Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geodesics-based one-to-one parameterization of 3D triangle meshes

Digital geometry is a new data type for multimedia applications. To foster the use of 3D geometry, we introduce a piecewise linear parameterization of 3D surfaces that we can use for texture mapping, morphing, remeshing, and geometry imaging. Our method guarantees one-to-one mapping without foldovers in a geometrically intuitive way.
Oncolytic Adenoviruses in Cancer Treatment

The therapeutic use of viruses against cancer has been revived during the last two decades. Oncolytic viruses replicate and spread inside tumors, amplifying their cytotoxicity and simultaneously reversing the tumor immune suppression. Among different viruses, recombinant adenoviruses designed to replicate selectively in tumor cells have been clinically tested by intratumoral or systemic administration. Limited efficacy has been associated to poor tumor targeting, intratumoral spread, and virocentric immune responses. A deeper understanding of these three barriers will be required to design more effective oncolytic adenoviruses that, alone or combined with chemotherapy or immunotherapy, may become tools for oncologists.
Representation and retrieval of paintings based on art history concepts

This paper presents a framework for the retrieval of paintings using concepts defined in the field of art and design. These concepts are organized into meta and application-specific layers in the system. Concepts of the meta-layer take into account the visual attributes of the paintings, and their manipulations, which infer abstract attributes that influence the interpretation of the paintings by the observers. The concepts of the application-specific layer are built above the meta-layer. They represent art categories that are widely used by general users for navigating the collections of paintings. Potentially, the usage of artistic concepts for annotation supports a wider query base making the retrieval much more powerful
Interferon- (cid:1) ablation exacerbates myocardial hypertrophy in diastolic heart failure

F. Interferon- (cid:1) ablationexacerbatesmyocardialhypertrophyindiastolicheart failure. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2012. heart failure (HF) accounts for up to 50% of all HF admissions, with hypertension being the major cause of diastolic HF. Hypertension is characterized by left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy (LVH). Proinﬂammatory cytokines are increased in LVH and hypertension, but it is unknown if they mediate the progression of hypertension-induced diastolic HF. We sought to determine if interferon- (cid:1) (IFN (cid:1) ) plays a role in mediating the transition from hypertension-induced LVH to diastolic HF. Twelve-week old BALB/c (WT) and IFN (cid:1) -deﬁcient (IFN (cid:1) KO) mice underwent either saline ( n (cid:2) 12) or aldosterone ( n (cid:2) 16) infusion, uninephrectomy, and fed 1% salt water for 4 wk. Tail-cuff blood pressure, echocardiography, and gene/protein analyses were performed. Isolated adult rat ventricular myocytes were treated with IFN (cid:1) (250 U/ml) [ 3 H]leucine incorporation. [ 3 H]leucine incorporation was measured over the ﬁnal 4 h of a 24-h period of aldosterone treatment described previously (10). The activity of [ 3 H]leucine was determined by scintillation counting of samples harvested and precipitated. Total cellular protein content was determined by the Bradford method using Coomassie Blue (Bio-Rad Laboratories) as previously described (10). Cellular protein content was normalized to DNA content, which was measured by ﬂuorometric assay after cell lysis. Statistical analysis. Results are presented as means (cid:4) SE. Statistical analyses of the data were carried out using the Student’s t -test (2-sided). When necessary, one- or two-way ANOVA (followed by Student- Newman-Keuls post hoc tests when appropriate) was applied for multiple comparisons. A value of P (cid:5) 0.05 was considered statistically signiﬁcant.
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Gallbladder Masquerading as Ruptured Gallbladder Mucocele

Squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder is rare diagnosis. We report a case of squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder diagnosed post cholecystectomy. The patient had presented with symptoms of acute cholecystitis and radiological imaging did not suggest presence of gallbladder malignancy. Emergency laparotomy was performed on clinical diagnosis of a ruptured gallbladder. The diagnosis of gallbladder squamous cell carcinoma was made later from histopathological examination. In this case report, we highlight the limitations of diagnosing gallbladder carcinoma on radiology and the management of gallbladder carcinoma diagnosed intra-operatively. The role of extended radical resection is discussed. In conclusion, squamous cell carcinoma of gallbladder is very rare and has a more aggressive course and poorer prognosis than adenocarcinoma. Aggressive radical surgical approach to achieve R0 curative resection is shown to have improved outcome and better overall 5-year survival for patients with gallbladder cancer.
A user evaluation of the SADIe transcoder

The World Wide Web (Web) is a visually complex, dynamic, multimedia system that can be inaccessible to people with visual impairments. SADIe addresses this problem by using Semantic Web technologies to explicate implicit visual structures through a combination of an upper and lower ontology. This is then used to apply transcoding to a range of Websites. This paper describes a user evaluation that was performed using the SADIe system. Four users were presented with a series of Web pages, some having been adapted using SADIe's transcoding functionality and others retaining in their original state. The results of the evaluation showed that providing answers to a fact based question could be achieved more quickly when the information on the page was exposed via SADIe's transcoding. The data obtained during the experiment was analysed and shown to be statistically significant. This suggests that the transcoding techniques offered by SADIe can assist visually impaired users accessing content on the Web.
Exploring some limits of Gaussian PLDA modeling for i-vector distributions

Gaussian-PLDA (G-PLDA) modeling for i-vector based speaker verification has proven to be competitive versus heavytailed PLDA (HT-PLDA) based on Student’s t-distribution, when the latter is much more computationally expensive. However, its results are achieved using a length-normalization, which projects i-vectors on the non-linear and finite surface of a hypersphere. This paper investigates the limits of linear and Gaussian G-PLDA modeling when distribution of data is spherical. In particular, assumptions of homoscedasticity are questionable: the model assumes that the within-speaker variability can be estimated by a unique and linear parameter. A non-probabilistic approach is proposed, competitive with stateof-the-art, which reveals some limits of the Gaussian modeling in terms of goodness of fit. We carry out an analysis of residue, which finds out a relation between the dispersion of a speakerclass and its location and, thus, shows that homoscedasticity assumptions are not fulfilled.
aDock: A Cloud Infrastructure Experimentation Environment Based on Open Stack and Docker

A common barrier to experimenting with cloud infrastructure is the lack of access to a fully functional cloud installation. Although Open Stack can be used to create test beds, it is not uncommon in literature to find works that are plagued by unrealistic setups that use only a handful of servers. Moreover, setting up a test bed is necessary but not sufficient. One must also be able to create repeatable experiments that can be used to compare one's results to baseline or related approaches from the state of the art. We present a Dock, a suite of tools for creating perform ant, sand boxed, and configurable cloud infrastructure experimentation environments based on Open Stack and Docker. Its light-weight approach facilitates the development of Open Stack extensions, allowing one to more easily test them in realistic scenarios. A dock also provides a set of simulation tools that, for now, focus on creating experiments for Virtual Machine Placement and Server Consolidation algorithms. In this paper we also show how a Dock was used to develop a Server Consolidation Service for Nova, and provide an analysis of a Dock's scalability and simulation capabilities.
E.E. Just Lecture, 1996. Conus venom peptides, receptor and ion channel targets, and drug design: 50 million years of neuropharmacology.

The predatory cone snails (Conus) are among the most successful living marine animals (∼500 living species). Each Conus species is a specialist in neuropharmacology, and uses venom to capture prey, to escape from and defend against predators and possibly to deter competitors. An individual cone snail’s venom contains a diverse mixture of pharmacological agents, mostly small, structurally constrained peptides (conotoxins). Individual peptides are selectively targeted to a specific isoform of receptor or ion channel. A variety of such targets have been identified, including many voltage-gated and ligand-gated ion channel subtypes, as well as G protein-linked receptors. Although there are only a few widely shared structural motifs in conotoxins (the majority of the >25,000 peptides in these venoms probably belong to only half a dozen gene superfamilies), the sequences of peptides are remarkably divergent from one Conus species to another. We suggest that cone snails undergoing speciation have, in effect, a mutator phenotype which acts specifically on the gene segment encoding the mature toxin region. In their 50 million years of evolution, cone snails anticipated many features of the modern drug industry: disposable hypodermic needles, combination drug therapy, and combinatorial strategies for drug discovery. Recent results indicate that the Conus peptide system may provide a novel paradigm for designing ligands that discriminate between closely related members of large families of receptors and ion channels. Many Conus peptides may be “Janus-ligands,” with two distinct recognition faces oriented in different directions, a design which should make far greater target specificity possible.
NF-&kgr;B controls axonal regeneration and degeneration through cell-specific balance of RelA and p50 in the adult CNS

ABSTRACT NF-&kgr;B is dually involved in neurogenesis and brain pathology. Here, we addressed its role in adult axoneogenesis by generating mutations of RelA (p65) and p50 (also known as NFKB1) heterodimers of canonical NF-&kgr;B. In addition to RelA activation in astrocytes, optic nerve axonotmesis caused a hitherto unrecognized induction of RelA in growth-inhibitory oligodendrocytes. Intraretinally, RelA was induced in severed retinal ganglion cells and was also expressed in bystander Müller glia. Cell-type-specific deletion of transactivating RelA in neurons and/or macroglia stimulated axonal regeneration in a distinct and synergistic pattern. By contrast, deletion of the p50 suppressor subunit promoted spontaneous and post-injury Wallerian degeneration. Growth effects mediated by RelA deletion paralleled a downregulation of growth-inhibitory Cdh1 (officially known as FZR1) and upregulation of the endogenous Cdh1 suppressor EMI1 (officially known as FBXO5). Pro-degenerative loss of p50, however, stabilized retinal Cdh1. In vitro, RelA deletion elicited opposing pro-regenerative shifts in active nuclear and inactive cytoplasmic moieties of Cdh1 and Id2. The involvement of NF-&kgr;B and cell-cycle regulators such as Cdh1 in regenerative processes of non-replicative neurons suggests novel mechanisms by which molecular reprogramming might be executed to stimulate adult axoneogenesis and treat central nervous system (CNS) axonopathies.
Cross-Sectional Study of Gender Role Conflict Examining College-Aged and Middle-Aged Men.

This study examined gender role conflict in college-aged and middle-aged men. Eighty-eight college-aged men and 89 middle-aged men completed 5 measures that assess gender role conflict and psychological well-being. Multivariate analysis of variance results indicated that, compared with college-aged men, middle-aged men were less conflicted about success, power, and competition, but were more conflicted between work and family responsibilities. Canonical analysis indicated two significant roots between (a) gender role conflict and psychological well-being and (b) age group, gender role conflict, and psychological wellbeing. The discussion focuses on implications for counseling, limitations, and future research. The construct of gender is a major organizing principle underlying roles in society and the nature of interpersonal relationships (Cook, 1990). A major body of literature examining masculine, feminine, and androgynous gender roles suggests that the masculine role has beneficial effects for those who enact the role. In the psychological sphere, the masculine role has been cited as fostering psychological well-being, assertiveness, self-esteem, and psychological health (Antill & Cunningham, 1979; Whitley, 1983, 1985). In contrast to this research, others have suggested that there are liabilities associated with the male gender role, which include increased risk-taking and self-destructive behaviors (Meth, 1990), increased stress (Stewart & Lykes, 1985),
Lamotrigine effects sensorimotor gating in WAG/Rij rats

Introduction: Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is a measurable form of sensorimotor gating. Disruption of PPI reflects the impairment in the neural filtering process of mental functions that are related to the transformation of an external stimuli to a response. Impairment of PPI is reported in neuropsychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's diseases, Tourette syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, and temporal lobe epilepsy with psychosis. Absence epilepsy is the most common type of primary generalized epilepsy. Lamotrigine is an antiepileptic drug that is preferred in absence epilepsy and acts by stabilizing the voltage-gated sodium channels. Aim: In this study, we have compared WAG-Rij rats (genetically absence epileptic rats) with Wistar rats, in order to clarify if there is a deficient sensorimotor gating in absence epilepsy, and have examined the effects of lamotrigine (15, 30 mg/kg, i.p.) on this phenomenon. Materials and Methods: Depletion in PPI percent value is accepted as a disruption in sensory-motor filtration function. The difference between the Wistar and WAG/Rij rats has been evaluated with the student t test and the effects of lamotrigine on the PPI percent have been evaluated by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) post-hoc Dunnett's test. Results: The PPI percent was low in the WAG/Rij rats compared to the controls (P<0.0001, t:9,612). Although the PPI percent value of the control rats was not influenced by lamotrigine, the PPI percent value of the WAG/Rij rats was raised by lamotrigine treatment (P<0.0001, F:861,24). Conclusions: As a result of our study, PPI was disrupted in the WAG/Rij rats and this disruption could be reversed by an antiepileptic lamotrigine.
An update on the genetics of schizophrenia

Purpose of review This paper reviews recent molecular genetic studies of schizophrenia and evaluates claims implicating specific genes as susceptibility loci. Recent findings Molecular genetic studies have identified several potential regions of linkage and two associated chromosomal abnormalities, and the evidence is accumulating in favour of several positional candidate genes. Currently, the strongest evidence for putative schizophrenia susceptibility loci relates to the genes encoding dysbindin (DTNBP1) and neuregulin (NRG1). For other genes, disrupted in schizophrenia (DISC1), D-amino acid oxidase activator (DAOA), regulator of G-protein signalling 4 (RGS4) and V-AKT murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog 1 (AKT1) the data are promising but not yet compelling. In the most convincing cases, the risk haplotypes appear to be associated with small effect sizes and do not fully explain the linkage findings that prompted each study. Summary The ability of positional genetics to implicate novel genes and pathways will open up new vistas for neurobiological research. Despite the accumulation of significant genetic data, however, the susceptibility variants have yet to be identified and detailed follow-up studies are now required.
Surgical Novices Randomized to Train in Two Video Games Become More Motivated During Training in MIST-VR and GI Mentor II Than Students with No Video Game Training

We investigated if engagement modes and perceived self-efficacy differed in surgical novices before and after randomized training in two different video games during five weeks, and a control group with no training. The control group expressed to a higher extent negative engagement modes during training in MIST-VR and GI Mentor II than the experimental groups. No statistically significant differences in self-efficacy were identified between groups. Both engagement modes and self-efficacy showed a positive correlation with previous and present video game experience. It is suggested that videogame training could have a framing effect on surgical simulator performance. EM and SE might be important intermediate variables between the strength of relationship between current videogame experience and simulator performance.
Sentential Context and the Interpretation of Unambiguous Words

Two experiments were carried out in order to investigate how the linguistic context (in the form of a sentence) facilitates the interpretation of unambiguous words. Experiment I established that if a sentential context as a whole is sufficient to evoke an inference that calls to mind a particular aspect of a word's meaning, the presence of a verb with appropriate selectional restrictions does not enhance the process. Experiment II showed that when no other cues are provided within a sentence, both verbs and adjectives are effective in enhancing a specific aspect of the meaning of a word. These findings were taken to support the hypothesis that in understanding a sentence, people instantiate particular aspects of the meanings of words in order to construct specific interpretations, and linguistic context guides this process of selection.
Purkinje fibers of the avian heart express a myogenic transcription factor program distinct from cardiac and skeletal muscle.

A rhythmic heart beat is coordinated by conduction of pacemaking impulses through the cardiac conduction system. Cells of the conduction system, including Purkinje fibers, terminally differentiate from a subset of cardiac muscle cells that respond to signals from endocardial and coronary arterial cells. A vessel-associated paracrine factor, endothelin, can induce embryonic heart muscle cells to differentiate into Purkinje fibers both in vivo and in vitro. During this phenotypic conversion, the conduction cells down-regulate genes characteristic of cardiac muscle and up-regulate subsets of genes typical of both skeletal muscle and neuronal cells. In the present study, we examined the expression of myogenic transcription factors associated with the switch of the gene expression program during terminal differentiation of heart muscle cells into Purkinje fibers. In situ hybridization analyses and immunohistochemistry of embryonic and adult hearts revealed that Purkinje fibers up-regulate skeletal and atrial muscle myosin heavy chains, connexin-42, and neurofilament protein. Concurrently, a cardiac muscle-specific myofibrillar protein, myosin-binding protein-C (cMyBP-C), is down-regulated. During this change in transcription, however, Purkinje fibers continue to express cardiac muscle transcription factors, such as Nkx2.5, GATA4, and MEF2C. Importantly, significantly higher levels of Nkx2.5 and GATA4 mRNAs were detected in Purkinje fibers as compared to ordinary heart muscle cells. No detectable difference was observed in MEF2C expression. In culture, endothelin-induced Purkinje fibers from embryonic cardiac muscle cells dramatically down-regulated cMyBP-C transcription, whereas expression of Nkx2.5 and GATA4 persisted. In addition, myoD, a skeletal muscle transcription factor, was up-regulated in endothelin-induced Purkinje cells, while Myf5 and MRF4 transcripts were undetectable in these cells. These results show that during and after conversion from heart muscle cells, Purkinje fibers express a unique myogenic transcription factor program. The mechanism underlying down-regulation of cardiac muscle genes and up-regulation of skeletal muscle genes during conduction cell differentiation may be independent from the transcriptional control seen in ordinary cardiac and skeletal muscle cells.
Immune complex-induced human monocyte procoagulant activity. I. a rapid unidirectional lymphocyte-instructed pathway

It has previously been described that soluble antigen:antibody complexes in antigen excess can induce an increase in the procoagulant activity of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. It has been proposed that this response may explain the presence of fibrin in immune complex-mediated tissue lesions. In the present study we define cellular participants and their roles in the procoagulant response to soluble immune complexes. Monocytes were shown by cell fractionation and by a direct cytologic assay to be the cell of origin of the procoagulant activity; and virtually all monocytes were able to participate in the response. Monocytes, however, required the presence of lymphocytes to respond. The procoagulant response required cell cooperation, and this collaborative interaction between lymphocytes and monocytes appeared to be unidirectional. Lymphocytes once triggered by immune complexes induced monocytes to synthesize the procoagulant product. Intact viable lymphocytes were required to present instructions to monocytes; no soluble mediator could be found to subserve this function. Indeed, all that appeared necessary to induce monocytes to produce procoagulant activity was an encounter with lymphocytes that had previously been in contact with soluble immune complexes. The optimum cellular ratio for this interaction was four lymphocytes per monocyte, about half the ratio in peripheral blood. The procoagulant response was rapid, reaching a maximum within 6 h after exposure to antigen:antibody complexes. The procoagulant activity was consistent with tissue factor because Factors VII and X and prothrombin were required for clotting of fibrinogen. WE propose that this pathway differs from a number of others involving cells of the immune system. Elucidation of the pathway may clarify the role of this lymphocyte- instructed monocyte response in the Shwartzman phenomenon and other thrombohemorrhagic events associated with immune cell function and the formation of immune complexes.
Protection and conviviality: Community policing in Johannesburg

The study of conviviality explores how everyday interactions and encounters mitigate or ameliorate sociocultural differences. This literature must address the critique that conviviality is a superficial phenomenon, which proves irrelevant in contexts where intergroup differences are deep, complex and punctuated by violent exchanges. This article addresses this criticism by attempting to define the meaning and purpose of convivial exchanges in a context characterized by high levels of violence: policing culture in Johannesburg, South Africa. Using ethnographic methods, the study illustrates how convivial practices often stem from individuals’ sense of insecurity and the search for protection in public settings. The article uses these findings to rethink the extent to which convivial practices might resolve social differences.