Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reactive oxygen species, NADPH oxidases, and hypertension.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced in the neuronal, renal, and vascular systems not only influence cardiovascular physiology but are also strongly implicated in pathological signaling leading to hypertension. Different sources of ROS have been identified, ranging from xanthine-xanthine oxidase and mitochondria to NADPH oxidase (Nox) enzymes. Of 7 Nox family members, Nox1, Nox2, and Nox4 (and Nox5 in humans) influence the cardiovascular system. Their activation processes and cell and tissue distribution vary widely, adding complexity to understanding their functional roles. Whether these systems act collectively or independently in disease conditions is unclear, but recently feed forward mechanisms have been established between ROS sources. Studies published in Hypertension over the last few years are the focus of this review, and they provide a framework with which to consider the roles of Nox enzymes in neuronal, renal, and vascular hypertensive mechanisms, as well as cardiac remodeling, and their relationships with other ROS-generating systems. ### Neuronal ROS in Hypertension Redox signaling in the central nervous system is well recognized in neuronal control of blood pressure (BP), as well as in response to angiotensin II (Ang II) and aldosterone, which are linked to ROS-dependent hypertension. Recently, new roles for ROS have been described in the hypothalamus and brain stem, nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), subfornical organ (SFO), rostral ventrolateral medulla, and area postrema (Figure 1). Figure 1. Neuronal NADPH oxidase–dependent ROS involved in central regulation of hypertension. NADPH oxidase homologues, mainly Nox2 and Nox4, are found in different regions of the neuronal system and are reported to have a role in the neuropathogenesis of hypertension by enhancing the sympathetic nerve activity. Nox-induced ROS initiate a forward loop in cross-activation of different receptors and between Nox and mitochondrial ROS. OVLT indicates organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis; PVN, paraventricular nucleus; PP, posterior pituitary; AP, area postrema; RVLM, rostral ventrolateral medulla. Several …
Inhibition of human tumor growth in mice by an oncolytic herpes simplex virus designed to target solely HER-2-positive cells

Oncolytic virotherapy exploits the ability of viruses to infect, replicate into, and kill tumor cells. Among the viruses that entered clinical trials are HSVs. HSVs can be engineered to become tumor-specific by deletion of selected genes or retargeting to tumor-specific receptors. A clinically relevant surface molecule is HER-2, hyperexpressed in one fourth of mammary and ovary carcinomas, and associated with high metastatic ability. As a previously undescribed strategy to generate HSV recombinants retargeted to HER-2 and detargeted from natural receptors, we replaced the Ig-folded core in the receptor-binding virion glycoprotein gD with anti-HER-2 single-chain antibody. The recombinant entered cells solely via HER-2 and lysed HER-2–positive cancer cells. Because of the high specificity, its safety profile in i.p. injected mice was very high, with a LD50 >5 × 108 pfu, a figure at least 10,000-fold higher than that of corresponding WT-gD carrying virus (LD50 ≈ 5 × 104 pfu). When administered intratumorally to nude mice bearing HER-2–hyperexpressing human tumors, it strongly inhibited progressive tumor growth. The results provide a generally applicable strategy to engineer HSV recombinants retargeted to a wide range of receptors for which a single-chain antibody is available, and show the potential for retargeted HSV to exert target-specific inhibition of human tumor growth. Therapy with HER-2-retargeted oncolytic HSV could be effective in combined or sequential protocols with monoclonal antibodies and small inhibitors, particularly in patients resistant to HER-2-targeted therapy because of alterations in HER-2 signaling pathway, or against brain metastases inaccessible to anti-HER-2 antibodies.
Assertional-based Removed Set Revision of DL-LiteR Belief Bases

DL-Lite is a tractable fragment of Description Logics, which provides a powerful framework to compactly encode available knowledge with a low computational complexity of the reasoning process. Belief revision is an important problem that appears in many applications and especially in the semantic web area. This paper investigates the so-called “Removed Sets Revision” for revising DL-Lite knowledge bases when a new sure piece of information, called an input, is added. Such strategy of revision is based on inconsistency minimization and consists in determining smallest subsets of axioms that should be dropped from the current DL-Lite knowledge base in order to restore its consistency and accept the input. We consider different forms of the input: a positive inclusion axiom, a negative inclusion axiom and a membership assertion. We then show how to use the notion of hitting sets for computing removed sets. We show in particular, for some revision strategies and some kinds of inputs, that the removed sets revision can be achieved in polynomial time. Finally, we rephrase the Hansson’s postulates for belief bases revision within a DL-Lite framework in order to give logical properties of removed sets revision operators.
Saharan dust nutrients promote Vibrio bloom formation in marine surface waters

Significance Atmospherically transported dust from the Saharan desert provides pulses of biologically important nutrients, including iron, to ocean surface waters. The biological response to these ephemeral events is not fully known, especially among the heterotrophic microbial community. Here we use the well-characterized Vibrio genus as a model for heterotrophic bacterial response. We demonstrate that Saharan dust nutrients, deposited in tropical marine waters, can promote Vibrio bloom formation and suggest that dust-associated iron is an important driver of Vibrio population dynamics. This work shows not only the role of fast-acting heterotrophs in the biogeochemical cycles of environmental pulses of iron, but it also highlights an important factor in the growth of bacteria that can cause disease in humans and marine organisms. Vibrio is a ubiquitous genus of marine bacteria, typically comprising a small fraction of the total microbial community in surface waters, but capable of becoming a dominant taxon in response to poorly characterized factors. Iron (Fe), often restricted by limited bioavailability and low external supply, is an essential micronutrient that can limit Vibrio growth. Vibrio species have robust metabolic capabilities and an array of Fe-acquisition mechanisms, and are able to respond rapidly to nutrient influx, yet Vibrio response to environmental pulses of Fe remains uncharacterized. Here we examined the population growth of Vibrio after natural and simulated pulses of atmospherically transported Saharan dust, an important and episodic source of Fe to tropical marine waters. As a model for opportunistic bacterial heterotrophs, we demonstrated that Vibrio proliferate in response to a broad range of dust-Fe additions at rapid timescales. Within 24 h of exposure, strains of Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio alginolyticus were able to directly use Saharan dust–Fe to support rapid growth. These findings were also confirmed with in situ field studies; arrival of Saharan dust in the Caribbean and subtropical Atlantic coincided with high levels of dissolved Fe, followed by up to a 30-fold increase of culturable Vibrio over background levels within 24 h. The relative abundance of Vibrio increased from ∼1 to ∼20% of the total microbial community. This study, to our knowledge, is the first to describe Vibrio response to Saharan dust nutrients, having implications at the intersection of marine ecology, Fe biogeochemistry, and both human and environmental health.
Note on “Same”-“Different” Response Times

Ss judged whether the second of two visually presented letters was the same as the first. In previous experiments of this type the occurrence of the first letter effectively partitioned the letters that could occur second into two sets of unequal size: the single letter to which the correct response would be “same” and several letters to which the correct response would be “different. ” In the present experiment, the stimulus set contained only two letters; thus given the occurrence of the first stimulus, one (second) letter would require the response “same” and one would require the response “different. ” As in the earlier studies, RTs associated with the decision “same” tended to be shorter than those associated with the decision “different. ”
Pattern matching in OpenCL: GPU vs CPU energy consumption on two mobile chipsets

Adaptations of the Aho-Corasick (AC) algorithm on high performance graphics processors (also called GPUs) have garnered increasing attention in recent years. However, no results have been reported regarding their implementations on mobile GPUs. In this paper, we show that implementing a state-of-the-art Aho-Corasick parallel algorithm on a mobile GPU delivers significant speedups. We study a few implementation optimizations some of which may seem counter-intuitive to standard optimizations for high-end GPUs. More importantly, we focus on measuring the energy consumed by different components of the OpenCL application rather than reporting the aggregate. We show that there are considerable energy savings compared to the CPU implementation of the AC algorithm.
Endocytosis of junctional cadherins in bovine kidney epithelial (MDBK) cells cultured in low Ca2+ ion medium

The release of intercellular contacts in MDBK cells, initiated by the depletion of Ca2+ ions from the culture medium, results in the endocytotic uptake of membrane vesicles containing specific membrane constituents of the zonula adhaerens (ZA). During this process the junction-derived, endocytosed vesicles remain associated with the ZA plaque components, while the plaque and its attached actin filaments retract as a whole in a ring-like fashion from the plasma membrane, often accumulating, usually in fragments, in the juxtanuclear cytoplasm. Double-label immunofluorescence microscopy with antiplakoglobin and antivinculin has indicated that both plaque proteins colocalize with the hallmark membrane glycoprotein of this junction type, E-cadherin (uvomorulin). When HRP used as a fluid phase marker is applied to the culture medium, simultaneously with the Ca2+ ion-chelator EGTA, numerous HRP-positive vesicles are found in close association with the dislocated plaque material, suggesting that the HRP is contained in the vesicles formed upon EGTA-induced junction splitting. Immunoelectron microscopy with various cadherin-specific antibodies revealed vesicle-associated labeling, confirming the derivation of these plaque-associated vesicles from the ZA. As the desmosome-specific cadherin, desmoglein, is recovered in another type of junction-derived vesicle, which is characterized by its association with a desmoplakin-plaque, we conclude that the membrane domains of both kinds of junction are endocytosed during Ca2+ depletion but stay in different vesicle populations, emphasizing the selective interaction of the specific cadherins with their respective plaque and filament partners.
Imagery, melody and gesture in cross-cultural perspective

Musical action is also physical action. This is obvious in cases such as moving the arm to direct a bow across a cello string, turning the hand to control the vibrations of a drumhead or inclining the cartilages of the larynx to raise the pitch of a sung note. In addition to producing sound, however, physical motion can also serve as a means of conceiving and conveying music: motion is linked in turn to visual imagery and other aspects of the conceptualization of music. Auditory, motor, visual and conceptual counterparts may be integrated, generating a unified meaningful action. In this chapter we present some examples of such crossmodal phenomena in the context of music and gesture: we discuss, for instance, ways in which visual information in the form of gestures contributes to the way musical performance is experienced, and how mental images of spaces, actions and object motion – co-presented in physical gestures – can influence the way music is performed and play an important role in teaching. The chapter, therefore, locates physical gesture within a complex of cross-modal actions associated with musical performance and transmission. We present four approaches to analysing relationships between musical sound and gesture in the performances and teaching of individual musicians. Three of these studies are drawn from the world of North Indian vocal music, the fourth comes from the world of bagpipe music in Atlantic Canada.
A Study on the Influential Factors for Continual Usage of Mobile English Learning Applications

In recent, mobile learning(m-Learning) applications market using smart phone is constantly increasing. Smart phone based English learning applications are very popular in non-English speaking countries such as Korea, Japan, and China etc. Inspite of its high popularity there are no empirical researches on the influential factors for continual usage of mobile English learning applications. In this research, we show the influential factors affecting the continual usage of mobile application for English learning through survey of actual users. According to the analysis results of 160 users, mobility, self-initiation, and utilitarian value are positive influence factors for continual usage. This study will contribute to smart phone based learning application developers, mobile learning researchers and language learning contents creators.
Dasher: A peer-to-peer content distribution system based on combined network coding

Network coding can ease the block scheduling and thus makes the distribution more efficient. However, the complexities of encoding and decoding increase sharply as the content size scales up. In this paper, we propose a coding scheme which combines chunked coding and sparse linear network coding to reduce both encoding and decoding costs of content distribution. Based on the combined scheme, we implement a P2P content distribution system, named Dasher, where Local-Rarest-First scheme is adopted for chunk scheduling. Under the same system architecture, we implement three comparative systems, a BitTorrent-like system, named Mybt, a system only with sparse coding, named Sparser and a system using chunked coding, named Chunker. We conduct extensive experiments to compare the performance among these four systems. The experimental results show that Dasher with certain chunk sizes can reduce the average downloading time up to 15% compared with Mybt, and up to 43% with Chunker. With proper chunk sizes, the downloading time of Dasher is almost the same with Sparser. The average decoding rate of Dasher is the same with Chunker, and is nearly m times as fast as Sparser, where m is the number of chunks. Moreover, with respect to robustness, Dasher performs almost as well as Chunker, better than Mybt, but worse than Sparser.
Cognitive and Affective Empathy as Predictors of Proactive and Reactive Aggression.

iv DEDICATION . vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . vii LIST OF TABLES . xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 Empathy and Aggression in Children . 6 Variables Related to Empathy and Aggression . 8 Theoretical Foundation . 10 Statement of the Problem . 11 Purpose of the Study . 14 Significance of the Study . 14 Definitions. 16 Summary . 17 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . 18 Empathy . 19 Defining Empathy . 19 Cognitive and Affective (Emotional) Empathy . 20 Aggression . 22 Defining Aggression . 22 Proactive and Reactive Aggression . 23 Bullying vs. Aggression . 26
Pulmonary Hypertension in Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis – The Predictive Value of Exercise Capacity and Gas Exchange Efficiency

Exercise capacity and survival of patients with IPF is potentially impaired by pulmonary hypertension. This study aims to investigate diagnostic and prognostic properties of gas exchange during exercise and lung function in IPF patients with or without pulmonary hypertension. In a multicentre setting, patients with IPF underwent right heart catheterization, cardiopulmonary exercise and lung function testing during their initial evaluation. Mortality follow up was evaluated. Seventy-three of 135 patients [82 males; median age of 64 (56; 72 years)] with IPF had pulmonary hypertension as assessed by right heart catheterization [median mean pulmonary arterial pressure 34 (27; 43) mmHg]. The presence of pulmonary hypertension was best predicted by gas exchange efficiency for carbon dioxide (cut off ≥152% predicted; area under the curve 0.94) and peak oxygen uptake (≤56% predicted; 0.83), followed by diffusing capacity. Resting lung volumes did not predict pulmonary hypertension. Survival was best predicted by the presence of pulmonary hypertension, followed by peak oxygen uptake [HR 0.96 (0.93; 0.98)]. Pulmonary hypertension in IPF patients is best predicted by gas exchange efficiency during exercise and peak oxygen uptake. In addition to invasively measured pulmonary arterial pressure, oxygen uptake at peak exercise predicts survival in this patient population.
Quadratic Approximation of Cost Functions in Lost Sales and Perishable Inventory Control Problems

We propose an approximation scheme for two important but difficult single-product inventory systems, specifically, the lost-sales system and the perishable product system. The approach is based on quadratic approximations of cost-to-go functions within the framework of Approximate Dynamic Programming via Linear Programming. We propose heuristics and evaluate their performance against existing heuristics. Numerical results show promise in our approach.
Oviposition habitat selection by container‐dwelling mosquitoes: responses to cues of larval and detritus abundances in the field

Insects' oviposition responses to resource and larval densities can be important factors determining distributions and competitive interactions of larvae. Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) show aggregated distributions of larvae in the field, larval interactions that are affected by detritus resources, and oviposition responses to resource and density cues in the laboratory. In this study, field experiments were conducted to test whether these species choose oviposition sites in response to chemical cues indicating detritus resource quantity and quality or larval abundances. In Experiment 1, both species showed interactive responses to water conditioned with high or low quantities of senescent live oak leaves and density combinations of A. albopictus and A. aegypti larvae. Aedes aegypti preferred high‐detritus containers when conspecifics were absent. Aedes albopictus tended to prefer high‐detritus containers when larval density was low. We found no evidence of interspecific differences in oviposition preferences. In Experiment 2, A. albopictus preferred high detritus to low or no detritus, and rapidly decaying, high‐quality detritus to low‐quality detritus. Oviposition choices by these Aedes are mainly determined by resource quantity and quality, with larval densities having minor, variable effects. Oviposition responses of these species are unlikely to lead to resource partitioning. Aggregated distributions of these species in the field are unlikely to be products of oviposition choices based on larval densities.
Business Friends: Aristotle, Kant and Other Management Theorists on the Practice of Networking

Abstract: Quite frequently, business periodicals feature articles on the importance of building and maintaining a “network” of business friends. Typically, these articles offer practical suggestions for “networking. ” This article is a philosophical investigation of business friends, and business friendships. Relying upon Aristotle’s classic analysis, I argue that business friendships are instances of “incomplete friendships for utility. ” Viewed in this way, much is revealed about what business friendships are; even more is revealed about what business friendships are not, It is perfectly natural to say that business friends use one another; this raises the issue of whether business friendships violate the Kantian “categorical imperative. ” I argue that they need not, and that—so long as they are truly “friendships”—they do not. What this discussion makes clear, however, is that business friendships are in continuous peril of eroding into relationships that cannot survive moral scrutiny. I conclude with a few practical suggestions—and philosophical cautions.
Quantum computation with quantum dots

We propose an implementation of a universal set of one- and two-quantum-bit gates for quantum computation using the spin states of coupled single-electron quantum dots. Desired operations are effected by the gating of the tunneling barrier between neighboring dots. Several measures of the gate quality are computed within a recently derived spin master equation incorporating decoherence caused by a prototypical magnetic environment. Dot-array experiments that would provide an initial demonstration of the desired nonequilibrium spin dynamics are proposed.
Social Class and Educational Opportunity

In 1896 the headmaster of the grammar school in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire had the first occasion to report on the social changes occurring in his school. Eight years earlier, fifteen annual scholarships had been endowed to finance free secondary education of the "cleverer boys" from elementary schools. As a result, "quite a new class of boys" was introduced into the school and "caused the exodus of good many others. " The school "suffering severely in consequence by the withdrawal of boys who were sent to boarding schools. " Yet "the tone of the school [had] not suffered in the least. " It was discovered that the newcomers were "drawn from respectable families in which the moral tone would be high. " From the perspective of a decade the headmaster felt it justifiable in good conscience to ask the better class parents to "reconcile themselves to what was happening and to recognize the advantage of educating the working-classes. " One hundred and sixty students "whose mental development in many cases is marvellous" have enriched the population of his school as a result of the innovation.
Primal-Dual Symmetric Intrinsic Methods for Finding Antiderivatives of Cyclically Monotone Operators

A fundamental result due to Rockafellar states that every cyclically monotone operator $A$ admits an antiderivative $f$ in the sense that the graph of $A$ is contained in the graph of the subdifferential operator $\partial f$. Given a method $\mathfrak{m}$ that assigns every finite cyclically monotone operator $A$ some antiderivative $\mathfrak{m}_A$, we say that the method is primal-dual symmetric if $\mathfrak{m}$ applied to the inverse of $A$ produces the Fenchel conjugate of $\mathfrak{m}_A$. Rockafellar's antiderivatives do not possess this property. Utilizing Fitzpatrick functions and the proximal average, we present novel primal-dual symmetric intrinsic methods. The antiderivatives produced by these methods provide a solution to a problem posed by Rockafellar in 2005. The results leading to this solution are illustrated by various examples.