Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dissociable mechanisms for memory impairment in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

Background. Although memory deficits are consistently reported in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the mechanisms underlying these impairments are poorly understood. Clarifying the nature and degree of overlap in memory deficits between the two illnesses could help to distinguish brain systems disrupted in these illnesses, and indicate cognitive remediation strategies to improve patient outcomes. Method. We examined performance on a non-verbal memory task in clinically stable out-patients with bipolar disorder (n=40), schizophrenia (n=40), and healthy comparison subjects (n=40). This task includes conditions in which distinct mnemonic strategies – namely, using context to organize familiar stimuli or using holistic representation of novel stimuli – facilitate performance. Result. When compared to a reference condition, bipolar patients had deficits consistent with organizational dysfunction and poor detection of novel information. Although patients with schizophrenia performed worse than the other groups, they were only differentially impaired when organizational demands were significant. Task performance was not correlated with severity of clinical symptomatology. Conclusions. This pattern of distinct memory impairments implies disturbances in partially overlapping neural systems in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Evidence of impairment in detection of novel stimuli that is unique to bipolar disorder suggests that, while the absolute level of cognitive dysfunction is less severe in bipolar disorder as compared to schizophrenia, subtle disruptions in memory are present. These findings can be used to plan targeted cognitive remediation programs by helping patients to capitalize on intact functions and to learn new strategies that they do not employ without training.
The vasculopathy of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease: insights from animal models.

A 37-year-old white man with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) was admitted to Boston's Beth Israel Hospital with sudden severe headache of two-hour duration. He was unconscious on admission. Emergency angiography revealed a ruptured 15 mm cerebral aneurysm. Emergency surgery to clip the aneurysm was unsuccessful, and the patient died 36 hours after admission. His serum creatinine was 3.2 mg/dL on admission; the rest of his laboratory values were within normal limits. A request for an autopsy was denied. At age 20, the patient and his then 15-year-old sister had abdominal ultrasound examinations that revealed bilateral renal cysts, consistent with the diagnosis of ADPKD. At age 32, the patient had a sudden, relatively severe, acute myocardial infarction (MI). Cardiac catheterization revealed three-vessel disease, and he subsequently underwent a triple coronary artery bypass operation. Throughout his medical course, the patient's blood pressure was in the 120/80 to 140/80 mm Hg range while he was taking lisinopril, 10 mg/day, which was started after his MI. The patient's mother has ADPKD and end-stage renal disease, and she is on hemodialysis. She recently underwent unsuccessful renal transplantation. There is no known family history of cerebral aneurysms. However, the mother had two cerebrovascular accidents and recovered from both. The patient's father had an MI at age 32, but he lived to age 64. A paternal uncle also died at an early age of an MI. The patient's younger sister was later screened for cerebral aneurysms and the test was negative. The patient's two young children have not been screened for ADPKD.
Multiple domains in endoglucanase B (CenB) from Cellulomonas fimi: functions and relatedness to domains in other polypeptides

Endoglucanase B (CenB) from the bacterium Cellulomonas fimi is divided into five discrete domains by linker sequences rich in proline and hydroxyamino acids (A. Meinke, C. Braun, N. R. Gilkes, D. G. Kilburn, R. C. Miller, Jr., and R. A. J. Warren, J. Bacteriol. 173:308-314, 1991). The catalytic domain of 608 amino acids is at the N terminus. The sequence of the first 477 amino acids in the catalytic domain is related to the sequences of cellulases in family E, which includes procaryotic and eucaryotic enzymes. The sequence of the last 131 amino acids of the catalytic domain is related to sequences present in a number of cellulases from different families. The catalytic domain alone can bind to cellulose, and this binding is mediated at least in part by the C-terminal 131 amino acids. Deletion of these 131 amino acids reduces but does not eliminate activity. The catalytic domain is followed by three domains which are repeats of a 98-amino-acid sequence. The repeats are approximately 50% identical to two repeats of 95 amino acids in a chitinase from Bacillus circulans which are related to fibronectin type III repeats (T. Watanabe, K. Suzuki, K. Oyanagi, K. Ohnishi, and H. Tanaka, J. Biol. Chem. 265:15659-15665, 1990). The C-terminal domain of 101 amino acids is related to sequences, present in a number of bacterial cellulases and xylanases from different families, which form cellulose-binding domains (CBDs). It functions as a CBD when fused to a heterologous polypeptide. Cells of Escherichia coli expressing the wild-type cenB gene accumulate both native CenB and a stable proteolytic fragment of 41 kDa comprising the three repeats and the C-terminal CBD. The 41-kDa polypeptide binds to cellulose but lacks enzymatic activity.
Forming Guard Sets using AS Relationships

The mechanism for picking guards in Tor suffers from security problems like guard fingerprinting and from performance issues. To address these issues, Hayes and Danezis proposed the use of guard sets, in which the Tor system groups all guards into sets, and each client picks one of these sets and uses its guards. Unfortunately, guard sets frequently need nodes added or they are broken up due to fluctuations in network bandwidth. In this paper, we first show that these breakups create opportunities for malicious guards to join many guard sets by merely tuning the bandwidth they make available to Tor, and this greatly increases the number of clients exposed to malicious guards. To address this problem, we propose a new method for forming guard sets based on Internet location. We construct a hierarchy that keeps clients and guards together more reliably and prevents guards from easily joining arbitrary guard sets. This approach also has the advantage of confining an attacker with access to limited locations on the Internet to a small number of guard sets. We simulate this guard set design using historical Tor data in the presence of both relay-level adversaries and network-level adversaries, and we find that our approach is good at confining the adversary into few guard sets and thus limiting the impact of attacks.
Mutation screening in the Greek population and evaluation of NLGN3 and NLGN4X genes causal factors for autism

Molecular and neurobiological evidence for the involvement of neuroligins (particularly NLGN3 and NLGN4X genes) in autistic disorder is accumulating. However, previous mutation screening studies on these two genes have yielded controversial results. The present study explores, for the first time, the contribution of NLGN3 and NLGN4X genetic variants in Greek patients with autistic disorder. We analyzed the full exonic sequence of NLGN3 and NLGN4X genes in 40 patients strictly fulfilling the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. criteria for autistic disorder. We identified nine nucleotide changes in NLGN4X – one probable causative mutation (p.K378R) previously reported by our research group, one novel variant (c.−206G>C), one nonvalidated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, rs111953947), and six known human SNPs reported in the SNP database – and one known human SNP in NLGN3 also reported in the SNP database. The variants identified are expected to be benign. However, they should be investigated in the context of variants in interacting cellular pathways to assess their contribution to the etiology of autism.
Paclitaxel Induces Primary and Postmitotic G1 Arrest in Human Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells

Paclitaxel (PTX), a microtubule-active drug, causes mitotic arrest leading to apoptosis in certain tumor cell lines. Here we investigated the effects of PTX on human arterial smooth muscle cell (SMC) cells. In SMC, PTX caused both (a) primary arrest in G1 and (b) post-mitotic arrest in G1. Post-mitotic cells were multinucleated (MN) with either 2C (near-diploid) or 4C (tetraploid) DNA content. At PTX concentrations above12 ng/ml, MN cells had 4C DNA content consistent with the lack of cytokinesis during abortive mitosis. Treatment with 6-12 ng/ml PTX yielded MN cells with 2C DNA content. Finally, 1-6 ng/ml of PTX, the lowest concentrations that affected cell proliferation, caused G1 arrest without multinucleation. It is important that PTX did not cause apoptosis in SMC. The absence of apoptosis could be explained by mitotic exit and G1 arrest as well as by low constitutive levels of caspase expression and by p53 and p21 induction. Thus, following transient mitotic arrest, SMC exit mitosis to form MN cells. These post-mitotic cells were subsequently arrested in G1 but maintained normal elongated morphology and were viable for at least 21 days. We conclude that in SMC PTX causes post-mitotic cell cycle arrest rather than cell death.
AUTOMATIC THESAURUS CONSTRUCTION BY MACHINE LEARNING FROM RETRIEVAL SESSIONS

Users of information retrieval systems (IRS) know and use many relationships between concepts a long time before these find their way into textbooks, printed thesauri, or classification schemes. We present here an IRS component called TEGEN, which taps this expertise by automatically drawing conclusions from actual search behavior about possible thesaurus entries. This is done during an iterative knowledge acquisition process: only after explicit or implicit confirmation by other users of the IRS during the knowledge verification process, the results are incorporated into a thesaurus. TEGEN is written in PASCAL using a knowledge-based programming method. It uses the relational database system IMF2 and is implemented at the Technical University of Munich and at the Leibniz Computer Center of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
Use of iPSCs to Generate Cardiac Myocytes and Repair Infarcted Myocardium Genomic Stability Issues Associated With the Reprogramming Process Differentiation of iPSCs Into Mature Myocytes

Cardiomyocyte death is associated with diverse forms of heart disease, which is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries. Myocardial infarctions are a major public health problem and affect >1 million Americans yearly. A tremendous loss of cardiomyocytes through apoptosis and necrosis underlies both acute and chronic myocardial infarction. To compensate for the death of cardiomyocytes in the injured area, scar tissue is formed by activated fibroblasts. In addition, heart diseases related to pressure overload, such as hypertension or valvular disease, involve the death of cardiac muscle cells, but the progression is slow and usually occurs during a long period of time. Human aging is associated with an irreversible loss of cardiomyocytes, which may account for the increased vulnerability of aged hearts to various risk factors. Unlike amphibian and fish hearts, the human heart has limited regenerative potential. Although postnatal vertebrate cardiomyocytes undergo some degree of cell renewal, as suggested by transgenic mouse experiments and a more recent human radiocarbon dating study, the rate of cardiomyocyte renewal is low. A genetic fate map study involving mice indicated that the endogenous regenerative capacity of the adult heart, albeit limited, largely comes from the differentiation of cardiac progenitor cells rather than replacement by existing cardiomyocytes Review
INTEGERS 9 Supplement ( 2009 ) ON PSEUDOSQUARES AND PSEUDOPOWERS

Introduced by Kraitchik and Lehmer, an x-pseudosquare is a positive integer n ≡ 1 (mod 8) that is a quadratic residue for each odd prime p ≤ x, yet is not a square. We use bounds of character sums to prove that pseudosquares are equidistributed in fairly short intervals. An x-pseudopower to base g is a positive integer which is not a power of g yet is so modulo p for all primes p ≤ x. It is conjectured by Bach, Lukes, Shallit, and Williams that the least such number is at most exp(agx/ log x) for a suitable constant ag. A bound of exp(agx log log x/ log x) is proved conditionally on the Riemann Hypothesis for Dedekind zeta functions, thus improving on a recent conditional exponential bound of Konyagin and the present authors. We also give a GRH-conditional equidistribution result for pseudopowers that is analogous to our unconditional result for pseudosquares.
Mitosin and DNA Topoisomerase II&agr;: Two Novel Proliferation Markers in the Prognostication of Diffuse Astrocytoma Patient Survival

The expression of two novel proliferation-associated markers, mitosin and topoisomerase II&agr; (Topo II&agr;), was evaluated immunohistochemically in consecutive paraffin sections from 60 diffuse astrocytomas (grades 2 to 4) in relation to clinicopathologic parameters, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and Ki-67 (MIB-1) expression and survival. The percentage of mitosin and Topo II&agr;–positive cells (LI) increased with grade and Ki-67 LI, but could not discriminate between grade 3 on the one hand and grades 2 or 4 on the other hand. In 51% of cases, Ki-67 LI exceeded Topo II&agr; LI, especially within grade 4. Topo II&agr; and mitosin expression was adversely related to overall and disease-free survival in the entire cohort and in grades 2/3. However, only Topo II&agr; LI affected disease-free survival in grade 4 tumors. Multivariate analysis selected only mitosin LI along with the age of the patient, as the independent parameters predicting overall survival, whereas Topo II&agr; emerged as the single independent predictor of disease-free survival. It is concluded that the proliferative potential of astrocytomas, as measured by mitosin and Topo II&agr; immunostaining, conveys useful prognostic information, in addition to that obtained by standard clinicopathologic parameters.
The Cultural Boundaries of Perspective-Taking: When and Why Perspective-Taking Reduces Stereotyping

Research conducted in Western cultures indicates that perspective-taking is an effective social strategy for reducing stereotyping. The current article explores whether and why the effects of perspective-taking on stereotyping differ across cultures. Studies 1 and 2 established that perspective-taking reduces stereotyping in Western but not in East Asian cultures. Using a socioecological framework, Studies 2 and 3 found that relational mobility, that is, the extent to which individuals’ social environments provide them opportunities to choose new relationships and terminate old ones, explained our effect: Perspective-taking was negatively associated with stereotyping in relationally mobile (Western) but not in relationally stable (East Asian) environments. Finally, Study 4 examined the proximal psychological mechanism underlying the socioecological effect: Individuals in relationally mobile environments are more motivated to develop new relationships than those in relationally stable environments. Subsequently, when this motivation is high, perspective-taking increases self-target group overlap, which then decreases stereotyping.
Improved particle swarm optimization algorithm for optimum charge plan for steelmaking-continuous casting production scheduling

An optimum furnace charge plan model for steelmaking continuous casting planning and scheduling is presented. An improved particle swarm optimization with disturbances is presented to solve the optimum charge plan problem. In order to find the premature convergence, a mature factor and the efficiency step of iteration are also introduced. Simulations have been carried and the results show that the improved PSO has good performance than the standard PSO. This improved PSO has been used to solve the optimum charge plan problem. The computation with practical data shows that the model and the solving method are very effective.
Unsteady Airflows and Their Impact on Small Unmanned Air Systems in Urban Environments

Existing unmanned air system platforms currently do not lend themselves well to autonomous operation within complex, highly variable aerodynamic environments. As such, there is a need for accurate high-fidelity urban airflow models to help reduce the risk of failure of urban unmanned air system surveillance and engagement missions. Although urban aerodynamics are exceptionally complicated because of complex interactions between geometry, physical conditions, and varying meteorology, high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics models exist that capture these interactions effectively. Using sufficient resolution, these large-eddy simulation models provide a viable means to characterize urban airflow environments when wind-tunnel testing and field trials are too expensive or impossible. This paper presents a simulation tool that captures unsteady aerodynamics of aircraft flight in an urban environment for the study of vehicle–environment interactions. By combining a high-resolution model of the terrain/buildi.
Situational Business Intelligence Maturity Models: An Exploratory Analysis

Maturity models (MMs) are an established instrument to identify strengths and weaknesses of certain domains. Having constructed such a maturity model for the domain of Business Intelligence (BI) in prior research, we explore the influence of contextual factors on the evolution of BI maturity in organizations in this paper. Therefore, four different BI maturity models were constructed on the basis of two contextual factors company size and environment. Analyzing the four models, we found that both factors strongly affect the evolution of BI maturity in organizations.
S100beta as a predictor of brain metastases: brain versus cerebrovascular damage.

BACKGROUND The identification of brain metastases in patients with malignant disease has important implications for determining their treatment and prognosis. Asymptomatic metastatic brain tumors may be detected by surveillance imaging techniques, but longitudinal follow-up of patients who are at risk is sporadic primarily due to cost. Because the development of brain metastases is accompanied and detected by extravasation of contrast agents across the blood-brain barrier (BBB), the authors hypothesized that peripheral analysis of the BBB indicator S100beta may be useful as a screening tool for brain metastases in patients who have no neurologic symptoms. METHODS Thirty-eight patients were enrolled for the current study. All patients had newly diagnosed lung carcinoma and had no neurologic symptoms or known history of brain metastasis. Patients underwent an initial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and S100beta blood tests. S100beta tests were repeated in a subset of patients at the time of routine follow-up MRI scans. RESULTS Based on imaging studies and on serum S100beta analyses, the patients were divided in 3 categories: 1) patients with normal S100beta levels (0.08 +/- 0.02 microg/L; n = 22 patients) and normal MRI scans; 2) patients with elevated S100beta levels (0.5 +/- 0.28 microg/L; n = 8 patients) and pronounced microvascular changes on MRI scans but with no metastases; and 3) patients with elevated S100beta levels (0.28 +/- 0.19 microg/L; n = 7 patients) and metastatic brain tumor(s) on MRI scans. CONCLUSIONS Because of the significant overlap in S100beta levels between patients with cerebral microvascular diseases and patients with brain metastases, the authors concluded that the serum S100beta level may be used as a surveillance tool to predict or detect brain metastases if appropriate prescreening radiologic tests are obtained and if patients who are candidates for false-positive results are identified and excluded.
An Energy Efficient Clustering Protocol for Lifetime Maximization in Wireless Sensor Networks

Maximizing the lifetime is an important issue in the design of applications and protocols for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Clustering sensor nodes is an effective topology control approach helping achieve this goal. In this paper, we present an energy efficiency protocol to prolong the network lifetime based on an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The protocol takes both energy efficiency and transmission distance into consideration, and the relay nodes are used to balance the heavy consumption of cluster heads. In this way, the network results in better distributed sensors and a well-balanced clustering system enhancing the network's lifetime. We compare the proposed protocol with comparative protocols in different scenarios. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol performs well over other comparative protocols in various scenarios.
A peptide derived from type 1 thrombospondin repeat-containing protein WISP-1 inhibits corneal and choroidal neovascularization.

PURPOSE Ocular neovascularization is the primary cause of blindness in a wide range of prevalent ocular diseases including proliferative diabetic retinopathy, exudative age-related macular degeneration, and retinopathy of prematurity, among others. Antiangiogenic therapies are starting to give promising results in these diseases. In the present study the antiangiogenic potential of an 18-mer peptide derived from type 1 thrombospondin repeat-containing protein WISP-1 (wispostatin-1) was analyzed in vitro with human retinal endothelial cell proliferation and migration assays. The peptide was also tested in vivo in the corneal micropocket and the laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) mouse models. METHODS Human retinal endothelial cells were treated with the WISP-1 peptide and in vitro migration and proliferation assays were performed. Also evaluated was the antiangiogenic effect of this peptide in vivo using the corneal micropocket assay and the laser-induced CNV model. RESULTS Wispostatin-1 derived peptide demonstrated antimigratory and antiproliferative activity in vitro. Wispostatin-1 completely abolished bFGF-induced neovascularization in the corneal micropocket assay. The peptide also demonstrated significant inhibition of laser-induced CNV. CONCLUSIONS An inhibitory effect of Wispostatin-1 on ocular neovascularization was found in vitro and in vivo. The identification of novel and potent endogenous peptide inhibitors provides insight into the pathogenesis of corneal and choroidal neovascularization. The results demonstrate potential for therapeutic application in prevalent ocular disease.
Stabilization of Plakoglobin and Enhanced Keratinocyte Cell-Cell Adhesion by Intracellular O-Glycosylation*

O-Glycosylation modifies and regulates a variety of intracellular proteins. Plakoglobin, which functions in both cell-cell adhesion and signal transduction, is modified by O-glycosylation; however, the significance is unknown. To investigate the functional consequence of plakoglobin O-glycosylation, we cloned and overexpressed in keratinocytes murine O-GlcNAc transferase (mOGT). Over expression of mOGT in murine keratinocytes resulted in (i) glycosylation of plakoglobin and (ii) increased levels of plakoglobin due to post-translational stabilization of plakoglobin. Additionally, overexpression of mOGT in keratinocytes correlated with increased staining for cell-cell adhesion proteins and greater cell-cell adhesion. These observations suggest that O-glycosylation functions to regulate the post-translational stability of plakoglobin and keratinocyte cell-cell adhesion.