Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elderly's Comprehension on Facebook: a Communicability Evaluation

This paper describes a qualitative research using the Communicability Evaluation Method for Collaborative Systems. The objective is to evaluate the elders' interaction with the most popular social network in the world (Facebook), using a different approach to the proposed by the HCI community: communicability. In our case, we use younger volunteers (non-elder adults) to compare the results. As a result, there was a necessity to review some interface aspects, such as the meaning system adopted by the designer. It was also realized the need to establish clearer criteria for the information organization and to correct usability and accessibility problems that influence on the communication failures that occurred during the elders' interaction with the social network.
Pharmacologic characterization of SHR8443, a novel dual inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and mammalian target of rapamycin

Dysregulation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway occurs frequently in human cancer and contributes to resistance to antitumor therapy. Inhibition of key signaling proteins in this pathway therefore represents an attractive targeting strategy for cancer therapy. Here, we show that SHR8443, an imidazo [4,5-c] quinoline derivative, inhibited mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) kinase and PI3K, especially PI3Kα/δ/γ isoforms with picomolar potency, by binding to the ATP subunits of the respective enzymes. Inhibition of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling by SHR8443 induced G1 phase arrest, autophagy and apoptosis, and resulted in broad anti-proliferative activity against a panel of cancer cells with different genetic backgrounds. Furthermore, SHR8443 overcame resistance to RAF/MEK inhibitors and exhibited synergistic antitumor activity in combination with RAF/MEK inhibitors in vitro. Compared with the well-known PI3K/mTOR inhibitor BEZ235, SHR8443 showed broader and stronger efficacy against carcinoma xenografts, including those resistant to anti-HER2 antibody trastuzumab, in association with the inhibition of AKT and S6 phosphorylation in tumor tissues, and also caused no noticeable toxicity. Thus, our preclinical data show that SHR8443 is a dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor with pharmaceutical properties favorable for use as an anticancer agent.
[Molecular mechanism of tetramethylpyrazine to induce human promyelocytic HL-60 leukemia cells differentiation].

OBJECTIVE To study the molecular mechanism of tetramethylpyrazine to induce human promyelocytic HL-60 leukemia cells differentiation. METHOD The cell proliferation was determined by MTT. The differentiation of the cells was detected by NBT reduction test. Cellular morphology was observed by Wright's staining. Cell cycle distribution and the distribution of CD11b, CD14 were detected by flow cytometry. Then RT-PCR and Western blot assay were employed to detect the expressions of c-myc, p27, CDK2 and cyclinE1 in HL-60 cells after exposure to TMP. RESULT TMP inhibited the proliferation in a dose and time dependent manner. TMP at the concentration of 200 mg x L(-1) to 300 mg x L(-1) induced unterminal differentiation of HL-60 cell and synergistically blocked the cell cycle progression of HL-60 cells in G0/G1 phase. The expression of c-myc was down-regulated as well as the protein expression of cyclin E and CDK2, while the mRNA and protein expression of P27 were remarkably up-regulated. CONCLUSION Small doses of TMP induces differentiation of HL-60 cells throughout the cell cyde, as detected by a slower rate of accumulation in G0/G1, possibly by regulating the expression and activity of G1/S phase-related molecules.
Procrastination in Quantum Coding and Computation

When storing, communicating, or processing information, we are often forced to make decisions earlier than we would like. Perhaps we can only afford to store a subset of our data, and must choose what to discard long before we know which parts are truly important. Or perhaps we only have time to compute responses for a certain number of scenarios, and must decide which to prepare before the situation we face becomes into focus. This paper examines whether quantum resources can help us to delay those decisions until they can be made in an informed manner. Quantum Procrastination The possible states of a quantum system form a continuum. We could theoretically encode as many classical bits as we like in such a system, the catch being that when we measure it we can extract just a small part of that data. But there are many situations of practical interest where we care about just a small part of a large body of information. In particular, when we prepare for some future event, we need to cover many contingencies – despite the fact that once we reach that event, only one set of preparations will be relevant. In a situation like this it might be possible to prepare a compact quantum store covering all the contingencies, such that when the time comes to read the store we can choose our measurement carefully to extract the information relevant to the contingency we care about. Of course, the price paid for this compactness is likely to be that the store can only be used once – reading it may destroy its quantum state and any potential information about other contingencies. The first part of this paper shows that the procedure just described is in fact feasible. For example, it is possible to code two classical bits in a single qubit, later decide which bit we care about, and read it out with an accuracy of 85%. And in a variant of the teleportation process, it turns that that this qubit can be passed to a party with whom we share an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pair by transmitting a single classical bit. Another situation in which procrastination would be useful occurs for computation. Suppose we expect some input in the future that we wish to react to as quickly as possible, but the computation needed to respond is very long and involved. Is there any way to go ahead and do the computation and decide later what input we care about? x z 0 1 ( ) ( ) 0 , , 4 π φ θ = ( ) ( ) 0 , , 4 3π φ θ = ( ) ( ) π φ θ π , , 4 = ( ) ( ) π φ θ π , , 4 3 = 01 ψ 00 ψ
Prosthetic Hand Control

This paper presents a five-fingered underactuated prosthetic hand controlled by surface electromyographic (EMG) signals. The prosthetic hand control part is based on an EMG motion pattern classifier which combines variable learning rate (VLR) based neural network with parametric Autoregressive (AR) model and wavelet transform. This motion pattern classifier can successfully identify flexion and extension of the thumb, the index finger and the middle finger, by measuring the surface EMG signals through three electrodes mounted on the flexor digitorum profundus, flexor pollicis longus and extensor digitorum. Furthermore, via continuously controlling single finger's motion, the five-fingered underactuated prosthetic hand can achieve more prehensile postures such as power grasp, centralized grip, fingertip grasp, cylindrical grasp, etc. The experimental results show that the classifier has a great potential application to the control of bionic man-machine systems because of its fast learning speed, high recognition capability.
Emulsifying Activities of Purified Alasan Proteins from Acinetobacter radioresistens KA53

ABSTRACT The bioemulsifier of Acinetobacter radioresistens KA53, referred to as alasan, is a high-molecular-weight complex of polysaccharide and protein. The emulsifying activity of the purified polysaccharide (apo-alasan) is very low. Three of the alasan proteins were purified by preparative sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and had apparent molecular masses of 16, 31, and 45 kDa. Emulsification assays using the isolated alasan proteins demonstrated that the active components of the alasan complex are the proteins. The 45-kDa protein had the highest specific emulsifying activity, 11% higher than the intact alasan complex. The 16- and 31-kDa proteins gave relatively low emulsifying activities, but they were significantly higher than that of apo-alasan. The addition of the purified 16- and 31-kDa proteins to the 45-kDa protein resulted in a 1.8-fold increase in the specific emulsifying activity and increased stability of the oil-in-water emulsion. Fast-performance liquid chromatography analysis indicated that the 45-kDa protein forms a dimer in nondenaturing conditions and interacts with the 16- and 31-kDa proteins to form a high-molecular-mass complex. The 45-kDa protein and the three-protein complex had substrate specificities for emulsification and a range of pH activities similar to that of alasan. The fact that the purified proteins are active emulsifiers should simplify structure-function studies and advance our understanding of their biological roles.
Noise spectra in the reversible–irreversible transition in amorphous solids under oscillatory driving

We study the stress fluctuations in simulations of a two-dimensional amorphous solid under a cyclic drive. It is known that this system organizes into a reversible state for small driving amplitudes and remains in an irreversible state for high driving amplitudes, and that a critical driving amplitude separates the two regimes. Here we study the time series of the stress fluctuations below and above the reversible–irreversible transition. In the irreversible regime above the transition, the power spectrum of the stress fluctuations is broad and has a 1/fα shape with 1 < α < 2. We find that the low frequency noise power peaks near the stress at which dc yielding occurs, which is consistent with the behavior expected in systems undergoing a non-equilibrium phase transition.
VNA-based wideband 60 GHz MIMO channel sounder with 3-D arrays

This paper presents a wide band 60 GHz MIMO channel measurement system using a VNA and 3-D arrays at both ends. It uses virtual antenna arrays which can be reconfigured easily. The bandwidth of the system is 3.5 GHz, which leads to a time resolution of 0.29 ns. This fine resolution is suitable for characterizing dense multipaths in indoor environments. Line of sight (LOS) and obstructed line of sight (OLOS) measurements were performed with 64-element arrays at both TX and RX. Preliminary results (power delay profiles) are presented.
Guiding cellular activity with polarized light

Actin, cytoskeleton protein forming microfilaments, play a crucial role in cellular motility. Here we show that exposure to very low levels of polarized light guide their orientation in‐vivo within the live cell. Using a simple model to describe the role of actin‐filament orientation in directional cellular motion, we demonstrate that the actin polymerization/depolymerization mechanism develops primarily along this direction and, under certain conditions, can lead to guidance of the cell movement. Our results also show a dose dependent increase in actin activity in direct correspondence to the level of laser irradiance. We found that total expression of Tau protein, which stabilize microtubules, was decreased by the irradiance, indicating that exposure to the light may change the activity of kinase, leading to increased cell activity.
Effects of adaptive prediction algorithms on adaptive QAM in flat Rayleigh fading channels

The long-range prediction (LRP) algorithm was investigated by Duel-Hallen et al., (2000) such that we can predict future channel state information for more than ten milliseconds ahead. However, its adaptive implementations to avoid the matrix inversion have not been investigated in detail. This paper presents the performance comparison among the various adaptive prediction algorithms for the LRP purpose. The adaptive QAM transmission schemes with utilizing the algorithms are thus proposed for the use in the FDD-based adaptive transmission under the scenario of flat Rayleigh fading channels. The scheme is also built with the pilot symbol assist modulation and the speed zone detection techniques. The adaptive modulation schemes by utilizing the speed zone detection lead in performance improvement in the selection of the optimal prediction order under the different mobile speeds. The efficacies of the schemes are presented through the simulation study.
A Flexible 360-Degree Thermal Sound Source Based on Laser Induced Graphene

A flexible sound source is essential in a whole flexible system. It’s hard to integrate a conventional sound source based on a piezoelectric part into a whole flexible system. Moreover, the sound pressure from the back side of a sound source is usually weaker than that from the front side. With the help of direct laser writing (DLW) technology, the fabrication of a flexible 360-degree thermal sound source becomes possible. A 650-nm low-power laser was used to reduce the graphene oxide (GO). The stripped laser induced graphene thermal sound source was then attached to the surface of a cylindrical bottle so that it could emit sound in a 360-degree direction. The sound pressure level and directivity of the sound source were tested, and the results were in good agreement with the theoretical results. Because of its 360-degree sound field, high flexibility, high efficiency, low cost, and good reliability, the 360-degree thermal acoustic sound source will be widely applied in consumer electronics, multi-media systems, and ultrasonic detection and imaging.
Usher I syndrome: unravelling the mechanisms that underlie the cohesion of the growing hair bundle in inner ear sensory cells

Defects in myosin VIIa, the PDZ-domain-containing protein harmonin, cadherin 23 and protocadherin 15 (two cadherins with large extracellular regions), and the putative scaffolding protein Sans underlie five genetic forms of Usher syndrome type I (USH1), the most frequent cause of hereditary deafness-blindness in humans. All USH1 proteins are localised within growing stereocilia and/or the kinocilium that make up the developing auditory hair bundle, the mechanosensitive structure receptive to sound stimulation. Cadherin 23 has been shown to be a component of fibrous links interconnecting the growing stereocilia as well as the kinocilium and the nearest tall stereocilia. A similar function is anticipated for protocadherin 15. Multiple direct interactions between USH1 proteins have been demonstrated. In particular, harmonin b can bind to the cytoplasmic regions of cadherin 23 and protocadherin 15, and to F-actin, and thus probably anchors these cadherins to the actin filaments filling the stereocilia. Myosin VIIa and Sans are both involved in the sorting and/or targeting of harmonin b to the stereocilia. Together, this suggests that the disorganisation of the hair bundles observed in mice mutants lacking orthologues of USH1 proteins may result from a defect of hair-bundle-link-mediated adhesion forces. Moreover, several recent evidences suggest that some genes defective in Usher type II syndrome also encode interstereocilia links, thus bridging the pathogenic pathways of USH1 and USH2 hearing impairment. Additional functions of USH1 proteins in the inner ear and the retina are evident from other phenotypic abnormalities observed in these mice. In particular, myosin VIIa could act at the interface between microtubule- and actin-based transport.
Distributed Interference Cancellation for Dynamic Spectrum Sharing

This paper proposes a novel interference cancellation technique using the concept of a distributed array, for the secondary use of the frequency resources in frequency division duplexing (FDD)-based cellular systems. In order to achieve efficient distributed interference cancellation, the secondary system exploit intervals for periodic training signals transmitted by FDD-time division multiple access (TDMA)-based cellular systems. We show that an efficient interference cancellation can be achieved by introducing helpers that decode the interference and transfer it to the secondary nodes. We take advantage of the high-speed links within the secondary system and devise a data compressing scheme that reduces time for transferring the decoded interference. We clarify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme by using computer simulation. As a parameter, the transmission quality between the helper and secondary nodes is varied. The results indicate that the proposed distributed interference cancellation is effective compared to a conventional adaptive array using a zero forcing algorithm, when the signal to noise ratio between the helper and the target secondary node is greater than 20 dB.
Higher Order Priors for Joint Intrinsic Image, Objects, and Attributes Estimation

Many methods have been proposed to solve the problems of recovering intrinsic scene properties such as shape, reflectance and illumination from a single image, and object class segmentation separately. While these two problems are mutually informative, in the past not many papers have addressed this topic. In this work we explore such joint estimation of intrinsic scene properties recovered from an image, together with the estimation of the objects and attributes present in the scene. In this way, our unified framework is able to capture the correlations between intrinsic properties (reflectance, shape, illumination), objects (table, tv-monitor), and materials (wooden, plastic) in a given scene. For example, our model is able to enforce the condition that if a set of pixels take same object label, e.g. table, most likely those pixels would receive similar reflectance values. We cast the problem in an energy minimization framework and demonstrate the qualitative and quantitative improvement in the overall accuracy on the NYU and Pascal datasets.
An Intense and Short-Lasting Burst of Neutrophil Activation Differentiates Early Acute Myocardial Infarction from Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes

Background Neutrophils are involved in thrombus formation. We investigated whether specific features of neutrophil activation characterize patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) compared to stable angina and to systemic inflammatory diseases. Methods and Findings The myeloperoxidase (MPO) content of circulating neutrophils was determined by flow cytometry in 330 subjects: 69 consecutive patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), 69 with chronic stable angina (CSA), 50 with inflammation due to either non-infectious (acute bone fracture), infectious (sepsis) or autoimmune diseases (small and large vessel systemic vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis). Four patients have also been studied before and after sterile acute injury of the myocardium (septal alcoholization). One hundred thirty-eight healthy donors were studied in parallel. Neutrophils with normal MPO content were 96% in controls, >92% in patients undergoing septal alcoholization, 91% in CSA patients, but only 35 and 30% in unstable angina and AMI (STEMI and NSTEMI) patients, compared to 80%, 75% and 2% of patients with giant cell arteritis, acute bone fracture and severe sepsis. In addition, in 32/33 STEMI and 9/21 NSTEMI patients respectively, 20% and 12% of neutrophils had complete MPO depletion during the first 4 hours after the onset of symptoms, a feature not observed in any other group of patients. MPO depletion was associated with platelet activation, indicated by P-selectin expression, activation and transactivation of leukocyte β2-integrins and formation of platelet neutrophil and -monocyte aggregates. The injection of activated platelets in mice produced transient, P-selectin dependent, complete MPO depletion in about 50% of neutrophils. Conclusions ACS are characterized by intense neutrophil activation, like other systemic inflammatory syndromes. In the very early phase of acute myocardial infarction only a subpopulation of neutrophils is massively activated, possibly via platelet-P selectin interactions. This paroxysmal activation could contribute to occlusive thrombosis.
Effects of Diluted Ethylene Glycol as A Fruit-Ripening Agent

The purpose of this project was to find out if the agent ethylene glycol, when diluted, can ripen various fruits faster than the regular ripening rate of the fruits, in colder climactic conditions. The materials for the experiment were basically fruits, containers, ethylene glycol and water. The ethylene, at first, was combined with the water. The fruits were placed in open containers and a set of fruits were taken everyday for photos. For about a fortnight, observations were noted and taken on the various fruits. The manipulated fruits ripened at a faster rate throughout the course of the experiment. In this investigation, the results supported the hypothesis. It was learned that water does not take away the effects of ethylene glycol to the ripening of fruits. It was learned that ethylene has an effect on fruits in cold climactic conditions. It quickens the ripening rate quite a bit and cuts down at least a quarter of the time that it usually takes to ripen fruits in cold conditions.
Never Let Them See You Sweat

Each of us having some thorn in our flesh; however, few, in any of us, would brag about this thorn as though it was a badge of honor. I cannot imagine any teenager saying, "I rejoice in the fact that I have attention deficit disorder" or someone saying, "My weight has been a problem all of my life and I am so thrilled about that. " In fact, people who would boast about these things would be looked at rather strangely. These are the types of things that most people would keep hidden from others for various reasons, including the fact that they might not be accepted by others if anyone else knew what they were going through.
Vaccine-Induced Tumor Necrosis Factor–Producing T Cells Synergize with Cisplatin to Promote Tumor Cell Death

Purpose: Cancer immunotherapy, such as vaccination, is an increasingly successful treatment modality, but its interaction with chemotherapy remains largely undefined. Therefore, we explored the mechanism of synergy between vaccination with synthetic long peptides (SLP) of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) and cisplatin in a preclinical tumor model for HPV16. Experimental Design: SLP vaccination in this preclinical tumor model allowed the elucidation of novel mechanisms of synergy between chemo- and immunotherapy. By analyzing the tumor immune infiltrate, we focused on the local intratumoral effects of chemotherapy, vaccination, or the combination. Results: Of several chemotherapeutic agents, cisplatin synergized best with SLP vaccination in tumor eradication, without requirement for the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD). Upon SLP vaccination, tumors were highly infiltrated with HPV-specific, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα)- and interferon-γ (IFNγ)–producing T cells. Upon combined treatment, tumor cell proliferation was significantly decreased compared with single treated and untreated tumors. Furthermore, we showed that TNFα strongly enhanced cisplatin-induced apoptotic tumor cell death in a JNK-dependent manner. This is consistent with upregulation of proapoptotic molecules and with enhanced cell death in vivo upon combined SLP vaccination and cisplatin treatment. In vivo neutralization of TNFα significantly reduced the antitumor responses induced by the combined treatment. Conclusion: Taken together, our data show that peptide vaccination with cisplatin treatment leads to decreased tumor cell proliferation and TNFα-induced enhanced cisplatin-mediated killing of tumor cells, together resulting in superior tumor eradication. Clin Cancer Res; 21(4); 781–94. ©2014 AACR.