Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bradykinin-Induced Functional Competence and Trafficking of the δ-Opioid Receptor in Trigeminal Nociceptors

Peripheral opioid analgesia is increased substantially after inflammation. We evaluated the hypothesis that an inflammatory mediator, bradykinin (BK), evokes functional competence of the δ-opioid receptor (DOR) for inhibiting trigeminal ganglia (TG) sensory neurons. We also evaluated whether BK evokes trafficking of the DOR to the plasma membrane. Rat TG cultures were pretreated with BK (10 μm) or vehicle, and the effects of DOR agonists ([d-Pen2,5]-enkephalin or [d-Ala2, d-Leu5]-enkephalin) on BK (10μm)/prostagladin E2 (PGE2; 1 μm)-stimulated immunoreactive calcitonin gene-related peptide (iCGRP) release or PGE2 (1 μm)-stimulated cAMP accumulation were measured. The effect of BK treatment on opioid receptor trafficking was evaluated by DOR immunohistochemistry, cell-surface DOR biotinylation, and live imaging of neurons transfected with mDOR–green fluorescent protein. BK pretreatment rapidly and significantly increased DOR agonist inhibition of evoked iCGRP release and cAMP accumulation. These effects of BK pretreatment were blocked by a B2 receptor antagonist (HOE-140; 10μm) or a protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor [bisindolymaleimide (BIS); 1μm]. Moreover, BK treatment rapidly and significantly increased the accumulation of DOR in the plasma membrane. However, BK-induced trafficking of DOR was not reversed by pretreatment with BIS, nor was trafficking evoked by application of a PKC activator PMA (200 nm). These data suggest that BK, in a PKC-dependent manner, induces rapid functional competence of DOR for inhibiting TG nociceptors and in a PKC-independent manner rapidly induces trafficking of DOR to the plasma membrane. These findings indicate that exposure to certain inflammatory mediators rapidly alters the signaling properties and neuronal localization of DOR, possibly contributing to peripheral opioid analgesia.
Event-Related Brain Potentials Reflect Semantic Priming in an Object Decision Task

Subjects made speeded object decisions about target line drawings which were preceded by semantically related or unrelated prime line drawings. One hundred of the targets depicted real objects and 50 others were unrecognizable non-objects. Similar to a recent picture-matching study, the ERPs from this study generated a larger negativity for unrelated than for related target pictures, between 325 and 550 msec (N400). Although these differences had a similar time course to those seen for the N400 component in semantic priming lexical decision tasks, they were more frontally distributed and were larger over the left rather than the right hemisphere. Non-objects, which were the picture equivalent of pseudowords, produced an even larger negativity with a somewhat different distribution. The results are discussed with regards to recent claims about amodal conceptual memory processes.
Innovations with Smart Service Systems: Analytics, Big Data, Cognitive Assistance, and the Internet of Everything

Service innovations, enabled by the confluence of big data, mobile solutions, cloud, social, and cognitive computing, and the Internet of Things, have gained a lot of attention among many enterprises in the past few years because they represent promising ways for companies to effectively and rapidly deliver new services. But one of today's most pervasive and bedeviling challenges is how to start this journey and stay on course. In this paper, we review some of the important developments in this area and reports the views voiced by five industry leaders from IBM, Cisco, HP, and ISSIP at a panel session at the 24th Annual Compete through Service Symposium in 2013. Panelists provided an extensive list of recommendations to academicians and professionals. The biggest conclusion is that all of the information and communications technology (ICT)-enabled service innovations need to be human-centered and focused on co-creating value.
Respect for experience and organisational ability to operate in complex and safety critical environments

The role of experience has been shown to be critical for risk management. Yet, few studies have conceptualised and explained the organisational processes that determine how experience informs risk management. We present a case study examining how experience informs the risk-based decisions of employees in a safety critical industry. Data were gathered through 28 semi-structured interviews in a power utility. Experience contributed significantly to risk-based decisions, particularly those involving complex or dynamic risks, across all functional and hierarchical divisions. Further, collective experience between organisational divisions and a widespread respect for experience promoted the sharing of experiential knowledge. This deepened the extent to which experience was incorporated into risk-based decisions and facilitated coordination between operational and strategic risk management. Respect for experience and collective experience are important contributors to organisational ability for adaptive and coordinated behaviour in complex and high risk environments.
Integrated speed limit detection and recognition from real-time video

Here we propose a complete system for robust detection and recognition of the current speed sign restrictions from a moving road vehicle. This approach includes the detection and recognition of both numerical limit and national limit (cancellation) signs with the addition of automatic vehicle turn detection. The system utilizes both RANSAC-based colour-shape detection of speed limit signs and neural network based recognition whilst turn analysis relies on an optic flow based method. As primary detection is based on a robust colour and shape detection methodology this results in a real-time algorithm that is invariant to variable road conditions. The integration of both limit, cancellation and vehicle turn detection within the bounds of real-time system performance represents an advance on prior work within this field.
Behavioral Security Threat Detection Strategies for Data Center Switches and Routers

Behavioral security threats such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are an ongoing problem in large scale Data Centers (DC) and pose huge performance challenges to DC operators. Typically, a dedicated Firewall/DDoS appliance is needed for Layer 2-7 behavioral security threat detection and mitigation. This solution is cost prohibitive for large scale multi-tenant DCs with high throughput performance needs. This paper examines various Layer 2-4 behavioral security threat detection methods and assists which are implement able in the switches and routers at low cost. For DCs, this complements the overall behavioral security threat detection strategy and enables operators to offer tiered services. Extensions to emerging NFV and SDN scenarios are also discussed.
Evidential distributed dynamic map for cooperative perception in VANets

In this paper, we present a distributed approach to build a dynamic map in the context of VANets (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks). It is based on the principle of cooperative perception where vehicles work as a team in order to extend their field of view. Each vehicle is equipped with sensors allowing it to detect its environment and to build its map, denoted by local map. It receives messages from other vehicles containing mobile objects detected in their surroundings. The algorithm of distributed dynamic map builds a map of the dynamic environment including objects in the sensor's field of view as well as those sent by other vehicles. This algorithm is developed under the belief functions framework. The implementation of such an application is complex and needs many treatments: temporal and spatial alignment, object association, fusion of messages and data dissemination. This approach has been validated by simulation on scenario involving several vehicles in traffic situation.
Checking Unwinding Conditions for Finite State Systems

We consider the problem of checking the unwinding conditions of Mantel for Basic Security Predicates (BSP’s) [7], for finite-state systems. We show how the unwinding conditions can be simplified to checking conditions on a maximal simulation relation. We conclude that the time complexity of verifying BSP’s via the unwinding route compares favourably with the model-checking technique proposed in [2].
Fetal, Infant, and Childhood Growth and Adult Blood Pressure: A Longitudinal Study From Birth to 22 Years of Age

Background—People who are small at birth tend to have higher blood pressure in later life. However, it is not clear whether it is fetal growth restriction or the accelerated postnatal growth that often follows it that leads to higher blood pressure. Methods and Results—We studied blood pressure in 346 British men and women aged 22 years whose size had been measured at birth and for the first 10 years of life. Their childhood growth was characterized using a conditional method that, free from the effect of regression to the mean, estimated catch-up growth. People who had been small at birth but who gained weight rapidly during early childhood (1 to 5 years) had the highest adult blood pressures. Systolic pressure increased by 1.3 mm Hg (95% CI, 0.3 to 2.3) for every standard deviation score decrease in birth weight and, independently, increased by 1.6 mm Hg (95% CI, 0.6 to 2.7) for every standard deviation score increase in early childhood weight gain. Adjustment for adult body mass index attenuated the effect of early childhood weight gain but not of birth weight. Relationships were smaller for diastolic pressure. Weight gain in the first year of life did not influence adult blood pressure. Conclusions—Part of the risk of adult hypertension is set in fetal life. Accelerated weight gain in early childhood adds to this risk, which is partly mediated through the prediction of adult fatness. The primary prevention of hypertension may depend on strategies that promote fetal growth and reduce childhood obesity.
NDR Kinases Are Essential for Somitogenesis and Cardiac Looping during Mouse Embryonic Development

Studies of mammalian tissue culture cells indicate that the conserved and distinct NDR isoforms, NDR1 and NDR2, play essential cell biological roles. However, mice lacking either Ndr1 or Ndr2 alone develop normally. Here, we studied the physiological consequences of inactivating both NDR1 and NDR2 in mice, showing that the lack of both Ndr1/Ndr2 (called Ndr1/2-double null mutants) causes embryonic lethality. In support of compensatory roles for NDR1 and NDR2, total protein and activating phosphorylation levels of the remaining NDR isoform were elevated in mice lacking either Ndr1 or Ndr2. Mice retaining one single wild-type Ndr allele were viable and fertile. Ndr1/2-double null embryos displayed multiple phenotypes causing a developmental delay from embryonic day E8.5 onwards. While NDR kinases are not required for notochord formation, the somites of Ndr1/2-double null embryos were smaller, irregularly shaped and unevenly spaced along the anterior-posterior axis. Genes implicated in somitogenesis were down-regulated and the normally symmetric expression of Lunatic fringe, a component of the Notch pathway, showed a left-right bias in the last forming somite in 50% of all Ndr1/2-double null embryos. In addition, Ndr1/2-double null embryos developed a heart defect that manifests itself as pericardial edemas, obstructed heart tubes and arrest of cardiac looping. The resulting cardiac insufficiency is the likely cause of the lethality of Ndr1/2-double null embryos around E10. Taken together, we show that NDR kinases compensate for each other in vivo in mouse embryos, explaining why mice deficient for either Ndr1 or Ndr2 are viable. Ndr1/2-double null embryos show defects in somitogenesis and cardiac looping, which reveals their essential functions and shows that the NDR kinases are critically required during the early phase of organogenesis.
Cell Cycle and Senescence Energy Management by Enhanced Glycolysis in G 1-phase in Human Colon Cancer Cells In Vitro and In Vivo

Activation of aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells is well known as the Warburg effect, although its relation to cellcycle progression remains unknown. In this study, human colon cancer cells were labeled with a cell-cycle phasedependent fluorescent marker Fucci to distinguish cells in G1-phase and those in SþG2/M phases. Fucci-labeled cells served as splenic xenograft transplants in super-immunodeficient NOG mice and exhibited multiple metastases in the livers, frozen sections of which were analyzed by semiquantitative microscopic imaging mass spectrometry. Results showed that cells in G1-phase exhibited higher concentrations of ATP, NADH, and UDPN-acetylglucosamine than those in S andG2–Mphases, suggesting accelerated glycolysis in G1-phase cells in vivo. Quantitative determination of metabolites in cells synchronized in S, G2–M, and G1 phases suggested that efflux of lactate was elevated significantly in G1-phase. By contrast, ATP production in G2–Mwas highly dependent on mitochondrial respiration, whereas cells in S-phase mostly exhibited an intermediary energy metabolism between G1 and G2–M phases. Isogenic cells carrying a p53-null mutation appeared more active in glycolysis throughout the cell cycle than wild-type cells. Thus, as the cell cycle progressed from G2–M to G1 phases, the dependency of energy production on glycolysis was increased while the mitochondrial energy production was reciprocally
Congestion induced by the structure of multiplex networks

Multiplex networks are representations of multilayer interconnected complex networks where the nodes are the same at every layer. They turn out to be good abstractions of the intricate connectivity of multimodal transportation networks, among other types of complex systems. One of the most important critical phenomena arising in such networks is the emergence of congestion in transportation flows. Here, we prove analytically that the structure of multiplex networks can induce congestion for flows that otherwise would be decongested if the individual layers were not interconnected. We provide explicit equations for the onset of congestion and approximations that allow us to compute this onset from individual descriptors of the individual layers. The observed cooperative phenomenon is reminiscent of Braess' paradox in which adding extra capacity to a network when the moving entities selfishly choose their route can in some cases reduce overall performance. Similarly, in the multiplex structure, the efficiency in transportation can unbalance the transportation loads resulting in unexpected congestion.
Vision in 3D Environments: Neuronal interactions and their role in solving the stereo correspondence problem

Binocular vision provides important information about depth to help us navigate in a three-dimensional environment and allows us to identify and manipulate 3D objects. The relative depth of any feature with respect to fixation can be determined by triangulating the horizontal shift or disparity between the images of this feature projected onto the left and the right eyes. The computation is difficult because in any given visual scene, there are many similar features, which create ambiguity for matching corresponding features registered by the two eyes. This is called the stereo correspondence problem. An extreme example of such ambiguity is demonstrated by Julesz’s (1964) random dot stereogram (RDS). In a RDS (Figure 10.1a), there are no distinct monocular patterns. Each dot in the left eye image can be matched to several dots in the right eye image. Yet when the images are fused between the two eyes, we readily perceive the hidden 3D structure. In this chapter, we will review neurophysiological data that suggest how the brain might solve this stereo correspondence problem. Early studies took a mostly bottomup approach. An extensive amount of detailed neurophysiological work has resulted in the disparity energy model (Ohzawa et al., 1990; Prince et al., 2002). Since the disparity energy model is insufficient for solving the stereo correspondence problem on its own, recent neurophysiological studies have taken a more top-down approach by testing hypotheses generated by computational models that can improve on the disparity energy model (Menz and Freeman, 2003; Samonds et al., 2009a; Tanabe and Cumming, 2009). While these models are quite distinct in details, they share the common theme that organized neuronal interactions among disparity tuned neurons play
Operative vs. nonoperative treatment for comminuted proximal humeral fractures in elderly patients: a current meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the effect of operative vs. nonoperative treatment for comminuted proximal humeral fractures in elderly patients regarding clinical results, complications, and additional surgeries. METHODS Six electronic databases (Medline, Embase, Clinical, Ovid, Biosos, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) were systematically searched to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Eligible RCTs published between 1960-2012 comparing operative vs. nonoperative treatment of comminuted proximal humeral fractures were included. Trial quality was assessed using the modified Jadad scale. Data from included studies were pooled with the use of fixed-effects and random-effects models with mean difference and risk ratios for continuous and dichotomous variables, respectively. Sensitivity analysis was performed to account for bias in patient selection. RESULTS Six studies matched the selection criteria, reporting on 287 patients. One hundred fourty-four patients (50.17%) were managed nonoperatively, 20 patients (6.97%) underwent tension band fixation, 55 patients (19.16%) were treated with locked plate, and 68 patients (23.69%) underwent hemiarthroplasty. Mean follow-up ranged from 12-50 months. Results showed no significant difference in post-treatment Constant scores and DASH scores, but conservative treatment showed superior results compared to operative treatment using EQ-5D™. Compared with operative treatment, nonoperative treatment led to significantly fewer complications and additional surgeries. Findings from subgroup analyses remained consistent with these outcomes when compared to nonoperative treatment with tension band fixation, locked plate fixation, and hemiarthroplasty. CONCLUSION Compared with operative treatment for closed comminuted proximal humeral fractures in elderly patients, conservative treatment can effectively reduce the risk of additional surgeries and complications. However, there is no statistical difference between operative and nonoperative treatment in terms of clinical outcomes.
Characterization of pulmonary protein profiles in response to zinc oxide nanoparticles in mice: a 24-hour and 28-day follow-up study

Although zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) are recognized to cause systemic disorders, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie the time-dependent differences that occur after exposure. The objective of this study was to investigate the mechanistic differences at 24 hours and 28 days after the exposure of BALB/c mice to ZnONPs via intratracheal instillation. An isobaric tag for the relative and absolute quantitation coupled with liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry was used to identify the differential protein expression, biological processes, molecular functions, and pathways. A total of 18 and 14 proteins displayed significant changes in the lung tissues at 24 hours and 28 days after exposure, respectively, with the most striking changes being observed for S100-A9 protein. Metabolic processes and catalytic activity were the main biological processes and molecular functions, respectively, in the responses at the 24-hour and 28-day follow-up times. The glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway was continuously downregulated from 24 hours to 28 days, whereas detoxification pathways were activated at the 28-day time-point after exposure. A comprehensive understanding of the potential time-dependent effects of exposure to ZnONPs was provided, which highlights the metabolic mechanisms that may be important in the responses to ZnONP.
Identification of Chlamydia pneumoniae by DNA amplification of the 16S rRNA gene

Chlamydia pneumoniae is an important cause of respiratory disease in humans, but diagnosis of C. pneumoniae is hindered by difficulties in the in vitro growth of the organism. In order to improve detection and identification, we recently developed a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay which uses oligonucleotide primers specific for C. pneumoniae. The nucleic acid sequence was determined for the 16S rRNA of C. pneumoniae, and regions in which C. pneumoniae differed from both Chlamydia psittaci and Chlamydia trachomatis were identified. Oligonucleotide primers corresponding to these unique regions were then synthesized and used in a PCR for the detection of C. pneumoniae. The C. pneumoniae-specific primers permitted the identification of six isolates of C. pneumoniae, but no reaction was observed with the 15 serovars of C. trachomatis or two strains of C. psittaci. PCR should prove to be valuable in confirming the identification of C. pneumoniae and in the diagnosis of C. pneumoniae infections.
Receptor-regulated Translocation of Endothelial Nitric-oxide Synthase*

The endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS) is activated by transient increases in intracellular Ca2+ elicited by stimulation of diverse receptors, including bradykinin B2 receptors on endothelial cells. eNOS and B2 receptors are targeted to specialized signal-transducing domains in the plasma membrane termed plasmalemmal caveolae. Targeting to caveolae facilitates eNOS activation following receptor stimulation, but in resting cells, eNOS is tonically inhibited by its interactions with caveolin, the scaffolding protein in caveolae. We used a quantitative approach exploiting immunofluorescence microscopy to investigate regulation of the subcellular distribution of eNOS in endothelial cells by bradykinin and Ca2+. In resting cells, most of the eNOS is localized at the cell membrane. However, within 5 min following addition of bradykinin, nearly all the eNOS translocates to structures in the cell cytosol; following more protracted incubations with bradykinin, most of the cytosolic enzyme subsequently translocates back to the cell membrane. The bradykinin-induced internalization of eNOS is completely abrogated by the intracellular Ca2+ chelator BAPTA; conversely, Ca2+-mobilizing drugs and agonists promote eNOS translocation. These results establish that eNOS targeting to the membrane is labile and is subject to receptor-regulated Ca2+-dependent reversible translocation, providing another point for regulation of NO-dependent signaling in the vascular endothelium.