Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cutting Edge: BAFF Overexpression Reduces Atherosclerosis via TACI-Dependent B Cell Activation

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus exhibit accelerated atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the arterial wall. The impact of B cells in atherosclerosis is controversial, with both protective and pathogenic roles described. For example, natural IgM binding conserved oxidized lipid epitopes protect against atherosclerosis, whereas anti-oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) IgG likely promotes disease. Because BAFF promotes B cell class-switch recombination and humoral autoimmunity, we hypothesized that excess BAFF would accelerate atherosclerosis. In contrast, BAFF overexpression markedly reduced hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis in hyperlipidemic mice. BAFF-mediated atheroprotection required B cells and was associated with increased protective anti-oxLDL IgM. Surprisingly, high–titer anti-oxLDL IgM production and reduced atherosclerosis was dependent on the BAFF family receptor transmembrane activator and CAML interactor. In summary, we identified a novel role for B cell–specific, BAFF-dependent transmembrane activator and CAML interactor signals in atherosclerosis pathogenesis, of particular relevance to the use of BAFF-targeted therapies in systemic lupus erythematosus.
Validity of overall self-rated health as an outcome measure in small samples: a pilot study involving a case series.

OBJECTIVE A single-item measure of overall self-rated health (SRH) commonly is used in population surveys, but has not been used in small pilot projects. The purpose of this study was to assess the validity of SRH in small samples. DESIGN We used data from a prospective, observational weight-loss project to compare change in SRH with change in body weight and physical activity (PA) (minutes) over 30 days (n = 34). Body mass index at baseline ranged from 25.5 to 50.4 (mean = 36.1, median = 34.6). SRH was self-assessed using the following question: How would you rate your health overall? Results An increase in weight was associated with a reduction in SRH (r = 0.37, P = 0.03). An increase in PA was associated with improved SRH (r = 0.39, P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS A single-item SRH measure may be an efficient method for measuring programme outcomes, and may also be useful for comparing the relative effectiveness of different programmes in pilot projects and quality improvement studies.
Applications of polarimetric interferometric ground-based SAR (GB-SAR) system to environment monitoring and disaster prevention

Polarimetric and interferometric ground-based synthetic aperture radar (Pol-GB-SAR, In-GB-SAR) system has been developed. In this paper, two measurements of outdoor test sites in polarimetric and interferometric configurations are introduced and results are presented. In the developed In-GB-SAR system, the technique of differential interferometry is used to detect small changes at different times and under different conditions. Experimental results demonstrate that the system is very efficient and can detect small changes of the scale of 2 cm at the range distance of 5 m. Polarimetric analysis was done using the Pol-GB-SAR system with a coniferous tree as a target. The system has superior ability in polarimetric applications. Applying polarimetric and interferometric analysis which were developed for spaceborne and satellite radar remote sensing datasets, we can find detailed scattering mechanisms and detect deformations. The GB-SAR has a wide range of applications like environmental monitoring, resources management as well as monitoring of different natural phenomena
Increasing the Size of the Pie: The Impact of Crowding on Nonprofit Sector Resources

Abstract The number of nonprofit organizations is rapidly increasing, which has led nonprofit practitioners to complain of funding scarcity, nonprofit scholars to closely study nonprofit competition, and policymakers to consider increasing nonprofit barriers to entry. Underlying each of these perspectives is an assumption of limited financial resources. We empirically examine this assumption using county-level panel data on nonprofit human services organizations from the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Contrary to the limited resources assumption, our fixed-effects models show that increasing nonprofit density, at its current levels, has the effect of increasing sector financial resources in each county. We suggest that these findings prompt a tradeoff for policymakers. A sector with free market entry results in a nonprofit sector with more, smaller nonprofits, but such a sector may have the capacity to serve more people because it has more total sector financial resources. Conversely, a sector with higher barriers to entry would translate to a sector with fewer, larger nonprofits with less overall capacity due to fewer sector financial resources.
Managing Micro Vms In Amazon Ec2

Micro instances (t1.micro) are the class of Amazon EC2 virtual machines (VMs) offering the lowest operational costs for applications with short bursts in their CPU requirements. As processing proceeds, EC2 throttles CPU capacity of micro instances in a complex, unpredictable, manner. This thesis aims at making micro instances more predictable and efficient to use. First, we present a characterization of EC2 micro instances that evaluates the complex interactions between cost, performance, idleness and CPU throttling. Next, we define adaptive algorithms to manage CPU consumption by learning the workload characteristics at runtime and by injecting idleness to diminish host-level throttling. Experimental results show that a gradient-hill strategy leads to favorable results. For CPU bound workloads, we observe that a significant portion of jobs (up to 65%) can have end-to-end times that are even four times shorter than those of the more expensive m1.small class. Our algorithms drastically reduce the long tails of job execution times on the micro instances, resulting to favorable comparisons against even small instances. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ii
The negative correlation between testosterone levels and age in healthy Indonesian men residing in the special capital province of Jakarta, Indonesia

Background: Testosterone levels in the circulation determined by production and secretion by Leydig cell in the testes. The action mechanism of testosterone to target cells mediated by sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). The levels of testosterone and SHBG in circulation determine men's health. The objective in this study to know the relationship between testosterone, SHBG and insulin with age in healthy Indonesian men residing in the special capital province of Jakarta, Indonesia. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study involving 250 healthy Indonesian men residing in the special capital province of Jakarta, Indonesia. Consecutive sampling was done in this study. Testosterone, SHBG and insulin in the serum were measured by immunoradiometric assay (IRMA). Glucose, triglycerides and albumin were measured using a spectrophotometer. Regression analysis was done to know the correlation between testosterone, SHBG and insulin with age. Results: The levels of TT, free testosterone (FT), SHBG and percentage of free testosterone (%FT) in healthy Indonesian men were negatively correlated with age (p<0.05). Free testosterone index (FTI) and insulin are not correlated with age (p>0.05). The levels of SHBG, FT, %FT and FTI were correlated positively with TT (p<0.05), but insulin did not correlate with TT (p>0.05). The %FT and FTI were positively correlated with FT (p<0.05), but SHBG and insulin levels did not correlate with FT (p>0.05). SHBG levels are not correlated with insulin (p>0.05). The rate of decline in TT levels in this study 9.8% per decade, while in SHBG levels 8.19% per decade. Conclusions: The levels of TT, FT, % FT and SHBG in this study were negatively correlated with age, but the FTI and insulin did not correlate with age. The rate of decline in TT levels in this study 9.8% per decade, while in SHBG levels 8.19% per decade.
Intracellular Location of Thymidylate Synthase and Its State of Phosphorylation*

Thymidylate synthase (TS), an enzyme that is essential for DNA synthesis, was found to be associated mainly with the nucleolar region of H35 rat hepatoma cells, as determined both by immunogold electron microscopy and by autoradiography. In the latter case, the location of TS was established through the use of [6-3H]5-fluorodeoxyuridine, which forms a tight ternary complex of TS with 5-fluorodeoxyuridylate (FdUMP) and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolylpolyglutamate within the cell. However, with H35 cells containing 50–100-fold greater amounts of TS than unmodified H35 cells, the enzyme, although still in the nucleus, was located primarily in the cytoplasm as shown by autoradiography and immunohistochemistry. In addition, TS was also present in mitochondrial extracts of both cell lines, as determined by enzyme activity measurements and by ternary complex formation with [32P]FdUMP and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate. Another unique observation is that the enzyme appears to be a phosphoprotein, similar to that found for other proteins associated with cell division and signal transduction. The significance of these findings relative to the role of TS in cell division remains to be determined, but suggest that this enzyme’s contribution to the cell cycle may be more complex than believed previously.
"Terrific, You Did It!" The Influence of Feedback on a Crowdsourcing Participant's Satisfaction

As markets are changing, companies are looking for the most efficient and most effective ways to discover how they can innovate in order to maintain a competitive advantage. In particular, crowdsourcing has grown in popularity due to the increasing ability of firms to be able to reach the public. Since mass communication has exploded with Web 2.0 technology, crowdsourcing has become an effective tool for firms to utilize the public to help the firm create new innovations. Researchers have explored how to obtain participants as well as how to achieve the best results with those that wish to participate. Therefore, research has been heavily focused on how to improve the crowdsourcing process for the firm but what it has not studied is how to improve the process for the participants. In this study, I aim to analyze how to improve crowdsourcing in a manner that will increase the participant’s satisfaction with the crowdsourcing event. Specifically, I am focusing on how different forms of feedback can be implemented by the host of the event in order to enhance the satisfaction of their participants with the event. An experiment was conducted in order to empirically test how different forms of feedback have an effect on a participant’s satisfaction toward a crowdsourcing event. This thesis contains the results and analysis of a crowdsourcing experiment looking at the effects of the valence of feedback, timing of feedback, and the privacy of feedback on the participant’s satisfaction toward the event. Positive valence of feedback and potentially the early timing of the feedback, have a significant and nearly significant positive effect on a participant’s satisfaction toward a crowdsourcing event.
Characteristics of central 5-HT receptors and their adaptive changes following intracerebral 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine administration in the rat.

Lysed synaptosomal (P 2 ) fractions from adult rat brain were extensively washed and incubated in such a way that most bound 5-HT was eliminated. These membranes contained a high affinity ( K d = 1.6 nM) binding site for [ 3 H]5-HT that exhibited the expected properties of a specific receptor of 5-HT. In particular, known agonists and antagonists of 5-HT in the central nervous system inhibited the binding of [ 3 H]5-HT to synaptosomal membranes with IC 50 values ranging between 5 nM (metergoline) and 2.18 µM (MK-212). The slopes of logit-log competitive inhibition plots of [ 3 H]5-HT binding by various drugs including an agonist (quipazine) and several antagonists (methiothepin, mianserine) were less than 1.0 suggesting possible negative cooperativity. This did not occur with 5-HT itself since the Hill coefficient of [ 3 H]5-HT binding was not significantly different than one. Chemical lesioning of serotoninergic neurons by the intracerebral injection of 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-HT) resulted in a significant increase in the number of high affinity binding sites for [ 3 H]5-HT in the hippocampus (+39%) but not in the striatum 18 days after the injection. This change was first detected on the 8th day after 5,7-HT treatment (+25%) when 5-HT levels in the hippocampus were decreased by 80% as compared with normal adult values. Neither the affinity nor the Hill coefficient of [ 3 H]5-HT binding, nor the characteristics of the binding sites for [ 3 H]dihydroalprenolol (a beta -noradrenergic antagonist) and [ 3 H]haloperidol (a DA antagonist) in the hippocampus and the striatum, respectively, were altered by 5,7-HT treatment. These findings are discussed in relation to the reported behavioral evidence for supersensitivity toward 5-HT agonists in 5,7-HT-treated animals.
Phagocytosis Does Not Play a Major Role in Naturally Acquired Transmission-Blocking Immunity to Plasmodium falciparum Malaria

ABSTRACT Phagocytosis of Plasmodium falciparum sexual stages in vitro and within the mosquito midgut was assayed in order to assess its role in transmission-blocking immunity to malaria. Both monocytes/macrophages (MM) and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) phagocytosed malarial gametes in vitro, but levels of phagocytosis were low. Intraerythrocytic gametocytes were not susceptible to phagocytosis. In vitro phagocytosis was positively correlated with levels of antibodies against the gamete surface proteins Pfs230 and Pfs48/45. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclass analysis revealed that phagocytosis was correlated with levels of antigamete IgG1. In vivo membrane-feeding experiments were performed in the presence of both pooled and individual malaria immune sera. The phagocytic process proceeded less efficiently in vivo than in vitro, which may be related to the lower ambient temperature (26°C, compared with 37°C). Finally, although we found a correlation between the ability of a serum to promote phagocytosis in vitro and the presence of antibodies against transmission-blocking target antigens, we were unable to demonstrate a role for MM- or PMN-mediated phagocytosis in reduction of infectivity of the malarial parasite to mosquitoes.
Travel Data Collection: Developing an Android Smartphone Application

Travel data collection refers to the data collected as someone travels and generates a list of trips, destinations, purpose, modes of transportation, company, departure, arrival times, and route choice. Travel data has been used to create a travel demand model which is a useful instrument to create new transportation policies. It has also put into effect to see how current transportation policies affect air quality and to gain a better understanding of how and why people travel. Our research studies the development of a cutting-edge travel data collection device by taking advantage of the wide availability of smartphones. An Android smartphone application (app) will be developed using Eclipse app development software. This app will detect longitudinal/latitudinal coordinates, exact time for those coordinates, store and then send these collected data to a server to be plotted onto Google Earth, where the trips will be visualized. We will use various software programs to convert the text file stored on the phone's memory into a format that can be plotted onto Google Earth. Currently, an Android app has been developed that detects and stores coordinates on the internal memory. An R script has been written to convert coordinates stored in comma separated value (CSV) format into a keyhole markup language (KML) file and display coordinates in Google Earth. A server has been set up and the connection between the App and the server is currently being made. This study focuses on the development of a smartphone application, setting up an appropriate server, and ensuring that the application is both battery efficient and runs as a background service.
CHD1 Regulates Deposition of Histone Variant H3.3 During Bovine Early Embryonic Development

ABSTRACT The CHD family of proteins is characterized by the presence of chromodomains and SNF2-related helicase/ATPase domains, which alter gene expression by modification of chromatin structure. Chd1-null embryos arrest at the peri-implantation stage in mice. However, the functional role of CHD1 during preimplantation development remains unclear, given maternal-derived CHD1 may mask the essential role of CHD1 during this stage in traditional knockout models. The objective of this study was to characterize CHD1 expression and elucidate its functional role in preimplantation development using the bovine model. CHD1 mRNA was elevated after meiotic maturation and remained increased through the 16-cell stage, followed by a sharp decrease at morula to blastocyst stage. Similarly, immunoblot analysis indicated CHD1 protein level is increased after maturation, maintained at high level after fertilization and declined sharply afterwards. CHD1 mRNA level was partially decreased in response to alpha-amanitin (RNA polymerase II inhibitor) treatment, suggesting that CHD1 mRNA in eight-cell embryos is of both maternal and zygotic origin. Results of siRNA-mediated silencing of CHD1 in bovine early embryos demonstrated that the percentages of embryos developing to the 8- to 16-cell and blastocyst stages were both significantly reduced. However, expression of NANOG (inner cell mass marker) and CDX2 (trophectoderm marker) were not affected in CHD1 knockdown blastocysts. In addition, we found that histone variant H3.3 immunostaining is altered in CHD1 knockdown embryos. Knockdown of H3.3 using siRNA resulted in a similar phenotype to CHD1-ablated embryos. Collectively, our results demonstrate that CHD1 is required for bovine early development, and suggest that CHD1 may regulate H3.3 deposition during this period.
Efficacy of a global supportive skin care programme with hydrotherapy after non‐metastatic breast cancer treatment: A randomised, controlled study

This study investigated the efficacy of post-treatment hydrotherapy as supportive care for management of persistent/long-lasting dermatologic adverse events (dAEs) induced in breast cancer survivors by adjuvant therapy, and its impact on quality of life (QoL). Patients in complete remission after standardised (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy combination treatment for infiltrating HR+/HER2-breast carcinoma were enrolled in this randomised, multicentre controlled study 1-5 weeks after completing radiotherapy. The control group (CG, n = 33) received best supportive care and the treatment group (HG, n = 35) received 3-weeks of specific hydrotherapy. The primary criterion was change in QoL (QLQ-BR23) after hydrotherapy. Clinical grading of dAEs, cancer-related QoL (QLQ-C30), dermatologic QoL (DLQI) and general psychological well-being (PGWBI) were assessed. Significant dAEs were found at inclusion in both groups (n = 261). Most items showed significantly greater improvement in the HG versus CG group: QLQ-BR23 (breast [p = .0001] and arm symptoms [p = .0015], systemic therapy side effects [p = .0044], body image [p = .0139]), some dAE grading, DLQI (p = .0002) and PGWBI (p = .0028). Xerosis (88% of patients at inclusion) completely healed in all HG patients. Specific hydrotherapy is an effective supportive care for highly prevalent and long-lasting dAEs occurring after early breast cancer treatment, including chemotherapy, and leads to improved QoL and dermatologic toxicities.
05 12 27 7 v 2 11 J an 2 00 6 Instability of non-supersymmetric smooth geometries

Recently certain non-supersymmetric solutions of type IIb supergravity were constructed [1], which are everywhere smooth, have no horizons and are thought to describe certain non-BPS microstates of the D1-D5 system. We demonstrate that these solutions are all classically unstable. The instability is a generic feature of horizonless geometries with an ergoregion. We consider the endpoint of this instability and argue that the solutions decay to supersymmetric configurations. We also comment on the implications of the ergoregion instability for Mathur’s ‘fuzzball’ proposal.
Community Grid Management Under the View of Griders: Problems and Countermeasures- Based on the Study of Grid Management in Haikou

The urban community grid management is a kind of social management innovation and represents the future development of China's urban management. It put forward in the background of the increasingly complicated urban management and the increasingly diversity of public demand. This paper takes the grid management of Haikou as a sample, using a combination of methods which included literature, questionnaires, and interviews. The grider as a "street bureaucratic", they have a unique feeling for grid management. Therefore, this paper chooses the griders' feelings of Haikou City's grid management as an analytical perspective. Through the investigation, the author finds that the community grid management in Haikou has some problems such as work cognitive bias, legal status embarrassment, poor management system, overload management matters and public participation consciousness. In the end, the author gives targeted countermeasures and suggestions. Keywords: Grider; Community; Grid management; Haikou
An FPGA Connect6 Solver with a two-stage pipelined evaluation

Recently, immediately following invention of a Connect6 game, many game programs were developed aggressively. However, because the solution space of the Connect6 game is extremely large, the computation powers of current computers are quite insufficient to search all possible solutions. This paper therefore presents a proposal of a field programmable gate array (FPGA) Connect6 Solver with a two-stage pipelined evaluation exploiting numerous zero-evaluation functions to evaluate only a zero value and a small number of detailed evaluation functions which can evaluate all range. The FPGA Connect6 Solver implemented onto a Cyclone IV FPGA is able to defeat target software provided by the 2011 International Conference on Field-Programmable Technology (ICFPT) within the time limit of 1 s for each turn. In addition, the FPGA Connect6 Solver can defeat another JAVA-based software program with a similar algorithm. At that time, the operation speed of the FPGA Connect6 Solver is 764.2 times higher than that of the software operating on a personal computer (Vostro 220S; Dell Inc.) with a 3.16 GHz, Core 2 Duo processor (Intel Corp.).
Coronary Collaterals in Obese Patients: Impact of Metabolic Syndrome

Obesity is a growing pandemic. Among obese patients with significant coronary artery stenosis, development of coronary collaterals was investigated. Consecutive 104 obese patients with stable angina pectoris were enrolled. Coronary collaterals were assessed according to the Cohen and Rentrop grading system and classified into 2 as those with poor collaterals (grade 0-1, Group 1) and those with good collaterals (grade 2-3, Group 2). Group 1 had higher body mass index, shorter duration of angina pectoris than Group 2. Poor collaterals were present in 82.3% and 59.5% of patients with and without (P = .019) metabolic syndrome, respectively. Metabolic syndrome score (sum of each component) was found to be negatively correlated with Rentrop score (r = —691; P < .001). After controlling for symptom duration and body mass index, metabolic syndrome kept independent association with poor collaterals among obese patients (P = .043, B = 1.8). Metabolic syndrome appears to influence the development of coronary collaterals among obese patients with stable coronary artery disease.