Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Cortisol: C-Reactive Protein Ratio and Negative Affect Reactivity in Depressed Adults

Objective: We evaluated the effect of the cortisol (CORT) to high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) ratio on stress-induced negative affect (NA) reactivity and whether the association was moderated by depressive symptom severity and gender. The CORT/CRP ratio was used to evaluate the integrity of the negative feedback loop between the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and inflammatory response system. Method: Basal CORT and hsCRP levels were measured in fasting blood samples from 198 medication-free and nonsmoking healthy men and women. Depressive symptom severity was assessed using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD). NA ratings were collected at baseline and at the completion of the laboratory stressors, the Anger Recall Interview (ARI) and reading. Results: Adjusting for potential confounders and baseline NA, analysis revealed a significant relationship between CORT/CRP ratio and NA reactivity to ARI as a function of depressive symptom severity. Simple effects revealed that for participants with high HAMD, decreasing CORT/CRP ratio, suggestive of an insufficient CORT release relative to higher hsCRP, predicted increasing stress-induced NA reactivity. For participants with low HAMD, the CORT/CRP ratio failed to predict NA reactivity. Gender did not moderate the joint effect of depressive symptom severity and the CORT/CRP ratio on stress-induced NA reactivity. Conclusions: This is the first study to document that a premorbid dysregulation of the neuro-immune relationship, characterized by an insufficient release of CORT in conjunction with higher CRP, plays a role in stress sensitivity, and specifically NA reactivity, in individuals with elevated levels of depression symptoms.
On the Performance of the Range Imaging Technique Estimated Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles During the ShUREX 2015 Campaign

For the first time, the performance of the range imaging technique of the very high frequency band middle and upper atmosphere (MU) radar (Shigaraki observatory, Japan), when using frequency diversity, is assessed. This is done by the detection of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operated near the radar during the Shigaraki UAV radar experiment campaign, carried out from June 1, 2015 to June 14, 2015. During this campaign devoted to the measurements of fine-scale turbulence and stability in the lower troposphere using the turbulence sensors on the DataHawk UAV and the MU radar, the detection of the small UAV by the MU radar provided an excellent opportunity for taking stock of the range imaging technique in the presence of a single hard target. It was found that range imaging reproduces a faithful image of the aircraft position and its displacements with an excellent accuracy (of the order of ~10 m), giving extra credence to the thin echo layers and their vertical displacements generally observed from the range imaging technique in stably stratified conditions.
Intraperitoneal ziv-aflibercept effectively manages refractory ascites in colorectal cancer patients

Ascites related to metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) reduces patient survival and quality of life, and systemic chemotherapy is largely ineffective for managing ascites. Here, we examined the clinical efficacy of intraperitoneal (IP) ziv-aflibercept for managing refractory ascites in 15 mCRC patients who did not respond to standard chemotherapy. Fifty or 100 mg of ziv-aflibercept in 100 mL of saline solution were infused through a pigtail catheter and retained for 24 h. When the ascites drainage volumes were subsequently monitored, 73.3% of patients showed an objective response (OR) to IP ziv-aflibercept treatment. Patients with low Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status or with serum ascites albumin gradients (SAAG) less than 1.1 g/dL had better responses to treatment, and 4 patients with SAAG less than 1.1 g/dL showed rapid objective responses (rOR). These findings indicate that intraperitoneal ziv-aflibercept therapy may be a highly effective means of treating refractory ascites in mCRC patients, and that SAAG may be predictive of a rapid response to this treatment.
REAL-TIME ELLIPSOMETRY FOR MONITORING THE GROWTH OF CESIUM-TELLURIDE PHOTOCATHODES

Semiconductor photocathodes, especially Cesium-Telluride photocathodes, are vital for generation of high brightness electron beams used in free-electron lasers. However the quantum efficiency and lifetime depends critically on manufacturing and operational conditions. Monitoring the formation of the photocathode is essential for understanding these dependencies. For example, the deposition rate of the Cs correlates to the quantum efficiency and adversely correlates to the lifetime. We will discuss the use of ellipsometry for monitoring the formation of the photocathode, describe our experimental configuration and discuss preliminary results obtained with Cesium-Telluride photocathodes. These results seems to indicate that ellipsometry is a viable method for monitoring the formation of these photocathodes.
Purification and characterization of an FSH releasing protein from porcine ovarian follicular fluid

A variety of hypophysiotropic peptides or proteins have been reported to be present in mammalian gonads. Inhibin, a hormone that under most circumstances selectively suppresses the secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) but not luteinizing hormone (LH), has been isolated from the gonadal fluids of several species1–5 and characterized as a heterodimeric protein consisting of α- and β-polypeptides associated by disulphide bonds. The complete amino-acid sequences of the precursors of porcine6,7 and human7 inhibin α-subunits and two distinct porcine inhibin β-subunits (βA and βB)6 have been deduced from complementary DNA sequences. Gonadotropin releasing peptides have also been found in the gonad and have generally been shown to be active in radioreceptor assays for gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) but to exhibit different chromatographic and immunological characteristics from those of GnRH8–14. During our purification of inhibin from porcine follicular fluid, we noted fractions that could stimulate the secretion of FSH by cultured anterior pituitary cells3. We report here the purification of an FSH releasing protein (FRP) and its characterization by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under non-reducing and reducing conditions and by partial sequence analysis. Our results indicate that porcine gonadal FRP is a homodimer consisting of two inhibin βA-chains linked by disulphide bonds. FRP is highly potent (50% effective concentration (EC50)∼25 pM) in stimulating the secretion and biosynthesis of FSH but not of LH or any other pituitary hormone. In contrast to the effects of GnRH and other reported gonadal gonadotropin releasing fractions, the action of FRP is not mediated by GnRH receptors.
Elevated RTP801 promotes cell proliferation in non‐small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer, particularly non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), is one of main causes of mortality in cancer patients worldwide. It is necessary to seek effective biomarkers to improve diagnostic and therapeutic efficacies in human NSCLC. RTP801 is a stress‐response protein that can be induced by many types of cellular stress such as hypoxia and DNA damage, produces different biological effects depending on cell type and context. Up to now, there is no direct evidence showing the expression and involvement of RTP801 in human NSCLC. Here, we found that the expression of RTP801 significantly increased in NSCLC tissues compared with that in normal lung and the level of RTP801 in peripheral blood of NSCLC patients was higher than that of healthy persons. Further study showed that knockdown of RTP801 induced by lentivirus encoded RTP801‐shRNA markedly inhibited the proliferation of A549 and SW900 cells. Moreover, the inhibitor of PI3K significantly decreased the expression of RTP801 mRNA and protein and, at the same time, inhibited the proliferation of A549 and SW900 cells. Taken together, our study provides the novel and direct evidence that there is a close relationship between RTP801 and human NSCLC, and RTP801 can promote the proliferation of NSCLC cells which is regulated by PI3K signaling pathway, suggesting that RTP801 could be a potential biomarker for diagnosis and therapeutic target of human NSCLC. © 2018 IUBMB Life, 70(4):310–319, 2018
Rapid Screening of Risk in Pediatric Headache: Application of the Pediatric Pain Screening Tool

Objective The current study examined the application of a screening tool to identify biopsychosocial risk factors and derive prognostic risk groups in children and adolescents with headache pain. Methods Youth (n = 242, 8-17 years, 75.6% female) presenting for evaluation at a tertiary pediatric headache clinic completed the nine-item Pediatric Pain Screening Tool (PPST) as well as measures of functional disability, pain catastrophizing, fear of pain, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. In addition, 119 patients reported on functional disability at 2-month follow-up. Results The PPST demonstrated discriminant validity that ranged from fair to good for identifying significant disability and high emotional distress. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses indicated that established cutoff scores were appropriate for the current sample, and thus participants were classified into low-risk (21%), medium-risk (31%), and high-risk (48%) groups. Only 1-6% of patients who met reference standard case status for disability and emotional distress were classified as low risk, whereas 64-90% of patients who met reference standard case status were classified as high risk, suggesting robust stratification. Conclusions The nine-item PPST may be a useful tool for efficiently identifying young patients with headache who are at risk of poor outcomes, and effectively classifying them into risk groups that could drive stratified treatment directly targeting patient needs.
On running data-intensive algorithms with intelligent SSD and host CPU: a collaborative approach

A solid state device (SSD), which has the characteristics such as high IO bandwidth and low access latency, is drawing attention as a next-generation storage device. Even though SSD provides a high internal bandwidth, the performance bottleneck exists on the host interface of relatively low bandwidth in spite of the increased internal bandwidth of SSD. To overcome the performance bottleneck, the notion of intelligent SSD (iSSD) has been proposed. In iSSD, there are still problems in processing the algorithms of high complexity. In this paper, we address an effective collaboration of iSSD and host CPU in order to maximize the performance of data-intensive algorithms. Extensive experimental results show that our approach performs faster up to 2.43 times than a previous approach.
Two-stage throttled-aware deterministic routing for non-stationary irregular mesh in network on-chip

Thermal issue is one of the hardest challenges to face in 3D ICs. This issue takes on an added importance in NoC. As the packets are being routed in network, temperature rises, which in turn leads to emerge of hotspot nodes and performance degradation. Hence, a strategy to address this problem needs to be devised. Our main goal would be to transfer heat and traffic distribution as evenly as possible in order to balance traffic and achieve high throughput. In this paper, a routing (TTDR) to balance the temperature distribution throughout the network and reduce the number of hotspot nodes is proposed. It is done by routing packets via an intermediate node between source and destination. The location of this intermediate node is selected in a way that the traffic and heat distribution is transferred from center nodes to the marginal nodes. Results are achieved from AccessNoxim simulator. The experimental results suggest that the proposed routing algorithm decreases the number of overheated routers by 32% and increases throughput by 50% in some cases.
The application of Tet repressor in prokaryotic gene regulation and expression

Inducible gene expression based upon Tet repressor (tet regulation) is a broadly applied tool in molecular genetics. In its original environment, Tet repressor (TetR) negatively controls tetracycline (tc) resistance in bacteria. In the presence of tc, TetR is induced and detaches from its cognate DNA sequence tetO, so that a tc antiporter protein is expressed. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview about tet regulation in bacteria and illustrate the parameters of different regulatory architectures. While some of these set‐ups rely on natural tet‐control regions like those found on transposon Tn10, highly efficient variations of this system have recently been adapted to different Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria. Novel tet‐controllable artificial or hybrid promoters were employed for target gene expression. They are controlled by regulators expressed at different levels either in a constitutive or in an autoregulated manner. The resulting tet systems have been used for various purposes. We discuss integrative elements vested with tc‐sensitive promoters, as well as tet regulation in Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria for analytical purposes and for protein overproduction. Also the use of TetR as an in vivo biosensor for tetracyclines or as a regulatory device in synthetic biology constructs is outlined. Technical specifications underlying different regulatory set‐ups are highlighted, and finally recent developments concerning variations of TetR are presented, which may expand the use of prokaryotic tet systems in the future.
Comprehensive Investigation of the Na3V2(PO4)2F3–NaV2(PO4)2F3 System by Operando High Resolution Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction

Na3V2(PO4)2F3 is a positive electrode material for Na-ion batteries which is attracting strong interest due to its high capacity, rate capability, and long-term cycling stability. The sodium extraction mechanism from this material has been always described in the literature as a straightforward solid solution, but several hints point toward a more complicated phase diagram. In this work we performed high angular resolution synchrotron radiation diffraction measurements, realized operando on sodium batteries upon charge. We reveal an extremely interesting phase diagram, created by the successive crystallization of four intermediate phases before the end composition NaV2(PO4)2F3 is reached. Only one of these phases undergoes a solid solution reaction, in the interval between 1.8 and 1.3 Na per formula unit. The ability to resolve weak Bragg reflections allowed us to reveal differences in terms of symmetry among the phases, to determine their previously unknown space groups, and to correlate them with sodium.
Blind Image Quality Assessment Using Center-Surround Mechanism

Blind image quality assessment (BIQA) metrics play an important role in multimedia applications. Neuroscience research indicates that the human visual system (HVS) exhibits clear center-surround mechanisms for visual content extraction. Inspired by this, a center-surround mechanism based feature extraction technique is proposed to solve BIQA problem. The difference-of-Gaussian (DoG) filter, computed in scale-space, has been shown to be able to mimic the center-surround mechanism. In this paper, only DoG maps are employed to characterize the local structure changes in distorted images. The DoG maps are then modeled by generalized Gaussian distribution (GGD) to obtain statistical features. A regression model is learnt to map the features to the subjective quality score. Despite its simplicity, extensive experimental results have demonstrated competitive quality prediction performance and generalization ability of our method.
Prediction of the heat-affected zone of tool steel EN X37CrMoV5-1 after die-sinking electrical discharge machining

This article describes the results of the experimental research on the heat-affected zone of the subsurface layers of eroded surface on medium-alloyed samples of steel EN X37CrMoV5-1 (W.-Nr. 1.2343) which occurs in die-sinking electrical discharge machining with Cu electrode. It assesses the direct effect and consequences of the heat-affected zone on the final quality of the machined surface. The aim of the experiments was to contribute to the knowledge database defining the influence of the main technological parameters of electrical discharge machining on the microhardness changes and the total depth of the heat-affected zone of the subsurface layers of experimental samples. The results of the experimental measurement were transformed into the mathematical models allowing simulation and prediction of the final quality of the machined surface after die-sinking electrical discharge machining tool steels with Cu electrode. The purpose of the mathematical models is to determine the optimal combination of process parameters and thereby achieve the desired quality of the products produced by this advanced technology.
Tri-modal under-approximation of event systems for test generation

This paper presents a method for under-approximating behavioural models with the guarantee that the abstract paths can be instantiated as executions of models. This allows a model-based testing approach to operate on an abstraction of infinite or very large behavioural model. We characterize the abstract transitions as may, must+ or must-. This allows us to benefit from Thomas Ball's result that any abstract sequence in the shape of must-*. may.must+* (a Ball chain) can be instantiated as a sequence of connected concrete transitions. We adapt Ball's work aiming at abstracting C programs to the case of event systems, where the instantiated Ball chains might not be reachable from a model's initial state. We propose as a solution to this problem to symbolically explore the set of states reachable after a finite number of steps, to identify the Ball chains that start in any of these states. By keeping track of the paths that lead to these starting states, we are able to instantiate with certainty the sequences made of the reached Ball chains with their prefix. This method improves the usual methods that often look for instantiations even though they don't exist for some sequences. Finally we show by means of preliminary experimental results that, despite the complexity of symbolic exploration, the method is able to reach many Ball chains within a small number of exploration steps.
Influence of artificially-induced porosity on the compressive strength of calcium phosphate bone cements

The biological and mechanical nature of calcium phosphate cements (CPC's) matches well with that of bone tissues, thus they can be considered as an appropriate environment for bone repair as bone defect fillers. The current study focuses on the experimental characterization of the mechanical properties of CPCs that are favorably used in clinical applications. Aiming on evaluation of their mechanical performance, tests in compression loading were conducted in order to determine the mechanical properties of the material under study. In this context, experimental results occurring from the above mechanical tests on porous specimens that were fabricated from three different porous additives, namely albumin, gelatin and sodium alginate, are provided, while assessment of their mechanical properties in respect to the used porous media is performed. Additionally, samples reinforced with hydroxyapatite crystals were also tested in compression and the results are compared with those of the above tested porous CPCs. The knowledge obtained allows the improvement of their biomechanical properties by controlling their structure in a micro level, and finds a way to compromise between mechanical and biological response.
The expression of DNA methyltransferases3A is specifically downregulated in chorionic villi of early embryo growth arrest cases

The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression pattern of four DNA methyltransferases (DNMT1, DNMT3A, DNMT3B and DNMT3L) in placenta chorionic villi of early embryo growth arrest patients. Chorionic villous specimens were obtained from 40 pregnant patients diagnosed with early embryo growth arrest and 40 healthy women who underwent selective pregnancy termination. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis were performed to characterize the mRNA and protein expression of DNMTs in chorionic villous cells. It was identified, among the four DNMTs, DNMT3B presented the highest level of protein expression in both patient groups. Although the mRNA expressions of the four DNMTs were comparable, the DNMT3A protein was specifically downregulated in patients with early embryo growth arrest. Therefore, the current study suggests that an abnormal decrease in DNMT3A protein levels may be involved in the pathogenesis of early embryo growth arrest.
Methods for validating chronometry of computerized tests

ABSTRACT Determining the speed at which a task is performed (i.e., reaction time) can be a valuable tool in both research and clinical assessments. However, standard computer hardware employed for measuring reaction times (e.g., computer monitor, keyboard, or mouse) can add nonrepresentative noise to the data, potentially compromising the accuracy of measurements and the conclusions drawn from the data. Therefore, an assessment of the accuracy and precision of measurement should be included along with the development of computerized tests and assessment batteries that rely on reaction times as the dependent variable. This manuscript outlines three methods for assessing the temporal accuracy of reaction time data (one employing external chronometry). Using example data collected from the Dalhousie Computerized Attention Battery (DalCAB) we discuss the detection, measurement, and correction of nonrepresentative noise in reaction time measurement. The details presented in this manuscript should act as a cautionary tale to any researchers or clinicians gathering reaction time data, but who have not yet considered methods for verifying the internal chronometry of the software and or hardware being used.
CYP3A5 polymorphisms in renal transplant recipients: influence on tacrolimus treatment

Tacrolimus is a commonly used immunosuppressant after kidney transplantation. It has a narrow therapeutic range and demonstrates wide interindividual variability in pharmacokinetics, leading to potential underimmunosuppression or toxicity. Genetic polymorphism in CYP3A5 enzyme expression contributes to differences in tacrolimus bioavailability between individuals. Individuals carrying one or more copies of the wild-type allele *1 express CYP3A5, which increases tacrolimus clearance. CYP3A5 expressers require 1.5 to 2-fold higher tacrolimus doses compared to usual dosing to achieve therapeutic blood concentrations. Individuals with homozygous *3/*3 genotype are CYP3A5 nonexpressers. CYP3A5 nonexpression is the most frequent phenotype in most ethnic populations, except blacks. Differences between CYP3A5 genotypes in tacrolimus disposition have not translated into differences in clinical outcomes, such as acute rejection and graft survival. Therefore, although genotype-based dosing may improve achievement of therapeutic drug concentrations with empiric dosing, its role in clinical practice is unclear. CYP3A5 genotype may predict differences in absorption of extended-release and immediate-release oral formulations of tacrolimus. Two studies found that CYP3A5 expressers require higher doses of tacrolimus in the extended-release formulation compared to immediate release. CYP3A5 genotype plays a role in determining the impact of interacting drugs, such as fluconazole, on tacrolimus pharmacokinetics. Evidence conflicts regarding the impact of CYP3A5 genotype on risk of nephrotoxicity associated with tacrolimus. Further study is required.