Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prostaglandin E2 Inhibits Alveolar Macrophage Phagocytosis through an E-Prostanoid 2 Receptor-Mediated Increase in Intracellular Cyclic AMP12

Prostaglandin E2 is a potent lipid mediator of inflammation that effects changes in cell functions through ligation of four distinct G protein-coupled receptors (E-prostanoid (EP)1, EP2, EP3, and EP4). During pneumonia, PGE2 production is enhanced. In the present study, we sought to assess the effect of endogenously produced and exogenously added PGE2 on FcRγ-mediated phagocytosis of bacterial pathogens by alveolar macrophages (AMs), which are critical participants in lung innate immunity. We also sought to characterize the EP receptor signaling pathways responsible for these effects. PGE2 (1–1000 nM) dose-dependently suppressed the phagocytosis by rat AMs of IgG-opsonized erythrocytes, immune serum-opsonized Klebsiella pneumoniae, and IgG-opsonized Escherichia coli. Conversely, phagocytosis was stimulated by pretreatment with the cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin. PGE2 suppression of phagocytosis was associated with enhanced intracellular cAMP production. Experiments using both forskolin (adenylate cyclase activator) and rolipram (phosphodiesterase IV inhibitor) confirmed the inhibitory effect of cAMP stimulation. Immunoblot analysis of rat AMs identified expression of only EP2 and EP3 receptors. The selective EP2 agonist butaprost, but neither the EP1/EP3 agonist sulprostone nor the EP4-selective agonist ONO-AE1-329, mimicked the effects of PGE2 on phagocytosis and cAMP stimulation. Additionally, the EP2 antagonist AH-6809 abrogated the inhibitory effects of both PGE2 and butaprost. We confirmed the specificity of our results by showing that AMs from EP2-deficient mice were resistant to the inhibitory effects of PGE2. Our data support a negative regulatory role for PGE2 on the antimicrobial activity of AMs, which has important implications for future efforts to prevent and treat bacterial pneumonia.
Population codes for orientation estimation

Population coding has become an essential paradigm in cognitive neuroscience over the past decade and is increasingly studied within the neural network community. We investigate the use of population vector decoding for local edge orientation estimation from a discrete set of Gabor filters. Vectorial combination of the broadly tuned filter outputs yields a resultant population vector, which gives a precise and robust estimate of the local contour orientation. We present results on the accuracy and robustness of orientation measurement.
Primaquine-Induced Hemolytic Anemia: Formation of Free Radicals in Rat Erythrocytes Exposed to 6-Methoxy-8-hydroxylaminoquinoline

Primaquine is an important antimalarial drug that is often dose-limited in therapy by the onset of hemolytic anemia. We have shown recently that an N-hydroxy metabolite of primaquine, 6-methoxy-8-hydroxylaminoquinoline (MAQ-NOH), is a direct-acting hemolytic agent in rat red cells and that the hemolytic activity of this metabolite is associated with GSH oxidation and oxidative damage to both membrane lipids and skeletal proteins. To determine whether the formation of free radicals may be involved in this process, rat red cells (40% suspensions) were incubated with hemolytic concentrations of MAQ-NOH (150–750 μM) and examined by EPR spectroscopy using 2-ethoxycarbonyl-2-methyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrrole-1-oxide (EMPO) as a spin trap. Addition of MAQ-NOH to red cell suspensions containing 10 mM EMPO gave rise to an EPR spectrum with hyperfine constants consistent with those of an EMPO-hydroxyl radical adduct standard. Of interest, formation of EMPO-OH was constant for up to 20 min and dependent on the presence of erythrocytic GSH. Although no other radical adduct signals were detected in the cells by EPR, spectrophotometric analysis revealed the presence of ferrylhemoglobin, which indicates that hydrogen peroxide is generated under these experimental conditions. The data support the hypothesis that oxygen-derived and possibly other free radicals are involved in the mechanism underlying MAQ-NOH-induced hemolytic anemia.
Idiosyncratic Intensity Variability in the Speech Signal

presented at Phonetik & Phonologie 10, Konstanz, Germany. http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/conferences/pp10/abstracts/He_pp10. pdf Klatt, D. H. (1980). Software for a cascade/parallel formant synthesizer, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 67: 971-995. Klatt, D. H. and Klatt, L. C. (1990). Analysis, synthesis, and perception of voice quality variations among female and male talkers, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 82: 820-857. Lee, C. S. and Todd, N. P. M. (2004). Towards an auditory account of speech rhythm: application of a model of the auditory “primal sketch” to two multilanguage corpora, Cognition 93: 225-254. Leemann, A. , Kolly, M. -J. and Dellwo, V. (2014). Speech-individuality in suprasegmental temporal features: implications for forensic voice comparison, Forensic Science International 238: 59-67. Leemann, A. and Kolly, M. -J. (2015). Speaker-invariant suprasegmental temporal features in normal and disguised speech, Speech Communication 75: 97-122.
Part I : Operative Orthopedics of the Fetlock Joint of the Horse : Traumatic and Developmental Diseases of the Equine Fetlock Joint

The invitation to present the Frank J. Milne State-of-the-Art Lecture is a special degree of flattery for one’s career. The flattery comes with a degree of responsibility to present the current state of practice and, to a certain extent, challenge doctrine and lay out theories of practice that result from one’s years of practice in a specialty area. The lecture should, therefore, enjoy the possibility of moving the “state of the art” forward. In areas where the author of this manuscript has a view of pathology that varies from the current concepts, the views will be presented as theories based on years of observation and, where possible, controlled studies. The object is to lay them out for examination and challenge or refutation by future practitioners of this specialty. I want to thank the members of the American Association of Equine Practitioners for this opportunity. Author’s address: Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, PO Box 12070, Lexington, Kentucky 40580; e-mail: lbramlage@roodandriddle.com. © 2009 AAEP.
A 160-GHz Switched Injection-Locked Oscillator for Phase and Amplitude Regenerative Sampling

This letter presents a switched injection-locked oscillator (SILO) operating at 160 GHz. The SILO utilizes positive feedback in a low-gain amplifier stage to achieve high regenerative gain for phase and amplitude information. The circuit is switched off every symbol period before the oscillator reaches its steady oscillation state to prevent the loss of information, then switched on again to receive the next symbol. This provides a viable solution for energy-efficient amplification in millimeter-wave communication systems, and is the fastest reported circuit of its kind. Fabricated in a 0.13-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> SiGe BiCMOS technology (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{T}=300$ </tex-math></inline-formula> GHz), the chip requires an area of 0.64 mm<sup>2</sup> and provides 18.4 dB of regenerative gain, while consuming only 6.6 mW of dc power in SILO operation, thus outperforming amplifiers in this frequency range in terms of power consumption.
Risk of perforation using rigid oesophagoscopy in the distal part of oesophagus.

INTRODUCTION Endoscopic examination and treatment of disorders in the oesophagus have been a part of the otolaryngological specialty since the introduction of the rigid endoscope. Today, both flexible and rigid oesophagoscopy (RO) is used to that end. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety of the RO. MATERIAL AND METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all ROs performed at a head & neck department in a Danish hospital in the 2003-2011-period. Perforation of the oesophageal wall was the primary endpoint. Secondary endpoints included: dental injury, mortality and, in case of a foreign body: location and successful removal. RESULTS A total of 483 ROs were performed. Four patients (0.8%) suffered perforation; three during removal of a foreign body in the lower part of the oesophagus and one as part of investigation for cancer. 46.2% of the procedures were performed to remove a foreign body and 32.7% as investigation for cancer. The majority of the foreign bodies were located in the superior part of the oesophagus and the objects were successfully removed in all but one case. CONCLUSION Our results are well within the range of previously published material. We recommend that the risk of serious complications is taken into consideration when choosing this modality. Furthermore, we believe that this risk increases in the distal part of the oesophagus and recommend that the use of the RO in this area is reserved as a last resort option. FUNDING not relevant. TRIAL REGISTRATION not relevant.
Inductance Harmonics in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors and Reduction of Their Effects in Sensorless Control

The paper deals with speed and position estimation of permanent magnet synchronous motors having unwanted spatial harmonics in the stator inductance and in the permanent magnet flux. The sensorless control is based on an adaptive observer that is augmented with a pulsating high-frequency signal injection technique at low speeds. The effects of harmonics on the speed and position estimation are reduced by adding harmonic models of the inductances and the flux to the adaptive observer and by modifying the injected high-frequency voltage signal based on the inductance variation. Simulations and laboratory experiments show that the estimation accuracy is improved and torque pulsations are reduced.
Sphingosine‐1‐phosphate suppresses chondrosarcoma metastasis by upregulation of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3 through suppressing miR‐101 expression

Chondrosarcoma is the second most common primary malignancy form of bone cancer, exhibiting resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy as well as developing high metastasis ability in late‐stage tumors. Thus, understanding the metastatic processes of chondrosarcoma is considered a strategy for the treatment of this disease. Sphingosine 1‐phosphate (S1P), a bioactive sphingolipid, is produced intracellularly by sphingosine kinase (SphK) and is regarded as a second signaling molecule that regulates inflammation, proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis. However, the effect of S1P on chondrosarcoma remains uncertain. As demonstrated by the transwell, immunoblotting, and real‐time PCR analyses, we found that S1P inhibited cell migration and MMP‐2 expression through the upregulation of the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase‐3 (TIMP‐3) expression in human chondrosarcoma cells. Additionally, we also showed that microRNA (miRNA)‐101, which targets the 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR) of TIMP‐3, decreased significantly following S1P treatment. After transfection with miR‐101 mimics, the S1P‐regulated cell migration and TIMP‐3 expression were both reversed. Furthermore, we also showed that the S1P‐inhibited cell migration is mediated through the c‐Src/MEK/ERK signaling axis. Meanwhile, the in vivo study indicated that overexpression of SphK1 decreases chondrosarcoma metastasis to the lungs. Our results illustrate the clinical significance between SphK1, TIMP‐3, and miR‐101 in human chondrosarcoma patients. Taken together, our results suggest that S1P and miR‐101 may prove to be potential therapeutic targets for future chondrosarcoma treatment.
Nucleotide sequences in bacteriophage f1 DNA: nucleotide sequence of genes V, VII, and VIII

The sequence of nucleotides comprising genes V, VII, and VIII of bacteriophage f1 was determined. The sequence was found to differ from that of the corresponding region of the related fd genome by eight base substitutions in gene V and one in gene VIII. The structure of gene VII was completely conserved between these two viruses and was identical to that of bacteriophage M13. Both transitions and transversions were found in cases where bases were substituted, but all substitutions were in the third codon position and had no effect on the structure of the corresponding protein product. The gene V protein product could thus be deduced to be identical to that of the corresponding proteins from bacteriophages fd and M13. A potential EcoRII cleavage site was formed by nucleotides 172 to 176 of gene V. Replicative form DNA form DNA from bacteriophage f1 is normally resistant to this enzyme, and evidence is presented to suggest that the sequence was modified through methylation of cytosine 173. The probable locations of other modified nucleotides in the sequence are discussed.
Feature Extraction in Character Recognition with Associative Memory Classifier

A pattern recognition system mainly contains two functional parts, i.e. feature extraction and pattern classification. The success of such a system depends on not only the effectiveness of each of them, but also their operation in concert. The feature extraction process in a traditional recognition system has two major tasks, namely, to extract deformation invariant signals and to reduce data. When a neural network is used as a pattern classifier, however, an alteration in these basic objectives is needed. In particular, the consideration of data reduction will be replaced by that of the suitability of feature vectors to the neural network. In this paper, feature extraction algorithms in character recognition have been designed based on these principles. The improvements made by these algorithms have been demonstrated in a series of experiments which justify such a change in the fundamental objectives of the feature extraction process when an associative memory classifier is used.
Multimedia Courseware for Teaching Arabic Vocabulary: Let's Learn from the Experts.

This study attempts to analyze and evaluate theories and design principles for the design and development of multimedia program for teaching and learning Arabic vocabulary among non-native speakers. In this paper, the researchers mentioned about the research tools, sampling technique and steps as well as population which are related to the design and development process of multimedia courseware which were conducted among the experts in the subject matters (SME). The study proposes the implementation theories of social constructivism by Vygotsky (1978), second language acquisition by Krashen (1984), multimedia learning by Mayer (2001) and ADDIE instructional model by Dick & Carey (1990). The feedbacks were gathered from various SME experts in teaching Arabic as a second language (TASL) and instructional design (ID) who have participated in the study. This paper has concluded the initial theories of design and development of multimedia learning courseware as proposed by the SMEs as outcome of this paper that can be used by the researcher in the design and development processes of related multimedia learning courseware in language learning
Capillary kinetics of ferrofluid in hydrophilic microscope slide nanochannels

The capillary filling speed of ferrofluid in hydrophilic microscope slide nanofluidic channels is investigated under various temperature and magnetic field conditions. Nanochannels with depths ranging from 50 to 150 nm and widths ranging from 30 to 200 μm are fabricated on a slide substrate of borosilicate glass with a thickness of 1.1 mm using buffered oxide wet etching and glass-glass fusion bonding techniques. The capillary filling speed of the ferrofluid is measured experimentally and compared with the theoretical prediction. It is found that the obtained experimental capillary filling speed is significantly lower than that predicted by the classical Washburn equation, and is attributed to the erroneous assumption of a constant contact angle irrespective of flow rate and other flow obstructions. The experimental results show that filling speed reduces with a reducing channel depth, a lower operating temperature and an increased filling length, but is insensitive to channel width. By contrast, the filling speed increases under the effects of an external magnetic field.
Q-LDA: Uncovering Latent Patterns in Text-based Sequential Decision Processes

In sequential decision making, it is often important and useful for end users to understand the underlying patterns or causes that lead to the corresponding decisions. However, typical deep reinforcement learning algorithms seldom provide such information due to their black-box nature. In this paper, we present a probabilistic model, Q-LDA, to uncover latent patterns in text-based sequential decision processes. The model can be understood as a variant of latent topic models that are tailored to maximize total rewards; we further draw an interesting connection between an approximate maximum-likelihood estimation of Q-LDA and the celebrated Q-learning algorithm. We demonstrate in the text-game domain that our proposed method not only provides a viable mechanism to uncover latent patterns in decision processes, but also obtains state-of-the-art rewards in these games.
A Multilayer-Based High-Performance Multisubpart Profile Grating Reflector

In this letter, a multilayer-based high-performance subwavelength multisubpart profile grating reflector (MPGR) is proposed and fabricated. The properties of the reflector are investigated by rigorous coupled-wave analysis for multilayered grating structures. It is shown that with the properly configured profile and strongly modulated grating layer in transverse-electric polarized wave, the MPGR experimentally demonstrates a broadband reflection spectrum from 1.56 to 1.8 ¿m, very high reflectivity (>97%), and good angular insensitivity of about 27.8°.
Analogy and Episodic Memory to Support Domain Learning in a Cognitive Architecture: An Exploration

Introduction Organisms learn from experience in many ways. One component of learning from experience is recording what has happened in the world when actions are taken, a form of episodic memory, and distilling such experience over time to learn models of phenomena for generating expectations. As further actions are taken, the accuracy of such models can be monitored, to detect surprises and to help identify and prioritize learning goals. This publication-based talk will describe some recent results in exploring the use of analogical generalization over episodic memories in the Companion cognitive architecture to formulate models of the effects of actions in a complex dynamic world. Measures of novelty, surprise and for prioritization of learning goals will be discussed.
Ammonia as an Intermediate in Nitrogen Fixation by Azotobacter

The view that NH3 might be an intermediate in biological nitrogen fixation was suggested almost immediately following discovery of this process. As has been emphasized repeatedly by recent commentators (Burk, 1937; Burk and Burris, 1941; Wilson, 1940), however, the evidence in support has been so lacking in specificity and proper control that it approaches irrelevancy. As a result an alternative mechanism based on hydroxylamine as the key intermediate has received increasing attention. This view, advocated mainly by Virtanen (1938), is based on experiments which deal with symbiotic nitrogen fixation brought about by association of leguminous plants and the root nodule bacteria. We have already examined the evidence as it applies to this type of fixation and concluded that most if not all would support equally well the view that ammonia is an intermediate (Burris and Wilson, 1945; Wilson, 1940). Nevertheless, an increasing number of authors, especially of texts, present this proposal as a definitely proved mechanism rather than as a suggested hypothesis. Studies made by us since 1941 with N'5 as a tracer have provided an increasing number of experimental findings pointing to the significance of ammonia in fixation by the free-living bacterium, Azotobacter vinelandii. One of the most critical of these is that extremely small concentrations of the ammonium ion will swiftly and completely suppress assimilation of free nitrogen by Azotobacter in contrast to the less rapid and less complete substitution noted when other available fixed compounds of nitrogen are supplied the organism. Although reported initially more than three years ago (Wilson, Hull, and Burris, 1943), only recently have we been able to examine in detail this fundamental shift from fixation to assimilation of combined nitrogen. The results are described in this report.
Therostasin, a Novel Clotting Factor Xa Inhibitor from the Rhynchobdellid Leech, Theromyzon tessulatum *

Therostasin is a potent naturally occurring tight-binding inhibitor of mammalian Factor Xa (K i , 34 pm), isolated from the rhynchobdellid leechTheromyzon tessulatum. Therostasin is a cysteine-rich protein (8991 Da) consisting of 82 amino acid residues with 16 cysteine residues. Its amino acid sequence has been determined by a combination of techniques, including Edman degradation, enzymatic cleavage, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) on the native and s-β-pyridylethylated compound. Sequence analysis reveals that it shares no significant homology with other Factor Xa inhibitors except for the putative reactive site. Moreover, it contains a signature pattern for proteins of the endothelin family, potent vasoconstrictors isolated in mammal and snake venom. Therostasin cDNA (825 bp) codes for a polypeptide of 82 amino acid residues preceded by 19 residues, representing a signal peptide sequence. As for the other known inhibitors of Factor Xa, therostasin is expressed and stored in the cells of the leech salivary glands.
The Mouse Snail Gene Encodes a Key Regulator of the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition

ABSTRACT Snail family genes encode DNA binding zinc finger proteins that act as transcriptional repressors. Mouse embryos deficient for the Snail (Sna) gene exhibit defects in the formation of the mesoderm germ layer. In Sna −/− mutant embryos, a mesoderm layer forms and mesodermal marker genes are induced but the mutant mesoderm is morphologically abnormal. Lacunae form within the mesoderm layer of the mutant embryos, and cells lining these lacunae retain epithelial characteristics. These cells resemble a columnar epithelium and have apical-basal polarity, with microvilli along the apical surface and intercellular electron-dense adhesive junctions that resemble adherens junctions. E-cadherin expression is retained in the mesoderm of the Sna −/− embryos. These defects are strikingly similar to the gastrulation defects observed insnail-deficient Drosophila embryos, suggesting that the mechanism of repression of E-cadherin transcription by Snail family proteins may have been present in the metazoan ancestor of the arthropod and mammalian lineages.