Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Progression of visceral leishmaniasis due to Leishmania infantum in BALB/c mice is markedly slowed by prior infection with Trichinella spiralis

We investigated in BALB/c mice the influence of the immunological environment created by the nematode Trichinella spiralis on the course of visceral leishmaniasis due to Leishmania infantum. On the day of Leishmania inoculation (day 0), mice, T. spiralis infected 7 days earlier, presented increased gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), interleukin-4 (IL-4), and IL-5 mRNA levels locally and systemically and increased the potential of spleen cells to synthesize IFN-gamma and IL-4 after activation in vitro. Eighteen days after Leishmania inoculation (day 18), corresponding to the acute phase of leishmaniasis, the hepatic amastigote burden in mice coinfected with L. infantum and T. spiralis (LT mice) was significantly lower (P < 0.001) than that in mice infected with L. infantum only (L mice). IFN-gamma and IL-4 mRNAs were overexpressed in livers of LT and L mice. On day 70, corresponding to the chronic phase, the splenic amastigote load was significantly lower (P = 0.004) in LT mice than it was in L mice. Splenic IFN-gamma transcripts were overexpressed in both L and LT mice. After Leishmania-specific in vitro stimulation, cytokine production was enhanced in both groups, but spleen cells from L mice produced significantly more IFN-gamma than did spleen cells from LT mice. Our data (i) generalize previous results indicating the lack of a clear-cut correlation between the outcome of murine visceral leishmaniasis and the type of cytokine pattern and (ii) demonstrate that in LT mice, leishmaniasis takes a markedly milder course than it does in L mice, providing information on the potential consequences of coinfection in a mammalian host.
ModulAR: Eye-Controlled Vision Augmentations for Head Mounted Displays

In the last few years, the advancement of head mounted display technology and optics has opened up many new possibilities for the field of Augmented Reality. However, many commercial and prototype systems often have a single display modality, fixed field of view, or inflexible form factor. In this paper, we introduce Modular Augmented Reality (ModulAR), a hardware and software framework designed to improve flexibility and hands-free control of video see-through augmented reality displays and augmentative functionality. To accomplish this goal, we introduce the use of integrated eye tracking for on-demand control of vision augmentations such as optical zoom or field of view expansion. Physical modification of the device's configuration can be accomplished on the fly using interchangeable camera-lens modules that provide different types of vision enhancements. We implement and test functionality for several primary configurations using telescopic and fisheye camera-lens systems, though many other customizations are possible. We also implement a number of eye-based interactions in order to engage and control the vision augmentations in real time, and explore different methods for merging streams of augmented vision into the user's normal field of view. In a series of experiments, we conduct an in depth analysis of visual acuity and head and eye movement during search and recognition tasks. Results show that methods with larger field of view that utilize binary on/off and gradual zoom mechanisms outperform snapshot and sub-windowed methods and that type of eye engagement has little effect on performance.
Self-Learning Peer-to-Peer Traffic Classifier

The popularity of a new generation of smart peer-to-peer applications has resulted in several new challenges for accurately classifying network traffic. In this paper, we propose a novel 2stage p2p traffic classifier, called Self Learning Traffic Classifier (SLTC), that can accurately identify p2p traffic in high speed networks. The first stage classifies p2p traffic from the rest of the network traffic, and the second stage automatically extracts application payload signatures to accurately identify the p2p application that generated the p2p flow. For the first stage, we propose a fast, light-weight algorithm called Time Correlation Metric (TCM), that exploits the temporal correlation of flows to clearly separate peer-to-peer (p2p) traffic from the rest of the traffic. Using real network traces from tier-1 ISPs that are located in different continents, we show that the detection rate of TCM is consistently above 95% while always keeping the false positives at 0%. For the second stage, we use the LASER signature extraction algorithm [17] to accurately identify signatures of several known and unknown p2p protocols with very small false positive rate (< 1%). Using our prototype on tier-1 ISP traces, we demonstrate that SLTC automatically learns signatures for more than 95% of both known and unknown traffic within 3 minutes.
Variation in Perceived College Drinking Norms and its Impact on Alcohol Abuse: A Nationwide Study

College students' perceptions of campus norms about alcohol use and the impact of these perceptions on personal alcohol abuse are examined with data (N = 17,592) from a nationwide survey of students at 140 colleges and universities. The student's particular collegiate environment accounted for only a small portion of the overall variation in perceptions of campus drinking norms. Within each campus context perceptions varied widely. More permissive perceptions of the norm were significantly associated with greater personal alcohol abuse even after controlling for personal attitudes, thus suggesting that perceiving a permissive environment encourages students to drink more heavily than they would otherwise based on their personal attitudes. The detrimental impact of perceiving more permissive drinking norms is greatest for students whose own attitudes about drinking are already permissive.
Testing Social Theories in Marketing Settings

The purpose of this article is to review selected researches in marketing settings in order to assess their contribution to testing social theories. Our theme is that marketing, as a type of research that has been more highly applied than most other social science investigation, has been able to make several unique contributions to theoretic understanding of human behavior change. as well as to lead several methodologica\ advances. However, the emphasis on application in marketing is also associated with certain intellectual disadvantages. The particular (but not sole) focus of the present article is on cornmunication and behavior change, with special attention to studies on the diffusion of innovations. A voluminous literature on this topic has accumulated; 2,750 publications are included in a recent bibliography on the topic (Rogers et al., 1977~). In an earlier era, marketing scholars mainly borrowed the diffusion framework and applied it to the problems of marketing new products (an illustration is Zaltman, 1964). ’ Since about the mid-l960s, however, marketing researchers have pioneered in several unique directions in contributing to both the theory and method of diffusion studies.2 Studies by some marketing research scholars help show US the potential role of communication in changing behavior, including attention to what communication cannot do. One illustration of this Point comes from research using a marketing viewpoint on the use of automobile seat belts.
TGF-Beta Blockade Increases Renal Inflammation Caused by the C-Terminal Module of the CCN2

The CCN family member 2 (CCN2, also known as connective tissue growth factor) may behave as a risk biomarker and a potential therapeutic target for renal disease. CCN2 participates in the regulation of inflammation and fibrosis. TGF-β is considered the main fibrogenic cytokine; however, in some pathological settings TGF-β also has anti-inflammatory properties. CCN2 has been proposed as a downstream profibrotic mediator of TGF-β, but data on TGF-β role in CCN2 actions are scarce. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of TGF-β blockade in CCN2-mediated experimental renal damage. Systemic administration of the C-terminal module of CCN2 to mice caused sustained renal inflammation. In these mice, TGF-β blockade, using an anti-TGF-β neutralizing antibody, significantly increased renal expression of the NGAL (a kidney injury biomarker), kidney infiltration by monocytes/macrophages, and upregulation of MCP-1 expression. The anti-inflammatory effect of TGF-β seems to be mediated by a dysregulation of the systemic Treg immune response, shown by decreased levels of circulating CD4+/Foxp3+Treg cells. Our experimental data support the idea that TGF-β exerts anti-inflammatory actions in the kidney and suggest that it is not an optimal therapeutic target.
Diminished climbing fiber innervation of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum of myosin Va mutant mice and rats

Myosin Va is an actin‐based molecular motor that is involved in organelle transport and membrane trafficking. Here, we explored the role of myosin Va in the formation of synaptic circuitry by examining climbing fiber (CF) innervation of Purkinje cells (PCs) in the cerebella of dilute‐neurological (d‐n) mice and dilute‐opisthotonus (dop) rats that have mutations in dilute‐encoded myosin Va. Anterograde labeling of CFs with biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) revealed that they arborized poorly and that their tips extended only half way through the thickness of the molecular layer (ML) in adult d‐n mice. Using immunohistochemistry specific for vesicular glutamate transporter 2 (VGluT2) to visualize CF synaptic terminals, we found that during development and in adulthood, these terminals did not ascend as far along the proximal shaft dendrites of PCs in d‐n mice and dop rats as they did in normal animals. An irregular distribution of BDA‐labeled bulbous varicosities and VGluT2 spots along CF branches were also noted in these animals. Finally, VGluT2‐positive CF terminals were occasionally localized on the PC somata of adult d‐n cerebella. These phenotypes are consistent with our electrophysiological findings that CF‐mediated excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) were significantly smaller in amplitude and faster in decay in adult d‐n mice, and that the regression of multiple CFs was slightly delayed in developing d‐n mice. Taken together, our results suggest that myosin Va is essential for terminal CF extension and for the establishment of CF synapses within the proper dendritic territories of PCs. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2007.
Towards A Usable API for Constructing Interactive Multi-Surface Systems

Research into multi-surface systems goes back for more than thirty years, yet these systems have not been taken up in real-world settings. We believe the reason for the lack of adoption is that constructing multi-surface systems is costly and requires specialist knowledge of tasks related to device discovery, cross-platform interoperability, networking, and spatial tracking. These tasks represent a significant distraction from implementing features that actually matter to end users. While some APIs exist for supporting the setup of multi-surface systems, they are directed at specialist developers. We propose to develop a highly learnable API for constructing multi-surface systems, which is targeted at non-specialists.
Lights, Camera, Action: Knowledge Extraction from Movie Scripts

With the success of large knowledge graphs, research on automatically acquiring commonsense knowledge is revived. One kind of knowledge that has not received attention is that of human activities. This paper presents an information extraction pipeline for systematically distilling activity knowledge from a corpus of movie scripts. Our semantic frames capture activities together with their participating agents and their typical spatial, temporal and sequential contexts. The resulting knowledge base comprises about 250,000 activities with links to specific movie scenes where they occur.
Mapping of Apoptin-interaction with BCR-ABL1, and development of apoptin-based targeted therapy

Majority of CHRONIC myeloid leukemia patients experience an adequate therapeutic effect from imatinib however, 26–37% of patients discontinue imatinib therapy due to a suboptimal response or intolerance. Here we investigated derivatives of apoptin, a chicken anemia viral protein with selective toxicity towards cancer cells, which can be directed towards inhibiting multiple hyperactive kinases including BCR-ABL1. Our earlier studies revealed that a proline-rich segment of apoptin interacts with the SH3 domain of fusion protein BCR-ABL1 (p210) and acts as a negative regulator of BCR-ABL1 kinase and its downstream targets. In this study we show for the first time, the therapeutic potential of apoptin-derived decapeptide for the treatment of CML by establishing the minimal region of apoptin interaction domain with BCR-ABL1. We further show that the apoptin decapeptide is able to inhibit BCR-ABL1 down stream target c-Myc with a comparable efficacy to full-length apoptin and Imatinib. The synthetic apoptin is able to inhibit cell proliferation in murine (32Dp210), human cell line (K562), and ex vivo in both imatinib-resistant and imatinib sensitive CML patient samples. The apoptin based single or combination therapy may be an additional option in CML treatment and eventually be feasible as curative therapy.
Recent Advances in Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction, Manifold and Topological Learning

The ever-growing amount of data stored in digital databases raises the question of how to organize and extract useful knowledge. This paper outlines some current developments in the domains of dimensionality reduction, manifold learning, and topological learning. Several aspects are dealt with, ranging from novel algorithmic approaches to their real world applications. The issue of quality assessment is also considered and progress in quantitive as well as visual criteria is reported.
Detecting Early Indicator Cars in an Automotive Database: A Multi-Strategy Approach

No company so far achieved the ultimate goal of zero faults in manufacturing. Even high-quality products occasionally show problems that must be handled as warranty cases. In this paper, we report work done during the development of an early warning system for a large quality information database in the automotive industry. We present a multi-strategy approach to flexible prediction of upcoming quality problems. We used existing techniques and combined them in a novel way to solve a concrete application problem. The basic idea is to identify sub populations that, at an early point in time, behave like the whole population at a later time. Such sub populations act as early indicators for future developments. We present our method in the context of a concrete application and present experimental results. At the end of the paper, we outline how this method can be generalised and transferred to other KDD application problems.
Jasmonates: biosynthesis, metabolism, and signaling by proteins activating and repressing transcription

The lipid-derived phytohormone jasmonate (JA) regulates plant growth, development, secondary metabolism, defense against insect attack and pathogen infection, and tolerance to abiotic stresses such as wounding, UV light, salt, and drought. JA was first identified in 1962, and since the 1980s many studies have analyzed the physiological functions, biosynthesis, distribution, metabolism, perception, signaling, and crosstalk of JA, greatly expanding our knowledge of the hormone's action. In response to fluctuating environmental cues and transient endogenous signals, the occurrence of multilayered organization of biosynthesis and inactivation of JA, and activation and repression of the COI1-JAZ-based perception and signaling contributes to the fine-tuning of JA responses. This review describes the JA biosynthetic enzymes in terms of gene families, enzymatic activity, location and regulation, substrate specificity and products, the metabolic pathways in converting JA to activate or inactivate compounds, JA signaling in perception, and the co-existence of signaling activators and repressors.
CD147/EMMPRIN Acts as a Functional Entry Receptor for Measles Virus on Epithelial Cells

ABSTRACT Measles is a highly contagious human disease caused by measles virus (MeV) and remains the leading cause of death in children, particularly in developing countries. Wild-type MeV preferentially infects lymphocytes by using signaling lymphocytic activation molecule (SLAM), whose expression is restricted to hematopoietic cells, as a receptor. MeV also infects other epithelial and neuronal cells that do not express SLAM and causes pneumonia and diarrhea and, sometimes, serious symptoms such as measles encephalitis and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. The discrepancy between the tissue tropism of MeV and the distribution of SLAM-positive cells suggests that there are unknown receptors other than SLAM for MeV. Here we identified CD147/EMMPRIN (extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer), a transmembrane glycoprotein, which acts as a receptor for MeV on epithelial cells. Furthermore, we found the incorporation of cyclophilin B (CypB), a cellular ligand for CD147, in MeV virions, and showed that inhibition of CypB incorporation significantly attenuated SLAM-independent infection on epithelial cells, while it had no effect on SLAM-dependent infection. To date, MeV infection was considered to be triggered by binding of its hemagglutinin (H) protein and cellular receptors. Our present study, however, indicates that MeV infection also occurs via CD147 and virion-associated CypB, independently of MeV H. Since CD147 is expressed in a variety of cells, including epithelial and neuronal cells, this molecule possibly functions as an entry receptor for MeV in SLAM-negative cells. This is the first report among members of the Mononegavirales that CD147 is used as a virus entry receptor via incorporated CypB in the virions.
Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum's concept of catatonia

Catatonia is a neuropsychiatric syndrome described by Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum in 1874. Based on Kahlbaum's own description and Carl Wernicke's hypothesis about the mechanism of catatonia, we describe two types of catatonic domain: the akinetic motality psychosis, which is characterized by rigid immobility, fixed gaze, lack of blink, and cogwheel rigidity, and catatonia sensu strictu, which is characterized by spasms, iterations and verbigerations. The loss of motility allows the 'hypobulic levels' described by Kretschmer in 1920, which consist of aggressive acts, furious shouting, hyperactivity and orality, to break through. These behaviours are present in the hyperkinetic variant of catatonia and may result from a reduction of dopaminergic innervation and the release of limbic and neocortical mechanisms containing behavioural programmes.
microRNA-194 suppresses osteosarcoma cell proliferation and metastasis in vitro and in vivo by targeting CDH2 and IGF1R

Studies have shown that miR-194 functions as a tumor suppressor and is associated with tumor growth and metastasis. We studied the effects of miR-194 in osteosarcoma and the possible mechanism by which miR-194 affected the survival, apoptosis and metastasis of osteosarcoma. Both human osteosarcoma cell lines SOSP-9607 and U2-OS were transfected with recombinant lentiviruses to regulate miR-194 expression. Overexpression of miR-194 partially inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of osteosarcoma cells in vitro, as well as tumor growth and pulmonary metastasis of osteosarcoma cells in vivo. Potential miR-194 target genes were predicted using bioinformatics. Luciferase reporter assay, real-time quantitative PCR and western blotting confirmed that CDH2 (N-cadherin) and IGF1R were targets of miR-194. Using real-time quantitative PCR, we evaluated the expression of miR-194 and two miR-194 target genes, CDH2 and IGF1R in osteosarcoma samples from 107 patients and 99 formalin- or paraformalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues. The expressions of the target genes were also examined in osteosarcoma samples using immunohistochemistry. Overexpression of miR-194 inhibited tumor growth and metastasis of osteosarcoma probably by downregulating CDH2 and IGF1R. miR-194 may prove to be a promising therapeutic agent for osteosarcoma.
Clasificación y generalización de formas verbales en sistemas de traducción estocástica

This paper introduces a method to incorporate linguistic knowledge regarding verb forms into an stochastic machine translation model. By means of a rule-based classification of these forms, and by substituting them by the base form of the head verb during the training stage, we achieve a better statistical word alignment, which leads to a better estimate of the translation model. Furthermore, a successful generalization strategy can be devised to produce a new translation for unseen verb forms from the translations of seen verb forms. An evaluation of this method in an English to Spanish limited-domain translation task is presented, producing a significant performance improvement.
Extended Use of Fear Avoidance Belief Questionnaires in Physical Therapy to Improve Patient Recovery Time from Spinal Surgery

Project Summary This experiment aims to use multiple Fear Avoidance Belief Questionnaires (FABQs) for post-surgical female spinal patients for a more comprehensive therapy experience. FABQs are given to quantify and assess the fears and avoidant behavior that a patient may have due to his or her beliefs about movement that may cause pain. The avoidant behaviors could range from the patient unnecessarily limiting daily activities to refusing the physical therapist's recommendations for exercise during the session. It is standard practice in clinics to use a singular FABQ during the initial evaluation for physical therapy. High levels of fear can cause chronic pain and a less successful treatment in therapy. The FABQs are a useful tool, but are usually overlooked. FABQs are often briefly considered, filed in the patient's medical chart, and never looked at again. This is common practice despite research that validates the accuracy of FABQs. This experiment aims to use FABQs four times, instead of just once, through the post-operation (PO) and physical therapy processes to assemble a more thorough program. The questionnaires will be administered immediately before discharge from the surgical center, at the initial evaluation of physical therapy, during week 2 of physical therapy (PT), and during week 6 of PT. These four scores will differ from the usual protocol of administering only one questionnaire during the initial PT evaluation. The scores, ranging from high to low quantitatively, indicate how much the patients avoid behaviors that they believe could increase their pain. The scores will be categorized for each patient's measurements as high, medium, or low. Each patient's progress will be tracked, and a series of standard discharge tests will be performed at the end of a 12 week PT program. The landmark discharge tests ensure that patients are equipped with the strength and proper technique to go about their daily lives with minimal risk of re-injury. The results of this experiment will be used to determine if high fear avoidance beliefs during a certain point in PT—such as week 2 or week 6—would indicate a significantly decreased ability to pass the standard landmark discharge tests performed at the end of a 12 week program. These landmark tests are used in physical therapy to determine if patients have progressed enough to handle everyday tasks alone without the risk of reinjuring themselves. From there, further research into preventative measures could be explored to best equip the patients …