Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mechanisms of Photoreceptor Death During Retinal Degeneration

The development of treatments that slow photoreceptor death could profoundly improve patient wellbeing in those with inherited retinal degenerations. Over recent years, it has emerged that extracellular adenosine-tri-phosphate (ATP) regulates the function of photoreceptors in rodents and primates. Moreover, when the retina is exposed to high levels of ATP, rapid death of photoreceptors occurs, which can be blocked by pretreatment with antagonists to P2X receptors. Compounds that inhibit the action of extracellular ATP slow photoreceptor loss in an animal model of inherited retinal degeneration. In this article, I provide an overview of our work in relation to other research in this area and suggest a model by which ATP contributes to photoreceptor death in inherited retinal degenerations.
Development of antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity in the respiratory tract after natural infection with respiratory syncytial virus

Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) was measured in nasopharyngeal secretions collected from 42 infants and young children at various intervals after primary or secondary infection with respiratory syncytial virus. ADCC was determined by specific immune release of 51Cr from respiratory syncytial virus-infected HEp-2 cell culture monolayers, with lymphocytes from adult volunteers as effector cells. Specific ADCC responses in nasopharyngeal secretions after primary infection were observed as early as 3 days after the onset of clinical symptoms, and peak activity was observed 14 to 29 days after the onset of illness. ADCC responses after reinfection were significantly greater in both the acute and convalescent phases (P less than 0.05) than were ADCC responses after primary infection. ADCC in secretions was mediated primarily by the immunoglobulin G isotype of respiratory syncytial virus antibody.
Stress, Inflammation, and Yoga Practice

Objective: To address the mechanisms underlying hatha yoga’s potential stress-reduction benefits, we compared inflammatory and endocrine responses of novice and expert yoga practitioners before, during, and after a restorative hatha yoga session, as well as in two control conditions. Stressors before each of the three conditions provided data on the extent to which yoga speeded an individual’s physiological recovery. Methods: A total of 50 healthy women (mean age, 41.32 years; range, 30–65 years), 25 novices and 25 experts, were exposed to each of the conditions (yoga, movement control, and passive-video control) during three separate visits. Results: The yoga session boosted participants’ positive affect compared with the control conditions, but no overall differences in inflammatory or endocrine responses were unique to the yoga session. Importantly, even though novices and experts did not differ on key dimensions, including age, abdominal adiposity, and cardiorespiratory fitness, novices’ serum interleukin (IL)-6 levels were 41% higher than those of experts across sessions, and the odds of a novice having detectable C-reactive protein (CRP) were 4.75 times as high as that of an expert. Differences in stress responses between experts and novices provided one plausible mechanism for their divergent serum IL-6 data; experts produced less lipopolysaccharide-stimulated IL-6 in response to the stressor than novices, and IL-6 promotes CRP production. Conclusion: The ability to minimize inflammatory responses to stressful encounters influences the burden that stressors place on an individual. If yoga dampens or limits stress-related changes, then regular practice could have substantial health benefits. CRC = Clinical Research Center; CRP = C-reactive protein; HR = heart rate; hsCRP = high-sensitivity C-reactive protein; IL = interleukin; LPS = lipopolysaccharide; MASQ = Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire; PANAS = Positive and Negative Affect Scale; PBLs = peripheral blood leukocytes; sIL-6r = soluble IL-6 receptor; TEWL = transepidermal water loss; TNF = tumor necrosis factor; &OV0312;o2 max = maximum oxygen consumption.
Gene identification in novel eukaryotic genomes by self-training algorithm

Finding new protein-coding genes is one of the most important goals of eukaryotic genome sequencing projects. However, genomic organization of novel eukaryotic genomes is diverse and ab initio gene finding tools tuned up for previously studied species are rarely suitable for efficacious gene hunting in DNA sequences of a new genome. Gene identification methods based on cDNA and expressed sequence tag (EST) mapping to genomic DNA or those using alignments to closely related genomes rely either on existence of abundant cDNA and EST data and/or availability on reference genomes. Conventional statistical ab initio methods require large training sets of validated genes for estimating gene model parameters. In practice, neither one of these types of data may be available in sufficient amount until rather late stages of the novel genome sequencing. Nevertheless, we have shown that gene finding in eukaryotic genomes could be carried out in parallel with statistical models estimation directly from yet anonymous genomic DNA. The suggested method of parallelization of gene prediction with the model parameters estimation follows the path of the iterative Viterbi training. Rounds of genomic sequence labeling into coding and non-coding regions are followed by the rounds of model parameters estimation. Several dynamically changing restrictions on the possible range of model parameters are added to filter out fluctuations in the initial steps of the algorithm that could redirect the iteration process away from the biologically relevant point in parameter space. Tests on well-studied eukaryotic genomes have shown that the new method performs comparably or better than conventional methods where the supervised model training precedes the gene prediction step. Several novel genomes have been analyzed and biologically interesting findings are discussed. Thus, a self-training algorithm that had been assumed feasible only for prokaryotic genomes has now been developed for ab initio eukaryotic gene identification.
Operation of reconfigurable mobile device for spectrum sharing

In order for a mobile device to efficiently support the spectrum sharing, the mobile device shall be reconfigurable, meaning that its radio application code has to be adaptively changed in accordance with the hopping of desired spectral band. Based on the standard architecture defined in Working Group (WG)2 of Technical Committee (TC) - Reconfigurable Radio System (RRS) of European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), this paper presents related procedures among the software entities of the reconfigurable mobile device required for implementing the spectrum sharing. In this paper, we consider the scenario of the spectrum sharing that has been demonstrated in WG1 of TC-RRS of ETSI. The related parameters such as center frequency, modulation scheme, etc considered in this paper are also based on what have been presented by the WG1 of TC-RRS. This paper also addresses the interactions among the standard software entities of the reconfigurable mobile device and required interfaces services.
Feelings and Moods

Contents A little girl falls over PART ONE Existence Chapter 1 - Feelings and moods: towards understanding Chapter 2 - Feelings and moods: the pain and the pleasure Chapter 3 - Rumination and losing control Chapter 4 - Introspection PART TWO Suffering Chapter 5 - Painful feelings and moods Chapter 6 - Anxieties Chapter 7 - Resentment Chapter 8 - Sadness Chapter 9 - Despair Chapter 10 - Fragility Chapter 11 - Calm and energy Chapter 12 - Regulating feelings and moods Chapter 13 - Curing ourselves of the disease of materialism Chapter 14 - Living mindfully Chapter 15 - Compassion, self-compassion and the power of gentleness Chapter 16 - Happiness Chapter 17 - Wisdom Conclusion - See you tomorrow, life Footnotes Acknowledgments
Extraction of 3D Transform and Scale Invariant Patches from Range Scans

An algorithm is proposed to extract transformation and scale invariant 3D fundamental elements from the surface structure of 3D range scan data. The surface is described by mean and Gaussian curvature values at every data point at various scales and a scale-space search is performed in order to extract the fundamental structures and to estimate the location and the scale of each fundamental structure. The extracted fundamental structures can later be used as nodes in a topological graph where the links between the nodes can be defined as the spatial and geometric relations between the fundamental elements.
Children, nature, and the urban environment: proceedings of a symposium-fair

A report on the symposium-fair held 19-23 May, 1975 at the C. H. Marvin Center, the George Washington University, Washington, D.C., containing 33 papers. Sections are devoted to defining the role of natural environments and human development, research on urban children and the natural environment, and community and institutional response to fostering desirable relationships between nature and development of urban children.
Joint routing, scheduling, and physical network coding in fixed wireless multihop networks

We study joint routing, scheduling, and physical network coding (PNC) in fixed wireless multihop networks under a physical interference model. The objective is to quantify the throughput gain provided by PNC in wireless mesh networks. We formulate a cross-layer optimization framework to determine the optimal max-min throughput of the flows and the optimal configuration of the routing and scheduling parameters in multi-hop wireless networks with PNC. We solve the problem for several small to medium size wireless mesh networks. Our numerical results show that PNC provides a significant throughput gain in wireless mesh networks at low transmission power. This throughput gain is significantly higher than the throughput gain of the XOR-like network coding.
Brief announcement: sources of instability in data center multicast

Data centers, and particularly the massive ones that support cloud computing, e-commerce, social networking and other large-scale functionality, necessarily replicate data. Our basic premise is that since updates to replicated data can be thought of as reliable multicasts, data center multicast is a potentially important technology. Nonetheless, a series of recent keynote speeches at major conferences makes it clear that data center multicast is a troubled area [4, 2]. One might expect such technologies to use IP multicast hardware, but in fact this is rare. Only TCP is really trusted today (because it backs down when loss occurs), and indeed, TCP is the overwhelming favorite among data center transport protocols [3]. Using TCP to get reliable multicast with high throughput produces an implicit TCP overlay tree.
Seed localization in Ultrasound and Registration to C-Arm Fluoroscopy Using Matched Needle Tracks for Prostate Brachytherapy

We propose a novel fiducial-free approach for the registration of C-arm fluoroscopy to 3-D ultrasound images of prostate brachytherapy implants to enable dosimetry. The approach involves the reliable detection of a subset of radioactive seeds from 3-D ultrasound, and the use of needle tracks in both ultrasound and fluoroscopy for registration. Seed detection in ultrasound is achieved through template matching in 3-D radio frequency ultrasound signals, followed by thresholding and spatial filtering. The resulting subset of seeds is registered to the complete reconstruction of the brachytherapy implant from multiple C-arm fluoroscopy views. To compensate for the deformation caused by the ultrasound probe, simulated warping is applied to the seed cloud from fluoroscopy. The magnitude of the applied warping is optimized within the registration process. The registration is performed in two stages. First, the needle track projections from fluoroscopy and ultrasound are matched. Only the seeds in the matched needles are then used as fiducials for point-based registration. We report results from a physical phantom with a realistic implant (average postregistration seed distance of 1.6 $\pm $ 1.2 mm) and from five clinical patient datasets (average error: 2.8 $\pm$ 1.5 mm over 128 detected seeds). We conclude that it is feasible to use RF ultrasound data, template matching, and spatial filtering to detect a reliable subset of brachytherapy seeds from ultrasound to enable registration to fluoroscopy for dosimetry.
‘BREAKS’ Protocol for Breaking Bad News

Information that drastically alters the life world of the patient is termed as bad news. Conveying bad news is a skilled communication, and not at all easy. The amount of truth to be disclosed is subjective. A properly structured and well-orchestrated communication has a positive therapeutic effect. This is a process of negotiation between patient and physician, but physicians often find it difficult due to many reasons. They feel incompetent and are afraid of unleashing a negative reaction from the patient or their relatives. The physician is reminded of his or her own vulnerability to terminal illness, and find themselves powerless over emotional distress. Lack of sufficient training in breaking bad news is a handicap to most physicians and health care workers. Adherence to the principles of client-centered counseling is helpful in attaining this skill. Fundamental insight of the patient is exploited and the bad news is delivered in a structured manner, because the patient is the one who knows what is hurting him most and he is the one who knows how to move forward. Six-step SPIKES protocol is widely used for breaking bad news. In this paper, we put forward another six-step protocol, the BREAKS protocol as a systematic and easy communication strategy for breaking bad news. Development of competence in dealing with difficult situations has positive therapeutic outcome and is a professionally satisfying one.
Survival Strategies in the Aquatic and Terrestrial World: The Impact of Second Messengers on Cyanobacterial Processes

Second messengers are intracellular substances regulated by specific external stimuli globally known as first messengers. Cells rely on second messengers to generate rapid responses to environmental changes and the importance of their roles is becoming increasingly realized in cellular signaling research. Cyanobacteria are photooxygenic bacteria that inhabit most of Earth’s environments. The ability of cyanobacteria to survive in ecologically diverse habitats is due to their capacity to adapt and respond to environmental changes. This article reviews known second messenger-controlled physiological processes in cyanobacteria. Second messengers used in these systems include the element calcium (Ca2+), nucleotide-based guanosine tetraphosphate or pentaphosphate (ppGpp or pppGpp, represented as (p)ppGpp), cyclic adenosine 3’,5’-monophosphate (cAMP), cyclic dimeric GMP (c-di-GMP), cyclic guanosine 3’,5’-monophosphate (cGMP), and cyclic dimeric AMP (c-di-AMP), and the gaseous nitric oxide (NO). The discussion focuses on processes central to cyanobacteria, such as nitrogen fixation, light perception, photosynthesis-related processes, and gliding motility. In addition, we address future research trajectories needed to better understand the signaling networks and cross talk in the signaling pathways of these molecules in cyanobacteria. Second messengers have significant potential to be adapted as technological tools and we highlight possible novel and practical applications based on our understanding of these molecules and the signaling networks that they control.
Neurology of the vasculitides and connective tissue diseases

Neurological and psychiatric abnormalities are frequent complications of systemic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The range and acuity of these abnormalities vary widely, as do the immunopathogenic mechanisms. Progress in the understanding of likely mechanisms and potential therapies in these groups of disorders has come from diverse areas of investigation. Studies during the past decade detail the intrinsic role of the vasculature in the physiology of inflammation. Numerous small soluble molecules mediate autocrine and paracrine effects within and between cells of the vasculature, tissue parenchyma, and haematopoietic system. Further, various pathological processes use the same mediators to actively target or passively injure blood vessels. These processes, which may result in acute or chronic vascular injury, are clearly evident in many of the systemic autoimmune diseases. In addition, systemwide responses to inflammatory stress or local injury evoke cascades and feedback loops of hormones and neurotransmitters. Although these responses are adaptive to the acute situation, they may contribute to the chronic injury when persistently activated. In another area, autoantibodies, prominent in many autoimmune diseases, are potential causes of cellular dysfunction. Distinguishing among the protective, pathogenic, and neutral role of autoantibodies, however, requires careful study. The vasculitides and connective tissue diseases provide an avenue for investigating the pathophysiology of immune injury among the vasculature of the central and peripheral nervous systems, the viscera, and the skin. In the vasculitides, the blood vessels are the central target of acute immune injury; in the connective tissue diseases they are one of the targets in processes with tempos ranging from indolent and chronic to acute and fulminant. Neurological abnormalities occur prominently in some of these diseases and infrequently in others. Here, we update information on some of the vasculitides and connective tissue diseases most often encountered by the neurologist or neuroscientist with an emphasis on the neurovascular …
Biological properties of different protein extracts from selenium-enriched Ganoderma lucidum

Our previous studies showed that Ganoderma lucidum bio-transformed 20–30% of inorganic selenium from substrate to organic forms by preferentially incorporating selenium into proteins. In the present study, four kinds of protein extracts from selenium-enriched G. lucidum were prepared with different extracting solvents, which contain water-soluble, alkaline-soluble, salt-soluble and alcohol-soluble protein extracts, and the effects on antioxidant activity of characterizations of protein extracts were studied. Results showed that water-soluble extract showed strongest antioxidant properties among all extracts as suggested by spin trapping experiment due to its characterizations, followed by the alkaline-soluble > the salt-soluble >the alcohol-soluble protein extracts, a result demonstrating that selenium content and amino acids composition of the protein extracts play important and direct roles in enhancing their antioxidant activities, and the protein distribution and sugar content have an indirect effect by influencing the characters and structures. The activity of water-soluble crude protein was verified by CuSO4–Phen–Vc–H2O2–DNA chemiluminescent analysis, and it should be selected as the subject to be studied and purified further.
ANIMITEX project: Image Analysis based on Textual Information

With the amount of textual data available on the web, new methodologies of knowledge extraction domain are provided. Some original methods allow the users to combine different types of data in order to extract relevant information. In this context, this paper draws the main objectives of the ANIMITEX project which combines spatial and textual data. The data preprocessing step is detailed.
The Effect of Cognitive Behavior Therapy-Based Psychotherapy Applied in a Forest Environment on Physiological Changes and Remission of Major Depressive Disorder

Objective Psychotherapeutic intervention combined with pharmacotherapy is helpful for achieving remission of depressive disorder. We developed and tested the effect of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT)-based psychotherapy applied in a forest environment on major depressive disorder. Methods We performed 4 sessions during 4 weeks (3 hours/session) in patients with major depressive disorder during pharmacotherapy. For the forest group, sessions were performed in the forest; for the hospital group, sessions were performed in the hospital. The control group was treated with the usual outpatient management. Results A total of 63 patients completed the study: 23 in the forest group, 19 in the hospital group, and 21 in the control group. Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression (HRSD) scores of the forest group were significantly decreased after 4 sessions compared with controls. Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scales (MADRS) scores of the forest group were significantly decreased compared with both the hospital group and the controls. The remission rate (7 and below in HRSD) of the forest group was 61% (14/23), significantly higher than both the hospital group (21%, 4/19) and the controls (5%, 1/21). In heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, some measurements representing HRV and parasympathetic nerve tone were increased in the forest group after 4 sessions. The salivary cortisol levels of the forest group were significantly decreased. Conclusion CBT-based psychotherapy applied in the forest environment was helpful in the achievement of depression remission, and its effect was superior to that of psychotherapy performed in the hospital and the usual outpatient management. A good environment such as a forest helps improve the effect of psychotherapeutic intervention because it includes various natural instruments and facilitators in the treatment of depression.
Evidence That HLA Class I and II Associations With Type 1 Diabetes, Autoantibodies to GAD and Autoantibodies to IA-2, Are Distinct

OBJECTIVE A major feature of type 1 diabetes is the appearance of islet autoantibodies before diagnosis. However, although the genetics of type 1 diabetes is advanced, the genetics of islet autoantibodies needs further investigation. The primary susceptibility loci in type 1 diabetes, the HLA class I and II genes, are believed to determine the specificity and magnitude of the autoimmune response to islet antigens. We investigated the association of glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies (GADA) and insulinoma-associated antigen-2 autoantibodies (IA-2A) with the HLA region. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Associations of GADA and IA-2A with HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQB1, HLA-B, HLA-C, HLA-A, MICA, and 3,779 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were analyzed in 2,531 childhood-onset case subjects (median time since diagnosis 5 years). All analyses were adjusted for age-at-diagnosis and duration of diabetes. RESULTS GADA and IA-2A were associated with an older age-at-diagnosis (P < 10−19). For GADA, the primary association was with HLA-DQB1 (P = 9.00 × 10−18), with evidence of a second independent effect in the HLA class I region with SNP, rs9266722 (P = 2.84 × 10−6). HLA-DRB1 had the strongest association with IA-2A (P = 1.94 × 10−41), with HLA-A*24 adding to the association, albeit negatively (P = 1.21 × 10−10). There was no evidence of association of either IA-2A or GADA with the highly type 1 diabetes predisposing genotype, HLA-DRB1*03/04. CONCLUSIONS Despite genetic association of type 1 diabetes and the islet autoantibodies localizing to the same HLA class II genes, HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1, the effects of the class II alleles and genotypes involved are quite different. Therefore, the presence of autoantibodies is unlikely to be causal, and their role in pathogenesis remains to be established.