Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Signaling by Linker for Activation of T Cells Transport but Lipid Raft-Independent Palmitoylation-Dependent Plasma Membrane

Linker for activation of T cells (LAT) is a dually palmitoylated transmembrane adaptor protein essential for T cell development and activation. However, whether LAT palmitoylation and/or lipid raft localization are required for its function is controversial. To address this question, we used a combination of biochemical, imaging, and genetic approaches, including LAT retrovirus-transduced mouse T cells and bone marrow chimeric mice. A nonpalmitoylated, non-lipid raft-residing mutant of transmembrane LAT could not reconstitute T cell development in bone marrow chimeric mice. This mutant was absent from the plasma membrane (PM) and was restricted mainly to the Golgi apparatus. A chimeric, nonpalmitoylated LAT protein consisting of the PM-targeting N-terminal sequence of Src kinase and the LAT cytoplasmic domain (Src-LAT) localized as a peripheral membrane protein in the PM, but outside lipid rafts. Nevertheless, Src-LAT restored T cell development and activation. Lastly, monopalmitoylation of LAT on Cys 26 (but not Cys 29 ) was required and sufﬁcient for its PM transport and function. Thus, the function of LAT in T cells requires its PM, but not raft, localization, even when expressed as a peripheral membrane protein. Furthermore, LAT palmitoylation functions primarily as a sorting signal required for its PM transport. The Journal of Immunology, 2009, 183: 1685–1694. lipid rafts (13). To further explore this apparent contradiction and follow the fate and function of nonpalmitoylated LAT, we analyzed in detail the localization and function of cysteine-mutated native LAT, or a LAT chimera (Src-LAT), expressed as a peripheral membrane protein targeted to the plasma membrane (PM) by the N-terminal region of the Src kinase. Here, we conﬁrm that nonpalmitoylated transmembrane LAT is retained in intracellular compartment(s), primarily the Golgi apparatus. Furthermore, our results reveal, ﬁrst, that Cys 26 (but not Cys 29 ) is essential for transporting LAT from the Golgi to the PM and, second, that PM-targeted Src-LAT, despite the fact that it is not an integral membrane protein and is absent from lipid rafts, fully restores T cell development and activation. Thus, we conclude that the mere targeting of LAT to the PM is sufﬁcient for its function, irrespective of its lipid raft localization.
Thermal physiological pose-based moment invariants for face identification

This paper presents the implementation of moment invariants with respect to centroid point (obtained from registered image database) for thermal physiological-based face identification system. Seeded region growing method was applied for background filtering. Sequentially, anisotropic diffusion was employed prior to image decomposition to reduce the effect of noise. The system decomposes a background filtered thermal image into several thermal regions via multi-valued threshold method. The lowest valued thermal region is omitted from further processes to assure no background scenery was taken into account. In our previous work, we only considered frontal mugshot images as registered images, therefore, in this paper we include mid-profiles and left and right profile in the registered database. This is to overcome for images with angular pose that exceeds 45 degrees to the left and right. Since our registered database now comprehends several pose, the formerly calculated moment invariants (with respect to centroid points obtain from frontal mugshot images) is now calculated with respect to centroid points obtained from every profile in the registered database. Due to multiple angular pose available in the registered database, customized and simple pose estimation is introduced in this paper. The pose estimation utilizes information previously obtained during the pre-processes, thus avoiding additional steps that is required if current available pose estimation methods were to be employed. This system employs minimum distance measurement method for classification purposes. The encouraging performance of this system is represented by a cumulative match characteristic curve (also known as the CMC curve) at the end of this paper.
GSGS: A Computational Approach to Reconstruct Signaling Pathway Structures from Gene Sets

Reconstruction of signaling pathway structures is essential to decipher complex regulatory relationships in living cells. The existing computational approaches often rely on unrealistic biological assumptions and do not explicitly consider signal transduction mechanisms. Signal transduction events refer to linear cascades of reactions from the cell surface to the nucleus and characterize a signaling pathway. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, Gene Set Gibbs Sampling (GSGS), to reverse engineer signaling pathway structures from gene sets related to the pathways. We hypothesize that signaling pathways are structurally an ensemble of overlapping linear signal transduction events which we encode as Information Flows (IFs). We infer signaling pathway structures from gene sets, referred to as Information Flow Gene Sets (IFGSs), corresponding to these events. Thus, an IFGS only reflects which genes appear in the underlying IF but not their ordering. GSGS offers a Gibbs sampling like procedure to reconstruct the underlying signaling pathway structure by sequentially inferring IFs from the overlapping IFGSs related to the pathway. In the proof-of-concept studies, our approach is shown to outperform the existing state-of-the-art network inference approaches using both continuous and discrete data generated from benchmark networks in the DREAM initiative. We perform a comprehensive sensitivity analysis to assess the robustness of our approach. Finally, we implement GSGS to reconstruct signaling mechanisms in breast cancer cells.
A Remediation Program for Increasing the Spelling Achievement of Elementary and Junior High School Students

The present study evaluated four procedures designed to help poor spellers improve their achievement on weekly tests: (1) a pretest over the week's spelling words followed in two days by the regular weekly test; (2) a positive practice procedure in which students were required to correct any misspelled word on the weekly test by writing out its (a) correct spelling, (b) part of speech, (c) phonetic spelling, (d) complete definition, and (e) correct usage in five different sentences; (3) a pretest, positive practice of the pretest, and the weekly test; and (4) a pretest, positive practice of the pretest, weekly test, and positive practice of the weekly test. The pretest/positive practice/test/positive practice procedure was the most effective, producing a 14 percentage point increase in spelling achievement. The pretest/positive practice/test (11 percentage point increase) and positive practice (10 percentage point increase) procedures were of near equal effectiveness. The pretest procedure produced no increase.
A comparison of atenolol and nebivolol in isolated systolic hypertension

Objectives Some β-blockers are less effective in reducing central blood pressure than other antihypertensive drugs, which may explain the higher rate of events in subjects randomized to atenolol in recent trials. We hypothesized that nebivolol, a mixed β-blocker/nitro-vasodilator, would be more effective than atenolol in reducing central blood pressure and augmentation index (AIx). The aim of the present study was to test this in a double-blind, randomized, cross-over study, in a cohort of subjects with isolated systolic hypertension. Methods Following a 2-week placebo run-in, 16 never-treated hypertensive subjects received atenolol (50 mg), nebivolol (5 mg) and placebo, each for 5 weeks, in a random order. Seated brachial blood pressure and heart rate were measured. Aortic blood pressure, AIx and pulse wave velocity (PWV) were assessed non-invasively. Results The placebo-corrected fall in brachial pressure was similar between nebivolol and atenolol, as was the reduction in PWV (mean change ± SEM: −1.0 ± 0.3 and −1.2 ± 0.2 m/s; P = 0.2). However, there was less reduction in heart rate (−19 ± 2 versus −23 ± 2 beats/min; P < 0.01) and increase in AIx (+6 ± 1 versus +10 ± 1%; P = 0.04), following nebivolol. Aortic pulse pressure was significantly lower (50 ± 2 versus 54 ± 2 mmHg; P = 0.02) after nebivolol. N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (proBNP) rose on both drugs (100 ± 33 versus 75 ± 80 pg/ml; P < 0.01 for both, NS for comparison). Conclusions Nebivolol and atenolol have similar effects on brachial blood pressure and aortic stiffness. However, nebivolol reduces aortic pulse pressure more than atenolol, which may be related to a less pronounced rise in AIx and bradycardia. Whether this will translate into differences in clinical outcome requires further investigation.
A dynamic CBWFQ scheme for service differentiation in WLANs

In this paper we address the issue of service differentiation in wireless networks based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. Wireless local area networks (WLANs) of this type are becoming increasingly prevalent, counting millions of deployed networks in homes, offices and hot spots. However, the medium access control (MAC) protocol and the unpredictability of the wireless channel prohibit the direct employment of classical wireline service differentiation algorithms. The main contribution of this paper is a network layer mechanism, capable of differentiating service, while improving fairness and aggregate throughput in the presence of both uplink (TCP) and downlink traffic. We exploit a class based weight fair queuing (CBWFQ) scheme, properly supplemented by two algorithms that perform periodical weight adjustments. The two algorithms deal effectively with important WLANs problems, such as, unfairness due to location dependent channel errors, uplink-downlink unfairness and decreased throughput for all nodes, when a station transmits at a small rate. The proposed solution has been implemented in a testbed and the conducted experiments confirmed its resultfulness in real life scenarios
‘I know the type of people I work well with’: student anxiety in multicultural group projects

Research indicates that the uncertainty created when students are required to work in groups for assessed projects induces anxiety, which can manifest itself both cognitively and affectively. Such anxiety may influence student attitudes towards the selection and formation of the groups. This study explored whether different methods of group formation impact on student anxiety levels and, in addition, whether the home language of the students is associated with the different levels of anxiety. In this study, 165 first-year tertiary students were surveyed before and after completion of assessed group projects. The findings reveal that the uncertainty profile produced different levels of anxiety.
On the Relationship of Color Image Compression and Gamut: JPEG and JPEG2000

Image compression schemes, such as JPEG and JPEG2000, degrade the quality of a reconstructed image due to their lossy characteristics. Among such degradation factors, color bleeding is particularly visible around colors between highly contrasting chrominance areas. This phenomenon is a result of the abrupt truncation of high-frequency components due to coarse quantization and subsampling of the chrominance channel, which appears as color smearing owing to spurious colored oscillations in the reconstructed image. Consequently, a change of color information, such as loss of the chrominance component and corresponding color smearing phenomenon, affects the gamut characteristic of the reconstructed image. Accordingly, this paper investigates the relationship between the compression ratio and the gamut area for a reconstructed image when using JPEG and JPEG2000. Eighteen color samples from the Macbeth ColorChecker are initially used to analyze the relationship between the compression ratio and the color bleeding phenomenon, i.e. the hue and chroma shifts in the * * b a color plane. When increasing the compression, color bleeding becomes apparent between adjacent colors samples, resulting in a loss of chroma in relation to the original color. However, some original colors exhibit a chroma increase due to spurious colored oscillations along the color sample boundaries. In addition, a hue shift appears along the direction connecting adjacent colors samples. Twelve natural color images, divided into two groups depending on four color attributes, are also used to investigate the relationship between the compression ratio and the variation in the gamut area. For each image group, the gamut area for the reconstructed image shows an overall tendency to increase when increasing the compression ratio, similar to the experimental results with the Macbeth ColorChecker samples. However, with a high compression ratio, the gamut area decreases due to the mixture of adjacent colors, resulting in more grey.
Finders/keepers: a longitudinal study of people managing information scraps in a micro-note tool

Mainstream PIM tools capture only a portion of the information that people need to manage. Many information scraps seem to exist that don't make their way into these tools, instead being relegated to sticky notes, text files, and other makeshift storage, or simply being lost. In an effort to understand the role of these information scraps, the underlying needs they reflect, and the way PIM tools must be modified to support those needs, we created List-it, a micronote tool for quick and simple capture of information scraps. In this article, we analyze the notes and interaction logs of 420 volunteer users of List-it over a two-year period of study (August 2008-August 2010). We contextualize our analysis with results of two surveys and an e-mail interview we conducted in October 2009. We find that people are drawn to List-it by the ease and speed of note capture and by the ability to record scraps with arbitrary content that blends or completely escapes the types and roles imposed by our rigid PIM tools. Notes are taken to serve a variety of needs -- reminding, reference, journaling/activity logging, brainstorming, and to indefinitely archive information of sentimental or personal value. Finally, while people differ considerably in the ways they keep information, our findings suggest such differences can be described as a combination of four distinct strategies, enriching the Filer/Piler distinction identified for classic document management.
In vitro Platelet Function during Storage in Three Different Additive Solutions

Three different synthetic media without glucose were studied for platelet storage. The first medium contained acetate and gluconate. The second contained acetate, gluconate and citrate. Finally the third contained phosphate and mannitol. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether there were differences among the various media in terms of preservation of platelet quality. Pools of platelet concentrates were prepared from buffy coats. In vitro function and metabolic parameters were measured during 5 days of storage in these additive solutions as well as in plasma. Platelet aggregation, hypotonic shock response and release of β‐thromboglobulin, platelet factor 4 and lactate dehydrogenase of the cytosol were equivalent in the media containing acetate compared to plasma storage. In vitro platelet functions and pH in these two media were better preserved compared to the medium with phosphate and mannitol. In addition bacteriological studies using platelets suspended in additive solutions or in plasma were carried out. Carryover of 20% of plasma to the synthetic media necessary for successful platelet storage in these additive solutions allows bacteriological growth. As shown, inoculation of 1 colony/ml Staphylococcus epidermidis leads to 106–107 organisms/ml after 5 days of storage.
Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2008 Free Form Incident Light Fields

This paper presents methods for photo-realistic rendering using strongly spatially variant illumination captured from real scenes. The illumination is captured along arbitrary paths in space using a high dynamic range, HDR, video camera system with position tracking. Light samples are rearranged into 4-D incident light fields (ILF) suitable for direct use as illumination in renderings. Analysis of the captured data allows for estimation of the shape, position and spatial and angular properties of light sources in the scene. The estimated light sources can be extracted from the large 4D data set and handled separately to render scenes more efficiently and with higher quality. The ILF lighting can also be edited for detailed artistic control.
Surgical, oncologic, and obstetric outcomes of radical trachelectomy in early-stage cervical cancer: results from a retrospective cohort study at Brazil National Cancer Institute

Objective to analyze oncological, obstetrical, and surgical results of young early-stage cervical cancer patients who underwent radical trachelectomy (RT) surgery and wished to maintain their fertility. Methodology a retrospective cohort study was carried out concerning cases attended at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute Gynecology Oncology Service. Patients who underwent RT between January 2005 and January 2021 were included. Results A total of 32 patients with median age of 32 years old, 62.5% of whom were nulliparous, were assessed. Concerning cancer type, 65.6% squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cases, 31.2% adenocarcinoma cases and 3.1% adenosquamous carcinoma cases were verified. Stage IA2 was evidenced in 12.5% of the patients and stage IB < 4 cm in 87.5%. Regarding surgical approaches, 68.25% of the patients underwent vaginal RT (VRT), 18.75%, abdominal RT (ART), 9.3%, the robotic radical trachelectomy (RORT) and 3.1%, video laparoscopy radical trachelectomy (VLRT). The median number of removed lymph nodes was 14, with only two detected as positive. Two cases of positive surgical margins were noted. A total of 3.1% intraoperative and 31.25% postoperative complications were observed, with cervical stenosis being the most common. The recurrence rate of the study was 3.1%, with a median follow-up time of 87 months, where 3.1% deaths occurred. The pregnancy rate of the study was 17.85% (5/28), with 54.5% evolving to live births and 45.5% evolving to abortion. Conclusion Radical trachelectomy is a feasible procedure presenting good oncological results and acceptable pregnancy rates.
Second step algorithms in the Burrows–Wheeler compression algorithm

In this paper we focus our attention on the second step algorithms of the Burrows–Wheeler compression algorithm, which in the original version is the Move To Front transform. We discuss many of its replacements presented so far, and compare compression results obtained using these replacements. Then we propose a new algorithm that yields a better compression ratio than the previous algorithms. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Experimental modulation of occluding junctions in a cultured transporting epithelium

The experimental opening and resealing of occluding junctions in monolayers of cultured MDCK cells (epithelioid of renal origin) was explored by measuring changes in the electrical resistance across the monolayer and by freeze-fracture electron microscopy. As in natural epithelia, the function of occluding junctions as permeability barriers specifically depends on extracellular Ca++ concentration and fails if this ion is replaced by Mg++ or Ba++. The removal of Ca++ and the addition of EGTA to the bathing medium opened the junctions and reduced the transepithelial resistance. Resealing was achieved within 10-15 min by restoring Ca++. Quantitative freeze-fracture electron microscopy showed that junctional opening, caused by lack of Ca++, was accompanied by simplification of the pattern of the membrane strands of the occluding junction without disassembly or displacement of the junctional components. Resealing of the cellular contacts involved the gradual return to a normal junctional pattern estimated as the average number of strands constituting the junction. The occluding junctions were also opened by the addition of the ionophore A23187, suggesting that the sealing of the contacts requires high Ca++ on the extracellular side and low Ca++ concentration of the cytoplasmic compartment. The opening process could be blocked by low temperature (7.5 degrees C). Resealing did not depend on serum factors and did not require protein synthesis; therefore, it seems to be caused by reassembly of preexisting membrane junctional components. The restoration of the junctions occurred simultaneously with the establishment of ion-selective channels; the Na+/Cl- and the cation/cation selectivity were recovered with the same time-course as the electrical resistance. The role of the cytoskeleton in the process of junctional reassembly is reported in the companion article.
A Directional Diffusion Algorithm for Inpainting

The problem of inpainting involves reconstructing the missing areas of an image. Inpainting has many applications, such as reconstructing old damaged photographs or removing obfuscations from images. In this paper we present the directional diffusion algorithm for inpainting. Typical diffusion algorithms are bad at propagating edges from the image into the unknown masked regions. The directional diffusion algorithm improves on the regular diffusion algorithm by reconstructing edges more accurately. It scores better than regular diffusion when reconstructing images that are obfuscated by a text mask.
Scalable constant k-means approximation via heuristics on well-clusterable data

We present a simple heuristic clustering procedure, with running time independent of the data size, that combines random sampling with Single-Linkage (Kruskal’s algorithm), and show that with sufficient probability, it has a constant approximation guarantee with respect to the optimal k-means cost, provided an optimal solution satisfies a center-separability assumption. As the separation increases, it has better performance: fix any , δ > 0, if the center separation is sufficiently large, it has a (1 + )-approximation guarantee with probability at least 1− δ.
Configurable Presentation of Filtered Metadata

This paper looks at how metadata, encoded in XML, can be used to support better resource discovery and extensible information presentation, through the application of standard XML related technologies. By applying XSLT transformation scripts to a structured metadata corpus, the metadata can be presented in differing styles. These scripts can be used to filter and present specific resource descriptions within the corpus. Because the metadata that is presented is a function of the scripts applied to the corpus, altering the scripts can alter how the metadata is presented. This paper looks at the advantages of presenting metadata through the use of dynamically generated XSLT scripts that give a simple yet wide-ranging degree of control over the presentation. The possibility of graphical metadata presentation is discussed. The services described in this paper utilize metadata harvested by the OAI’s Protocol for Metadata Harvesting.