Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Company profile: Biocompatibles International plc: local drug delivery for targeted therapies.

Biocompatibles International plc is focused on the development of targeted therapies for a range of indications, including oncology, neurology and cardiology. By delivering the therapy directly to the site of a localized disease numerous benefits can be achieved, including the targeting of a very high therapeutic dose to the required location and reduced systemic toxicity. As part of this strategy the company is now a leader in the field of using locally placed stem cells to make and deliver therapeutically active peptide drugs. The encapsulated cells (CellBeads®), modified to produce a potent anti-apoptotic peptide, CM1, are currently being evaluated in a Phase I/IIa study for the treatment of stroke and in preclinical models of acute myocardial infarction.
Modulation of NFAT-5, an outlying member of the NFAT family, in human keratinocytes and skin.

BACKGROUND Cyclosporin A (CsA) and tacrolimus block T cell activation by inhibiting the phosphatase calcineurin and preventing translocation from the cytoplasm to the nucleus of the transcription factor Nuclear Factor of Activated T cells (NFAT). NFAT compose a family of transcription factors that are turned on during T cell activation. AIMS To study the expression of NFAT-5 mRNA and protein in normal human keratinocytes and to investigate the cellular and subcellular pattern of expression of NFAT-5 in normal human skin and psoriasis, and analyze effects of different agonists and ultraviolet radiation on NFAT-5 in normal human skin. METHODS Tissue cultures, Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), Western analysis, immunostaining, confocal microscopy. RESULTS Sequencing of RT-PCR products confirmed the identity of the product that showed 100 % homology with the predicted NFAT-5 sequence. anti-NFAT-5 mainly detected a single band in cultured keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts using Western analysis. Immunohistochemistry showed that epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts in normal human and psoriatic skin express NFAT-5. NFAT-5 showed predominantly nuclear localization in epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts within five normal adult skin biopsies. Our data also suggest that UV irradiation reduces NFAT-5 nuclear localization within the epidermis. Unlike NFAT 1-4, NFAT-5/TonEBP was localized to both nucleus and cytoplasm of cultured keratinocytes. Cyclosporin A induces nuclear membrane translocation of NFAT-5 in cultured keratinocytes and raffinose (a hypertonicity inducing agent) induces more nuclear localization of NFAT-5 compared to untreated cells. In addition, differentiation-promoting agonists that induce sustained rise in intracellular calcium did not result in changes in NFAT-5 localization in cultured keratinocytes. CONCLUSION These studies provide the first observation of expression of NFAT-5/TonEBP mRNA protein in cultured keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts and possible functional regulation in cultured keratinocytes. CsA and raffinose effects on NFAT-5/TonEBP in cultured keratinocytes suggest diverse intracellular signaling pathways for NFAT-5/TonEBP in these cells, and that NFAT-5/TonEBP might function to translate different extracellular stimuli into appropriate functional responses.
Cyclic imine toxins from dinoflagellates: a growing family of potent antagonists of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors

We present an overview of the toxicological profile of the fast‐acting, lipophilic macrocyclic imine toxins, an emerging family of organic compounds associated with algal blooms, shellfish contamination and neurotoxicity. Worldwide, shellfish contamination incidents are expanding; therefore, the significance of these toxins for the shellfish food industry deserves further study. Emphasis is directed to the dinoflagellate species involved in their production, their chemical structures, and their specific mode of interaction with their principal natural molecular targets, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, or with the soluble acetylcholine‐binding protein, used as a surrogate receptor model. The dinoflagellates Karenia selliformis and Alexandrium ostenfeldii / A. peruvianum have been implicated in the biosynthesis of gymnodimines and spirolides, while Vulcanodinium rugosum is the producer of pinnatoxins and portimine. The cyclic imine toxins are characterized by a macrocyclic skeleton comprising 14–27 carbon atoms, flanked by two conserved moieties, the cyclic imine and the spiroketal ring system. These phycotoxins generally display high affinity and broad specificity for the muscle type and neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, a feature consistent with their binding site at the receptor subunit interfaces, composed of residues highly conserved among all nAChRs, and explaining the diverse toxicity among animal species.
Acute Dietary Nitrate Supplementation Decreases Systolic Blood Pressure and Increases Dry Static Apnea Performance in Females

Collofello BS, Moskalik B, Essick EE. Acute Dietary Nitrate Supplementation Decreases Systolic Blood Pressure and Increases Dry Static Apnea Performance in Females. JEPonline 2014;17(4):1526. Recently, dietary inorganic nitrate has been explored as a sports nutrition supplement, and has been shown to enhance exercise performance by reducing metabolic oxygen cost and lowering blood pressure. The aim of this research was to study the effects of nitrate supplementation on cardiovascular function and duration of dry static apnea in 12 healthy females. The subjects were assigned to receive 70 ml of organic beetroot juice (BR; containing ~5.0 mmol of nitrate) and a nitrate-depleted beetroot juice placebo (PLC; ~0.003 mmol of nitrate) in a randomized, double blind, crossover design. After 2.5 hrs post-ingestion of the supplement, the subjects performed three 20-sec submaximal static apneas separated by 90 sec of rest, followed by a maximal effort apnea. The duration of maximum dry static apnea, resting systolic pressure (SP), resting heart rate (HR) were statistically analyzed. The BR supplementation significantly decreased resting SP compared to the nitrate PLC conditions (x̄ = -4.82%, SD ± 4.06, Binomial test0.50 P=0.039). Although a trend was noted for an increase in the BR maximal apnea duration (52.6 sec) versus the PLC (48.7 sec), the difference was not statistically significant (Binomial test0.50 P=0.098). These results indicate that acute dietary nitrate decreases resting SP, but does not increase maximum static apnea in young healthy females. These findings may be advantageous for hypoxia associated athletic activities such as swimming and exercising at high altitude.
A qualitative exploration of the impact of HIV and ART on social disruption and household continuity in Uganda

With increased uptake of antiretroviral therapy (ART) throughout sub-Saharan Africa, it is critical to have a better understanding of the impact of ART on all health dimensions since the treatment can have the expected benefits as well as unintended negative consequences. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 adult HIV clients (19 women and 5 men) in Uganda who had been on ART for at least six months. A grounded approach and content analysis were used to explore the effects of having HIV and undergoing ART on household continuity, social engagement, experience of support and stigma, and children's school attendance. Most of the participants reported loss of a spouse/partner and household discontinuity (e.g. having to move in with extended family) because of HIV, and this was largely unchanged after being on ART. While experiences of HIV stigma and social disengagement were common after an HIV diagnosis, most participants reported improved social interaction after having commenced ART, which for some was tied to economic productivity. Many of the participants’ children who had stopped going to school were able to return after the parent was on ART. HIV care and ART, with related improvements in clients’ physical and work-related functioning, together with family support, helped to reverse some of the deleterious effects of having HIV. Nonetheless, support that augments healthcare is needed to help individuals provide for themselves and their families, both socially and economically.
Sampled-Data Exponential Synchronization of Chaotic Lur’e Systems

This paper is concerned with the problem of sampled-data exponential synchronization for chaotic Lur’e systems (CLSs) in the form of master–slave framework. An improved time-dependent Lyapunov functional (TDLF) is put forward to fully exploit the accessible information about sampling characteristics and nonlinearities of the CLS. By resorting to the improved TDLF, a new synchronization criterion is established, which ensures the synchronization error system is globally exponentially stable. An illustrative example is offered to demonstrate the validity and virtue of the proposed design methodology.
Genetic Programming: Computers That Program Themselves

One goal of artificial intelligence research is to create computers that can program themselves. Genetic Programming is a method of automatically generating computer programs through a process analogous to biological natural selection. Through a series of generations, programs are “evolved” to solve a given problem, increasingly with human-competitive results [KBIAM96]. In this paper we start with a discussion of how genetic programming works and what the major issues are. We will then analyze several areas of current research aimed at improving the results of genetic programming. Finally, we will consider the potential of this technique in generating new knowledge.
DIEES Biped Robot: A bio-inspired Pneumatic Platform for Human Locomotion Analysis and Stiffness Control.

The paper describes the kinematics and kinetic properties of a ten degrees of freedom biologically inspired biped robot. The prototype realized is pneumatically actuated, and the leg size and dimensions have been designed in order to be anthropomorphic. Moreover, the control strategy has been specifically designed in order to generate a different force and position control strategy acting on the stance and the swing leg respectively. A three-level feedback loop controller allows generation of a three-dimensional trajectory for the swing leg directly referred to the operative space. Besides, a set of forces acting directly on the foot contact surface are generated during the stance phase, in order to better exploit the elasticity properties of the pneumatic actuators
Culture, Change, and Prediction

Five studies showed that Chinese and Americans perceive change differently. Chinese anticipated more changes from an initial state than Americans did. When events were changing in a particular direction, Chinese were more likely than Americans to predict change in the direction of change. Moreover, for patterns with changing slopes, Chinese predicted greater change in the way slopes changed, in comparison to Americans. In addition, people who predicted change were perceived as wise by Chinese more than by Americans. Implications for social attribution, tolerance for contradiction, persistence on tasks, and the illusion of control are discussed.
HYBRID GENETIC ALGORITHM APPLIED TO THE CLUSTERING PROBLEM

Clustering is a task, whose main objective is dividing a data set into partitions, so that patterns belonging to the same partition are similar to one another and dissimilar to patterns belonging to other partitions. It falls into the category of optimization tasks, since clustering ultimately aims at finding the best combination of partitions among all possible combinations. Metaheuristics, which are general heuristics capable of escaping local optima, can be applied to solve the clustering problem. This paper proposes a Hybrid Genetic Clustering Algorithm (HGCA) ─ whose initial population is generated partly by clustering algorithms ─ that combines a local search heuristic to the global search procedure. Such improvements are intended to provide solutions for search problems closer to the global optimum. Experiments are performed in real data sets I order to verify if the proposed approach presents any improvement in comparison with other algorithms evaluated in this work: agglomerative hierarchical; three versions of K-means, differing only in terms of initialization methods (Random, K-means + + and PCA_Part); Tabu Search and Genetic Clustering Algorithm.
Localization of the heparin-binding site of glia-derived nexin/protease nexin-1 by site-directed mutagenesis.

Recombinant rat glia-derived nexin was expressed in insect cells using the baculovirus system. The kinetics for the inhibition of thrombin by this recombinant material were indistinguishable from those observed with natural glia-derived nexin and recombinant nexin expressed in yeast. In addition, the dependence of the rate of inactivation on the concentration of heparin was similar for the three preparations. At the optimal heparin concentration, the association rate constant was 330-fold higher than that observed in the absence of heparin. A putative heparin-binding site is found in glia-derived nexin between residues 71 and 86; heparin-binding sites are found in homologous regions of antithrombin III and heparin cofactor II. Lysines in this region were mutated to glutamates, and the kinetics for the inhibition of thrombin by mutant proteins were determined. Concurrent mutation of all seven lysines in this region (residues 71, 74, 75, 78, 83, 84, and 86) did not affect the rate constant for the association of glia-derived nexin with thrombin in the absence of heparin, but it resulted in complete loss of the heparin acceleration of the rate of association. Mutations of residues 83, 84, and 86 together also caused a marked decrease in the acceleration by heparin of the reaction between glia-derived nexin and thrombin. These results support the hypothesis that the heparin-binding sites of glia-derived nexin, antithrombin III, and heparin cofactor II are found in homologous regions of the molecules. Heparin was also found to potentiate the ability of wild-type glia-derived nexin to inhibit the thrombin-induced retraction of neurites from neuroblastoma NB2a cells. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Online Article Ranking as a Constrained, Dynamic, Multi-Objective Optimization Problem

The content ranking problem in a social news website, is typically a function that maximizes a scalar metric of interest like dwell-time. However, like in most real-world applications we are interested in more than one metric---for instance simultaneously maximizing click-through rate, monetization metrics, dwell-time---and also satisfy the traffic requirements promised to different publishers. All this needs to be done on online data and under the settings where the objective function and the constraints can dynamically change; this could happen if for instance new publishers are added, some contracts are adjusted, or if some contracts are over. In this paper, we formulate this problem as a constrained, dynamic, multi-objective optimization problem. We propose a novel framework that extends a successful genetic optimization algorithm, NSGA-II, to solve this online, data-driven problem. We design the modules of NSGA-II to suit our problem. We evaluate optimization performance using Hypervolume and introduce a confidence interval metric for assessing the practicality of a solution. We demonstrate the application of this framework on a real-world Article Ranking problem. We observe that we make considerable improvements in both time and performance over a brute-force baseline technique that is currently in production.
The effect of microbubbles on developed turbulence

The motion and the action of microbubbles in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence are investigated through (three-dimensional) direct numerical simulations of the Navier–Stokes equations and applying the Lagrangian approach to track the bubble trajectories. The forces acting on the bubbles are added mass, drag, lift, and gravity. The bubbles are found to accumulate in vortices, preferably on the side with downward velocity. This effect, mainly caused by the lift force, leads to a reduced average bubble rise velocity. Once the reaction of the bubbles on the carrier flow is embodied using a point-force approximation, an attenuation of the turbulence on large scales and an extra forcing on small scales is found.
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Predictors of Military Task Performance: Maximal Lift Capacity

Abstract Hydren, JR, Borges, AS, and Sharp, MA. Systematic review and meta-analysis of predictors of military task performance: maximal lift capacity. J Strength Cond Res 31(4): 1142–1164, 2017—Physical performance tests (e.g., physical employment tests, return-to-duty tests) are commonly used to predict occupational task performance to assess the ability of individuals to do a job. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify predictive tests that correlate well with maximal lifting capacity in military personnel. Three databases were searched and experts in the field were contacted, resulting in the identification of 9 reports confined to military personnel that presented correlations between predictor tests and job tasks that measured maximal lift capacity. These 9 studies used 9 variations of a maximal lift capacity test, which were pooled to evaluate comparisons. The predictive tests were categorized into 10 fitness domains, which in ranked order were as follows: body mass and composition, absolute aerobic capacity, dynamic strength, power, isometric strength, strength-endurance, speed, isokinetic strength, flexibility, and age. Limitations of these data include a restricted age range (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 20–35; no correlations to maximal lift capacity) and the limited number of comparisons available within the cited studies. Weighted mean correlations ( ) and 95% CI were calculated for each test. Lean body mass (kg) was the strongest overall predictor ( ; 95% CI, 0.697–0.966). Tests of dynamic strength had stronger correlations than strength endurance ( , 95% CI, 0.69–0.89 vs. , 95% CI, 0.21–0.61). The following 6 domains of physical performance predictive tests had pooled correlations of 0.40 or greater for combined-sex samples: dynamic strength, power, isometric strength, strength endurance, speed, and isokinetic strength. Anthropometric measures explain 24–54% of maximal lift capacity variance, and lean body mass alone accounts for ∼69%. This review provides summarized information to assist in the selection of predictive tests for maximal lifting capacity in military personnel.
Distribution and differentiation of A2B5+ glial precursors in the developing rat spinal cord

In many regions of the rat central nervous system, oligodendrocytes develop from migratory A2B5+ precursor cells. In the rat spinal cord, during early embryonic development the capacity for oligodendrogenesis appears to be restricted to ventral regions of the spinal cord, while cultures of postnatal rat spinal cord contain a distinct population of A2B5+ astrocyte precursors. To determine if, as in other regions of the CNS, spinal cord A2B5+ cells give rise directly to oligodendrocytes and astrocytes, the initial distribution, and subsequent dispersion, proliferation, and differentiation of spinal cord A2B5+ cells have been examined in both explant and dissociated cell cultures. Spinal cord oligodendrocytes develop from A2B5+ cells. At E14, A2B5+ cells are restricted to ventral regions of the spinal cord and as development proceeds they become more uniformly distributed throughout the spinal cord. In explant cultures, greater than 95% of the explants that contain oligodendrocytes also contain A2B5+ cells and a proportion of mature oligodendrocytes retain detectable A2B5 immunoreactivity briefly on their surface. The maturation of spinal cord oligodendrocyte precursors occurs in a number of distinct stages characterized by the expression of O4 immunoreactivity, which first appears at E16, and GC immunoreactivity, which first appears at E18. As spinal cord oligodendrocyte precursors acquire O4 immunoreactivity they appear to lose the ability to proliferate in response to PDGF but retain the ability to proliferate in response to bFGF, suggesting that the control of proliferation of oligodendrocyte precursors is, in part, dependent on their maturational state. In the presence of high serum, spinal cord A2B5+ cells fail to develop in isolated E14 dorsal spinal cord cultures, while in ventral cultures they subsequently differentiate into A2B5+ astrocytes suggesting that A2B5+ astrocyte precursors are also initially ventrally located. Unlike oligodendrocyte differentiation, however, the differentiation of spinal cord A2B5+ cells into astrocytes is delayed in early embryonic‐derived cultures compared to those from older animals. These observations suggest that local influences may regulate the timing of spinal cord A2B5+ astrocyte development, but not spinal cord oligodendrocyte development. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evidence for possible interactions between PLP and DM20 within the myelin sheath

PLP and its smaller DM20 isoform constitute the major proteins of CNS myelin. Previous studies indicated a role for the proteins in maintaining the intraperiod line of the myelin sheath and the integrity of axons and suggested that both isoforms were necessary to provide these functions. The present study shows that each isoform is capable individually of inserting into compact myelin. Employing chromatographic extraction procedures designed to maintain the natural conformation of the proteins we found that most PLP and DM20 remained associated. Using an antibody specific to the PLP isoform, we were able to co‐immunoprecipitate DM20 from the major fraction of the extracted equine myelin and from mouse native whole myelin. We suggest that PLP and DM20 may form a hetero‐oligomeric complex within the myelin sheath, probably in association with specific lipids and that this arrangement is essential for the normal structure of myelin and axons. GLIA 39:31–36, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Loss Differentiation in OBS Networks With Limited or No Wavelength Conversion

Quality of Service differentiation is an open research issue in optical burst switching (OBS) networks. Most proposals assume full wavelength-conversion, but wavelength converters are still very complex and expensive, and accordingly limited and no wavelength conversion OBS networks are likely to be the most common scenarios. In this paper, we define and analyze the QoS Multiple Wavelength Simultaneous Transmission technique (QoS-MWST), a novel method for providing loss differentiation in OBS networks with limited or no wavelength-conversion capability. In QoS-MWST, multiple copies of each burst are simultaneously sent on different wavelengths, so as to increase the chances of data delivery, and loss differentiation is achieved by properly sending more copies of the higher-priority bursts. Through analysis and extensive simulation experiments, we demonstrate that QoS-MWST can provide loss differentiation in OBS networks without full wavelength-conversion capability more efficiently than other differentiation techniques proposed in the literature.