Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adherence to, Invasion by, and Cytokine Production in Response to Serotype VIII Group B Streptococci

ABSTRACT The adherence to and invasion of the human epithelial cell line A549 by group B streptococcus (GBS) serotype VIII strains were compared with those of serotype III strains by a conventional method and the dynamic in vitro attachment and invasion system. Twenty GBS strains, including nine vaginal isolates and one invasive isolate each of serotypes III and VIII, were used in the conventional attachment and invasion assay. Adherence to and invasion of A549 cells by serotype VIII GBS strains were significantly greater (P < 0.0001) than those by serotype III strains for both the invasive strain and vaginal isolates. Cytokine production by A549 cells following stimulation with GBS serotypes III and VIII or their purified capsular polysaccharides (CPS) was measured. Serotype III strains stimulated significantly greater tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) (P < 0.0001) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) (P < 0.05) production than did serotype VIII strains. IL-8 production in response to serotype VIII was significantly higher (P < 0.001) than that in response to serotype III. TNF-α, IL-8, and IL-10 production was greater in A549 cells infected with GBS than in the untreated control cells. TNF-α production was significantly greater (P < 0.005) after stimulation with purified GBS serotype III CPS than after stimulation with serotype VIII CPS, a result similar to that after stimulation with whole GBS. IL-12 production by A549 cells was observed only in response to infection with GBS serotype III, resulting in the possibility of a greater TH1 response in serotype III GBS. These results suggest differences in immune responses to infection with GBS serotypes III and VIII.
Analysis of Tubular Structures in Medical Imaging

A method fully utilizing multiscale line filter responses is presented to estimate the point spread function(PSF) of a CT scanner and diameters of small tubular structures based on the PSF. The estimation problem is formulated as a least square fitting of a sequence of multiscale responses obtained at each medical axis point to the precomputed multiscale response curve for the ideal line model. The method was validated through phantom experiments and demonstrated through phantom experiments and demonstrated to accurately measure small-diameter structures which are significantly overestimated by conventional methods based on the full width half maximum(FWHM) and zero-crossing edge detection.
Effects of immunotherapy on experimental immunodeficiency-related lymphoproliferative disease.

BACKGROUND Human lymphokine-activated cells (LAK cells) and interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) have been used clinically in the therapy of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). However, the efficacy of such therapy has not been extensively tested under controlled experimental conditions. METHODS A B-cell line, derived from PTLD tissue and clonally related to the parent lesion, was tested for its response to IFN-alpha in vitro. The effects of LAK cells and IFN-alpha therapy were examined in a severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) mouse model in vivo. RESULTS The PTLD cell line studied showed a 30% decrease in the rate of growth upon incubation with 500 U/ml of IFN-alpha. This in vitro response was also reproduced in vivo, in tumor therapy studies conducted in SCID mice. The magnitude of this inhibitory effect in vivo was a function of tumor burden and dose of IFN-alpha. In parallel experiments, LAK cells reduced the tumorigenicity of a lymphoblastoid cell line derived from the peripheral blood of a patient with PTLD, and prolonged the survival of SCID-beige mice with established lymphoproliferative disease. In contrast with two prior studies, in which the use of autologous cytotoxic T cells was found to be necessary, we found the administration of third-party non-HLA-matched LAK cells also to be effective in reducing tumor burden. CONCLUSIONS These observations demonstrate the efficacy of immunotherapy for lymphoproliferative disease under controlled experimental conditions, and validate currently ongoing efforts exploring the utility of such therapy in the clinical setting.
Nucleophilic Trapping Nitrilimine Generated by Photolysis of Diaryltetrazole in Aqueous Phase

Nitrilimine generated by photolysis of diaryltetrazole in aqueous phase under mild conditions was trapped by nucleophiles including amines and thioalcohols. The representative products were characterized, while products with all 20 natural amino acids and a peptide were observed by MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy. Competitive studies showed that this reaction also occurred in the presence of acrylamide. These results provided new information for understanding the potential side reactions when tetrazole-alkene pairs were used as a bioorthogonal reaction in labeling proteins and related studies in buffered systems.
Light Vectors for a Moving Observer

Interactive rendering is usually made with very simple illumination models. High quality rendering is too slow to be interactive. In this paper, we extend the notion of light vector by computing it in 5D and we try to obtain an interactive high quality rendering with global illumination by merging the notion of light vector with the render cache approach.
Fabrication of tapered, conical-shaped titania nanotubes

Using anodic oxidation with a time-dependent linearly varying anodization voltage, we have made films of tapered, conical-shaped titania nanotubes. The tapered, conical-shaped nanotubes were obtained by anodizing titanium foil in a 0.5% hydrofluoric acid electrolyte, with the anodization voltage linearly increased from 10-23 V at rates varying from 2.0-0.43 V/min. The linearly increasing anodization voltage results in a linearly increasing nanotube diameter, with the outcome being an array of conical-shaped nanotubes approximately 500 nm in length. Evidence provided by scanning electron-microscope images of the titanium substrate during the initial stages of the anodization process enabled us to propose a mechanism of nanotube formation.
Knowledge and attitudes of psychiatrists towards eating disorders.

OBJECTIVE This study examined the eating disorder mental health literacy of psychiatrists. METHOD A sample of psychiatrists completed a questionnaire measuring knowledge of and attitudes towards eating disorders. Knowledge questions were based on the academic literature, standard diagnostic criteria and national guidelines on the management of eating disorders. Attitude items covered beliefs about the aetiology and treatment of eating disorders, confidence levels in diagnosis and management and the use of compulsory measures in anorexia nervosa. RESULTS Psychiatrists’ knowledge of eating disorders was variable with specific gaps in both diagnosis and management. Psychiatrists felt more confident in diagnosing eating disorders than managing these conditions. Attitudes towards eating disorders were less stigmatizing than those seen in other health professionals. DISCUSSION There is a clear need for greater education of psychiatrists regarding the diagnosis and management of eating disorders. Implementing training programmes and making information readily available could contribute to addressing these issues.
The effects of air pollution on mortality and clinicopathological features of esophageal cancer

This study aimed to estimate the associations between air pollution and esophageal cancer. In the ecologic cross-sectional study, correlation analyses were made between city-level mean concentrations of particulate matter less than 10μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), SO2, NO2 and city-level age-standardized mortality rates of esophageal cancer in Shandong Province, China. PM10 (p=0.046) and NO2 (p=0.03) both had significant linear correlations with esophageal cancer mortality rates. After introducing smoking as a risk factor in models of multiple linear regression analyses, PM10 was still an independent risk factor that increased esophageal cancer mortality rates. This study further compared clinicopathological features of 1,255 eligible esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients by dividing them into different pollution level groups. There was statistically significant difference in gender distributions (p=0.02) between groups after subgroup analysis. Female patients accounted for a higher proportion in the high PM10 level group than in the low PM10 level group. It suggested that females were more sensitive to higher PM10 level pollution. The features that manifested the degree of malignancy of esophageal cancer, including primary tumor invasion, regional lymph nodes metastasis, histological grade, stage, lymph-vascular invasion and tumor size demonstrated no statistically significant difference between groups.
Similarity of histograms and circular histograms from interval and fuzzy data

In this paper, building on the general concepts of histograms and particularly focusing on histograms describing fuzzy data, we define various similarity measures that can be used to assess the similarity of histograms. Circular histograms are discussed as special case and the concept of modulo similarity in comparing circular histograms is extended to the case of fuzzy data. Additionally, we propose a bin-based similarity approach applicable to circular histograms. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the usefulness of the introduced measures.
Brittle Culm 12, a dual-targeting kinesin-4 protein, controls cell-cycle progression and wall properties in rice

Kinesins are encoded by a large gene family involved in many basic processes of plant development. However, the number of functionally identified kinesins in rice is very limited. Here, we report the functional characterization of Brittle Culm12 (BC12), a gene encoding a kinesin-4 protein. bc12 mutants display dwarfism resulting from a significant reduction in cell number and brittleness due to an alteration in cellulose microfibril orientation and wall composition. BC12 is expressed mainly in tissues undergoing cell division and secondary wall thickening. In vitro biochemical analyses verified BC12 as an authentic motor protein. This protein was present in both the nucleus and cytoplasm and associated with microtubule arrays during cell division. Mitotic microtubule array comparison, flow cytometric analysis and expression assays of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) complexes in root-tip cells showed that cell-cycle progression is affected in bc12 mutants. BC12 is very probably regulated by CDKA;3 based on yeast two-hybrid and microarray data. Therefore, BC12 functions as a dual-targeting kinesin protein and is implicated in cell-cycle progression, cellulose microfibril deposition and wall composition in the monocot plant rice.
Multiuser Orthogonal Space-Division Multiplexing with Iterative Water-Filling Algorithm

The problem of multiuser multiplexing with a MIMO sub system for each individual user is considered. We demonstrate that the capacity performance of the null space based spatial multiplexing schemes can be improved with iter- ative power allocation within the iterative design process. We considered water-filling based local and global power allocation and demonstrate that both schemes outperform the existing null space based spatial diversity technique in terms of mean capacity and outage capacity. Index Terms—Channel capacity, multiple-input multiple- output (MIMO), power allocation, spatial diversity techniques
A Novel Multiplex Cell Viability Assay for High-Throughput RNAi Screening

Cell-based high-throughput RNAi screening has become a powerful research tool in addressing a variety of biological questions. In RNAi screening, one of the most commonly applied assay system is measuring the fitness of cells that is usually quantified using fluorescence, luminescence and absorption-based readouts. These methods, typically implemented and scaled to large-scale screening format, however often only yield limited information on the cell fitness phenotype due to evaluation of a single and indirect physiological indicator. To address this problem, we have established a cell fitness multiplexing assay which combines a biochemical approach and two fluorescence-based assaying methods. We applied this assay in a large-scale RNAi screening experiment with siRNA pools targeting the human kinome in different modified HEK293 cell lines. Subsequent analysis of ranked fitness phenotypes assessed by the different assaying methods revealed average phenotype intersections of 50.7±2.3%–58.7±14.4% when two indicators were combined and 40–48% when a third indicator was taken into account. From these observations we conclude that combination of multiple fitness measures may decrease false-positive rates and increases confidence for hit selection. Our robust experimental and analytical method improves the classical approach in terms of time, data comprehensiveness and cost.
Mechanical properties of talc-filled polypropylene : influence of filler content, filler particle size and quality of dispersion

Mechanical properties of polypropylene-talc composites are measured as a function of talc concentration up to 40 wt. -%, Young's modulus of filled polypropylene shows linear increase with talc concentration up to double the value of unfilled polymer. Yield stress and Charpy notch toughness decrease with increasing talc content below matrix level at the highest filler content. Composite ultimate tensile elongation and tensile impact strength decrease sharply beginning at the lowest filler concentration. The influence of the talc particle size on the mechanical properties, especially composite toughness, mentioned above, is investigated. Four type of talc were used. Notch toughness decreases according to a linear dependence with mean size of talc particles. Evaluating impact strength possible content of agglomerates of filler and other additions is necessary to be included: tensile impact strength gives slow linear dependence with increasing content of filler particles and/or agglomerates above about 10 μm. The influence of talc particle size on the toughness of filled polypropylene becomes strong if the rubber particles are present.
[Conditions of maternal work and low birth weight in Mexico City].

OBJECTIVE To study the association between maternal working conditions and low birth-weight in Mexico City. MATERIAL AND METHODS Interviews of 2623 workers who gave birth in Mexico City hospitals during 1992 were analyzed. Information on the main biologic and social factors associated to low birth-weight was registered. Occupational stress was determined with the instrument designed by Karasek. Logistic regression models to evaluate the relationship between working conditions and low birth-weight were used, controlling by confounding variables. RESULTS Low birth-weight was more frequent in workers with working periods of more than 50 h/week (OR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.17, 2.28) and with problems at work (OR = 1.5; 95% CI = 1.0, 2.25). Lack of tangible social support was identified as a risk factor for low birth-weight (OR = 1.7; 95% CI = 1.20, 2.33). Preventive working measures such as changes in tasks, shortening of working hours and leaves of absence due to illness did not show a beneficial effects on birth-weight, except for the maternity leave of absence. Mothers with no right to this had a 2.2 higher probability of giving birth to low weight children (95% CI = 1.66, 2.93). CONCLUSIONS These results emphasize the importance of identifying the occupational risk factors during pregnancy.
Comparison of caregiver responses to English and Hebrew language versions of an abridged Zarit Burden Interview

The provision of informal care to infirm family members is of central importance to social gerontology; concomitantly, caregiver burden is a topic of considerable research interest. To this end, psychometrically sound instruments are required to advance cross-national research. The current study builds upon previous research examining the reliability and validity of responses to a brief Hebrew language version of the Zarit Burden Interview. For this study, factorial validity of responses to this instrument is examined relative to a representative English Canadian sample of caregivers. Invariance analyses comparing English and Hebrew responses support a 2-factor model of burden (role strain, personal strain); furthermore, invariance analyses comparing responses indicate that caregivers interpret and respond to the majority of items in a consistent manner. This finding suggests reliable translation of items from English to Hebrew. Caregiver burden is discussed in the context of changing demographics and the growing prevalence of disorders affecting older adults.
Toward free-living walking speed estimation using Gaussian Process-based Regression with on-body accelerometers and gyroscopes

Walking speed is an important determinant of energy expenditure. We present the use of Gaussian Process-based Regression (GPR), a non-linear, non-parametric regression framework to estimate walking speed using data obtained from a single on-body sensor worn on the right hip. We compare the performance of GPR with Bayesian Linear Regression (BLR) and Least Squares Regression (LSR) in estimating treadmill walking speeds. We also examine whether using gyroscopes to augment accelerometry data can improve prediction accuracy. GPR shows a lower average RMS prediction error when compared to BLR and LSR across all subjects. Per subject, GPR has significantly lower RMS prediction error than LSR and BLR (p≪0.05) with increasing training data. The addition of tri-axial gyroscopes as inputs reduces RMS prediction error (p≪0.05 per subject) when compared to using only acclerometers. We also study the effect of using treadmill walking data to predict overground walking speeds and that of combining data from more than one person to predict overground walking speed. A strong linear correlation exists (rX,Y = .8861) between overground walking speeds predicted from treadmill data and ground truth walking speed measured. Combining treadmill data from multiple subjects with similar height characteristics improved the prediction capability of GPR for overground walking speeds as measured by correllation between ground truth and GP-predicted values (rX,Y = .8204 with combined data).
Modeling the electric field effects on heterogeneous Pinsky-Rinzel neurons under ephaptic transmission

Pinsky-Rinzel (PR) field effect models under ephaptic transmission both in a single neuron and coupling neurons are constructed and studied in this paper. In presence of electric field, the extracellular media have already shown to play a constructive role in neuronal system. Different from the physical synapses, the ephapse is dependent on the conductive property of the extracellular media. Under the ephaptic transmission, the electric field strength, the extracellular media and concentration of extracellular potassium ion has great influence on neuronal firing behavior. In the analysis of heterogeneous coupling neurons, applied the same electric field, the smaller heterogeneity, the stronger synchronicity in coupling neurons and with the concentration of extracellular potassium ion increasing in a certain range, the more synchronous phenomenon is observed. These agree with some epileptic seizure experiments in low calcium solution. It is interesting that for smaller heterogeneous coupling neurons, both the larger negative and positive field may lead to synchronicity and for bigger heterogeneous coupling neurons only the larger negative field can synchronize the neurons.
Precision Rotation Measurements with an Atom Interferometer Gyroscope

Matter-wave interferometry has the potential to be an extremely sensitive probe for inertial forces. For example, neutron interferometers have been used to measure the rotation of the Earth [1] and the acceleration due to gravity [2]. More recently, atom interference techniques have been used in demonstration experiments to measure rotations [3] and accelerations [4]. In this Letter, we present an atom-based Sagnac gyroscope that has a shortterm sensitivity comparable to state-of-the-art optical gyroscopes [5,6], and is at least 2 orders of magnitude better than previous matter-based experiments [1,3,7]. In the Sagnac geometry [8], rotation induces a phase shift Df between two interfering propagation paths. For a Sagnac loop enclosing area A, a rotation V produces a shift Df ­ 4p ly V ? A, where l is the particle wavelength and y its velocity [9–11]. Thus the inherent sensitivity of a matter-wave gyroscope exceeds that of a photonbased system by a factor of mc2yhv ,1011 (m is the particle mass, v the photon frequency). Although optical gyroscopes have higher particle fluxes and larger enclosed areas, atom-based systems should still out-perform optical systems by several orders of magnitude. Higher precision gyroscopes could find practical applications in navigation or in geophysical studies. They could also be used in tests of general relativity [6,12,13]. For example, one might realize a ground-based detection of the dragging of inertial frames [14]. We have developed an atomic state interferometer [15] which uses two-photon velocity selective Raman transitions [16,17] to manipulate atoms while keeping them in long-lived ground states. With the Raman method, two laser beams of frequency v1 and v2 are tuned to be nearly resonant with an allowed optical transition. Their frequency difference v1 2 v2 is chosen to be resonant with a microwave transition between two atomic ground-state levels. Under appropriate conditions, the atomic population Rabi flops between the ground-state levels with a rate proportional to the product of the two single-photon Rabi frequencies and inversely proportional to the optical detuning. When the beams are aligned to counterpropagate, a momentum exchange of approximately twice the singlephoton momentum accompanies these transitions. This leads to a strong Doppler sensitivity of the two-photon
Weighted Low Rank Approximation for Background Estimation Problems

Classical principal component analysis (PCA) is not robust when the data contain sparse outliers. The use of the ℓ1 norm in the Robust PCA (RPCA) method successfully eliminates this weakness of PCA in separating the sparse outliers. Here we propose a weighted low rank (WLR) method, where a simple weight is inserted inside the Frobenius norm. We demonstrate how this method tackles often computationally expensive algorithms that rely on the ℓ1 norm. As a proof of concept, we present a background estimation model based on WLR, and we compare the model with RPCA method and with other state-of-the-art algorithms used for background estimation. Our empirical validation shows that the weighted low-rank approximation we propose here can perform as well as or better than that of RPCA and other state-of-the-art algorithms.