Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Zebrafish as a model for the study of neutrophil biology

To understand inflammation and immunity, we need to understand the biology of the neutrophil. Whereas these cells can readily be extracted from peripheral blood, their short lifespan makes genetic manipulations impractical. Murine knockout models have been highly informative, and new imaging techniques are allowing neutrophils to be seen during inflammation in vivo for the first time. However, there is a place for a new model of neutrophil biology, which readily permits imaging of individual neutrophils during inflammation in vivo, combined with the ease of genetic and chemical manipulation. The zebrafish has long been the model of choice for the developmental biology community, and the availability of genomic resources and tools for gene manipulation makes this an attractive model. Zebrafish innate immunity shares many features with mammalian systems, including neutrophils with morphological, biochemical, and functional features, also shared with mammalian neutrophils. Transgenic zebrafish with neutrophils specifically labeled with fluorescent proteins have been generated, and this advance has led to the adoption of zebrafish, alongside existing models, by a number of groups around the world. The use of these models has underpinned a number of key advances in the field, including the identification of a tissue gradient of hydrogen peroxide for neutrophil recruitment following tissue injury and direct evidence for reverse migration as a regulatable mechanism of inflammation resolution. In this review, we discuss the importance of zebrafish models in neutrophil biology and describe how the understanding of neutrophil biology has been advanced by the use of these models.
Novel multiparameter approach for measurement of nociception at skin incision during general anaesthesia.

BACKGROUND Direct indicators for the evaluation of the nociceptive-anti-nociceptive balance during general anaesthesia do not exist. The aim of this study was to combine physiological parameters to obtain such an indicator. METHODS Fifty-five females scheduled for surgery under general anaesthesia combining target-controlled infusions of propofol and remifentanil were studied. Propofol was given to maintain state entropy (SE) at 50 and remifentanil was targeted at 1, 3 or 5 ng ml(-1). The patients' reactions and clinical signs of nociception, remifentanil levels and estimation of noxious intensity of incision were combined into a clinical score [Clinical Signs-Stimulus-Antinociception (CSSA)] to evaluate the nociceptive-anti-nociceptive balance. ECG, photoplethysmography (PPG), response entropy (RE) and SE were recorded from 60 s before to 120 s after skin incision. Differences between post- and pre-incision values of heart rate variability (HRV), PPG and pulse transition time related parameters were analysed off-line to evidence the best predictors of CSSA. Those best predictors of CSSA served to develop a response index of nociception (RN), scaled from 0 to 100. This index was further tested in 10 additional patients. RESULTS HRV, RE, RE-SE and PPG variability were the best predictors of CSSA. The prediction probability of RN at predicting CSSA was 0.78. RN response was higher after larger incision, in movers and with lower remifentanil concentrations. CONCLUSIONS The empirically developed algorithm of RN leads to an index that seems to adequately estimate the nociceptive-anti-nociceptive balance at skin incision during general anaesthesia. In the future, CSSA may serve as a reference for studies investigating methods aimed at evaluating this pharmacodynamic component of anaesthesia.
Are Capital Inflows Expansionary or Contractionary in the Philippines?

This paper sets out to assess whether gross capital inflows to the Philippines are expansionary or contractionary in line with the model predictions and empirical findings of Blanchard et al. (2015). The results indicate that gross inflows are expansionary to output and credit growth. But contrary to the model predictions and empirical findings of Blanchard et al. (2015), we find that private bond inflows to the Philippines are expansionary. Bond inflows may have expansionary impact on output and credit growth if the exchange rate is managed, if the domestic capital market is underdeveloped, if the country receives small bond inflows, and if proceeds from debt issuance are channelled to productive investments. Similar to Blanchard et al. (2015), non-bond inflows have a positive overall impact on output and credit growth despite receiving relatively small foreign direct investment inflows.
50-Gb/s Silicon Optical Modulator

Optical modulators formed in silicon are the keystone to many low cost optical applications. Increasing the data rate of the modulator benefits the efficiency of channel usage and decreases power consumption per bit of data. Silicon-based modulators which operate via carrier depletion have to the present been demonstrated at data rates up to 40 Gb/s; however, here we present for the first time optical modulation at 50 Gb/s with a 3.1-dB extinction ratio obtained from carrier depletion based phase shifter incorporated in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A corresponding optical insertion loss of approximately 7.4 dB is measured.
Minimal sensor integrity in sensor grids

Given the increasing importance of optimal sensor deployment for battlefield strategists, the converse problem of reacting to a particular deployment by an enemy is equally significant and not yet addressed in a quantifiable manner in the literature. We address this issue by modeling a two stage game in which the opponent deploys sensors to cover a sensor field and we attempt to maximally reduce his coverage at minimal cost. In this context, we introduce the concept of minimal sensor integrity which measures Me vulnerability of any sensor deployment. We find the best response by quantifying the merits of each response. While the problem of optimally deploying sensors subject to coverage constraints is NP-complete, in this paper we show that the best response (i.e. the maximum vulnerability) can be computed in polynomial time for sensors with arbitrary coverage capabilities deployed over points in any dimensional space. In the special case when sensor coverages form an interval graph (as in a linear grid), we describe a better O(Min(M/sup 2/, NM)) dynamic programming algorithm.
A systematic review of the diagnosis of occupational asthma.

BACKGROUND This study systematically reviews literature regarding the diagnosis of occupational asthma (OA) and compares specific inhalation challenge (SIC) testing with alternative tests. METHODS Electronic databases and trials registries were searched; additional references were identified from bibliographic searches of included studies, hand searches of conferences, and author contacts. Various study designs (clinical trials, cohorts, cross-sectional, or case series) were included involving workers with suspected OA. All diagnostic tests were compared to a "reference standard," and two researchers independently extracted 2 x 2 data. Pooled sensitivities and specificities (95% confidence intervals [CIs]) were derived. RESULTS Seventy-seven studies were included. For high molecular weight (HMW) agents, the nonspecific bronchial provocation (NSBP) test, skin-prick test (SPT), and serum-specific IgE had sensitivities > 73% when compared to SIC. Specificity was highest for specific IgE vs SIC (79.0%; 95% CI, 50.5 to 93.3%). The highest sensitivity among low molecular weight asthmagens occurred between combined NSBP and SPT vs SIC (100%; 95% CI, 74.1 to 100%). When compared to SIC, specific IgE and SPT had similar specificities (88.9%; 95% CI, 84.7 to 92.1%; and 86.2%; 95% CI, 77.4 to 91.9%, respectively). For HMW agents, high specificity was demonstrated for positive NSBP tests and SPTs alone (82.5%; 95% CI, 54.0 to 95.0%) or when combined with specific IgE (74.3%; 95% CI, 45.0 to 91.0%) vs SIC. Sensitivity was somewhat lower (60.6% and 65.2%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS In appropriate clinical situations when SIC is not available, the combination of a NSBP test with a specific SPT or specific IgE may be an appropriate alternative to SIC in diagnosing OA. While positive results of single NSBP test, specific SPT, or serum-specific IgE testing would increase the likelihood of OA, a negative result could not exclude OA.
Robust Correspondence Detection by L2E Estimator for Retinal Image Registration

Establishing reliable correspondences is often challenging for retinal image registration with poor quality and low overlap. The conventional local search methods usually find many incorrect correspondences by feature descriptor, which would degrade the accuracy of image registration. In this paper, we propose a robust correspondence detection framework for low overlap and poor quality retinal image registration. Specifically, coherent spatial criterion is utilized to remove the false correspondences based on the initial matches in the first hierarchical. And the L2-minimizing estimator is used for further hierarchical discarding significant fraction of outliers and estimating the transformation parameters to align the retinal images by affine model and quadratic model. Since such fitting inliers can be used to preserve the significant correspondences between the fixed image and to-be-aligned image with low overlap, it becomes more efficient to obtain accurate transformation. Through quantitative measurements and visual inspect, our proposed method shows the superior robustness and accuracy to the state-of-the-art methods.
Resilience and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity under acute stress in young men

The present study examined the relationship between resilience (measured using the Resilience Scale for Adults) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity. We examined the subjective and cortisol responses of 28 healthy young men to an acute stressor (public speech task). Eight saliva samples were collected in order to obtain the response curve (anticipation, reactivity, recuperation) for each subject. ANOVA indicated that highly resilient individuals tended to display less mood deterioration than less resilient individuals (marginal ptime × group interaction = 0.075). They also revealed that the former tended to secrete less cortisol overall than the latter during the experiment (marginal pmain group effect = 0.087) but this effect was not uniform across time (ptime × group interaction = 0.029). Additional analyses performed to identify the source of this interaction revealed that resilience moderates cortisol secretion in anticipation of the stressor (i.e. highly resilient individuals secreted less cortisol than less resilient ones, p = 0.05) but that it is not conductive to lower HPA reactivity amidst stress (i.e. there was no difference between groups in the increase in cortisol secretion from baseline to peak). The recovery slopes were likewise not statistically different. The implications of these findings regarding health are discussed.
Molecular mechanisms of calcium signaling in the modulation of small intestinal ion transports and bicarbonate secretion

Background and Purpose: Although Ca2+ signaling may stimulate small intestinal ion secretion, little is known about its critical role and the molecular mechanisms of Ca2+-mediated biological action. Key Results Activation of muscarinic receptors by carbachol(CCh) stimulated mouse duodenal Isc, which was significantly inhibited in Ca2+-free serosal solution and by several selective store-operated Ca2+ channels(SOC) blockers added to the serosal side of duodenal tissues. Furthermore, we found that CRAC/Orai channels may represent the molecular candidate of SOC in intestinal epithelium. CCh increased intracellular Ca2+ but not cAMP, and Ca2+ signaling mediated duodenal Cl- and HCO3- secretion in wild type mice but not in CFTR knockout mice. CCh induced duodenal ion secretion and stimulated PI3K/Akt activity in duodenal epithelium, all of which were inhibited by selective PI3K inhibitors with different structures. CCh-induced Ca2+ signaling also stimulated the phosphorylation of CFTR proteins and their trafficking to the plasma membrane of duodenal epithelial cells, which were inhibited again by selective PI3K inhibitors. Materials and Methods Functional, biochemical and morphological experiments were performed to examine ion secretion, PI3K/Akt and CFTR activity of mouse duodenal epithelium. Ca2+ imaging was performed on HT-29 cells. Conclusions and Implications Ca2+ signaling plays a critical role in intestinal ion secretion via CRAC/Orai-mediated SOCE mechanism on the serosal side of epithelium. We also demonstrated the molecular mechanisms of Ca2+ signaling in CFTR-mediated secretion via novel PI3K/Akt pathway. Our findings suggest new perspectives for drug targets to protect the upper GI tract and control liquid homeostasis in the small intestine.
Homogenous panel unit root tests under nonstationary volatility

Noting that many economic variables display occasional shifts in their second order moments, we investigate the performance of homogenous panel unit root tests in the presence of permanent volatility shifts. It is shown that in this case, panel unit root tests derived under time invariant variances lose control over actual signiflcance levels while the test proposed by Herwartz and Siedenburg (2008) retains size control. The wild bootstrap is suggested as a general means to overcome the di-culties associated with both, cross sectional dependence and time varying volatility. As an empirical illustration, we reassess evidence on the Fisher hypothesis.
Long tail and small world characteristic of mobile internet traffic dynamics

With the wide spread of user-friendly mobile devices and applications, the broadband cellular network experiences a pronounced growth of traffic volume, and consumes a large amount of energy. To cope with these two challenges, it is important to understand the resource usage of base stations, which is the first step to manage the radio spectrum resources and network infrastructure efficiently. In this paper, we first use the Pearson's correlation to measure the dependency between base stations on the time variance of traffic load, which is the most direct pattern of resource usage in the cellular data network. By concentrating the analysis on relatively higher linear dependency between base stations, we construct a network in which the vertex and edge represents the base station and significant correlation of traffic dynamic between base stations, respectively. We characterize it in a way of weighted network, and considering the spatial deployment of base stations as well. Our findings are interesting and valuable. Specifically, such a network shows a “long tail” degree distribution, “small world” phenomenon and low modularity. And the spatial deployment of base stations has significant impact to the edge weight, rather than the topology.
Autonomic Nervous System Activation During Social Cognition Tasks in Patients With Schizophrenia and Their Unaffected Relatives

Objective:The objective of the study was to determine whether patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected first-degree relatives have abnormal autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to social cognition tasks. Background:Social cognition impairments are significant in schizophrenia. ANS activity has been shown to be abnormal in schizophrenia patients, and some of the abnormalities seem to be shared by patients’ unaffected relatives. Method:Heart rate variability (HRV) was measured at rest and during social cognition tasks, in patients with schizophrenia, their nonpsychotic first-degree relatives, and matched healthy controls (n=19 in each group). Results:Social cognition tasks induced a shortening of the RR interval in unaffected relatives, but not in patients. Social cognition tasks generated decreases in high-frequency (indicating cardiac vagal activity) and low-frequency (reflecting predominantly sympathetic activity) HRV in patients. In relatives, the decrease occurred in the high-frequency component only. Low-frequency HRV was higher in patients during a theory of mind task than a control task. These changes were not observed in the controls. Conclusions:Social cognitive tasks induce a pattern of peripheral autonomic activity different from that seen in generic arousal responses, and this pattern is abnormal in schizophrenia patients. Autonomic abnormalities in unaffected first-degree relatives seem restricted to the parasympathetic division of the ANS.
Use of paleontological and molecular data in supertrees for comparative studies: the example of lissamphibian femoral microanatomy

A new method to assemble time‐calibrated supertrees is able to incorporate paleontological and molecular dates. This method, along with new branch length transformations, is implemented in the Stratigraphic Tools for Mesquite. It was used here to analyse a dataset on bone microanatomy, body size and habitat of 46 species of lissamphibians through a variety of methods (Felsenstein independent contrasts, variance partition with phylogenetic eigenvector regression, discriminant analyses and simple regressions). Our analyses showed that the new methods can produce adequate standardization for several characters on a tree whose branch lengths can represent evolutionary time. The analyses confirmed previous conclusions about the presence of an ecological signal in bone microanatomical data.
Examining the business case and models for sustainable multifunctional edible landscaping enterprises in the Phoenix metro area

This study assesses whether multifunctional edible landscaping business models provide a sufficient business case at enterprise and city scales to justify widespread implementation. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four landscaping entrepreneurs, and the information obtained from the interviews was utilized to carry out a business model comparison with the Business Model Canvas framework. The comparison showed that the landscaping enterprises using multifunctional edible landscaping methods possessed a greater range of value propositions and revenue streams, enhancing their competitive advantage. Second, a GIS landscape analysis of seven Phoenix metro area cities was carried out to identify landscapes that were suited for becoming multifunctional edible landscapes. The GIS analysis identified single family residential, residential recreational open space, municipal parks, and municipal schools as being suitable landscapes, and that the area of these landscapes in the seven cities exceeded 180,000 acres. Third, scenarios were created using interview and GIS data to estimate potential value creation and return on investment of implementing multifunctional edible landscaping in the cities of interest. The scenarios found that the potential value creation of edible landscaping ranged between $3.9 and $66 billion, and that positive return on investment (ROI) could be achieved in 11 out of 12 scenarios within one to five years. Finally, the paper concludes by discussing potential long-term implications of implementing multifunctional edible urban landscaping, as well as possible future directions for multifunctional landscaping business model development and research.
Design and Implementation of Dual-Arm Robot with Homogeneous Compliant Joint

Safety is essential for physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI). Nowadays, most safety studies have focused on collision analysis and safety evaluation instead of the consideration of inherent safety. In this paper, a dual-arm robot easily manufactured in batch is developed with homogeneous compliant joint. In order to compromise performance and safety, a nonlinear model of human-robot collision with effective mass and stiffness at the end-effecter(EE) is described and simulated to determine the tradeoff conditions under the safety criterion by ISO 15066 when human-robot collision occurs, and modal analysis on a single arm is carried out to compute the lowest order modal frequency by which kinematic performance is estimated roughly. Finally, spring stiffness of the compliant joint is selected to balance safety requirement and performance.
Active Nuclear Import and Export Pathways Regulate E2F-5 Subcellular Localization*

Epidermal keratinocyte differentiation is accompanied by differential regulation of E2F genes, including up-regulation of E2F-5 and its concomitant association with the retinoblastoma family protein p130. This complex appears to play a role in irreversible withdrawal from the cell cycle in differentiating keratinocytes. We now report that keratinocyte differentiation is also accompanied by changes in E2F-5 subcellular localization, from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. To define the molecular determinants of E2F-5 nuclear import, we tested its ability to enter the nucleus in import assays in vitro using digitonin-permeabilized cells. We found that E2F-5 enters the nucleus through mediated transport processes that involve formation of nuclear pore complexes. It has been proposed that E2F-4 and E2F-5, which lack defined nuclear localization signal (NLS) consensus sequences, enter the nucleus in association with NLS-containing DP-2 or pRB family proteins. However, we show that nuclear import of E2F-5 only requires the first N-terminal 56 amino acid residues and is not dependent on interaction with DP or pRB family proteins. Because E2F-5 is predominantly cytoplasmic in undifferentiated keratinocytes and in other intact cells, we also examined whether this protein is subjected to active nuclear export. Indeed, E2F-5 is exported from the nucleus through leptomycin B-sensitive, CRM1-mediated transport, through a region corresponding to amino acid residues 130–154. This region excludes the DNA- and the p130-binding domains. Thus, the subcellular distribution of E2F-5 is tightly regulated in intact cells, through multiple functional domains that direct nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of this protein.
Abnormal RNA structures (RNA foci) containing a penta‐nucleotide repeat (UGGAA)n in the Purkinje cell nucleus is associated with spinocerebellar ataxia type 31 pathogenesis

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 31 (SCA31) is an autosomal‐dominant cerebellar ataxia showing a Purkinje cell (PC)‐predominant neurodegeneration in humans. The mutation is a complex penta‐nucleotide repeat containing (TGGAA)n, (TAGAA)n, (TAAAA)n and (TAGAATAAAA)n inserted in an intron shared by two different genes BEAN1 and TK2 located in the long arm of the human chromosome 16. Previous studies have shown that (TGGAA)n is the critical component of SCA31 pathogenesis while the three other repeats, also present in normal Japanese, are not essential. Importantly, it has been shown that BEAN1 and TK2 are transcribed in mutually opposite directions in the human brain. Furthermore, abnormal RNA structures called “RNA foci” are observed by a probe against (UAGAAUAAAA)n in SCA31 patients' PC nuclei, indicating that the BEAN1‐direction mutant transcript appears instrumental for the pathogenesis. However, it is not known whether the critical repeat (TGGAA)n contributes to the formation of RNA foci, neither do we understand how the RNA foci formation is relevant to the pathogenesis. To address these issues, we investigated two SCA31 cerebella by fluorescence in situ hybridization using a probe against (UGGAA)n. We also asked whether the mutant BEAN1‐transcript containing (UGGAA)n exerts toxicity compared to the other three repeats in cultured cells. Histopathologically, we confirm that the PC is the main target of SCA31 pathogenesis. We find that the RNA foci containing (UGGAA)n are indeed observed in PC nuclei of both SCA31 patients, whereas similar foci were not observed in control individuals. In both transiently and stably expressed cultured cell models, we also find that the mutation transcribed in the BEAN1‐direction yields more toxicity than control transcripts and forms RNA foci detected with probes against (UGGAA)n and (UAGAAUAAAA)n. Taking these findings together, we conclude that the RNA foci containing BEAN1‐direction transcript (UGGAA)n are associated with PC degeneration in SCA31.