Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HIPPO-Integrin-linked Kinase Cross-Talk Controls Self-Sustaining Proliferation and Survival in Pulmonary Hypertension.

RATIONALE Enhanced proliferation and impaired apoptosis of pulmonary arterial vascular smooth muscle cells (PAVSMCs) are key pathophysiologic components of pulmonary vascular remodeling in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). OBJECTIVES To determine the role and therapeutic relevance of HIPPO signaling in PAVSMC proliferation/apoptosis imbalance in PAH. METHODS Primary distal PAVSMCs, lung tissue sections from unused donor (control) and idiopathic PAH lungs, and rat and mouse models of SU5416/hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH) were used. Immunohistochemical, immunocytochemical, and immunoblot analyses and transfection, infection, DNA synthesis, apoptosis, migration, cell count, and protein activity assays were performed in this study. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Immunohistochemical and immunoblot analyses demonstrated that the HIPPO central component large tumor suppressor 1 (LATS1) is inactivated in small remodeled pulmonary arteries (PAs) and distal PAVSMCs in idiopathic PAH. Molecular- and pharmacology-based analyses revealed that LATS1 inactivation and consequent up-regulation of its reciprocal effector Yes-associated protein (Yap) were required for activation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-Akt, accumulation of HIF1α, Notch3 intracellular domain and β-catenin, deficiency of proapoptotic Bim, increased proliferation, and survival of human PAH PAVSMCs. LATS1 inactivation and up-regulation of Yap increased production and secretion of fibronectin that up-regulated integrin-linked kinase 1 (ILK1). ILK1 supported LATS1 inactivation, and its inhibition reactivated LATS1, down-regulated Yap, suppressed proliferation, and promoted apoptosis in PAH, but not control PAVSMCs. PAVSM in small remodeled PAs from rats and mice with SU5416/hypoxia-induced PH showed down-regulation of LATS1 and overexpression of ILK1. Treatment of mice with selective ILK inhibitor Cpd22 at Days 22-35 of SU5416/hypoxia exposure restored LATS1 signaling and reduced established pulmonary vascular remodeling and PH. CONCLUSIONS These data report inactivation of HIPPO/LATS1, self-supported via Yap-fibronectin-ILK1 signaling loop, as a novel mechanism of self-sustaining proliferation and apoptosis resistance of PAVSMCs in PAH and suggest a new potential target for therapeutic intervention.
Availability, reliability and accuracy of GPS signal in Bandar Baru Bangi for the determination of vehicle position and speed

The Global Positioning System (GPS) provides special features which can be utilized for wide range of applications. By providing information such as location, direction and speed, GPS is traditionally used for navigation. Nowadays many more applications, from farming, surveying to incident detection in fact fully utilized the GPS. This study accesses GPS signal and determines vehicle location and speed parameter such as maximum speed, maximum acceleration and deceleration. Assessing the GPS signal is important before implementing any application in certain area. The availability and reliability of the GPS are influenced by several variables, for example tall building, geometrical condition and big tree might block the GPS signal and reduce the data quality. It will affect the efficiency of any application based on GPS and become useless. Two types of tests had been setup, static positioning and mobile positioning where GPS probe vehicles were used to collect data in Bandar Baru Bangi, Malaysia trunk roads. The preliminary tests show promising results of availability and reliability percentage, accuracy, number of satellites in view and Horizontal Dilution of Precision values. The next stage of this research will apply the speed parameter obtained for Automated Incident Detection (AID) algorithm.
Sequencing of a 9·9 kb Segment on the Right Arm of Yeast Chromosome VII Reveals Four Open Reading Frames, including PFK1, the Gene Coding for Succinyl‐CoA Synthetase (β‐chain) and Two ORFs Sharing Homology with ORFs of the Yeast Chromosome VIII

A 9·9 kb DNA fragment from the right arm of chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been sequenced and analysed. The sequence contains four open reading frames (ORFs) longer than 100 amino acids. One gene, PFK1, has already been cloned and sequenced and the other one is the probable yeast gene coding for the β‐subunit of the succinyl‐CoA synthetase. The two remaining ORFs share homology with the deduced amino acid sequence (and their physical arrangement is similar to that) of the YHR161c and YHR162w ORFs from chromosome VIII. The sequence is in the EMBL data library under Accession Numbers Z73024, Z73025, Z73026, Z73028 and Z73029. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Aging and Inequality in Income and Health

In our earlier work, we used data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to examine life-cycle patterns in health status and in the joint distribution of health status and income (Deaton and Paxson, 1998). In this paper we summarize and extend those results, and provide new evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Both surveys contain a measure of household income, and collect information on an ordinal measures of self-reported health status (SRHS) that ranges from 1 (excellent) to 5 (poor). Section I concerns problems related to the measurement of inequality in health. Section II presents evidence from the two surveys on health and income inequality.
Characterising Concurrent Histories

Non-interleaving semantics of concurrent systems is often expressed using posets, where causally related events are ordered and concurrent events are unordered. Each causal poset describes a unique concurrent history, i.e., a set of executions, expressed as sequences or step sequences, that are consistent with it. Moreover, a poset captures all precedence-based invariant relationships be- tween the events in the executions belonging to its concurrent history. However, concurrent histories in general may be too intricate to be described solely in terms of causal posets. In this paper, we introduce and investigate generalised mutex order structures which can capture the invariant causal relationships in any concurrent history consisting of step sequence executions. Each such structure comprises two relations, viz. interleaving/mutex and weak causality. As our main result we prove that each generalised mutex order structure is the intersection of the step sequence executions which are consistent with it.
WHY DOLPHINS MAY GET ULCERS: CONSIDERING THE IMPACTS OF CETACEAN-BASED TOURISM IN NEW ZEALAND

1 Title derived from Robert Sapolsky’s (1994) Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. A Guide to Stress, Stress Related Diseases, and Coping. Address correspondence to Mark Orams, Coastal–Marine Research Group, Massey University at Albany, Private Bag 102 904, North Shore MSC, New Zealand. Tel: (64 9) 443 9799; Fax: (64 9) 441 8109; E-mail: M.B. Orams@massey.ac. nz WHY DOLPHINS MAY GET ULCERS: CONSIDERING THE IMPACTS OF
In-depth study of DNA binding of Cys2His2 finger domains in testis zinc-finger protein

Previously, we identified that both fingers 1 and 2 in the three Cys2His2 zinc-finger domains (TZD) of testis zinc-finger protein specifically bind to its cognate DNA; however, finger 3 is non-sequence–specific. To gain insights into the interaction mechanism, here we further investigated the DNA-binding characteristics of TZD bound to non-specific DNAs and its finger segments bound to cognate DNA. TZD in non-specific DNA binding showed smaller chemical shift perturbations, as expected. However, the direction of shift perturbation, change of DNA imino-proton NMR signal, and dynamics on the 15N backbone atom significantly differed between specific and non-specific binding. Using these unique characteristics, we confirmed that the three single-finger segments (TZD1, TZD2 and TZD3) and the two-finger segment (TZD23) non-specifically bind to the cognate DNA. In comparison, the other two-finger segment (TZD12) binding to the cognate DNA features simultaneous non-specific and semi-specific binding, both slowly exchanged in terms of NMR timescale. The process of TZD binding to the cognate DNA is likely stepwise: initially TZD non-specifically binds to DNA, then fingers 1 and 2 insert cooperatively into the major groove of DNA by semi-specific binding, and finally finger 3 non-specifically binds to DNA, which promotes the specific binding on fingers 1 and 2 and stabilizes the formation of a specific TZD–DNA complex.
Functional gait comparison between children with myelomeningocele: shunt versus no shunt

The aim of this study was to compare functional gait differences between patients with myelomeningocele (MM) who have a ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) with those who do not. Our analyses were adjusted for confounding by age, lesion level, orthotic use, and assistive device use. The Functional Mobility Scale (FMS) was used to compare the shunted group (n=98; 60 males, 38 females; mean age 10y 2mo [SD 3y 11mo]; 73 sacral/19 low lumber/six high lumbar lesion level) with the non‐shunted group (n=63; 32 males, 31 females; mean age 9y 11mo [SD 3y 11mo]; 45 sacral/12 low lumber/six high lumbar lesion level). Participants with a shunt had lower FMS 500 and FMS 50 scores compared with participants without a shunt; hence the participants without a shunt were more independent in their ambulation at medium and longer distances. For a subset of participants who underwent a three‐dimensional gait analysis, we also collected temporal–spatial gait parameters (velocity, cadence, and stride length). Our results show that participants with MM and no shunt who underwent gait analysis(11 males, 10 females; mean age 9y 6mo [SD 4y]; 15 sacral/6 low lumber/0 high lumbar lesion level) tend to walk at a significantly greater velocity and stride length as compared with those with a shunt (33 males, 18 females; mean age 10y [SD 4y]; 38 sacral/13 low lumber/zero high lumbar lesion level). These data allow the treatment team to present more specific information regarding functional ambulatory expectations to patients with MM and their families.
A user intention modeling algorithm for friend recommendation

Friend recommendation has been one of the most challenging problems as the social networks grow rapidly, due to the needs of seeking people who are acquaintances in real life or share the common interests. In this paper, we tackle the problem by treating it as a link prediction task and propose a hybrid algorithm that exploits the existing friendship links, users' history ratings and the tags annotated to items. Specifically, we identify the underlying groups in the social network based on different aspects and draw the features that express the involvement degree of the users to the groups. The features are then incorporated into a user intention model, in order to learn some general characteristics about how much users inside(between) a group like to associate with others and how much users like to associate with common-interest people. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on a real-world dataset called LibraryThing. The experimental results show that prediction accuracy of our algorithm is improved remarkably compared to the standard algorithms.
Coronavirus-Induced Membrane Fusion Requires the Cysteine-Rich Domain in the Spike Protein

Abstract The spike glycoprotein of mouse hepatitis virus strain A59 mediates the early events leading to infection of cells, including fusion of the viral and cellular membranes. The spike is a type I membrane glycoprotein that possesses a conserved transmembrane anchor and an unusual cysteine-rich (cys) domain that bridges the putative junction of the anchor and the cytoplasmic tail. In this study, we examined the role of these carboxyl-terminal domains in spike-mediated membrane fusion. We show that the cytoplasmic tail is not required for fusion but has the capacity to enhance membrane fusion activity. Chimeric spike protein mutants containing substitutions of the entire transmembrane anchor and cys domain with the herpes simplex virus type 1 glycoprotein D (gD-1) anchor demonstrated that fusion activity requires the presence of the A59 membrane-spanning domain and the portion of the cys domain that lies upstream of the cytoplasmic tail. The cys domain is a required element since its deletion from the wild-type spike protein abrogates fusion activity. However, addition of the cys domain to fusion-defective chimeric proteins was unable to restore fusion activity. Thus, the cys domain is necessary but is not sufficient to complement the gD-1 anchor and allow for membrane fusion. Site-specific mutations of conserved cysteine residues in the cys domain markedly reduce membrane fusion, which further supports the conclusion that this region is crucial for spike function. The results indicate that the carboxyl-terminus of the spike transmembrane anchor contains at least two distinct domains, both of which are necessary for full membrane fusion.
Data-based double-feedforward controller design for a coupled parallel piezo nanopositioning stage

Vibrations as well as cross-coupling effects severely hinder fast and accurate tracking for coupled parallel piezo nanopositioning stages. In this article, a data-based double-feedforward controller is proposed to reduce individual-axis repetitive errors and cross-coupling-caused errors simultaneously. The proposed approach utilizes modeling-free inversion-based iterative control to compensate repetitive errors and data-based feedforward decoupling controller to eliminate cross-coupling effect, which has the advantages of no need for accurate identified process and alleviating the difficulty in inversion of non-minimum phase systems. Comparative experiments were performed on a piezo parallel nanopositioning stage to validate the effectiveness of the proposed controller. Experimental results indicate that the cross-coupling errors are compensated significantly and the fast and accurate tracking can be achieved via implementing the proposed controller on planar raster scanning and XY star trajectory with different tracking periods.
Risk of Hodgkin's disease and other cancers after infectious mononucleosis.

BACKGROUND Infectious mononucleosis, which is caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, has been associated with an increased risk for Hodgkin's disease. Little is known, however, about how infectious mononucleosis affects long-term risk of Hodgkin's disease, how this risk varies with age at infectious mononucleosis diagnosis, or how the risk for Hodgkin's disease varies in different age groups. In addition, the general cancer profile among patients who have had infectious mononucleosis has been sparsely studied. METHODS Population-based cohorts of infectious mononucleosis patients in Denmark and Sweden were followed for cancer occurrence. The ratio of observed-to-expected numbers of cancers (standardized incidence ratio [SIR]) served as a measure of the relative risk for cancer. SIRs of Hodgkin's disease in different subsets of patients were compared with the use of Poisson regression analysis. All statistical tests including the trend tests were two-sided. RESULTS A total of 1381 cancers were observed during 689 619 person-years of follow-up among 38 562 infectious mononucleosis patients (SIR = 1. 03; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.98-1.09). Apart from Hodgkin's disease (SIR = 2.55; 95% CI = 1.87-3.40; n = 46), only skin cancers (SIR = 1.27; 95% CI = 1.13-1.43; n = 291) occurred in statistically significant excess. In contrast, the SIR for lung cancer was reduced (SIR = 0.71; 95% CI = 0.58-0.86; n = 102). The SIR for Hodgkin's disease remained elevated for up to two decades after the occurrence of infectious mononucleosis but decreased with time since diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis (P: for trend <.001). The SIR for Hodgkin's disease tended to increase with age at diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis (P: for trend =.05). Following infectious mononucleosis, the SIR for Hodgkin's disease at ages 15-34 years was 3.49 (95% CI = 2.46-4.81; n = 37), which was statistically significantly higher than the SIR for any other age group (P: for difference =.001). CONCLUSION The increased risk of Hodgkin's disease after the occurrence of infectious mononucleosis appears to be a specific phenomenon.
School of Business Working Paper 208 Physician-assisted Suicide as a Real Option

In this paper we propose a theoretical model of evaluating the economic costs and benefits of euthanasia. The contemplation of euthanasia is modeled akin to the valuation of a real option. Our modeling of the decision shows that euthanasia is optimal when certain conditions are satisfied. The findings in this paper suggest that if more money is spent on medical research (such as pain management), the demand for Euthanasia could be reduced.
Measurements on metal-rubber profiles with HDR and EF imaging techniques

In the paper the application of HDR and EF techniques to image-based measurement systems are described. The advantages of such techniques are discussed, and their performance are compared to the original high-contrasted images and between them. Results show the improvements of measurement reliability achieved with the technique presented in case of length measurements of industrial products characterized by different surface reflectance.
Aflatoxin B1 residues in eggs of laying hens fed a diet containing different levels of the mycotoxin

The present study was carried out to evaluate the excretion of aflatoxin B1 residues in eggs of young laying hens fed aflatoxin B1-contaminated rations for 8 weeks. To this end, 96 twenty-week-old hens were randomly distributed into four experimental groups (24 birds per group) and given rations containing either 0 (controls), 100 μg, 300 μg or 500 μg aflatoxin B1/kg feed. Egg aflatoxin B1 residues were determined by thin layer chromatography; two samples per treatment per week were used for analysis. Egg production and average egg weights were not affected (p < 0.05) in the groups receiving aflatoxin B1-contaminated rations. Residues of aflatoxin B were detected only in the eggs 1 of hens given 500 μg/kg feed, at levels that ranged from 0.05 to 0.16 μg/kg (average: 0.10 μg/kg). The results indicate that the feed to eggs aflatoxin B transmission 1 ratio was approximately 5000:1, emphasizing the importance of controlling aflatoxin levels in rations for laying hens.
Passively Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber lasers by a microfiber-based PbS quantum dot saturable absorber

We demonstrated the passively Q-switched Erbium-doped fiber laser by the microfiber-based PbS quantum dot (QDs) as saturable absorber (SA). Compared with other SA, the microfiber-based PbS QDs had higher thermal damage threshold and tunable spectroscopic properties. We fabricated the microfiber with the diameter of 5.86 μm and the interaction length of 2 mm and the PbS QDs with the peak of absorption spectrum at 1533nm. Finally we have successfully demonstrated the Q-switched fiber laser with the pulse width decreased from 3. 68μs to 3. 24μs and the repetition rate increased from 93.4 kHz to 101.9 kHz.
Changes in liquid emptying in migraine patients: diagnosed with liquid phase gastric emptying scintigraphy

Gastric stasis is suspected mostly to be encountered during acute migraine attack. The aim of this study is to evaluate the liquid phase gastric emptying and motility in migraine patients in ictal and interictal periods in comparison to normal subjects with gastric emptying scintigraphy. Seven women with migraine and age, sex matched controls who applied to the Neurology Department from May 2009 to May 2010 were compared. Gastric emptying study with a standard liquid was performed one time in the non‐migraineur group and two times in the migraineur group. Non‐migraineur controls and migraineurs were compared. The mean T1/2 was longer in ictal period in migraineurs. The T1/2 of migraineurs interictally and the control groups were similar. The T1/2 of migraineurs ictally and migraineurs interictally were also compared. We also considered the percentage of the radioactive material remaining in the stomach. There were no significant differences between non‐migraineurs and migraineurs interictally. However, increased amount of radioactive material remaining in the stomach was observed in migraineurs ictally. We concluded that the liquid emptying was delayed in spontaneous migraine attacks in migraine without aura, however in the interictal period the emptying of liquids did not differ between migraineurs and non‐migraineurs.
Maximum-likelihood direction-of-arrival estimation in the presence of unknown nonuniform noise

We consider the problem of estimating directions of arrival (DOAs) of multiple sources observed on the background of nonuniform white noise with an arbitrary diagonal covariance matrix. A new deterministic maximum likelihood (ML) DOA estimator is derived. Its implementation is based on an iterative procedure which includes a stepwise concentration of the log-likelihood (LL) function with respect to the signal and noise nuisance parameters and requires only a few iterations to converge. New closed-form expressions for the deterministic and stochastic direction estimation Cramer-Rao bounds (CRBs) are derived for the considered nonuniform model. Our expressions can be viewed as an extension of the well-known results by Stoica and Nehorai (1989, 1990) and Weiss and Friedlander (1993) to a more general noise model than the commonly used uniform one. In addition, these expressions extend the results obtained by Matveyev et al. (see Circuits, Syst., Signal Process., vol.18, p.479-87, 1999) to the multiple source case. Comparisons with the above-mentioned earlier results help to discover several interesting properties of DOA estimation in the nonuniform noise case. To compare the estimation performance of the proposed ML technique with the results of our CRB analysis and with the performance of conventional "uniform" ML, simulation results are presented. Additionally, we test our technique using experimental seismic array data. Our simulations and experimental results both validate essential performance improvements achieved by means of the approach proposed.
Therapeutic abortion in Siriraj Hospital: A 10-year review

Objective: To assess indications, methods of interventions and gestational age of women underwent therapeutic abortion. Method: A total of 1381 cases of pregnant women underwent therapeutic abortion with completed charts between 1st January, 2001 to 31st December, 2010, were enrolled in this study. The patient data including demographic data, gestational age of abortion, methods of abortion, dosage of cytotec usage, indications of abortion and length of hospital stay were recorded. RESULT: Mean maternal age, gestational age of abortion and abortus weight were 29.56 ± 7.09 years, 17.54 ± 6.05 weeks of gestation and 401.27 ± 269.49 grams, respectively. Induced abortion with cytotec and syntocinon was mostly (28.3%) and rarely used (1.3%), respectively. Dosage of cytotec usage of 400 micrograms every 6 hours regimen was mostly used (53.1%). Indications of therapeutic abortion were maternal HIV infection (18.5%), fetal structural abnormalities (17.7%) and dead fetus in utero (19.3%) and were found. Curettage alone was mostly performed in the indicated patients with gestational age of 9.07 ± 2.85 weeks. Medical cytotec and syntocinon alone were mostly performed in the indicated patients with gestational age of 19.51 ± 4.55 and 23.94 ± 4.67 weeks, respectively. Tubal sterilization and the length of hospital stay were higher in the group of therapeutic abortion with maternal indication. Therapeutic abortion by hysterotomy had higher length of hospital stay than those with curettage method. Conclusion: Indications of therapeutic abortion were mostly from maternal HIV infection, fetal structural abnormalities and dead fetus in utero. Medical and surgical interventions were mostly applied during mid and early gestation, respectively.