Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CXCR2 chemokine receptor antagonism enhances DOP opioid receptor function via allosteric regulation of the CXCR2–DOP receptor heterodimer

Opioid agonists have a broad range of effects on cells of the immune system, including modulation of the inflammatory response, and opioid and chemokine receptors are co-expressed by many white cells. Hetero-oligomerization of the human DOP opioid and chemokine CXCR2 receptors could be detected following their co-expression by each of co-immunoprecipitation, three different resonance energy transfer techniques and the construction of pairs of individually inactive but potentially complementary receptor G-protein α subunit fusion proteins. Although DOP receptor agonists and a CXCR2 antagonist had no inherent affinity for the alternative receptor when either receptor was expressed individually, use of cells that expressed a DOP opioid receptor construct constitutively, and in which expression of a CXCR2 receptor construct could be regulated, demonstrated that the CXCR2 antagonist enhanced the function of DOP receptor agonists only in the presence of CXCR2. This effect was observed for both enkephalin- and alkaloid-based opioid agonists, and the effective concentrations of the CXCR2 antagonist reflected CXCR2 receptor occupancy. Entirely equivalent results were obtained in cells in which the native DOP opioid receptor was expressed constitutively and in which expression of the isolated CXCR2 receptor could be induced. These results indicate that a CXCR2 receptor antagonist can enhance the function of agonists at a receptor for which it has no inherent direct affinity by acting as an allosteric regulator of a receptor that is a heterodimer partner for the CXCR2 receptor. These results have novel and important implications for the development and use of small-molecule therapeutics.
Visual control of a robotic hand

The paper deals with the design and implementation of a visual control of a robotic system composed of a dexterous hand and stereo cameras. The aim of the proposed system is to reproduce the movements of a human hand in order to learn complex manipulation tasks. A novelty algorithm for a robust and fast fingertips localization and tracking is presented. Moreover, a simulator is integrated in the system to give useful feedbacks to the users during operations, and provide robust testing framework for real experiments.
Nonparametric estimation of large covariance matrices of longitudinal data

Estimation of an unstructured covariance matrix is difficult because of its positive-definiteness constraint. This obstacle is removed by regressing each variable on its predecessors, so that estimation of a covariance matrix is shown to be equivalent to that of estimating a sequence of varying-coefficient and varying-order regression models. Our framework is similar to the use of increasing-order autoregressive models in approximating the covariance matrix or the spectrum of a stationary time series. As an illustration, we adopt Fan & Zhang's (2000) two-step estimation of functional linear models and propose nonparametric estimators of covariance matrices which are guaranteed to be positive definite. For parsimony a suitable order for the sequence of (auto)regression models is found using penalised likelihood criteria like AIC and BIC. Some asymptotic results for the local polynomial estimators of components of a covariance matrix are established. Two longitudinal datasets are analysed to illustrate the methodology. A simulation study reveals the advantage of the nonparametric covariance estimator over the sample covariance matrix for large covariance matrices. Copyright Biometrika Trust 2003, Oxford University Press.
Historic low‐level phosphorus enrichment in the Great Lakes inferred from biogenic silica accumulation in sediments

Sedimentary biogenic silica (BSi) accumulation was used in conjunction with a hypothetical model of BSi accumulation to show that BSi is a sensitive proxy for low‐level phosphorus enrichment in the Great Lakes. We hypothesize that historic nutrient‐driven changes in diatom production altered silica biogeochemistry and induced biologically mediated silica depletion (BMSD) and that a record of the underlying mechanism, enhanced diatom production and BSi sedimentation stimulated by anthropogenic phosphorus enrichment, is preserved in the sediment record. Paleolimnological results support three hypotheses based on this model. First, BSi accumulation increased in Lake Superior and Lake Huron at total phosphorus (TP) concentrations (4 and 5 µg TP L−1 or 0.13 and 0.16 µmol L−1, respectively) too small to induce BMSD and with changes in TP concentration too small to be detected by routine water‐column sampling. Second, a peak in BSi accumulation in Lake Michigan resulted from epilimnetic silica depletion that developed rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s when TP averaged 8 mg L−1 (0.26 µmol L−1). In addition, epilimnetic silica depletion in the late 1800s was inferred from BSi accumulation in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario when the TP concentration was <10 µg L−1 (0.32 µmol L−1). Third, a secondary peak in BSi accumulation in the 1950s and 1960s signaled water‐column silica depletion in Lake Ontario and the eastern basin of Lake Erie that developed as TP concentration increased to 27 µg L−1 (0.87 µmol L−1). Ratios of NAIP :TP, BSi :TP, and BSi : NAIP also provide sensitive proxies for phosphorus enrichment. BSi accumulation is a sensitive proxy for phosphorus enrichment because BSi production by diatoms integrates silica utilization over an annual cycle, silica is recycled slowly (on annual time scales) compared with phosphorus, and sedimented BSi is focused into depositional zones.
Cooperation in Social Dilemmas: Social Norms and Cognitive Processes

The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of social norms and cognitive processes in cooperative decisions in a non-probabilistic self-selected sample of Psychology freshmen attending the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba (Argentina). Two studies were conducted (Study 1: n = 124; Study 2: n = 104). In both of them a factorial design implemented in 2 phases was used: (a) cooperative environment and non-cooperative environment, using the Prisoner's Dilemma Game (PDG) and (b) time response conditions (Study 1) or cognitive load conditions (Study 2). In this stage participants played the Public Goods Game. The level of cooperation in the second stage was the main dependent variable. Student' t test, logistic and linear regression analyses, and univariate and multivariate analyses of variance were carried out. The manipulation for generating several social norm environments was not effective. Multiple effects on cooperation were observed depending on which indicators of cognitive processing were considered. The main finding of this study is an interaction effect between the social norm environment and the cognitive load condition in the first PDG round (Study 2).
Implementing Trauma-Informed Care in Primary Medical Settings: Evidence-Based Rationale and Approaches

ABSTRACT Chronic stress stemming from trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) leads to many health problems that are typically seen by primary care providers. Unfortunately, providers rarely identify trauma as the root cause of patient difficulties. The present paper provides an evidence-based rationale for implementing trauma-informed care principles and processes into medical primary care systems. Beginning with a review of prevalence of trauma exposure and PTSD in primary care clinics, this article elucidates relationships between trauma exposure and behavioral and medical health problems, as well as clinical and physiological pathways that lead from trauma exposure to illness. The article concludes with exposition of trauma-informed interventions that can be implemented in primary care clinics, and discussion of future directions.
HIV and TB in Eastern and Southern Africa: Evidence for behaviour change and the impact of ART

The United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has set a target to ensure that 15 million HIV-positive people in the world would be receiving combination anti-retroviral treatment (ART) by 2015. This target is likely to be reached and new targets for 2020 and 2030 are needed. Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) account for approximately half of all people living with HIV in the world and it will be especially important to set reachable and affordable targets for this region. In order to make future projections of HIV and TB prevalence, incidence and mortality assuming different levels of ART scale-up and coverage, it is first necessary to assess the current state of the epidemic. Here we review national data on the prevalence of HIV, the coverage of ART and the notification rates of TB to provide a firm basis for making future projections. We use the data to assess the extent to which behaviour change and ART have reduced the number of people living with HIV who remain infectious.
Towards a Highly Adaptable Filesystem Framework for Linux

Linux R © is growing richer in independent general purpose file systems with their own unique advantages, however, fragmentation and divergence can be confusing for users. Individual file systems are also adding an expanding number of options (e.g. ext3) and variations (e.g. reiser4 plugins) to satisfy new requirements. Both of these trends indicate a need for improved flexibility in file system design to benefit from the best of all worlds. We explore ways to address this need, using as our basis, KFS (K42 file system), a research file system designed for fine-grained flexibility. KFS aims to support a wide variety of file structures and policies, allowing the representation of a file or directory to change on the fly to adapt to characteristics not well known a priori, e.g. list-based to tree-based, or small to large directory layouts. It is not intended as yet another file system for Linux, but as a platform to study trade-offs associated with adaptability and evaluate new algorithms before incorporation on an established file system. We hope that ideas and lessons learnt from the experience with KFS will be beneficial for Linux file systems to evolve to be more adaptable and for the VFS to enable better building-block-based code sharing across file systems.
Triosephosphate Isomerase Is Dispensable In Vitro yet Essential for Mycobacterium tuberculosis To Establish Infection

ABSTRACT Triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) catalyzes the interconversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P). This reaction is required for glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, and tpi has been predicted to be essential for growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, when studying a conditionally regulated tpi knockdown mutant, we noticed that depletion of TPI reduced growth of M. tuberculosis in media containing a single carbon source but not in media that contained both a glycolytic and a gluconeogenic carbon source. We used such two-carbon-source media to isolate a tpi deletion (Δtpi) mutant. The Δtpi mutant did not survive with single carbon substrates but grew like wild-type (WT) M. tuberculosis in the presence of both a glycolytic and a gluconeogenic carbon source. 13C metabolite tracing revealed the accumulation of TPI substrates in Δtpi and the absence of alternative triosephosphate isomerases and metabolic bypass reactions, which confirmed the requirement of TPI for glycolysis and gluconeogenesis in M. tuberculosis. The Δtpi strain was furthermore severely attenuated in the mouse model of tuberculosis, suggesting that M. tuberculosis cannot simultaneously access sufficient quantities of glycolytic and gluconeogenic carbon substrates to establish infection in mice. IMPORTANCE The importance of central carbon metabolism for the pathogenesis of M. tuberculosis has recently been recognized, but the consequences of depleting specific metabolic enzymes remain to be identified for many enzymes. We investigated triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) because it is central to both glycolysis and gluconeogenesis and had been predicted to be essential for growth of M. tuberculosis. This work identified metabolic conditions that make TPI dispensable for M. tuberculosis growth in culture and proved that M. tuberculosis relies on a single TPI enzyme and has no metabolic bypass for the TPI-dependent interconversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate in glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. Finally, we demonstrate that TPI is essential for growth of the pathogen in mouse lungs. The importance of central carbon metabolism for the pathogenesis of M. tuberculosis has recently been recognized, but the consequences of depleting specific metabolic enzymes remain to be identified for many enzymes. We investigated triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) because it is central to both glycolysis and gluconeogenesis and had been predicted to be essential for growth of M. tuberculosis. This work identified metabolic conditions that make TPI dispensable for M. tuberculosis growth in culture and proved that M. tuberculosis relies on a single TPI enzyme and has no metabolic bypass for the TPI-dependent interconversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate in glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. Finally, we demonstrate that TPI is essential for growth of the pathogen in mouse lungs.
Using Survival Analysis to Predict Sample Retention Rates

1. Introduction and Motivation The International Price Program (IPP) publishes monthly price indexes which measure the average change over time in prices of internationally traded products and services. IPP's sampling methodology supports its published merchandise price indexes by attempting to maintain a minimum number of items over the two year life cycle 1 of each published stratum. Retention rates-which measure the proportion of sampled items in a stratum which are still active (non-discontinued) after a certain amount of time past the sample fielding date-are used to set the minimum stratum item allocation.
A stream cipher design based on embedding of random bits

A novel approach for design of stream ciphers based on a combination of pseudo-randomness and randomness is proposed. The core element of the approach is a pseudo-random embedding of the random bits into the ciphertext. This embedding plays a role of a homophonic encoding and implies an additional communications overhead. Before its output to the public communication channel the ciphertext with the embedded random bits is also intentionally degraded via its exposure to a moderate noise binary symmetric channel. The proposed design has potential of providing that complexity of recovering the secret key in the known plaintext attacking scenario is close to the complexity of recovering the secret key via the exhaustive search, i.e. close to the maximal possible one for the given size of secret key. Accordingly, the proposed approach can be considered as a trade-off between the increased security and decreased communications efficiency.
Method for auto-alignment of digital optical phase conjugation systems based on digital propagation.

Optical phase conjugation (OPC) has enabled many optical applications such as aberration correction and image transmission through fiber. In recent years, implementation of digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) has opened up the possibility of its use in biomedical optics (e.g. deep-tissue optical focusing) due to its ability to provide greater-than-unity OPC reflectivity (the power ratio of the phase conjugated beam and input beam to the OPC system) and its flexibility to accommodate additional wavefront manipulations. However, the requirement for precise (pixel-to-pixel matching) alignment of the wavefront sensor and the spatial light modulator (SLM) limits the practical usability of DOPC systems. Here, we report a method for auto-alignment of a DOPC system by which the misalignment between the sensor and the SLM is auto-corrected through digital light propagation. With this method, we were able to accomplish OPC playback with a DOPC system with gross sensor-SLM misalignment by an axial displacement of up to~1.5 cm, rotation and tip/tilt of ~5° and in-plane displacement of ~5 mm (dependent on the physical size of the sensor and the SLM). Our auto-alignment method robustly achieved a DOPC playback peak-to-background ratio (PBR) corresponding to more than ~30 % of the theoretical maximum. As an additional advantage, the auto-alignment procedure can be easily performed at will and, as such, allows us to correct for small mechanical drifts within the DOPC systems, thus overcoming a previously major DOPC system vulnerability. We believe that this reported method for implementing robust DOPC systems will broaden the practical utility of DOPC systems.
Greatest Descents after any Maxima in Compositions

In this paper, compositions of $n$ are studied. These are sequences of positive integers $(\sigma_i)_{i=1}^k$ whose sum is $n$. We define a maximum to be a part which is greater than or equal to all other parts. We investigate the size of the descents immediately following any maximum and we focus particularly on the largest and average of these, obtaining the generating functions in each case. Using Mellin transforms, we obtain asymptotic expressions for these quantities.
Polymorphism of human telomeric quadruplex structure controlled by DNA concentration: a Raman study

DNA concentration has been recently suggested to be the reason why different arrangements are revealed for K+-stabilized human telomere quadruplexes by experimental methods requiring DNA concentrations differing by orders of magnitude. As Raman spectroscopy can be applied to DNA samples ranging from those accessible by absorption and CD spectroscopies up to extremely concentrated solutions, gels and even crystals; it has been used here to clarify polymorphism of a core human telomeric sequence G3(TTAG3)3 in the presence of K+ and Na+ ions throughout wide range of DNA concentrations. We demonstrate that the K+-structure of G3(TTAG3)3 at low DNA concentration is close to the antiparallel fold of Na+-stabilized quadruplex. On the increase of G3(TTAG3)3 concentration, a gradual transition from antiparallel to intramolecular parallel arrangement was observed, but only for thermodynamically equilibrated K+-stabilized samples. The transition is synergically supported by increased K+ concentration. However, even for extremely high G3(TTAG3)3 and K+ concentrations, an intramolecular antiparallel quadruplex is spontaneously formed from desalted non-quadruplex single-strand after addition of K+ ions. Thermal destabilization or long dwell time are necessary to induce interquadruplex transition. On the contrary, Na+-stabilized G3(TTAG3)3 retains its antiparallel folding regardless of the extremely high DNA and/or Na+ concentrations, thermal destabilization or annealing.
Reliability of Handgrip Strength Test in Basketball Players

Reliability of Handgrip Strength Test in Basketball Players Handgrip strength is important in basketball as various movements rely on the continuous use of wrist and digits flexor muscles when catching, holding, shooting and throwing the ball. Therefore, the assessment of handgrip strength is used in prepubertal, adolescent and adult basketball players. The reliability of handgrip strength may be influenced by several factors including age. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of handgrip strength in basketball players from childhood to adulthood. Male basketball players (n = 90) were assigned into three groups: prepubertal (9.8 ± 0.7yrs), adolescents (14.4 ± 0.6yrs), and adults (26.1 ± 5.6yrs). Each participant performed three maximal isometric contractions on each hand in two occasions, one day apart. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM) and 95% limits of agreement (LOA) were calculated. The test-retest reliability was high for both preferred (ICC = 0.94 - 0.98) and non-preferred (ICC = 0.96 - 0.98) hands, without differences in reliability among age-groups. The results showed a significant age-related increase (p < 0.05) in absolute and relative handgrip strength irrespective of hand preference. The present results indicate that maximum handgrip strength can be measured reliably, using the Jamar hand dynamometer, in basketball players from childhood to adulthood.
IL-1 and T Helper Immune Responses

CD4 T cells play a critical role in mediating adaptive immunity to a variety of pathogens as well as in tumor immunity. If not adequately regulated, CD4 T cells can be also involved in autoimmunity, asthma, and allergic responses. During TCR activation in a particular cytokine milieu, naïve CD4 T cells may differentiate into one of several lineages of T helper (Th) cells, including Th1, Th2, and Th17, as defined by their pattern of cytokine production and function. IL-1, the prototypic proinflammatory cytokine, has been shown to influence growth and differentiation of immunocompetent lymphocytes. The differential expression of IL-1RI on human CD4 T cell subsets confers distinct capacities to acquire specific effector functions. In this review, we summarize the role of IL-1 on CD4 T cells, in terms of differentiation, activation, and maintenance or survival.
El conocimiento organizativo tecnológico y la capacidad de innovación: evidencia para la empresa industrial española

: This research has two objectives: to identify and measure tacit and explicit technological knowledge assets and analyze their influence on the firm’s innovation capability. To that end, a study of 1.267 Spanish industrial firms was performed between 1998 and 2002, based on information provided by the Survey of Business Strategies. The result shows that tacit technological knowledge resources and potential capabilities have a significant influence on the firm’s innovation capability. This paper also shows that firm’s innovation capability is not limited to internal knowledge, but is also a result of the flows of external knowledge.
GROWTH OF A MODERN UN ION LOCAL: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF SEIU LOCAL 880

This article examines the growth of one of the fastest-growing union locals in North America, the Services Employees International Union Local 880 in Chicago. As union membership has declined nationally, Local 880 has achieved exponential growth over the last twenty five years by being among the first to organize extremely low wage home based child care and home care workers. The article highlights the tenets of the local’s organizing philosophy, including community organizing and political activism, as well as other strategies and tactics 880 has utilized in growing its membership to more than 65,000 members. Along the way, it has secured notable victories on behalf of its members, including winning the largest organizing campaign of home childcare workers in U.S. history.
Identifying Linkage by Nonlinearity Check Identifying Linkage by Nonlinearity Check

This paper presents a simple procedure that identiies linkage. The Linkage Iden-tiication by Nonlinearity Check (LINC) algorithm we propose checks arbitrary non-linearity of tness function for perturbations in a pair of loci to detect their linkage. To avoid overspeciied linkage caused by GA-easy nonlinearity, the algorithm also detects monotonicity for perturbations in each pair of previously obtained linkage to be removed. The algorithm eeectively identiies linkage by checking O(2 k) strings and the computational cost for each string is O(l 2) where l is the string length.