Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intestinal Secretory Defects and Dwarfism in Mice Lacking cGMP-Dependent Protein Kinase II

Cyclic guanosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cGMP)-dependent protein kinases (cGKs) mediate cellular signaling induced by nitric oxide and cGMP. Mice deficient in the type II cGK were resistant to Escherichia coli STa, an enterotoxin that stimulates cGMP accumulation and intestinal fluid secretion. The cGKII-deficient mice also developed dwarfism that was caused by a severe defect in endochondral ossification at the growth plates. These results indicate that cGKII plays a central role in diverse physiological processes.
Intelligent design of adjustable six-bar mechanisms using genetic algorithms

This paper considers the design of a transferring mechanism which belongs to one kind of adjustable six-bar linkage structures. Single loading point and two different destination injection points are required in the transferring system to ensure the best qualities while manufacturing different products with different materials. Due to the high complexity of synthesizing the twin manufacturing paths, this paper utilizes an evolutionary algorithm to design adjustable six-bar linkages which can simultaneously consider the dimension synthesis, twin path routing and practical manufacturing constraints. Besides, a real-world design case is used to verify the proposed approach according to the needs of the industry company.
Toward understanding student difficulty in upper-level mechanics problem-solving

Over the past decade, many students have been losing their interest in physics. One of the essential reasons why students look away from physics is the fact that they face difficulty in solving physics problems. Since mechanics is a fundamental subject in physics, many researchers have studied how students learn mechanics and solve problems related to mechanics. However, there is little research focusing on the students' specific difficulties in the process of problem solving. This study investigated students’ specific difficulties (with the degree of difficulties) and the core sources of these difficulties. 24 university students who majored in physics education participated in this study. We have developed a framework, the House Model (HM), for helping and analyzing students' problem solving. We found that students felt greater difficulty in planning and executing steps than in visualizing, knowing and finding steps. As the problems grew in difficulty, this pattern became more distinct. We found the sources of the students’ difficulties and tried to suggest method of helping the students who experience difficulties in problem solving.
The molecular basis of fertilization (Review)

Fertilization is the fusion of the male and female gamete. The process involves the fusion of an oocyte with a sperm, creating a single diploid cell, the zygote, from which a new individual organism will develop. The elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of fertilization has fascinated researchers for many years. In this review, we focus on this intriguing process at the molecular level. Several molecules have been identified to play a key role in each step of this intriguing process (the sperm attraction from the oocyte, the sperm maturation, the sperm and oocyte fusion and the two gamete pronuclei fusion leading to the zygote). Understanding the molecular mechanisms of the cell-cell interactions will provide a better understanding of the causes of fertility issues due to fertilization defects.
Induction of NR4A Orphan Nuclear Receptor Expression in Macrophages in Response to Inflammatory Stimuli*

Oxidized lipids and inflammatory cytokines are believed to play a causal role in atherosclerosis through the regulation of gene expression in macrophages and other cells. Previous work has implicated the nuclear receptors peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor and liver X receptor in the control of lipid-dependent gene expression and inflammation. Here we demonstrate that expression of a third group of nuclear receptors, the NR4A ligand-independent orphan receptors, is highly inducible in macrophages by diverse inflammatory stimuli. Treatment of macrophages with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), cytokines, or oxidized lipids triggers the transcriptional induction of Nur77 (NR4A1), Nurr1 (NR4A2), and NOR1 (NR4A3) expression. Several lines of evidence point to the NF-κB signaling pathway as a principal mediator of inducible NR4A expression in macrophages. Analysis of the murine and human Nur77 promoters revealed two highly conserved NF-κB response elements. Mutation of these elements inhibited LPS-dependent expression of the Nur77 promoter in transient transfection assays. Furthermore, induction of Nur77 expression by LPS was severely compromised in fibroblasts lacking the three NF-κB subunits, Nfkb1, c-Rel, and RelA. Consistent with its ability to be induced by oxidized lipids, Nur77 was expressed in macrophages within human atherosclerotic lesions. These results identified NR4A nuclear receptors as potential transcriptional mediators of inflammatory signals in activated macrophages.
The pesticin receptor of Yersinia enterocolitica: a novel virulence factor with dual function

The iron‐repressible outer membrane protein FyuA of Yersinia enterocolitica operates as a receptor with dual function: (i) as a receptor for the Y. pestis bacterlocin pesticin, and (ii) as a receptor for yersiniabactin, a siderophore that is produced by mouse‐viruient Y. enterocolitica strains of biogroup IB. Cloning of the FyuA‐encoding gene was achieved by mobilization of a genomic cosmid library of the pesticin‐sensitive and mouse‐virulent Y. enterocolitica O:8 strain WA into the pesticin‐reslstant WA fyuA mutant and subsequent in vivo selection of transconjugants for the ability to survive and multiply in mice (phenotype mouse viruience). The reisolated transconjugants which survived in mice for 3d harboured a unique cosmid and phenotypicaity were pesticin sensitive. From this cosmid a 2650 bp SalI‐PstI fragment conferring pesticin sensitivity was subcioned. Sequencing of this DNA fragment revealed a single open reading frame of 2022 bp, which encodes a deduced polypeptide of 673 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 73 677 Da. Cleavage of a putative signal sequence composed of 22 amino acids should lead to a mature protein of 651 amino acids with a molecular mass of 71 368 Da. The open reading frame is preceded by a sequence which shares homoiogy with the postulated consensus Fur iron‐repressor protein‐binding site. FyuA shows homology to other iron‐regulated TonB‐dependent outer membrane proteins with receptor functions (e.g. BtuB, CirA, FepA, lutA, FhuA, FoxA, FcuA). On the basis of multiple alignment of amino acid sequences of FyuA and other TonB‐dependent receptors, a phylogenetic tree was constructed, demonstrating that FyuA probably belongs to the citrate subfamily or represents a new subfamily of TonB‐dependent receptors. Moreover, by complementation of the WA fyuA mutant by the cioned fyuA gene.
A Fourier Analysis Based Approach to Learning Decision Trees in a Distributed Environment

Spurred by advances in communication technologies, mobile computing and databases that are distributed have become widespread. Such a computing environment involves data that is stored at geographically dispersed locations, and the so-called “slim” computing devices such as palmtops and wearable computers. The decentralized nature of data storage and this new paradigm in computing give rise to several issues, such as security, communication overhead, computational load demands and scalability, that are not adequately addressed by traditional centralized data mining techniques. It is essential that algorithms designed for distributed data mining scenarios mitigate some of these issues. This paper attempts to adapt one centralized data mining technique, decision tree learning, to such an environment. It presents a scalable algorithm that can be used to build decision trees from a distributed, heterogeneous database while minimizing communication overheads. This paper also shows how a decision tree may be represented in terms of its Fourier spectrum. It uses this Fourier spectrum based technique to aggregate decision trees built at the various distributed sites, simplifying the model built during the data mining stage, and notes some additional advantages of the Fourier spectrum approach. ∗School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-2752, USA, bhpark@eecs.wsu. edu †Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 {arajeev, hillol}@cs.umbc. edu.
Integration of heterogeneous databases ” National Cadastre in Guatemala

Disclaimer This document describes work undertaken as part of a programme of study at the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). All views and opinions expressed therein remain the sole responsibility of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of the institute. Papa-Chalo, este trabajo va dedicado a Usted. To my grandpa, Papa-Chalo; this work is dedicated to you. i Acknowledgements Thanks to God that with his divine wisdom the gift of discernment was granted to me, because of him I was able to pursue this study during the last eighteen months. Thank God for blessing me all this time. I would like to express my profound gratefulness to Wim Bakker, my first supervisor, whose advices and constructive criticism were influential. I would also like to express my gratitude to Christiaan Lemmen, my second supervisor, whose support and positivism always encouraged me. I would like to thank Arbind Tuladhar, who gave me the first support in the thesis proposal stage. With special gratitude, Fredrick Tom Otieno, whose valuable lessons were fundamental for my work. My dear friend, Gustavo Arciniegas, thanks for your support during our regular modules, for your feedback in the thesis proposal, and for your always honest and unconditional friendship. Thanks to Yedendra Babu Shrinivasan, whose comments always gave me fruitful ideas. Thanks to Anish Joshi for those cadastral articles and his good advices. This thesis is also the result of contacting several people in Guatemala at the Technical and Legal Unit of the Inter-Institutional Commission for the enforcement of the Land Tenancy (UTJ PROTIERRA). I would like to specifically express my thankfulness towards Walter Girón, Johny Martínez and Michael Asturias. There are no words with adequate meaning to express my thankfulness to Carlos Alejandro Cabrera Del Valle for this, simply great opportunity. To Marco van Druten, thanks for your friendship, and your always concern for my well-being. My closest friends, Jorge Ramirez and Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar, thanks for the good moments. To my parents, Marta Díaz and Mario Aceituno, thanks for the trust reposed in me and your support. You have always been my inspiration. Thanks to all members of my family. Having been in touch, made me to know where I do belong. Abstract For quite some time, several donor organizations have been supporting projects in conjunction to make existing cadastral systems more successful or set up new ones in developing countries. Taking …
Econometric Modelling of Antitrust Environment and Patent Activity

This paper examines the relationship between the antitrust environment and technological inventiveness in the US economy, where technological inventiveness is measured by patent activity. Although not all registered patents are commercialised into inventions, patent data provide a valuable source of information about technological efforts. Patenting is also very important as it is linked to an economic and legal environment which actively encourages and protects competition.
Correcting some pavloviana regarding Pavlov's bell and Pavlov's mugging

Recently, three investigators questioned whether Pavlov ever used a bell. Pavlov's use of a bell in salivary conditioning was reported in Science in 1906, and similar use of a bell was shown in a film produced in Pavlov's laboratory in 1925-26. In 1923, Pavlov visited the United States and described using a bell in Lamarckian research that was published in Science, The Scientific Monthly, and in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology. During this 1923 visit, Pavlov was robbed in New York's Grand Central Station in a manner that may be described aptly as a mugging. Published accounts have differed significantly, and some appear fabricated. This article tries to set the record straight on Pavlov's bell and Pavlov's mugging.
Empirics of China's Outward Direct Investment

We investigate the empirical determinants of China’s outward direct investment (ODI). It is found that China’s investments in developed and developing countries are driven by different sets of factors. Subject to the differences between developed and developing countries, there is evidence that a) both market seeking and resources seeking motives drive China’s ODI, b) the Chinese exports to developing countries induce China’s ODI, c) China’s international reserves promote its ODI, and d) the Chinese capital tends to agglomerate among developed economies but diversify among developing economies. Similar results are obtained using alternative ODI data. We do not find substantial evidence that China invests in African and oil-producing countries mainly for their natural resources.
Suicide and Ambient Temperature in East Asian Countries: A Time-Stratified Case-Crossover Analysis

Background A limited number of studies suggest that ambient temperature contributes to suicide; these studies typically focus on a single nation and use temporally and spatially aggregated data. Objective We evaluated the association between ambient temperature and suicide in multiple cities in three East Asian countries. Methods A time-stratified case-crossover method was used to explore the relationship between temperature and suicide, adjusting for potential time-varying confounders and time-invariant individual characteristics. Sex- and age-specific associations of temperature with suicide were estimated, as were interactions between temperature and these variables. A random-effects meta-analysis was used to estimate country-specific pooled associations of temperature with suicide. Results An increase in temperature corresponding to half of the city-specific standard deviation was positively associated with suicide in most cities, although average suicide rates varied substantially. Pooled country-level effect estimates were 7.8% (95% CI: 5.0, 10.8%) for a 2.3°C increase in ambient temperature in Taiwan, 6.8% (95% CI: 5.4, 8.2%) for a 4.7°C increase in Korea, and 4.5% (95% CI: 3.3, 5.7%) for a 4.2°C increase in Japan. The association between temperature and suicide was significant even after adjusting for sunshine duration; the association between sunshine and suicide was not significant. The associations were greater among men than women in 12 of the 15 cities although not significantly so. There was little evidence of a consistent pattern of associations with age. In general, associations were strongest with temperature on the same day or the previous day, with little evidence of associations with temperature over longer lags (up to 5 days). Conclusions We estimated consistent positive associations between suicide and elevated ambient temperature in three East Asian countries, regardless of country, sex, and age. Citation Kim Y, Kim H, Honda Y, Guo YL, Chen BY, Woo JM, Ebi KL. 2016. Suicide and ambient temperature in East Asian countries: a time-stratified case-crossover analysis. Environ Health Perspect 124:75–80; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1409392
De l'école unifiée aux écoles plurielles. Évaluation internationale des politiques de différenciation et de diversification de l'offre éducative

Les deux dernieres decennies ont ete marquees dans de nombreux pays developpes et emergents par des reformes educatives d'envergure, autour de thematiques privilegiees : la decentralisation, la differenciation des parcours et des contenus scolaires ainsi que le libre choix de l'ecole. Ces trois politiques d'education qui visent a differencier et diversifier l'offre educative remettent en cause l'organisation traditionnelle des systemes educatifs modernes. Cette etude s'attache a evaluer les effets de ces reformes sur les performances des systemes educatifs, grâce a une analyse econometrique fondee, d'un cote, sur les resultats de l'evaluation internationale PISA 2000 et, de l'autre, sur une description fine des caracteristiques institutionnelles des pays en liaison avec les trois politiques etudiees. Trente-neuf etats et communautes politiques sont ainsi integres dans cette etude. Outre une description analytique des trois politiques d'education, etudiees a travers a la fois les cadres juridiques des dispositifs nationaux et leur realite en interaction avec les comportements des acteurs, l'analyse montre que les effets de ces reformes ne sont pas univoques. En effet, derriere des appellations communes, ces trois politiques permettent, selon les pays, de developper des dispositifs institutionnels variables qui rencontrent des accueils differents, cette combinaison produisant a son tour des effets divergents sur les performances des systemes educatifs.
Provisioning geographic data-centric dissemination in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose to enhance a data-centric dissemination framework with geographic information and network-level caching in wireless sensor networks. The proposed framework enhances data-centric routing with three principal components: (1) publish/subscribe paradigm to coordinate sources and sinks; (2) geographic diffusion to mitigate unnecessary data forwarding; (3) network-level caching to process data or reduce redundancy in message delivery. We implemented the framework in ns-2 simulator, and conducted a simulation study to evaluate its performance in comparison with existing routing protocols. The simulation results indicate that the framework enhances message delivery ratio, reduces message delivery overhead, and saves energy consumption, regardless of wireless link errors.
Antihypertensive treatment and homocysteine concentrations.

Thiazides and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are first-choice drugs for lowering elevated blood pressure and hence risk of cardiovascular disease. Homocysteine (tHcy) is another and independent cardiovascular risk factor and has been reported to be elevated in patients on antihypertensive therapy. As these studies reported only associations, a preliminary, randomized, prospective treatment study was performed in 40 hypertensive patients. We investigated the major determinants of tHcy concentrations after treatment with hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) or captopril: vitamins B6, B12, folic acid, and creatinine and cystatin C as parameters of renal function. A total of 21 Patients were treated with HCT and 19 with captopril, for, respectively, 31 and 29 days. HCT, but not captopril, raised tHcy by 16% (P =.003) and also creatinine and cystatin C (P =.025 and P =.004, respectively). This tHcy increase may offset the desired cardioprotection conferred by lowering the blood pressure.
The climate velocity of the contiguous United States during the 20th century

Rapid climate change has the potential to affect economic, social, and biological systems. A concern for species conservation is whether or not the rate of on‐going climate change will exceed the rate at which species can adapt or move to suitable environments. Here we assess the climate velocity (both climate displacement rate and direction) for minimum temperature, actual evapotranspiration, and climatic water deficit (deficit) over the contiguous US during the 20th century (1916–2005). Vectors for these variables demonstrate a complex mosaic of patterns that vary spatially and temporally and are dependent on the spatial resolution of input climate data. Velocities for variables that characterize the climatic water balance were similar in magnitude to that derived from temperature, but frequently differed in direction resulting in the divergence of climate vectors through time. Our results strain expectations of poleward and upslope migration over the past century due to warming. Instead, they suggest that a more full understanding of changes in multiple climatic factors, in addition to temperature, may help explain unexpected or conflicting observational evidence of climate‐driven species range shifts during the 20th century.
Sustainability of Global and Local Food Value Chains: An Empirical Comparison of Peruvian and Belgian Asparagus

The sustainability of food value chains is an increasing concern for consumers, food companies and policy-makers. Global food chains are often perceived to be less sustainable than local food chains. Yet, thorough food chain analyses and comparisons of different food chains across sustainability dimensions are rare. In this article we analyze the local Belgian and global Peruvian asparagus value chains and explore their sustainability performance. A range of indicators linked to environmental, economic and social impacts is calculated to analyze the contribution of the supply chains to economic development, resource use, labor relations, distribution of added value and governance issues. Our findings suggest that none of the two supply chains performs invariably better and that there are trade-offs among and between sustainability dimensions. Whereas the global chain uses water and other inputs more intensively and generates more employment per unit of land and higher yields, the local chain generates more revenue per unit of land.
The development of semicircular canals in the inner ear: role of FGFs in sensory cristae

In the vertebrate inner ear, the ability to detect angular head movements lies in the three semicircular canals and their sensory tissues, the cristae. The molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of the three canals are largely unknown. Malformations of this vestibular apparatus found in zebrafish and mice usually involve both canals and cristae. Although there are examples of mutants with only defective canals, few mutants have normal canals without some prior sensory tissue specification, suggesting that the sensory tissues, cristae, might induce the formation of their non-sensory components, the semicircular canals. We fate-mapped the vertical canal pouch in chicken that gives rise to the anterior and posterior canals, using a fluorescent, lipophilic dye (DiI), and identified a canal genesis zone adjacent to each prospective crista that corresponds to the Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (Bmp2)-positive domain in the canal pouch. Using retroviruses or beads to increase Fibroblast Growth Factors (FGFs) for gain-of-function and beads soaked with the FGF inhibitor SU5402 for loss-of-function experiments, we show that FGFs in the crista promote canal development by upregulating Bmp2. We postulate that FGFs in the cristae induce a canal genesis zone by inducing/upregulating Bmp2 expression. Ectopic FGF treatments convert some of the cells in the canal pouch from the prospective common crus to a canal-like fate. Thus, we provide the first molecular evidence whereby sensory organs direct the development of the associated non-sensory components, the semicircular canals, in vertebrate inner ears.