Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell Surface-expressed Cation-independent Mannose 6-Phosphate Receptor (CD222) Binds Enzymatically Active Heparanase Independently of Mannose 6-Phosphate to Promote Extracellular Matrix Degradation*

Heparanase is a β-d-endoglucuronidase that cleaves heparan sulfate, an important structural component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and vascular basement membrane (BM). The cleavage of heparan sulfate by heparanase-expressing cells, such as activated leukocytes, metastatic tumor cells, and proliferating endothelial cells, facilitates degradation of the ECM/BM to promote cell invasion associated with inflammation, tumor metastasis, and angiogenesis. In addition to its enzymatic function, heparanase has also recently been shown to act as a cell adhesion and/or signaling molecule upon interaction with cell surfaces. Despite the obvious importance of the mechanisms for the binding of heparanase to cell surfaces, the receptor(s) for heparanase remain poorly defined. In this study, we identify the 300-kDa cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate receptor (CIMPR) as a cell surface receptor for heparanase. Purified platelet heparanase was shown to bind the human CIMPR expressed on the surface of a transfected mouse L cell line. Optimal binding was determined to be at a slightly acidic pH (6.5-7.0) with heparanase remaining on the cell surface for up to 10 min at 37 °C. In contrast, mouse L cells or Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing the cation-dependent mannose 6-phosphate receptor (CDMPR) showed no binding of heparanase. Interestingly, the binding of heparanase to CIMPR was independent of Man-6-P moieties. Significantly, primary human T cells upon activation were shown to dramatically up-regulate levels of cell surface-expressed CIMPR, which showed a concomitant increase in their capacity to bind heparanase. Furthermore, the tethering of heparanase to the surface of cells via CIMPR was found to increase their capacity to degrade an ECM or a reconstituted BM. These data suggest an important role for CIMPR in the cell surface presentation of enzymatically active heparanase for the efficient passage of T cells into an inflammatory site and have implications for the use of this mechanism by other cell types to enhance cell invasion.
Retrospective age at onset of bipolar disorder and outcome during two-year follow-up: results from the STEP-BD study.

OBJECTIVE Symptoms of bipolar disorder are increasingly recognized among children and adolescents, but little is known about the course of bipolar disorder among adults who experience childhood onset of symptoms. METHODS We examined prospective outcomes during up to two years of naturalistic treatment among 3,658 adult bipolar I and II outpatients participating in a multicenter clinical effectiveness study, the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD). Age at illness onset was identified retrospectively by clinician assessment at study entry. RESULTS Compared to patients with onset of mood symptoms after age 18 years (n = 1,187), those with onset before age 13 years (n = 1,068) experienced earlier recurrence of mood episodes after initial remission, fewer days of euthymia, and greater impairment in functioning and quality of life over the two-year follow-up. Outcomes for those with onset between age 13 and 18 years (n = 1,403) were generally intermediate between these two groups. CONCLUSION Consistent with previous reports in smaller cohorts, adults with retrospectively obtained early-onset bipolar disorder appear to be at greater risk for recurrence, chronicity of mood symptoms, and functional impairment during prospective observation.
Lesion size‐dependent synaptic and astrocytic responses in cortex contralateral to infarcts in middle‐aged rats

In young adult rats, unilateral lesions of the sensorimotor cortex lead to neuronal structural plasticity and synaptogenesis in the contralateral motor cortex, which is connected to the lesion site by transcallosal fibers. The contralesional neural plasticity varies with lesion size and results from the convergence of denervation‐induced reactive plasticity and behavioral asymmetries. It was unknown whether similar effects occur in older animals. Furthermore, the coordination of synaptic responses with that of perisynaptic astrocytes had not been investigated. In this study, middle‐aged rats (14–16 months old) were given sham‐operations or unilateral ischemic lesions of the sensorimotor cortex. Fifty days later, numerical densities of neurons and synapses and morphological characteristics of astrocytic processes in layer V of the contralesional motor cortex were measured using stereological light and electron microscopy methods. Lesions resulted in behavioral asymmetries, but no significant synapse addition in the contralesional motor cortex. Synapse number per neuron was negatively correlated with lesion size and reduced opposite larger lesions compared with smaller ones. Astrocytic changes were also lesion size‐dependent. Astrocytic hypertrophy was observed only after smaller lesions and was associated with greater coverage and greater numbers of synapses. These findings are consistent with those in younger rats indicating an inverse relationship between lesion size and adaptive neuronal restructuring in denervated cortex. However, they indicate that the synaptogenic reaction to this lesion is relatively limited in older animals. Finally, the results indicate that structural plasticity of perisynaptic astrocytes parallels, and could play a role in shaping, synaptic responses to postischemic denervation. Synapse 64:659–671, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Reconfigurable Fpga-Based Architecture for Modular Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

A reconfigurable platform for sensor networks is presented. This platform has features that allow easy reuse of the node in several applications avoiding redesigning the system from scratch. The node includes an FPGA which is the core of the reconfiguration capabilities of the node. Several hardware interfaces for sensor standard protocols like I2C or PWM have been developed and implemented in the FPGA. Remote reconfiguration is an important feature and sensor networks can take advantage of it in order to improve the global performance.
Effect of the CB1 receptor antagonists rimonabant and AM251 on the firing rate of dorsal raphe nucleus neurons in rat brain slices

Background and purpose: Previous studies have suggested a regulation of 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT) neurons by the endocannabinoid system. The aim of our work was to examine the effect of two CB1 receptor antagonists, SR141716A (rimonabant, Sanofi‐Synthélabo Recherche, Montpellier, France) and N‐(piperidin‐1‐yl)‐5‐(4‐iodophenyl)‐1‐(2,4‐dichlorophenyl)‐4‐methyl‐1H‐pyrazole‐3‐carboxamide (AM251, Tocris Cookson, Bristol, UK), on the firing rate of dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) neurons.
Selection of student-selected component [SSCs] modules across the medical undergraduate curriculum: Relationship with motivational factors

Student-selected components (SSCs) encourage the following within the undergraduate medical curriculum: greater exploration of core curriculum topics; exploration of non-core subjects/experiences; research and self-directed learning; and personal and professional development opportunities. This study examined the motivational factors which influence SSC choice to assess (a) SSC selection patterns across each year of the curriculum (direct and graduate entry) and (b) motivation underlying SSC selection across the curriculum. During SSC registration at University College Cork, all medical undergraduates (years 1–3, graduate-entry medicine) were required to select an SSC and provide a written justification for their selection. Five primary motivational factors were identified: correction of perceived deficits; genuine interest in subject and wish to study in more depth; career strategy; exam strategy; and taking a chance. A complex pattern of relationships emerged in relation to matching of motivational factors with SSC categories, e.g. selection of research skills SSCs was strongly associated with the ‘career strategy’ motivation. Significant differences were observed across curriculum years, as well as between direct-entry versus graduate-entry undergraduates, with respect to SSC selections and underlying motivation. This study provides insight into changing patterns of SSC selection in medicine, as well as accompanying motivational factors, across the undergraduate years.
LOOM: Optimal Aggregation Overlays for In-Memory Big Data Processing

Aggregation underlies the distillation of information from big data. Many well-known basic operations including top-k matching and word count hinge on fast aggregation across large data-sets. Common frameworks including MapReduce support aggregation, but do not explicitly consider or optimize it. Optimizing aggregation however becomes yet more relevant in recent "online" approaches to expressive big data analysis which store data in main memory across nodes. This shifts the bottlenecks from disk I/O to distributed computation and network communication and significantly increases the impact of aggregation time on total job completion time. This paper presents LOOM, a (sub)system for efficient big data aggregation for use within big data analysis frameworks. LOOM efficiently supports two-phased (sub)computations consisting in a first phase performed on individual data sub-sets (e.g., word count, top-k matching) followed by a second aggregation phase which consolidates individual results of the first phase (e.g., count sum, top-k). Using characteristics of an aggregation function, LOOM constructs a specifically configured aggregation overlay to minimize aggregation costs. We present optimality heuristics and experimentally demonstrate the benefits of thus optimizing aggregation overlays using microbenchmarks and real world examples.
Estimation of students' attention in the classroom from kinect features

This paper proposes a novel approach to automatic estimation of attention of students during lectures in the class-room. The approach uses 2D and 3D features obtained by the Kinect One sensor characterizing both facial and body properties of a student, including gaze point and body posture. Machine learning algorithms are used to train attention model, providing classifiers which estimate attention level of individual student. Human encoding of attention level is used as a training set data. The experiment included 3 persons whose attention was annotated over 4 minute period in a resolution of 1 second. We review available Kinect features and propose features matching the visual attention and inattention cues, and present the results of classification experiments.
“A Mission‐Driven Discipline”: the Growth of Conservation Biology

Abstract: Conservation biology emerged in the mid‐1980s, drawing on established disciplines and integrating them in pursuit of a coherent goal: the protection and perpetuation of the Earth's biological diversity. Opportunistic in its borrowing and application of knowledge, conservation biology had its roots within the established biological sciences and resource management disciplines but has continually incorporated insights from the empirical experience of resource managers, from the social sciences and humanities, and from diverse cultural sources. The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) has represented the field's core constituency, while expanding that constituency in keeping with the field's integrative spirit. Conservation Biology has served as SCB's flagship publication, promoting research, dialog, debate, and application of the field's essential concepts. Over the last 20 years the field, SCB, and the journal have evolved to meet changing conservation needs, to explore gaps in our knowledge base, to incorporate new information from related fields, to build professional capacity, and to provide expanded opportunities for international participation. In turn, the field, SCB, and journal have prompted change in related fields, organizations, and publications. In its dedication to advancing the scientific foundations of biodiversity conservation and placing that science at the service of society in a world whose variety, wildness, and beauty we care for, conservation biology represents both a continuation and radical reconfiguration of the traditional relationship between science and conservation.
A Single Coin Toss Problem

We show that a single binomial observation carries absolutely no evidential value for discriminating the null hypothesis θ = 1/2 from a broad class of alternative hypotheses that allow θ to be between 0 and 1. In contrast, interval estimation methods suggest that a single binomial observation does provide some evidence against the null hypothesis. The resolution of this paradox requires the insight that interval estimation methods may not be used for model comparison; interval estimates are postdictive rather than predictive, and therefore fail to take model complexity properly into account.
Deficiency of Capn4 Gene Inhibits Nuclear Factor-κB (NF-κB) Protein Signaling/Inflammation and Reduces Remodeling after Myocardial Infarction*

Background: The causal role of calpain in myocardial remodeling after infarction has not been addressed. Results: Deficiency of Capn4 inhibited NF-κB signaling and inflammation and reduced myocardial remodeling, dysfunction, and mortality after infarction. Conclusion: Calpain contributes to myocardial inflammation and remodeling after infarction. Significance: This study provides a significant insight into the function of calpain in post-myocardial infarction remodeling. Calpain has been implicated in acute myocardial injury after myocardial infarction (MI). However, the causal relationship between calpain and post-MI myocardial remodeling has not been fully understood. This study examined whether deletion of Capn4, essential for calpain-1 and calpain-2 activities, reduces myocardial remodeling and dysfunction following MI, and if yes, whether these effects of Capn4 deletion are associated with NF-κB signaling and inflammatory responses in the MI heart. A novel mouse model with cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of Capn4 (Capn4-ko) was employed. MI was induced by left coronary artery ligation. Deficiency of Capn4 dramatically reduced the protein levels and activities of calpain-1 and calpain-2 in the Capn4-ko heart. In vivo cardiac function was relatively improved in Capn4-ko mice at 7 and 30 days after MI when compared with their wild-type littermates. Deletion of Capn4 reduced apoptosis, limited infarct expansion, prevented left ventricle dilation, and reduced mortality in Capn4-ko mice. Furthermore, cardiomyocyte cross-sectional areas and myocardial collagen deposition were significantly attenuated in Capn4-ko mice, which were accompanied by down-regulation of hypertrophic genes and profibrotic genes. These effects of Capn4 knock-out correlated with restoration of IκB protein and inhibition of NF-κB activation, leading to suppression of proinflammatory cytokine expression and inflammatory cell infiltration in the Capn4-ko heart after MI. In conclusion, deficiency of Capn4 reduces adverse myocardial remodeling and myocardial dysfunction after MI. These effects of Capn4 deletion may be mediated through prevention of IκB degradation and NF-κB activation, resulting in inhibition of inflammatory responses.
Recognizing Type A Behaviour Pattern among Doctoral Students

Type A behavior pattern was first described in 1959 by two cardiologists, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, as “an action-emotion complex that can be observed in any person who is aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve many goals at the same time. The study assessed Type A behaviour pattern among doctoral students in two Nigerian Universities. It sought to observe the impact of gender, study duration and age on the manifestations of this behavior pattern. Type A behavior Scale (TABS) was administered to 88 full-time doctoral students: (males: 53, females: 35) in the age range of 26-55 (mean = 35 years). The study raised three hypotheses. Findings indicate that: (i) female doctoral students manifested higher levels of Type A behaviour pattern than males; (ii) doctoral students that have spent 6 to 10 years in their studies presented higher levels of Type A behavior pattern than those that spent 0-5 years; (iii), Type A behavior pattern was higher among older students (46-55 years), than younger students (26-35 years). The need to sensitize Type As on the negative health consequences associated with Type A behaviour was stressed.
Laser-driven proton acceleration enhancement by structured foils ( simulations and experiments )

The interaction of ultrashort intense laser pulses with thin foils is accompanied by the acceleration of ions from the target surface. In order to increase the efficiency of ion acceleration, microscopic structures on the target surface have been employed. In particular, the presence of a monolayer of polystyrene nanospheres on the target front-side has drastically enhanced the absorption of the incident laser beam, leading to a consequent increase in the maximum proton beam energy and total number of accelerated protons.
A centre–free approach for resource allocation with lower bounds

ABSTRACT Since complexity and scale of systems are continuously increasing, there is a growing interest in developing distributed algorithms that are capable to address information constraints, specially for solving optimisation and decision-making problems. In this paper, we propose a novel method to solve distributed resource allocation problems that include lower bound constraints. The optimisation process is carried out by a set of agents that use a communication network to coordinate their decisions. Convergence and optimality of the method are guaranteed under some mild assumptions related to the convexity of the problem and the connectivity of the underlying graph. Finally, we compare our approach with other techniques reported in the literature, and we present some engineering applications.
Interannual and Decadal Sea Surface Height Variability Over the Northwest Atlantic Slope

The Northwest Atlantic continental slope features strong interactions among the western boundary currents of the subpolar and subtropical gyres, and, thus, the sea-level variability over the slope may be an indicator for the large-scale ocean circulation. In this study, temporal and spatial sea-level variability in the Northwest Atlantic continental slope has been investigated based on a satellite altimetry dataset and a temperature and salinity dataset. The altimetric results from 1993 to 2012 are compared with steric height anomalies relative to 1500 m, calculated from the temperature and salinity dataset. This study shows significant interannual and decadal sea-level variability, with prominent regional differences and varying linkages to large-scale atmospheric and oceanic variability in the North Atlantic. Both the altimeric and steric height anomalies in the western Labrador Sea are negatively correlated with the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index primarily via wintertime deep convection. The altimetric height anomalies in the Laurentian Fan have a weak (insignificant at the 95% confidence level) positive correlation with those in the Labrador Sea, while the steric height anomalies have a negative correlation. The thermosteric (halosteric) height anomalies in the Labrador Sea are negatively (positively) correlated with the winter NAO index, while those in the Laurentian Fan are not correlated with the winter NAO index. The along-slope differences in the interannual and decadal variations of the sea surface height anomalies imply that there is an interior pathway of the southwardflowing Labrador Sea intermediate water toward the central North Atlantic basin before reaching 55°N.
Medical image registration based on generalized N-dimensional principal component analysis (GND-PCA) and statistical shape deformation model

This paper presents a fast and accurate image registration method for high dimensional images. The method uses a statistical shape deformation model to represent deformation fields which warp an individual image to a selected template image. The statistical shape deformation model is built by the generalized N-dimensional principal component analysis (GND-PCA) with training samples of deformation fields, which deform the individual sample images to the selected template image. The statistical deformation model can be built with fewer samples and can represent individual deformation fields effectively by a small number of parameters, which is used to rapidly estimate the deformation field between the template image and a new individual image. The estimated deformation field is used to warp the individual image, and the warped image is close to the template image. The shape difference between the warped individual image and the template is estimated by an image registration algorithm, e.g., HAMMER. The proposed method has been validated by 3D MR brain images.
What Constitutes Evidence of Complex Reasoning in Science?

The U. S. priority on testing and accountability challenges school administrators to adopt, adapt or develop assessment systems that provide concrete evidence in particular subject matter areas such as science. Curricular programs emphasizing constructivist learning approaches and complex reasoning such as scientific inquiry are often not well matched to the assessment instruments used to evaluate them, such as standardized or off-the-shelf tests. As a result, educational researchers are sometimes torn between supporting curricular activities that promote complex reasoning and supporting high-stakes tests designed to emphasize facts and conceptual knowledge development over higher-order reasoning. This paper presents results from the first year of a research program to develop and evaluate curricular/assessment systems emphasizing complex reasoning in science. Results provide information for new models of assessment systems that complement high-stakes tests as they address the question, what constitutes evidence of complex reasoning in science?
Putting the Buzz Back into Computer Science Education

This paper describes a rapid-prototyping system, based around a set of modularised electronics, Buzz-Boards, which enable developers to quickly create a wide variety of products ranging from intelligent environments, through robots to smart-phones peripherals to be built and deployed. In this paper we introduce readers to Buzz-Board technology, illustrating its use through three examples, a desktop robot (BuzzBot), a desktop intelligent environment (BuzzBox) and an Internet-of-Things application using a Raspberry Pi adaptor (BuzzBerry). As part of this paper we provide a general overview of Computer Science curriculum developments and explain how Buzz-Boards technology can provide a highly motivating and effective focus for computer science practical assignments. This paper adds to earlier BuzzBoard publications by describing support for Raspberry Pis and intelligent environments, together with reviewing the latest developments in computer science curricula in the USA and UK.
Does medication adherence itself confer fracture protection? An investigation of the healthy adherer effect in observational data

Prior observational studies have shown an association between bisphosphonate adherence and fewer fractures. It is unclear if such studies reflect pharmacologic benefits or behavioral attributes, i.e., the healthy adherer effect. Our objective was to examine the association of therapy adherence and fracture risk among patients initiating therapies hypothesized to be favorable, unfavorable, or neutral toward fracture risk, in order to evaluate for a healthy adherer effect.