Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autophagy: The multi‐purpose bridge in viral infections and host cells

Autophagy signaling pathway is involved in cellular homeostasis, developmental processes, cellular stress responses, and immune pathways. The aim of this review is to summarize the relationship between autophagy and viruses. It is not possible to be fully comprehensive, or to provide a complete “overview of all viruses”. In this review, we will focus on the interaction of autophagy and viruses and survey how human viruses exploit multiple steps in the autophagy pathway to help viral propagation and escape immune response. We discuss the role that macroautophagy plays in cells infected with hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus, rotavirus gastroenteritis, immune cells infected with human immunodeficiency virus, and viral respiratory tract infections both influenza virus and coronavirus.
Foveal fine structure in retinopathy of prematurity: an adaptive optics Fourier domain optical coherence tomography study.

PURPOSE To describe the fine structure of the fovea in subjects with a history of mild retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) using adaptive optics-Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (AO-FDOCT). METHODS High-speed, high-resolution AO-FDOCT videos were recorded in subjects with a history of ROP (n = 5; age range, 14-26 years) and in control subjects (n = 5; age range, 18-25 years). Custom software was used to extract foveal pit depth and volume from three-dimensional (3-D) retinal maps. The thickness of retinal layers as a function of retinal eccentricity was measured manually. The retinal vasculature in the parafoveal region was assessed. RESULTS The foveal pit was wider and shallower in ROP than in control subjects. Mean pit depth, defined from the base to the level at which the pit reaches a lateral radius of 728 microm, was 121 microm compared with 53 microm. Intact, contiguous inner retinal layers overlay the fovea in ROP subjects but were absent in the control subjects. Mean full retinal thickness at the fovea was greater in the subjects with ROP (279.0 microm vs. 190.2 microm). The photoreceptor layer thickness did not differ between ROP and control subjects. An avascular zone was not identified in the subjects with ROP but was present in all the control subjects. CONCLUSIONS The foveas of subjects with a history of mild ROP have significant structural abnormalities that are probably a consequence of perturbations of neurovascular development.
Toxicity Assays in Nanodrops Combining Bioassay and Morphometric Endpoints

Background Improved chemical hazard management such as REACH policy objective as well as drug ADMETOX prediction, while limiting the extent of animal testing, requires the development of increasingly high throughput as well as highly pertinent in vitro toxicity assays. Methodology This report describes a new in vitro method for toxicity testing, combining cell-based assays in nanodrop Cell-on-Chip format with the use of a genetically engineered stress sensitive hepatic cell line. We tested the behavior of a stress inducible fluorescent HepG2 model in which Heat Shock Protein promoters controlled Enhanced-Green Fluorescent Protein expression upon exposure to Cadmium Chloride (CdCl2), Sodium Arsenate (NaAsO2) and Paraquat. In agreement with previous studies based on a micro-well format, we could observe a chemical-specific response, identified through differences in dynamics and amplitude. We especially determined IC50 values for CdCl2 and NaAsO2, in agreement with published data. Individual cell identification via image-based screening allowed us to perform multiparametric analyses. Conclusions Using pre/sub lethal cell stress instead of cell mortality, we highlighted the high significance and the superior sensitivity of both stress promoter activation reporting and cell morphology parameters in measuring the cell response to a toxicant. These results demonstrate the first generation of high-throughput and high-content assays, capable of assessing chemical hazards in vitro within the REACH policy framework.
Experimentation and the Formation of Causal Theories Causality and Machine Discovery Representing Causal Structure

This paper describes a discovery system that generates a qualitative theory about a causal system on the basis of active experimentation and widely applicable principles of causal reasoning. It shows how substantial assumptions about causal structure help to constrain the search for causal theories eeciently, so that reliable causal inferences can be made on the basis of relatively few but carefully chosen data. The method forms an important part of a general method of causal discovery and can be seen as a sys-tematization of our common sense causal reasoning. The formation of causal theories is of central importance both for science and common sense reasoning. Causal knowledge is essential for the explanation, prediction, and control of natural processes. How is such knowledge to be represented? How is it generated? And what distinguishes causal reasoning from other kinds of reasoning? Although almost any approach to machine discovery has to rely on a conception of causality at least implicitly , these fundamental questions are seldom addressed. Many approaches take their conception of causality from qualitative physics. But the role of causality in qualitative physics is far from clear|in fact, it is one of the most controversial topics in this eld (Iwasaki & Si-mon (1986); de Kleer & Brown (1986)), and some even doubt that a domain-independent concept of causality exists at all (Forbus & Gentner 1990). Abductive approaches to theory formation tend to equate a causal explanation with a deductive argument and a regularity with a simple universal conditional (e.g., O`Rorke, Morris & Schulenburg (1990)). But this equation, being reminiscent of Hempel's model of deductive nomo-logical explanation (Hempel 1965), is too simple; it has been subjected to dozens of counterexamples (cf. Salmon Special thanks to Gerd Graahoo and the Epistemic Systems group at the University of Hamburg. (1990)) and is not considered to be a viable alternative in philosophy of science. A further approach to the discovery of causal regularities is the induction of probabilistic causal networks (Pearl (1988), Spirtes, Gly-mour & Scheines (1993)). However, such networks are also variously termed`Bayesian networks', `belief net-works' or`knowledge map', and it has been questioned whether there is anything distinctively causal about them (Neapolitan 1990). This paper aims to show how substantial assumptions about causal structure can be exploited in causal reasoning and theory formation. For systematically testing this approach, it is implemented in a causal discovery program (CDP). It generates a qualitative theory about a …
Parallel Pipelined VLSI Architectures for Lifting-Based Two-Dimensional Forward Discrete Wavelet Transform

In this paper, in order to best meet real-time applications of 2-dimensional discrete wavelet transform (2-D DWT) with demanding requirements in terms of speed and throughput, 2-parallel and 4-parallel pipelined lifting-based VLSI architectures for lossless 5/3 and lossy 9/7 algorithms are proposed. The two proposed parallel architectures achieve speedup factors of 2 and 4 as compared with single pipelined architecture based on the first scan method proposed by Ibrahim et al. The advantage of the proposed architectures is that they only require a total temporary line buffer (TLB) of size N and 3N in 5/3 and 9/7, respectively.
Socio-psychological factors of using telework as an instrument for reintegration

This study identifies social and psychological factors that play a role when using telework as an instrument for reintegration. The factors are identified by studying literature about telework and return-to-work. An intersection of the variables found in both fields gives the following four imporant factors: working time / work rhythms, career uncertainty, social support and motivation / self-efficacy. Two other important variables that should also be considered, are ‘likeliness to return to work’ and ‘social, physical and professional isolation’. The results should be tested in the future by e.g. qualitative interviews or a case study.
Stochastic gradient identification of Wiener system with maximum mutual information criterion

This study presents an information-theoretic approach for adaptive identification of an unknown Wiener system. A two-criterion identification scheme is proposed, in which the adaptive system comprises a linear finite-impulse response filter trained by maximum mutual information (MaxMI) criterion and a polynomial non-linearity learned by traditional mean square error criterion. The authors show that under certain conditions, the optimum solution matches the true system exactly. Further, the authors develop a stochastic gradient-based algorithm, that is, stochastic mutual information gradient-normalised least mean square algorithm, to implement the proposed identification scheme. Monte-Carlo simulation results demonstrate the noticeable performance improvement of this new algorithm in comparison with some other algorithms.
Recent Advances in Boron-Containing Conjugated Porous Polymers

Porous polymers, integrating the advantages of porous materials and conventional polymers, have been well developed and exhibited tremendous attention in the fields of material, chemistry and biology. Of these, boron-containing conjugated porous polymers, featuring tunable geometric structures, unique Lewis acid boron centers and very rich physical properties, such as high specific surface, chargeable scaffold, strong photoluminescence and intramolecular charge transfer, have emerged as one of the most promising functional materials for optoelectronics, catalysis and sensing, etc. Furthermore, upon thermal treatment, some of them can be effectively converted to boron-doped porous carbon materials with good electrochemical performance in energy storage and conversion, extensively enlarging the applicable scope of such kinds of polymers. In this review, the synthetic approaches, structure analyses and various applications of the boron-containing conjugated porous polymers reported very recently are summarized.
Methyl-n-propyl ether.

ETHER is an isomer of di-ethyl ether and possesses the formula CHs-O-(CHI)J-CHJ. The physical properties of the two drugs are similar, and the vapour pressure curve of methyl-n-propyl ether is such that it may be used in the Oxford Vaporizer No. 1 without any alteration in the calibration of the instrument (see Figure). Methyl-n-propyl ether has a very unpleasant pungent odour. This was found to prevent its use as an analgesic agent for women in labour, and it is unpleasant in operating theatres when the drug is administered in open circuits as an anaesthetic agent. The use of methyl-n-propyl ether as an anaesthetic agent was first described in 1946 by White et al. This paper is based on the experiences of the authors in a small series of twenty cases in which it was used as an anaesthetic agent. The series is small but was abandoned when it was appreciated that the drug had no outstanding advantages. In none of these cases was the drug used in combination with any of the muscle relaxant drugs, as it was our intention to investigate the basic effects of the ether, and not to develop a technique for its use. Methyl-n-propyl ether produces a remarkable degree of analgesia without loss of consciousness. This was discovered when trying to assess the degree of recovery in one of the patients by pressure on the supra-orbital nerve. The patient 83
Teacher Shocks and Student Learning: Evidence from Zambia

A large literature examines the link between shocks to households and the educational attainment of children. The authors use new data to estimate the impact of shocks to teachers on student learning in mathematics and English. Using absenteeism in the 30 days preceding the survey as a measure of these shocks they find large impacts: A 5 percent increase in the teacher's absence rate reduces learning by 4 to 8 percent of average gains over the year. This reduction in learning achievement likely reflects both the direct effect of increased absenteeism and the indirect effects of less lesson preparation and lower teaching quality when in class. The authors document that health problems-primarily teachers' own illness and the illnesses of their family members-account for more than 60 percent of teacher absences; not surprising in a country struggling with an HIV/AIDS epidemic. The relationship between shocks to teachers and student learning suggests that households are unable to substitute adequately for teaching inputs. Excess teaching capacity that allows for the greater use of substitute teachers could lead to larger gains in student learning.
Small, Fast, and Under Control: Wireless Resonant Magnetic Micro-agents

Primary challenges in the building of untethered submillimeter sized robots include propulsion methods, power supply, and control. We present a novel type of microrobot called MagMite that utilizes a new class of wireless resonant magnetic micro-actuator that accomplishes all three tasks. The term MagMite is derived from Magnetic Mite—a tribute to the underlying magnetic propulsion principle and the micro-scale dimensions of the robot. The device harvests magnetic energy from the environment and effectively transforms it into inertia-and impact-driven mechanical force while being fully controllable. It can be powered and controlled with oscillating fields in the kilohertz range and strengths as low as 2 mT, which is only roughly 50 times the average Earth magnetic field. These microrobotic agents with dimensions less than 300 μm × 300 μm × 70 μm and a total mass of 30—50 μg are capable of moving forward, backward and turning in place while reaching controllable speeds in excess of 12.5 mm s—1 or 42 times the robot’s body length per second. The robots produce enough force to push micro-objects of similar sizes and can be visually servoed through a maze in a fully automated fashion. The prototype devices exhibit an overall degree of flexibility, controllability, and performance unmatched by other microrobots reported in the literature. The robustness of the MagMites leads to high experimental repeatability, which in turn enabled us to successfully compete in the RoboCup 2007 and 2009 Nanogram competitions. In this work it is demonstrated how the robots exhibit a plethora of driving behaviors, how they can operate on a host of unstructured surfaces under both dry and wet conditions, and how they can accomplish fully automated micromanipulation tasks. Various micro-objects ranging from beads to biological entities have been successfully manipulated. To the same end, multi-agent studies have shown great promise to be used in cooperative tasks.
Quantifying and Comparing Features in High-Dimensional Datasets

Linking and brushing is a proven approach to analyzing multi-dimensional datasets in the context of multiple coordinated views. Nevertheless, most of the respective visualization techniques only offer qualitative visual results. Many user tasks, however, also require precise quantitative results as, for example, offered by statistical analysis. In succession of the useful Rank-by-Feature Framework, this paper describes a joint visual and statistical approach for guiding the user through a high-dimensional dataset by ranking dimensions (1D case) and pairs of dimensions (2D case) according to statistical summaries. While the original Rank-by-Feature Framework is limited to global features, the most important novelty here is the concept to consider local features, i.e., data subsets defined by brushing in linked views. The ability to compare subsets to other subsets and subsets to the whole dataset in the context of a large number of dimensions significantly extends the benefits of the approach especially in later stages of an exploratory data analysis. A case study illustrates the workflow by analyzing counts of keywords for classifying e-mails as spam or no-spam.
Exploring Cache Coding Scheme for Information-centric Networking

The tremendous growth of the Internet application has driven wider efforts to advanced future Internet architecture especially Content-Centric Networking. In this paper we propose a Centralized Architecture for ICN (CAN), which efficiently combines Content-Centric Networking and network coding (NC). In order to achieve optimal coding performance, we design a global controller which is mainly responsible for calculating entire network routing tables and controlling optimal trade off among cache coding schemes. Specifically, we propose a coding chunk naming scheme and an efficient network coding management approach, which apply to recover the lost native content packets according to NC. Experiment results show that NC in CAN has a great performance for content packet loss recovery. In particular, it can reach nearly 100% recovery in sufferable packet loss rate. Meanwhile, the efficiency and performance of which are superior to the conventional CCN.
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) 10-6-2011 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MULTISOURCING AT FONTERRA : A CASE STUDY OF THE WORLD ’ S LARGEST EXPORTER OF DAIRY INGREDIENTS

Organizations have used numerous sourcing strategies to lower IT costs and improve IT service levels. However, a number of these sourcing strategies have failed to deliver on their expected outcomes. Multisourcing has been advanced as a form of sourcing which addresses the deficiencies of other failed strategies. Through our case study of Fonterra, the world‟s largest exporter of dairy ingredients, we seek to explore whether multisourcing is a viable IT sourcing strategy. From the Fonterra case, we found that the benefits of multisourcing IT infrastructure stemmed from an ability to lower IT costs, improve IT service levels and enable access to specialist vendors and emerging technologies. The costs and risks of IT multisourcing were centered on the ongoing management of vendors and the underlying importance of a service management layer in organizations.
Parallel interference cancellation in multiuser detection

The parallel interference cancellation (PIC) principle is a conceptually simple and yet effective method of parameter estimation and data detection in the presence of multiple-access and multipath interference. It unifies some of the known methods of data detection, complex channel coefficient estimation, as well as delay tracking in DS-CDMA receivers. The PIC method will be derived and some numerical results for data detection, channel coefficient estimation and delay tracking will be presented.
Epigenetic Modulation of CD8+ T Cell Function in Lentivirus Infections: A Review

CD8+ T cells are critical for controlling viremia during human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. These cells produce cytolytic factors and antiviral cytokines that eliminate virally- infected cells. During the chronic phase of HIV infection, CD8+ T cells progressively lose their proliferative capacity and antiviral functions. These dysfunctional cells are unable to clear the productively infected and reactivated cells, representing a roadblock in HIV cure. Therefore, mechanisms to understand CD8+ T cell dysfunction and strategies to boost CD8+ T cell function need to be investigated. Using the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) model for lentiviral persistence, we have demonstrated that CD8+ T cells exhibit epigenetic changes such as DNA demethylation during the course of infection as compared to uninfected cats. We have also demonstrated that lentivirus-activated CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells induce forkhead box P3 (Foxp3) expression in virus-specific CD8+ T cell targets, which binds the interleukin (IL)-2, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interferon (IFN)-γ promoters in these CD8+ T cells. Finally, we have reported that epigenetic modulation reduces Foxp3 binding to these promoter regions. This review compares and contrasts our current understanding of CD8+ T cell epigenetics and mechanisms of lymphocyte suppression during the course of lentiviral infection for two animal models, FIV and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).
Comparison between Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness in Reducing Weight and Improvement of Health in Obese and Over Weighted Children

This study tries to compare two methods of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and MBI (Mindfulness-Based Interventions) in weight reduction and health promotion of overweighed and obese female students between 8 and 12. For this matter, 45 overweighed and obese female students between 8 and 12 were randomly chosen and assigned into 3 groups after matching. The three groups included two experimental groups and one control group. Both therapies implemented for 8 weeks including 8 one-hour sessions. KIDSCREEN-27 questionnaire were filled in at the beginning and end of sessions by mothers to assess health (health related quality of life of children). Statistical analysis was done through covariance analysis and ANOVA using SPSS 16 software. According to the obtained results of covariance analysis, both cognitive behavioral therapy for obesity and mindfulness intervention for weight loose were effective (F=121/330, Sig=0/0001). On the other hand, participants of two experimental groups could keep their weight for three months. Both of therapies could positively effect on improvement of health related quality of life (F=22/830, Sig=0/0001) and physical wellbeing was improved in both groups (F=11/597, Sig=0/0001).
Multi-agent competitive control systems

In this paper, we consider the multi-agent competitive control systems with varying adjacent topology. The dynamics and the performance of each agent of the multi-agent system depend on both itself and its neighborhood. The optimal solutions are the Nash equilibriums, which are determined by coupled Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations. We mainly concern with continuous-time affine nonlinear systems and linear systems. Finally, a two-agent linear control system is used to illustrate our results, where the two agents are related through a periodic switching.
Barriers for Adopting Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by Physicians

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: NONE DECLARED Introduction Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are computerized medical information systems that collect, store and display patient information. They are means to create legible and organized recordings and to access clinical information about individual patients. Despite of the positive effects of the EMRs usage in medical practices, the adoption rate of such systems is still low and meets resistance from physicians. The EHRs represent an essential tool for improving both in the safety and quality of health care, though physicians must actively use these systems to accrue the benefits. This study was unsystematic-review. Aim The aim of this study was to express barriers perceived y physicians to the adoption of the EHRs. Method of the study This study was non-systematic reviewed which the literature was searched on barriers perceived by physicians to the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) with the help of library, books, conference proceedings, data bank, and also searches engines available at Google, Google scholar. Discussion For our searches, we employed the following keywords and their combinations: physicians, electronic medical record, electronic health record, barrier, and adoption in the searching areas of title, keywords, abstract, and full text. In this study, more than 100 articles and reports were collected and 27 of them were selected based on their relevancy. Electronic health record use requires the presence of certain user and system attributes, support from others, and numerous organizational and environment facilitators.
Complexity Made Simple in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a heterogeneous disease and response to therapy is difficult to predict. An algorithm to sort DLBCL cases using a series of five immunohistochemical markers (GCET1, CD10, BCL6, MUM1, FOXP1) accurately predicts survival in patients treated with current chemotherapeutic regimens. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(17):5291–3)