workshops

AbstractRecent research demonstrates that the process of telling and writing personal stories is a powerful means of fostering teachers’ professional growth (Connelly & Clandinin, 1995; Conle, 1996; Diamond, 1994; Heikkinen, 1998; Kelchtermans, 1993). This article aims to further understanding of writing in the development of teachers’ narratives of practice, and to critically examine the potential of the writing workshop as a space where diverse voices can find expression. I take up a narrative perspective, seeing the practice of teaching as constructed when teachers tell and live out particular stories. I examine the autobiographic writing of teachers who participated in a graduate course on autobiography and professional development, drawing on phenomenological (Van Manen, 1990) and narrative methods (Mishler, 1986) and attending to issues of voice (Raymond, Butt, & Townsend, 1992, Brown & Gilligan, 1992) and “restorying” (Clandinin & Connelly, 1996, 1998). The main questions addressed are how do teach.
Ultrafast nonequilibrium spin dynamics in a ferromagnetic thin film

Summary form only given. Fast processes associated with changes in the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic media are of both fundamental and applied interest. While there are extensive studies of hot electron relaxation in nonmagnetic metals using ultrafast laser techniques, direct microscopic information about the spin and magnetization dynamics is very scarce. As shown here, we obtain considerable additional insight to microscopic spin dynamics of a ferromagnetically ordered system by using an ultrafast magnetooptical technique. An initially spin-polarized photoexcited gas of electrons is set up in a ferromagnetic metal film by selective excitation with a circular SHG laser beam.