Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DIAP2 functions as a mechanism-based regulator of drICE that contributes to the caspase activity threshold in living cells

In addition to their well-known function in apoptosis, caspases are also important in several nonapoptotic processes. How caspase activity is restrained and shut down under such nonapoptotic conditions remains unknown. Here, we show that Drosophila melanogaster inhibitor of apoptosis protein 2 (DIAP2) controls the level of caspase activity in living cells. Animals that lack DIAP2 have higher levels of drICE activity. Although diap2-deficient cells remain viable, they are sensitized to apoptosis following treatment with sublethal doses of x-ray irradiation. We find that DIAP2 regulates the effector caspase drICE through a mechanism that resembles the one of the caspase inhibitor p35. As for p35, cleavage of DIAP2 is required for caspase inhibition. Our data suggest that DIAP2 forms a covalent adduct with the catalytic machinery of drICE. In addition, DIAP2 also requires a functional RING finger domain to block cell death and target drICE for ubiquitylation. Because DIAP2 efficiently interacts with drICE, our data suggest that DIAP2 controls drICE in its apoptotic and nonapoptotic roles.
Look into My Eyes: Fine-Grained Detection of Face-Screen Distance on Smartphones

The detection of face-screen distance on smartphone (i.e., the distance between the user face and the smartphone screen) is of paramount importance for many mobile applications, including dynamic adjustment of screen on-off, screen resolution, screen luminance, font size, with the purposes of power saving, protection of human eyesight, etc. Existing detection techniques for face-screen distance depend on external or internal hardware, e.g., an accessory plug-in sensor (e.g., infrared or ultrasonic sensors) to measure the face-screen distance, a built-in proximity sensor that usually outputs a coarse-grained, two-valued, proximity index (for the purpose of powering on/off the screen), etc. In this paper, we present a fine-grained detection method, called "Look Into My Eyes (LIME)", that utilizes the front camera and inertial accelerometer of the smartphone to estimate the face-screen distance. Specifically, LIME captures the photo of the user's face only when the accelerometer detects certain motion patterns of mobile phones, and then estimates the face-screen distance by looking at the distance between the user's eyes. Besides, LIME is able to take care of the user experience when multiple users are facing the phone screen. The experimental results show that LIME can achieve a mean squared error smaller than 2.4 cm in all of experimented scenarios, and it incurs a small cost on battery life when integrated into an SMS application for enabling dynamic font size by detecting the face-screen distance.
Training improves the response in glucose flux to exercise in postmenopausal women.

We examined the effects of endurance training on parameters of glucose flux during rest and exercise in postmenopausal women. Ten sedentary, but healthy women (55 +/- 1 yr) completed 12 wk of endurance exercise training on a cycle ergometer [5 days/wk, 1 h/day, 65% peak oxygen consumption (Vo(2peak))]. Flux rates were determined by primed continuous infusion of [6,6-(2)H]glucose (D(2)-glucose) during 90 min of rest and 60 min of cycle ergometer exercise during one pretraining exercise trial [65% Vo(2peak) (PRE)] and two posttraining exercise trials [the power output that elicited 65% pretraining Vo(2peak) (ABT) and 65% posttraining Vo(2peak) (RLT)]. Training increased Vo(2peak) by 16.3 +/- 3.9% (P < 0.05). Epinephrine and glucagon were lower during ABT and lactate was lower during ABT and RLT (P < 0.05), but the apparent insulin response was unchanged. Whole body glucose rate of appearance decreased posttraining during exercise at a given power output (4.58 +/- 0.39 mg.kg(-1). min(-1) during ABT compared with 5.21 +/- 0.48 mg.kg(-1). min(-1) PRE, P < 0.05), but not at the same relative workload (5.85 +/- 0.36 mg.kg(-1). min(-1)). Training resulted in a 35% increase in glucose MCR during exercise at the same relative intensity (7.16 +/- 0.42 ml.kg(-1). min(-1) during RLT compared with 5.28 +/- 0.42 ml.kg(-1). min(-1) PRE, P < 0.05). Changes in parameters of glucose kinetics during exercise were accomplished without changes in dietary composition, body weight, or body composition. We conclude that despite changes in the hormonal milieu that occur at menopause, endurance training results in a similar magnitude in training-induced alterations of glucose flux as seen previously in younger women.
Mechanisms of dopaminergic neurotoxin-induced blood-brain barrier disruption

Blood-brain barrier disruption in Parkinson's disease and Parkinson's disease models that involve dopaminergic neurodegeneration has been minimally evaluated despite mounting evidence for its involvement. Oxidative stress and neuroinflammation are both involved in Parkinson's disease pathology and also both contribute to blood-brain barrier dysfunction, creating the likelihood that blood-brain barrier disruption is also a pathological feature of the disease. Disruption of the blood-brain barrier can lead to an increased susceptibility to neuronal injury and potentially neurodegeneration due to the invasion of peripheral factors such as immunoglobulins and environmental toxins into the brain. An understanding of mechanisms by which blood-brain barrier disruption occurs may lead to the development of new approaches for the treatment of neurologic diseases such as Parkinson's disease.
Towards real-time summarization of scheduled events from twitter streams

We deal with shrinking the stream of tweets for scheduled events in real-time, following two steps: (i) sub-event detection, which determines if something new has occurred, and (ii) tweet selection, which picks a tweet to describe each sub-event. By comparing summaries in three languages to live reports by journalists, we show that simple text analysis methods which do not involve external knowledge lead to summaries that cover 84% of the sub-events on average, and 100% of key types of sub-events (such as goals in soccer).
Comparative analysis of latches and flip-flops for high-performance systems

In this paper we propose a set of rules for consistent estimation of the real performance and power features of the latch and flip-flop structures. A new simulation and optimization approach is presented, targeting both high-performance and power budget issues. The analysis approach reveals the sources of performance and power consumption bottlenecks in different design styles. Certain misleading parameters have been properly modified and weighted to reflect the real properties of the compared structures. Furthermore, the results of the comparison of representative latches and flip-flops illustrate the advantages of our approach and the suitability of different design styles for high-performance applications.
Adaptive Metropolis-Hastings samplers for the Bayesian analysis of large linear Gaussian systems

This paper considers the implementation of efficient Bayesian computation for large linear Gaussian models containing many latent variables. A common approach is to implement a simple MCMC procedure such as the Gibbs sampler or data augmentation, but these methods are often unsatisfactory when the model is large. This motivates the need to develop other strategies for improving MCMC. This paper considers the combination of adapting algorithms with the Metropolis-Hastings scheme in the construction of efficient MCMC schemes with good mixing properties.
Audiovisual Integration in Social Evaluation

Our social evaluation of other people is influenced by their faces and their voices. However, rather little is known about how these channels combine in forming “first impressions. ” Over 5 experiments, we investigate the relative contributions of facial and vocal information for social judgments: dominance and trustworthiness. The experiments manipulate each of these sources of information within-person, combining faces and voices giving rise to different social attributions. We report that vocal pitch is a reliable source of information for judgments of dominance (Study 1), but not trustworthiness (Study 4). Faces and voices make reliable, but independent, contributions to social evaluation. However, voices have the larger influence in judgments of dominance (Study 2), whereas faces have the larger influence in judgments of trustworthiness (Study 5). The independent contribution of the 2 sources appears to be mandatory, as instructions to ignore 1 channel do not eliminate its influence (Study 3). Our results show that information contained in both the face and the voice contributes to first impression formation. This combination is, to some degree, outside conscious control, and the weighting of channel contribution varies according the trait being perceived.
Canal9: A database of political debates for analysis of social interactions

Automatic analysis of social interactions attracts major attention in the computing community, but relatively few benchmarks are available to researchers active in the domain. This paper presents a new, publicly available, corpus of political debates including not only raw data, but a rich set of socially relevant annotations such as turn-taking (who speaks when and how much), agreement and disagreement between participants, and role played by people involved in each debate. The collection includes 70 debates for a total of 43 hours and 10 minutes of material.
The miR-30 Family Inhibits Pulmonary Vascular Hyperpermeability in the Premetastatic Phase by Direct Targeting of Skp2

Purpose: Before metastasis, primary tumor can create a premetastatic niche in distant organ to facilitate the dissemination of tumor cells. In the premetastatic phase, the permeability of pulmonary vasculatures is increased to accelerate the extravasation of circulating tumor cells. However, it is not clear whether local miRNAs contribute to the vascular hyperpermeability of the premetastatic niche. Experimental Design: The expression of total miRNAs was determined using microarray in series of premetastatic lungs from tumor-bearing mice. Significantly differentially expressed miRNAs were identified and validated with qRT-PCR. Vascular permeability assays, vascular mimic systems, and orthotopic tumor models were used to investigate roles of selected miRNAs and target genes in premetastatic hyperpermeability. Results: We identified a miRNA signature in premetastatic lungs. Among these miRNAs, miR-30a, b, c, d, and e were significantly attenuated. Subsequent investigations elucidated that lung fibroblast–derived miR-30s stabilized pulmonary vessels. Overexpression of miR-30s in lungs postponed metastasis and extended overall survival of B16 tumor–bearing mice. Following studies uncovered that Skp2 was directly targeted by miR-30s. Overexpression of Skp2 could disrupt pulmonary vessels, promote lung metastasis, and decrease overall survival of B16 tumor–bearing mice. Conclusions: These findings illuminate a novel mechanism for the modulation of premetastatic niches by miR-30s, which suggest that miR-30s represent not only promising targets for antimetastasis therapy but also indicators for metastasis. Clin Cancer Res; 21(13); 3071–80. ©2015 AACR.
Optimizing reproductive phenology in a two-resource world: a dynamic allocation model of plant growth predicts later reproduction in phosphorus-limited plants.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Timing of reproduction is a key life-history trait that is regulated by resource availability. Delayed reproduction in soils with low phosphorus availability is common among annuals, in contrast to the accelerated reproduction typical of other low-nutrient environments. It is hypothesized that this anomalous response arises from the high marginal value of additional allocation to root growth caused by the low mobility of phosphorus in soils. METHODS To better understand the benefits and costs of such delayed reproduction, a two-resource dynamic allocation model of plant growth and reproduction is presented. The model incorporates growth, respiration, and carbon and phosphorus acquisition of both root and shoot tissue, and considers the reallocation of resources from senescent leaves. The model is parameterized with data from Arabidopsis and the optimal reproductive phenology is explored in a range of environments. KEY RESULTS The model predicts delayed reproduction in low-phosphorus environments. Reproductive timing in low-phosphorus environments is quite sensitive to phosphorus mobility, but is less sensitive to the temporal distribution of mortality risks. In low-phosphorus environments, the relative metabolic cost of roots was greater, and reproductive allocation reduced, compared with high-phosphorus conditions. The model suggests that delayed reproduction in response to low phosphorus availability may be reduced in plants adapted to environments where phosphorus mobility is greater. CONCLUSIONS Delayed reproduction in low-phosphorus soils can be a beneficial response allowing for increased acquisition and utilization of phosphorus. This finding has implications both for efforts to breed crops for low-phosphorus soils, and for efforts to understand how climate change may impact plant growth and productivity in low-phosphorus environments.
Does severe dietary energy restriction increase binge eating in overweight or obese individuals? A systematic review

Severe dietary energy restriction is often used for overweight or obese individuals to achieve rapid weight loss and related health improvements. However, the extent of putative adverse effects on eating behaviour is unknown. We thus systematically searched seven databases for studies that assessed binge eating before and after severe dietary energy restriction (low or very low energy diets) in overweight or obese individuals. Fifteen clinically supervised interventions from 10 publications (nine of which involved only women) were included. Among individuals with clinically relevant pre‐treatment binge eating disorder, severe dietary energy restriction significantly decreased binge eating in all four interventions involving this population, at least during the weight loss programme. In contrast, no consistent association between severe dietary energy restriction and the onset of bingeing was found in 11 interventions involving individuals without pre‐treatment binge eating disorder, with four such interventions showing significant increases, two showing no change, and five showing significant decreases in binge eating. We conclude that clinically supervised severe dietary energy restriction appears safe and beneficial for overweight or obese individuals with pre‐treatment binge eating disorder, and does not necessarily trigger binge eating in those without binge eating disorder.
The cytoplasmic domain of simian immunodeficiency virus transmembrane protein modulates infectivity

A striking characteristic of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and of the human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) is the presence of a nonsense mutation in the env gene resulting in the synthesis of a truncated transmembrane protein lacking the cytoplasmic domain. By mutagenesis of an infectious molecular clone of SIVmac142, we investigated the function of the cytoplasmic domain and the significance of the env nonsense mutation. When the nonsense codon (TAG) was replaced by a glutamine codon (CAG), the virus infected HUT78 cells with markedly delayed kinetics. This negative effect was counterselected in vitro as reversion of the slow phenotype frequently occurred. The sequencing of one revertant revealed the presence of a new stop codon three nucleotides 5' to the original mutation. Deletions or an additional nonsense mutation introduced 3' to the original stop codon did not modify SIV infectivity. In contrast, the same deletions or nonsense mutation introduced in the clone in which the stop codon was replaced by CAG abolished infectivity. These results indicated that the envelope domain located 3' to the stop codon is not necessary for in vitro replication. However, the presence of this domain in SIV transmembrane protein leads to a reduced infectivity. This negative effect might correspond to a function controlling the rate of spread of the virus during in vivo infection.
Iterative Decoding of Coded THP with Quantized Output

This paper proposes an improved receiver for the Tomlinson-Harashima precoder (THP). In this paper we demonstrate that most of the capacity loss associated with conventional THP is due to the suboptimal receiver, which is a simple modulo operation. We then demonstrate how this loss can can be avoided with the optimization of the receiver. In the suboptimal receiver the modulo operation ignores the dependency between the implicitly added sequence of symbols removed by it. We then implement a THP with quantized outputs. The quantized outputs enable to implement a Maximum A-Posteriori Probability (MAP) receiver that exploits the dependency between the received symbols. The MAP receiver is named Enhanced MODulo operation (EMOD), and operates as an inner decoder within an iterative scheme, either with outer Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) code or outer Turbo Code. Simulation results show considerable gains relative to coded conventional THP, and also relative to the Turbo-Equalizer (TE) (which does not use a precoder in the transmitter).
Spectroscopic Characterization of Intermolecular Interaction of Amyloid β Promoted on GM1 Micelles

Clusters of GM1 gangliosides act as platforms for conformational transition of monomeric, unstructured amyloid β (Aβ) to its toxic β-structured aggregates. We have previously shown that Aβ(1–40) accommodated on the hydrophobic/hydrophilic interface of lyso-GM1 or GM1 micelles assumes α-helical structures under ganglioside-excess conditions. For better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the α-to-β conformational transition of Aβ on GM1 clusters, we performed spectroscopic characterization of Aβ(1–40) titrated with GM1. It was revealed that the thioflavin T- (ThT-) reactive β-structure is more populated in Aβ(1–40) under conditions where the Aβ(1–40) density on GM1 micelles is high. Under this circumstance, the C-terminal hydrophobic anchor Val39-Val40 shows two distinct conformational states that are reactive with ThT, while such Aβ species were not generated by smaller lyso-GM1 micelles. These findings suggest that GM1 clusters promote specific Aβ-Aβ interactions through their C-termini coupled with formation of the ThT-reactive β-structure depending on sizes and curvatures of the clusters.
Measuring robustness of SDN control layers

The controller placement problem remains a key aspect of Software Defined Networking (SDN). The selection of a suboptimal controller may impact severely the performance of the control layer and, in consequence, cause a substantial degradation in the data layer. Different approaches for controller placement have been proposed with various objectives in mind, but most of them do not consider the characteristics of the resulting control layer in terms of robustness. In this paper we propose and formalize a complete metric for estimating robustness of a SDN control layer, and we evaluate two heuristics for controller selection and control layer construction: Fast Failover and a simplified version of k-Critical. The results of the performed evaluation indicate that the control layer topology induced by k-Critical is less prone to failures, more robust and more homogenous than those computed by Fast Failover.
Gyrotropy and Nonreciprocity of Graphene for Microwave Applications

This paper investigates the potential of graphene nonreciprocal gyrotropy for microwave applications. First, the problem of a plane wave obliquely impinging on a graphene sheet is analyzed to provide physical insight into the fundamentals of graphene gyrotropy. It is found that graphene rotates the polarization of any plane wave impinging on it. The rotation angle is larger for H-polarized oblique waves than for normally incident waves and increases as the angle of incidence increases. The opposite holds for E waves. A general transmission matrix model is then developed for an arbitrary cylindrical waveguide and for a graphene sheet inside such a waveguide. This model is next applied to a circular cylindrical waveguide loaded with one or several graphene sheets and excited in its dominant H11 mode. Although the rotation angle from a single graphene sheet is quite high at high chemical potential, the corresponding transmission level is small due to the poor matching associated with the high density of the sheet. This fact prohibits the cascading of graphene sheets with high chemical potential as an approach to increase the amount of rotation. However, by decreasing the chemical potential, graphene may be well matched to waveguide modes, and therefore a large number of graphene sheets (ten in this study) may be used to produce a significant amount of rotation with relatively low insertion loss.
Cooperation Improves Success during Intergroup Competition: An Analysis Using Data from Professional Soccer Tournaments

The benefit mutually gained by cooperators is considered the ultimate explanation for why cooperation evolved among non-relatives. During intergroup competition, cooperative behaviours within groups that provide a competitive edge over their opposition should be favoured by selection, particularly in lethal human warfare. Aside from forming larger groups, three other ways that individuals within a group can cooperate to improve their chances of gaining a mutual benefit are: (i) greater networking, (ii) contributing more effort, and (iii) dividing labour. Greater cooperation is expected to increase the chances of gaining a group benefit by improving proficiency in the tasks critical to success—yet empirical tests of this prediction using real-world cases are absent. In this study, we used data derived from 12 international and professional soccer competitions to test the predictions that: 1) greater levels of cooperative behaviour are associated with winning group contests, 2) the three forms of cooperation differ in relative importance for winning matches, 3) competition and tournament-type affect the levels of cooperation and shooting proficiency in matches, and 4) greater levels of networking behaviour are associated with increased proficiency in the most critical task linked with winning success in soccer—shooting at goal. Winners were best predicted by higher shooting proficiency, followed by greater frequencies of networking interactions within a team but unexpectedly, fewer networking partners and less division of labour. Although significant variation was detected across competitions and tournament-types, greater levels of networking behaviour were consistently associated with increased proficiency in shooting at goal, which in turn was linked with winning success. This study empirically supports the idea that intergroup competition can favour cooperation among non-relatives.