Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bringing to Light Hidden Elasticity in the Liquid State Using In-Situ Pretransitional Liquid Crystal Swarms

The present work reveals that at the sub-millimeter length-scale, molecules in the liquid state are not dynamically free but elastically correlated. It is possible to “visualize” these hidden elastic correlations by using the birefringent properties of pretransitional swarms persistent in liquids presenting a weak first order transition. The strategy consists in observing the optical response of the isotropic phase of mesogenic fluids to a weak (low energy) mechanical excitation. We show that a synchronized optical response is observable at frequencies as low as 0.01Hz and at temperatures far away from any phase transition (up to at least 15°C above the transition). The observation of a synchronized optical signal at very low frequencies points out a collective response and supports the existence of long-range elastic (solid-like) correlations existing at the sub-millimeter length-scale in agreement to weak solid-like responses already identified in various liquids including liquid water. This concept of elastically linked molecules differs deeply with the academic view of molecules moving freely in the liquid state and has profound consequences on the mechanisms governing collective effects as glass formation, gelation and transport, or synchronized processes in physiological media.
SPONTANEOUS REMISSION IN ACUTE MYELOID LEUKAEMIA: A ROLE FOR ENDOGENOUS PRODUCTIONOF TUMOUR NECROSIS FACTOR AND INTERLEUKIN‐2?

would signify that auer rod expression by blast cells is sometimes a transient phenomenon due to drug-sensitive subpopulations among neoplastic progenitors: better results during auer-positive phase, more frequent drug resistance during auer-negative phase, The administration of low-dose cytarabine would have favoured selection of auer rodsnegative blast cells in our patients. We therefore conclude that the finding of auer rods in the bone marrow of RAEB patients has some prognostic significance. but it is not clear whether early intensive treatment has some impact on survival. Further observations would determine whether chemotherapy given early in RAEB patients having auer rods is better than conservative treatment and that the loss of auer rods in sequential bone marrow examinations really is a harbinger of leukaemic transformation. 1 Divisione di Medicina Interna, P. BERNARDBCHI Ospedale di Sun Miniato. Piazza X X Settembre 56027, Sun Miniato, Italy I. BONECHI chronic severe bronchial asthma exacerbation. She had been recently diagnosed by cutaneous biopsy as having Sweet's syndrome. Bone marrow examination was performed because of a low platelet count with the fmding of a slightly increased blast cell count, some of which contained auer rods. She was treated conservatively because respiratory problems were judged too severe to allow bone marrow transplantation or aggressive treatment. 9 months later a c o m e of low-dose cytarabine was given because of worsening anaemia and thrombocytopenia, with transient improvement. 1 month later auer rods were no longer detectable, and 6 months later aggressive leukaemia developed. She died from respiratory failure while remission induction by intensive chemotherapy was being attempted. In our patients, leukaemia developed from an original dysplastic bone marrow, with survival of 68 and 72 weeks, as treatment failure and fatal treatment complications were observed when aggressive treatment was attempted. In Seymour & Estey's series, antileukaemic treatment was given early in most patients having auer rods in their bone marrow, despite low blast count, with good results in terms of complete remissions. However, overall survival was not very different from that of our two patients treated conservatively until development of overt leukaemia. The observation that in both cases auer rods were lost before or at the time of leukaemic transformation, and the fact that in Seymour & Eskey's series RAEBt negative for auer rods frequently showed resistance to treatment, REFERENCE
Cardio-Metabolic Benefits of Plant-Based Diets

Cardio-metabolic disease, namely ischemic heart disease, stroke, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, represent substantial health and economic burdens. Almost one half of cardio-metabolic deaths in the U.S. might be prevented through proper nutrition. Plant-based (vegetarian and vegan) diets are an effective strategy for improving nutrient intake. At the same time, they are associated with decreased all-cause mortality and decreased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease. Evidence suggests that plant-based diets may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease events by an estimated 40% and the risk of cerebral vascular disease events by 29%. These diets also reduce the risk of developing metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes by about one half. Properly planned vegetarian diets are healthful, effective for weight and glycemic control, and provide metabolic and cardiovascular benefits, including reversing atherosclerosis and decreasing blood lipids and blood pressure. The use of plant-based diets as a means of prevention and treatment of cardio-metabolic disease should be promoted through dietary guidelines and recommendations.
Human immunodeficiency virus Tat induces functional unresponsiveness in T cells

Soluble proteins of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) might play a significant role in the pathogenesis of HIV infection. The addition of synthetic Tat peptides, but not that of the recombinant Nef or Vif protein, inhibited proliferative responses of CD4+ tetanus antigen-specific, exogenous interleukin-2 (IL-2)-independent T-cell clones in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, Tat peptides inhibited the anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody-induced proliferative responses of both purified CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Tat did not affect proliferative responses induced by phorbol myristate acetate plus ionomycin. The Tat peptides at the concentrations used (0.1 to 3 micrograms/ml) did not affect the viability of the cells as determined by trypan blue exclusion. Treatment of Tat peptides with polyclonal Tat antibodies abrogated the inhibitory effect of Tat. Soluble Tat proteins secreted by HeLa cells transfected with the tat gene also inhibited antigen-induced proliferation of the T-cell clones. Tat inhibited the anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody-induced IL-2 mRNA expression and IL-2 secretion but did not affect IL-2 receptor alpha-chain mRNA or protein expression on peripheral blood T cells. Finally, treatment of T-cell clones with the Tat peptide did not affect the antigen-induced increase in intracellular calcium, hydrolysis of phosphatidyl inositol to inositol trisphosphate, or translocation of protein kinase C from the cytosol to the membrane. These studies demonstrate that the mechanism of the Tat-mediated inhibition of T-cell functions involves a phospholipase C gamma 1-independent pathway.
Adaptive E-Learning Grid Platform

Many analysts believe that more and more organizations are looking to introduce e-learning as a way to solve critical business problems and as a vital component of an integrated approach to their training solutions. So we are introducing our next generation, e-learning grid platform to meet the evolving needs of the market, which include technology, content and services. This platform will define a new mode of service interaction and application creation. It proposes a user-friendly method for deploying interactive (mobile) devices and for accessing new and innovative added value services. The specific infrastructure will provide the technology necessary to access, arrange, manage and make available e-learning services and applications, for both individual end users and business.
CONTROL-RELEVANT CHARACTERIZATION OF NONLINEAR CLASSES OF PROCESS SYSTEMS

Abstract In this work, a nonlinearity measure is used to examine the relative severity of various classes of inherently nonlinear behavior. Using the Optimal Control Structure, the analysis includes a study of how the classes and their properties affect systems' control-relevant nonlinearity. Two chemical reactor systems that demonstrate a wide range of nonlinear behaviors are examined. The results indicate that the nonlinearity measure is able to distinguish between the different categories of nonlinear behavior. The control-relevant analysis indicates that the open-loop behavior may or may not necessarily transfer to the control-relevant setting.
A Novel Role for Pyruvate Kinase M2 as a Corepressor for P53 during the DNA Damage Response in Human Tumor Cells*

The pyruvate kinase (PK) is a rate-limiting glycolytic enzyme catalyzing the dephosphorylation of phosphoenolpyruvate to pyruvate, yielding one molecule of ATP. The M2 isoform of PK (PKM2) is predominantly expressed in normal proliferating cells and tumors, and both metabolic and non-metabolic activities for the enzyme in promoting tumor cell proliferation have been identified. However, the exact roles of PKM2 in tumor initiation, growth and maintenance are not yet fully understood. Using immunoprecipitation-coupled LC-MS/MS in MCF7 cells exposed to DNA-damaging agent, we report that the nuclear PKM2 interacts directly with P53 protein, a critical safeguard for genome stability. Specifically, PKM2 inhibits P53-dependent transactivation of the P21 gene by preventing P53 binding to the P21 promoter, leading to a nonstop G1 phase. As a result, PKM2 expression provides a growth advantage for tumor cells in the presence of a DNA damage stimulus. In addition, PKM2 interferes with phosphorylation of P53 at serine 15, known to stimulate P53 activity by the ATM serine/threonine kinase. These findings reveal a new role for PKM2 in modulating the DNA damage response and illustrate a novel mechanism of PKM2 participating in tumorigenesis.
Defragmentation algorithm for joint dynamic and static routing problems in elastic optical networks with unicast and anycast traffic

Elastic Optical Network (EON) is a new optical technology proposed to overcome limitations of the currently used Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology. The key advantages of EONs are efficient use of spectrum resources compared to classical fixed-grid in WDM networks and support of flexible modulation format conversion. Noteworthy trends observed in the last few years in communication networks are cloud computing and content-oriented services, provided by geographically dispersed data centers. Anycast transmission - defined as one-to-one-of-many - is attracting a lot of interest, since the network providers require cost-effective and scalable data delivery techniques in inter-data center networks. In this paper, we propose a new defragmentation algorithm for EONs. The key goal of the algorithm is to improve the network performance under dynamic traffic scenarios in terms of blocking probability and usage of regenerators. An important novelty of our approach is that we apply the defragmentation algorithm for both dynamic as well as for static traffic allocated in the network before the arrival of dynamic requests. Extensive numerical experiments run on real topologies with realistic traffic patterns following Cisco predictions show, that our defragmentation algorithm can significantly improve the network performance in terms of blocking probability and usage of regenerators.
Association of Chronic Kidney Disease and Peripheral Artery Disease with Inappropriate Left Ventricular Mass

Inappropriate left ventricular mass index (LVM) may develop as a response to particular hemodynamic and metabolic alterations. Inappropriate LVM and peripheral artery disease (PAD) characterized by abnormally low or high ankle-brachial index (ABI) are common in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, in whom there may be a close and cause-effect relationship. The aim of this study is to assess whether CKD and abnormal ABI has an independent and additive association with inappropriate LVM. A total of 1110 patients were included in the study. Inappropriate LVM was defined as observed LVM more than 28% of the predicted value. The ABI was measured using an ABI-form device. PAD was defined as ABI <0.9 or >1.3 in either leg. Multivariate analysis showed that patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <45 ml/min/1.73 m2 (odds ratio [OR], 1.644; P = 0.011) and PAD (OR, 2.082; P = 0.002) were independently associated with inappropriate LVM. The interaction between eGFR <45 ml/min/1.73 m2 and PAD on inappropriate LVM was statistically significant (P = 0.044). Besides, eGFR<45 ml/min/1.73 m2 (change in observed/predicted LVM, 19.949; P<0.001) and PAD (change in observed/predicted LVM, 11.818; P = 0.003) were also significantly associated with observed/predicted LVM. Our findings show that eGFR <45 ml/min/1.73 m2 and PAD are independently and additively associated with inappropriate LVM and observed/predicted LVM. Assessments of eGFR and ABI may be useful in identifying patients with inappropriate LVM.
Optimum Receive Antenna Selection for Transmit Cyclic Delay Diversity

Cyclic delay diversity (CDD) is an attractive diversity scheme due to its low complexity and compatibility to the existing standard orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems. This paper presents an novel receiver antenna selection criterion for transmit CDD systems to obtain the maximal diversity gain. The performance of the proposed system is very close to the corresponding orthogonal space-time block coding diversity schemes with optimum receiver antenna selection, but CDD has the advantages of much lower complexity and no data rate reduction. Moreover, in order to make the proposed system simpler for implementation, a low complexity antenna selection algorithm has been presented.
Earth Observation, Spatial Data Quality, and Neglected Tropical Diseases

Earth observation (EO) is the use of remote sensing and in situ observations to gather data on the environment. It finds increasing application in the study of environmentally modulated neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Obtaining and assuring the quality of the relevant spatially and temporally indexed EO data remain challenges. Our objective was to review the Earth observation products currently used in studies of NTD epidemiology and to discuss fundamental issues relating to spatial data quality (SDQ), which limit the utilization of EO and pose challenges for its more effective use. We searched Web of Science and PubMed for studies related to EO and echinococossis, leptospirosis, schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminth infections. Relevant literature was also identified from the bibliographies of those papers. We found that extensive use is made of EO products in the study of NTD epidemiology; however, the quality of these products is usually given little explicit attention. We review key issues in SDQ concerning spatial and temporal scale, uncertainty, and the documentation and use of quality information. We give examples of how these issues may interact with uncertainty in NTD data to affect the output of an epidemiological analysis. We conclude that researchers should give careful attention to SDQ when designing NTD spatial-epidemiological studies. This should be used to inform uncertainty analysis in the epidemiological study. SDQ should be documented and made available to other researchers.
Self-care in later life : research, program, and policy issues

This volume assesses the efficacy of self-care in maintaining autonomy. It applies a broad definition of self-care that includes a range of behaviors undertaken by individuals, families, and communities to enhance health, prevent disease, limit illness, and restore health. Leading authorities examine the role of self-care in the maintenance of independent functioning, the role of social support networks in facilitating and encouraging self-care, the design of self-care programs, the ways in which practitioners' knowledge about determinants of health beliefs and behaviors can shape older people's treatment behaviors, and assistive technology as an important dimension of self-care.
Compressive sensing optimization over ZigBee networks

Efficient data aggregation and compression in sensor networks is becoming fundamental with the increase of the number of nodes in the network. Although several data aggregation and compression techniques have been proposed in the literature only few of them can perform in-network compression and can extend lifetime without prior knowledge of the sensed data or without a central coordination. In this paper we consider a scenario where a wireless sensor network (WSN) exploits ZigBee protocols for smart building application. We study a classical gathering scheme and a distributed compressive sampling approach. We discuss limitations and we propose a new distributed mixed algorithm for in-network compression. With this algorithm each node takes a decision about which scheme to adopt aiming at the reducing the number of packets to transmit. We are interested in scalability of this new method and lifetime of the system with respect to the increase of network dimension. Simulations are performed using real data sets and results show that the use of this algorithm permits to obtain longer network lifetime with small computational complexity. The performances of the algorithm are also investigated when some sensor parameters are modified and sporadic readings rise in the network.
Modeling of piezoelectric actuator based on genetic neural network

Piezoelectric actuator is widely used in precision positioning mechanism for the advantages of ultra high resolution, high response frequency and rapid dynamic performance. But the displacement error is conducted for the inherent hysteretic nonlinear characteristics, and the tracking precision is limited. A modified modeling method combining the neural network with the genetic algorithm (GA) is designed in this paper to improve the modeling performance. The mechanical structure is analyzed, and a Bouc-Wen model is introduced to express the nonlinear kinetics. A three-layer neural network is applied to identify the parameters including the weight and threshold values by Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. GA is used to achieve the optimized solution of the network parameters. The data pairs including actuating voltage and corresponding displacement are regarded as the samples to train the network off-line. A low frequency triangle voltage with variable amplitude is applied to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the mean positioning error is reduced from 0. 39μm to 0. 24μm, and the maximum error from 0. 76μm to 0. 33μm respectively compared with the static neural network. A more accurate model is established for the control system design in the future.
Viruses and Human Cancer

The viruses reviewed here illustrate the diverse biological pathways to malignancy and the challenges of treating the resulting diseases. Yet the presence of the viral gene products in cancer and precancerous cells present attractive targets that may be exploited in novel therapies that distinguish these cells from normal cells. Antivirals such as lamuvidine used in heptatitis B and ganciclovir for Kaposi sarcoma specifically target the viral replication machinery. Targeting cancer cells specifically would have advantages over traditional modalities such as chemotherapy and radiation, which can include significant toxicities. Cervical cancer, because it retains HPV viral oncoproteins E6 and E7 and requires their continued expression for proliferation, provides an ideal model for cytotoxic immune therapies against these known antigens. Given the prevalence of these cancers in the developing world and the limitations of health care infrastructure, strategies for vaccine design to prevent primary infection and targeted therapies for the treatment of disease must be carefully considered in this context. Use of needles, refrigeration, multiple doses, and cost are all significant barriers to the delivery of an effective vaccine [41]. Cost, need for trained personnel and sophisticated equipment and facilities may impede global use of the most advanced targeted therapies. These challenges suggest that exploration of prophylactic strategies and development of specific, targeted therapies are both necessary to decrease this portion of the global cancer burden.
QoS online routing and MPLS multilevel protection: a survey

A survey of MPLS protection methods and their utilization in combination with online routing methods is presented in this article. Usually, fault management methods pre-establish backup paths to recover traffic after a failure. In addition, MPLS allows the creation of different backup types, and hence MPLS is a suitable method to support traffic-engineered networks. In this article, an introduction of several label switch path backup types and their pros and cons are pointed out. The creation of an LSP involves a routing phase, which should include QoS aspects. In a similar way, to achieve a reliable network the LSP backups must also be routed by a QoS routing method. When LSP creation requests arrive one by one (a dynamic network scenario), online routing methods are applied. The relationship between MPLS fault management and QoS online routing methods is unavoidable, in particular during the creation of LSP backups. Both aspects are discussed in this article. Several ideas on how these actual technologies could be applied together are presented and compared.
Nova1 mediates resistance of rat pheochromocytoma cells to hypoxia-induced apoptosis via the Bax/Bcl-2/caspase-3 pathway

Neuro-oncological ventral antigen 1 (Nova1) is a well known brain-specific splicing factor. Several studies have identified Nova1 as a regulatory protein at the top of a hierarchical network. However, the function of Nova1 during hypoxia remains poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the protective effect of Nova1 against cell hypoxia and to further explore the Bax/Bcl-2/caspase-3 pathway as a potential mechanism. During hypoxia, the survival rate of pheochromocytoma PC12 cells was gradually decreased and the apoptosis rate was gradually increased, peaking at 48 h of hypoxia. At 48 h after transfection of PC12 cells with pCMV-Myc-Nova1, the expression of Nova1 was significantly increased, with wide distribution in the cytoplasm and nucleus. Moreover, the survival rate was significantly increased and the apoptosis rate was significantly decreased. Additionally, the mRNA and protein expression levels of Bax and caspase-3 were significantly increased in the pCMV-Myc group and significantly decreased in the pCMV-Myc-Nova1 group, whereas that of Bcl-2 was significantly decreased in the pCMV-Myc group and significantly increased in the pCMV-Myc-Nova1 group. This study indicated that Nova1 could be linked to resistance to the hypoxia-induced apoptosis of PC12 cells via the Bax/Bcl-2/caspase-3 pathway, and this finding may be of significance for exploring novel mechanisms of hypoxia and the treatment of hypoxia-associated diseases.