Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of an inducible endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecule.

The accumulation of blood leukocytes at sites of inflammation depends upon their localized adhesion to the vascular lining. We have investigated the hypothesis that this adhesive interaction involves inducible endothelial cell-surface structures that can bind leukocytes. Certain inflammatory/immune cytokines, namely interleukin 1, tumor necrosis factor, and lymphotoxin, as well as bacterial endotoxin, act on cultured human endothelial cells (HEC) in a time- and protein-synthesis-dependent fashion to increase leukocyte adhesion. We have developed two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), H18/7 and H4/18, that identify a cell-surface antigen expressed on cytokine- and endotoxin-stimulated HEC but not on unstimulated HEC. Both mAbs immunoprecipitate the same polypeptides (major species, Mr 115,000; minor species, Mr 97,000, reduced) from biosynthetically labeled cytokine-stimulated HEC. The mediator specificity and kinetics of HEC expression of this protein(s) correlate with increased adhesiveness for leukocytes. In standardized endothelial-leukocyte adhesion assays, mAb H18/7 inhibits the adhesion of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (greater than 50%) and HL-60 cells (greater than 60%) to stimulated HEC by comparison to isotype-matched control mAb; mAb H4/18 also inhibits HL-60 adhesion but to a lesser extent. We have designated the inducible endothelial cell-surface protein recognized by mAb H18/7 and H4/18 "endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecule-1 (ELAM-1). "
Rejection of artifact sources in magnetoencephalogram background activity using independent component analysis

The aim of this pilot study was to assess the usefulness of independent component analysis (ICA) to detect cardiac artifacts and power line interferences in magnetoencephalogram (MEG) recordings. We recorded MEG signals from six subjects with a 148-channel whole-head magnetometer (MAGNES 2500 WH, 4D Neuroimaging). Epochs of 50 s with power line noise, cardiac, and ocular artifacts were selected for analysis. We applied a statistical criterion to determine the number of sources, and a robust ICA algorithm to decompose the MEG epochs. Skewness, kurtosis, and a spectral metric were used to mark the studied artifacts. We found that the power line interference could be easily detected by its frequency characteristics. Moreover, skewness outperformed kurtosis when identifying the cardiac artifact
Expression of Enkephalin in Pallido‐Striatal Neurons

Lesions of the ascending dopaminergic system in the rat or neuroleptic treatment may lead to an upregulation of activity in globus pallidus, which is contrary to what would be expected based on current models of basal ganglia function.1 It is not known if such a response occurs in all pallidal neurons or whether subpopulations of pallidal neurons react differently. Pallidal neurons reach several different target nuclei.2 In the present experiments we tried to differentiate between subpopulations of pallidal neurons by determining the presence of prepro-enkephalin mRNA. Next, possible projection targets of the enkephalin-expressing pallidal neurons were identified. Finally, we determined the response of the enkephalin-expressing cells to unilateral dopamine depletion by midbrain 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesion.
Data Bus Slicing for Contention-Free Multicore Real-Time Memory Systems

Memory access contention is one of the main contributors to tasks' execution time variability in real-time multicores. Existing techniques to control memory contention based on time-sharing memory access do not scale well with increasing complexity of multicores, leading to a rapid increase of WCET estimates. This is due to fact that requests from different tasks interleave in the access to memory, and for each of its requests a task has to make worst-case time allowances to account for the memory state left by the previous request, that may belong to a different task. In this paper, we propose a memory organization that controls contention by dividing the data bus into narrower independent data buses, thus removing conflicts among different tasks accessing memory. While narrower data buses require extra transfers, they allow exploiting memory locality, hence only slightly affecting average performance. Our evaluation on a solid space case-study shows that the proposed memory organization provides contention-free memory access facilitating timing analysis and tightening WCET estimates.
KMUP-1 Attenuates Endothelin-1-Induced Cardiomyocyte Hypertrophy through Activation of Heme Oxygenase-1 and Suppression of the Akt/GSK-3β, Calcineurin/NFATc4 and RhoA/ROCK Pathways

The signaling cascades of the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) family, calcineurin/NFATc4, and PI3K/Akt/GSK3, are believed to participate in endothelin-1 (ET-1)-induced cardiac hypertrophy. The aim of this study was to investigate whether KMUP-1, a synthetic xanthine-based derivative, prevents cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by ET-1 and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. We found that in H9c2 cardiomyocytes, stimulation with ET-1 (100 nM) for 4 days induced cell hypertrophy and enhanced expressions of hypertrophic markers, including atrial natriuretic peptide and brain natriuretic peptide, which were all inhibited by KMUP-1 in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, KMUP-1 prevented ET-1-induced intracellular reactive oxygen species generation determined by the DCFH-DA assay in cardiomyocytes. KMUP-1 also attenuated phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and Akt/GSK-3β, and activation of calcineurin/NFATc4 and RhoA/ROCK pathways induced by ET-1. Furthermore, we found that the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), a stress-response enzyme implicated in cardio-protection, was up-regulated by KMUP-1. Finally, KMUP-1 attenuated ET-1-stimulated activator protein-1 DNA binding activity. In conclusion, KMUP-1 attenuates cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by ET-1 through inhibiting ERK1/2, calcineurin/NFATc4 and RhoA/ROCK pathways, with associated cardioprotective effects via HO-1 activation. Therefore, KMUP-1 may have a role in pharmacological therapy of cardiac hypertrophy.
Infectious Clones and Vectors Derived from Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) Serotypes Other Than AAV Type 2

ABSTRACT Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are single-stranded dependent parvoviruses being developed as transducing vectors. Although at least five serotypes exist (AAV types 1 to 5 [AAV1 to -5]), only AAV2, AAV3, and AAV4 have been sequenced, and the vectors in use were almost all derived from AAV2. Here we report the cloning and sequencing of a second AAV3 genome and a new AAV serotype designated AAV6 that is related to AAV1. AAV2, AAV3, and AAV6 were 82% identical at the nucleotide sequence level, and AAV4 was 75 to 78% identical to these AAVs. Significant sequence variation was noted in portions of the capsid proteins that presumably are responsible for serotype-specific functions. Vectors produced from AAV3 and AAV6 differed from AAV2 vectors in host range and serologic reactivity. The AAV3 and AAV6 vector serotypes were able to transduce cells in the presence of serum from animals previously exposed to AAV2 vectors. Our results suggest that vectors based on alternative AAV serotypes will have advantages over existing AAV2 vectors, including the transduction of different cell types, and resistance to neutralizing antibodies against AAV2. This could be especially important for gene therapy, as significant immunity against AAV2 exists in human populations and many protocols will likely require multiple vector doses.
Wnt signaling: an essential regulator of cardiovascular differentiation, morphogenesis and progenitor self-renewal

Emerging evidence indicates that Wnt signaling regulates crucial aspects of cardiovascular biology (including cardiac morphogenesis, and the self-renewal and differentiation of cardiac progenitor cells). The ability of Wnt signaling to regulate such diverse aspects of cardiovascular development rests on the multifarious downstream and tangential targets affected by this pathway. Here, we discuss the roles for Wnt signaling in cardiac and vascular development, and focus on the emerging role of Wnt signaling in cardiovascular morphogenesis and progenitor cell self-renewal.
Advantages of Rhythmic Movements at Resonance: Minimal Active Degrees of Freedom, Minimal Noise, and Maximal Predictability

Abstract Using time delay embedding, the authors applied phase space reconstruction to the time series of rhythmic movements of a hand-held pendulum. Subjects (N = 6) produced the manual oscillations about the wrist at the pendulum's resonant frequency and at a higher and a lower frequency. The number of active degrees of freedom required to capture the dynamics of the rhythmic behavior was 3 for the resonant frequency and 4 for each of the nonresonant frequencies. The residual high-dimensional noise was similarly lowest for the resonant frequency. Whereas 33% and 20%, respectively, of the vectors in the phase spaces of the dynamics higher and lower than resonance were unpredictable, only 12% were unpredictable at resonance. Finally, the predictability of the evolving dynamics extended farther into the future for oscillations at the resonant frequency. At resonance, the prediction horizon was 5 times farther than the prediction horizon for the higher than resonance behavior and 2.5 times farther than that for the lower than resonance behavior. The results suggest that, in pendular oscillations of a limb or limb segment, attunement of the central nervous system to the resonant frequency minimizes the variables to be controlled and maximizes the predictability of the rhythmic movement's chaotic dynamics.
Fabrication of Magnetic Nanofibers by Needleless Electrospinning from a Self-Assembling Polymer Ferrofluid Cone Array

Magnetic nanofiber has been widely applied in biomedical fields due to its distinctive size, morphology, and properties. We proposed a novel needleless electrospinning method to prepare magnetic nanofibers from the self-assembling “Taylor cones” of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP)/Fe3O4 ferrofluid (PFF) under the coincident magnetic and electric fields. The results demonstrated that a static PFF Rosensweig instability with a conical protrusion could be obtained under the magnetic field. The tip of the protrusion emitted an electrospinning jet under the coincident magnetic and electric fields. The needleless electrospinning showed a similar process phenomenon in comparison with conventional electrospinning. The prepared nanofibers were composed of Fe3O4 particles and PVP polymer. The Fe3O4 particles aggregated inside and on the surface of the nanofibers. The nanofibers prepared by needleless electrospinning exhibited similar morphology compared with the conventionally electrospun nanofibers. The nanofibers also exhibited good ferromagnetic and magnetic field responsive properties.
Identifying and Incorporating Affective States and Learning Styles in Web-based Learning Management Systems

Learning styles and affective states influence students’ learning. The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework for identifying and integrating learning styles and affective states of a learner into web-based learning management systems and therefore provide learners with adaptive courses and additional individualized pedagogical guidance that is tailored to their learning styles and affective states. The study was carried out in three phases, the first of which was the investigation and determination of learning styles and affective states which are important for learning. Phase two consisted of the development of an approach for the identification of learning styles and affective states as well as the development of a mechanism to calculate them from the students’ learning interactions within web-based learning management systems. The third phase was to develop a learning strategy that is more personalized and adaptive in nature and tailored to learners’ needs and current situation through considering learners’ learning styles and affective states, aiming to lead to better learning outcomes and progress.
Multimedia Processing for Enhanced Information Delivery on Mobile Devices

Handheld mobile devices have created new possibilities for accessing information. The limited power, storage capacity, communications bandwidth, and user interface capabilities of these devices, however, present challenges for effective presentation of multimedia data. In this paper, we discuss how automated multimedia processing techniques can be used to address some of these challenges. Media conversion is used to generate presentations that fit the device and/or user capabilities. Content-based video sampling is used to generate a compact presentation of visual information using a small set of still images. Multimodal content processing is employed to extract relevant video clips based on a user profile of interests. The combination of these techniques creates personalized information delivery systems that reduce the storage, bandwidth, and processing power requirements, and simplify user interaction. A prototype of such a system for personalized delivery of video information on mobile devices is presented.
Foundations for Creative Effective Two-Way Audio/Video Distance Education Environments: Issues of Self-Efficacy.

This study seeks to determine the relationship between students' perceptions of two-way audio/video distance classrooms and their perceptions of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is defined as self-assessment of one's ability to be successful in this audio/video classroom situation. In addition, this study seeks to determine the relationship between students' perceptions of two-way audio/video distance classrooms and their satisfaction with the distance learning experience. Students (n=222) in twoway audio-video classes completed inventories that measured their perceptions of self-efficacy, satisfaction with learning in the distance environment, and perceptions of the key elements in the learning environment. Data collected for each measure were correlated to determine the relationship among these factors. Results of the analysis were mixed. Findings appear to indicate that either the students do not discriminate among these concepts or that these factors are very tightly integrated in this type of environment. Implications and interpretations of these findings, as well as suggestions for future research are explored. (Contains 1 table and 22 references.) (SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Foundations for Creative Effective Two-Way Audio/Video Distance Education Environments: Issues of Self-Efficacy PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY g'11,\Inct_f 2B TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Julie Reinhart Paul Schneider U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. This paper is prepared for the: Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Diego, CA April 1998
Multi-objective transmission network planning based on multi-objective optimization algorithms

This paper applies multi-objective optimization algorithms to deal with transmission network planning considering electricity market environment with ‘pool + bilateral trading’ mode and overload risk. In planning model of transmission network, transmission congestion management and overload risk management are considered as optimizing objectives to satisfy the demands of power loads as well as balance the benefits of all participants in power market. For solving the established transmission network planning model, the Pareto optimal solution of multi-objective function is adopted in this paper. Through testing the actual 18-node transmission system based on NSGA-II and MOEA/D algorithms, the results show that the optimal transmission network planning scheme can be obtained, and verify the correctness of the transmission network planning model in power market and the validity of multi-objective optimization algorithms.
Bandpass variable-bandwidth filter for reconstruction of signals with known boundary in time-frequency domain

A bandpass variable-bandwidth filter (BPVBF) is proposed for the reconstruction of the signal whose boundaries are known in time-frequency domain (TFD). The behaviors of the ideal BPVBF are investigated in TFD. Simulation results show that the ideal BPVBF rejects noise in the outside of a region of interest in TFD and produces the reliable reconstruction of signals.
Remembering a Location Makes the Eyes Curve Away

Working memory is a system that keeps limited information on-line for immediate access by cognitive processes. This type of active maintenance is important for everyday life activities. The present study shows that maintaining a location in spatial working memory affects the trajectories of saccadic eye movements toward visual targets, as the eyes deviate away from the remembered location. This finding provides direct evidence for a strong overlap between spatial working memory and the eye movement system. We argue that curvature is the result of the need to inhibit memory-based eye movement activity in the superior colliculus, in order to allow an accurate saccade to the visual target. Whereas previous research has shown that the eyes may deviate away from visually presented stimuli that need to be ignored, we show that the eyes also curve away from remembered stimuli.
Synaptic plasticity regulation mediated by BDNF: functional and morphological study

The long-term potentiation (LTP) represents a widely studied form of synaptic plasticity related to learning and memory processes, which involves a long-lasting strengthening of synaptic connections through changes of their transmission and cytoarchitecture. The induction of LTP is classically achieved by tetanic stimulation of presynaptic components but it is also possible to induce chemically a long-term potentiation of the synaptic efficacy, thus enhancing a larger number of synapses compared to electrical stimulation and facilitating the biochemical and morphological study. The first part of this thesis is a methodological study of glycine and tetraethylammonium (TEA) induced chemical LTP (cLTP) in cultured hippocampal cells. Brief glycine (in Mg2+-free) application activate NMDA receptors, whereas TEA blocks of K+ channels inducing a depolarization responsible for Ca2+ influx. Both drugs were briefly superfused and mEPSCs were monitored for all the duration of the experiments ('60 min). This was considered as a necessary step to detect later the role of the Brain Derived Neurophic Factor (BDNF) in cLTP. Healthy hippocampal cells were dissected from rats of postnatal day 1-2. After a period of 10-12 days in vitro the cells reached optimal density, a typical mature pyramidal neuron morphology, and an extended dendritic arborization which facilitates synaptic contacts. At this stage patch-clamp technique in the whole-cell configuration was used to study the electrophysiological properties of pyramidal hippocampal neurons, able to produce spontaneous electrical activity. cLTP was tested recording miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) in voltage-clamp mode focusing on changes in their amplitude and frequency. A significant decrease in mEPSCs inter-event intervals was observed after glycine and TEA application, without significant changes in aptitudes. Therefore 20 min after glycine application an increase (' 61.6 %) in mEPSCs frequency was observed. A similar result was obtained also after TEA application (' 66 %). Following cLTP we observed also morphological changes such as an increase in density and a remodeling of different classes of dendritic spines. The role of BDNF in this cLTP model was assessed testing by ELISA assay the total BDNF expression on cell lysate and by blocking Tropomyosin Receptor Kinase (Trk) with K252A. A significant increase in BDNF levels (' 120 %) was observed 50 min after cLTP induction. A switch from cLTP into cLTD was observed blocking Trk receptors. Moreover, confocal images collected before and after chemical potentiation in the presence of K252A showed a significant reduction ('10%) in the average spine density both at the proximal and distal level. A significant reduction of the p-TrkB/TrkB ratio, after both glyand TEA-LTP, was observed in distal dendrites compared to the soma. This therefore suggests a translocation of the activated receptor from periphery to the soma.
Live attenuated vaccine: the first clinically approved dengue vaccine?

Dengue virus (DENV) is the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral pathogen in humans. There are 390 million human infections each year, with 96 million infections exhibiting disease symptoms. Currently, there is no clinically approved vaccine and antiviral for DENV. The four serotypes of DENV (DENV-1, -2, -3 and -4) have 25–40% variation at the amino acid level. Such variation has posed challenges for the development of a tetravalent vaccine and therapeutics.
20.4 An output-capacitor-free analog-assisted digital low-dropout regulator with tri-loop control

Low-dropout regulators (LDOs) are widely distributed in SoC designs to supply individual voltage domains, and a digital LDO (DLDO) is favorable for its low-voltage operation and process scalability. However, as many SoCs generate a load current (ILOAD) variation at sub-A/ns level, voltage regulators require a large area-consuming output capacitor (COUT) to maintain the output voltage (VOUT) during fast transients. A conventional shift-register (SR)-based DLDO [1] suffers from a power and speed trade-off, thus requires a large COUT. To break the tie and minimize COUT, [2–5] applied coarse-fine tuning and adaptive clocking, but a fast sampling clock is still necessary for instantaneous VOUT sensing. Event-driven control used in [6] reacts fast within one clock cycle, but the ADC (with 7 comparators) and the digital PI controller increase the complexity and power consumption. This work presents an analog-assisted (AA) tri-loop control scheme for transient improvement, low power, and COUT reduction.
Performance Study of Ad-Hoc Reactive Routing Protocols

Problem statement: In this study, an attempt had been made to compare the performance of the reactive ad-hoc routing protocols using OPNE T modeler with respect to increasing number of nodes in the network. Approach: In present study, we compared various reactive rout ing protocols such as Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV), Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) and Temporally Ordered Routing Algorithm (TORA), on the basis of their throughput by increasing number of nodes in the network. Results: Comparative study of routing protocols on the basi s of throughput of a network on the basis of number of i ncreasing nodes in the network. Conclusion/Recommendations: Three routing protocols are being studied on the b asis of the throughput of the network with respect to the numbe r of increasing nodes in the network and had been concluded that TORA performs better for if the number of nodes in a network are increased.
Identifying Refactorings from Source-Code Changes

Software has been and is still mostly refactored without tool support. Moreover, as we found in our case studies, programmers tend not to document these changes as refactorings, or even worse label changes as refactorings, although they are not. In this paper we present a technique to detect changes that are likely to be refactorings and rank them according to the likelihood. The evaluation shows that the method has both a high recall and a high precision - it finds most of the refactorings, and most of the found refactoring candidates are really refactorings