Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impairments of spatial learning and memory following intrahippocampal injection in rats of 3-mercaptopropionic acid-modified CdTe quantum dots and molecular mechanisms

With the rapid development of nanotechnology, quantum dots (QDs) as advanced nanotechnology products have been widely used in neuroscience, including basic neurological studies and diagnosis or therapy for neurological disorders, due to their superior optical properties. In recent years, there has been intense concern regarding the toxicity of QDs, with a growing number of studies. However, knowledge of neurotoxic consequences of QDs applied in living organisms is lagging behind their development, even if several studies have attempted to evaluate the toxicity of QDs on neural cells. The aim of this study was to evaluate the adverse effects of intrahippocampal injection in rats of 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA)-modified CdTe QDs and underlying mechanisms. First of all, we observed impairments in learning efficiency and spatial memory in the MPA-modified CdTe QD-treated rats by using open-field and Y-maze tests, which could be attributed to pathological changes and disruption of ultrastructure of neurons and synapses in the hippocampus. In order to find the mechanisms causing these effects, transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), an advanced technology, was used to gain the potentially molecular targets of MPA-modified CdTe QDs. According to ample data from RNA-seq, we chose the signaling pathways of PI3K–Akt and MPAK–ERK to do a thorough investigation, because they play important roles in synaptic plasticity, long-term potentiation, and spatial memory. The data demonstrated that phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt), p-ERK1/2, and c-FOS signal transductions in the hippocampus of rats were involved in the mechanism underlying spatial learning and memory impairments caused by 3.5 nm MPA-modified CdTe QDs.
VRCon: Dynamic reconfiguration of voltage regulators in a multicore platform

The emerging trend toward utilizing chip multi-core processors (CMPs) that support dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) is driven by user requirements for high performance and low power. To overcome limitations of the conventional chip-wide DVFS and achieve the maximum possible energy saving, per-core DVFS is being enabled in the recent CMP offerings. While power consumed by the CMP is reduced by per-core DVFS, power dissipated by many voltage regulators (VRs) needed to support per-core DVFS becomes critical. This paper focuses on the dynamic control of the VRs in a CMP platform. Starting with a proposed platform with a configurable VR-to-core power distribution network, two optimization methods are presented to maximize the system-wide energy savings: (i) reactive VR consolidation to reconfigure the network for maximizing the power conversion efficiency of the VRs performed under the pre-determined DVFS levels for the cores, and (ii) proactive VR consolidation to determine new DVFS levels for maximizing the total energy savings without any performance degradation. Results from detailed experiments demonstrate up to 35% VR energy loss reduction and 14% total energy saving.
Neutrophil-mediated dissolution of infected host cells as a defense strategy against a facultative intracellular bacterium

The rate of growth of Listeria monocytogenes in the livers of mice infected intravenously with a lethal or sublethal inoculum of this facultative intracellular bacterium is greatly increased if neutrophils and other host cells are prevented from accumulating at foci of infection during the first 24 h by treatment with a monoclonal antibody (5C6) specific for the type 3 complement receptor of myelomonocytic cells. A histological examination of the livers of control mice showed that the accumulation of neutrophils at infectious foci resulted in the focal destruction of infected hepatocytes. In contrast, failure of neutrophils to accumulate at these sites in 5C6-treated mice allowed Listeria to multiply extensively in hepatocytes without destroying them. The results indicate that neutrophils play an important role in early defense against listeriosis in the liver by destroying infected hepatocytes, thereby reducing the opportunity for Listeria to multiply in permissive cells. In this way, neutrophils serve to break the chain of cell-to-cell spread of infection.
Platelet activation and function after trauma.

BACKGROUND Abnormal hemostasis is associated with many of the complications of trauma-associated morbidity and mortality. Platelets are integral in the maintenance of hemostasis. METHODS Samples were obtained from 100 trauma patients on arrival at the emergency room (initial time) and at 24, 48, and 72 hours later. Samples were also obtained from 10 healthy controls at the same time intervals. Using flow cytometry, three parameters were used to measure platelet activation: platelet microparticles, expression of P-selectin (CD62P), and expression of the activated conformation of glycoprotein IIb-IIIa (PAC-1 binding). Platelet function was measured using a platelet function analyzer (PFA-100, Dade International Inc., Miami, FL). RESULTS One hundred trauma patients were enrolled. The average age was 40 years, 75% were men, and 84% had blunt injuries. The mean Injury Severity Score was 22.3 +/- 10.9 (mean +/- SD) and the average Glasgow Coma Scale score was 11 +/- 4. All three platelet activation parameters were increased in trauma patients versus controls for all time periods (p < 0.001). Trauma patients had a trend toward a shorter initial collagen/epinephrine closure time versus controls (p = 0.096). Compared with the 24-, 48-, and 72-hour time intervals, initial collagen/epinephrine closure times were shortened (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, and p < 0.001). Platelet function returned to normal reference ranges within 24 hours but platelet activation parameters remained elevated at least 72 hours after initial trauma. In contrast, when trauma patients with and without brain injury were compared, brain injury patients had increased platelet activation but decreased platelet function (increased collagen/epinephrine closure times). In addition, there was a significant prolongation in collagen/epinephrine closure times for the 24-, 48-, and 72-hour time points in nonsurviving patients versus survivors. There was no association between platelet activation and function and other adverse outcomes including pulmonary embolism, deep venous thrombosis, and disseminated intravascular coagulation. CONCLUSION Severe injury usually results in increased platelet activation and function. However, the combination of increased platelet activation with decreased function was associated with increased mortality.
Conditional High-Order Boltzmann Machine: A Supervised Learning Model for Relation Learning

Relation learning is a fundamental operation in many computer vision tasks. Recently, high-order Boltzmann machine and its variants have exhibited the great power of modelling various data relation. However, most of them are unsupervised learning models which are not very discriminative and thus cannot server as a standalone solution to relation learning tasks. In this paper, we explore supervised learning algorithms and propose a new model named Conditional High-order Boltzmann Machine (CHBM), which can be directly used as a bilinear classifier to assign similarity scores for pairwise images. Then, to better deal with complex data relation, we propose a gated version of CHBM which untangles factors of variation by exploiting a set of latent variables to gate classification. We perform four-order tensor factorization for parameter reduction, and present two efficient supervised learning algorithms from the perspectives of being generative and discriminative, respectively. The experimental results of image transformation visualization, binary-way classification and face verification demonstrate that, by performing supervised learning, our models can greatly improve the performance.
Depression of antilymphoma allograft reactivity by tumor-associated factors.

Relatively small numbers of viable or killed tumor cells (102 to 105) of five transplantable mouse leukemias and one carcinoma were inoculated into syngeneic or allogeneic adult mice. The inoculations depressed the allograft reactivity of the recipients as judged from reduced resistance to the growth of a second transplant of 106 to 107 H-2 -incompatible strain-specific lymphoma cells. A single injection of the most effective conditioning cells caused long-lasting depression of antilymphoma reactions (up to 3 months) regardless of whether the H-2 antigens of challenging and conditioning tumors were different or alike. The active factor was extractable from cells in suspension and separable by filtration through Millipore membranes. Of 338 mice pretreated with tumor material under a variety of conditions and schedules, 326 were rendered susceptible to allogeneic lymphoma grafts, whereas only 19 of 219 untreated control mice failed to reject the tumors. Depression of antilymphoma reactions was not caused by cells of normal spleen and of two other leukemias and one carcinoma. However, lactic dehydrogenase-elevating virus, a contaminant of all tumors used, and Moloney sarcoma virus did cause nonspecific depression, thus imitating the tumors. Depressive factors capable of breaking the major histocompatibility barrier of the species (possibly viruses, viral products, or tumor cell products) were associated with as few as 100 neoplastic cells. If this association would also occur during oncogenesis, it could favor the escape of antigenic tumors from host surveillance.
Optogenetic Silencing of Nav1.8-Positive Afferents Alleviates Inflammatory and Neuropathic Pain123

Abstract We report a novel transgenic mouse model in which the terminals of peripheral nociceptors can be silenced optogenetically with high spatiotemporal precision, leading to the alleviation of inflammatory and neuropathic pain. Inhibitory archaerhodopsin-3 (Arch) proton pumps were delivered to Nav1.8+ primary afferents using the Nav1.8-Cre driver line. Arch expression covered both peptidergic and nonpeptidergic nociceptors and yellow light stimulation reliably blocked electrically induced action potentials in DRG neurons. Acute transdermal illumination of the hindpaws of Nav1.8-Arch+ mice significantly reduced mechanical allodynia under inflammatory conditions, while basal mechanical sensitivity was not affected by the optical stimulation. Arch-driven hyperpolarization of nociceptive terminals was sufficient to prevent channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2)-mediated mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity in double-transgenic Nav1.8-ChR2+-Arch+ mice. Furthermore, prolonged optical silencing of peripheral afferents in anesthetized Nav1.8-Arch+ mice led to poststimulation analgesia with a significant decrease in mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity under inflammatory and neuropathic conditions. These findings highlight the role of peripheral neuronal inputs in the onset and maintenance of pain hypersensitivity, demonstrate the plasticity of pain pathways even after sensitization has occurred, and support the involvement of Nav1.8+ afferents in both inflammatory and neuropathic pain. Together, we present a selective analgesic approach in which genetically identified subsets of peripheral sensory fibers can be remotely and optically inhibited with high temporal resolution, overcoming the compensatory limitations of genetic ablations.
Performance Modeling of Ring Laser Gyro in Inertial Navigation System

In this paper, the performance of a Ring Laser Gyro based inertial navigation is investigated. Dynamic and stochastic modeling are applied to gyro simulation and performance evaluation. In the dynamic model, some parameters such as scale factor and environmental sensitivity have been determined, whereas in the stochastic model, the other parameters such as random drift and measurement noise have been computed. The performance of the system is evaluated for several inputs. Also, the parameter variation of output noise as a result of changing the dither characteristics is analyzed.
Pulmonary vascular changes in extremely preterm sheep after intra-amniotic exposure to Ureaplasma parvum and lipopolysaccharide

Background Chorioamnionitis can induce pulmonary inflammation and promote bronchopulmonary dysplasia development, distinguished by alveolar simplification and impaired vascular growth. Chorioamnionitis is more common during the extremely preterm canalicular lung stage (crucial for vascular development); and increases the risk for subsequent sepsis. We hypothesized that single/combined exposure to chronic and/or acute inflammation induces pulmonary inflammatory responses and vascular changes. Methods Ovine fetuses were intra-amniotically exposed to chronic Ureaplasma parvum (UP) at 24 days (d) before extreme preterm delivery at 94d (term 147d) and/or to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) 7 or 2d before delivery. Pulmonary inflammation, vascular remodeling and angiogenic factors were assessed. Results LPS exposure increased CD3-positive and myeloperoxidase-positive cells. Combined UP-LPS exposure increased pulmonary inflammation compared with 2d LPS or UP groups. The UP+2d LPS group had an increased adventitial fibrosis score when compared with UP-treated animals. A reduced wall-to-lumen ratio was found in the 7d LPS animals when compared to the 2d LPS-treated animals. Exposure to UP+2d LPS reduced VEGF and VEGFR-2 levels compared with 2d LPS-treated animals. Angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) and tunica interna endothelial cell kinase 2 (Tie-2) levels were decreased after UP+7d LPS as well as after 7d LPS, but not with UP alone. Conclusion Chronic UP and subsequent LPS exposure increased pulmonary inflammation and decreased expression of angiogenic growth factors and receptors when compared to single hit-exposed animals.
PM material analysis of permanent magnet synchronous generator in wind turbines

Permanent magnets (PMs) material analysis of permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) in wind turbine is studied in this paper. The direct driven PMSG (DDPMSG) system has high potential for the large scale wind turbines because of its robustness, increased energy yield and reliability compared to others. However, the main advantage of DDPMSG is the high cost of PMs and the demagnetization risk at high temperature. Therefore, the comparative analysis in terms of PM type chosen for 1.5 MW PMSG is presented in this paper. The comparison is made taking into discussion about the electromagnetic criteria for four types of PMs: AlNiCo, XG 196/96 and two rare earth PMs — SmCo and NdFeB. Maxwell 2D RMxprt is used for analyzing of the cogging torque and airgap flux density at different PM materials used in PMSG for wind energy generation. According to simulation results, NdFeB is the most suitable magnet for low speed PMSGs.
The Role of Demographic Factors in the Institutionalization of the Elderly

This study, based on data from the 1980 census, is concerned with clarifying the relation of demographic factors to institutionalization of the very old. Particular scrutiny was given to the role of close kin, especially spouses and children, as explanatory variables. Factors significantly associated with institutionalization, as determined through a logit regression model, included the absence of a spouse, the absence of a child, advanced age, and the presence of a disability. Marital status was a more significant factor for males than for females in determining institutionalization.
Factors influencing the survival of Shigella in wastewater and irrigation water.

Although many waterborne out breaks of Shigellosis have been re ported in the literature, the evidence incriminating these organisms usually does not include the isolation of Shi gella from the suspected water supply (1) (2) (3). However, several in vestigators were able to isolate Shi gella from water sources blamed for Shigellosis outbreaks (4) (5) (6). The authors never have had any success in isolating Shigella from nu merous wastewater and irrigation wa ter samples over years of study (7). Other investigators also have reported their inability to isolate Shigella from river water and wastewater (8) (9) (10). Two other groups of investi gators, on the other hand, have re ported success in isolating Shigella from, river water, wastewater, or well water (11) (12). Other investigators (13) added dys entery bacilli to wells and were able to recover these organisms 22 days later; the same held true for 40 days when coliforms also were added. In another study (14) Shigella were added to river water and it was found that the survival time varied from 30 min to 4 days. The investigators noted that aeration of their samples reduced the survival time. Gispen and Gan (10) have sug gested that the rapid destruction of Shigella might be due to specific bacteriophage, while Abdoelrachman
Can Market Risk Perception Drive Inefficient Prices? Theory and Evidence

This work presents an asset pricing model that under rational expectation equilibrium perspective shows how, depending on risk aversion and noise volatility, a risky-asset has one equilibrium price that differs in term of efficiency: an informational efficient one (similar to Campbell and Kyle (1993)), and another one where price diverges from its informational efficient level. The former Pareto dominates (is dominated by) the latter in presence of low (high) market risk perception. The estimates of the model using S&P 500 Index support the theoretical findings, and the estimated inefficient equilibrium price captures the higher risk premium and higher volatility observed during the Dot.com bubble 1995--2000.
Environment Mapping using the Lego Mindstorms NXT and leJOS NXJ

This paper presents a project of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) of an indoor environment focusing on the use of autonomous mobile robotics. The developed work was implemented using the Lego Mindstorms NXT platform and leJOS NXJ as the programming language. The NXJ consists of an open source project which uses a tiny Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and provides a very powerful API as well the necessary tools to upload code to the NXT brick. In addition, the leJOS NXJ enables efficient programming and easiness of communication due to its support of Bluetooth technology. Thus, exploiting the mobile robotics platform flexibility plus the programming language potential, our goals were successfully achieved by implementing a simple subsumption architecture and using a trigonometry based approach, in order to obtain a mapped representation of the robot's environment.
Quantitative Study on Despeckle Methods of Medical Ultrasound Images

Speckle is a granular noise that inherently exists in all types of coherent imaging systems. This paper presents a quantitative study on five despeckling methods such as frost filter, kuan filter, speckle reducing an isotropic diffusion, homomorphic filter and wavelet filter. We select six objective evaluation parameters, such as signal-to-ratio, contrast signal-to-noise ratio, figure of merit, least absolute error, edge protection factor, signal-to-minimum mean square error ratio, to quantify the performance of these filters. The comparative study will provide some parameter comparative reference for selecting a suitable filter in the ultrasound image processing.
Return on Assets Loss from Situational and Contingency Misfits

We develop a rule-based contingency misfit model and related hypotheses to test empirically the Burton and Obel (1998) multicontingency model for strategic organizational design. The model is a set of "if-then" misfit rules, in which misfits lead to a loss in performance; they are complements to the strategy and organizational contingency theory fit rules. Using data from 224 small- and medium-sized Danish firms, misfits are categorized and identified. Then, performance hypotheses are developed and tested using regression models. We confirm the hypotheses that firms with situational misfits or contingency misfits, or both, incur performance losses in return on assets compared with firms with no misfits. Contrary to our hypotheses, we did not find that additional misfits lead to increased performance loss. Our results suggest that just one misfit of any kind may significantly compromise performance. These results yield a deeper understanding of organizational contingency theory, as well as implications for the rule-based fit-misfit organizational design model.
Enhanced Redundancy in Akt and Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase-induced Survival of Malignant versus Normal Prostate Epithelial Cells

Activation of the downstream akt and mitogen-activated protein kinases is associated with development and progression of prostate cancer to the lethal androgen-independent state. However, the causal role of these downstream kinases in androgen-independent prostate cancers is unknown. In this study, activation and requirements of akt and mitogen-activated protein kinase (erk, p38, and jnk) signaling for the survival and proliferation of five malignant human cell lines encompassing the spectrum of androgen-independent prostate cancers was compared with the activation and requirements in normal prostate epithelial cells. Using Western blotting with phospho-antibodies, we detected differential activation in exponentially growing, growth factor-deprived, and restimulated cultures of malignant versus normal cells. The inhibition of erk, p38, jnk, and akt with U0126, SB203580, SP600125, and Akt inhibitor, respectively, document that normal cells require simultaneous erk and jnk signaling for survival, plus akt signaling for proliferation. In malignant cells, however, only jnk inhibition as monotherapy produces a consistent apoptotic response, although the combinatorial inhibition of jnk, erk, p38 plus akt results in statistically enhanced apoptosis. These results demonstrate that prostate cancer progression to a lethal androgen-independent state involves the acquisition of an enhanced redundancy in downstream survival signaling.
The capacity gap calculation for multi-pair bidirectional Gaussian relay networks based on successive compute-and-forward strategy

In this work we obtain capacity gaps for a class of N-pair bidirectional Gaussian relay networks, where one relay can help communications between the corresponding user pairs. For the uplink, we apply the generalization of successive compute-and-forward strategy (SCAF) for decoding the linear combinations of the messages of each user pair at the relay. The downlink channel is considered as a broadcast network with N receiver groups. It is shown that for all channel gains, the achievable rate boundary lies within gaps of (N - 1 + log2 N)=2N and (N + log2 N)/2N bits/sec/Hz below the cut-set upper bound for restricted and non-restricted models, respectively. These gaps tend to 1/2 bits/sec/Hz per user as N goes to infinity. We first derive a comprehensive formulation for the N-step asymmetric SCAF and use it to derive the capacity result for our problem.
Advances in Structural Engineering Materials, Volume Three

Part 1: Geopolymers -- Part 2: Cement and Pozzolana -- Part 3: Aggregates for Concrete -- Part 4: Concrete, Steel and Durability -- Part 5: Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) -- Part 6: Low-Cost Housing -- Part 7: Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) in Structures -- Part 8: Concrete Filled Steel Tubes/ Structures -- Part 9: Concrete Structures -- Part 10: Steel Structures -- Part 11: Masonry Structures -- Part 12: Bridge Structures -- Part 13: Reliability and Fragility -- Part 14: Non-Destructive Test (NDT) and Damage Detection.