Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical, Chemical, and Immunohistochemical Investigation of the Damage to Salivary Glands in a Model of Intoxication with Aluminium Citrate

Aluminum absorption leads to deposits in several tissues. In this study, we have investigated, to our knowledge for the first time, aluminum deposition in the salivary glands in addition to the resultant cellular changes in the parotid and submandibular salivary glands in a model of chronic intoxication with aluminum citrate in rats. Aluminum deposits were observed in the parotid and submandibular glands. Immunohistochemical evaluation of cytokeratin-18 revealed a decreased expression in the parotid gland with no changes in the submandibular gland. A decreased expression of α-smooth muscle actin was observed in the myoepithelial cells of both glands. The expression of metallothionein I and II (MT-I/II), a group of metal-binding proteins, which are useful indicators for detecting physiological responses to metal exposure, was higher in both glands. In conclusion, we have shown that at a certain time and quantity of dosage, aluminum citrate promotes aluminum deposition in the parotid and submandibular glands, leads to an increased expression of MT-I/II in both the glands, damages the cytoskeleton of the myoepithelial cells in both glands, and damages the cytoskeleton of the acinar/ductal cells of the parotid glands, with the submandibular glands showing resistance to the toxicity of the latter.
Complement factor 5a receptor chimeras reveal the importance of lipid‐facing residues in transport competence

Residues that mediate helix–helix interactions within the seven transmembranes (TM) of G protein‐coupled receptors are important for receptor biogenesis and the receptor switch mechanism. By contrast, the residues directly contacting the lipid bilayer have only recently garnered attention as potential receptor dimerization interfaces. In the present study, we aimed to determine the contributions of these lipid‐facing residues to receptor function and oligomerization by systemically generating chimeric complement factor 5a receptors in which the entire lipid‐exposed surface of a single TM helix was exchanged with the cognate residues from the angiotensin type 1 receptor. Disulfide‐trapping and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) studies demonstrated robust homodimerization of both complement factor 5a receptor and angiotensin type 1 receptor, but no evidence for heterodimerization. Despite relatively conservative substitutions, the lipid‐facing chimeras (TM1, TM2, TM4, TM5, TM6 or TM7) were retained in the endoplasmic reticulum/cis‐Golgi network. With the exception of the TM7 chimera that did not bind ligand, the lipid‐facing chimeras bound ligand with low affinity, but similar to wild‐type complement factor 5a receptors trapped in the endoplasmic reticulum with brefeldin A. These results suggest that the chimeric receptors were properly folded; moreover, native complement factor 5a receptors are not fully competent to bind ligand when present in the endoplasmic reticulum. BRET oligomerization studies demonstrated energy transfer between the wild‐type complement factor 5a receptor and the lipid‐facing chimeras, suggesting that the lipid‐facing residues within a single TM segment are not essential for oligomerization. These studies highlight the importance of the lipid‐facing residues in the complement factor 5a receptor for transport competence.
RAID-PIR: Practical Multi-Server PIR

Private Information Retrieval (PIR) allows to privately request a block of data from a database such that no information about the queried block is revealed to the database owner. With the rapid rise of cloud computing, data is often shared across multiple servers, making multi-server PIR a promising privacy-enhancing technology. In this paper, we introduce RAID-PIR, an efficient and simple multi-server PIR scheme, which has similar approach to RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) systems. Each server stores only a part of the database, its computational complexity depends only on this part, and multiple blocks can be queried efficiently in parallel. RAID-PIR improves efficiency over known PIR protocols, using only very efficient cryptographic primitives (pseudo-random generator). We demonstrate that RAID-PIR is practical and well-suited for cloud deployment as it reduces the communication as well as the computational workload per server.
Multidrug resistance to HIV-1 protease inhibition requires cooperative coupling between distal mutations.

The appearance of viral strains that are resistant to protease inhibitors is one of the most serious problems in the chemotherapy of HIV-1/AIDS. The most pervasive drug-resistant mutants are those that affect all inhibitors in clinical use. In this paper, we have characterized a multiple-drug-resistant mutant of the HIV-1 protease that affects indinavir, nelfinavir, saquinavir, ritonavir, amprenavir, and lopinavir. This mutant (MDR-HM) contains six amino acid mutations (L10I/M46I/I54V/V82A/I84V/L90M) located within and outside the active site of the enzyme. Microcalorimetric and enzyme kinetic measurements indicate that this mutant lowers the affinity of all inhibitors by 2-3 orders of magnitude. By comparison, the multiiple-drug-resistant mutant only increased the K(m) of the substrate by a factor of 2, indicating that the substrate is able to adapt to the changes caused by the mutations and maintain its binding affinity. To understand the origin of resistance, three submutants containing mutations in specific regions were also studied, i.e., the active site (V82A/I84V), flap region (M46I/I54V), and dimerization region (L10I/L90M). None of these sets of mutations by themselves lowered the affinity of inhibitors by more than 1 order of magnitude, and additionally, the sum of the effects of each set of mutations did not add up to the overall effect, indicating the presence of cooperative effects. A mutant containing only the four active site mutations (V82A/I84V/M46I/I54V) only showed a small cooperative effect, suggesting that the mutations at the dimer interface (L10I/L90M) play a major role in eliciting a cooperative response. These studies demonstrate that cooperative interactions contribute an average of 1.2 +/- 0.7 kcal/mol to the overall resistance, most of the cooperative effect (0.8 +/- 0.7 kcal/mol) being mediated by the mutations at the dimerization interface. Not all inhibitors in clinical use are affected the same by long-range cooperative interactions between mutations. These interactions can amplify the effects of individual mutations by factors ranging between 2 and 40 depending on the inhibitor. Dissection of the energetics of drug resistance into enthalpic and entropic components provides a quantitative account of the inhibitor response and a set of thermodynamic guidelines for the design of inhibitors with a lower susceptibility to this type of mutations.
A Unified WCET Analysis Framework for Multi-core Platforms

With the advent of multi-core architectures, worst case execution time (WCET) analysis has become an increasingly difficult problem. In this paper, we propose a unified WCET analysis framework for multi-core processors featuring both shared cache and shared bus. Compared to other previous works, our work differs by modeling the interaction of shared cache and shared bus with other basic micro-architectural components (e.g. pipeline and branch predictor). In addition, our framework does not assume a timing anomaly free multi-core architecture for computing the WCET. A detailed experiment methodology suggests that we can obtain reasonably tight WCET estimates in a wide range of benchmark programs.
The Role of Theoretical Modeling in Microcirculation Research

Theoretical modeling approaches have made important contributions to research in the biological sciences, including the microcirculation, and their value is increasingly recognized. However, misconceptions about the nature and role of theoretical models persist, and such work is often presented in a way that does not maximize its value, especially for scientists who are not themselves using such models. In this review, a categorization of models as phenomenological, qualitative conceptual, quantitative conceptual, or predictive is proposed, and the characteristics of each type are discussed. Recommendations are made for the presentation of models and for the future development of modeling approaches. The concepts discussed are generally applicable to the theoretical modeling of biological systems and are illustrated by using examples of modeling in microcirculation research.
Matrix decomposition based threshold orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm for parameter and time delay identification of MISO-FIR systems

This paper focuses on the identification problem of multiple input single output finite impulse response (MISO-FIR) systems with unknown time delays. Using the matrix decomposition, a modified threshold orthogonal matching pursuit (TH-OMP) algorithm is proposed for identifying the parameters and time delays of the MISO-FIR systems from finite sampled data. The modified version of the TH-OMP algorithm can avoid the matrix inversion and eliminate the redundant computation at each iteration. Therefore it is more efficient than the original TH-OMP algorithm. A simulation example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the modified TH-OMP algorithm.
Biological inspired autonomously secure mechanism for wireless sensor networks

Wireless communication plays an important role in these days in the sector of telecommunication and has huge importance for future research. There has been an exponential growth in wireless communication due to the development of different devices and applications. In addition, there is an explosive increase in integration and convergence of different heterogonous wireless networks to ensure effective and efficient communication. These technologies primarily includes Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Personal Area Net-works (WPANs), and the Internet. The cellular networks can be classified under the WWAN, Blue-tooth, and Ultrawide Bands classified as WPANs, and finally the WLANs and High-Performance Radio Local Area Networks (HiperLANs) belongs to the WLAN class.
The Use of Dynamic Deformable Templates for Lip Tracking in an Audio-Visual Corpus with Large Variations in Head Pose, Face Illumination and Lip Shapes

This paper describes an approach for lip tracking using dynamic deformable templates. The objective is to track lip parameters from an audio-visual corpus recording a voice talent who is reading text prompts in a natural and expressive way. The corpus presents challenges to the conventional method of lip tracking with deformable templates. This is because natural and expressive speech includes relatively large motions of the head and the lips. The head motions lead to changes in the illumination of the face region and changes in the observed lip shape. In addition, emphatic pronunciations lead to large changes in the lip shape. Video frames that are affected by face illumination changes present additional difficulty in locating the mouth region (i.e. region of interest, ROI). Video frames that are affected by changes in lip shapes present additional deviations from the lip templates and hence lower tracking accuracies. Our proposed method incorporates "dynamicity" in the deformable templates to render them adaptive to changes in head pose, face illumination and lip shapes. Experiments show that dynamic deformable templates consistently outperform the conventional deformable templates in lip tracking.
Pharmacological Stimulation of the Cholinergic Antiinflammatory Pathway

Efferent activity in the vagus nerve can prevent endotoxin-induced shock by attenuating tumor necrosis factor (TNF) synthesis. Termed the “cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway,” inhibition of TNF synthesis is dependent on nicotinic α-bungarotoxin-sensitive acetylcholine receptors on macrophages. Vagus nerve firing is also stimulated by CNI-1493, a tetravalent guanylhydrazone molecule that inhibits systemic inflammation. Here, we studied the effects of pharmacological and electrical stimulation of the intact vagus nerve in adult male Lewis rats subjected to endotoxin-induced shock to determine whether intact vagus nerve signaling is required for the antiinflammatory action of CNI-1493. CNI-1493 administered via the intracerebroventricular route was 100,000-fold more effective in suppressing endotoxin-induced TNF release and shock as compared with intravenous dosing. Surgical or chemical vagotomy rendered animals sensitive to TNF release and shock, despite treatment with CNI-1493, indicating that an intact cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway is required for antiinflammatory efficacy in vivo. Electrical stimulation of either the right or left intact vagus nerve conferred significant protection against endotoxin-induced shock, and specifically attenuated serum and myocardial TNF, but not pulmonary TNF synthesis, as compared with sham-operated animals. Together, these results indicate that stimulation of the cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway by either pharmacological or electrical methods can attenuate the systemic inflammatory response to endotoxin-induced shock.
Legacy code support for production grids

In order to improve reliability and to deal with the high complexity of existing middleware solutions, today's production grid systems restrict the services to be deployed on their resources. On the other hand end-users require a wide range of value added services to fully utilize these resources. This paper describes a solution how legacy code support is offered as third party service for production grids. The introduced solution, based on the grid execution management for legacy code architecture (GEMLCA), do not require the deployment of additional applications on the grid resources, or any extra effort from grid system administrators. The implemented solution was successfully connected to and demonstrated on the UK National Grid Service.
Robust Stability Analysis of Sparsely Interconnected Uncertain Systems

In this paper, we consider robust stability analysis of large-scale sparsely interconnected uncertain systems. By modeling the interconnections among the subsystems with integral quadratic constraints, we show that robust stability analysis of such systems can be performed by solving a set of sparse linear matrix inequalities. We also show that a sparse formulation of the analysis problem is equivalent to the classical formulation of the robustness analysis problem and hence does not introduce any additional conservativeness. The sparse formulation of the analysis problem allows us to apply methods that rely on efficient sparse factorization techniques, and our numerical results illustrate the effectiveness of this approach compared to methods that are based on the standard formulation of the analysis problem.
Quantifying the operational benefits of new HV cable systems in terms of dielectric design parameters

In recent years, a significant volume of work has been undertaken on the development of novel dielectric materials which offer improvements in a variety of properties. Questions are frequently asked as to how particular properties can be improved by more intelligent dielectric design. However from the point of view of the network operator it is not just the dielectric design which is of interest - rather, how the finished product performs in the network. This paper seeks to demonstrate what quantifiable improvements in cable performance could be gained through advances in the dielectric properties of cable systems. The analysis is set in the context of the operational current rating of the cable circuit and the associated losses per unit of power transferred. Analysis of the results shows that the greatest improvement in cable operational performance can be made from increasing the dielectric thermal conductivity, even if it comes at the expense of a slight decrease in other properties.
Constructive Visual Analytics for Text Similarity Detection

Detecting similarity between texts is a frequently encountered text mining task. Because the measurement of similarity is typically composed of a number of metrics, and some measures are sensitive to subjective interpretation, a generic detector obtained using machine learning often has difficulties balancing the roles of different metrics according to the semantic context exhibited in a specific collection of texts. In order to facilitate human interaction in a visual analytics process for text similarity detection, we first map the problem of pairwise sequence comparison to that of image processing, allowing patterns of similarity to be visualized as a 2D pixelmap. We then devise a visual interface to enable users to construct and experiment with different detectors using primitive metrics, in a way similar to constructing an image processing pipeline. We deployed this new approach for the identification of commonplaces in 18th‐century literary and print culture. Domain experts were then able to make use of the prototype system to derive new scholarly discoveries and generate new hypotheses.
Environmental Regulation by Private Contest Environmental Regulation by Private Contest Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

Tt is widely expected that the recent trend (in the USA, EU and elsewhere) towards an increased role for private agents and agencies in the formulation and enforcement of environmental regulation will continue. If environmental regulation is to be "privatized" in this way it is natural to ask how far the activities of environmental groups, on whose shoulders much of the responsibility for defending the environment is likely to fall, should be subsidized or taxed. In this paper we identify the trade-offs involved and characterize the optimal subsidy/tax. The analysis is argued to have significant implications for how governments should think about the way in which fiscal law treats environmental NGOs. EV20 Oxford Institute for Energy Studies June 1995 The contents of this paper are the author’s sole responsibility. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies or any of its Members
STUDIES ON TRICHINOSIS, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE INCREASE OF THE EOSINOPHILIC CELLS IN THE BLOOD AND MUSCLE, THE ORIGIN OF THESE CELLS AND THEIR DIAGNOSTIC IMPORTANCE

To summarize, we have been able to demonstrate: (1) In a case of acute trichinosis an extensive leucocytosis, with great absolute and relative increase in the number of eosinophilic cells in the blood, associated with a coincident decrease in the quantity of neutrophilic elements. (2) From the examination of specimens of muscle removed during life, besides the peculiar degenerations of the muscle, a longitudinal splitting of some of the fibres; a remarkable transverse splitting of others; a great proliferation of nuclei, about many of which vacuoles are seen; and large numbers of polymorphonuclear eosinophilic cells, which are especially prevalent in the more degenerated areas. (3) In a second case (after death), besides similar changes in the muscle, large numbers of eosinophiles throughout the infested portion. (4) In two other cases, during life, a great increase of the eosinophilic cells in the blood, with a coincident decrease of the polymorphonuclear neutrophiles, associated with leucocytosis, though of less extent than in the first case. (5) In pieces of muscle removed in these last two cases changes in most respects similar to those cited in the first case, but of less degree. (6) The similar character of the nuclei of the eosinophiles and the neutrophiles both in the blood and in the muscle, and the presence in the first case of certain cells which might be regarded as forms transitional between neutrophiles and eosinophiles, suggesting the possibility that the increase in the latter elements may, in these instances, take place in the muscles by direct transition from the neutrophiles.
Energy balanced data collection in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we investigate the energy balanced data collection problem in WSNs, aiming to balance the energy consumption among all the sensor nodes in the data propagation process. Energy balanced data collection can potentially save energy consumption and prolong the network lifetime, and hence it has many practical implications for WSN design and deployment. The traditional hop-by-hop transmission model allows a sensor node to propagate its packets in a hop-by-hop manner towards the sink, resulting in poor energy balance for the entire network. To address the problem, we apply a slice based energy model, and divide the energy balanced data collection problem into inter- and intra-slice energy balance problems. We then propose a novel Inter-slice Mixed Transmission strategy and an Intra-slice Forwarding technique to address each of the problems. Finally, we design an Energy-balanced Transmission Protocol (ETP) to combine both techniques to achieve total energy balance in data collection. Through extensive simulation studies, we demonstrate that, while ETP achieves energy balanced data collection, the network lifespan is increased by 10 times and the network delay is decreased by more than 70% compared to the hop-by-hop transmission in a general square area WSN.
Impact of rurality, broiler operations, and community socioeconomic factors on the risk of campylobacteriosis in Maryland.

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the combined impact of community-level environmental and socioeconomic factors on the risk of campylobacteriosis. METHODS We obtained Campylobacter case data (2002-2010; n = 3694) from the Maryland Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network. We obtained community-level socioeconomic and environmental data from the 2000 US Census and the 2007 US Census of Agriculture. We linked data by zip code. We derived incidence rate ratios by Poisson regressions. We mapped a subset of zip code-level characteristics. RESULTS In zip codes that were 100% rural, incidence rate ratios (IRRs) of campylobacteriosis were 6 times (IRR = 6.18; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.19, 11.97) greater than those in urban zip codes. In zip codes with broiler chicken operations, incidence rates were 1.45 times greater than those in zip codes without broilers (IRR = 1.45; 95% CI = 1.34, 1.58). We also observed higher rates in zip codes whose populations were predominantly White and had high median incomes. CONCLUSIONS The community and environment in which one lives may significantly influence the risk of campylobacteriosis.
A Strategy for Boundary Detection Combining Region and Edge Information

A method to detect boundaries in in natural color images is here proposed, combining edge information and region information. This unsupervised fully automatic process uses edge map information to eliminate false boundaries in the image region map, and region map information to remove noise in the image edge map. Thus, it integrates these two maps into a single one to get the final result. This proposal is extensively compared to the multi-label graph cut approach, since both approaches are unsupervised and fully automatic, as well as receive the same two inputs, although performing different processing. Experiments performed on a large set of natural color images were the base for such comparison. The results show that the approach here proposed is promising, besides allowing interesting interpretations about boundary detection.