Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blocking downstream signaling pathways in the context of HDAC inhibition promotes apoptosis preferentially in cells harboring mutant Ras

We previously demonstrated activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway in a series of romidepsin-selected T-cell lymphoma cell lines as a mechanism of resistance to the histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDI), romidepsin. As Ras mutation leads to activation of both the MAPK and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway, we examined whether combining romidepsin with small molecule pathway inhibitors would lead to increased apoptosis in cancers harboring Ras mutations. We treated 18 Ras mutant or wild-type cell lines with romidepsin in the presence of a MEK inhibitor (PD-0325901) and/or an AKT inhibitor (MK-2206) and examined apoptosis by flow cytometry. A short-term treatment schedule of romidepsin (25 ng/ml for 6 h) was used to more closely model clinical administration. Romidepsin in combination with a MEK and an AKT inhibitor induced apoptosis preferentially in cells harboring mutant versus wild-type Ras (69.1% vs. 21.1%, p < 0.0001). Similar results were found in a subset of cell lines when belinostat was combined with the MEK and AKT inhibitors and when romidepsin was combined with the dual extracellular signaling-related kinase (ERK)/PI3K inhibitor, D-87503, which inhibited both the MAPK and PI3K pathways at 5–10 μM. The observed apoptosis was caspase-dependent and required Bak and Bax expression. Cells with wild-type or mutant Ras treated with romidepsin alone or in combination with the MEK inhibitor displayed increased expression of proapoptotic Bim. We thus conclude that cancers bearing Ras mutations, such as pancreatic cancer, can be targeted by the combination of an HDI and a dual inhibitor of the MAPK and PI3K pathways.
Teens Impulsively React rather than Retreat from Threat

There is a significant inflection in risk taking and criminal behavior during adolescence, but the basis for this increase remains largely unknown. An increased sensitivity to rewards has been suggested to explain these behaviors, yet juvenile offences often occur in emotionally charged situations of negative valence. How behavior is altered by changes in negative emotional processes during adolescence has received less attention than changes in positive emotional processes. The current study uses a measure of impulsivity in combination with cues that signal threat or safety to assess developmental changes in emotional responses to threat cues. We show that adolescents, especially males, impulsively react to threat cues relative to neutral ones more than adults or children, even when instructed not to respond. This adolescent-specific behavioral pattern is paralleled by enhanced activity in limbic cortical regions implicated in the detection and assignment of emotional value to inputs and in the subsequent regulation of responses to them when successfully suppressing impulsive responses to threat cues. In contrast, prefrontal control regions implicated in detecting and resolving competing responses show an adolescent-emergent pattern (i.e. greater activity in adolescents and adults relative to children) during successful suppression of a response regardless of emotion. Our findings suggest that adolescence is a period of heightened sensitivity to social and emotional cues that results in diminished regulation of behavior in their presence.
Heat Generation, Power Transmission Efficiency, and Life of Plastic Worm and Helical Wheels Meshed With Steel Worm

This paper describes the heat generation, power transmission efficiency, and life of plastic helical and worm wheels meshed with a steel worm. A machine for testing plastic worm gears was developed, in which the center distance and shaft angle are variable, and by which the transmission efficiency can be measured. Experiments were performed using plastic helical and worm wheels and steel worms under no-lubrication condition. Polyacetal homopolymer and copolymer were used as wheel materials. The tooth temperatures of the plastic helical and worm wheels and the torques of the worm and wheel shafts were measured. The failure mode for plastic helical and worm wheels; the temperature of the wheel teeth; the transmission efficiencies between meshing gear teeth; and the lives of plastic wheels were determined. The effects of backlash and shaft angle on the life of plastic wheels were also determined. © 2011 ASME
Numerical simulation of AlInGaN ultraviolet light-emitting diodes

In reference to an AlInGaN UV LED fabricated in laboratory, the optical properties of the 370-nm UV LEDs are investigated with a self-consistent APSYS simulation program. The optical performance of the UV LEDs with different aluminum compositions in AlGaN electron blocking layer and different numbers of quantum wells are investigated in an attempt to optimize the UV LED structure. The simulated results show that the electron leakage current can be effectively reduced with the use of an AlGaN electron blocking layer with an aluminum composition of greater than 0.19, and optimum performance may be obtained when the number of quantum wells is three. Since the built-in polarization is one of the most important factors for the deterioration of III-nitride LED performance, the feasibility of using a latticematched quaternary Al0.18In0. 039Ga0.781N electron blocking layer in the UV LED to improve the LED performance is also numerically studied. The simulated results suggest that with the use of a lattice-matched Al0.18In0. 039Ga0.781N electron blocking layer, the polarization charge density in each heterostructure interface is reduced, the electrostatic field in quantum wells is reduced, and the maximum output power is sufficiently improved. The simulated results also indicate that better LED performance may be obtained when the Al0.18In0. 039Ga0.781N electron blocking layer has a higher pdoping concentration due to reduced electron leakage and increased hole concentration in active region.
A 0.032-mm2 0.15-V Three-Stage Charge-Pump Scheme Using a Differential Bootstrapped Ring-VCO for Energy-Harvesting Applications

This brief reports a compact and fully integrated three-stage charge-pump (CP) scheme with a 1:10 step-up ratio for energy-harvesting applications. To undertake a low-voltage input (e.g., from thermoelectric or solar source), our CP scheme features a differential bootstrapped ring-VCO generating six-phase clock signals with a boosted swing. Driven by replicas of these swing-boosted clock signals, the entailed number of CP stages is reduced and a 1:10 step-up ratio can be achieved with only a 3-stage CP, resulting in a higher PCE. Using the replicas of the clock signals also reduces substantially the dependency of the clock frequency on the load drivability. Fabricated in 65-nm CMOS, a 0.87-V output voltage is measured at a 38.8% power conversion efficiency, under a 500- $\text{k} {\Omega }$ load and a 0.15-V input. The chip area is 0.032 mm2.
Adaptive Spatio-Temporal Interpolation Methods

We propose a new adaptive spatio-temporal interpolation method that combines either by a step or a line function existing spatial and temporal interpolation methods. We test the new method using climate data obtained from weather stations in Colorado and Nebraska, for the time period from 1993 to 2003. The experimental results show that in mountainous regions our adaptive spatio-temporal method has a much better performance than both the IDW (Inverse Distance Weighting) and the temporal interpolation methods have in themselves.
Reserve Output Units for Deep Open-Set Learning

Open-set learning poses a classification problem where the set of class labels expands over time; a realistic but not widely-studied setting. We propose a deep learning technique for open-set learning based on reserve output units (ROUs), which are designed to help a network anticipate the introduction of new categories during training. ROUs are additional output units whose representations are trained along with units for already-seen classes, which can be assigned to new classes once a labeled instance of a novel class is observed. We experiment with different initialization methods, compare this method with simply adding an new output vector for the novel class, and find that ROUs achieve better and more consistent performance than the simple add-new baseline. We further experiment with a loss which encourages the output space to match pretrained word embeddings, with the goal of encouraging good semantics of this space. In experiments on MNIST and CIFAR, this technique hurt or does not affect performance, but we’re optimistic this technique could be helpful for larger output spaces. 1 RESERVE OUTPUT UNITS (ROUS) A key question of open-set learning using deep networks is how to deal with the introduction of new categories. The most straightforward approach to incorporating a new category would be to use a standard classification architecture, and add a new output weight vector (and bias) for the new category, keeping all other parameters fixed. We call this Add New in the experiments section. This approach, however, does not anticipate the introduction of novel categories, which our technique aims to do. Our method maintains a set of Reserve Output Units (ROUs) which do not correspond to any of the seen categories, but which the model can choose to predict (Figure 1). Figure 1: Reserve output units allow the network to anticipate the introduction of novel classes (left), because ROU representations are trained along with the those for already-seen classes. We use a standard categorical cross-entropy loss over all output units (including ROUs), and additionally penalize the entropy of softmax over just the ROUs, in order to encourage diverse representations (middle). We also experiment with a loss which encourages the final-layer hidden representations to be close to pretrained word embeddings, in order to encourage meaningful semantics (right). For architectural and training details see Section 4: Experiments.
Assistive technology for communication of older adults: a systematic review

ABSTRACT Objective: Describe the use of assistive technology to enhance communication opportunities for older adults. Methods: A systematic review was conducted in two databases, PubMed and Web of Science, by using two different searches in each. The search was limited to original articles, in English language, including people aged 60 years and older that used any type of assistive technology for communication. The articles found in the initial search were filtered by title, abstracts and the remaining articles were fully read. Results: Eighteen studies were included in this review after the reading of full-texts. Most of the studies included apparently healthy participants with communication limitations due to aging related changes and the others included people with some pathology that prevent them from normal communication. Conclusion: Four categories of assistive technology were identified: assistive technology for people with speech problems; robot or videoconferencing systems; Information and Communication Technologies and, other types of assistive technology for communication, such as hearing aids and scrapbooks. Assistive technology for communication of older adults is not only used by people with disabilities that prevent them from usual communication. They are mostly for older adults without a pathological communication problem.
Comparative Analysis of Chromatin Binding by Sex Comb on Midleg (SCM) and Other Polycomb Group Repressors at a Drosophila Hox Gene

ABSTRACT Sex Comb on Midleg (SCM) is a transcriptional repressor in the Polycomb group (PcG), but its molecular role in PcG silencing is not known. Although SCM can interact with Polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1) in vitro, biochemical studies have indicated that SCM is not a core constituent of PRC1 or PRC2. Nevertheless, SCM is just as critical for Drosophila Hox gene silencing as canonical subunits of these well-characterized PcG complexes. To address functional relationships between SCM and other PcG components, we have performed chromatin immunoprecipitation studies using cultured Drosophila Schneider line 2 (S2) cells and larval imaginal discs. We find that SCM associates with a Polycomb response element (PRE) upstream of the Ubx gene which also binds PRC1, PRC2, and the DNA-binding PcG protein Pleiohomeotic (PHO). However, SCM is retained at this Ubx PRE despite genetic disruption or knockdown of PHO, PRC1, or PRC2, suggesting that SCM chromatin targeting does not require prior association of these other PcG components. Chromatin immunoprecipitations (IPs) to test the consequences of SCM genetic disruption or knockdown revealed that PHO association is unaffected, but reduced levels of PRE-bound PRC2 and PRC1 were observed. We discuss these results in light of current models for recruitment of PcG complexes to chromatin targets.
Reactive greenhouse gas scenarios: Systematic exploration of uncertainties and the role of atmospheric chemistry

Knowledge of the atmospheric chemistry of reactive greenhouse gases is needed to accurately quantify the relationship between human activities and climate, and to incorporate uncertainty in our projections of greenhouse gas abundances. We present a method for estimating the fraction of greenhouse gases attributable to human activities, both currently and for future scenarios. Key variables used to calculate the atmospheric chemistry and budgets of major non‐CO2greenhouse gases are codified along with their uncertainties, and then used to project budgets and abundances under the new climate‐change scenarios. This new approach uses our knowledge of changing abundances and lifetimes to estimate current total anthropogenic emissions, independently and possibly more accurately than inventory‐based scenarios. We derive a present‐day atmospheric lifetime for methane (CH4) of 9.1 ± 0.9 y and anthropogenic emissions of 352 ± 45 Tg/y (64% of total emissions). For N2O, corresponding values are 131 ± 10 y and 6.5 ± 1.3 TgN/y (41% of total); and for HFC‐134a, the lifetime is 14.2 ± 1.5 y.
Different modes of variation for each BG lineage suggest different functions

Mammalian butyrophilins have various important functions, one for lipid binding but others as ligands for co-inhibition of αβ T cells or for stimulation of γδ T cells in the immune system. The chicken BG homologues are dimers, with extracellular immunoglobulin variable (V) domains joined by cysteines in the loop equivalent to complementarity-determining region 1 (CDR1). BG genes are found in three genomic locations: BG0 on chromosome 2, BG1 in the classical MHC (the BF-BL region) and many BG genes in the BG region just outside the MHC. Here, we show that BG0 is virtually monomorphic, suggesting housekeeping function(s) consonant with the ubiquitous tissue distribution. BG1 has allelic polymorphism but minimal sequence diversity, with the few polymorphic residues at the interface of the two V domains, suggesting that BG1 is recognized by receptors in a conserved fashion. Any phenotypic variation should be due to the intracellular region, with differential exon usage between alleles. BG genes in the BG region can generate diversity by exchange of sequence cassettes located in loops equivalent to CDR1 and CDR2, consonant with recognition of many ligands or antigens for immune defence. Unlike the mammalian butyrophilins, there are at least three modes by which BG genes evolve.
From the Desktop to the Cloud: Leveraging Hybrid Storage Architectures in your Repository

Repositories collect and manage data holdings using a storage device. Mainly this has been a local file system, but recently attempts have been made at using open storage products and cloud storage solutions, such as Sun's Honeycomb and Amazon S3 respectively. Each of these solutions has their own pros and cons but There are advantages in adopting a hybrid model for repository storage, combining the relative strengths of each one in a policy-determined model. In this paper we present an implementation of a repository storage layer which can dynamically handle and manage a hybrid storage system.
Capacity and coverage analysis for FD-MIMO based THz band 5G indoor Internet of Things

Current and proposed Internet of things (IoT) applications are expected to bring about a major technological revolutions. Next-generation wireless communications in such devices are expected to support high speed data transfers. Among different candidate technologies, terahertz (THz) band communication seems to be a promising direction due to availability of high bandwidth in the electromagnetic spectrum around this frequency range and its directional nature governed by the directive antennas. In this paper, we look into some networking scenarios of full-dimension multiple-input multiple-output (FD-MIMO) based THz Band indoor wireless networks to determine the number of nodes that can be connected to a base station as a function of the antenna characteristics. Furthermore, we analyze the performance of the users and network based on their ergodic capacity. Our results suggest fundamental parameters that can be used in future THz Band analysis and implementations.
To change or not to change – That is the question: A qualitative study of lifestyle changes following acute myocardial infarction

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate key factors related to lifestyle changes following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) by eliciting survivors’ subjective needs for, attitudes towards and experiences with behaviour changes in their everyday life to improve future interventions promoting lifestyle changes. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 individuals who had recently experienced an AMI. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results The data analysis revealed that lifestyle changes following AMI are influenced by a combination of individual (physical and psychological) and social factors that can be grouped into facilitators and barriers. The interviews indicated the need for more personalised information regarding the causes and risk factors of illness, the benefits of lifestyle changes and the importance of including significant others in lifestyle advice and education and of individualising support. Discussion Lifestyle change is a continuous process that is not completed within a few months after a cardiac event. Considering the identified themes when developing interventions to promote lifestyle changes following AMI may enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of such interventions.
The meaning of patient–nurse interaction for older women in healthcare settings: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of patient-nurse interaction for older women receiving care in healthcare settings. BACKGROUND Older women are often overlooked or misunderstood by the nurses caring for them. Some research exists on nurses' perception of their interaction with patients, yet few studies have described the meaning of such interaction from the patients' perspective. METHODS This was a pilot study using qualitative description as a methodology. Data were filtered through a lens of critical feminist theory to interpret interactions taking place in healthcare settings that are often characterised by paternalism. Seven women between the ages of 66 and 81 were interviewed using a semi-structured guide. RESULTS Participants had a distinctive perspective on the experience of caring. Their expressions include stories of being cared for themselves by nurses as well as historical recalls of being the one-caring for family members. In these combined stories, the contrast between the nurses who held caring in primacy and those who were distinctly uncaring sheds light on the importance of cultivating a moral ideal of caring and respect for personhood. CONCLUSION A population of older women who potentially face disabling conditions must rely on direct, meaningful, interaction with nurses to successfully navigate the healthcare system. The findings suggest that these women did not have consistent access to such interaction. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE The gathering and interpretation of new narratives about patient-nurse interaction for older women could lead to a deeper understanding of power and civility as it impacts a caring relationship. Further research using a theoretical lens of critical feminism has implications for improving healthcare delivery for older women worldwide.
Performance of DS-CDMA downlink using transmitter preprocessing and relay diversity over Nakagami-m fading channels

In this letter we propose and investigate a cooperative downlink transmission scheme for direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) systems, in order to achieve relay diversity. Transmitter zero-forcing (TZF)-based preprocessing is employed at the base-station (BS) of our proposed scheme for suppressing the downlink multiuser interference (MUI). At the mobile terminals (MTs) the signals are combined based on the maximal ratio combining (MRC) principles. As a benefit of TZF, the BS decontaminates the relayed signals from MUI without requiring any information from the relays. Furthermore, only low-complexity signal processing is necessary at the relays for forwarding information to the destination MTs (DMTs), while achieving the relay diversity by only exploiting the knowledge of the DMTs' spreading sequences.
New Three-Dimensional Porous Electrode Concept: Vertically-Aligned Carbon Nanotubes Directly Grown on Embroidered Copper Structures

New three-dimensional (3D) porous electrode concepts are required to overcome limitations in Li-ion batteries in terms of morphology (e.g., shapes, dimensions), mechanical stability (e.g., flexibility, high electroactive mass loadings), and electrochemical performance (e.g., low volumetric energy densities and rate capabilities). Here a new electrode concept is introduced based on the direct growth of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs) on embroidered Cu current collectors. The direct growth of VA-CNTs was achieved by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), and there was no application of any post-treatment or cleaning procedure. The electrochemical behavior of the as-grown VA-CNTs was analyzed by charge/discharge cycles at different specific currents and with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. The results were compared with values found in the literature. The as-grown VA-CNTs exhibit higher specific capacities than graphite and pristine VA-CNTs found in the literature. This together with the possibilities that the Cu embroidered structures offer in terms of specific surface area, total surface area, and designs provide a breakthrough in new 3D electrode concepts.
All-inkjet-printed flexible electronics fabrication on a polymer substrate by low-temperature high-resolution selective laser sintering of metal nanoparticles

All-printed electronics is the key technology to ultra-low-cost, large-area electronics. As a critical step in this direction, we demonstrate that laser sintering of inkjet-printed metal nanoparticles enables low-temperature metal deposition as well as high-resolution patterning to overcome the resolution limitation of the current inkjet direct writing processes. To demonstrate this process combined with the implementation of air-stable carboxylate-functionalized polythiophenes, high-resolution organic transistors were fabricated in ambient pressure and room temperature without utilizing any photolithographic steps or requiring a vacuum deposition process. Local thermal control of the laser sintering process could minimize the heat-affected zone and the thermal damage to the substrate and further enhance the resolution of the process. This local nanoparticle deposition and energy coupling enable an environmentally friendly and cost-effective process as well as a low-temperature manufacturing sequence to realize large-area, flexible electronics on polymer substrates.