Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IL-16 rs 4778889 polymorphism contribution to the development of renal cell cancer in a Chinese population

IL-16 plays an important role in affect the secretion of tumor-related inflammatory cytokines. We aimed to assess the role of interleukin-16 (IL-16) rs4778889 T/C and rs11556218 T/G polymorphisms in the occurrence of renal cell cancer (RCC). This study is composed of 274 RCC patients and 274 control subjects. Genotyping of polymorphisms was performed using polymerase chain reaction combined with restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. All statistical analysis was carried out by the SPSS statistical software package, version 16.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Using conditional logistic regression analysis, the TC and CC genotypes of rs4778889 exhibited a higher risk of RCC, with adjusted ORs (and 95%CIs) of 1.79 (1.23-2.62) and 2.67 (1.29-5.69), respectively. Moreover, under dominant and recessive models, individuals carried the rs4778889 polymorphism was exhibited elevated RCC risk, with adjusted ORs (and 95%CI) of 1.93 (1.35-2.76) and 2.11 (1.05-4.45), respectively. No significant differences were observed in rs11556218 genotype frequencies between the study groups. In conclusion, the
Shape from Texture: Surface Recovery Through Texture-Element Extraction

visual cues are used by humans to recover 3D information from 2D images. One such cue is the distortion of textures due to the projection of the 3D world onto a 2D image plane. Blostein and Ahuja developed a technique that estimates the tilt and slant of a textured plane by analyzing the distortions of texture elements. The technique first locates candidate texture elements with a multiscale region detector. A model of the texture deformations is used to estimate the likelihood of various surface orientations given the area and position of the candidate texture elements. The search determines the most plausible tilt and slant for the surface. This paper revisits the theory proposed by Blostein and Ahuja, and presents the results of experimentations with a simplified version of their technique.
Stationary and Ergodic Properties of Stochastic NonLinear Systems Controlled over Communication Channels

This paper is concerned with the following problem: Given a stochastic non-linear system controlled over a noisy channel, what is the largest class of channels for which there exist coding and control policies so that the closed loop system is stochastically stable? Stochastic stability notions considered are stationarity, ergodicity or asymptotic mean stationarity. We do not restrict the state space to be compact, for example systems considered can be driven by unbounded noise. Necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for a large class of systems and channels. A generalization of Bode's Integral Formula for a large class of non-linear systems and information channels is obtained. The findings generalize existing results for linear systems.
Homotopical Fibring Peter Arndt

Over the last fifteen years the problem of fibring, i.e. of combining several logics into a single common extension, has received a lot of attention, both for its significance in applications and its interest for theoretical logic, see e.g. [3], [5], [6]. The main issues about fibring that have been studied in the literature are fibring techniques for different settings of logic — like abstract consequence relations, institutions or logics with frame semantics or topos semantics — and the preservation of metaproperties of logics under fibring — e.g. the existence of implicit connectives [3], completeness [2], or the position in the Leibniz hierarchy (which, roughly, measures the degree of algebraizability/applicability of the Lindenbaum-Tarski algebra technique) [7].
IT ] 18 J an 2 00 9 Distributed Large Scale Network Utility Maximization

Recent work by Zymnis et al. proposes an efficient primal-dual interior-point method, using a truncated Newton method, for solving the network utility maximization (NUM) problem. This method has shown superior performance relati ve to the traditional dual-decomposition approach. Other recent work by Bickson et al. shows how to compute efficiently and distributively the Newton step, which is the main computati onal bottleneck of the Newton method, utilizing the Gaussian bel ief propagation algorithm. In the current work, we combine both approaches to create an efficient distributed algorithm for solving the NUM probl em. Unlike the work of Zymnis, which uses a centralized approach, our new algorithm is easily distributed. Using an empirical evaluation we show that our new method outperforms previous approaches, including the truncated Newton method and dual decomposition methods. As an additional contribution, thi s is the first work that evaluates the performance of the Gaussian bel ief propagation algorithm vs. the preconditioned conjugate gr adient method, for a large scale problem.
Brain responses to nouns, verbs and class-ambiguous words in context.

Recent neuropsychological and imaging data have implicated different brain networks in the processing of different word classes, nouns being linked primarily to posterior, visual object-processing regions and verbs to frontal, motor-processing areas. However, as most of these studies have examined words in isolation, the consequences of such anatomically based representational differences, if any, for the processing of these items in sentences remains unclear. Additionally, in some languages many words (e.g. 'drink') are class-ambiguous, i.e. they can play either role depending on context, and it is not yet known how the brain stores and uses information associated with such lexical items in context. We examined these issues by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to unambiguous nouns (e.g. 'beer'), unambiguous verbs (e. g. 'eat'), class-ambiguous words and pseudowords used as nouns or verbs within two types of minimally contrastive sentence contexts: noun-predicting (e.g. 'John wanted THE [target] but.') and verb-predicting ('John wanted TO [target] but.'). Our results indicate that the nature of neural processing for nouns and verbs is a function of both the type of stimulus and the role it is playing. Even when the context completely specifies their role, word class-ambiguous items differ from unambiguous ones over frontal regions by approximately 150 ms. Moreover, whereas pseudowords elicit larger N400s when used as verbs than when used as nouns, unambiguous nouns and ambiguous words used as nouns elicit more frontocentral negativity than unambiguous verbs and ambiguous words used as verbs, respectively. Additionally, unambiguous verbs elicit a left-lateralized, anterior positivity (approximately 200 ms) not observed for any other stimulus type, though only when these items are used appropriately as verbs (i.e. in verb-predicting contexts). In summary, the pattern of neural activity observed in response to lexical items depends on their general probability of being a verb or a noun and on the particular role they are playing in any given sentence. This implicates more than a simple two-way distinction of the brain networks involved in their storage and processing. Experience, as well as context during on-line language processing, clearly shapes the neural representations of nouns and verbs, such that there is no single neural marker of word class. Our results further suggest that the presence and nature of the word class-based dissociations observed after brain damage are similarly likely to be a function of both the type of stimulus and the context in which it occurs, and thus must be assessed accordingly.
Oocyte age and nuclear donor cell type affect the technical efficiency of somatic cloning in rabbits

The present study in rabbits compared, in the first experiment, the effect of two commonly used oocyte ages, 13 h and 17 h after ovulation induction treatment, on the technical efficiency of somatic nuclear transfer steps, using fresh cumulus cells as nuclear donors. Recently ovulated metaphase II oocytes (13 h) showed higher fusion (13 h: 83% vs 17 h: 67%, p < 0.05) and in vitro development rates than in vivo slightly aged metaphase II oocytes (morula, 13 h: 74% vs 17 h: 25%, p < 0.05; blastocyst, 13 h: 16% vs 17 h: 8%; p < 0.05). In contrast, activation rate was higher in the 17 h group (13 h: 45% vs 17 h: 67%; p < 0.05). In a second experiment, using recently ovulated oocytes (13 h) as recipients, two donor cell types (from primary cultures of either cumulus cells or fetal fibroblasts) were tested to evaluate their effects on the efficiencies of the different technical steps of somatic nuclear transfer procedure. A better fusion rate was obtained when fetal fibroblasts were used as nuclear donors (cumulus cells: 45% vs fetal fibroblasts: 67%, p < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were detected in cleavage rate regardless of the cell type used (cumulus cells: 44% vs fetal fibroblasts: 60%, p > 0.05). However, in vitro development to morula (cumulus cells: 41% vs fetal fibroblasts: 14%, p < 0.05) and to blastocyst stage (cumulus cells: 27% vs fetal fibroblasts: 3%, p < 0.05) were different between cell types.
Ezetimibe: a new addition to lipid‐lowering therapy

A s trial evidence accumulates, targets for total and LDLcholesterol in secondary and primary prevention of atherosclerosis continue to fall. Current UK targets for LDL-cholesterol of >3 mmol/1' are in excess of those used in the US (2.5 mmol/1)' and were set before the publication of the results of the Heart Protection Study (HPS)1 and AngloScandinavian Coronary Outcomes Trial (ASCOT),4 which show additional benefit in both primary and secondary prevention of lowering LDLcholesterol to 2.0-2.5 mmol/1. These findings, and their likely implications for national guidelines, place increasing demands on lipidlowering therapies to deliver reductions in LDL of 50% or more. The newer statins such as atorvastatin and rosuvastatin can reduce LDL by up to 55% and 65% respectively, but high doses of statins are associated with increases in liver dysfunction (transaminase rises) and myalgia. So increasing recourse would have to be made to old additional therapies of LDL reduction such as bile acid seguestrants (resins), which deliver a 20% reduction but with side-effect and discontinuation rates of 30%+, to achieve these targets. Thus a clear need exists for effective add-on therapies with a good tolerability profile. Cholesterol is derived from two sources, with 30-50% cholesterol derived from ilea! absorption and 50-70% from hepatic synthesis via HMG-CoA reductase the target of statin therapy. Gut cholesterol uptake is often thought to be a passive process dependent solely on cholesterol input from the diet. This is simplistic, as concentrations of bile acids can be regulated in response to dietary cholesterol intake. The ultimate example is of a man with an obsessivecompulsive disorder involving egg consumption. Despite a cholesterol intake of 2500 mg/day (25 eggs), he maintained a plasma total cholesterol
A Sub-cm3 Energy-Harvesting Stacked Wireless Sensor Node Featuring a Near-Threshold Voltage IA-32 Microcontroller in 14-nm Tri-Gate CMOS for Always-ON Always-Sensing Applications

An energy-harvesting wireless sensor node (WSN) integrates a 14-nm, 0.79-mm<sup>2</sup>, 32-b Intel Architecture core-based near-threshold voltage (NTV) microcontroller (MCU) that provides 17-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/MHz always-ON, always-sensing (AOAS) capability. The MCU implements four independent voltage-frequency islands, managed by an integrated power management unit and features a subthreshold voltage capable on-die oscillator and 42-nm fin-pitch, 8.3-pA leakage-per-bit SRAM. The MCU operates across a wide frequency (voltage) range from 297 MHz (1 V) to 0.5 MHz (308 mV), dissipating 23.5 mW to 21 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and achieves <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$4.8\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> better energy efficiency at an optimum supply voltage (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{\text {OPT}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of 370 mV, 3.5 MHz, and 17 pJ/cycle. A functional AOAS WSN incorporating the NTV MCU shows promise for sustained <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> operation.
CHEMICAL MODIFICATION OF L-ASPARAGINASE FROM Cladosporium sp. FOR IMPROVED ACTIVITY AND THERMAL STABILITY

L-Asparaginase (ASNase), an antileukemia enzyme, is facing problems with antigenicity in the blood. Modification of L-asparaginase from Cladosporium sp. was tried to obtain improved stability and improved functionality. In our experiment, modification of the enzyme was tried with bovine serum albumin, ovalbumin by crosslinking using glutaraldehyde, N-bromosuccinimide, and mono-methoxy polyethylene glycol. Modified enzymes were studied for activity, temperature stability, rate constants (kd), and protection to proteolytic digestion. Modification with ovalbumin resulted in improved enzyme activity that was 10-fold higher compared to native enzyme, while modification with bovine serum albumin through glutaraldehyde cross-linking resulted in high stability of L-asparaginase that was 8.5- and 7.62-fold more compared to native enzyme at 28°C and 37°C by the end of 24 hr. These effects were dependent on the quantity of conjugate formed. Modification also markedly prolonged L-asparaginase half-life and serum stability. N-Bromosuccinimide-modified ASNase presented greater stability with prolonged in vitro half-life of 144 hr to proteolytic digestion relative to unmodified enzyme (93 h). The present work could be seen as producing a modified L-asparaginase with improved activity and stability and can be a potential source for developing therapeutic agents for cancer treatment.
A Behaviour Monitoring System (BMS) for Ambient Assisted Living

Unusual changes in the regular daily mobility routine of an elderly person at home can be an indicator or early symptom of developing health problems. Sensor technology can be utilised to complement the traditional healthcare systems to gain a more detailed view of the daily mobility of a person at home when performing everyday tasks. We hypothesise that data collected from low-cost sensors such as presence and occupancy sensors can be analysed to provide insights on the daily mobility habits of the elderly living alone at home and to detect routine changes. We validate this hypothesis by designing a system that automatically learns the daily room-to-room transitions and permanence habits in each room at each time of the day and generates alarm notifications when deviations are detected. We present an algorithm to process the sensors’ data streams and compute sensor-driven features that describe the daily mobility routine of the elderly as part of the developed Behaviour Monitoring System (BMS). We are able to achieve low detection delay with confirmation time that is high enough to convey the detection of a set of common abnormal situations. We illustrate and evaluate BMS with synthetic data, generated by a developed data generator that was designed to mimic different user’s mobility profiles at home, and also with a real-life dataset collected from prior research work. Results indicate BMS detects several mobility changes that can be symptoms of common health problems. The proposed system is a useful approach for learning the mobility habits at the home environment, with the potential to detect behaviour changes that occur due to health problems, and therefore, motivating progress toward behaviour monitoring and elder’s care.
Single Motherhood Versus Poor Partner Relationship: Outcomes for Antenatal Mental Health

Objective: In the transition to parenthood, lack of social support significantly impacts on maternal mood. This paper compares the influence of single-mother status and level of partner support in a partnered relationship, on antenatal emotional health. Methods: Antenatal demographic, psychosocial and mental health data, as determined by Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) score, were collected from 1578 women. The association between these variables, and marital status, was investigated using logistic regression. Results: Sixty-two women (3.9%) were identified as single/unpartnered. Elevated EPDS scores (>12) were found in 15.2% (240/1578) of the total cohort and 25.8% (16/62) of the single/unpartnered women. EPDS scores were significantly lower for single/unpartnered women than for women with unsupportive partners (8.9±5.3 vs 11.9±6.5, p<0.001). Compared to the partnered cohort, single/unpartnered women were more likely to have experienced ≥2 weeks of depression before the current pregnancy (p<0.05), a previous psychopathology (p<0.001), emotional problems during the current pregnancy (p<0.01) and major life events in the last year (p<0.01). Binary logistic regression modelling to predict antenatal EPDS scores suggests that this is mediated by previous psychiatric history (p<0.001) and emotional problems during pregnancy (p=0.02). Conclusion: Women in a partnered-relationship with poor partner-derived support were at an increased risk of elevated antenatal EPDS scores compared to single/unpartnered women. A previous history of depression and current emotional problems, rather than single mother status, were significant risk factors for elevated EPDS scores. The present study reiterates the contribution of psychosocial risk factors as important mediators of antenatal emotional health.
Behavior Recognition in Video with Extended Models of Feature Velocity Dynamics

Investigations of human perception have shown that non-local spatio-temporal information is critical and often sufficient for activity recognition. However, many recent activity recognition systems have been largely based on local space-time features and statistical techniques inspired by object recognition research. We develop a new set of statistical models for feature velocity dynamics capable of representing the long term motion of features. We show that these models can be used to effectively disambiguate behaviors in video, particularly when extended to include information not captured by motion, like position and appearance. We demonstrate performance surpassing and in some cases doubling the accuracy of a state-of-the-art approach based on local features. We expect that long range temporal information will become more important as technology makes longer, higher resolution videos
Enhanced Interleukin (IL)-13 Responses in Mice Lacking IL-13 Receptor α 2

Interleukin (IL)-13 has recently been shown to play important and unique roles in asthma, parasite immunity, and tumor recurrence. At least two distinct receptor components, IL-4 receptor (R)α and IL-13Rα1, mediate the diverse actions of IL-13. We have recently described an additional high affinity receptor for IL-13, IL-13Rα2, whose function in IL-13 signaling is unknown. To better appreciate the functional importance of IL-13Rα2, mice deficient in IL-13Rα2 were generated by gene targeting. Serum immunoglobulin E levels were increased in IL-13Rα2−/− mice despite the fact that serum IL-13 was absent and immune interferon γ production increased compared with wild-type mice. IL-13Rα2–deficient mice display increased bone marrow macrophage progenitor frequency and decreased tissue macrophage nitric oxide and IL-12 production in response to lipopolysaccharide. These results are consistent with a phenotype of enhanced IL-13 responsiveness and demonstrate a role for endogenous IL-13 and IL-13Rα2 in regulating immune responses in wild-type mice.
Body composition and behaviour in adult rats are influenced by maternal diet, maternal age and high-fat feeding

Abstract Fetal exposure to maternal undernutrition has lifelong consequences for physiological and metabolic function. Maternal low-protein diet is associated with an age-related phenotype in rats, characterised by a period of resistance to development of obesity in early adulthood, giving way to an obesity-prone, insulin-resistant state in later adulthood. Offspring of rats fed a control (18 % casein) or low-protein (9 % casein; LP) diet in pregnancy were challenged with a high-fat diet at 9 months of age. To assess whether other maternal factors modulated the programming effects of nutrition, offspring were studied from young (2–4 months old) and older (6–9 months old) mothers. Weight gain with a high-fat diet was attenuated in male offspring of older mothers fed LP (interaction of maternal age and diet; P = 0·011) and adipose tissue deposition was lower with LP feeding in both males and females (P < 0·05). Although the resistance to weight gain and adiposity was partially explained by lower energy intake in offspring of LP mothers (P < 0·001 males only), it was apparent that energy expenditure must be influenced by maternal diet and age. Assessment of locomotor activity indicated that energy expenditure associated with physical activity was unlikely to explain resistance to weight gain, but showed that offspring of older mothers were more anxious than those of younger mothers, with more rearing observed in a novel environment and on the elevated plus-maze. The data showed that in addition to maternal undernutrition, greater maternal age may influence development and long-term body composition in the rat.
Bargaining, Search, and Price Dispersion: Evidence from the Live Hogs Market

Using unique panel data on individual transactions between buyers and sellers in the spot market for live hogs, we found a large degree of intra-day price dispersion. Motivated by this empirical puzzle, we offer an explanation which is rooted in the bargaining with search theory. We formulate three hypotheses involving the role of farmers’ search cost, bargaining parties’ patience, and asymmetric information that we believe can explain the observed phenomenon. Empirical analysis shows strong support for all three of the stated theoretical predictions, indicating that the bargaining with search theory explains at least 31 percent of the observed intra-day price variation in this market.
Effect of phloretin on the percutaneous absorption of lignocaine across human skin.

The potential use of phloretin, a polyphenolic compound, as a penetration enhancer in the transdermal delivery of lignocaine hydrochloride (L-HCl) has been investigated. Standard in vitro skin permeation methods, using excised human skin, were used to characterize the percutaneous absorption of L-HCl. Initially, phloretin was applied to the skin surface as a methanolic solution. The skin samples were treated 12 h prior to application of the lignocaine donor solution, which was buffered at pH 4.0 and 7.0. The data obtained from the methanolic solutions at pH 4.0 show a 3.2-fold increase of the cumulative amount permeated after 24 h compared with the control. A second series of experiments were conducted using unilamellar phosphatidylcholine liposomes instead of methanol as a vehicle for the phloretin. The L-HCl amount permeated from liposomal-pretreated skin was 5.4-fold (p < 0.05) higher than the control within 24 h. In addition to the diffusion experiments, pressure area isotherms were recorded on a Langmuir-Blodgett trough using the model skin lipid ceramide-2. They showed a slight increase in the area occupied per lipid molecule of 1.04 nm(2) at constant surface pressure. This result indicates an interaction between the model lipid and phloretin. The results suggest the potential use of phloretin as penetration enhancer in the delivery of L-HCl through skin.