Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Packaging Cell Line for Lentivirus Vectors

ABSTRACT Lentivirus vectors can transduce dividing and nondividing cells. Using three-plasmid transient transfections, high-titer (>109 IU/ml) recombinant lentivirus vectors pseudotyped with vesicular stomatitis virus G (VSV-G) protein can be generated (T. Kafri et al., Nat. Genet. 17:314–317, 1997; H. Miyoshi et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:10319–10323, 1997; L. Naldini et al., Science 272:263–267, 1996). The recombinant lentiviruses can efficiently infect brain, liver, muscle, and retinal tissue in vivo. Furthermore, the transduced tissues demonstrated long-term expression of reporter genes in immunocompetent rodents. We now report the generation of a tetracycline-inducible VSV-G pseudotyped lentivirus packaging cell line which can generate virus particles at titers greater than 106 IU/ml for at least 3 to 4 days. The vector produced by the inducible cell line can be concentrated to titers of 109 IU/ml and can efficiently transduce nondividing cells in vitro and in vivo. The availability of a lentivirus packaging cell line will significantly facilitate the production of high-titer lentivirus vectors for gene therapy and study of human immunodeficiency virus biology.
Novel switched model reference adaptive control for continuous piecewise affine systems

This paper is concerned with the derivation of a novel model reference adaptive control (MRAC) scheme for piecewise-affine (PWA) continuous systems. A novel version of the minimal control synthesis algorithm, originally developed as a MRAC for smooth systems, is presented. The resulting adaptive algorithm is a switched feedback controller able to cope with uncertain continuous PWA systems. The proof of stability, based on the newly developed passivity theory for hybrid systems, is provided and the effectiveness of the new proposed control strategy is numerically tested.
Status of Psychological Trials in Breast Cancer Patients: A Report of Three Meta-Analyses

This systematic review reports the results of three meta-analyses addressing the clinical efficacy of psychological interventions in breast cancer patients. Three outcome variables were examined: anxiety, depression and quality of life. Several moderator variables were found to both account for inter-trial heterogeneity and interact with treatment efficacy; methodological quality, prognosis, treatment type, orientation and duration. A clinically moderate treatment effect was found for anxiety (−0.40, 95% CI, −0.72 to −0.08, N = 1278). This was not robust to study quality, but remained stable for patients with more advanced disease. Short-term group therapy was more effective than longer term intervention and individual ones. A clinically moderate-to-strong effect was found in trials assessing depression (−1.01, 95% CI, −1.48 to −0.54, N = 1324). A more robust finding of −0.47 (95% −0.69 to −0.24) was based on methodologically more reliable studies treating patients with high psychological morbidity. Intervention was shown to have moderate effects on improving QOL (0.74, 95% CI, 0.12 to 1.37, N = 623), though it was not robust to study quality. Findings suggest that short-term treatments with a focus on coping may be more suitable for early breast cancer patients. Patients with advanced breast disease appear to benefit more from longer term interventions which emphasize support. Recommendations are also made for future clinical trials.
Cholesterol and 25-Hydroxycholesterol Inhibit Activation of SREBPs by Different Mechanisms, Both Involving SCAP and Insigs*

The current paper demonstrates that cholesterol and its hydroxylated derivative, 25-hydroxycholesterol (25-HC), inhibit cholesterol synthesis by two different mechanisms, both involving the proteins that control sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs), membrane-bound transcription factors that activate genes encoding enzymes of lipid synthesis. Using methyl-β-cyclodextrin as a delivery vehicle, we show that cholesterol enters cultured Chinese hamster ovary cells and elicits a conformational change in SREBP cleavage-activating protein (SCAP), as revealed by the appearance of a new fragment in tryptic digests. This change causes SCAP to bind to Insigs, which are endoplasmic reticulum retention proteins that abrogate movement of the SCAP·SREBP complex to the Golgi apparatus where SREBPs are normally processed to their active forms. Direct binding of cholesterol to SCAP in intact cells was demonstrated by showing that a photoactivated derivative of cholesterol cross-links to the membrane domain of SCAP. The inhibitory actions of cholesterol do not require the isooctyl side chain or the Δ5-double bond of cholesterol, but they do require the 3β-hydroxyl group. 25-HC is more potent than cholesterol in eliciting SCAP binding to Insigs, but 25-HC does not cause a detectable conformational change in SCAP. Moreover, a photoactivated derivative of 25-HC does not cross-link to SCAP. These data imply that cholesterol interacts with SCAP directly by inducing it to bind to Insigs, whereas 25-HC works indirectly through a putative 25-HC sensor protein that elicits SCAP-Insig binding.
The Na, K-ATPase β-Subunit Isoforms Expression in Glioblastoma Multiforme: Moonlighting Roles

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common form of malignant glioma. Recent studies point out that gliomas exploit ion channels and transporters, including Na, K-ATPase, to sustain their singular growth and invasion as they invade the brain parenchyma. Moreover, the different isoforms of the β-subunit of Na, K-ATPase have been implicated in regulating cellular dynamics, particularly during cancer progression. The aim of this study was to determine the Na, K-ATPase β subunit isoform subcellular expression patterns in all cell types responsible for microenvironment heterogeneity of GBM using immunohistochemical analysis. All three isoforms, β1, β2/AMOG (Adhesion Molecule On Glia) and β3, were found to be expressed in GBM samples. Generally, β1 isoform was not expressed by astrocytes, in both primary and secondary GBM, although other cell types (endothelial cells, pericytes, telocytes, macrophages) did express this isoform. β2/AMOG and β3 positive expression was observed in the cytoplasm, membrane and nuclear envelope of astrocytes and GFAP (Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein) negative cells. Interestingly, differences in isoforms expression have been observed between primary and secondary GBM: in secondary GBM, β2 isoform expression in astrocytes was lower than that observed in primary GBM, while the expression of the β3 subunit was more intense. These changes in β subunit isoforms expression in GBM could be related to a different ionic handling, to a different relationship between astrocyte and neuron (β2/AMOG) and to changes in the moonlighting roles of Na, K-ATPase β subunits as adaptor proteins and transcription factors.
Super Resolution of MRI Using Improved IBP

An approach for improving the z-axis resolution of MRI using super resolution (SR) technology in the post processing step is proposed. The 2D multi-slice MRI is often anisotropic, the z-resolution lower than the in plane resolution. And the isotropic is necessary for certain diagnostic while the truly isotropic image is hardly obtained. In this case the super resolution is an efficiency post-processing approach to obtain the demand image. In this method, the imaging volume is acquired multiple times with small spatial shifts in z-axis. We use an algorithm which introduces the Papoulis-Gerchberg extrapolation within the Iterative back-projection method to process the shift image serials. Experiments demonstrate that better edge definition in the slice select direction and signal to noise efficiency are obtained.
Towards a semantic segment of a research e-infrastructure: necessary information objects, tools and services

Basically semantic linkage technique is used to specify in computer readable form known facts or relationships that definitely exist between information objects like people, organizations, research results, etc. Recently developers also started using it to visualize scientists’ opinions or scientific hypotheses (e.g. inference/deduction, impact/usage, theoretical hierarchy, etc.) about relationships between research objects. Based on CERIF Link entity and the Semantic Layer and assuming that scientists typically re-use research objects by making relationships between them we propose a sketch of a research e-infrastructure semantic segment, which allow scientists unlimited re-use of research information systems (RIS) content. After some development a semantic linkage technique provides scientists with tools and services for semantic linking of any pair of research objects, which metadata are available within content of any RIS. This application also allows scientists a decentralized development of semantic vocabularies that guarantee a covering by this technique any new types of relationships. In the paper we discuss information objects, tools and services which are necessary for proper functioning of proposed segment of the research e-infrastructure. We also discuss a “quality control” topic which in this context is very important.
Multithread execution mechanisms on RICA-1 for massively parallel computation

This paper presents a multithreaded processor architecture for massively parallel computers, and presents RICA-1 multithreaded processor based on it. RICA-1 provides fairly efficient mechanisms of message reception, thread invocation, message generation/transmission and synchronization. It provides simple communication pipelines. Computation pipelines and communication pipelines are highly fused within a processor architecture. Parallel primitives such as remote memory access, remote procedure call and synchronizations are efficiently performed by RICA-1. The first version of RICA-1 is being implemented by a CMOS standard cell chip with 200 K random gates and 13 KB internal RAMs. It is packed into the 527 pin CPGA package and will operate with a 50 MHz clock in August 1996. In RICA-1, communication pipelines and the RISC-type execution pipelines are highly fused by a simple sequencer and three sets of register files substantially reduces the thread switch overhead.
Kullback-Leibler Approach to Gaussian Mixture Reduction

A common problem in multi-target tracking is to approximate a Gaussian mixture by one containing fewer components; similar problems can arise in integrated navigation. A common approach is successively to merge pairs of components, replacing the pair with a single Gaussian component whose moments up to second order match those of the merged pair. Salmond [1] and Williams [2, 3] have each proposed algorithms along these lines, but using different criteria for selecting the pair to be merged at each stage. The paper shows how under certain circumstances each of these pair-selection criteria can give rise to anomalous behaviour, and proposes that a key consideration should the the Kullback-Leibler (KL) discrimination of the reduced mixture with respect to the original mixture. Although computing this directly would normally be impractical, the paper shows how an easily computed upper bound can be used as a pair-selection criterion which avoids the anomalies of the earlier approaches. The behaviour of the three algorithms is compared using a high-dimensional example drawn from terrain-referenced navigation.
Graph Regularized EEG Source Imaging with In-Class Consistency and Out-Class Discrimination

EEG source imaging integrates temporal and spatial components of EEG to localize the generating source of electrical potentials based on recorded EEG data on the scalp. As EEG sensors can't directly measure activated brain sources, many approaches were proposed to estimate brain source activation pattern given EEG data. However, since most part of the brain activity is composed of the spontaneous non-task related activations, true task caused activation sources will be corrupted in strong background signal. For decades, the EEG inverse problem was solved in an unsupervised way without any utilization of the label information that represents different brain states. We propose that by leveraging label information, the task related discriminative sources can be much better retrieved among strong spontaneous background signals. A novel model for solving EEG inverse problem called Laplacian Graph Regularized Discriminative Source Reconstruction which aims to explicitly extract the discriminative sources by implicitly coding the label information into the graph regularization term. The proposed model can be generally extended with different assumptions. The extension of our framework is applied to VB-SCCD model which aim to estimate extended brain sources by including a spatial total variation regularization term. Simulated results show the effectiveness of the proposed framework.
The role of MAC routing in wireless sensor networks

This paper describes the specific requirements in the design of versatile wireless sensor networks (WSN) and how MAC routing algorithms influence on their performance. Investigation of the impact of the MAC routing algorithms on the battery consumption of the sensor nodes and packet delivery delay is based on the WSN simulation in OMNET++ framework. Simulation results are validated with the actual measurements using Arduino nodes with XBEE modules.
Multiagent self-assembly simulation environment

We describe a software system1 to model and visualize 3D or 2D self-assembly of groups of autonomous agents. The system makes a physically accurate estimate of the interaction of agents represented as rigid cubic or tetrahedral structures with variable electrostatic charges on the faces and vertices. Local events cause the agentsý charges to change according to user-defined rules or rules generated by genetic algorithms. The system is used as an experimental environment for theoretical and practical study of autonomous agent self-assembly. In particular, the system is used to further develop and test self-assembly properties of meso-blocks. The software system will be applied to the analysis, prediction and design of self-assembly behavior of agents from atomic- to macro-scales. In particular, it will be a platform for developing design techniques that can be implemented in real nano-scale systems to achieve useful structures.
Path switching: reduced-state flow handling in SDN using path information

The advent of virtualization, containerization and the Internet of Things (IoT) is leading to an explosive growth in the number of endpoints. Ideally with Software Defined Networking (SDN), one would like to customize packet handling for each of these endpoints or applications. However this typically leads to a large growth in forwarding state. This growth is avoided in current networks by using aggregation which trades off fine-grained control of micro-flows for reduced forwarding state. It is worthwhile to ask whether the benefits of micro-flow control can be retained without a large growth in forwarding state and without using aggregation. In this paper we describe an incrementally deployable SDN-friendly packet forwarding mechanism called Path Switching that achieves this by compactly encoding a packet's path through the network in the packet's existing address fields. Path Switching provides the same reduction in forwarding state as source routing while retaining the benefits and use of fixed size packet headers and existing protocols. We have extended Open vSwitch (OVS) to transparently support Path Switching as well as an inline service component for folding middlebox services into OVS. The extensions include advanced failover mechanisms like fast reroute. These extensions require no protocol changes as Path Switching leaves header formats unchanged.
Photo Stylistic Brush: Robust Style Transfer via Superpixel-Based Bipartite Graph

With the rapid development of social network and multimedia technology, customized image and video stylization have been widely used for various social-media applications. In this paper, we explore the problem of exemplar-based photo style transfer, which provides a flexible and convenient way to invoke fantastic visual impression. Rather than investigating some fixed artistic patterns to represent certain styles as was done in some previous works, our work emphasizes styles related to a series of visual effects in the photograph (e.g., color, tone, and contrast). We propose a photo stylistic brush, an automatic robust style transfer approach based on Super pixel-based BIpartite Graph (SuperBIG). A two-step bipartite graph algorithm with different granularity levels is employed to aggregate pixels into superpixels and find their correspondences. In the first step, with the extracted hierarchical features, a bipartite graph is constructed to describe the content similarity for pixel partition to produce superpixels. In the second step, superpixels in the input/reference image are rematched to form a new superpixel-based bipartite graph, and superpixel-level correspondences are generated by bipartite matching. Finally, the refined correspondence guides SuperBIG to perform the transformation in a decorrelated color space. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method for transferring various styles of exemplar images, even for some challenging cases, such as night images.
NEW AND REDISCOVERED INSIGHTS ABOUT THE NATURE OF HYPNOTIzABILITY: EXCEPTIONAL ABILITY AND VULNERABILITY

Cognitive and neurobiological evidence supports the premise that hypnotic susceptibility is a trait underpinned by neurocognitive and biological flexibility. Here it is proposed that this flexibility may represent an exceptional ability, one often associated with creativity, and a vulnerability inter alia for psychopathology. Associations with vulnerability were prompted by evidence from three investigations showing positive correlations between items from a schizotypy scale and hypnotic susceptibility. These belonged essentially to positive syndromes of schizotypy encompassing unreality experiences and cognitive activation, as well as to a non-specific factor, social anxiety. Items included vividness of thoughts and perceptions, belief in psychic phenomena, rapid free flowing divergent thoughts, and perceptual alteration. Personality correlates of hypnotizability on occasion have disclosed corresponding cognitive phenomena including perceptual alteration, vividness of imagery, fantasy proneness, absorption, imaginative involvement, and creativity. Associations between hypnotizability and psychopathology have been proposed since the 19th century with warnings about precipitating psychosis in vulnerable individuals, issues which have been overlooked latterly or explained away. Schizotypy and psychosis have been associated with exceptional ability as well as psychopathology, while as with hypnotizability they may be adaptive traits with evolutionary advantages. Together this evidence is construed as support for primary associations of hypnosis with predominantly positive and non-specific schizotypal features (though further research with negative schizotypy is warranted) and a vulnerability for psychopathology. These putative relations may provide fresh leads about the enigmatic nature of hypnotizability and procedures for identifying vulnerable individuals.
H3K27 Demethylation at the Proviral Promoter Sensitizes Latent HIV to the Effects of Vorinostat in Ex Vivo Cultures of Resting CD4+ T Cells

ABSTRACT Histone methyltransferase inhibitors (HMTis) and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) are reported to synergistically induce the expression of latent human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), but studies have largely been performed with cell lines. As specific and potent HMTis directed at EZH1 (enhancer of zeste 2 Polycomb repressive complex 2 subunit 1)/EZH2 are now in human testing, we wished to rigorously test such an inhibitor in a primary resting T-cell model of HIV latency. We found that GSK343, a potent and selective EZH2/EZH1 inhibitor, reduced trimethylation of histone 3 at lysine 27 (H3K27) of the HIV provirus in resting cells. Remarkably, this epigenetic change was not associated with increased proviral expression in latently infected resting cells. However, following the reduction in H3K27 at the HIV long terminal repeat (LTR), subsequent exposure to the HDACi suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid or vorinostat (VOR) resulted in increases in HIV gag RNA and HIV p24 antigen production that were up to 2.5-fold greater than those induced by VOR alone. Therefore, in primary resting CD4+ T cells, true mechanistic synergy in the reversal of HIV latency may be achieved by the combination of HMTis and HDACis. Although other cellular effects of EZH2 inhibition may contribute to the sensitization of the HIV LTR to subsequent exposure to VOR, and to increase viral antigen production, this synergistic effect is directly associated with H3K27 demethylation at nucleosome 1 (Nuc-1). Based upon our findings, the combination of HMTis and HDACis should be considered for testing in animal models or clinical trials. IMPORTANCE Demethylation of H3K27 mediated by the histone methyltransferase inhibitor GSK343 in primary resting T cells is slow, occurring over 96 h, but by itself does not result in a significant upregulation of cell-associated HIV RNA expression or viral antigen production. However, following H3K27 demethylation, latent viral expression within infected primary resting CD4+ T cells is synergistically increased upon exposure to the histone deacetylase inhibitor vorinostat. Demethylation at H3K27 sensitizes the HIV promoter to the effects of an HDACi and provides a proof-of-concept for the testing of combination epigenetic approaches to disrupt latent HIV infection, a necessary step toward the eradication of HIV infection.
Rethinking Professional Practice: The contributions of Social Constructionism and the Feminist

A targeted fluid delivery system (110) is provided for delivering a treatment fluid (F) into tubes (I) of a tube and shell type heat exchanger such as in a condenser (C), typically used in a power plant. The system (110) targets the treatment fluid (F) delivery to separate regions (R) of tubes (I) such that the concentration of the treatment fluid (F) within the tubes (I) of the targeted region (R) is greater than a concentration of the treatment fluid (F) upon mixing with water from other tubes (I) outside of the targeted region (R) at an outlet (O). The system (110) includes a plurality of manifold tiles (160) oriented in fixed relationship to a tubesheet (100) of the condenser (C) at an inlet thereof such that the manifold tiles (160) are rigidly held in place, but do not block the tubes (I) of the condenser (C). The treatment fluid (F) is delivered to the tubes (I) through injectors (180) in the manifold tiles (160). The treatment fluid (F) is delivered to the manifold tiles (160) through fluid conduits (40) which pass through a waterbox (W) of the condenser (C). The fluid conduits (40) are coupled to a control valve (30) which allows the treatment fluid (F) to be directed to individual fluid conduits (40) in sequence without requiring adjustment of elements within the waterbox (W). As an alternative to the manifold tiles (160), a tubesheet (600) can be provided with injectors (680) embedded therein.