Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence That Release of Adenosine Triphosphate From Endothelial Cells During Increased Shear Stress Is Vesicular

In response to increased shear stress, vascular endothelial cells release adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by an unknown mechanism. We have investigated this mechanism using different approaches. First, we discovered that quinacrine, used to locate intracellular stores of ATP bound to peptides, displayed a granular fluorescence, typical of vesicular storage. Second, we found that two inhibitors of vesicular transport (monensin and N-ethylmaleimide) produced a highly significant reduction in the release of ATP from vascular endothelial cells in response to increased shear stress. Preliminary experiments using inhibitors of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator, the sulfonylurea receptor, and the multidrug resistance protein showed no involvement of these ATP-binding cassette transporter proteins (previously characterized in endothelial cells) in the mechanism of release of ATP. We suggest, therefore, that the release of ATP from vascular endothelial cells, like that of nerve cells, is probably by vesicular exocytosis.
Constraining the Slip Distribution and Fault Geometry of the Mw 7.9, 3 November 2002, Denali Fault Earthquake with Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar and Global Positioning System Data

The M w 7.9, Denali fault earthquake (dfe) is the largest continental strike-slip earthquake to occur since the development of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (Insar). We use five interferograms, constructed using radar images from the Canadian Radarsat-1 satellite, to map the surface deformation at the western end of the fault rupture. Additional geodetic data are provided by displacements observed at 40 campaign and continuous Global Positioning System (gps) sites. We use the data to determine the geometry of the Susitna Glacier fault, thrusting on which initiated the dfe, and to determine a slip model for the entire event that is consistent with both the Insar and gps data. We find there was an average of 7.3 ± 0.4 m slip on the Susitna Glacier fault, between 1 and 9.5 km depth on a 29 km long fault that dips north at 41 ± 0.7° and has a surface projection close to the mapped rupture. On the Denali fault, a simple model with large slip patches finds a maximum of 8.7 ± 0.7 m of slip between the surface and 14.3 ± 0.2 km depth. A more complex distributed slip model finds a peak of 12.5 ± 0.8 m in the upper 4 km, significantly higher than the observed surface slip. We estimate a geodetic moment of 670 ± 10 × 10 18 N m ( M w 7.9), consistent with seismic estimates. Lack of preseismic data resulted in an absence of Insar coverage for the eastern half of the dfe rupture. A dedicated geodetic Insar mission could obviate coverage problems in the future.
Assortativity in complex networks

We survey the concept of assortativity, starting from its original deﬁnition by Newman in 2002. Degree assortativity is the most commonly used form of assortativity. Degree assortativity is extensively used in network science. Since degree assortativity alone is not sufﬁcient as a graph analysis tool, assortativity is usually combined with other graph metrics. Much of the research on assortativity considers undirected, non-weighted networks. The research on assortativity needs to be extended to encompass also directed links and weighted links. In addition, the relation between assortativity and line graphs, complementary graphs and graph spectra needs further work, to incorporate directed graphs and weighted links. The present survey paper aims to summarize the work in this area and provides a new scope of research.
Effects on markers of inflammation and endothelial cell function of three ad libitum diets differing in type and amount of fat and carbohydrate: a 6-month randomised study in obese individuals

Diet is important for the prevention of CVD, and diets high in MUFA might be more cardioprotective than low-fat diets. We hypothesise that inflammation and endothelial cell function will be improved most favourably by a high-MUFA diet compared with a low-fat diet. This was tested in a parallel randomised intervention trial on overweight individuals (aged 28·2 (sd 4·6) years) assigned to a diet moderate in the amount of fat (35–45% of energy; >20% of fat as MUFA; MUFA diet, n 39), a low-fat (20–30% of energy) diet (LF diet, n 43) or a control diet (35 % of energy as fat, n 24) for 6 months after weight loss. Protein constituted 10–20 % of energy in all diets. Food was provided free of charge. Fasting blood samples were collected before and after the intervention and analysed for C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-6, intercellular adhesion molecule, von Willebrand factor (vWF) and tissue factor pathway inhibitor. vWF concentrations tended to fall on the LF diet (4·78 (sd 16·44) %; P = 0·07). Concentrations of IL-6 were reduced by the MUFA (0·37 (sd 0·74) pg/ml; P < 0·01) and LF (0·47 (sd 0·69) pg/ml; P < 0·001) diets, and CRP was reduced on all diets (MUFA: 0·48 (sd 1·93) mg/l (P < 0·01); LF: 1·46 (sd 2·89) mg/l (P < 0·001); control: 1·20 (sd 1·97) mg/l (P < 0·01)). No significant differences were observed between changes induced by the different diets. Our findings suggest that in overweight subjects after weight loss, the MUFA and LF diets have similar long-term effects on inflammation and endothelial cell function.
Identification and Mitigation of Anomalous Signals in CMS Hadronic Calorimeter

The CMS HCAL detector occasionally records anomalous large energy signals that correspond to particles hitting the transducers. Anomalous signals in HCAL can also be produced by rare random discharges of the readout detectors. We present a summary of various sources of anomalous signals, the algorithms developed to identify them, and the performance of these algorithms in the CMS collision data.
Narcissism and Comparative Self-Enhancement Strategies ☆

Abstract Two experiments examined narcissism and comparative self-enhancement strategies. Participants either completed an interdependent (Experiment 1) or an independent (Experiment 2) achievement task and then received bogus success or failure feedback. Across experiments, narcissistic individuals self-enhanced. Nonnarcissists, however, showed more flexibility in self-enhancement. They did not self-enhance when doing so meant comparing themselves favorably to a partner (a comparative strategy). Otherwise, they did self-enhance, particularly when estimating the importance of the task (a noncomparative strategy). These findings are discussed from a narcissistic self-enhancement perspective and a strategic flexibility perspective.
TIISSAD, Integrated information technologies for patients remote follow-up and homecare

This paper presents the TIISSAD project and its main results. It is related to a telemedicine system type, remote monitoring or follow-up systems. Patients with chronic diseases or elderly (or handicapped) people are the main target for such systems and we aim at preventing accidents or aggravation of the health status of the concerned patients. After an introduction to telemedicine, our goals and the state of the art, we focus on our own results on architecture, functionalities and enhancements of such a system. We present the applications developed within the laboratories of each partner of this project, and the results about architecture, components, interoperability, communication or intelligent systems.
Surgical ablation of ventricular tachycardia: improved results with a map-directed regional approach.

To determine whether a regional approach to surgery for ventricular tachycardia would improve on the results of previously reported methods of endocardial resection, an analysis was performed of our surgical experience over a 5 year period. Of 46 consecutive patients operated on for recurrent sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation, 39 patients with ischemic heart disease underwent subendocardial resection and/or cryoablation. The mean age of the patients was 61 +/- 8 (SD) years, the mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 32 +/- 11%, and the mean number of ineffective antiarrhythmic drugs was 3.8 +/- 1.2 per patient. In 35 of 39 patients in whom mapping data were obtainable, 56 (86%) tachycardias had earliest sites of activation in the left ventricle and nine (14%) had earliest sites in the right ventricle. Ten patients had 14 tachycardias (21%) mapped to areas outside visible dense scar. Of these 35 patients, 10 underwent localized subendocardial resection and 25 underwent a regional procedure in which all areas activated before the surface QRS during ventricular tachycardia were excised and/or cryoablated. In the operative survivors of electrophysiologically guided surgery, three of eight (38%) patients with the localized and one of 24 (4%) patients who underwent the regional procedure had recurrence of ventricular tachycardia during a follow-up period of 1 to 59 (mean 22 +/- 17) months (p = .04). The favorable outcome of regional surgery was not influenced by the presence of multiple morphologies in 54%, disparate sites of origin in 29%, or inferior wall foci in 46% of patients. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Neural network models of three-dimensional surface perception: Da Vinci stereopsis and the McCollough effect

Visual perception is mediated by two spatially disparate transducers: the eyes. Each eye registers a different view of the world, yet we perceive a single "solid" three-dimensional (3-D) universe. This thesis investigates how the left and right eye views are integrated to form a single 3-D representation of space. The psychophysical phenomena of DaVinci stereopsis and the McCollough effect are examined through computational and experimental techniques in an effort to tease apart this integrative process. While humans use a variety of cues to make relative depth judgements, this thesis concentrates on the fundamental role of horizontal disparity in surface perception. Although variations in horizontal disparity afford potent cues to perceptual depth segregation, unmatched monocular regions from either eye, which may occur due to occlusion, must also be integrated into our global perception. DaVinci stereopsis refers to the process of integrating these "half-occluded" regions into our full 3-D percept. This thesis develops an implementation of a neural network theory of biological vision, called FACADE Theory, which was proposed and refined by Grossberg and colleagues. FACADE theory is shown through computer simulations to be capable of replicating the percept of DaVinci stereopsis. Recent psychophysical studies from McKee and colleagues address the nature of this binocular integration process. McKee has shown that integration is both contrast-sensitive and context dependent. These studies are readily explained by FACADE theory and a variety of relevant dichoptic stimuli are simulated. The McCollough effect (ME), a long-term negative color aftereffect that probes the interaction between form and color perception, is also examined from the perspective of binocular integration. The ME is a valuable source of information about how the visual system processes monocular versus binocular stimuli. This thesis explores a variety of monocular and binocular variations of the standard paradigm. A model is introduced and model predictions are tested in a series of psychophysical experiments designed to investigate the effects of form and/or color rivalry on induction strength. Evidence from both DaVinci stereopsis and the ME support FACADE theory's approach to visual perception.
Soft Multi-Criteria Decision Algorithm for Vertical Handover in Heterogeneous Networks

Choosing or switching between heterogeneous networks according to the highest performance in terms of quality of service is largely inefficient in vertical handover. In fact a service may have unstable performance and require highly frequent vertical handover procedures. In this paper we consider the impact of statistical fluctuations of performance parameters (decision under risk) and propose a soft algorithm that exploits the statistical knowledge in order to reduce outage probability.
Revisiting the hexagonal lattice: on optimal lattice circle packing

In this note we give a simple proof of the classical fact that the hexagonal lattice gives the highest density circle packing among all lattices in $R^2$. With the benefit of hindsight, we show that the problem can be restricted to the important class of well-rounded lattices, on which the density function takes a particularly simple form. Our proof emphasizes the role of well-rounded lattices for discrete optimization problems.
Representations of Cuntz algebras, loop groups and wavelets

A theorem of Glimm states that representation theory of an NGCR C*-algebra is always intractable, and the Cuntz algebra O_N is a case in point. The equivalence classes of irreducible representations under unitary equivalence cannot be captured with a Borel cross section. Nonetheless, we prove here that wavelet representations correspond to equivalence classes of irreducible representations of O_N, and they are effectively labeled by elements of the loop group, i.e., the group of measurable functions A:T-->U_N(C). These representations of O_N are constructed here from an orbit picture analysis of the infinite-dimensional loop group.
Difficulties Faced by Law College Students in the Area of Spelling-Pronunciation Correspondence

Languages, which have regular alphabetic systems, are largely easy to learn. But English spelling, although largely phonemic, has more complicated rules than other spelling systems used by languages written in alphabetic scripts. That is because it has many inconsistencies between spelling and pronunciation, which makes learning it very difficult. Such irregularity of English is considered a problem to the students of the college of law who study English for three years in the field of their specialization. This study aims at investigating the difficulties faced by Law College students in dealing with spelling-pronunciation correspondence in English. To achieve the aim of the study, two hypotheses have been posed: 1Law College students are able to spell words without making a link with
Introspection in Psychology: Its Contribution to Theory and Method in Memory Research

Memory is typically conceptualized as a mental space where information is stored until it is retrieved for current processing. This archive account has been undermined by a multitude of findings, however, calling for a theoretical and also a methodological reorientation. In particular, we consider it timely to include an introspective mode of research into the study of memory because such introspective enquiry can provide insights into the recall process that go beyond those of third-person research. The limitations often associated with introspection (e.g., its seemingly subjective quality and its post hoc nature) are well justified – but only as long as the more immature impromptu introspections are concerned. A more systematically developed form of introspection can overcome these limitations. Such a systematic approach is outlined and used here to develop a taxonomy of mental processes involved in recall. Our observations lend support to a reconstruction account and allow for a differentiation of mental activities involved in various types of recall.
Number of Siblings and the Risk of Lymphoma, Leukemia, and Myeloma by Histopathology

Epidemiologic evidence indicates that several markers of exposure to childhood infections are inversely associated with the risk of childhood leukemia and lymphomas. We used the Swedish Family-Cancer Database to assess the effects of number of siblings on the risk of non-Hodgkin's (n = 7,007) and Hodgkin's lymphomas (n = 3,115), leukemias (n = 7,650), and multiple myeloma (n = 1,492) by histopathology. Poisson regression models included terms for age, sex, family history, period, and socioeconomic index. Having four or more siblings compared with none was associated with an excess risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia [ALL; rate ratio (RR), 2.11; Ptrend = 0.001], acute monocytic leukemia (RR, 2.51; Ptrend = 0.002), and multiple myeloma (RR, 1.34; Ptrend = 0.006). Having three or more older siblings compared with none decreased the risk of acute monocytic leukemia (RR, 0.35; Ptrend = 0.001) and childhood ALL (RR, 0.69; Ptrend = 0.01). The risk of Hodgkin's lymphoma for five or more older siblings compared with none was 0.41 (Ptrend = 0.003). Acute myeloid leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and other lymphoproliferative malignancies were not associated with number of siblings. In conclusion, we found an excess risk of childhood ALL and acute monocytic leukemia in large families. However, for ALL, acute monocytic leukemia, and Hodgkin's lymphoma, younger siblings were strongly protected compared with older siblings. The remarkable protective effect of number of older siblings on acute monocytic leukemia is a novel finding of potential interest. Possible interpretations of our findings in the context of a putative infectious etiology are discussed. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(7):1281–6)
Methods and characters of speech acts in online shopping

This paper provides a study on speech acts in internet conversation and behavior in the process of online shopping. From the classification of certain speech acts, it analyzes a variety of methods in the context of purchasing communication represented by distinctive speech acts, covering the validilty condition, effectiveness, obligation and social convention in different process. Speech acts in internet conversation and behavior, if conformed to certain rules, may contribute to the ideal and effective communication among participants in online shopping.
Performance Evaluation of the AeroTP Protocol in Comparison to TCP NewReno, TCP Westwood, and SCPS-TP

Due to the unique characteristics of highly dynamic airborne telemetry environments, TCP when deployed in such networks suffers significant performance degradation. Given the limitations of TCP, the AeroTP opportunistic transport protocol with multiple reliability modes has been developed to specifically address the issues posed by telemetry networks. In our previous work, the different modes of AeroTP have been simulated and tested using the open source ns-3 network simulator. In this paper, we use ns-3 to evaluate the overall performance of AeroTP by comparing it with well-studied TCP variants: the widelydeployed TCP NewReno and TCP Westwood designed for wireless environments. Since space networks share many similar characteristics with telemetry environments, we also compare AeroTP with SCPS-TP.
Physical Activity Enjoyment and Self-Efficacy As Predictors of Cancer Patients' Physical Activity Level

Background: Physical activity (PA) can support cancer patients during medical treatment by reducing side-effects and increasing quality of life. However, PA levels mostly decline after diagnosis. Which factors can explain if patients are able to remain or even increase their PA level? Self-efficacy is an important cognitive factor that has been linked to cancer patients' PA across many studies. In contrast, affective factors such as PA enjoyment have rarely been examined. We compare the influence of self-efficacy and PA enjoyment on cancer patients' PA levels after completion of an exercise or stress-management intervention. Methods: Outpatient cancer patients [N = 72; 54% female; M = 56 years, SD = 12.34; most with breast or colon cancer (34%, 15%)] were enrolled in the MOTIVACTION study, a 4-week intervention (1 h counseling followed by weekly phone calls), with pre-test (T1), post-test (T2), and a 10-week follow-up (T3). Participants were randomized to either an exercise intervention (emphasizing self-regulatory strategies for behavior change) or to a stress management intervention (coping and relaxation techniques). Sixty-seven patients remained in the study and completed the SQUASH assessment of PA, a measure of maintenance self-efficacy (7 items, Cronbach's α = 0.88) and PA enjoyment (2 items, Cronbach's α = 0.89). Regression analyses were calculated with PA level (at T2 and T3) as dependent variable and relative weight analyses were conducted. The study was registered at clinicalTrials.gov (unique identifier:NCT01576107; URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01576107? term=motivaction&rank=1). Results: Baseline self-efficacy and change in PA enjoyment significantly predicted cancer patients' PA level at T2 adjusting for baseline PA and type of intervention. Relative weight (RW) analysis revealed that PA enjoyment (baseline and change together) explained 34.3% of the dependent variable, self-efficacy (baseline and change) explained 38.4%. At follow-up, self-efficacy was still a significant predictor of PA (RW = 74.6%), whereas PA enjoyment was no longer a relevant factor (RW = 5.2%). Conclusion: The affective factor PA enjoyment was equally important as self-efficacy for predicting cancer patient' PA level directly after completion of the intervention. Reasons for the reduced relevance at follow-up and a broader range of affective factors should be analyzed in future studies on cancer patients' PA level.
Evaluation of Fault Tolerant Mobile Agent Execution

The reliable execution of a mobile agent is a very important design issue to build a mobile agent system and many fault-tolerant schemes have been proposed. Hence, in this paper, we present evaluation of the performance of the fault-tolerant schemes for the mobile agent environment. Our evaluation focuses on the checkpointing schemes and deals with the cooperating agents. We derive the FANTOMAS (Fault-Tolerant approach for Mobile Agents) design which offers a user transparent fault tolerance that can be activated on request, according to the needs of the task, also discuss how transactional agent with types of commitment constraints can commit.Furthermore this paper proposes a solution for effective agent deployment using dynamic agent domains.
Improving non-parametric option pricing during the financial crisis

Financial option prices have experienced excessive volatility in response to the recent economic and financial crisis. During the crisis periods, financial markets are, in general, subject to an abrupt regime shift which imposes a significant challenge to option pricing models. In this context, swiftly evolving markets and institutions require valuation models that are capable of recognizing and adapting to such changes. Both parametric and non-parametric pricing models have shown poor forecast ability for options traded in late 1987 and 2008. Surprisingly, the pricing inaccuracy was more pronounced for non-parametric models than for parametric models. To address this problem, we propose a novel hybrid methodology - modular neural network-fuzzy learning vector quantization (MNN-FLVQ) model - that uses the Kohonen unsupervised learning and fuzzy clustering algorithms to classify the S&P 500 stock market index options, and thereby detect a regime shift. In our empirical application, the results for the 2008 financial crisis demonstrate that the MNN-FLVQ model is superior to the competing methods in regards to option pricing during regime shifts.