Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isoaspartate formation at position 23 of amyloid beta peptide enhanced fibril formation and deposited onto senile plaques and vascular amyloids in Alzheimer's disease

Senile plaques and amyloid‐bearing vessels consisting of fibrillar amyloid β peptides (Aβ) are characteristic neuropathological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aβ undergo spontaneous post‐translational modifications, such as isomerization and racemization, at their aspartyl residues in AD brains. Here we present evidence that Aβ isomerized at position 23 are deposited on plaques and vascular amyloids using an anti‐isomerized Aβ antibody. In vitro experiments showed that isomerization at position 23, but not position 7, enhanced aggregation. Furthermore, Aβ with the Dutch mutation, but not the Flemish mutation, also showed greatly enhanced aggregation. These results suggest that mutations or modifications at positions Glu22 and Asp23 have a pathogenic role in the deposition of Aβ. The development and progression of sporadic AD may be accelerated by spontaneous isomerization at position 23 of Aβ. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Differential regulation of cyclooxygenase‐2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase by 4‐hydroxynonenal in human osteoarthritic chondrocytes through ATF‐2/CREB‐1 transactivation and concomitant inhibition of NF‐κB signaling cascade

4‐hydroxynonenal (HNE), a lipid peroxidation end product, is produced abundantly in osteoarthritic (OA) articular tissues and was recently identified as a potent catabolic factor in OA cartilage. In this study, we provide additional evidence that HNE acts as an inflammatory mediator by elucidating the signaling cascades targeted in OA chondrocytes leading to cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene expression. HNE induced COX‐2 protein and mRNA levels with accompanying increases in prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production. In contrast, HNE had no effect on basal iNOS expression or nitric oxide (NO) release. However, HNE strongly inhibited IL‐1β‐induced iNOS or NO production. Transient transfection experiments revealed that the ATF/CRE site (−58/−53) is essential for HNE‐induced COX‐2 promoter activation and indeed HNE induced ATF‐2 and CREB‐1 phosphorylation as well as ATF/CRE binding activity. Overexpression of p38 MAPK enhanced the HNE‐induced ATF/CRE luciferase reporter plasmid activation, COX‐2 synthesis and promoter activity. HNE abrogated IL‐1β‐induced iNOS expression and promoter activity mainly through NF‐κB site (−5,817/−5,808) possibly via suppression of IKKα‐induced IκBα phosphorylation and NF‐κB/p65 nuclear translocation. Upon examination of upstream signaling components, we found that IKKα was inactivated through HNE/IKKα adduct formation. Taken together, these findings illustrate the central role played by HNE in the regulation of COX‐2 and iNOS in OA. The aldehyde induced selectively COX‐2 expression via ATF/CRE activation and inhibited iNOS via IKKα inactivation. J. Cell. Biochem. 100: 1217–1231, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Reliability, validity analysis of the childhood autism rating scale

Objective: To investigate the reliability, validity of the child autism rating scale (CARS), autism behavior checklist (ABC) and autism treatment evaluation checklist (ATEC). Methods: 43 outpatients (43 with autism, 31 with non-autism) were examined with CARS, ABC and ATEC, 31 non-autism were examined with CARS. Results: Cronbach′s α coefficients of CARS is 0.735; 15 items of CARS showed significance for differential diagnosis of autism (P 0.01); the correlation between the total score of CARS and its own 15 items ranged from 0.569 to 0.935; the coefficient between 15 itens ranged from 0.278 to 0.808, the correlation between the total score of CARS and ABC is 0.502, the correlation between total score of CARS and ABC 5 factors are 0.449, 0.420, 0.178, 0.328, 0.360, the correlation between the total score of CARS and ATEC were 0.572, the correlation between ATEC 4 subscales are 0.514, 0.412, 0.517, 0.245 respectively. Conclusions: The reliability and validity of CARS, ABC and ATEC is so good that they are useful for clinical diagnosis of autism.
Konrad-zuse-zentrum F ¨ Ur Informationstechnik Berlin Treewidth: Computational Experiments Treewidth: Computational Experiments

Many NP-hard graph problems can be solved in polynomial time for graphs with bounded treewidth. Equivalent results are known for pathwidth and branchwidth. In recent years, several studies have shown that this result is not only of theoretical interest but can successfully be applied to find (almost) optimal solutions or lower bounds for many optimization problems. To apply a tree decomposition approach, the treewidth of the graph has to be determined, independently of the application at hand. Although for fixed k, linear time algorithms exist to solve the decision problem " treewidth ≤ k " , their practical use is very limited. The computational tractability of treewidth has been rarely studied so far. In this paper, we compare four heuristics and two lower bounds for instances from applications such as the frequency assignment problem and the vertex coloring problem. Three of the heuristics are based on well-known algorithms to recognize triangulated graphs. The fourth heuristic recursively improves a tree decomposition by the computation of minimal separating vertex sets in subgraphs. Lower bounds can be computed from maximal cliques and the minimum degree of induced subgraphs. A computational analysis shows that the treewidth of several graphs can be identified by these methods. For other graphs, however, more sophisticated techniques are necessary.
Weber Local Descriptor based object recognition

Recognizing the objects seems to be the challenging task as the object may be occluded, may vary in shape and position and in size. The proposed method is to recognize objects based on the computation of Weber Local Descriptor as feature to the image patches which are extracted around the salient points over the image in order to represent the local properties of the image. Weber Local Descriptor is applied to the Image Patches in order to extract the Salient features. WLD consists of two parts, one is Differential Excitation and the other is Orientation by which the local salient features are extracted. Then these features are fed to SVM classifier. Benchmark database used here is UIUC database. Experimental results by varying the patch sizes are given and the results obtained are satisfactory.
The Social Organisation of a Population of Sumatran Orang-Utans

Female orang-utans in a Sumatran swamp forest live in large, but stable, and widely overlapping home ranges. They preferentially associate with some of their female neighbours, possibly relatives, to form socially distinct clusters that also experience reproductive synchrony. Sexually mature males range more widely than females, but among them the dominant adult male has a relatively more limited range. His ranging and that of the subadult males reflect the local abundance of sexually attractive females. The other adult males tend to avoid these concentrations and focus on areas away from the dominant male. Females show philopatric tendencies. Male-biased sex ratios at birth give way to heavily female-biased sex ratios among adults. This suggests a net loss of males as they mature, due either to excess male mortality (e.g. by male mating competition), excess male dispersal from the population or a combination of both. We conclude that the orang-utan social organisation is best described as a loose community, showing neither spatial nor social exclusivity, consisting of one or more female clusters and the adult male they all prefer as mate.
γ-Secretase Activation of Notch Signaling Regulates the Balance of Proximal and Distal Fates in Progenitor Cells of the Developing Lung*

Little is known about the mechanisms by which the lung epithelial progenitors are initially patterned and how proximal-distal boundaries are established and maintained when the lung primordium forms and starts to branch. Here we identified a number of Notch pathway components in respiratory progenitors of the early lung, and we investigated the role of Notch in lung pattern formation. By preventing γ-secretase cleavage of Notch receptors, we have disrupted global Notch signaling in the foregut and in the lung during the initial stages of murine lung morphogenesis. We demonstrate that Notch signaling is not necessary for lung bud initiation; however, Notch is required to maintain a balance of proximal-distal cell fates at these early stages. Disruption of Notch signaling dramatically expands the population of distal progenitors, altering morphogenetic boundaries and preventing formation of proximal structures. Our data suggest a novel mechanism in which Notch and fibroblast growth factor signaling interact to control the proximal-distal pattern of forming airways in the mammalian lung.
O6-ethylguanine carcinogenic lesions in DNA: an NMR study of O6etG.C pairing in dodecanucleotide duplexes.

The pairing of O6etG with C located four base pairs in from either end of the self-complementary d(C1-G2-C3-O6etG4-A5-G6-C7-T8-C9-G10-C11-G12) duplex (designated O6etG.C 12-mer) has been investigated from an analysis of proton and phosphorus two-dimensional NMR experiments. The structural consequences of increasing the alkyl group size were elucidated from a comparative study of the pairing of O6meG4 with C9 in a related sequence (designated O6meG.C 12-mer). The NMR parameters for both O6alkG-containing dodecanucleotides are also compared with those of the control sequence containing G4.C9 base pairs (designated G.C 12-mer). The NOE cross-peaks detected in the two-dimensional NOESY spectra of the O6alkG.C 12-mer duplexes in H2O solution establish that the O6etG4/O6meG4 and C9 bases at the lesion site stack into the helix between the flanking C3.G10 and A5.T8 Watson-Crick base pairs. The amino protons of C9 at the O6alkG4-C9 lesion site resonate as an average resonance at 7.78 and 7.63 ppm in the O6etG.C 12-mer and O6meG.C 12-mer duplexes, respectively. The observed NOEs between the amino protons of C9 and the CH3 protons of O6alkG4 establish a syn orientation of the O6-alkyl group with respect to the N1 of alkylated guanine. A wobble alignment of the O6alkG4.C9 base pair stablized by two hydrogen bonds, one between the amino group of C9 and N1 of O6alkG and the other between the amino group of O6alkG and N3 of C9, is tentatively proposed on the basis of the NOEs between the amino protons of C9 at the lesion site and the imino protons of flanking Watson-Crick base pairs. The proton and phosphorus chemical shift differences between the O6etG.C 12-mer and O6meG.C 12-mer duplexes are small compared to the differences between these O6alkG-containing duplexes and the control G.C 12-mer duplex.
Novel Controlled Attenuation Parameter for the evaluation of fatty liver disease

There is a need for novel non-invasive methods to detect and quantify steatosis which is an intracellular accumulation of fat in the liver that can be associated in many cases with hepatitis. A novel attenuation parameter named Controlled Attenuation Parameter (CAP) has been developed to process the raw ultrasonic signals acquired by the Fibroscan® which is an ultrasound-based VCTE™ device used to diagnose liver disease. Performance of the CAP parameter to detect and quantify steatosis is assessed in a large multi-etiology cohort of 495 patients, taking the histologic staging of steatosis as a reference. CAP is found to be significantly correlated to steatosis and its values are significantly different in each steatosis stages. Diagnosis performances were assessed using the ROC curves. Areas under ROC curves were found to be equal to 0.85 and 0.90 for the diagnosis of more than 10% and 33% of fatty deposit, respectively. Results obtained in this first preliminary study are very promising. Combination of both CAP and liver stiffness measurement may improve liver diseases diagnosis performance.
Automated feature extraction for the classification of human in vivo13C NMR spectra using statistical pattern recognition and wavelets

If magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is to become a useful tool in clinical medicine, it will be necessary to find reliable methods for analyzing and classifying MRS data. Automated methods are desirable because they can remove user bias and can deal with large amounts of data, allowing the use of all the available information. In this study, techniques for automatically extracting features for the classification of MRS in vivo data are investigated. Among the techniques used were wavelets, principal component analysis, and linear discriminant function analysis. These techniques were tested on a set of 75 in vivo 13C spectra of human adipose tissue from subjects from three different dietary groups (vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore). It was found that it was possible to assign automatically 94% of the vegans and omnivores to their correct dietary groups, without the need for explicit identification or measurement of peaks.
Specific acceptance of fetal bowel allograft in mice after combined treatment with anti-intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and leukocyte function-associated antigen-1 antibodies.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to see whether tolerance could be induced by simultaneous administration of monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) to intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and leukocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1) after transplantation of fetal small bowel between fully incompatible mice strains. METHODS Fetal small bowel from either BALB/c (H-2d) or C3H/He (H-2k) mice was transplanted into the space between the peritoneum and rectus abdominis of adult C3H/He recipient mice. Syngeneic (n = 6) and two allogeneic transplant groups were made. In one of the allogeneic groups (n = 8), no immunosuppressant was given. In the other allogeneic group (n = 13), both anti-LFA-1 and anti-ICAM-1 MoAbs (50 micrograms each/mouse/day) were given intraperitoneally after transplantation for the first 4 weeks. In the syngeneic and untreated allogeneic groups, all mice were killed 4 weeks after transplantation. In the treated allogeneic group, eight mice were killed 6 weeks after cessation of the MoAb treatment. At the time the mice were killed, the bowel graft as well as the recipient spleen were taken for histologic analysis and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) assay, respectively. Each mouse in the remaining treated five mice was transplanted with BALB/c and C57BL/6 (as third-party) full-thickness skin simultaneously 8 weeks after cessation of the MoAb treatment. RESULTS All grafts in the syngeneic group survived with normally developing villi, whereas all grafts in the untreated allogeneic group disappeared. In the treated allogeneic group, all allografts developed normal mucosa without any sign of rejection. Splenocytes from the recipient mice in the untreated allogeneic group showed increased CTL induction against donor-type alloantigen (p < 0.005), compared with that in the syngeneic group. Suppressed CTL induction against donor-type alloantigen was observed in the treated allografted recipient (p < 0.001), whereas CTL induction against third-party alloantigen was intact (p = NS). Third-party skin graft was normally rejected within 10 days, whereas donor-type skin graft was accepted in all mice tested. CONCLUSIONS Specific tolerance for fetal bowel allografts could be induced by a relatively short-term treatment with anti-ICAM-1 and anti-LFA-1 MoAbs. This mode of immunointervention could perhaps be applied to humans undergoing small-bowel transplantation.
Priority service and max-min fairness

We study a pricing scheme for networks which use priorities to provide differentiated quality of service. We consider the situation where users are free to choose the priority of their traffic, but are charged accordingly. We model this situation as a non-cooperative game, where users behave in a selfish manner and choose an allocation of priorities to packets to optimize their own net benefit. We show that there exists an unique equilibrium for this game and the bandwidth allocation in equilibrium is weighted max-min fair.
Statistical Properties of Combinatorial Landscapes: An Application to Scheduling Problems

This paper discusses the application of some statistical estimation methods in trying to understand thenature of landscapes induced by heuristic search methods. One interesting property of a landscape isthe number ofoptima that arepresent. In this paper we showthat it is possible to compute a conﬁdenceinterval on the number of independent local searches needed to ﬁnd all optima. (By extension, this alsoexpresses the conﬁdence that the global optimum has been found.)In the event that this conﬁdence is low, it may also be possible to estimate the number of optima thatexist, and thus to estimate the amount of computation required. The approach is used here to comparediﬀerent search landscapes for ﬂowshop scheduling problems.
Experimental Development of 2.45GHz Rectenna using FSS and Dual-Polarization

This paper reports on experimental development of 2.45GHz rectenna(Rectifying Antenna) using FSS(frequency Selective Surface) and dual-polarization method Applied dual-polarization method for compensated the variation of conversion efficiency with rectenna position change, conversion efficiency of rectenna has a 69.1% with 360¿(dipole type) and 75.4% with 340¿ (patch type) optimum load resistor. When the each of dual-polarization rectenna has a optimal load resistor, its conversion efficiency shows of ±20% in dipole type and ±5% in patch type at 0 ~ 180° position. We used double square loop FSS to suppress the 2nd harmonic of 4.9GHz and 5th harmonic of 12.25GHz frequency band. When applied FSS structure for rectenna, insertion loss was under 1dB as the passband and over 20dB as the stopband. The microwave-DC conversion efficiency was represented good properties of ±2% variation.
Parents' support and knowledge of their daughters' lives, and females' early sexual initiation in nine European countries.

CONTEXT Associations between early sexual initiation and parental support and knowledge have not been uniformly tested in multiple European population-based samples. Understanding such associations is important in efforts to discourage females' early sex. METHODS Data were compiled for 7,466 females aged 14-16 who participated in the 2005-2006 Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children survey in nine countries (Austria, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Lithuania, Romania, Spain and Ukraine). Univariate, bivariate and multivariable analyses were run with standard error corrections and weights to assess how sexual initiation before age 16 was related to maternal and paternal support and knowledge of daily activities. RESULTS Prevalence of early sexual initiation ranged from 7% (in Romania) to 35% (in Iceland). In bivariate analyses, maternal and paternal support were significantly negatively related to adolescent females' early sexual initiation in most countries. In models with demographic controls, parental support was negatively associated with early sexual initiation (odds ratio, 0.8 for maternal and 0.7 for paternal). After parental knowledge was added, early sexual initiation was no longer associated with parental support, but was negatively associated with maternal and paternal knowledge (0.7 for each). These patterns held across countries. CONCLUSIONS Parental knowledge largely explained negative associations between parental support and early initiation, suggesting either that knowledge is more important than support or that knowledge mediates the association between support and early sex.
Sentiment expression conditioned by affective transitions and social forces

Human emotional states are not independent but rather proceed along systematic paths governed by both internal, cognitive factors and external, social ones. For example, anxiety often transitions to disappointment, which is likely to sink to depression before rising to happiness and relaxation, and these states are conditioned by the states of others in our communities. Modeling these complex dependencies can yield insights into human emotion and support more powerful sentiment technologies. We develop a theory of conditional dependencies between emotional states in which emotions are characterized not only by valence (polarity) and arousal (intensity) but also by the role they play in state transitions and social relationships. We implement this theory using conditional random fields (CRFs) that synthesize textual information with information about previous emotional states and the emotional states of others. To assess the power of affective transitions, we evaluate our model in a collection of 'mood' updates from the Experience Project. To assess the power of social factors, we use a corpus of product reviews from a website in which the community dynamics encourage reviewers to be influenced by each other. In both settings, our models yield improvements of statistical and practical significance over ones that classify each text independently of its emotional or social context.
ear conditioning and extinction across development : Evidence from uman studies and animal models

The ability to differentiate danger and safety through associative processes emerges early in life. Understanding the mechanisms underlying associative learning of threat and safety can clarify the processes that shape development of normative fears and pathological anxiety. Considerable research has used fear conditioning and extinction paradigms to delineate underlying mechanisms in animals and human adults; however, little is known about these mechanisms in children and adolescents. The current paper eywords: lassical conditioning
Individual Differences in Exploration and Content Curation Activities within a Cultural Heritage Digital Library

This paper presents empirical results from an evalu ation study of a cultural heritage digital library. It focuses on th e differences in preferences between novice and expert users for fun ctionality supporting browsing and exploration, when engaged i n orientation and content curation tasks. Findings indicate both similarities and differences between novice and expert users. Recomm endations for future work are proposed.