Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
hecd-1 Modulates Notch Activity in Caenorhabditis elegans

Notch is a receptor that mediates cell–cell interactions that specify binary cell fate decisions in development and tissue homeostasis. Inappropriate Notch signaling is associated with cancer, and mutations in Notch pathway components have been associated with developmental diseases and syndromes. In Caenorhabditis elegans, suppressors of phenotypes associated with constitutively active LIN-12/Notch have identified many conserved core components and direct or indirect modulators. Here, we molecularly identify sel(ar584), originally isolated as a suppressor of a constitutively active allele of lin-12. We show that sel(ar584) is an allele of hecd-1, the ortholog of human HECDT1, a ubiquitin ligase that has been implicated in several different mammalian developmental events. We studied interactions of hecd-1 with lin-12 in the somatic gonad and with the other C. elegans Notch gene, glp-1, in the germ line. We found that hecd-1 acts as a positive modulator of lin-12/Notch activity in a somatic gonad context—the original basis for its isolation—but acts autonomously as a negative modulator of glp-1/Notch activity in the germ line. As the yeast ortholog of HECD-1, Ufd4p, has been shown to function in quality control, and C. elegans HECD-1 has been shown to affect mitochondrial maintenance, we propose that the different genetic interactions between hecd-1 and Notch genes we observed in different cell contexts may reflect differences in quality control regulatory mechanisms or in cellular metabolism.
Northeast trip cost data : overview, estimation, and predictions

s of, and/or summary reports of scientific meetings; and simple bibliographies. Issues receive internal scientific review, but no technical or copy editing. Resource Survey Report (formerly Fishermen's Report) -This information report is a quick-turnaround report on the distribution and relative abundance of selected living marine resources as derived from each of the NEFSC's periodic research vessel surveys of the Northeast's continental shelf. There is no scientific review, nor any technical or copy editing, of this report. OBTAINING A COPY: To obtain a copy of a NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NE or a Northeast Fisheries Science Center Reference Document, or to subscribe to the Resource Survey Report, either contact the NEFSC Editorial Office (166 Water St., Woods Hole, MA 02543-1026; 508-495-2228) or consult the NEFSC webpage on "Reports and Publications" (http://www.nefsc. noaa.gov/nefsc/publications/). ANY USE OF TRADE OR BRAND NAMES IN ANY NEFSC PUBLICATION OR REPORT DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT. MEDIA MAIL
Dobutamine-Stress Magnetic Resonance Microimaging in Mice: Acute Changes of Cardiac Geometry and Function in Normal and Failing Murine Hearts

Abstract— The aim of this study was to assess the capability of MRI to characterize systolic and diastolic function in normal and chronically failing mouse hearts in vivo at rest and during inotropic stimulation. Applying an ECG-gated FLASH-cine sequence, MRI at 7 T was performed at rest and after administration of 1.5 &mgr;g/g IP dobutamine. There was a significant increase of heart rate, cardiac output, and ejection fraction and significant decrease of end-diastolic and end-systolic left ventricular (LV) volumes (P <0.01 each) in normal mice during inotropic stimulation. In mice with heart failure due to chronic myocardial infarction (MI), MRI at rest revealed gross LV dilatation. There was a significant decrease of LV ejection fraction in infarcted mice (29%) versus sham mice (58%). Mice with MI showed a significantly reduced maximum LV ejection rate (P <0.001) and LV filling rate (P <0.01) and no increase of LV dynamics during dobutamine action, indicating loss of contractile and relaxation reserve. In 4-month-old transgenic mice with cardiospecific overexpression of the &bgr;1-adrenergic receptor, which at this early stage do not show abnormalities of resting cardiac function, LV filling rate failed to increase after dobutamine stress (transgenic, 0.19±0.03 &mgr;L/ms; wild type, 0.36±0.01 &mgr;L/ms;P <0.01). Thus, MRI unmasked diastolic dysfunction during dobutamine stress. Dobutamine-stress MRI allows noninvasive assessment of systolic and diastolic components of heart failure. This study shows that MRI can demonstrate loss of inotropic and lusitropic response in mice with MI and can unmask diastolic dysfunction as an early sign of cardiac dysfunction in a transgenic mouse model of heart failure.
Improved updating of Euclidean distance maps and Voronoi diagrams

This paper presents novel, highly efficient approaches for updating Euclidean distance maps and Voronoi diagrams represented on grid maps. Our methods employ a dynamic variant of the brushfire algorithm to update only those cells that are actually affected by changes in the environment. In experiments in different environments we show that our update strategies for distance maps and Voronoi diagrams require substantially fewer cell visits and significantly less computation time compared to previous approaches. Furthermore, the dynamic Voronoi diagram also improves on previous work by correctly dealing with non-convex obstacles such as building walls. We also present a dynamic variant of a skeletonization-based approach to Voronoi diagrams that is especially robust to noise. All of our algorithms consider actual Euclidean distances rather than grid steps. An open source implementation is available online [1].
Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Case Report With 63-Year Follow-up Postsurgery

Study Design. Retrospective case report. Purpose. To provide true outcome analysis by a 63-year follow-up. Material and Methods. A 16-year-old girl had a posterior spine fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in 1939 and has been followed ever since. Both original photographs and radiographs as well as current material are available. Background Information. A follow-up of this duration has not previously been reported. Results. She had a solid T9–L3 arthrodesis and had no problems until age 50 when degenerative changes at L3–L4 required extension of the fusion to L4. When seen in 2002 at age 79, she had problems with degenerative disc disease at L4–S1 with spinal stenosis symptoms. Conclusions. The original fusion area remained solid and without symptoms for 63 years. Distal degenerative changes began 34 years after her original surgery and are still present at the 63-year follow-up. These degenerative changes at L4–L5 and L5–S1 are often thought to be secondary to the arthrodesis to L4, but because they are extremely common in persons of this age who do not have scoliosis or a fusion mass to L4, it is not possible to imply a cause and effect relationship. True outcome results cannot be ascertained at a 2-year or even 10-year follow-up.
Reliability Improvement by the Use of Multiple-Element Switching Circuits

Physical devices used for switching have finite probabilities of failure. Circuits which make use of redundancy to achieve resultant reliabilities greater than that of their elements have been proposed and have been analyzed for the case of intermittent failures. The present paper extends certain of these results to the case of permanent failures of the elements, assuming that the reliability of these elements is known. It is shown that, for operating periods which are short compared to the mean time to failure of the elements, a substantial increase in reliability can be obtained by such redundancy.
PinPlace: associate semantic meanings with indoor locations without active fingerprinting

Web map services today, such as Google and Bing maps, have digitalized a great portion of the physical world into easily accessible location databases. After the industry invested huge efforts in gathering related information, a user now can search a physical location on the map and know what kind of place it is, known as reverse geo-coding. However, this functionality is mostly limited to public outdoor locations and to building level granularity. We believe that many services can benefit from knowing the semantic meanings of fine-grained locations including indoor places. For example, the phone can mute and delay incoming calls when a user enters a meeting room. Cameras can be disabled in bathrooms to protect users' privacy. In this paper, we present PinPlace, an on-device service that can automatically associate semantic meanings with outdoor and indoor locations using the activity, transit, and time related features.
International Journal of Physical Sciences Behavior Architecture Controller for an Autonomous Robot Navigation in an Unknown Environment to Perform a given Task

The aim of this paper is to carry out navigation task in an unknown environment with high density obstacles using an autonomous mobile robot. Fuzzy logic approach is used for the robot planning because the output varies smoothly as the input changes. If the navigation environment contains one or more obstacles the robot must be able to avoid collisions. The robot uses the obstacle avoidance controller in order to reach the final destination safely without collision with these objects. The robot moves toward the goal and when an obstacle is detected in one of the three sides (front, left, right) the obstacle avoidance behavior is activated to generate the appropriate actions for avoiding these collisions.
Minorca, an exotic Balearic island (western Mediterranean)

Despite forming part of the Balearic group of islands, Minorca differs stratigraphically and structurally from Majorca and Ibiza: i) Paleozoic rocks are abundant in Minorca but are very scarce in Majorca and are absent in Ibiza. Eocene-Oligocene sediments are virtually absent in Minorca but crop out extensively in Majorca, ii) Contractional structures in Minorca differ in direction (aligned SW-NE in Majorca and Ibiza and N-S in Minorca) and in age from those in Majorca and Ibiza. In addition, Paleozoic deposits of Minorca do not correlate with those of Sardinia, where in addition the Triassic sediments are not very abundant. Contractional deformation in Sardinia is in part older (late Eocene-early Miocene) than in Minorca (early Miocene? ). Given its Neogene clockwise rotation, Minorca cannot be considered a small block dragged by the early Miocene counter clockwise rotation of the Corsica-Sardinia block. Furthermore, the Paleozoic and Mesozoic stratigraphy of Minorca (siliciclasticlate Paleozoic rocks, Triassic Germanic facies and Jurassic carbonates) has affinities with that of the southern part of the Catalan Coastal Ranges. Thus, of all the Balearic islands, Minorca seems to have traveled the farthest during the Valencia Trough rifting with the result that it resembles an exotic island forming part of the Balearic foreland.
Sex-dependent expression of a transcription factor, Ad4BP, regulating steroidogenic P-450 genes in the gonads during prenatal and postnatal rat development.

We investigated the expression of Ad4BP (also known as SF-1), a transcription factor regulating steroidogenic P-450 genes, in the steroidogenic tissues such as adrenal glands, testes and ovaries through the prenatal and postnatal life of rats. Ad4BP was detected in the primordial adrenal glands and gonads of the 13.5 day postcoitum (d.p.c.) fetus. After the appearance of Ad4BP, a steroidogenic P-450 (P-450(SCC)) was also detected in the adrenal glands and its amount increased gradually. In the fetal gonads of 14.5 d.p.c. , a significant amount of Ad4BP was detected in the somatic cells of the testes, whereas only a trace amount was present in the ovaries. The sexually dimorphic expression of Ad4BP continued throughout the neonatal age. Drastic alterations occurred during the first to third week of postnatal age accompanied by functional and structural changes of the gonads. The expression of Ad4BP in the testes attained a maximal level one week after birth and decreased markedly thereafter. By contrast, increase of Ad4BP in the ovary was detected after the first postnatal week. Expression of P-450c17 showed a good correlation with the proliferation of Leydig cells in the testes and theca cells in the ovaries. Immunohistochemical studies revealed the presence of Ad4BP in Sertoli cells as well as Leydig cells up to the pubertal age. In the adult rat testis, however, staining of Sertoli cells decreased significantly. Ad4BP was detected in granulosa, theca, corpus luteum and interstitial gland cells in the ovary although the expression levels in granulosa cells varied among follicles. It is suggested that the Müllerian inhibitory substance gene may be a target of Ad4BP since this gene has a conserved Ad4-binding site within the promoter, which is recognized by Ad4BP expressed in the fetal testes.
Oxygen Uptake and Heart Rate Kinetics after Different Types of Resistance Exercise

Abstract Oxygen uptake (VO2) and heart rate (HR) kinetics after exercise are important indicators of fitness and cardiovascular health. However, these variables have been little investigated in resistance exercise (RE). The current study compared post-exercise kinetics of VO2 and the HR among different types of REs. The study included 14 males (age: 26.5±5.4 years, body mass: 80.1±11.4 kg, body height: 1.77±0.07 m, fat content: 11.3±4.6%) with RE experience. Dynamic muscle strength was measured using one repetition maximum (1RM) with regard to the half-squat, bench press, pull-down, and triceps pushdown exercises. The participants performed a maximum number of repetitions at 80% of 1RM for each exercise, separated by a recovery period of 60 minutes. VO2 was measured using ergospirometry. VO2 and HR kinetics were assessed using the time constant of the recovery curves, and excess oxygen consumption (EPOC) was calculated afterward. Significant differences were not observed across the exercises with regard to VO2 kinetics. However, the half-squat exercise elicited a greater EPOC than the bench press and triceps pushdown exercises (p<.05). HR kinetics was slower for the half-squat exercise than for the other exercises (p<.05). These findings confirm that the type of RE influences both the cardiac autonomic response post-exercise and EPOC, but not VO2 kinetics
A Fast Bidirectional Method for Mining Maximal Frequent Itemsets

In this paper, a fast bi-directional method and an efficient data compression method for mining maximal frequent itemsets is proposed. A flexible search method is given, which exploits the advantages of bottom-up and up-bottom strategies. The compression technique use the Prime number characteristics to transform transaction data into a positive integer and can efficiently reduce the size of transaction database. This method can mine maximal frequent itemsets according to different user-defined minimum support with only one scan of original database. Theoretical and experimental analysis shows that the proposed method is scalable and efficient for mining maximal frequent itemsets.
The relationship among physical activity, motor competence and health‐related fitness in 14‐year‐old adolescents

Physical activity, physical fitness and motor competence are important health‐related constructs. However, the relationship among them, particularly for children and adolescents, is still unclear. In this study, motor competence (measured by the McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development), pedometer‐determined physical activity and physical fitness (aerobic fitness, muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility and body composition) were examined in a cohort of 1585 adolescents (771 girls, 814 boys) of mean age 14.06 years. Significant gender differences were observed for all measures except motor competence. Apart from hip and shoulder flexibility, males outperformed females. For both males and females, motor competence was associated with all fitness measures, physical activity was associated only with aerobic fitness and aerobic fitness was associated with physical activity, motor competence, BMI and chest pass. Among males, aerobic fitness was also associated with all other fitness tests. The correlations were, in general, moderate to weak. The results challenge the current focus on physical activity rather than physical fitness as the preferred intervention.
Effect of amoxycillin with or without clavulanate on adenoid bacterial flora.

The effect of antimicrobial therapy with amoxycillin (AMX) or co-amoxiclav (AMC) on the adenoid bacterial flora of 45 children with recurrent otitis media (ROM), scheduled for elective adenoidectomy, was studied. Patients were randomized before surgery into three groups of 15, having had either no antibiotic therapy (control), or 10 days of therapy with AMX or AMC. Core adenoid tissues were quantitatively cultured for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Polymicrobial aerobic-anaerobic flora was present in all instances. The predominant aerobes in all groups were alpha-haemolytic and non-haemolytic streptococci, Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, group A beta-haemolytic streptococci and Moraxella catarrhalis. The prominent anaerobes were Peptostreptococcus spp. , Prevotella spp. and Fusobacterium spp. The number of isolates was significantly reduced in those treated with AMX (110; P < 0.05) or AMC (54; P < 0.001) compared with control (148). The number of bacteria per gram of tissue was lower in those treated with both antibiotics. The number of potential pathogens was lower in those treated with AMC compared with the other two groups (P < 0.001 ). The number of beta-lactamase- producing bacteria (BLPB) was lower in those treated with AMC compared with those treated with AMX (P < 0.025) or no antibiotic (P < 0.001). These data illustrate the ability of AMX and AMC to reduce the bacterial load as well as potential pathogens and BLPB from the adenoids of children with ROM.
Plasma Leptin and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study (WOSCOPS)

Background—Leptin plays a role in fat metabolism and correlates with insulin resistance and other markers of the metabolic syndrome, independent of total adiposity. Therefore, we hypothesized that raised leptin levels may identify men at increased risk of a coronary event in the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study (WOSCOPS). Methods and Results—Plasma leptin levels were measured at baseline in 377 men (cases) who subsequently experienced a coronary event and in 783 men (controls) who remained free of an event during the 5-year follow-up period of the study. Controls were matched to cases on the basis of age and smoking history and were representative of the entire WOSCOPS cohort. Leptin levels were significantly higher in cases than controls (5.87±2.04 ng/mL versus 5.04±2.09 ng/mL, P <0.001). In univariate analysis, for each 1 SD increase in leptin, the relative risk (RR) of an event increased by 1.25 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10 to 1.43;P <0.001). There was minimal change in this RR with correction for body mass index (RR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.45;P =0.006) or with further correction for classic risk factors, including age, lipids, and systolic blood pressure (RR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.42;P =0.03). Leptin correlated with C-reactive protein (r =0.24, P <0.001) and, even with this variable added to the model, leptin retained significance as a predictor of coronary events (RR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.39;P =0.05) at the expense of C-reactive protein. Conclusions—We show, for the first time, in a large prospective study that leptin is a novel, independent risk factor for coronary heart disease.
A Novel Shape and Ontological Indexing for VIR Systems

This paper presents a novel hybrid method for visual information retrieval (VIR) that combines shape analysis of objects in image with their automatic indexing by textual descriptions. The principal goal of proposed method is the applying semantic Web approaches for visual information description in systems which use the low-level image characteristics. In the proposed method the user-oriented textual queries are converted to image characteristics which are used for visual information seeking and matching analysis. A decision about similarity between a retrieved image and user queries is taken by computing the shape convergence star field or two-segment turning functions combining them with matching of ontological annotations of objects in image providing in this way the machine-understandable semantics. For analysis of proposed method the image retrieval IRONS (Image Retrieval by Ontological Description of Shapes) system has been designed and evaluated in some specific image-restricted domains.
Context-Aware Mobile Biometric Authentication based on Support Vector Machines

The ubiquitous use of smartphones raises the need for stronger device protection. Traditional authentication methods on mobile devices are still knowledge-based, exhibiting well- known drawbacks. In addition, requests for passwords, PINs, or screen lock patterns represent an interruption of the device usage. In this paper a context-aware mobile biometric system is proposed. Modern smartphone devices comprise a multitude of sensors which can be utilized to measure a variety of environmental aspects, e.g. noise level or location. Based on this contextual information subject-specific context models are constructed in order to train SVMs, providing an alternative user-friendly authentication mechanism. In experiments a self- acquired database is employed where obtained results confirm the feasibility of the proposed system.
Potential of organic-inorganic hybrid materials derived by sol-gel for photonic applications

The current potential of organic-inorganic hybrid materials, based on a sol-gel derived siloxane matrix, for photonic applications is reviewed. Materials development for bulk and waveguide applications is considered. The hybrid materials are classified and approaches to synthesis and shaping are discussed. Structure is reviewed especially the implications for optical performance and material robustness. Linear optical loss mechanisms are discussed and potential photonic applications are briefly reviewed.
Differential Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3) in Preadipocytes/Stromal Vascular Cells From Nonobese Nondiabetic Versus Obese Nondiabetic Pima Indians

Prior microarray studies comparing global gene expression patterns in preadipocytes/stromal vascular cells isolated from nonobese nondiabetic versus obese nondiabetic Pima Indians showed that matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) is upregulated in obese subjects. The current study targeted analysis of nine additional MMP genes that cluster to a region on chromosome 11q22 that is linked to BMI and percent body fat. Differential-display PCR showed that MMP3 is downregulated in preadipocytes/stromal vascular cells from obese subjects, and real-time PCR showed that MMP3 expression levels are negatively correlated with percent body fat. To determine whether variants within MMP3 are responsible for its altered expression, MMP3 was sequenced, and seven representative variants were genotyped in 1,037 Pima subjects for association analyses. Two variants were associated with both BMI and type 2 diabetes, and two additional variants were associated with type 2 diabetes alone; however, none of these variants were associated with MMP3 expression levels. We propose that the MMP3 pathway is altered in human obesity, but this alteration may be the result of a combination of genetic variation within the MMP3 locus itself, as well as variation in additional factors, either primary or secondary to obesity, that regulate expression of the MMP3 gene.