Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Control of Ca 2 1 wave propagation in mouse pancreatic acinar cells

Pfeiffer, Fatima, Lutz Sternfeld, Andreas Schmid, and Irene Schulz. Control of Ca21 wave propagation in mouse pancreatic acinar cells. Am. J. Physiol. 274 (Cell Physiol. 43): C663–C672, 1998. —We have investigated control mechanisms involved in the propagation of agonistinduced Ca21 waves in isolated mouse pancreatic acinar cells. Using a confocal laser-scanning microscope, we were able to show that maximal stimulation of cells with acetylcholine (ACh, 500 nM) or bombesin (1 nM) caused an initial Ca21 release of comparable amounts with both agonists at the luminal cell pole. Subsequent Ca21 spreading to the basolateral membrane was faster with ACh (17.3 6 5.4 μm/s) than with bombesin (8.0 6 2.2 μm/s). The speed of bombesininduced Ca21 waves could be increased up to the speed of ACh-induced Ca21 waves by inhibition of protein kinase C (PKC). Activation of PKC significantly decreased the speed of ACh-induced Ca21 waves but had only little effect on bombesin-evoked Ca21 waves. Within 3 s after stimulation, production of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate [Ins(1,4,5)P3] was higher in the presence of ACh compared with bombesin, whereas bombesin induced higher levels of diacylglycerol (DAG) than ACh. These data suggest that the slower propagation speed of bombesin-induced Ca21 waves is due to higher activation of PKC in the presence of bombesin compared with ACh. The higher increase in bombesincompared with ACh-induced DAG production is probably due to activation of phospholipase D (PLD). Inhibition of the PLD-dependent DAG production by preincubation with 0.3% butanol led to an acceleration of the bombesin-induced Ca21 wave. In further experiments, we could show that ruthenium red (100 μM), an inhibitor of Ca21-induced Ca21 release in skeletal muscle, also decreased the speed of ACh-induced Ca21 waves. The effect of ruthenium red was not additive to the effect of PKC activation. From the data, we conclude that, following Ins(1,4,5)P3induced Ca21 release in the luminal cell pole, secondary Ca21 release from stores, which are located in series between the luminal and the basal plasma membrane, modifies Ca21 spreading toward the basolateral cell side by Ca21-induced Ca21 release. Activation of PKC leads to a reduction in Ca21 release from these stores and therefore could explain the slower propagation of Ca21 waves in the presence of bombesin compared with ACh.
Fields Population Studies of the Unidentified EGRET Sources

The third EGRET catalog contains a large number of unidentified sources. This subset of objects is expected to include known gamma-ray emitters of Galactic origin such as pulsars and supernova remnants, in addition to an extragalactic population of blazars. However, current data allows the intriguing possibility that some of these objects may represent a new class of yet undiscovered gamma-ray sources. Many theoretically motivated candidate emitters (e.g. clumps of annihilating dark matter particles) have been suggested to account for these detections. We take a new approach to determine to what extent this population is Galactic and to investigate the nature of the possible Galactic component. By assuming that galaxies similar to the Milky Way should host comparable populations of objects, we constrain the allowed Galactic abundance and distribution of various classes of gamma-ray sources using the EGRET data set. We find it is highly improbable that a large number of the unidentified sources are members of a Galactic halo population, but that a distribution of the sources entirely in the disk and bulge is plausible. Finally, we discuss the additional constraints and new insights that GLAST will provide.
Perfusion Imaging

MRI has become a reliable tool in medical imaging for assessing morphological and functional details of the human body in a noninvasive manner. Perfusion is an important parameter to assess status and functionality of tissue and organs. This review summarizes the different approaches to measure perfusion based on MRI. Some basics of the theoretical background are provided as well as measurement techniques with and without contrast media are described. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2014;40:269–279. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Influence of colloid infusion on coagulation during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting

This study was conducted to determine the influence of colloid infusion on coagulation in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OP-CABG). Thirty patients undergoing elective OP-CABG received medium molecular weight hydroxyethyl starch group I (MMW-HES 200/0.5), low molecular weight hydroxyethyl starch group II (LMW-HES 130/0.4) or gelatin group III (GEL) in a prospective randomized trial. Blood samples were assessed for hemoglobin (Hb), activated coagulation time (ACT), prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPPT), platelet count, fibrinogen and von Willebrand factor (vWF) at specified intervals. Total volume of the colloid infused and postoperative chest-time drainage was also measured. There was a significant decrease in Hb, platelet count, fibrinogen levels in all these groups, which did not warrant blood transfusion. After the colloid infusion, vWF decreased significantly to 67% from baseline in group I as compared to 85 and 79% in group II and group III, respectively. vWF levels remained lower than the baseline value in the first 24 hours in group I, whereas this factor level increased above the baseline values in groups II and III, 6 hours postoperatively. Postoperative chest tube drainage in 24 hours was significantly higher in group I (856 ± 131 ml) as compared to group II (550 ± 124 ml) and group III (582 ± 159 ml). LMW-HES 130/0.4 was superior to MMW-HES 200/0.5 and gelatin in patients undergoing OP-CABG, in terms of better preservation of coagulation associated with enhanced volume effect.
Developmental arrest of Drosophila survival motor neuron (Smn) mutants accounts for differences in expression of minor intron-containing genes

Reduced expression of the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein causes spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in humans and animal models of severe SMA display defects in pre-mRNA splicing late in the disease course. Using RNA deep-sequencing (RNA-seq) of wild-type and survival motor neuron (Smn) null mutant larvae, we identified a developmental arrest in the mutants that precedes the onset of widespread disruptions in splicing. Comparison of genome-wide mRNA expression profiles of Smn mutants revealed only small changes in levels of minor intron-containing mRNAs; in contrast, we observed a prominent increase in levels of stress-signaling transcripts that may be a conserved feature of SMA.
Acquisition and relaying of data from a floating wireless sensor node using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

This paper describes a technological development project in charge of collecting and relaying data using UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) from one or more small, low power, modular sensor nodes that can be placed in remote areas or floating on the water surface. The overall characteristics and architecture of the proposed sensor nodes and system around them are described. Field tests for one custom-built hardware prototype were carried out and the results are presented and discussed. The tests included: a proof-of-concept sensor node in water, an X-8 UAV for gathering and relaying the data and a base station connected to a computer used as an endpoint for the sensor data. The system was created using a combination of standardized and custom tailored communication protocols, firmware and application software. The experiments concluded with data successfully being relayed from the remote sensor floating in water to a UAV and further on to a base station that can be located at tens of kilometers away from the UAV.
GOcSim: GO context-driven similarity

We present in this paper novel context-driven search techniques that compute the semantic similarities among different GO ontology terms. We implemented these techniques in a middleware search engine called GOcSim, which resides between user application and GO database. Most current research is focused on determining semantic similarities between GO ontology terms based solely on their IDs and proximity to one another in GO graph structure, while overlooking the contexts of the terms, which may lead to erroneous results. The context of a term T is determined by the set of other terms, whose existence is dependent on T. We propose novel techniques that determine the contexts of terms based on the concept of existence dependency. We present a stack-based sort-merge algorithm employing these techniques for determining the semantic similarities between GO terms. We evaluated GOcSim experimentally and compared it with four other methods. The results showed marked improvement.
Adaptive Communication-Constrained Deployment of Unmanned Vehicle Systems

Cooperation between multiple autonomous vehicles requires inter-vehicle communication, which in many scenarios must be established over an ad-hoc wireless network. This paper proposes an optimization-based approach to the deployment of such mobile robotic networks. A primal-dual gradient descent algorithm jointly optimizes the steady-state positions of the robots based on the specification of a high-level task in the form of a potential field, and routes packets through the network to support the communication rates desired for the application. The motion planning and communication objectives are tightly coupled since the link capacities depend heavily on the relative distances between vehicles. The algorithm decomposes naturally into two components, one for position optimization and one for communication optimization, coupled via a set of Lagrange multipliers. Crucially and in contrast to previous work, our method can rely on on-line evaluation of the channel capacities during deployment instead of a prespecified model. In this case, a randomized sampling scheme along the trajectories allows the robots to implement the algorithm with minimal coordination overhead.
Detection of Cortical Slow Waves in the Sleep EEG Using a Modified Matching Pursuit Method With a Restricted Dictionary

In this paper, an innovative knowledge-based methodological framework to detect sleep slow waves (SSW) in the human sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) is proposed. Based on a restricted matching pursuit (RMP) algorithm, automatic pattern recognition of SSW is implemented using a small dictionary of Gabor functions modeling the target waveform morphological characteristics. The method describes EEG signals in terms of SSW properties and provides detection thresholds based on the largest MP coefficients. A computer software implementation of this new method was tested on a database of overnight polysomnographic recordings collected in 15 young healthy subjects and visually scored by a trained sleep expert. In addition to full automation and fast application, the results obtained from the RMP algorithm, and evaluated using a rigorous performance evaluation metrics, showed excellent agreement as compared with expert scoring, with 97% of correct detections and a concordance of 67% in SSW time position and duration. The performances demonstrated by this new method were superior to that of a canonical detection algorithm introduced earlier, with an equivalent sensitivity but a significant 12% increase in precision (p = 0.0002). By mimicking the way human processes information while scoring SSW, the RMP algorithm proves stable over time and sleep/wake states, and may thus be used with virtually no human intervention.
Characterization, by Size, Density, Osmotic Fragility, and Immunoaffinity, of Acetylcholine‐ and Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide‐Containing Storage Particles from Myenteric Neurones of the Guinea‐Pig

Abstract: When cytoplasmic extracts of guinea‐pig myenteric neurones are submitted to centrifugal density gradient fractionation in a zonal rotor acetylcholine is bimodally distributed in the gradient, in a peak (I) rich in synaptic vesicles of the classic type and in a denser peak (II/VI) rich in densecored vesicles and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). The putative stable synaptic vesicle markers synaptophysin (p38), vesicular proteoglycan, and Mg2+‐activated ATPase were also bimodally distributed, with a peak coincident with peak I and another, broader peak embracing peak II/VI, and neighbouring peaks of other neuropeptides resolved from peak II/VI by the density gradient separation procedure used. To establish whether the stable markers, acetylcholine and VIP in peak II/VI were present in one particle or several, attempts were made to separate them by particle‐exclusion chromatography and differential osmotic fragility. These were unsuccessful, leading us to conclude that the storage particles in peak II/VI contain both neurotransmitters and all three putative stable synaptic vesicle markers. It is suggested that such particles are the counterparts, in cholinergic neurones of the myenteric plexus, of the dense‐cored, enkephalin‐ and noradrenaline‐containing vesicles of certain adrenergic neurones and, like the latter, may exist in a precursor–product relationship with the classic synaptic vesicles containing the small‐molecular‐mass transmitters and found in the same nerve terminals.
A Cluster-Based Intrusion Detection Framework for Monitoring the Traffic of Cloud Environments

In cloud environments, Intra-VM network traffic are out of the monitor traditional physical IDS. To enable the monitor of Intra-VM network traffic, we propose cIDS, a novel cluster-based intrusion detection framework for monitoring the network traffic of cloud environments. cIDS does not require the support of physical switches and Instead of using virtualized IDS to monitor virtual network traffic, we export the intra-VM network traffic to physical IDS, and leverages IDS cluster to provide intrusion detection for multiple security domains. Openflow and SDN is used to redirect virtual network traffic to different IDSes. We also design a traffic deduplication mechanism which could eliminate redundant network traffic and lessen the burden of the IDS cluster. We evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of cIDS through comprehensive experiments. The results shown that cIDS could successfully monitor the network traffic of cloud environments and cIDS outperforms virtualized IDS approach in terms of performance.
Effect of Progressive Muscle Relaxation in Female Health Care Professionals

Background: Increasing population, fast paced industrialization, increased, competitiveness, unanticipated problems in the work place have increased the stress among the females working in health care in recent times. Aim: The aim of the following study is to detect the stress levels among female health care professionals in the age group of 25-35 years and its impact on health. Subjects and Methods: A prospective cross-sectional pilot project was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Eastern part of India, after receiving approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee and informed consent form was taken from the subjects. Stress level in the subjects was assessed according to the presumptive life event stress scale. Females with scores above 200 were selected. For these, initial assessment of anthropometric measurement, electrocardiogram and lipid profile analysis, resting pulse rate, blood pressure, physical fitness index (PFI), breath holding time (BHT), isometric hand grip (IHG) test results were evaluated and recorded. All subjects were given training of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) for 3 months. After 3 months, the lipid profile and vital parameters, Perceived Stress Scale values were re-evaluated and subjects were asked to repeat the same exercises and data thus recorded were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 (SPSS Inc. Released 2007. SPSS for Windows, Version 16.0. Chicago, SPSS Inc.). Results: Significant decrease in resting heart rate, blood pressure and Perceived Stress Scale levels was seen after PMR training in the subjects. Results of BHT, IHG tests and PFI were significantly increased after PMR training. There was a significant decrease in total cholesterol, triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in subjects after practicing PMR for 3 months. Conclusions: Increasing stress among female health care professionals is a cause for concern and there is a need to adopt early life-style modification by practicing relaxation exercises to ameliorate stress and to improve not only their quality-of-life in general, but patient care in particular.
MicroRNA-155 Mediates Augmented CD40 Expression in Bone Marrow Derived Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in Symptomatic Lupus-Prone NZB/W F1 Mice

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic multi-organ autoimmune disease characterized by hyperactivated immune responses to self-antigens and persistent systemic inflammation. Previously, we reported abnormalities in circulating and bone marrow (BM)-derived plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) from SLE patients. Here, we aim to seek for potential regulators that mediate functional aberrations of pDCs in SLE. BM-derived pDCs from NZB/W F1 mice before and after the disease onset were compared for toll-like receptor (TLR) induced responses and microRNA profile changes. While pDCs derived from symptomatic mice were phenotypically comparable to pre-symptomatic ones, functionally they exhibited hypersensitivity to TLR7 but not TLR9 stimulation, as represented by the elevated upregulation of CD40, CD86 and MHC class II molecules upon R837 stimulation. Upregulated induction of miR-155 in symptomatic pDCs following TLR7 stimulation was observed. Transfection of miR-155 mimics in pre-symptomatic pDCs induced an augmented expression of Cd40, which is consistent with the increased CD40 expression in symptomatic pDCs. Overall, our results provide evidence for miR-155-mediated regulation in pDC functional abnormalities in SLE. Findings from this study contribute to a better understanding of SLE pathogenesis and ignite future interests in evaluating the molecular regulation in autoimmunity.
Therapeutic potential of the novel hybrid molecule JM-20 against focal cortical ischemia in rats

Context: Despite the great mortality and morbidity of stroke, treatment options remain limited. We previously showed that JM-20, a novel synthetic molecule, possessed a strong neuroprotective effect in rats subjected to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. However, to verify the robustness of the pre-clinical neuroprotective effects of JM-20 to get good prognosis in the translation to the clinic, it is necessary to use other experimental models of brain ischemia. Aims: To evaluate the neuroprotective effects of JM-20 following the onset of permanent focal cerebral ischemia induced in rats by thermocoagulation of blood into pial blood vessels of cerebral cortices. Methods: Ischemic lesion was induced by thermocoagulation of blood into pial blood vessels of primary motor and somatosensory cortices. Behavioral performance was evaluated by the cylinder testing for a period of 2, 3 and 7 days after surgery, and was followed by histopathological study in brain cortex stained with hematoxylin- eosin. Results: Ischemic injury resulted in impaired function of the forelimb evidenced by high asymmetry punctuation, and caused histopathological alterations indicative of tissue damage at cerebral cortex. JM-20 treatment (4 and 8 mg/kg) significantly decreased asymmetry scores and histological alterations with a marked preservation of cortical neurons. Conclusions: The effects of permanent brain ischemia were strongly attenuated by JM-20 administration, which expands and improves the current preclinical data of JM-20 as neuroprotector against cerebral ischemia, and strongly support the examination of its translation to the clinic to treat acute ischemic stroke.
Energy-efficient communication protocol in linear wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been widely recognized as a promising technology that can enhance various aspects of structure monitoring and border surveillance. Typical applications, such as sensors embedded in the outer surface of a pipeline or mounted along the supporting structure of a bridge, feature a linear sensor arrangement. Economical power use of sensor nodes is essential for long-lasting operation. In this paper, we present wireless High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) a novel approach to energy-efficient data routing to a single control center in a linear sensor topology. Applying a standard data layer along with a time division multiple access (TDMA)-based Medium Access Control (MAC) and time synchronization technique specifically designed for the linear topology, we address the interoperability problem with guaranteed energy efficiency and data link performance in linear sensor topology.
Exploring the evolution of software quality with animated visualization

Assessing software quality and understanding how events in its evolution have lead to anomalies are two important steps toward reducing costs in software maintenance. Unfortunately, evaluation of large quantities of code over several versions is a task too time-consuming, if not overwhelming, to be applicable in general. To address this problem, we designed a visualization framework as a semi-automatic approach to quickly investigate programs composed of thousands of classes, over dozens of versions. Programs and their associated quality characteristics for each version are graphically represented and displayed independently. Real-time navigation and animation between these representations recreate visual coherences often associated with coherences intrinsic to subsequent software versions. Exploiting such coherences can reduce cognitive gaps between the different views of software, and allows human experts to use their visual capacity and intuition to efficiently investigate and understand various quality aspects of software evolution. To illustrate the interest of our framework, we report our results on two case studies.
Serum lactate dehydrogenase predicts for overall survival benefit in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin.

PURPOSE Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is an enzyme involved in anaerobic glycolysis and regulated by the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-containing complex 1 (PI3K/Akt/TORC1) pathway as well as tumor hypoxia/necrosis. High serum LDH levels are associated with poor prognosis in patients with cancer, including renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We tested whether serum LDH is prognostic and has predictive value in patients with metastatic RCC receiving an mTOR inhibitor. PATIENTS AND METHODS We evaluated pretreatment and post-treatment serum LDH in 404 poor-risk patients with RCC treated with the TORC1 inhibitor temsirolimus or interferon alfa in an international phase III randomized trial. The proportional hazards model was used to test for the prognostic and predictive association of LDH in predicting overall survival (OS). RESULTS Mean baseline serum normalized LDH was 1.23 times the upper limit of normal (ULN; range, 0.05 to 28.5 × ULN). The multivariable hazard ratio for death was 2.81 (95% CI, 2.01 to 3.94; P < .001) for patients with LDH more than 1 × ULN versus patients with LDH ≤ 1 × ULN. The LDH-treatment interaction term was statistically significant for OS (P = .016). Among 140 patients with LDH above the ULN, OS was significantly improved with temsirolimus (6.9 v 4.2 months; P < .002). Among 264 patients with normal LDH, OS was not significantly improved with temsirolimus as compared with interferon therapy (11.7 v 10.4 months; P = .514). CONCLUSION Serum LDH is a prognostic and a predictive biomarker for the survival benefit conferred by TORC1 inhibition in poor-risk RCC. Further investigation of the predictive role of LDH as a measure of benefit with PI3K/TORC1 pathway inhibition in other RCC risk groups and other tumor types is warranted.