Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vitamin D and 1,25(OH)2D Regulation of T cells

Vitamin D is a direct and indirect regulator of T cells. The mechanisms by which vitamin D directly regulates T cells are reviewed and new primary data on the effects of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D) on human invariant natural killer (iNK)T cells is presented. The in vivo effects of vitamin D on murine T cells include inhibition of T cell proliferation, inhibition of IFN-γ, IL-17 and induction of IL-4. Experiments in mice demonstrate that the effectiveness of 1,25(OH)2D requires NKT cells, IL-10, the IL-10R and IL-4. Comparisons of mouse and human T cells show that 1,25(OH)2D inhibits IL-17 and IFN-γ, and induces T regulatory cells and IL-4. IL-4 was induced by 1,25(OH)2D in mouse and human iNKT cells. Activation for 72h was required for optimal expression of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) in human and mouse T and iNKT cells. In addition, T cells are potential autocrine sources of 1,25(OH)2D but again only 48–72h after activation. Together the data support the late effects of vitamin D on diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis where reducing IL-17 and IFN-γ, while inducing IL-4 and IL-10, would be beneficial.
Evolutionary potential of marine phytoplankton under ocean acidification

Marine phytoplankton have many obvious characters, such as rapid cell division rates and large population sizes, that give them the capacity to evolve in response to global change on timescales of weeks, months or decades. However, few studies directly investigate if this adaptive potential is likely to be realized. Because of this, evidence of to whether and how marine phytoplankton may evolve in response to global change is sparse. Here, we review studies that help predict evolutionary responses to global change in marine phytoplankton. We find limited support from experimental evolution that some taxa of marine phytoplankton may adapt to ocean acidification, and strong indications from studies of variation and structure in natural populations that selection on standing genetic variation is likely. Furthermore, we highlight the large body of literature on plastic responses to ocean acidification available, and evolutionary theory that may be used to link plastic and evolutionary responses. Because of the taxonomic breadth spanned by marine phytoplankton, and the diversity of roles they fill in ocean ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles, we stress the necessity of treating taxa or functional groups individually.
High α-fetoprotein level in HCV-related nodular liver cell dysplasia

ABSTRACTThe diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma is generally made in patients with a mass lesion in the cirrhotic liver if the α-fetoprotein level is >1,000 ng/L. Other causes of elevation of α-fetoprotein to this extreme degree include nonseminomatous germ cell tumor and hepatic metastasis. However, it is extremely rare for benign hepatic lesions to cause α-fetoprotein of >1,000 ng/ml. We report a Chinese patient with spontaneous normalization of α-fetoprotein with an initial value >10,000 ng/ml due to nodular dysplasia complicating hepatitis C-related liver cirrhosis. The α-fetoprotein was secreted from the dysplastic liver cells.
Focal Purkinje ventricular tachycardia ablation in structurally normal heart

A 21-year-old man presented with recurrent palpitations and giddiness. Clinical examination, echocardiography, and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a structurally normal heart. Electrocardiography showed broad-complex tachycardia with 250 beats per minute, which required cardioversion. An electrophysiological study could not induce tachycardia by programmed electrical stimulation. On isoprenaline infusion, frequent ventricular ectopics, bigeminy, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia, and broad-complex tachycardia similar to clinical tachycardia were readily inducible. This was considered to be ventricular tachycardia due to enhanced automaticity. Using 3-dimensional electroanatomical mapping, successful ablation was undertaken. The patient was asymptomatic on follow-up after 12 and 18 months.
Graphing trillions of triangles

The increasing size of Big Data is often heralded but how data are transformed and represented is also profoundly important to knowledge discovery, and this is exemplified in Big Graph analytics. Much attention has been placed on the scale of the input graph but the product of a graph algorithm can be many times larger than the input. This is true for many graph problems, such as listing all triangles in a graph. Enabling scalable graph exploration for Big Graphs requires new approaches to algorithms, architectures, and visual analytics. A brief tutorial is given to aid the argument for thoughtful representation of data in the context of graph analysis. Then a new algebraic method to reduce the arithmetic operations in counting and listing triangles in graphs is introduced. Additionally, a scalable triangle listing algorithm in the MapReduce model will be presented followed by a description of the experiments with that algorithm that led to the current largest and fastest triangle listing benchmarks to date. Finally, a method for identifying triangles in new visual graph exploration technologies is proposed.
Serum alpha‐fetoprotein levels after hepatic artery ligation and postoperative chemotherapy. Correlation with clinical status in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Eight patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and positive serum alpha‐feto‐protein (AFP) levels were treated by hepatic artery legation and postoperative chemotherapy. Three patterns of clinical response were discerned. First, a marked decrease in AFP levels was found in five patients following the treatment. Three of these patients are alive, all with lowered or normal serum AFP levels at 20, 22, and 60 weeks after operation. Second, two patients displayed only a transient decrease in AFP levels followed by a gradual increase. Third, there was a continuous increase in AFP levels in one patient who showed no clinical improvement. The serum AFP levels in each case appeared to correlate with the prognosis of these patients. Thus, serial measurements of AFP levels may provide an index to assess the clinical result of hepatic artery ligation in patients affected with hepatoma. Cancer 40:615–618, 1977.
8 x 8 optical switch matrix using generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometers

We report an 8/spl times/8 strictly nonblocking optical cross connect (OXC) using multimode imaging (MMI)-based generalized Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometers realized in the silica-on-silicon planar waveguide system. Employing a router-selector architecture, this MMI-MZ OXC design results in a significantly smaller device than conventional directional-coupler based implementations. An average insertion loss of 6 dB and crosstalk of -34 dB, is demonstrated for the 8/spl times/8 OXC.
The metabolic cost of avian egg formation: possible impact of yolk precursor production?

SUMMARY Little is known about the energy costs of egg production in birds. We showed in previous papers that, during egg production, European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) undergo a 22% increase in resting metabolic rate (RMR) and that the maintenance and activity costs of the oviduct are responsible for 18% of the variation in elevated laying RMR. Therefore, other energy-consuming physiological mechanisms must be responsible for the remaining unexplained variation in elevated laying RMR. Yolk precursor [vitellogenin (VTG) and very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)] production is likely to be costly because it signifies a marked increase in the biosynthetic activity of the liver. We documented the pattern of yolk precursor production in response to daily injections of 17β-estradiol (E2) in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Based on this pattern we carried out an experiment in order to evaluate the metabolic costs of producing VTG and VLDL. Our E2 treatment resulted in a significant increase in plasma VTG and VLDL levels within the natural breeding range for the species. Although RMR was measured during the period of active hepatic yolk precursor production, it did not differ significantly within individuals in response to the treatment or when comparing E2-treated birds with sham-injected birds. This could mean that yolk precursor production represents low energy investment. However, we discuss these results in light of possible adjustments between organs that could result in energy compensation.
Disco lamp: An interactive robot lamp

When watching a Pixar movie, we are always amused by the cute and sprightly lamp hopping up and down to replace the letter “I” of the word “PIXAR” before the movie starts. A simple movement, but a touching one. Here, motivated by wondering what other functionality a lamp can have, we report on the design and development of an interactive robotic lamp. It can sense hand gestures, thus either providing appropriate lighting to the area where the hand resides, or changing its mode between lighting and music. The movable and reactive lighting permits the operator to work freely in front of a bench with a large area which needs intensive lighting. When the lamp is in music mode, it becomes a robot dancer which follows the rhythm of the music and provides disco-style dynamic lighting.
ANÁLISE MULTIDIMENSIONAL DE POBREZA PARA AS MESO E MICRORREGIÕES DE MINAS GERAIS

RESUMO Apesar de varios estudos de pobreza utilizarem ainda a abordagem unidimensional padrao baseada na renda, um crescente numero de trabalhos aborda o problema atraves de um ponto de vista multidimensional – uma evidencia da extraordinaria influencia da linha de pesquisa chamada “Human Capabilities”, proposta e desenvolvida por Amartya Sen. Este trabalho segue a perspectiva multidimensional no tratamento da pobreza em Minas Gerais, usando diversas informacoes do Censo Demografico 2000, do Atlas da Criminalidade de Belo Horizonte e do Atlas do Desenvolvimento Humano no Brasil que disponibilizam informacoes economicas e sociais para unidades de analise individual e domiciliar. Estas informacoes podem ser agregadas a nivel municipal bem como a maiores niveis de agregacao geografica. A metodologia enfatiza o grau de disseminacao de alguns atributos basicos de bem estar entre as familias, ponderando-os pelos seus respectivos niveis de escassez e, ainda, permite a analise por atributo e por domicilio. O trabalho inclui, no calculo do indicador de pobreza, variaveis de saude, crime, escolaridade, insercao no mercado de trabalho, infra-estrutura domiciliar e renda e considera as meso e microrregioes de Minas Gerais como niveis de agregacao geografica. Os resultados indicam que as ordenacoes de pobreza calculadas sao afetadas pela inclusao de atributos adicionais em sua construcao, corroborando a hipotese de que o indice de pobreza unidimensional, baseado na renda nao e suficiente para identificar a extensao da pobreza numa determinada populacao.
N‐linked sialyated sugar receptors support haematopoietic cell‐osteoblast adhesions

Haematopoietic progenitor cells proliferate and develop predominantly when they adhere to bone marrow stromal cells such as osteoblasts. Therefore, changes in adhesion may be a common mechanism by which stem cells survive, mature and properly traffic between the bone marrow and the circulation. To characterize these adhesion molecules, we reduced the bone marrow cavity to a simple adhesion assay between KG1a (a CD34+ haematopoietic cell line) and osteosarcoma monolayers (MG‐63 or SaOS‐2). The data demonstrated that adhesion was mediated by cell‐to‐cell rather than cell‐to‐matrix contact, was sensitive to trypsin, calcium chelators and glycosylation inhibitors. Selective pretreatment attributed the constitutive binding to N‐linked glycans on KG1a. When carboprocessing was inhibited later at the high mannose intermediate (via deoxymannojirimycin), adhesion was retained. Surprisingly, binding of KG1a to SaOS‐2 increased past constitutive levels as doses of tunicamycin or deoxymannojirimycin dropped. Selective pretreatment suggested that this ‘inducible’ binding resides with molecule(s) on SaOS‐2. If the terminal sialic acid was digested (via neuraminidase), this induced response was duplicated. These data, verified in primary cells, suggest that the initial tethering between blood and bone cells in this model is probably due to heavily glycosylated, rapidly processed protein(s) on both cell types.
The Impact of Social Interventions: Nonparametric Identification from Choice-Based Samples

This paper presents conditions for the identification of the AVERAGE effect of training CONSTRAINED to the population of trainees. All of the identification conditions we consider are based on a variety of conditional independence assumptions. More specifically, they assume the participation status and post-training latent earnings are conditionally (mean) independent. The identification conditions differ according to the conditioning set they use. Nowhere are any functional-form imposed. In either words, a nonparametric approach has been taken. Moreover, the conditions are robust to choice-based sampling.
Channel estimation using data embedded pilot in underwater acoustic communication

Performance of an underwater acoustic communication is affected by the characteristics of the underwater channel. Especially, an important feature of the underwater channel is the multipath propagation caused by the surface and bottom reflections. These interference effects lead to the Inter-Symbol-Interference. To determine the transmitted data at the receiver, the receiver needs the channel estimator and the equalizer. In this paper, we present the underwater acoustic communication using channel estimation based on data embedded pilot. Furthermore, we conducted the simulation and the experiment to evaluate the performance of the underwater acoustic communication based on data embedded pilot.
Tunability of Liquid Dielectric Resonator Antennas

Dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) have in the past been used most often at frequencies in the GHz portion of the spectra. This letter presents a novel 50-MHz DRA that uses water as the dielectric. For purposes of keeping the antenna tuned to a specific frequency, ande for using the antenna at different frequencies, this antenna can utilize a pump to alter the level of water in the DRA, thus, altering its resonant frequency. An electronic technique for retuning the feed probe is also presented where varactor diodes are biased to provide a good impedance match across a range of approximately 50 to 100 MHz. These antennas may provide a compact solution at lower frequencies especially where a directional pattern may be required. The liquid dielectric not only provides frequency tuning but simple deployment and a reducible radar cross section.
Lock Inference Proven Correct

With the introduction of multi-core CPUs, multi-threaded programming is becoming significantly more popular. Unfortunately, it is difficult for programmers to ensure their code is correct because current languages are too low-level. Atomic sections are a recent language primitive that expose a higher level interface to programmers. Thus they make concurrent programming more straightforward. Atomic sections can be compiled using transactional memory or lock inference, but ensuring correctness and good performance is a challenge. Transactional memory has problems with IO and contention, whereas lock inference algorithms are often too imprecise which translates to a loss of parallelism at runtime. We define a lock inference algorithm that has good precision. We give the operational semantics of a model OO language, and define a notion of correctness for our algorithm. We then prove correctness using Isabelle/HOL.
Energy price transmissions during extreme movements

This paper investigates price transmissions across European energy forward markets at distinct maturities during both normal times and extreme fluctuation periods. To this end, we rely on the traditional Granger causality test (in mean) and its multivariate extension in tail distribution developped by Candelon, Joets, and Tokpavi (2012). Con- sidering forward energy prices at 1, 10, 20, and 30 months, it turns out that no significant causality exists between markets at regular times whereas comovements are at play during extreme periods especially in bear markets. More precisely, energy prices comovements appear to be stronger at short horizons than at long horizons, testifying an eventual Samuelson mechanism in the maturity prices curve. Diversification strategies tend to be more efficient as maturity increases.
Test Synthesis Applied to Performance Evaluation of Multipoint Protocols

The advent of multipoint multicast based applica tions and the growth and complexity of the Internet has complicated network protocol design and testing In this paper we present a method for automatic synthesis of worst and best case scenarios for mul tipoint protocol performance evaluation As a case study we analyze variants of the timer suppression mechanism used in multipoint protocols in the Inter net We use our method to evaluate the mechanism with respect to two performance criteria number of responses per request and response time The results are applied to examples in reliable multicast protocols The method uses a fault oriented test generation FOTG algorithm for searching the protocol and sys tem state space to synthesize the scenarios The algo rithm is based on a global nite state machine GFSM model We have extended the algorithm with tim ing semantics to handle end to end delays and address performance criteria We introduce the notion of a virtual LAN to represent the underlying multicast dis tribution tree We hope this method can serve as a model for apply ing more systematic test generation to other network protocols as well
Diffusing Policies : Towards Wasserstein Policy Gradient Flows

Policy gradients methods often achieve better performance when the change in policy is limited to a small Kullback-Leibler divergence. We derive policy gradients where the change in policy is limited to a small Wasserstein distance (or trust region). This is done in the discrete and continuous multi-armed bandit settings with entropy regularisation. We show that in the small steps limit with respect to the Wasserstein distance $W_2$, policy dynamics are governed by the heat equation, following the Jordan-Kinderlehrer-Otto result. This means that policies undergo diffusion and advection, concentrating near actions with high reward. This helps elucidate the nature of convergence in the probability matching setup, and provides justification for empirical practices such as Gaussian policy priors and additive gradient noise.
Teachers’ Responsiveness to Preschoolers’ Utterances in Sociodramatic Play

Abstract Research Findings: This descriptive study used sequential analysis to examine both preschool teachers’ responsiveness to children’s utterances in sociodramatic play and the children’s responses to their teachers’ utterances. Eleven teachers in a Head Start program were videotaped while interacting with children in the dramatic play center. Salient findings of this study are threefold: (a) Teachers’ responsiveness and the children’s responsiveness to their teachers’ talk varied substantially, (b) the children responded frequently to the teachers’ topic-continuing utterances, and (c) the children responded frequently in the pretend play mode when teachers extended the children’s utterances following the topics initiated by the children. Practice or Policy: The current study contributes to the extant research by providing a more fine-grained analysis of children’s response modes in the sociodramatic play context. In addition, the current study suggests that teacher education and that practice and policies supporting teaching quality should consider emphasizing the details of teacher–child interaction in the dramatic play center at the utterance level.
Reversal of Lead-Induced Neuronal Apoptosis by Chelation Treatment in Rats: Role of Reactive Oxygen Species and Intracellular Ca2+

Lead, a ubiquitous and potent neurotoxicant causes several neurophysiological and behavioral alterations. Toxic properties of lead have been attributed to its capability to mimic calcium and alter calcium homeostasis. In this study, we have addressed the following issues: 1) whether chelation therapy could circumvent the altered Ca2+ homeostasis and prevent neuronal death in chronic lead-intoxicated rats, 2) whether chelation therapy could revert altered biochemical and behavioral changes, 3) whether combinational therapy using two different chelating agents was more advantageous over monotherapy in lead-treated rats, and 4) what could be the mechanism of neuronal apoptosis. Results indicated that lead caused a significant increase in reactive oxygen species, neuronal nitric-oxide synthetase, and intracellular free calcium levels along with altered behavioral abnormalities in locomotor activity, exploratory behavior, learning, and memory that were supported by changes in neurotransmitter levels. A fall in membrane potential, release of cytochrome c, and altered bcl2/bax ratio indicated mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis. Most of these alterations reverted toward normal level following combination therapy over monotherapy with calcium disodium EDTA (CaNa2EDTA) or monoisoamyl meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (MiADMSA). It could be concluded from our present results that combined therapy with CaNa2EDTA and MiADMSA might be a better treatment protocol than monotherapy with these chelators in lead-induced neurological disorders. We for the first time report the role of Ca2+ in regulating neurological dystrophy caused by chronic lead exposure in rats and its recovery with a two-course treatment regime of mono or combination therapy.
Emotion memory and music: A critical review and recommendations for future research.

In this chapter we briefly but critically review current research on musicinduced emotions, and the emotional response to music evoked memories. Current research struggles with finding appropriate approaches to investigate music-evoked memories. One new method is the use of self-selected rather than experimenter-selected music. As part of an empirical study we tested the validity of using self-selected music to study music-evoked memories. Moreover, with the use of self-selected music, we tested and confirmed the hypothesis that music that evokes sad memories is more like to portray sad than happy emotions. It was additionally found that familiarity of self-selected music is linked to liking, aesthetic value, meaningfulness, intensity of emotional response, vividness of mental imagery, and detail of the memory.
2014 UNESCO lecture: 'No-one died covering celebrity news'

We enjoy freedom of speech in New Zealand, even though the Bill of Rights Act guarantee can be over-ridden. We have a variety of privately owned news media, even though the vast majority are owned by overseas interests. We have state-owned radio and television, even though our major television network was freed of its public service broadcasting obligations in order to pursue commercial goals. We have high quality tertiary institutions to train our future journalists, even though the ranks of our newsrooms have been systematically depleted. We have sophisticated telecommunications services, even though only 1 percent of us have optical broadband. The qualifications will not be lost on you. In other words, when I reflect on our good fortune I see that it is tempered by shortcomings, actual and potential. In this address I argue that the shortcomings are increasing and, if unchecked, ultimately threaten the way we function as a society.