Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Burn Out or Fade Away?

A protein whose expression is turned on by stress delays the onset of age-related pathologies. The target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase plays an evolutionarily conserved role, from yeast to human, in controlling metabolic activity in response to intracellular cues and extracellular stimuli (1). It stimulates anabolic processes that engender cell growth and proliferation by increasing protein synthesis and lipogenesis. TOR also inhibits autophagy, which is a major catabolic process. Persistent activation of TOR causes an imbalance between anabolic and catabolic processes, resulting in the accumulation of damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS), which favors the development of age-related disorders. Indeed, the inhibition of TOR by the drug rapamycin increases organism life span and reduces the incidence of age-related pathologies (2). On page 1223 of this issue, Lee et al. report that sestrin proteins prevent excessive TOR activation and delay the onset of age-related pathologies through a negative-feedback mechanism (3).
International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics New dimensions in non-classical neural computing , part II : quantum , nano , and optical

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce new non-classical implementations of neural networks (NNs). The developed implementations are performed in the quantum, nano, and optical domains to perform the required neural computing. The various implementations of the new NNs utilizing the introduced architectures are presented, and their extensions for the utilization in the non-classical neural-systolic networks are also introduced. Design/methodology/approach – The introduced neural circuits utilize recent findings in the quantum, nano, and optical fields to implement the functionality of the basic NN. This includes the techniques of many-valued quantum computing (MVQC), carbon nanotubes (CNT), and linear optics. The extensions of implementations to non-classical neural-systolic networks using the introduced neural-systolic architectures are also presented. Findings – Novel NN implementations are introduced in this paper. NN implementation using the general scheme of MVQC is presented. The proposed method uses the many-valued quantum orthonormal computational basis states to implement such computations. Physical implementation of quantum computing (QC) is performed by controlling the potential to yield specific wavefunction as a result of solving the Schrödinger equation that governs the dynamics in the quantum domain. The CNT-based implementation of logic NNs is also introduced. New implementations of logic NNs are also introduced that utilize new linear optical circuits which use coherent light beams to perform the functionality of the basic logic multiplexer by utilizing the properties of frequency, polarization, and incident angle. The implementations of non-classical neural-systolic networks using the introduced quantum, nano, and optical neural architectures are also presented. Originality/value – The introduced NN implementations form new important directions in the NN realizations using the newly emerging technologies. Since the new quantum and optical implementations have the advantages of very high-speed and low-power consumption, and the nano implementation exists in very compact space where CNT-based field effect transistor switches reliably using much less power than a silicon-based device, the introduced implementations for non-classical neural computation are new and interesting for the design in future technologies that require the optimal design specifications of super-high speed, minimum power consumption, and minimum size, such as in low-power control of autonomous robots, adiabatic low-power very-large-scale integration circuit design for signal processing applications, QC, and nanotechnology.
Coordinating two-period ordering and advertising policies in a dynamic market with stochastic demand

In this paper, we study the optimal two-stage advertising and ordering policies and the channel coordination issues in a supply chain composed of one manufacturer and one retailer. The manufacturer sells a short-life-cycle product through the retailer facing stochastic demand in dynamic markets characterised by price declines and product obsolescence. Following a two-period newsvendor framework, we develop two members’ optimal ordering and advertising models under both the centralised and decentralised settings, and present the closed-form solutions to the developed models as well. Moreover, we design a two-period revenue-sharing contract, and develop sufficient conditions such that the channel coordination can be achieved and a win–win outcome can be guaranteed. Our analysis suggests that the centralised decision creates an incentive for the retailer to increase the advertising investments in two periods and put the purchase forward, but the decentralised decision mechanism forces the retailer to decrease the advertising investments in two periods and postpone/reduce its purchase in the first period. This phenomenon becomes more evident when demand variability is high.
Lipoprotein Phenotype ApoE Polymorphism and Fish Oil Supplementation in Subjects With an

The study assessed the efficacy of fish oil supplementation in counteracting the classic dyslipidemia of the atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype (ALP). In addition, the impact of the common apolipoprotein E (apoE) polymorphism on the fasting and postprandial lipid profile and on responsiveness to the dietary intervention was established. Fifty-five ALP males (aged 34 to 69 years, body mass index 22 to 35 kg/m2, triglyceride [TG] levels 1.5 to 4.0 mmol/L, high density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C] ! 1.1 mmol/l, and percent low density lipoprotein [LDL]-3 "40% total LDL) completed a randomized placebo-controlled crossover trial of fish oil (3.0 g eicosapentaenoic acid/docosahexaenoic acid per day) and placebo (olive oil) capsules with the 6-week treatment arms separated by a 12-week washout period. In addition to fasting blood samples, at the end of each intervention arm, a postprandial assessment of lipid metabolism was carried out. Fish oil supplementation resulted in a reduction in fasting TG level of 35% (P! 0.001), in postprandial TG response of 26% (TG area under the curve, P! 0.001), and in percent LDL-3 of 26% (P! 0.05). However, no change in HDL-C levels was evident (P#0.752). ANCOVA showed that baseline HDL-C levels were significantly lower in apoE4 carriers (P#0.035). The apoE genotype also had a striking impact on lipid responses to fish oil intervention. Individuals with an apoE2 allele displayed a marked reduction in postprandial incremental TG response (TG incremental area under the curve, P#0.023) and a trend toward an increase in lipoprotein lipase activity relative to non-E2 carriers. In apoE4 individuals, a significant increase in total cholesterol and a trend toward a reduction in HDL-C relative to the common homozygous E3/E3 profile was evident. Our data demonstrate the efficacy of fish oil fatty acids in counteracting the proatherogenic lipid profile of the ALP but also that the apoE genotype influences responsiveness to this dietary treatment. (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2000;20:1990-1997.)
A roadmap for thymic epithelial cell development

Thymic epithelial cells (TEC) are essential components of the thymus that guide and control the development and TCR repertoire selection of T cells. Previously, TEC have been considered as postmitotic cells that, once generated during ontogeny, were maintained in their mature state. Recently, it has become clear that TEC can be generated from common or committed medullary and cortical TEC progenitor cells in ontogeny, that stages of immature and mature TEC are phenotypically separable, and that TEC undergo a rapid turnover in a matter of a few weeks. All of these findings strongly suggest that in the adult thymus mature TEC are constantly regenerated from a pool of stem or progenitor cells, a view that renders the thymus structure potentially much more dynamic than previously thought. However, the identity of “thymus stem cells” is elusive, and developmental stages of TEC development are only beginning to be elucidated.
Mothers' and Fathers' Differential Expectancies and Behaviors: Parent X Child Gender Effects

In 3 studies using 6 subscales, the authors investigated (a) others' parenting expectancies for mothers and fathers and (b) parents' reports of the frequency of their parenting behaviors with their 3- to 6-year-old sons and daughters. Mothers rated higher for physical care and emotional support than did fathers, and mothers reported engaging in the parenting behaviors assessed more frequently than did fathers across subscales. In each study, the authors obtained Parent X Child Gender interactions only for personal-interaction parenting (e.g., hugging their child) and found the lowest scores for fathers with daughters. These findings and the relations between parents' ratings of appropriateness and of their own behaviors support the view that gender-based expectancies prescribe gender differences in parenting.
Multiple Modality Optical Neural Imaging with VCSELs

Multiple modality optical neural imaging with VCSELs Hart Levy Masters of Applied Science Graduate Department of Electrical Engineering University of Toronto 2011 I investigate the use of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) for portable optical neural imaging. In particular, I attempt to use one laser source to produce the different illumination needed for three techniques, imaging flow, oxygenation, and fluorescence. Our group’s goal is to combine these techniques using a single source in a simple imaging format, which can be modified for portable use in awake animals. We exploit tuning properties of VCSELs to implement two distinct operation schemes with different illumination characteristics. Single mode operation provides high speckle contrasts, used to map flow speeds in laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI). Sweep operation provides low noise, allowing us to image small signal changes with intrinsic optical signal imaging (IOSI), which relate to blood oxygenation. Finally, we use our VCSEL devices for on-chip integrated fluorescence sensing. Future work aims to develop a fully portable format, using CMOS detectors and integrated circuit control.
An adaptive failure detection protocol

The detection of process failures is a crucial problem system designers have to cope with in order to build fault-tolerant distributed platforms. Unfortunately, it is impossible to distinguish with certainty a crashed process from a very slow process in a purely asynchronous distributed system. This prevents some problems from being solved in such systems. That is why failure detector oracles have been introduced to circumvent these impossibility results. The paper presents a relatively simple protocol that allows a process to "monitor" another process, and consequently to detect its crash. This protocol relies as much as possible on application messages to do this monitoring. Different from previous process crash detection protocols, it uses control messages only when no application message is sent by the monitoring process to the observed process. When the underlying system satisfies the partial synchrony assumption, it actually implements an eventually perfect failure detector (i.e., a failure detector of the class usually denoted OP). Moreover if the average observed transmission delay is finite and the upper layer application terminates within a bounded number of steps for any failure detector in OP after the failure detector becomes "perfect", then, when run with the proposed protocol, it also terminates correctly. These properties make the protocol inexpensive, implementable, and powerful. The paper also describes performance measurements of an implementation of the protocol.
An Iterative MIMO Receiver Employing Virtual Channels with a Turbo Decoder for OFDM Wireless Systems

This paper proposes a novel iterative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) receiver for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, named as an “iterative MIMO receiver employing virtual channels with a Turbo decoder. ” The proposed MIMO receiver comprises a MIMO detector with virtual channel detection and a Turbo decoder, between which signals are exchanged iteratively. This paper proposes a semi hard input soft output (SHISO) iterative decoding for the iterative MIMO receiver that achieves better performance than a soft input soft output (SISO) iterative decoding. Moreover, this paper proposes a new criterion for the MIMO detector to select the most likely virtual channel. The performance of the proposed receiver is verified in a 6 × 2 MIMO-OFDM system by computer simulation. The proposed receiver achieves better performance than the SISO MAP iterative receiver by 1.5 dB at the bit error rate (BER) of 10−4, by optimizing the number of the Turbo iteration per the SHISO iteration. Moreover, the proposed detection criterion enables the proposed receiver to achieve a gain of 3.0 dB at the BER of 10−5, compared with the SISO MAP iterative receiver with the Turbo decoder. key words: multiple-input multiple-output, virtual channel, soft-input softoutput, log likelihood ratio, iterative scheme
Effect of prone positioning during mechanical ventilation on mortality among patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Mechanical ventilation in the prone position is used to improve oxygenation and to mitigate the harmful effects of mechanical ventilation in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We sought to determine the effect of prone positioning on mortality among patients with ARDS receiving protective lung ventilation. Methods: We searched electronic databases and conference proceedings to identify relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published through August 2013. We included RCTs that compared prone and supine positioning during mechanical ventilation in patients with ARDS. We assessed risk of bias and obtained data on all-cause mortality (determined at hospital discharge or, if unavailable, after longest follow-up period). We used random-effects models for the pooled analyses. Results: We identified 11 RCTs (n = 2341) that met our inclusion criteria. In the 6 trials (n = 1016) that used a protective ventilation strategy with reduced tidal volumes, prone positioning significantly reduced mortality (risk ratio 0.74, 95% confidence interval 0.59–0.95; I2 = 29%) compared with supine positioning. The mortality benefit remained in several sensitivity analyses. The overall quality of evidence was high. The risk of bias was low in all of the trials except one, which was small. Statistical heterogeneity was low (I2 < 50%) for most of the clinical and physiologic outcomes. Interpretation: Our analysis of high-quality evidence showed that use of the prone position during mechanical ventilation improved survival among patients with ARDS who received protective lung ventilation.
Changes in sexually transmitted disease rates after HIV testing and posttest counseling, Miami, 1988 to 1989.

OBJECTIVES The effects of posttest counseling on acquisition of sexually transmitted diseases in patients at a large urban sexually transmitted disease clinic were studied. METHODS Comparisons were made of the percentage of patients who had a positive gonorrhea culture (or any sexually transmitted disease) in the 6 months before and after human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) counseling and testing. RESULTS For 331 patients counseled about a positive HIV test, the percentage with gonorrhea was 6.3 before and 4.5 after posttest counseling (29% decrease). For 666 patients counseled about a negative test, the percentage with gonorrhea was 2.4 before and 5.0 after posttest counseling (106% increase). With any sexually transmitted disease as the outcome, patients who tested positive for HIV had a 12% decrease and patients who tested negative had a 103% increase after counseling. CONCLUSIONS HIV counseling and testing was associated with a moderate decrease in sexually transmitted diseases among patients who tested positive for the virus, but risk increased for patients who tested negative. This suggests a need to improve posttest counseling in this clinic and to assess the effects of counseling and testing in other clinics.
Effects of a premolt calcium and low-energy molt program on laying hen 1 performance , egg quality and economics 1 2 3

The objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare the effects of production, physiology, egg quality, and economics of laying hens housed in a cage system when offered a calcium premolt treatment and lowenergy molt diets versus a traditional feed withdrawal (FW) treatment during and after molt. In total, 981 HyLine W-36 laying hens (85 wk of age) housed 3 per cage were used. Six treatments were compared in a 2 × 3 factorial design with 2 calcium premolt treatments (fine and coarse) and 3 molt diets (FW, soybean hulls, and wheat middlings). The coarse Ca was a 50:50 mix of fine (0.14-mm mean diameter) and coarse (2.27-mm mean diameter) CaCO3, whereas the fine Ca was an all-fine CaCO3. Both diets were formulated to contain 4.6% Ca, such that only the particle size of the CaCO3 differed. Production parameters in experiment 1 included egg production, egg weight and mass, specific gravity, Haugh units, egg components, feed consumption and utilization, and BW. Physiological parameters in experiment 2 included ovary and oviduct weights, femurand humerus-ash percentages, heterophil to lymphocyte ratios, plasma Ca and inorganic P concentrations, and alkaline phosphatase activity. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and P < 0.05 was significant. The fine-Ca premolt treatment was more effective than the coarse-Ca treatment at decreasing egg production during molt and increasing it postmolt, regardless of the molt diet. The FW molt diet resulted in the greatest decrease in production, but the soybean hulls diet resulted in lower production and ovary and oviduct weights during molt compared with those of the wheat middlings molt diet. Therefore, a fine-Ca premolt treatment and a low-energy molt diet, particularly soybean hulls, can be useful alternatives to a FW molt.
Semiparametric Bayes Joint Modeling with Functional Predictors

We consider the problem of semiparametric Bayes joint modeling of predictors and a response variable, with a particular emphasis on functional predictors. Parametric models for the predictor and response are coupled through a joint distribution for subjectspecific predictor and response coefficients. This joint distribution is assigned a flexible mixture prior, which allows the response distribution within predictor clusters to be unknown. Marginalizing out the random atoms and random weights, we obtain a useful closed form bivariate predictor rule. To avoid label ambiguity and accelerate computation, we propose a combined sequential updating and Gibbs sampling algorithm for posterior computation. The methods are applied to data on weight gain during pregnancy and birth weight.
Visual Distractors Disrupt Audiovisual Integration Regardless of Stimulus Complexity

The intricate relationship between multisensory integration and attention has been extensively researched in the multisensory field; however, the necessity of attention for the binding of multisensory stimuli remains contested. In the current study, we investigated whether diverting attention from well-known multisensory tasks would disrupt integration and whether the complexity of the stimulus and task modulated this interaction. A secondary objective of this study was to investigate individual differences in the interaction of attention and multisensory integration. Participants completed a simple audiovisual speeded detection task and McGurk task under various perceptual load conditions: no load (multisensory task while visual distractors present), low load (multisensory task while detecting the presence of a yellow letter in the visual distractors), and high load (multisensory task while detecting the presence of a number in the visual distractors). Consistent with prior studies, we found that increased perceptual load led to decreased reports of the McGurk illusion, thus confirming the necessity of attention for the integration of speech stimuli. Although increased perceptual load led to longer response times for all stimuli in the speeded detection task, participants responded faster on multisensory trials than unisensory trials. However, the increase in multisensory response times violated the race model for no and low perceptual load conditions only. Additionally, a geometric measure of Miller’s inequality showed a decrease in multisensory integration for the speeded detection task with increasing perceptual load. Surprisingly, we found diverging changes in multisensory integration with increasing load for participants who did not show integration for the no load condition: no changes in integration for the McGurk task with increasing load but increases in integration for the detection task. The results of this study indicate that attention plays a crucial role in multisensory integration for both highly complex and simple multisensory tasks and that attention may interact differently with multisensory processing in individuals who do not strongly integrate multisensory information.
Researches concerning the construction of ultrasonic gas filters

The paper presents a detailed analysis of the main disadvantages presented by the classic devices of filtration and purification of gases of any nature. Following the analysis of the main phenomena that occur in the propagation of ultrasounds through a gaseous medium: propagation velocity; compressing and scaling the environment according to the nature of ultrasonic waves; reflection and refraction of ultrasonic waves at the solid-gas interface; the creation of stationary waves and the emergence of pressure knots and antinodes; diffraction and diffusion of ultrasonic waves; attenuation of ultra-acoustic energy; ultraacoustic absorption; ultrasonic cavitation, etc. it is proposed to use the effects of their propagation in the filtration and purification process and the construction of ultrasonic filters operating on the principle of “ultrasonic agglomeration” on the principle of “ultrasonic shaking” or combined. The design of an ultrasonic filter in such a way that stationary waves allow it to retain the finest dust particles because in the pressure antinodes there is a phenomenon of coalescence involving the addition of fine particles to a larger particle (> 10 μm) which no longer represents a retention problem such that an ultrasonic filter has a retention depth of nearly 100%. During the propagation of the ultrasonic waves in the gaseous medium, compressions and dilatations are produced and the compression zone temperature becomes higher than in the scraping zone and hence in the depression area the extraction of the water from the environment takes place and in the compression zone it is being vaporized, therefore air drying is also carried out. By “ultrasonic agglomeration” of fine particles, their initial mass increases by coalescence of 2500 to 3500 times compared to the mass of the primary particles, being easily captured by the filter element, and by “ultrasonic shaking” the phenomenon of stomping of the cartridge filtering or clogging, performing cleaning during operation, without requiring interruption of gas transport and removal of the filter. Experimentally it was found that for a maximum filtration depth, increased efficiency of the filtration and purification process, a logical sequence of ultrasonic filters fitting their possibilities to completely retain the solid particles, to remove the water particles and to dry the gases. In the paper are presented four types of ultrasonic filters with possible use in gas filtration and purification: cyclone ultrasonic filter, vertical ultrasonic filter, ultrasonic horizontal conical filter and final ultrasonic filter, with their advantages and disadvantages.