Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ERK5 kinase activity is dispensable for cellular immune response and proliferation

Significance Whole protein deletion and pharmacological inhibition are frequently used to functionally annotate enzymes. Each has limitations: whole protein deletion removes both enzymatic and nonenzymatic functions, and small molecule inhibitors can have unrecognized off-target activities. When both approaches agree, it’s nearly incontrovertible support for protein function. Here we describe a counterexample. ERK5 knockdown and inhibition supported a role for this kinase in a number of biological processes. We show that previously reported ERK5 compounds inhibit bromodomain-containing proteins (BRDs) sufficiently to account for their phenotypic effects. We describe highly specific inhibitors of ERK5 that do not inhibit BRDs. With these, we show that cellular inflammation and proliferation are not dependent on ERK5 catalytic activity, thus making ERK5 unique among the MAP kinases. Unlike other members of the MAPK family, ERK5 contains a large C-terminal domain with transcriptional activation capability in addition to an N-terminal canonical kinase domain. Genetic deletion of ERK5 is embryonic lethal, and tissue-restricted deletions have profound effects on erythroid development, cardiac function, and neurogenesis. In addition, depletion of ERK5 is antiinflammatory and antitumorigenic. Small molecule inhibition of ERK5 has been shown to have promising activity in cell and animal models of inflammation and oncology. Here we report the synthesis and biological characterization of potent, selective ERK5 inhibitors. In contrast to both genetic depletion/deletion of ERK5 and inhibition with previously reported compounds, inhibition of the kinase with the most selective of the new inhibitors had no antiinflammatory or antiproliferative activity. The source of efficacy in previously reported ERK5 inhibitors is shown to be off-target activity on bromodomains, conserved protein modules involved in recognition of acetyl-lysine residues during transcriptional processes. It is likely that phenotypes reported from genetic deletion or depletion of ERK5 arise from removal of a noncatalytic function of ERK5. The newly reported inhibitors should be useful in determining which of the many reported phenotypes are due to kinase activity and delineate which can be pharmacologically targeted.
COMPARATIVE EVOLUTION OF CEREALS

First, we shall introduce the materials with which we are dealing, and this requires some understanding of formal names and botanical classification. The taxonomy of cultivated plants has long been in a state of confusion. The same array of variation is treated in radically different ways by different taxonomists (see Jirasek, 1966; Jeffrey, 1968). Classifications are cluttered with Latin names that have little or no biological meaning, and some individual taxa are given ranks ranging from variety to genus depending on who is doing the classifying. Inept classifications have probably caused more difficulty in understanding the origin and evolution of cultivated plants than any other factor. We shall use the gene pool classification suggested by Harlan and de Wet (1971) in order to treat the several cereals on a uniform basis. In this system the total array of variation within maximum genetic reach is partitioned into primary, secondary, and tertiary gene pools. The primary gene pool includes all those races that can be crossed with the crop, yielding reasonably fertile hybrids in which the chromosomes pair well and in whose offspring genetic segregation is reasonably normal. The primary gene pool corresponds to the widely accepted concept of the biological species. The secondary gene pool includes all those species that can be crossed with the crop but with restricted gene flow. Genes can be transferred from the secondary to the primary gene pool, but one must struggle with those barriers that separate biological species such as sterility, poor chromosome pairing, lethal or weak hybrids, or poorly adapted hybrid derivatives and so on. The tertiary gene pool includes all those species that can be crossed with the crop, but the hybrids lead essentially nowhere. The hybrids are lethal, completely sterile, or anomalous. If any gene transfer is possible at all, it must be through radical manipulation of some sort such as embryo culture, tissue culture, use of complex hybrid bridges and so on (see Harlan and de Wet, 1971). Polyploid series in cultivated plants pose some special problems. As a general rule, we have suggested (Harlan and de Wet, 1971) that each level be treated as a separate gene pool. The barriers between ploidy levels are not necessarily strong, however, and morphological differences are sometimes minimal and difficult to describe. Each series is different and appropriate treatments must be worked out crop by crop. Separate gene pools for ploidy levels in potato or sugarcane may not be appropriate at all. In the cereals considered here, the only problem of separation by ploidy level occurs in oats where A vena strigosa and A. barbata races are difficult to distinguish morphologically. Our gene pool classification is not intended to be a formal taxonomic system but rather a simple device to bring a genetic focus to bear on the taxonomies already available. The conventional epithets can be used without undue confusion pro-
When message-frame fits salient cultural-frame, messages feel more persuasive

The present study examines the persuasive effects of tailored health messages comparing those tailored to match (versus not match) both chronic cultural frame and momentarily salient cultural frame. Evidence from two studies (Study 1: n = 72 European Americans; Study 2: n = 48 Asian Americans) supports the hypothesis that message persuasiveness increases when chronic cultural frame, health message tailoring and momentarily salient cultural frame all match. The hypothesis was tested using a message about health risks of caffeine consumption among individuals prescreened to be regular caffeine consumers. After being primed for individualism, European Americans who read a health message that focused on the personal self were more likely to accept the message–they found it more persuasive, believed they were more at risk and engaged in more message-congruent behaviour. These effects were also found among Asian Americans who were primed for collectivism and who read a health message that focused on relational obligations. The findings point to the importance of investigating the role of situational cues in persuasive effects of health messages and suggest that matching content to primed frame consistent with the chronic frame may be a way to know what to match messages to.
Race differences in age at first birth and the pace of subsequent fertility: Implications for the minority group status hypothesis

We examine race differences in the effects of age at first birth on the pace of subsequent fertility. If race differences in the pace of fertility persist net of age at first birth and socioeconomic variables, they will be taken as new support for the minority group status hypothesis. Data from the 1973 National Survey of Family Growth are analyzed with the finding that race differences in the pace of fertility are real, giving support to the hypothesis. Implications are drawn suggesting that the proper points at which to examine group differences in fertility are the different stages in the process which culminates in completed fertility, rather than limiting investigation to the final product.
Severe Hypotension During Hemofiltration in an Uremic Patient with Metabolic Alkalosis

We describe a case of medication induced metabolic alkalosis in a maintenance dialysis patient who developed severe hypotension while undergoing a lactate hemofiltration procedure. A 73‐year‐old man with ESRD due to renovascular disease was used to ingesting up to 30 grams per day of a non‐prescription medication (Effervescent granulare 250 grams, CRASTAN™, Pisa Italy) consisting of sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, glucose and lemon flavor. For technical problem lactate hemofiltration was performed and thirty minutes after dialysis was started a severe symptomatic hypotension occurred (blood pressure 65/35 mmHg). Lactate hemofiltration was suspended and one‐hour later standard bicarbonate dialysis was performed without any clinical problem. The different mechanisms in acidosis buffering occurring in lactate and bicarbonate hemofiltration were discussed.
Modeling and Predicting Patient Length of Stay : A Survey

Over the past few years, there has been increased interest in data mining and machine learning methods to improve hospital performance. Research has focused on prediction of measurable outcomes, including mortality, risk of complications and length of hospital stay. Length of stay is an important metric both for healthcare providers and patients, and is influenced by numerous factors. In particular length of stay in critical care is of great significance, both to patient experience and the cost of care, and is influenced by factors specific to the highly complex environment of the critical care unit. This paper examines a range of length of stay applications in acute medicine and the critical care unit. It also focuses on the methods of analysing length of stay prediction. Moreover, the paper provides a classification for the analytical methods to length of stay prediction associated with a grouping of relevant research papers published in the domain. This study focuses on publications from the year 1984 till 2015 related to the domain of survival analysis and length of stay prediction. In addition, the paper highlights some of the gaps and challenges of the
Traffic-aware task placement with guaranteed job completion time for geo-distributed big data

Big data analysis is usually casted into parallel jobs running on geo-distributed data centers. Different from a single data center, geo-distributed environment imposes big challenges for big data analytics due to the limited network bandwidth between data centers located in different regions. Although research efforts have been devoted to geo-distributed big data, the results are still far from being efficient because of their suboptimal performance or high complexity. In this paper, we propose a traffic-aware task placement to minimize job completion time of big data jobs. We formulate the problem as a non-convex optimization problem and design an algorithm to solve it with proved performance gap. Finally, extensive simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of our proposal. The simulation results show that our algorithm can reduce job completion time by 40%, compared to a conventional approach that aggregates all data for centralized processing. Meanwhile, it has only 10% performance gap with the optimal solution, but its problem-solving time is extremely small.
Separating underwater ambient noise from flow noise recorded on stereo acoustic tags attached to marine mammals

ABSTRACT Sound-recording acoustic tags attached to marine animals are commonly used in behavioural studies. Measuring ambient noise is of interest to efforts to understand responses of marine mammals to anthropogenic underwater sound, or to assess their communication space. Noise of water flowing around the tag reflects the speed of the animal, but hinders ambient noise measurement. Here, we describe a correlation-based method for stereo acoustic tags to separate the relative contributions of flow and ambient noise. The uncorrelated part of the noise measured in digital acoustic recording tag (DTAG) recordings related well to swim speed of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), thus providing a robust measure of flow noise over a wide frequency bandwidth. By removing measurements affected by flow noise, consistent ambient noise estimates were made for two killer whales (Orcinus orca) with DTAGs attached simultaneously. The method is applicable to any multi-channel acoustic tag, enabling application to a wide range of marine species. Summary: A method is presented that allows users of sound recording tags attached to marine mammals to measure flow noise and ambient noise separately.
XPLORING S OUND S IGNATURE FOR V EHICLE D ETECTION AND C LASSIFICATION USING ANN

This paper attempts to explore the possibility of using sound signatures for vehicle detection and classification purposes. Sound emitted by vehicles are captured for a two lane undivided road carrying moderate traffic. Simultaneous arrival of different types vehicles, overtaking at the study location, sound of horns, random but identifiable back ground noises, continuous high energy noises on the back ground are the different challenges encountered in the data collection. Different features were explored out of which smoothed log energy was found to be useful for automatic vehicle detection by locating peaks. Melfrequency ceptral coefficients extracted from fixed regions around the detected peaks along with the manual vehicle labels are utilised to train an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The classifier for four broad classes heavy, medium, light and horns was trained. The ANN classifier developed was able to predict categories well.
Magnitude of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-γ Activation is Associated With Important and Seemingly Opposite Biological Responses in Breast Cancer Cells

Background The nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) has become a potential target for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer. However, recent in vitro and in vivo studies have raised the question of whether activation of PPARγ leads to the promotion or reduction of tumor formation. Studies using several cancer cell lines, animal models, and a variety of PPARγ agonists have shown discordant results, including changes in cellular proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of cancer cells and tumors. Methods We studied the effects of low-, moderate-, and high-dose treatment of the PPARγ ligands 15-deoxy-Δ12,14 prostaglandin J2 (15dPGJ2) and troglitazone (TGZ) on parameters of cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis in the epithelial breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231. Results The biologic effects of these compounds depend largely on ligand concentration and the degree of PPARγ activation. For example, low concentrations of 15dPGJ2 (<2.5 μM) and TGZ (<5 μM) increased cellular proliferation, but concentrations of 15dPGJ2 >10 μM and of TGZ at 100 μM blocked cell growth. TGZ (100 μM) slowed cell cycle progression, and 15dPGJ2 (10 μM) caused an S-phase arrest in the cell cycle and induced morphological characteristics consistent with apoptosis. Expression of CD36, a marker of differentiation in these cells, was induced by 2.5 μM 15dPGJ2 or 5 to 100 μM TGZ. However, higher concentrations of 15dPGJ2 did not alter CD36 expression. Transcriptional activation studies demonstrated that 15dPGJ2 is a more potent PPARγ ligand than TGZ. Regardless of the ligand used, though, low transcriptional activation correlated with an increased cellular proliferation, whereas higher levels of activation correlated with cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Conclusions PPARγ activation induces several important and seemingly opposite changes in neoplastic cells, depending on the magnitude of PPARγ activation. These data may explain, at least in part, some of the discordant results previously reported.
Short-term and long-term effects of a self-managed physical activity program using a pedometer for chronic respiratory disease: a randomized controlled trial

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a self-managed physical activity program using a pedometer and diary on physical function, ADL, and QOL in patients with chronic respiratory disease. [Subjects and Methods] 17 outpatients with chronic respiratory disease were assessed for dyspnea, muscle strength, exercise tolerance, ADL, and QOL at baseline, after 3-, and 6-months after the start of the program. Patients were randomly assigned to “Control” or “Diary” group. In the Diary group, the number of steps was counted with a pedometer and recorded in a diary together with self-evaluation of physical activity, while patients assigned to the Control group did not use a pedometer or keep a diary. [Results] The Diary group showed significant improvement in the daily step count over time. The Diary group showed significant improvement of the dyspnea, muscle strength, and exercise tolerance at 3 months, dyspnea and muscle strength at 6 months. Significant differences found between two groups with regard to the extent of change in the muscle strength, exercise tolerance, and QOL at 3 months. [Conclusion] This study suggests that a self-managed physical activity program using a pedometer and diary can increase the level of physical activity.
A D2D-Based Protocol for Ultra-Reliable Wireless Communications for Industrial Automation

As an indispensable use case for the 5G wireless systems on the roadmap, ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) is a crucial requirement for the coming era of wireless industrial automation. The key performance indicators for URLLC stand in sharp contrast to the requirements of enhanced mobile broadband: low-latency and ultra-reliability are paramount but high data rates are often not required. This paper aims to develop communication techniques for making a paradigm shift from the conventional human-type broadband communications to the emerging machine-type URLLC. One fundamental task for URLLC is to deliver short commands from a controller to a group of actuators within the stringent delay requirement and with high reliability. Motivated by the factory automation setting in which the tasks are assigned to groups of devices that work in close proximity to each other and can thus form clusters of reliable device-to-device (D2D) networks, this paper proposes a novel two-phase transmission protocol for achieving URLLC. In the first phase, within the latency requirement, the multi-antenna base station (BS) combines the messages of all devices within each group together and multicasts them to the corresponding groups; messages for different groups are spatially multiplexed. In the second phase, the devices that have decoded the messages successfully, herein defined as the leaders, help relay the messages to the other devices in their groups. Under this protocol, we design an innovative leader selection-based beamforming strategy at the BS by utilizing the sparse optimization technique. The proposed strategy leads to a desired sparsity pattern in user activity with at least one leader being able to decode its message in each group in the first phase, thus ensuring full utilization of the reliability enhancing D2D transmissions in the second phase. Simulation results are provided to show that the proposed two-phase transmission protocol considerably improves the reliability of the entire system within the stringent latency requirement as compared with existing schemes for URLLC.
Deposits on single use containers - a social cost-benefit analysis of the Danish deposit system for single use drink containers

This study compares the social costs and environmental benefits of collecting single use drink containers through the Danish deposit system with the social costs and benefits of treating the containers as part of the municipal waste-disposal system. It focuses on single use polyethylene terphthalate and glass bottles, and steel and aluminium cans. The social costs of handling these containers in the deposit system includes the costs of collection, sorting, and transportation, adjusted against the profit from selling the collected material for recycling. The social cost of incinerating these containers as municipal waste consists of the expenses for the collection, incineration of the containers and disposal of ashes. If there is any income from energy generation accompanying incineration, this is adjusted against costs. The main environmental effects related to both strategies are quantified, valuated and included in the assessment. The results of the analysis show that there are significant social costs compared to the benefits connected with the new deposit system. This is true for all four types of single use drink containers examined. All in all, Denmark bears a net social cost of 6.7 to 8.1 million Euros per year compared to a baseline of incineration with energy recovery.
Refraction outcomes after suction loss during small-incision lenticule extraction (SMILE)

Purpose To evaluate refractive outcomes of two management approaches after suction loss during the small-incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) technique. Patients and methods This retrospective and comparative study was conducted at the El-Gowhara Private Eye Center. It included 26 consecutive eyes of patients who experienced suction loss during the SMILE technique. Patients were divided into two groups by the technical difficulties in redocking: in group A (12 eyes) suction loss occurred after the posterior lenticular cut and the creation of side-cuts, then suction was reapplied, and the procedure was completed; in group B (14 eyes) suction loss occurred after the posterior lenticular cut and the creation of side-cuts, then the procedure was postponed for 24 hours and completed with the same parameters. Manifest refraction outcomes were measured and compared 6 months postoperatively. Results This study included 26 eyes with suction loss during the SMILE technique: five patients with suction loss in both eyes, nine patients with suction loss in the right eye and seven patients with suction loss in the left eye. The incidence of suction loss in this study was 2.7%. At the postoperative 6-month follow-up time, there were statistically significant differences in refraction outcomes between the two groups, with a hyperopic shift in group A compared with group B. Conclusion A good refraction outcome can be achieved with appropriate management of suction loss during the SMILE technique, and it is recommended to postpone the treatment if this happens.
Temporal fuzzy based modeling as applied to the class of man-machine interaction

Cognitive robotics have been recently touted as effective tools that could be used in a number of applications. In order for cognitive robots to act adequately and safely in real world, they must be able to achieve effective human-machine interaction or collaboration. Toward this end, performance evaluation metrics are used as important measures to achieve these goals. Toward the efficient modelling of such metrics, we attempt to determine the true time that an operator has to dedicate to the robot. Therefore, we define the robot attention demand (RAD) as a function of both Direct Interaction Time (DIT) and Indirect Interaction Time (IIT), where the IIT is a direct consequence of human trust in automation. We then propose a two-level fuzzy temporal model to evaluate and estimate the human trust in automation while collaborating and interacting with robots and machines to complete some tasks. The model combines the advantages of fuzzy logic and finite state machines to best model this phenomenon, and reduces the system complexity and the size of the knowledge base by grouping perception into first- and second-order perceptions.
Customization of Component-based Object Request Brokers through dynamic reconfiguration

The success of distributed object technology, depends on the advent of Object Request Broker (ORB) architectures that are able to integrate flexible support for various nonfunctional requirements such as security, real-time, transactions, etc. We promote component framework technology as the cornerstone for realizing such generic platforms. An ORB component framework leverages the "glue" that connects customized ORB components together. We present a reflective component architecture that improves the dynamics of this glue, such that system-wide integration of new non-functional requirements into a running ORB system becomes possible.