Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estradiol Modulates bcl-2 in Cerebral Ischemia: A Potential Role for Estrogen Receptors

We have shown that physiological levels of estradiol exert profound protective effects on the cerebral cortex in ischemia induced by permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion. The major goal of this study was to begin to elucidate potential mechanisms of estradiol action in injury. Bcl-2 is a proto-oncogene that promotes cell survival in a variety of tissues including the brain. Because estradiol is known to promote cell survival via Bcl-2 in non-neural tissues, we tested the hypothesis that estradiol decreases cell death by influencingbcl-2 expression in ischemic brain injury. Furthermore, because estradiol may protect the brain through estrogen receptor-mediated mechanisms, we examined expression of both receptor subtypes ERα and ERβ in the normal and injured brain. We analyzed gene expression by RT-PCR in microdissected regions of the cerebral cortex obtained from injured and sham female rats treated with estradiol or oil. We found that estradiol prevented the injury-induced downregulation of bcl-2expression. This effect was specific to bcl-2, as expression of other members of the bcl-2 family (bax, bcl-xL, bcl-xS, and bad) was unaffected by estradiol treatment. We also found that estrogen receptors were differentially modulated in injury, withERβ expression paralleling bcl-2expression. Finally, we provide the first evidence of functional ERβ protein that is capable of binding ligand within the region of the cortex where estradiol-mediated neuroprotection was observed in cerebral ischemia. These findings indicate that estradiol modulates the expression of bcl-2 in ischemic injury. Furthermore, our data suggest that estrogen receptors may be involved in hormone-mediated neuroprotection.
Senescence-like Phenotype Changes in the Expression of p 21-regulated Genes , and a , WAF 1 / CIP 1 / SDI 1 Arrest Associated with Induction of p 21 1 Polyamine Depletion in Human Melanoma Cells Leads to G Updated

The cell cycle regulatory events that interface with polyamine requirements for cell growth have not yet been clearly identified. Here we use specific inhibitors of polyamine biosynthetic enzymes to investigate the effect of polyamine pool depletion on cell cycle regulation. Treatment of MALME-3M cells with either the ornithine decarboxylase inhibitor difluoromethylornithine or the S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase inhibitor MDL-73811 lowered specific polyamine pools and slowed cell growth but did not induce cell cycle arrest. By contrast, treatment with the combination of inhibitors halted cell growth and caused a distinct G1 arrest. The latter was associated with marked reduction of all three polyamine pools, a strong increase in p21 (p21), and hypophosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein. All effects were fully prevented by exogenous polyamines. p21 induction preceded p53 stabilization in MALME-3M cells and also occurred in a polyamine-depleted, p53nonfunctional melanoma cell line, indicating that p21 is induced at least in part through p53-independent mechanisms. Conditional overexpression of p21 in a fibrosarcoma cell line was shown previously to inhibit the expression of multiple proliferation-associated genes and to induce the expression of genes associated with various aspects of cell senescence and organism aging. Polyamine depletion in MALME-3M cells was associated with inhibition of seven of seven tested p21-inhibited genes and with induction of 13 of 14 tested p21-induced genes. p21 expression is also known to induce a senescence-like phenotype, and phenotypic features of senescence were observed in polyamine-depleted MALME-3M cells. Cells increased in size, appeared more granular, and expressed senescenceassociated -galactosidase. Cells released from the polyamine inhibition lost the ability to form colonies, failed to replicate their DNA, and 25% became bior multinucleated. These events parallel the outcome of prolonged p21 induction in fibrosarcoma cells. The results of this study indicate that polyamine pool depletion achieved by specific biosynthetic enzyme inhibitors causes p21-mediated G1 cell cycle arrest followed by p21-mediated changes in gene expression, development of a senescencelike phenotype, and loss of cellular proliferative capacity.
DIETS OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN BOVIDAE: STABLE ISOTOPE EVIDENCE

Abstract Although bovids have been studied for decades, debate still exists about their diets. To address this problem, we examined bovid dietary ecology through analysis of stable carbon isotopes. We analyzed tooth enamel, bone collagen, and hair from 312 individual bovids, representing 27 species from southern Africa. Although dietary information from the literature is usually supported by this technique, our results and the literature are sometimes highly divergent. For instance, our results indicate that Taurotragus oryx and Raphicerus campestris eat less grass than is widely believed. Furthermore, contrary to most theoretical expectations, our data indicate no relationship between body size and percentage of monocots consumed by southern African Bovidae. Although many researchers have abandoned the idea that bovid soft-tissue anatomy is strongly indicative of diet, we demonstrate a strong relationship between the percentage of grass in a bovid’s diet and several hard-tissue craniodental indices.
Induction of microRNA-155 during Helicobacter pylori infection and its negative regulatory role in the inflammatory response.

BACKGROUND MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression at posttranscriptional level. H. pylori is a major human pathogenic bacterium in gastric mucosa. To date, the role of miRNAs in response to H. pylori infection has not been explored. METHODS The expression profile of cellular miRNAs during H. pylori infection was analyzed by using microarray and quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. The potential target of miR-155 was identified by luciferase assay and Western blot. Promoter analysis and inhibitor experiment were used to investigate the pathway involved in the induction of miR-155. Examination of miR-155 function was performed by overexpression and inhibition of miR-155. RESULTS H. pylori was able to increase the miR-155 expression in gastric epithelial cell lines and gastric mucosal tissues, and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) and activator protein-1 (AP-1) pathway were required for the induction of miR-155. miR-155 may down-regulate IkappaB kinase epsilon, Sma- and Mad-related protein 2 (SMAD2), and Fas-associated death domain protein. Furthermore, the overexpression of miR-155 negatively regulated the release of interleukin-8 and growth-related oncogene-alpha. CONCLUSIONS This study provides the first description of increased expression of miR-155 in H. pylori infection, and miR-155 may function as novel negative regulator that help to fine-tune the inflammation response of H. pylori infection.
The soluble interleukin 6 receptor: mechanisms of production and implications in disease

Interleukin 6 (IL‐6) performs a prominent role during disease and has been described as both a pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory cytokine. A key feature in the regulation of IL‐6 responses has been the identification of a soluble interleukin 6 receptor (sIL‐6R), which forms a ligand‐receptor complex with IL‐6 that is capable of stimulating a variety of cellular responses including proliferation, differentiation and activation of inflammatory processes. Elevated sIL‐6R levels have been documented in numerous clinical conditions indicating that its production is coordinated as part of a disease response. Thus, sIL‐6R has the potential to regulate both local and systemic IL‐6‐mediated events. This review will outline the central role of sIL‐6R in the coordination of IL‐6 responses. Details relating to the mechanisms of sIL‐6R production will be provided, while the potential significance of sIL‐6R during the development of clinical conditions will be emphasized. We want to convey, therefore, that when thinking about the inflammatory capability of IL‐6, it is essential to consider not only the action of IL‐6 itself, but also the effect sIL‐6R may have on cellular processes. —Jones, S. A. , Horiuchi, S. , Topley, M. Yamamoto, N. , Fuller, G. M. The soluble interleukin 6 receptor: mechanisms of production and implications in disease. FASEB J. 15, 43–58 (2001)
Haptic display of interaction between textured models

Surface texture is among the most salient haptic characteristics of objects; it can induce vibratory contact forces that lead to perception of roughness. We present a new algorithm to display haptic texture information resulting from the interaction between two textured objects. We compute contact forces and torques using low-resolution geometric representations along with texture images that encode surface details. We also introduce a novel force model based on directional penetration depth and describe an efficient implementation on programmable graphics hardware that enables interactive haptic texture rendering of complex models. Our force model takes into account important factors identified by psychophysics studies and is able to haptically display interaction due to fine surface textures that previous algorithms do not capture.
The EMISQ Method - Expert Based Evaluation of Internal Software Quality

Internal software quality, e.g. the quality of code, has great impact on the overall quality of software. Besides well known manual inspection and review techniques more recent approaches utilize tool-based static code for the evaluation of internal software quality. Despite the high potential of static code analyzers the application of tools alone cannot replace well founded expert opinion. Knowledge, experience and fair judgement is indispensable for a valid, reliable quality assessment, which is accepted by software developers and managers. The EMISQ method (evaluation method for internal software quality), guides the assessment process for all stakeholders of an evaluation project. The method is supported by a tool that assists evaluators with their analysis and rating tasks and provides support for generating a code quality report. The application of the method in a pilot project has shown its applicability.
IMPROVING THE SECURITY PERFORMANCE IN COMPUTER GRIDS Architecture and Results

Security in computational Grids is mainly based on Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI) for authentication and Virtual Organization Membership Service for authorization. Although these mechanisms provide the required level of security, they lack in performance due to their dependence on public key cryptography. In our proposed security architecture we use a Kerberos-based approach (symmetric cryptography) to establish common secrets between grid services (exposed as web services) and clients. The architecture does not nullify GSI and VOMS, but allows a full mapping of GSI-VOMS to Kerberos credentials. The security architecture was designed to meet the specific quality of service (QoS) for nearly real-time control of distributed instruments that belong to different organizations by minimizing the impact of security processing. It is based on GSI and VOMS certificates for the initial login, translates them into Kerberos credentials for authentication and provides message level security implementing the OASIS Kerberos Token Profile. The security performance of our implementation, as shown in our measurements, outperforms the one when X509 Token Profile is used.
Analysis of the kefA2 mutation suggests that KefA is a cation‐specific channel involved in osmotic adaptation in Escherichia coli

Mechanosensitive channels play an essential role in the regulation of turgor pressure in bacteria. In Escherichia coli, there are multiple mechanosensitive channels that have been characterized genetically: MscL, YggB and KefA. In this report, we describe the cloning of the kefA gene, the organization of the KefA protein and the phenotype of a missense mutation, kefA, which affects the KefA mechanosensitive channel. The altered function of the channel is manifest through increased sensitivity to K+ during growth at low osmolarity and complete inhibition of growth in media containing high K+ concentrations (0.6 M) in the presence of betaine or proline. Growth in high Na+ medium (0.6 M NaCl plus 20 mM K+) is normal. Analysis of the cytoplasmic pools shows that the mutant cannot regulate the K+ content of the cytoplasm when grown in high K+ medium. However, regulation of pools of amino acids is essentially normal and the mutant can accumulate high pools of proline during growth inhibition. The mutant shows increased sensitivity to acid hypo‐osmotic shock (transition from neutral to acid pH combined with a reduction in osmolarity). The data are consistent with abnormal regulation of KefA in the presence of high K+ concentrations and either betaine or proline.
The Relation between Self-Report Mindfulness and Performance on Tasks of Attention

The present study examined the relation between self-report mindfulness and performance on tasks measuring abilities for three aspects of attention: sustained, selective, and attention switching. Because attention regulation has been described as a core component of mindfulness, and past research suggests that experience with mindfulness meditation is associated with improved attentional skills, the present study predicted that higher self-report mindfulness would be positively related to performance on tasks of attention. Fifty undergraduate students completed self-report mindfulness questionnaires and completed a battery of attention tasks. There was mixed support for the relation between mindfulness scores and sustained attention, such that higher mindfulness scores as measured by the MAAS and CAMS-R were negatively related to target omissions on the CPT-II, but were not related to RT variability on the CPT-II or PASAT performance. Findings are discussed in the context of the measurement of self-report mindfulness, and directions for future research are considered. IDEX WORDS: Mindfulness, Selfreport, Measurement, Sustained attention, Selective attention, Attention switching THE RELATION BETWEEN SELF-REPORT MINDFULNESS AND PERFORMANCE ON TASKS OF ATTENTION
Noise Analysis for Dimension Expanding Mappings in Source-Channel Coding

In this paper we analyze dimension expanding joint source-channel coding (JSCC) systems. First 1:N dimension expanding systems are analyzed (scalar sources and vector channels). Kotel'nikov's theory on 1:N bandwidth expanding modulation systems is used for this purpose. These ideas are generalized to M:N dimension expanding mappings (M < N), to be able to consider more general mappings and exploit dimensionality. An example 1:2 mapping based on Archimedes' spirals is given
Why a Global Convention to Protect and Promote Healthy Diets is timely

In view of the 10th anniversary of the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, which encouraged governments to develop and implement nutrition policies, Consumers International and the World Obesity Federation recently launched a set of recommendations towards a Global Convention to Protect and Promote Healthy Diets. In addition, a high-level Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity has been set up by the WHO to specify and reach consensus on the approaches likely to be the most effective for obesity prevention in different contexts around the world. These initiatives are very timely, as progress on developing and especially implementing policies to reduce obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), since the launch of the Global Strategy in 2004, has been largely insufficient. As dietary risk factors have recently overtaken tobacco as the leading risk factor for disease, a similar powerful tool as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is needed to help reduce the global burden of obesity and diet-related NCDs.
KISS On My List: Improving Platform Security and User Privacy by Simplifying the Android Permissions Model

Android leads the smartphone OS market due to its availability on a large variety of devices, its customizability, and the wealth of apps available from the Play Store. Despite the sensitive nature of what we store on our mobile devices, most apps come from untrusted sources. For this reason, Android includes a rich permissions system to protect users’ privacy. Unfortunately the permissions system is diﬃcult for both users and developers to understand. This misunderstanding leads developers to request more permissions than necessary [1], and users to install applications without fully understanding the privileges being granted [3]. There has been a wealth of research performed with the goal of improving this security model, including AppFence [2]. These projects often focus on providing a way for end-users to hide private data from, or selectively revoke the permissions of, an app. While these solutions address the issue of Android’s all-or-nothing approach to security, they do not tackle the diﬃculties users face in understanding the privileges that these permissions grant. Indeed, these frameworks often increase the complexity for end-users as they must not only understand what each permission allows, but also the consequences of denying it. We propose to group protected APIs by context rather than scope. For example, items from ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE and ACCESS_WIFI_STATE could be grouped within the INTERNET permission. This would lead to a reduced number of permissions, and would allow the access granted by each to be more narrowly focused.
Zigbee network for remote patient monitoring on general hospital wards

Availability of Zigbee-based sensor network technology with low-power consuming sensors has made their implementation in healthcare possible, particularly for remote patient monitoring. Two alternative approaches for the deployment of Zigbee-based Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) for remote patient monitoring on general wards are discussed and their performances evaluated in a simulation environment. In the first approach, a single WPAN is considered for gathering and transmitting physiological data from the patients on a ward. In the second approach, which is proposed in this paper, multiple WPANs are considered instead. In this approach, a WPAN will be allocated to each patient on the ward. The simulation results show that the multiple WPANs approach out-performed the single one in respect of efficiency and reliability for data transmission for the entire ward.
Real-time manipulation of texture-mapped surfaces

A system for real-time texture mapping was constructed, Here, "real-time" means that the system reacts to changes in parameter values which define the shape of surfaces and the viewing point that are given by its operator 30 times per second. This real-time processing enables interactive manipulation of texture-mapped free-form surfaces and various application software has been developed taking advantage of this ability. The system owes its performance to a new algorithm for texture mapping which is based on a newly proposed approximation scheme of mapping functions. In this scheme, a mapping function from the texture plane into the output screen is approximated by a linear function on each of the small regions which form the texture plane altogether. The algorithm is very simple and applicable to any smooth surface. It is especially efficient when implemented by a special-purpose hardware.
Cloud-based recognition of complex activities for ambient assisted living in smart homes with non-invasive sensors

Automatic recognition of complex activities can aid in finding correlations between the daily habits of people and their health state, and can further lead to early detection of diseases or accidents. In this paper we propose a cloud-based system for recognition of complex activities by detecting series of atomic actions with non-invasive sensors. Collected data from non-invasive, non-intrusive and privacy preserving sensors is streamed into a cloud-based system, where automated feature extraction and activity recognition is performed. The prototype of the proposed system is evaluated with an experiment. Five activities performed by a person in a room were monitored by a sensor kit and streamed to the cloud, where the built classification models could recognize the activities with accuracy of 80% to 95%, depending on the length of segmentation windows which varied from 5 to 20 seconds, respectively.
The regulation of negative reactivity in infancy: function and development

This study examined the function and effectiveness of certain behaviors in regulating negative arousal in 5- and 10-month-old infants. Infants participated in an arm restraint procedure at 5 months (N=87) and a toy removal task at 10 months (N=82). Negative reactivity and regulatory behaviors ― avoidance, orienting, self-comforting, and communicative behaviors (10-month only) ― were coded and sectioned into 10-s epochs. Results showed that self-comforting behaviors were preferred at both 5 and 10 months of age. A comparison of changes in negative reactivity across every 2 consecutive 10-s epochs (decreasers vs. increasers vs. no change) revealed self-conforting behaviors to be exhibited most often during periods of decreasing negative arousal. Orienting behaviors also appeared to serve a regulatory function but in a more limited way. Finally, under these circumstances, avoidance and communicative behaviors were exhibited most often during increasing distress
Assessment of a national voucher scheme to deliver insecticide-treated mosquito nets to pregnant women

Background: The benefits of a health-related intervention may be compromised by the challenges of delivering the intervention on a large scale. We analyzed the process involved in the Tanzania National Voucher Scheme, a system for delivering insecticide-treated mosquito nets to pregnant women. We aimed to identify potential ways to equitably improve overall coverage of the intervention. Methods: We defined five steps in the process. We collected data from a multistage cluster survey of nationally representative households conducted in 2007 across 21 districts in Tanzania. Using these data, we multiplied the rate of success of each step cumulatively to estimate the overall success of the system. Results: The rate of coverage for use of insecticide-treated nets among pregnant women was 23% (95% confidence interval [CI] 19%–27%). We observed large differences in coverage by socio-economic status, from 7% (95% CI 4%–13%) among participants in the poorest households to 48% (95% CI 38%–59%) among those in the richest households. The rate of success of each step in the process was high (60%–98%). However, the cumulative rate of success for the process as a whole was low (30%). The largest and most inequitable reduction in coverage occurred in the step involving treatment of nets with insecticide. Interpretation: The cumulative effect of modest attrition at several steps in the process substantially diminished the overall rate of coverage for all women, but most markedly among the poorest participants. Analysis of the process suggests that delivery of nets treated with long-lasting insecticide rather than untreated nets packaged with an insecticide-treatment kit could result in an improvement in coverage of 22 percentage points, from 30% to 52%.