Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial Orientation, Adaptation, and Motion Sickness in Real and Virtual Environments

Reason and Brand (1975) noted that motion sickness occurs in many situations involving either passive body motion or active interaction with the world via indirect sensorimotor interfaces (e.g., prism spectacles). As might be expected, motion sickness is being reported in VEs that involve apparent self-motion through space, the best known examples being flight simulators (Kennedy et al., 1990). The goals of this paper are to introduce the motion-sickness symptomatology; to outline some concepts that are central to theories of motion sickness, spatial orientation, and adaptation; and to discuss the implications of some trends in VE research and development.
Laminin Production and Basement Membrane Deposition by Mesenchymal Stem Cells upon Adipogenic Differentiation

The aim was to study laminin (LM) synthesis, integration, and deposition into the basement membrane (BM) during adipogenesis. Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) were induced along the adipogenic lineage. LM chain mRNA and protein levels were followed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), immunofluorescence (IF) staining, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and immunoprecipitation. MSCs produced low levels of LM mRNAs but were not surrounded by BM in IF and TEM imaging. LM-α4, LM-β1, and LM-γ1 mRNAs increased during adipogenesis 3.9-, 5.8-, and 2.8-fold by day 28. LM-411 was immunoprecipitated from the ECM of the differentiated cells. Immunostaining suggested deposition of LM-411 and some LM-421. BM build-up was probably organized in part by integrin (Int) α6β1. At day 28, TEM images revealed BM-like structures around fat droplet-containing cells. The first signs of BM formation and Int α6β1 were seen using IF imaging at day 14. Laminin-411 and Int α6β1 were expressed in vivo in mature human subcutaneous fat tissue. Undifferentiated human MSCs did not organize LM subunits into BM, whereas LM-411 and some LM-421 are precipitated in the BM around adipocytes. This is the first demonstration of LM-411 precipitation during hMSC adipogenesis around adipocytes as a structural scaffold and Int-regulated signaling element.
Elevated serum soluble Fas ligand in natural killer cell proliferative disorders

We evaluated the serum level of soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) in patients with natural killer lymphocyte proliferative disorders (NK‐ LPD). The serum sFasL level was elevated in neoplastic groups of aggressive NK leukaemia, indolent NK leukaemia and NK lymphoma, all of which contained clonal EBV‐DNA. In NK leukaemia the serum sFasL level was significantly higher than that found in others. However, it was not elevated in the patients with reactive NK‐LPD and in one patient with NK leukaemia in remission. These findings indicate that the serum sFasL level is a useful indicator in evaluating disease activity.
Dopamine Inhibits the Effector Functions of Activated NK Cells via the Upregulation of the D5 Receptor

Several lines of evidence indicate that dopamine (DA) plays a key role in the cross-talk between the nervous and immune systems. In this study, we disclose a novel immune-regulatory role for DA: inhibition of effector functions of activated NK lymphocytes via the selective upregulation of the D5 dopaminergic receptor in response to prolonged cell stimulation with rIL-2. Indeed, engagement of this D1-like inhibitory receptor following binding with DA suppresses NK cell proliferation and synthesis of IFN-γ. The inhibition of IFN-γ production occurs through blocking the repressor activity of the p50/c-REL dimer of the NF-κB complex. Indeed, the stimulation of the D5 receptor on rIL-2–activated NK cells inhibits the binding of p50 to the microRNA 29a promoter, thus inducing a de novo synthesis of this miRNA. In turn, the increased levels of microRNA 29a were inversely correlated with the ability of NK cells to produce IFN-γ. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that DA switches off activated NK cells, thus representing a checkpoint exerted by the nervous system to control the reactivity of these innate immune effectors in response to activation stimuli and to avoid the establishment of chronic and pathologic inflammatory processes.
Estimation of the Gravity Equation in the Presence of Zero Flows

The gravity model is the workhorse model to describe and explain variation in bilateral trade patterns. Consistent with both Heckscher-Ohlin models and models of imperfect competition and trade, this versatile model has proven to be very successful, explaining a large part of the variance in trade flows. However, the log-linear model cannot straightforwardly account for the occurrence of zero-valued trade flows between pairs of countries. This paper investigates the various approaches suggested to deal with zero flows. Apart from the option to omit the zero flows from the sample, various extensions of Tobit estimation, truncated regression, probit regression and substitutions for zero flows have been suggested. We argue that the choice of method should be based on both economic and econometric considerations. The sample selection model appears to fit both considerations best. Moreover, we show that the choice of method may matter greatly for the results. In the end, the results surprisingly suggest that the simplest solution, to omit zero flows from the sample, often leads to acceptable results, although the sample selection model is preferred theoretically and econometrically.
Severe factor XI deficiency in an Arab family associated with a novel mutation in exon 11

We investigated an 8‐year‐old Arab girl with severe factor XI deficiency; one sibling and her father also have severe factor XI deficiency. Her parents and her father's parents are first cousins. Restriction analysis and DNA sequencing excluded the type I, II, III and IV mutations. We demonstrated a previously undescribed C → A mutation at nucleotide 1254 in exon 11 resulting in a threonine to asparagine (T → N) substitution at amino acid 386. We postulate that this substitution interferes with folding and secretion of the molecule.
Fault diagnosis of power transformer using confidence weight based fusion method

Power transformers are an important factor for power transmission and cause fatal losses if faults occur. Various diagnostic methods have been applied to predict the failure and to identify the cause of the failure. Typical diagnostic methods include the IEC diagnostic method, the Duval diagnostic method, the Rogers diagnostic method, and the Doernenburg diagnostic method using the ratio of the main gas. However, each diagnostic method has a disadvantage in that it can't diagnose the state of the power transformer unless the gas ratio is within the defined range. In order to solve these problems, we propose a fault diagnosis scheme for power transformer using confidence weight based fusion method. The final diagnosis is performed by multiplying the result of diagnosis in the four diagnostic methods (IEC, Duval, Rogers, and Doernenburg) by the confidence weight. To show its effectiveness, the proposed fault diagnostic system has been intensively tested with the dissolved gases acquired from various power transformers.
What Will My Parents Think?

Prior researchers confirmed socialization models depicting parenting practices and social cognitions associated with prosocial and antisocial behaviors. However, little research has focused on processes underlying the linkbetween parenting and these behaviors. Per Grusec and Goodnow’s internalization model, children and adolescents develop expectancies regarding their parents’reactions to their behaviors. Adolescents’ expected parental reactions to prosocial behaviors were hypothesized to predict prosocial behaviors; expectations regarding antisocial behaviors were expected to predict antisocial behaviors. For this study, 80 adolescents and their parents reported adolescents’ antisocial and prosocial behaviors. Adolescents completed a measure of prosocial moral reasoning and an assessment of how appropriately they expected each parent to react to prosocial and antisocial behaviors. Expected parental reactions to antisocial behavior predicted lower levels of delinquency and aggression (adolescent report). Expected parental reactions to prosocial behavior predicted higher levels of prosocial behavior (adolescent report) and lower levels of delinquency and aggression (mother report).
Efficient recursive in order least squares FIR filtering and prediction

This paper is concerned with the efficient determination of the optimum, in the least squares sense, FIR filter on the basis of data samples of the input and desired response signals, by procedures recursive in the filter order. This situation typically arises when no a priori statistics are available and the system order is not known. The general multiinput-multioutput (multichannel) case is considered here and a fast algorithm is presented requiring for single channel signals approximately 2S + 15m multiplications (mps) per order m, S being the number of samples. In the special case of linear prediction it calls for about S + 12m mps. Hence it offers a computational reduction of 5m and 2m mps in comparison to the methods of Marple [1] and Morf et al. [2], respectively. Additionally, the proposed scheme is inherently symmetric and is suited very well to initialization of fast sequential algorithms as well as algorithms searching for the optimum lag filter.
2-Aminopyridinium trans-diaquabis(oxalato-κ2 O,O)chromate(III)

In the title hybrid salt, (C5H7N2)[Cr(H2O)2(C2O4)2], the CrIII ion is coordinated in a slightly distorted octahedral environment by four O atoms from two oxalate ligands in the equatorial plane and by two water O atoms in the axial sites. The 2-aminopyridinium cation is disordered over two sets of sites in a 0.800 (7):0.200 (7) ratio. In the crystal, N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds connect the components into a three-dimensional network. The crystal studied was an inversion twin with components in a ratio 0.75 (2):0.25 (2).
In vitro evolution of thermostable p53 variants

The tumor suppressor p53 is conformationally unstable at physiological temperature. Even the activated p53Δ30 variant, which lacks the self‐inhibiting carboxy terminal domain, has a half‐life of only 8 min at 37°C in vitro. We have developed a genetic approach to identify p53 variants that stabilize the active conformation. The human p53Δ30 gene was randomly mutated, and the resulting library was expressed in Escherichia coli under conditions that apparently denatured the parental protein. Stable p53 variants were identified based on their ability to specifically bind a p53 consensus site. The initial thermostable variants were randomly recombined by DNA shuffling, and substitutions that were functionally additive or synergistic were identified in a second more stringent round of screening. The DNA binding activity of N239Y/N268D/E336V p53Δ30 variant has a half‐life of 100 min at 37 °C, 12 times longer than that of the parental protein. The thermostable variants should be more amenable to crystallographic studies and more effective in gene therapies than the wild‐type protein.
Foreign Scientists and Engineers and Economic Growth

Attracting highly educated immigrants—especially scientists and engineers—is a potentially effective economic growth–promoting strategy. This paper evaluates the contribution of foreign-born scientists and engineers to the wage and employment growth of native-born workers. First, we analyze the effects of an increase in the number of foreign H-1B workers across U.S. cities and Federal Skilled Worker Program immigrants across Canadian cities. Second, we compare the effects of attracting scientists and engineers as a growth strategy against alternatives such as pursuing fast-growing industries and expanding tertiary education institutions. We conclude by arguing that the H-1B program can explain a quarter of the wage growth of U.S. college-educated workers from 1990 to 2010, and that the currently proposed enlargement of the program could generate an additional 2 percentage points of wage growth for highly educated natives over the next 20 years.
Design and analysis of metallic photonic band gap cavity for a Gyrotron

Design and analysis of a 35 GHz metal photonic band gap (PBG) resonant cavity operating in the TE041-like mode has been presented. The dispersion characteristics of a 2D metal PBG structure comprising of triangular array of rods has been obtained using FDTD method. Global band gap regions have been obtained to be used for the PBG cavity design. A mode map has been also generated to examine the occurrence of the possible modes in the PBG cavity. Electromagnetic simulation of the designed PBG cavity has been performed to study the operating modes and quality factors. Role of the number of metal rods layers around the defect in PBG structure has also been illustrated for confining the desired mode and deciding the diffractive quality factor. PBG cavity results have been compared with the analogous cylindrical cavity for the designed mode along with the possible nearby modes to examine the mode competition. It has been found that the mode competition has been successfully reduced in designed PBG cavity and nearly a single mode operation is achieved. It is hoped that present study would be useful for the application of the metal PBG structures in the Gyrotron devices to alleviate the mode competition problem while operating in the higher order modes.
Comparing Airborne Laser Scanning, and Image-Based Point Clouds by Semi-Global Matching and Enhanced Automatic Terrain Extraction to Estimate Forest Timber Volume

Information pertaining to forest timber volume is crucial for sustainable forest management. Remotely-sensed data have been incorporated into operational forest inventories to serve the need for ever more diverse and detailed forest statistics and to produce spatially explicit data products. In this study, data derived from airborne laser scanning and image-based point clouds were compared using three volume estimation methods to aid wall-to-wall mapping of forest timber volume. Estimates of forest height and tree density metrics derived from remotely-sensed data are used as explanatory variables, and forest timber volumes based on sample field plots are used as response variables. When compared to data derived from image-based point clouds, airborne laser scanning produced slightly more accurate estimates of timber volume, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 26.3% using multiple linear regression. In comparison, RMSEs for volume estimates derived from image-based point clouds were 28.3% and 29.0%, respectively, using Semi-Global Matching and enhanced Automatic Terrain Extraction methods. Multiple linear regression was the best-performing parameter estimation method when compared to k-Nearest Neighbour and Support Vector Machine. In many countries, aerial imagery is acquired and updated on regular cycles of 1–5 years when compared to more costly, once-off airborne laser scanning surveys. This study demonstrates point clouds generated from such aerial imagery can be used to enhance the estimation of forest parameters at a stand and forest compartment level-scale using small area estimation methods while at the same time achieving sampling error reduction and improving accuracy at the forest enterprise-level scale.
Tissue Specific Modulation of cyp2c and cyp3a mRNA Levels and Activities by Diet-Induced Obesity in Mice: The Impact of Type 2 Diabetes on Drug Metabolizing Enzymes in Liver and Extra-Hepatic Tissues

Various diseases such as type 2 diabetes (T2D) may alter drug clearance. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of T2D on CYP450 expressions and activities using high-fat diet (HFD) as a model of obesity-dependent diabetes in C57BL6 mice. The cyp450 mRNA expression levels for 15 different isoforms were determined in the liver and extra-hepatic tissues (kidneys, lungs and heart) of HFD-treated animals (n = 45). Modulation of cyp450 metabolic activities by HFD was assessed using eight known substrates for specific human ortholog CYP450 isoforms: in vitro incubations were conducted with liver and extra-hepatic microsomes. Expression levels of cyp3a11 and cyp3a25 mRNA were decreased in the liver (>2–14-fold) and kidneys (>2-fold) of HFD groups which correlated with a significant reduction in midazolam metabolism (by 21- and 5-fold in hepatic and kidney microsomes, respectively, p < 0.001). HFD was associated with decreased activities of cyp2b and cyp2c subfamilies in all organs tested except in the kidneys (for tolbutamide). Other cyp450 hepatic activities were minimally or not affected by HFD. Taken together, our data suggest that substrate-dependent and tissue-dependent modulation of cyp450 metabolic capacities by early phases of T2D are observed, which could modulate drug disposition and pharmacological effects in various tissues.
Developments in liposomal drug delivery systems

Liposomes are the leading drug delivery systems for the systemic (iv.) administration of drugs. There are now liposomal formulations of conventional drugs that have received clinical approval and many others in clinical trials that bring benefits of reduced toxicity and enhanced efficacy for the treatment of cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The mechanisms giving rise to the therapeutic advantages of liposomes, such as the ability of long-circulating liposomes to preferentially accumulate at disease sites including tumours, sites of infection and sites of inflammation are increasingly well understood. Further, liposome-based formulations of genetic drugs such as antisense oligonucleotides and plasmids for gene therapy that have clear potential for systemic utility are increasingly available. This paper reviews the liposomal drug delivery field, summarises the success of liposomes for the delivery of small molecules and indicates how this success is being built on to design effective carriers for genetic drugs.
Fluconazole versus Candida albicans: A Complex Relationship

ABSTRACT A murine model of systemic candidiasis was used to assess the virulence of serial Candida albicans strains for which fluconazole MICs were increasing. Serial isolates from five patients with 17 episodes of oropharyngeal candidiasis were evaluated. The MICs for these isolates exhibited at least an eightfold progressive increase from susceptible (MIC < 8 μg/ml; range, 0.25 to 4 μg/ml) to resistant (MIC ≥ 16 μg/ml; range, 16 to ≥128 μg/ml). Virulence of the serial isolates from three of five patients showed a more than fivefold progressive decrease in the dose accounting for 50% mortality and was associated with development of fluconazole resistance. Low doses of fluconazole prolonged survival of mice infected with susceptible yeasts but failed to prolong survival following challenge with a resistant strain. In addition, a decreased burden of renal infection was noted in mice challenged with two of the three resistant strains. This was consistent with reduced virulence. Fluconazole did not further decrease the level of infection. In the isolates with a decrease in virulence, two exhibited overexpression of CDR, which encodes an ABC drug efflux pump. In contrast, serial isolates from the remaining two patients with the development of resistance did not demonstrate a change in virulence and fluconazole remained effective in prolonging survival, although significantly higher doses of fluconazole were required for efficacy. Resistant isolates from both of these patients exhibited overexpression of MDR. This study demonstrates that decreased virulence of serial C. albicans isolates is associated with increasing fluconazole MICs in some cases but not in others and shows that these low-virulence strains may not consistently cause infection.
Neural mechanisms of motion perceptual learning in noise

Practice improves our perceptual ability. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this experience‐dependent plasticity in adult brain remain unclear. Here, we studied the long‐term neural correlates of motion perceptual learning. Subjects’ behavioral performance and BOLD signals were tracked before, immediately after, and 2 weeks after practicing a motion direction discrimination task in noise over six daily sessions. Parallel to the specificity and persistency of the behavioral learning effect, we found that training sharpened the cortical tuning in MT, and enhanced the connectivity strength from MT to the intraparietal sulcus (IPS, a motion decision‐making area). In addition, the decoding accuracy for the trained motion direction was improved in IPS 2 weeks after training. The dual changes in the sensory and the high‐level cortical areas suggest that learning refines the neural representation of the trained stimulus and facilitates the information transmission in the decision process. Our findings are consistent with the functional specialization in the visual cortex, and provide empirical evidence to the reweighting theory of perceptual learning at a large spatial scale. Hum Brain Mapp 38:6029–6042, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
FLIPOUT: EFFICIENT PSEUDO-INDEPENDENT WEIGHT PERTURBATIONS

Stochastic neural net weights are used in a variety of contexts, including regularization, Bayesian neural nets, exploration in reinforcement learning, and evolution strategies. Unfortunately, due to the large number of weights, all the examples in a mini-batch typically share the same weight perturbation, thereby limiting the variance reduction effect of large mini-batches. We introduce flipout, an efficient method for decorrelating the gradients within a mini-batch by implicitly sampling pseudo-independent weight perturbations for each example. Empirically, flipout achieves the ideal linear variance reduction for fully connected networks, convolutional networks, and RNNs. We find significant speedups in training neural networks with multiplicative Gaussian perturbations. Flipout allows us to vectorize evolution strategies, so that a single GPU with flipout can handle the same throughput at least as 40 CPU cores under existing methods, equivalent to a factorof-4 cost reduction on Amazon Web Services.
Confirmatory factor analysis of the Questionnaire on the Health Staff’s Perceptions Regarding Doutores da Alegria’s Interventions

A confirmatory analysis was performed to validate the Questionnaire on the Health Staff’s Perceptions Regarding Doutores da Alegria’s Intervention, a 40-item instrument designed to assess pediatric staff’s perceptions regarding the effects of Doutores da Alegria, a Brazilian hospital clowning professional organization. Eight dimensions were evaluated: the permanence of Doutores da Alegria’s interventions; Doutores da Alegria’s intrapersonal and interpersonal effects on their relation to health staff; themselves; staff–children; and staff–family relationships; as well as their effect on staff’s cultural development; children’s relation to their own disease; and families’ attitude regarding their child’s condition. In all, 567 health professionals from 13 Brazilian hospitals participated. The instrument’s good psychometric features are acknowledged.
Interaction between GSTM1‐null and CYP2D6‐deficient alleles in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease

The present study was conducted to examine the interaction between cytochrome P450 2D6: CYP2D6 (phase I) poor metabolizer (PM) and glutathione S‐transferase M1: GSTM1 (phase II) null genotypes, among 103 unrelated French Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Both genes are involved in the biotransformation process, and the main objective of that work is to assess synergic effect between CYP2D6 PM and GSTM1 null genotypes in PD patients. Patients with both GSTM1 null genotype and poor metabolizer CYP2D6 have shown a strong dependency of multiplicative interaction (9.50; P = 0.016); this have also been observed when combining GSTM1 null with CYP2D6*4 deficient alleles, but were at the limit of significance (2.18; P = 0.076). Such a combination of polymorphic peculiarities in studied metabolic genes might represent additional risk factor for development of sporadic PD.